My friend Sir Roger de Coverley, when we last met
together at the club, told me that he had a great mind to
see the new tragedy with me, assuring me at the same
time that he had not been at a play these twenty years. (10)
"The last I saw," said Sir Roger, "was the _Committee_,
which I should not have gone to, neither, had not I been
told beforehand that it was a good Church of England
comedy." He then proceeded to inquire of me who this
distressed mother was; and upon hearing that she was (15)
Hector's widow, he told me that her husband was a brave
man, and that when he was a schoolboy he had read his
life at the end of the dictionary. My friend asked me,
in the next place, if there would not be some danger in
coming home late, in case the Mohocks should be abroad.
"I assure you," says he, "I thought I had fallen into their
hands last night, for I observed two or three lusty black[146]
men that followed me half way up Fleet Street, and
mended their pace behind me in proportion as I put on (196: 5)
to get away from them. You must know," continued the
knight, with a smile, "I fancied they had a mind to _hunt_
me, for I remember an honest gentleman in my neighbourhood
who was served such a trick in King Charles the
Second's time; for which reason he has not ventured himself (10)
in town ever since. I might have shown them very
good sport had this been their design; for, as I am an old
fox-hunter, I should have turned and dodged, and have
played them a thousand tricks they had never seen in
their lives before." Sir Roger added that if these gentlemen (15)
had any such intention they did not succeed very
well in it; "for I threw them out," says he, "at the end
of Norfolk Street, where I doubled the corner and got
shelter in my lodgings before they could imagine what
was become of me. However," says the knight, "if Captain (20)
Sentry will make one with us to-morrow night, and
if you will both of you call upon me about four o'clock,
that we may be at the house before it is full, I will have
my own coach in readiness to attend you, for John tells
me he has got the fore wheels mended." (25)
[146] Perhaps in black masks.
The captain, who did not fail to meet me there at the
appointed hour, bid Sir Roger fear nothing, for that he
had put on the same sword which he made use of at the
battle of Steenkirk. Sir Roger's servants, and among
the rest my old friend the butler, had, I found, provided
themselves with good oaken plants[147] to attend their master
upon this occasion. When he had placed him in his
coach, with myself at his left hand, the captain before (197: 5)
him, and his butler at the head of his footmen in the
rear, we convoyed him in safety to the playhouse, where,
after having marched up the entry in good order, the
captain and I went in with him, and seated him betwixt
us in the pit. As soon as the house was full and the (10)
candles lighted, my old friend stood up and looked about
him with that pleasure which a mind seasoned with humanity
naturally feels in itself at the sight of a multitude
of people who seem pleased with one another, and partake
of the same common entertainment. I could not (15)
but fancy to myself, as the old man stood up in the middle
of the pit, that he made a very proper centre to a
tragic audience. Upon the entering of Pyrrhus, the
knight told me that he did not believe the King of
France himself had a better strut. I was, indeed, very (20)
attentive to my old friend's remarks, because I looked
upon them as a piece of natural criticism; and was well
pleased to hear him, at the conclusion of almost every
scene, telling me that he could not imagine how the play
would end. One while he appeared much concerned for (25)
Andromache, and a little while after as much for Hermione;
and was extremely puzzled to think what would
become of Pyrrhus.
[147] Sticks, cudgels.
When Sir Roger saw Andromache's obstinate refusal
to her lover's importunities, he whispered me in the ear,
that he was sure she would never have him; to which he
added, with a more than ordinary vehemence, "You
can't imagine, sir, what 'tis to have to do with a widow!" (198: 5)
Upon Pyrrhus his[148] threatening afterwards to leave her,
the knight shook his head, and muttered to himself,
"Ay, do if you can." This part dwelt so much upon
my friend's imagination, that at the close of the third
act, as I was thinking of something else, he whispered (10)
in my ear, "These widows, sir, are the most perverse
creatures in the world. But pray," says he, "you that
are a critic, is the play according to your dramatic
rules, as you call them? Should your people in tragedy
always talk to be understood? Why, there is not a (15)
single sentence in this play that I do not know the
meaning of."
[148] This form of the possessive was still occasionally used when the
noun ended in s.
The fourth act very luckily begun before I had time to
give the old gentleman an answer. "Well," says the
knight, sitting down with great satisfaction, "I suppose (20)
we are now to see Hector's ghost." He then renewed
his attention, and, from time to time, fell a praising the
widow. He made, indeed, a little mistake as to one of
her pages, whom at his first entering he took for Astyanax;
but he quickly set himself right in that particular, (25)
though at the same time he owned he should have been
very glad to have seen the little boy, "who," says he,
"must needs be a very fine child by the account that is
given of him."
Upon Hermione's going off with a menace to Pyrrhus,
the audience gave a loud clap, to which Sir Roger added,
"On my word, a notable young baggage!" (199: 5)
As there was a very remarkable silence and stillness in
the audience during the whole action, it was natural for
them to take the opportunity of these intervals between
the acts to express their opinion of the players and of
their respective parts. Sir Roger, hearing a cluster of (10)
them praise Orestes, struck in with them, and told them
that he thought his friend Pylades was a very sensible
man; as they were afterwards applauding Pyrrhus, Sir
Roger put in a second time: "And let me tell you,"
says he, "though he speaks but little, I like the old fellow (15)
in whiskers as well as any of them." Captain Sentry,
seeing two or three wags who sat near us lean with an
attentive ear towards Sir Roger, and fearing lest they
should smoke[149] the knight, plucked him by the elbow,
and whispered something in his ear that lasted till the (20)
opening of the fifth act. The knight was wonderfully
attentive to the account which Orestes gives of Pyrrhus
his death, and, at the conclusion of it, told me it was such
a bloody piece of work that he was glad it was not done
upon the stage. Seeing afterwards Orestes in his raving (25)
fit, he grew more than ordinary serious, and took occasion
to moralize, in his way, upon an evil conscience, adding
that Orestes in his madness looked as if he saw something.
[149] Ridicule, chaff.
As we were the first that came into the house, so we
were the last that went out of it; being resolved to have
a clear passage for our old friend, whom we did not care
to venture among the justling of the crowd. Sir Roger
went out fully satisfied with his entertainment, and we (200: 5)
guarded him to his lodgings in the same manner that we
brought him to the playhouse; being highly pleased, for
my own part, not only with the performance of the
excellent piece which had been presented, but with the
satisfaction which it had given to the good old man. (10)
L.