ROSCIUS, however, hath chang'd his mind, and acquired new elastic
powers; in so much that the following complimentary verses appeared on
the agility, which he lately displayed in the performance of that
character.
_Be dumb, ye criticks, dare to hiss no more
While crowded boxes, pit and galleries roar.
Who says that Roscius feels the hand of Time,
To blast his blooming laurels in their prime?
With ever supple limbs and pliant tongue,
Roscius, like Hebe, will be ever young.
See and believe your eyes----did e'er you see
So great a feat of pure agility?
Nor Hughes nor Astley, vaulting in the air,
Like Roscius makes the struck spectators stare.
Nor Lun nor Woodward ever gave the spring,
He gave last night in Richard, dying king!
Th' immortal actor, who can die so clever,
In spite of fate will live to die for ever!_
[28]
A Briton blunt, bred to plain mathematics,
Who hates French b--gres, and Italian pathics.
[29] The plaintive ROSCIUS seems here to have an eye to the following
lines:
_The wits who drink water, and suck sugar-candy,
Impute the strong spirit of_ Kenrick _to brandy.
They are not so much out: the matter in short is
He sips_ aqua-vitæ _and spits_ aqua-fortis.