Event Comment: Some Noise at the Dancers, but not great (
Cross). Tomorrow will be publish'd
The Dancers Damn'd; Or The Devil to Pay at the old House. Price 6d. Printed for
R. Griffiths. [Appears to be an eyewitness, journalistic account, but turns into a considered attack upon mob patriotism. Author purports to describe the action which took place Wednesday night 12 Nov. 1755: 'When the
Chinese scene was expos'd, the leader of the Loyal party advanced to the front of the Gallery
and thus bespake the House: "O
Britons! O my Countrymen! Ye will certainly not suffer these foreign clogs to amuse us. Our destruction is at h
and. These sixty dancers are come over with a design to undermine our constitution. This
Navarre is
Marshall Lewendahl,
and the least amongst them is an ensign, disguised in order to perpetrate our ruin!"' After alternate encouragement
and abuse Reason, who had descended from the clouds, spoke: "I came hither by the persuasion of Truth
and Justice to tell you that amongst all this number of dancers that now st
and ready to entertain you there are no more than Four
French men and about the same number of females; that their Chief is a
Swiss Protestant, who, had not his merit protected him would have been hiss'd off the stage at
Paris, for being a Swiss Protestant.
And will you damn him for the same reason? Will you pay less regard to Genius than a
French Audience? Here a cat-call
and one cried out: 'Swiss! What the devil do we know of
Swiss! a Swiss is a foreigner,
and all foreigners are
Frenchmen;
and so damn you all!"'] Receipts: #140 (
Cross)