I saw your Friend the Templar this Evening in the Pit, and thought he
looked very little pleased with the Representation of the mad Scene of
the _Pilgrim_. I wish, Sir, you would do us the Favour to animadvert
frequently upon the false Taste the Town is in, with Relation to Plays
as well as Operas. It certainly requires a Degree of Understanding to
play justly; but such is our Condition, that we are to suspend our
Reason to perform our Parts. As to Scenes of Madness, you know, Sir,
there are noble Instances of this Kind in _Shakespear_; but then it is
the Disturbance of a noble Mind, from generous and humane Resentments:
It is like that Grief which we have for the decease of our Friends: It
is no Diminution, but a Recommendation of humane Nature, that in such
Incidents Passion gets the better of Reason; and all we can think to
comfort ourselves, is impotent against half what we feel. I will not
mention that we had an Idiot in the Scene, and all the Sense it is
represented to have, is that of Lust. As for my self, who have long
taken Pains in personating the Passions, I have to Night acted only an
Appetite: The part I play'd is Thirst, but it is represented as
written rather by a Drayman than a Poet. I come in with a Tub about
me, that Tub hung with Quart-pots; with a full Gallon at my Mouth. [6]
I am ashamed to tell you that I pleased very much, and this was
introduced as a Madness; but sure it was not humane Madness, for a
Mule or an [ass [7]] may have been as dry as ever I was in my Life.