Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is enclosed in
_underscores_. Small capital text has been changed to all
capital. Additional notes will be found near the end of this
eBook.
THE
DRURIAD:
OR
STRICTURES
ON THE
PRINCIPAL PERFORMERS
OF
Drury-Lane Theatre:
_A SATIRICAL POEM:_
WITH NOTES CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY.
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“_Cuncti adsint, meritæque expectent præmia palmæ:_
* * * * * * * *
“_Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine habetur._”----VIRG.
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“My lord, I will use them according to their deserts.”--
“Godsbodikins, man, better! Use every man after his
desert, and who shall escape whipping?--Use them after
your own honour and dignity: the less they deserve, the
more merit is in your bounty.”----SHAKESPEAR.
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_LONDON_:
PRINTED FOR W. J. AND J. RICHARDSON, UNDER THE ROYAL
EXCHANGE.
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1798.
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ADVERTISEMENT.
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I Cannot think the subject of the following Poem ill chosen,
whatever faults there may be in the manner of its execution.
As some kingdoms are found to be influenced by the good or
bad qualities of the sovereign, so the theatres of this
country may be considered as instruments by which virtue or
vice may be equally propagated: they are universally
frequented; for, who is so high as not to honour them with
an occasional visit, and who is so low as not to deem
himself an expert judge of theatrical merit? That this merit
is on the wane, I fear, cannot be denied; and I think one of
the causes may be traced to that laxity of morals which
pervades all ranks of people. The time was when a vicious or
foolish character, among his brethren behind the curtain,
would have been more dreaded, by an actor of genius, than
the hisses of the multitude before it. “Fuit ista quondam in
hac republica virtus, ut viri fortes acrioribus suppliciis
civem perniciosum quàm acerbessimum hostem coercerent.”
Cicero.
If it be allowed that an actor cannot do complete justice to
his part unless he feel all the energy which the character
is supposed to feel; or if, in other words, moral sensations
and the glow of conscious virtue enhance the player’s
powers; surely those powers must be impaired, if not totally
annihilated, by debauchery and habitual intoxication; an
observation not totally useless to those who, however they
may slight virtue for virtue’s sake, will yet adhere to her
when, like a modern heiress, she brings an ample fortune to
increase her attractions.
I have only to declare that I commit this Poem to the press
blinded by no partiality and influenced by no unworthy
motives; that my pages are stained with no private scandal,
and that, whatever may be the fate of the Poem, I shall
never blush at an undertaking which has for its object the
praise of the meritorious and the ridicule of the
undeserving.
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THE
DRURIAD, &c.
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