Part 19

[143] On this spot once stood the cross erected by Edward I. as a memorial of affection for his beloved Queen Eleanor, whose remains were here rested on their way to the place of sepulture. It was formed from a design by Cavalini, and destroyed by the religious fury of the Reformers. In its place, in the year 1678, was erected the animated equestrian statue which now remains. It was cast in brass, in the year 1633, by Le Sœur; I think by order of that munificent encourager of the arts, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel. The Parliament ordered it to be sold, and broken to pieces; but John River, the brazier who purchased it, having more taste than his employers, seeing, with the prophetic eye of good sense, that the powers which were would not remain rulers very long, dug a hole in his garden, in Holborn, and buried it unmutilated. To prove his obedience to their order, he produced to his masters several pieces of brass, which he told them were parts of the statue. M. de Archenholtz adds further, that the brazier, with the true spirit of trade, cast a great number of handles for knives and forks, and offered them for sale, as composed of the brass which had formed the statue. They were eagerly sought for, and purchased,--by the loyalists from affection to their murdered monarch, by the other party as trophies of the triumph of liberty over tyranny.

[144] Doctor Arne, in one instance, seemed to think that they should still continue so. Having composed a very dull opera, and the town disapproving and consigning it to a merited oblivion, the Doctor asked Foote what was his opinion of it; "for," added he, "I really think there is a great deal of good in it." "There is, my dear fellow," replied the wit; "there is a great deal too much good in it; but, setting aside its goodness and piety, there never was anything more justly damned since damning came into fashion."

[145] There may be those who will object to a banner flouting the sky in a barn; let such consider that the roof is not above half thatched, and their objections will vanish. These breaches in the roof will throw a new light upon the line.

[146] Let not this humble situation be considered with contempt. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the loyal inhabitants of Shrewsbury, expecting that her Majesty would pass through their town in one of her northern perambulations, prepared to entertain her with a play, which was to have been performed in a dry marl pit in the quarry; but the Queen's highness did not come.

[147] This gentlewoman has generally been considered as intended for the ghost: from her employment, I rather think she is the representative of tragedy:

"Death in her hand, and murder in her eye."

The sage Melpomene herself could not go through the business with more philosophic indifference.

[148] By the halter near them, it may be conjectured that these balls were intended to represent bullets, and designed to hint that some one of this noble company might on a leisure evening, in humble imitation of the heroic Captain Machcath, endeavour to turn his lead to gold; and, like that very great man, be in consequent danger of making an exit with a rope round his neck.

[149] We are told by John Milton, that cannon were invented by the devil. We are told by Alexander Pope, that stage thunder was invented by that great critic John Dennis; and so jealous was Dennis of his bolt being wielded by an improper hand, that being once in the pit at Drury Lane Theatre, when the company were performing _Macbeth_, he, on hearing the bowls rattling over his head, started from his seat, grasped his oaken stick, and exclaimed, with an emphasis that drowned the voices of the players, "Eternal curses light on these scoundrels! they have stolen my thunder, and don't know how to roll it!"

[150] Our royal theatres have sometimes neglected and violated the costume. We have seen the head of Cato covered with a periwig that emulated Sir Cloudesley Shovel's; a Prince of Denmark decorated with the order of St. George; Othello habited as a captain of the foot guards; and Kent, the tough old Kent, as a Chelsea pensioner.

[151] In the second act of _Oedipus_ is the following stage direction:--"The cloud draws that veiled the heads of the figures in the sky, and shows them crowned with the names of Oedipus and Jocasta written above, in great characters of gold."

[152] That these representatives of royalty sometimes meet with such accidents, appears by the following letter from a late lecturer upon heads, at a time when he belonged to a company of comedians at Yarmouth:--

"YARMOUTH GAOL, _27th May 1761_.

"SIR,--When I parted from you at Lincoln, I thought long before now to have met with some oddities worth acquainting you with. It is grown a fashion of late to write lives: I now, and for a long time, have had leisure sufficient to undertake mine, but want materials for the latter part of it; for my existence now cannot properly be called living, but what the painters term _still life_, having ever since March 13th been confined in this town gaol for a London debt. As the hunted deer is always shunned by the happier herd, so am I deserted by the company, my share taken off, and no support left me except what my wife can spare out of hers:

'Deserted, in my utmost need, By those my former bounties fed.'

"With an economy which till now I was ever a stranger to, I have made a shift hitherto to victual my little garrison; but then it has been by the assistance of some good friends; and, alas! my clothes furnish me this week with my last resort; the next, I must atone for my errors upon bread and water.

"Themistocles had many towns to furnish his tables, and a whole city had the charge of his meals. In some respects I am like him, for I am fed by the labours of a multitude. A wig has kept me two days; the trimmings of a waistcoat as long; a ruffled shirt has paid my washer-woman; a pair of velvet breeches discharged my lodgings; my coat I swallow by degrees, the sleeves I breakfasted upon for three days, the body, skirts, etc. served me as long; and two pair of pumps enabled me to smoke several pipes. You would be surprised to think how my appetite, barometer-like, rises in proportion as my necessities make their terrible advances. I here could say something droll about a good stomach, but it is ill jesting with edged tools, and I am sure that is the sharpest thing about me.

"You may, perhaps, think I am lost to all sense of my condition, that while I am thus wretched I should offer at ridicule; but, Sir, people constitutioned like me, with a disproportionable levity of spirits, are always most merry when most miserable, and quicken like the eyes of the consumptive, which are brightest the nearer the patient approaches his dissolution. But to show you that I am not lost to all reflection, I here think myself poor enough to want a favour, and humble enough to ask it. Then, Sir, I could draw an encomium on your good sense, humanity, etc. etc.; but I will not pay so bad a compliment to your understanding as to endeavour by a parade of phrases to win it over to my interest. If at the concert you could make a gathering for me, it would be a means of obtaining my liberty.

"You well know, Sir, the first people of rank abroad perform the most friendly offices for the sick; be not therefore offended at the request of the unfortunate.

"GEORGE ALEXANDER STEVENS."

[153] On the spirited style in which the late Miss Catley, of melodious memory, performed this character, the following lines were written; but I do not recollect having seen them printed:--

"Hail, vulgar goddess of the foul-mouth'd race! (If modest bard may hail without offence), On whose majestic, blush-disdaining face, The steady hand of Fate wrote--IMPUDENCE! Hail to thy dauntless front, and aspect bold! Thrice hail! magnificent, immortal scold!

"The goddess, from the upper gallery's height, With heedful look the jealous fishwife eyes; Though early train'd to urge the mouthing fight, She hears thy bellowing powers with new surprise; Returns instructed to the realms that bore her, Adopts thy tones, and carries all before her.

"From thee the roaring Bacchanalian crew, In many a tavern round the Garden known, Learn richer blackguard than they ever knew: They catch thy look,--they copy every tone; They ape the brazen honours of thy face, And push the jorum with a double grace.

"Thee from his box the macaroni eyes; With levell'd tube he takes his distant stand, Trembling beholds the horrid storm arise, And feels for reinhold when you raise your hand; At distance he enjoys the boisterous scene, And thanks his God the pit is plac'd between.

"So, 'midst the starry honours of the night, The sage explores a comet's fiery course; Fearful he views its wild eccentric flight, And shudders at its overwhelming force: At distance safe he marks the glaring ray, Thankful his world is not within its way.

"Proceed then, Catley, in thy great career, And nightly let our maidens hear and see, The sweetest voice disgust the listening ear, The sweetest form assume deformity: Thus shalt thou arm them with their best defence, And teach them modesty by impudence."

[154] The late Lord Orrery was a singularly formal character. Sir Anthony Branville, in _The Discovery_, was intended for his portrait, and exhibits a strong likeness. It was sometimes the wish of Mr. Garrick to play upon the suavity of this old nobleman, and induce him to contradict himself. This power he exerted very successfully on the following occasion:--Lord Orrery wrote a letter from Ireland to Mr. Garrick, requesting that Mossop might be engaged. The request of a man of rank was, to the manager of Drury Lane, a command, and Mossop was engaged. When, some months afterwards, the peer came to England, he took an early opportunity of breakfasting with Mr. Garrick: the moment he entered the room, he began his favourite subject.

_Orrery._ "David, I congratulate you: I inquire not about the success of your theatre; with yourself and Mossop, it must be triumphant. The Percy and the Douglas both in arms, have a right to be confident. Separate, you were two bright luminaries; united, you are a constellation--the _Gemini_ of the theatric hemisphere. Excepting yourself, my dear David, no man that ever trod on tragic ground has so forcibly exhibited the various passions that agitate, and I may say agonize, the human mind. He makes that broad stroke at the heart which, being aimed by the hand of nature, reaches the prince or the peasant, the peer or the plebeian. He is not the mere player of fashion; for the player of fashion, David, may be compared to a man tossed in a blanket: the very instant his supporters quit their hold of the coverlet, down drops the hero of the day. However, as general assertions do not carry conviction, I will arrange my opinions under different heads, not doubting your assent to my declarations, which shall be founded on facts, and built upon experience. First of the first,--his voice; his voice is the _vox argentea_ of the ancients, the silver tone, of which so much has been written, but which never struck upon a modern ear till Mossop spoke,--'then mute attention reigned.'"

_Garrick._ "Why, my Lord, as to his voice, I must acknowledge that it is loud enough; the severest critic cannot accuse him of whispering his part; for, egad, it was so sonorous, that the people had no occasion to come into the theatre: they used to go to the pastrycook's shop in Russel Court, and eat their custards, and hear him as well as if they had been in the orchestra: '_he made the welkin echo to the sound_.' No one could doubt the goodness of his lungs, or accuse him of sparing them; but as to--"

_Orrery._ "What! you have found out that he roars! you have discovered that he bellows!--Upon my soul, David, you are right; he bellows like a bull. We used to call him 'Bull Mossop'--'Mossop the Bull;'--we had no better name for him in the country. But then, David, his eye is an eye of fire; and when he looks, he looks unutterable things: it is scarce necessary that he should speak, for his eye conveys everything that he means, and excepting your own, David, is the brightest, most expressive, most speaking eye, that ever beamed in a--"

_Garrick._ "Why, my Lord, with the utmost submission to your Lordship, from whose accurate taste and comprehensive judgment I tremble to differ,--does not your Lordship think there is a--a--a dull kind of heaviness,--a blanket, a--"

_Orrery._ "What! you have discovered that he is blind?--Egad, David, whatever his eye may be, nothing can escape yours. He is as blind as a beetle. There is an opacity, a stare without sight, a sort of filminess, exactly as you describe. But, notwithstanding I allow that he bellows like a bull, and is blind as a beetle, his memory has such peculiar tenacity, that whatever he once receives adheres to it like glue! he does not forget a syllable of his part."

_Garrick._ "Upon my honour, my Lord, if his memory was what you describe in Ireland, he must have forgot to bring it with him to London; for here, the prompter is obliged to repeat every sentence, and a whole sentence he cannot retain: there is absolutely a necessity for splitting it into parts."

_Orrery._ "What! you have found that his head runs out. Upon my soul, it never would hold anything: Lady Orrery used to call him 'Cullender Mossop'--Mossop the Cullender:' the fellow could not remember a common distich. But, notwithstanding this, his carriage is so easy, his air so gentleman-like, his deportment has so much fashion, that you perceive at a glance he has kept the best company; and no one who sees him conceives him a player. He looks like one of our house: he has the port of nobility."

_Garrick._ "As to his port, my Lord, I grant you that the man is tall, and upright enough; but with submission, the utmost submission to your Lordship's better judgment, don't you think there is an awkwardness, a rigid, vulgar, unbending sort of a--a--. We had fencing masters, dancing masters, and drill sergeants, but all would not do; he looked more like a tailor than a gentleman."

_Orrery._ "What! you think that he is stiff? By the Lord, David, you are right,--nothing escapes you: he is stiff--stiff as a poker: we used to call him 'Poker Mossop;'--we had no better name for him in the country. But however his body might want (as I must acknowledge it did) the graceful, easy bend of the Antinous, his mind was formed of the most yielding and flexible materials: any advice which you gave him, he would take; from you, I am persuaded, a hint was sufficient."

_Garrick._ "Why, in this, my Lord, I must be bold enough to differ from you in the most pointed and positive terms; for of all the obstinate, headstrong, and unmanageable animals I ever dealt with, he is the most stubborn, the most untractable, the most wrongheaded. I never knew one instance where he followed my instructions in any the smallest degree. If I recommend him to dress a character plain, he comes upon the stage like a gingerbread king; if I advise him to be splendid in his apparel, he endeavours to get a Quaker's habit from the keeper of our wardrobe; and in everything, he--more than I thought belonged to human nature--had that impenetrable, that--that--that--"

_Orrery._ "So!--you think him obstinate? Upon my soul he is--as obstinate as a pig; he has more of that animal's pertinacity than any man I ever knew in my life. But yet, David, with all these faults, he is--I have not time to enter into particulars.--Be what he will, you have engaged him? I sincerely wish you may agree together, and am, my dear fellow, your most obedient. Say no more.--Farewell.--To Mrs. Garrick present my compliments."

[155] In an ode to the memory of Le-Stue, cook to the late Duke of Newcastle, this was whimsically parodied by a Mr. Shaw, the writer of a monody addressed to Lord Lyttleton:

"When Philip's fam'd, all-conquering son, Had every blood-stain'd laurel won, He sigh'd that his creative word, Like that which rules the skies, Could not bid other nations rise, To glut his yet unsated sword.

"But when Le-Stue's unrivall'd spoon, Like Alexander's sword, with flesh had done, He heav'd no sigh, he made no moan; Not limited to human kind, To fire his wonder-teeming mind, He rais'd _ragouts_ and _olios_ of his own."

[156] When a gentleman, whose industry and integrity have raised him to the rank of an Alderman of London, was apprentice, he one Sunday afternoon took a walk with several of his friends to Islington. Considering smoking as a manly accomplishment, he put a pipe in his mouth. A respectable citizen who knew his master, meeting him in the fields, with a grave face accosted him as follows: "How now, Tom! smoking tobacco! pray who was your teacher? If you mean to be rich, unlearn it as fast as you can, for I never knew a man worth a guinea who stuck a pipe in his mouth before he was twenty." "The d--l you did not," replied the boy, "then I will never smoke another." He dashed his clay tube to the ground, and adhered to his resolution.

[157] The sign by which this circumstance is intimated was at first inscribed GOODCHILD and WEST. Some of Mr. Hogarth's city friends informing him that it was usual for the senior partner's name to precede, it was altered.

[158] Madame Pompadour, in her remarks on the English taste for music, says "they are invariably fond of everything that is full in the mouth."

[159] The inscription must remind every reader of Pope's lines,--

"Where London's column, pointing to the skies, Like a tall bully rears its head, and lies," etc.

The Duke of Buckingham's epigram on this magnificent pillar is not so generally known:

"Here stand I, The Lord knows why; But if I fall-- Have at ye all!"

[160] To mark the midnight hour, each of the watches is a quarter after twelve.

[161] This reverend gentleman is said to be intended for Mr. Platell, once curate of Barnet.

[162] A copy of this figure on a larger scale is engraved by Mr. Bartolozzi.

[163] The following whimsical notice, written by a believer in transmigration, was a few years ago sent to several country gentlemen, accompanied with a request that the contents might, _if possible_, be communicated to all the fish and fowl, birds and beasts, in their respective manors:--

"A WARNING TO BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES.

"Bustards, pheasants, woodcocks, widgeons, Wild-ducks, plovers, snipes, and pigeons; Every fowl of every sort, To your native haunts resort. Turbot, salmon, herring, soles, Plunge into your native holes. Bucks, and does, and hares, and fawns, Speed ye to your native lawns. Each to your closest covers haste! Beware! beware the man of taste! All that can escape, away! You're surely slaughter'd, if you stay, For Monday next is Lord Mayor's day."

[164] This scene is laid in the cellar of a house near Water Lane, Fleet Street, then known by the name of the "Blood Bowl House;" which curious appellation was given it from the various scenes of riot and murder which were there perpetrated.

[165] This has been supposed to be intended for the same prostitute whom we have before seen exhibited in a garret and a night-cellar: I do not discover the least resemblance.

[166] I have been told that the dealers in perjury at Westminster Hall, as well as the Old Bailey, consider this little circumstance as a complete salvo for false swearing.

[167] A solemn exhortation was formerly given to the prisoners appointed to die at Tyburn, in their way from Newgate. Mr. Robert Dow, merchant tailor, who died in 1612, left £1, 6s. 8d. yearly for ever, that the bellman should deliver to the unhappy criminals, as they went by in the cart, a most pious and awful admonition. An admonition of the same nature was read in the prison of Newgate the night before they suffered.

[168] A man that some persons now living may remember by the name of Tiddy Doll.

[169] Notwithstanding the boasted humanity of our laws, I am told more criminals are annually executed in this little island than in all Europe besides.

[170] I believe it was customary to despatch a second pigeon at the moment the criminal suffered.

[171] Numerous as are the executions, they are not sufficient for the anatomical students. It is not more than four or five years since one of those necessary assistants to the art of chirurgery, called _resurrection men_, being employed in his vocation of stealing a dead body from a churchyard in the neighbourhood of London, was discovered by a patrole, and shot in the grave. To prevent his employer being disappointed of a _subject_, and to show her reverence for that art which her husband had lost his life in endeavouring to improve, and save the idle expense of a funeral, his _afflicted widow_, with the fondness of an Ephesian matron, three days afterwards sold the body of her murdered lord for sixteen shillings, to the very surgeon in whose service he had suffered!

[172] When Oliver Cromwell, attended by Thurlow, once went to dine in the city, the populace rent the air with their gratulations. "Your highness," said the secretary, "may see by this that you have the voice of the people as well as the voice of God."--"As to God," replied the Protector, "I will not talk about Him here; but for the people, they would be more noisy, and more joyful too, if you and I were going to be hanged."

[173] He is somewhat like a porter butt, with a head on it. In the Straits of Thermopylæ he would have been pressed to death; but _dead_, he might stop a breach _better than a better man_.

[174] In the second volume of Wood's _Body of Conveyancing_, p. 180, is a London lease; one of the clauses gives a right to the landlord and his friends to stand in the balcony during the time of "the shows or pastimes upon the day commonly called the Lord Mayor's Day."

[175] In the _General Advertiser_ for March 9, 1748-49, it was thus announced:

"This day is published, price 5s., a Print, designed and engraved by Mr. Hogarth, representing a PRODIGY which lately appeared before the gate of Calais,

'O the Roast Beef of Old England!'

"To be had at the Golden Head in Leicester Square, and at the print-shops."

[176] At this election a man was placed on a bulk, with a figure representing a _child_ in his arms: as he whipped it, he exclaimed, "What, _you little child_, must you be a member?" This election being disputed, it appeared from the register book of the parish where Lord Castlemain was born, that he was but twenty years of age when he offered himself a candidate.

* * * * *

_SEASON 1874._

A LIST OF BOOKS

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(_Successors to John Camden Hotten_),

74 & 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W.

THE FAMOUS FRASER PORTRAITS.

MACLISE'S GALLERY OF

ILLUSTRIOUS LITERARY CHARACTERS.

With Notes by the late WILLIAM MAGINN, LL.D.

Edited, with copious Notes, by WILLIAM BATES, B.A., Professor of Classics in Queen's College, Birmingham. The volume contains the whole 83 SPLENDID AND MOST CHARACTERISTIC PORTRAITS, now first issued in a complete form. In demy 4to, over 400 pages, cloth gilt and gilt edges, 31_s._ 6_d._; or, in morocco elegant, 70_s._

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