Event Comment: Never acted. [
See Genest's comment (IV, 618) derived from
Cumberland and the
London Magazine-its appeal to the fashionable circles, its damnation at first performance because of the hanging of
Harlequin in full view, and its modification thereafter.
See 18 June and
Horace Walpole to
George Montagu [
Arlington Street] July 28, 1761: I came to town yesterday through clouds of dust to
see The Wishes, and
went ac- [I, 381] tually feeling for
Mr Bentley, and full of the emotions he must be suffering. What do [you] think in a house crowded was the first thing I saw!
Mr and Madam Bentley perked up in the front boxes and acting audience at his own play--no, all the impudence of false patriotism never came up to it! Did one ever hear of an author that had couraee to
see his own first night in public? I don't believe
Fielding or
Foote himself ever did--and this was the modest bashful Mr Bentley, that died at the thought of being known for an author, even by his own acquaintance! In the stage-box was
Lady Bute,
Lord Halifax and
Lord Melcomb-I must say the two last entertained the house as much as the play-your
King was prompter, and called out to the actors every minute to speak louder-the other
went backwards and forwards behind the scenes, fetched the actors
into the box, and was busier than Harlequin. The curious prologue was not spoken, the whole very ill-acted. It turned out just what I remembered it, the good parts extremely good, the rest very flat and vulgar-the genteel dialogue I believe might be written by
Mrs Hannah. The audience was extremely fair. The first act they bore with patience, though it promised very ill-the second is admirable and was much applauded-so was the third-the fourth woeful-the beginning of the fifth it
seemed expiring, but was revived by a delightful burlesque of the ancient chorus-which was followed by two dismal scenes, at which people yawned-but were awakened on a sudden by Harlequin's being drawn up to a gibbet nobody knew why or wherefore-this raised a prodigious and continued hiss, Harlequin all the while suspended in the air-at last they were suffered to finish the play, but nobody attended to the conclusion-modesty and his lady all the while sat with the utmost indifference-I suppose Lord Melcombe had fallen asleep [p. 382] before he came to this scene and had never read it. The epilogue was about the King and new
Queen, and ended with a personal satire on
Garrick-not very kind on his own stage-to add to the judge of this conduct, Cumberland two days ago published a pamphlet to abuse him. It was given out for tonight with more claps than hisses, but I think it will not do unless they reduce it to three acts." [p. 383].
Correspondence with George Montagu. Ed.
W. S. Lewis &
Ralph Brown. (
New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1941), I, 381-83] Note: (I, 381n): Bentley's play of
The Wishes or Harlequin's Mouth Opened, was offered to Garrick and
Rich the beginning of 1761, but wasrefused by both. His nephew Cumberland showed it to Lord Melcomb, who carried it to Lord Bute, with a compliment in verse to that Lord by Mr Cumberland. Lord Bute showed it to the King, who sent Bentley #200 and ordered the new summer company to play [it]. There was a prologue, flattering the King and Lord Bute which
Foote refused to act. Two days before it was played, Cumberland wrote an anonymous pamphlet, addressed to Mr Bentley, and abusing Garrick, who had refused to act Cumberland's tragedy of
Cicero's banishment, which he printed this year [1761], unacted. The
Wishes were played for the first time July 27th, 1761; the 2d 3d and part of the 4th, acts were much applauded, but the conclusion extremely hissed. The
Epilogue concluded with a satire on Garrick. It was acted five nights. About the same time he wrote a tragedy called
Philodamus, which he was to read to Garrick, but the latter was so angry at their treatment of him, that he declared against
seeing Mr Bentley" (MS account by HW of Bentley's writings, in the collection of
Lord Waldegrave at
Chewton Priory)