Chapter 1

E-text prepared by Louise Hope, Joseph Cooper, Alex Buie, The Type-In Addicts, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes illustrative images of portions of the original text. See 30584-h.htm or 30584-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/30584/pg30584-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30584/30584-h.zip)

Transcriber's note:

The primary text was handwritten, probably by a professional copyist. All line-endings were regularized by added dashes of variable length; some "real" dashes are therefore conjectural. Instead of typographic variants such as italics or boldface, some words are distinguished by _underlining_ or #smaller writing#. Abbreviations such as "Mr." were written with superscripts as M^r.; they have been simplified for readability.

Unless otherwise noted, all spelling, punctuation and capitalization--including I/J variation and comma/period errors--are as in the original. Errors and uncertainties are listed at the end of the e-text.

The Augustan Reprint Society

CHARLES MACKLIN

_THE COVENT GARDEN_ _THEATRE,_

OR _Pasquin Turn'd Drawcansir_

(1752)

_INTRODUCTION_ by JEAN B. KERN

[Decoration]

Publication Number 116 WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY University of California, Los Angeles 1965

GENERAL EDITORS

Earl R. Miner, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Maximillian E. Novak, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Lawrence Clark Powell, _Wm. Andrews Clark Memorial Library_

ADVISORY EDITORS

Richard C. Boys, _University of Michigan_ John Butt, _University of Edinburgh_ James L. Clifford, _Columbia University_ Ralph Cohen, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Vinton A. Dearing, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Arthur Friedman, _University of Chicago_ Louis A. Landa, _Princeton University_ Samuel H. Monk, _University of Minnesota_ Everett T. Moore, _University of California, Los Angeles_ James Sutherland, _University College, London_ H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., _University of California, Los Angeles_

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY

Edna C. Davis, _Clark Memorial Library_

EDITORS' NOTE

Although of considerable interest in itself, this hitherto unpublished manuscript play is reprinted in facsimile in response to requests by members of the Society for a manuscript facsimile of use in graduate seminars.

INTRODUCTION

The Larpent collection of the Huntington Library contains the manuscript copy of Charles Macklin's COVENT GARDEN THEATRE, OR PASQUIN TURN'D DRAWCANSIR in two acts (Larpent 96) which is here reproduced in facsimile.[1] It is an interesting example of that mid-eighteenth-century phenomenon, the afterpiece, from a period when not only Shakespearean stock productions but new plays as well were accompanied by such farcical appendages.[2] This particular afterpiece is worth reproducing not only for its catalogue of the social foibles of the age, but as an illustration of satirical writing for the stage at a time when dramatic taste often wavered toward the sentimental. It appears that it has not been previously printed.

As an actor Charles Macklin is remembered for his Scottish dress in the role of Macbeth, for his realistic portrayal of Shylock, for his quarrel with Garrick in 1743, and for his private lectures on acting at the Piazza in Covent Garden. He is less well known than he deserves as a dramatist although there has been a recent revival of interest in his plays stimulated by a biography by William W. Appleton, _Charles Macklin: An Actor's Life_ (Harvard University Press, 1960) and evidenced in "A Critical Study of the Extant Plays of Charles Macklin" by Robert R. Findlay (PhD. Thesis at the State University of Iowa, 1963). Appleton mentions that Macklin lost books and manuscripts in a shipwreck in 1771 (p. 150) and that play manuscripts may also have disappeared in the sale of his books and papers at the end of his long life at the turn of the eighteenth century. It is possible that more of Macklin's work may come to light, like _The Fortune Hunters_ which appeared in the National Library in Dublin. Until a complete critical edition of Macklin's plays appears, making possible better assessment of his merit, such farces as THE COVENT GARDEN THEATRE will have to stand as an example of one genre of eighteenth-century theatrical productions.

There are many reasons why Macklin's plays are less well known than is warranted by his personality and acting ability during his long association with the British stage. His first play, _King Henry VII_, a tragedy hastily put together to capitalize on the anti-Jacobite sentiment following the invasion attempt of 1745, was an ambitious failure. After this discouragement, he also had trouble with the Licenser so that his comedy _Man of the World_ was not presented until 1781, twenty years after a portion of it first appeared at Covent Garden.[3] Nor were censorship and a bad start his only problems as a playwright. He also, and apparently with good reason,[4] was fearful of piracy and was thus reluctant to have his plays printed. His eighteenth-century biographer Kirkman mentions Macklin's threats to "put the law against every offender of it, respecting my property, in full force."[5] His biographers also mention his practice of giving each actor only his own role at rehearsals while keeping the manuscript copy of the whole play under lock, but this did not prevent whole acts from being printed in such magazines as _The Court Miscellany_, where Act I of _Love-a-la-Mode_ was printed as it was taken down in shorthand by the famous shorthand expert Joseph Gurney. If Macklin had not been required to submit copies of his plays to the Licenser, it is doubtful that as much would have survived. The contentious Macklin had reason for zealously guarding his manuscripts, with such provincial theatre managers as Tate Wilkinson at York always anxious for new plays.

Finally, Macklin's best work as a playwright was satiric enough and topical enough to be short-lived in popularity even in his own day. Sir Pertinax McSychophant in the _Man of the World_ is a good character, especially in his famous speech on the necessity of bowing to get ahead in the world, as is Sir Archy MacSarcasm in _Love-a-la-Mode_, but the latter produced _A Scotsman's Remarks on the Farce Love-a-la Mode_ in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for June, 1760, and Macklin's additional troubles with the Licenser would indicate that his satiric barbs were not always well received.

Larpent manuscript 96, here reproduced, bears the application of John Rich to the Duke of Grafton, dated 1752, for the Licenser's permission and an inscription to William Chetwynd, Esq. (spelled "Chetwyne" on the MS.). It was extensively advertised before its one and only performance in the Covent Garden Theatre on April 8, 1752. The advertisement printed in _The London Stage_, Pt. 4, I, 305, is taken from the _General Advertiser_ and warns the public not to confuse this farce with Charles Woodward's _A Lick at the Town_ of 1751. The fact that the sub-title PASQUIN TURN'D DRAWCANSIR carried an obvious allusion to Fielding's pseudonym Alexander Drawcansir in his _Covent Garden Journal_, and the fact that the _Covent Garden Journal_ carried the advertisement for Macklin's play on March 14, 17, 21 and 28, 1752, before the single performance on April 8, 1752, might suggest that Fielding may possibly have seen the script before the play was produced. Esther M. Raushenbush in an article on "Charles Macklin's Lost Play about Henry Fielding," _MLN_, LI (1936), 505-14, points out that Macklin was not attacking Fielding in this play as W. L. Cross and G. E. Jensen had earlier suggested, but instead was trading on the popularity of Fielding's _Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers_, which had appeared in January, 1751. Macklin's farce makes clear reference to Section III of Fielding's pamphlet near the end of THE COVENT GARDEN THEATRE where Pasquin delivers a lecture against Sharpers.

The advertisement for Macklin's play in Fielding's _Covent Garden Journal_ is the same as that printed in _The London Stage_ from the _General Advertiser_:

a New Dramatic Satire ... written on the model of the Comedies of Aristophanes or like Pasquinades of the Italian Theatre in Paris: with the Characters of the People after the manner of Greek drama--The parts of the Pit, the Boxes, the Galleries, the Stage, and the Town to be performed By Themselves for their Diversion. The Parts of several dull, disorderly characters in and about St. James, to be performed by Certain Persons, for Example: and the part of Pasquin Drawcansir, to be performed by his Censorial Highness, for his Interest.[6] The Satire to be introduced by an Oration and to conclude by a Peroration. Both to be spoken from the Rostrum in the manner of certain Orators by Signior Pasquin.

No cast remains, but presumably from references in the play itself, Macklin took the role of Pasquin who with the aid of Marforio calls in review characters representing all the foibles of the age. There is no plot. Act I simply ends while Pasquin and the Spectators retire to the Green Room to await the appearance of those characters whom Marforio has called in review.

In this ambitious attempt to list all the follies of his age, Macklin employs the popular technique of eighteenth-century plays such as Fielding's _The Author's Farce_--the play appears to be writing itself on the stage. He displays all the tricks of satire--exaggeratedly ironic praise, allegorical names (Miss Giggle, Miss Brilliant, Miss Bashfull), stock characters of satire (Pasquin, Marforio, Hydra, Drawcansir), lists of offenses, parodies of polite conversation reminiscent of Swift, and constant topical references: to the Robin Hood Society to which little Bob Smart belongs; to Mother Midnight; to playwrights (Fielding, Foote, Woodward, Cibber, and himself); to contemporary theatrical taste (Pantomime, Delaval's _Othello_ which Macklin himself had coached, Harlequins, Masquerades, and various theatrical tricks); to Critics (Bonnell Thornton, who later reviewed this afterpiece, is called Termagent since Thornton's pseudonym was "Roxana Termagent"; John Hill is referred to as the "Inspector" of the _Daily Advertiser_; and Fielding is called Sir Alexander Drawcansir). The farce abounds in these topical references, from Pasquin's opening invocation to Lucian, "O thou, who first explored and dared to laugh at Public Folly," to its closing lecture against Sharpers like Count Hunt Bubble where the obvious allusions to Section III on Gaming of Fielding's _Enquiry_ ... are applauded by Solomon Common Sense, the voice of Reason.

This vast parade of fashions and foibles with frequent thinly veiled references to individuals may explain the numerous Licenser's marks on the manuscript. If all the marked lines were omitted, it is small wonder that this afterpiece was performed only once. Dramatic satire, without plot, is difficult to sustain even in farce, and if the marked lines were cut, there was little left to recommend the play. It is not surprizing that the Licenser objected to such passages as the description of Miss Giggle's "nudities," but his frequent objections to topical and personal references took all the bite out of Macklin's satire.

Like Macklin's other early farces, THE COVENT GARDEN THEATRE contains proto-characters for his later plays. Sir Roger Ringwood, a "five-bottle man," who rode twenty miles from a "red-hot Fox Chace" to appear before Pasquin, is an early study for Macklin's later hard-drinking, fox-hunting Squire Groom in _Love-a-la Mode_ or Lord Lumbercourt in _The Man of the World_. But Macklin's usual good ear for dialogue is missing from this play, nor is any character except his own as Pasquin followed long enough to make his characteristic speech identifiable. Since plot is absent too, all that remains is the wealth of topical and personal satire which in itself is interesting to the historian of the mid-eighteenth-century theatre. If THE COVENT GARDEN THEATRE is studied along with his other two unpublished afterpieces in the Larpent collection (A WILL AND NO WILL, OR A BONE FOR THE LAWYERS and THE NEW PLAY CRITICIZ'D, OR THE PLAGUE OF ENVY), Macklin's skill at satiric comedy after his initial abortive attempt at tragedy can be seen as developing steadily toward such later full-length comedies as the better known _Love-a-la Mode_ (1759) and _The Man of the World_ (1764). His recognition that tragedy was not his forte and his self-criticism in THE COVENT GARDEN THEATRE, where he exhorts the audience to "explode" him when he is dull, reveal the comic spirit operative in his sometimes cantankerous personality. It is that strain, here seen in genesis, which develops full-fledged in his later comedies.

A word should be added about the Dramatis Personae for the play. It does not contain the Stage-Keeper, who speaks only once, the Servant whose single word is accompanied by the stage direction "This Servant is to be on from the beginning," nor the Romp (probably the Prompter, who speaks twice off-stage during the play). Hic and Haec Scriblerus, however, although he is listed in the cast of characters, speaks only once, and his entrance on stage is never indicated.

The "naked lady," Lady Lucy Loveit, whose entrance causes so much excitement, is described as appearing in a Pett-en-l'air, which eighteenth-century costume books portray as a short, loose shift!

_Coe College_

NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION

[Footnote 1: The author of this introduction is indebted to the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California, both for a research Fellowship in the summer of 1963 and for permission to reproduce this Macklin play as well as two others by the same author, A WILL AND NO WILL, OR A BONE FOR THE LAWYERS (Larpent 58) and THE NEW PLAY CRITICIS'D, OR THE PLAGUE OF ENVY (Larpent 64).]

[Footnote 2: George W. Stone, _The London Stage_, Part 4, I, cxlv.]

[Footnote 3: Dougald MacMillan, "Censorship in the Case of Macklin's _The Man of the World_," _Huntington Library Quarterly_, No. 10 (1936), pp. 79-101.]

[Footnote 4: W. Matthews, "The Piracies of Macklin's _Love-a-la Mode_," _Review of English Studies_, X (1934), 311-18.]

[Footnote 5: James T. Kirkman, _Memoirs of the Life of Charles Macklin, Esq._ (1799), II, 33. Kirkman quotes Macklin's letters both to his solicitor and to James Whitley of Leicester to stop all such pirated performances (II, 37-41).]

[Footnote 6: John Rich's application to the Licenser indicates that "Mr. Macklin designs to have [the play] performed at his Benefit Night...."]

1752

Covent Garden Theatre.

or

Pasquin turn'd Drawcansir

A

Dramatic Satyr.

Sr.

This peice ent'd Covt. Garden Theatre or Pasquin turn'd Drawcansir Mr. Macklin designs to have perform'd on his Benefit Night wth the permission of his Grace the Duke of Grafton.

To William Chetwyne Esq.

I am Sr. yr humble Srvt Jno Rich

Dramatis Personæ

Men.

Pasquin. Marforio. Sir Eternal Grinn. Sir Conjecture Possitive. Sir Roger Ringwood. Bob: Smart. Solomon Common Sense Count Hunt bubble. Sr. Iohn Ketch. Hic & hæc Scriblerus. Hydra.

Women.

Lady Lucy Lovit Miss Diana Singlelife Miss Brilliant. Miss Giggle. Miss Bashful.

Scene. Covent Garden Theatre.

Time an hour.

Covent Garden Theatre Or Pasquin turn'd Drawcansir.

Scene. The Stage, with a Rostrum on it.

Enter Pasquin. Goes in the Rostrum.

Pas: Nobles,-- Commons-- Beaux, Bells-- Wits, Critics,-- Bards & Bardlins,-- and ye my very good Friends of Common Sense,-- tho' last, not least in Merit,-- Greeting, and Patience to you all. I Seignior Pasquin, of the Quorum of Parnassus. Drawcansir and Censor of Great Britain, by my Bills and Advertisements, have Summoned You together this Night to hear a Public Examination of several Public Nusances, My Scene I have laid in the Common Theatre, which is my usual place of exposing those Knaves and Fools, who despise the Moral-- and those who are too great or too Subtle for the common Law, and as my whole design is new, I hope You, my Gracious Patrons, will not be Offended if I Assigne you a part in this Pasquinade, which is this,-- You are to Act as a Chorus to the whole. When you behold a Fool pleasantly exposed You are to laugh, if you please, not else;-- When a Knave is Satyrized with Spirit & Wit, You are to Applaud;-- and when Pasquin is dull you are to explode, which I Suppose will be the Chief of Your Part. But, before I Enter upon my Office of Public Censor, give me leave Gracious Patrons, as is my Custom, whenever I come, to give a short Sketch of my Character and Practice. I am known throughout the Globe, have been Caress'd in most of the Courts, lock'd up in most Prisons in Europe. The dexterity of my Flattery has introduced me to the Tables of the First Dons in Madrid one Day, and, the boldness of my Satyr, into the Inquisition next. I have Revel'd with the Princes of the Blood, and have made all Paris laugh at my Wit over Night, and, have had the Honour of being in the Bastile the next Morning. indeed I fared but indifferently in Holland; for, all that my Flattery, or Satyr, my Ridicule or my Wit, cou'd procure me there, was an Appartment in the Rasp House. At length, most Gracious and Indulgent Britons, I am arrived in this Great Metropolis! this Magazine of all the World! this Nurse of Trade! this Region of Liberty! this School of Arts and Sciences! This Universal Rendevouz of all the Monsters produced by wagish Nature & fantastick Art, here Panopticons, Microcosms, Bears, Badgers, Lyons, Leapords, Tygers, Panthers, Ostriches and Unicorns,-- Giants, dwarfs, Hermorphradites and Conjurers, Statemen, Nostrums, Patriots and Corncutters! Quacks, Turks, Enthusiasts, and Fire Eaters. Mother Midnights, Termagants, Clare Market, and Robin Hood Orators, Drury Lane Journals, Inspectors, Fools, and Drawcansirs, dayly Tax the Public by Virtue of the Strangeness the Monstrosity or delicacy of their Nature or Genius, And hither I am come, knowing you were fond of Monsters, To exhibit Mine, the newest & I hope the greatest Monster of them all, for the Public is a common Bank, upon which every Genius and every Beauty has a right to draw in proportion to their merit, from a Minister of State and a Maid of Honour, down to a Chien Savant or a Covent Garden Mistress, To Conclude, my Business in this Land may be Sum'd up in a few Words; it is to get your money and cure you of Your Foibles. for wherever Pasquin comes the Public is his Patient; its Folly his Support. (#bows#) So much by way of Oratia now for Action-- then for Peroration.

Hollo! Marforio! (#goes to the door#).

Enter Marforio.

Mar: Here my Fellow Labourer!

Pas: Have you prepared for general Search?

Mar: I have-- but let me once more entreat you to alter your design. do not behave with your usual Sacasm and boldness upon your first appearance. Strive to gain the favour of the Public by Morality and Panegyrick-- not by undaunted Satyr--

Pas: Marforio, We are come to England to make Our Fortune by Our parts, And you Advise to begin with Morality and Flattery. You might as well Advise a Soldier to make his Fortune by Cowardice. No Sir, he, who wou'd gain the Esteem of a Brave, a wise, and a free people, must lash their Vices, and laugh at their Folies.

Mar: Well, if you must be Satyrical, confine Your Satyr to the City.

Pas: No, I'll begin at the Source. the Bourgoie is but the Ape of the Courtier; Correct the one, the other Mends of Course. I will Scour the whole Circle of this metropolis; not a tilted Sharpor, or a fair Libertine, but I will Gibbet in Effigie. Birth Privilege or Quality shall not be a Sanction to the ignominious Practices of the one, nor shall Fashion or Beauty be a Skreen for the Folly or Indecency of the other. Tho' they elude the Laws of Westminster, they shall not escape the Lash of Parnassus. Here we have no Inquisition, no Bastile, no Rasp House, to dread. So without a Single hesitation more of Doubt or fear, let us at once plunge into Action.-- Go you & take a Set of proper Officers with you and, by a Warrant from Appollo, Search every disorderly House in Town. Routs, drums, and Assemblies, particularly the den.

Mar: It shall be done. (#Exit Marforio#)

Pas: O thou, who first explored and dar'd to laugh at Public Folly; Sweet facetious Lucian, Father of Gibes and laughing Ridicule Inspire thy Votary, teach me this Night to draw a Striking Likeness in which the free born Britons may behold their Beauties and Deformities as perfectly as the Inquisitive Eye does its own Image in the faithful Mirror!

Enter Marforio.

Pas: What brings you back?

Mar: I met the Town at the Stage door & return'd to give you Notice, that they may not Surprize you.

Pas: I am glad they are come, what sort of Humour are they in.

Mar: Seemingly in a good one. But in roaring Spirits and in high Expectation of Riot and Fun as they term it.

Hydra. behind the Scenes

Hyd: Where, where, which way! here, this Way, this way Ladies. this way.

Pas: Here they come, begone-- leave them to Me-- Proceed you in your Search.

Mar: I shall. (Exit)

Hyd: This way, this way Ladies.

Pas: I'll retire, till I see what humour they are in (#retires#).

Enter Hydra, Miss Brilliant & Stage-Keeper.

Stage. Mr. Hydra Servant.

Servt: Here (this Servt: be on from the begining)

Hyd: This way Madam.

Brill: Well do you know Mr. Hydra that I am upon the Tip-toe of Expectation to know what this Medley can be?

Hyd: Upon Honour so am I-- quite upon the Rack, but where is the rest of Our Party? Miss Bashfull here's mighty good Room. Bob Smart won't you hand miss Bashfull to her Place.

Enter Bob Smart.

Bob. Upon Honour I cannot prevail upon her to come on. She's Affraid the Audience will take her for one of the Actresses and hiss her.

Omn: Ha, ha, ha, ridiculous.

Brill. Dear Creature come on. Lord I have Sat upon the Stage a hundred times (#pulls her on#) and if they should take us for some of the Characters in the Farce. I vow I should be glad of it.

Bob: Upon Honour so Should I.

Bash. O Lud, I should instantly faint away if they took me for an Actress.

Brill. Ha-- ha-- ha-- O Lud I protest there's Sr. Conjecture Possitive. in the Musick Place.

Bash. Upon Honour so he is.

Brill. Sr: Conjecture your Servant, won't you come up to Us? we'll make Room for You.

#Sr. Conjecture in the Musick Room.#

Sr. Con: Miss your humble I am afraid so many of us upon the Stage will offend the Audience.

Brill. O not at all, It is in the Bills that the Town are to Sit upon the Stage, & sure Sir Conjecture the World must Allow you to be a Principall Character amongst Us.

Sr. Con: The World is very kind Madam. I'll do my Self the Honour to attend you.

Bash. Pray Miss Brilliant do you know who this Pasquin is?

Brill. Yes Child; he is one of the Heathen Gods; Iupiter's Grandfather. You may read a particular Account of him my dear, in Homer, or Milton, or any of the Greek Poets (#pulls out a Bill of the Farce#) well I vow its a Whimsicall Bill this; a charming Puff. Lud where's Sir Conjecture? I suppose he can give us a particular Account of it. for he knows every thing.

Hyd: You mean Miss he pretends to know every thing..

Brill. Why that is as Pleasant to him Mr. Hydra, as if he really had knowledge, he is a strange conceited Coxcomb to be sure, but entertaining. I wonder his Character was never introduced upon the Stage, he is a most ridiculous Fellow.

Enter Sr. Conjecture