Event Comment: Eleventh
and Last time of performing Mainpiece this season. Afterpiece: By Particular Desire.
Othello and The Irish Widow, to have been performed this evening for Mr Barry's Benefit, oblig'd to be deferr'd till further notice (playbill).
Mr Barry being Ill his Benefit which was to have been this Night is oblig'd to be deferr'd (
Hopkins Diary). [So, according to Hopkins, the profits went to the house.] Receipts: #171 19s. 6d. To the
Public Advertiser: Sir, I spent an agreeable evening lately with a Country Friend at the Primitive Puppet Show,
and was not displeased at the ridicule pointed at the dull, spiritless stuff, which composes modern Sentimental Comedy. I was entertained too with the manner in which some of the Actors were taken off; But I cannot think mimicry worthy to furnish an Evening Entertainment for a Polite
British Audience, or suited to the happy ridicule
and pointed wit of
Aristophanes. The old
Roman comedy, as it was called, was designed for nobler purposes: it was directed to improve the head
and mend the heart. The keen manly satire of that Comedy was pointed at Upstart, Braggart, Vice,
and to expose the dangerous unfeeling craft of innocent Villainy, or to use the words of
Mr Pope--Br
and the bold front of shameless, guilty man. Such was,
and such ought to be, the salutary Direction of Wit,
and Satire by exhibiting characters in their genuine colours, when the mask, which disguises
and conceals them from the eyes of the Weak the Credulous,
and the Ignorant, is drawn off. The words of
Horace are--Detrabere et pellam, mitidus qua quisque per ora Cederet, introrsum turpis. Yours,
Dramaticus. Poetry for the
Public Advertiser. Epigram on the New Tragedy
Alonzo. @No wonder that each female voice@Resounds Alonzo's praise;@A sure foundation of Applause,@The crafty Author lays.@ @Against the Virtue of his Wife@A Husb
and, if he's wise@According to the Gallant HOME,@Should not believe his eyes.