A Man who used to play upon the harp, and sing to it, in little
ale-houses, and made a shift in those narrow confined walls to please
the dull sots who heard him, from hence entertained an ambition of
shewing his parts in the public theatre, where he fancied he could not
fail of raising a great reputation and fortune in a very short time. He
was accordingly admitted upon trial; but the spaciousness of the place,
and the throng of the people, so deadened and weakened both his voice
and instrument, that scarcely either of them could be heard, and where
they could, his performance sounded so poor, so low, and wretched, in
the ears of his refined audience, that he was universally hissed off
the stage.