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Sneer, And pray what becomes of her?

Puff. She is gone to throw herself into the sea, to be sure- -and that brings us at once to the scene of action, and so to my catastrophemy sea-fight, I mean.

Sneer. What, you bring that in at last?

Puff. Yes, yes-you know my play is called The Spanish Armada; otherwise, egad, I have no 300 occasion for the battle at all.-Now then for my magnificence !-my battle!-my noise! -and my procession !-You are all ready?

Und. Promp. [Within.] Yes, sir.

Puff. Is the Thames dressed?

"Enter Thames with two Attendants."

Thames. Here I am, sir.

Puff. Very well, indeed!-see, gentlemen, there's a river for you!-This is blending a little of the masque with my tragedy-a new fancy, you know—and very useful in my case; for as 310 there must be a procession, I suppose Thames, and all his tributary rivers, to compliment Britannia with a fête in honour of the victory. Sneer. But pray, who are these gentlemen in green with him?

Puff. Those?-those are his banks.

Sneer. His banks?

Puff. Yes, one crowned with alders, and the other

with a villa!-you take the allusions?—But
hey! what the plague ! you have got both your 320
banks on one side.-Here, sir, come round.—
Ever while you live, Thames, go between your
banks. [Bell rings.] There, so! now for 't!
-Stand aside my dear friends!-Away,

Thames !
[Exit Thames between his banks.
[Flourish of drums, trumpets, cannon, &c. &c.
Scene changes to the sea-the fleets engage-the
music plays "Britons strike home."—Spanish
fleet destroyed by fire-ships, &c.-English fleet
advances-music plays "Rule Britannia.”—The
procession of all the English rivers, and their
tributaries, with their emblems, &c., begins with
Handel's water music, ends with a chorus, to
the march in "Judas Maccabaus."-During
this scene, Puff directs and applauds every thing
-then

Puff. Well, pretty well-but not quite perfect.—
So, ladies and gentlemen, if you please, we'll
rehearse this piece again to-morrow.

[Curtain drops.

Notes.

To Mrs Greville. Mrs Greville-Horace Walpole's "pretty Fanny Macartney"—was the daughter of James Macartney, the wife of Fulke Greville, and the mother of Lady Crewe. She died in 1789. Her writings included an Ode to Indifference, and in the lines to "Mrs Crewe," prefixed to the School for Scandal, Sheridan wrote,

Read in all knowledge that her sex should reach,

Though Greville, or the Muse, should deign to teach."

Prologue by the Honourable Richard Fitzpatrick. Richard Fitzpatrick, second son of John, first Earl of Upper Ossory, and Lady Evelyn Leveson Gower, was born in 1747. He entered the army in 1765, but was chiefly known for some years as a leader of fashion and bosom friend of Charles James Fox. Both the friends wrote verse, and took great interest in theatrical matters. In 1774 Fitzpatrick entered Parliament, and in 1777 served in the war in America. In 1782 he became chief secretary for Ireland; and in the following year Secretary for War. On Fox's return to power in 1806 Fitzpatrick was made Secretary for, War the second time; he had already attained to the rank of lieutenant-general. In replying to one of his speeches in the House of Commons in 1796, Dundas said that Fitzpatrick's two friends (Fox and Sheridan) had only impaired the impression made by his speech. He died in 1813.

6. When Villiers criticised. Some account of the Duke of Buckingham's Rehearsal will be found in the Preface.

Act I. Scene i. 1-6. In 1778-9 there was much public excitement at the want of success in the naval warfare with the French. The Admiralty was attacked in the House of Commons, and Lord Sandwich, the First Lord of the Admiralty, escaped a vote of censure only by a narrow majority. Sir Charles Hardy was called upon to succeed Keppel in the command of the Channel Fleet in 1779, though he had retired from active service twenty years earlier. There was fear of an invasion by the French and Spanish, but Hardy warded off an engagement, and the enemy withdrew to Brest in September. Hardy died in the following year. large encampment of militia was formed at Coxheath, near Maidstone, in July 1779, in the expectation of an invasion.

A

I. i. 84. The Opera House. Before the beginning of the season of 1778-9 there had been a coalition between the patentees of the two theatres, Drury Lane and Covent Garden, and actors were lent from one house to the other This arrangement was the

subject of a satire, Coalition, "a farce founded on facts," 1779.

I. i. 102-3. See Hamlet, III. ii. 24:-" Anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure"; and II. ii. 548: "Let them be well used; for they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time."

I. i. 306. Churchill had written (as Mr Low points out),

"Still pilfers wretched plans, and makes them worse;

Like gipsies, lest the stolen brat be known,
Defacing first, then claiming for his own."

I. i. 471. See the second part of Henry IV., II. ii.
I. ii. 134. Caduceus. The staff or wand of Mercury.

I. ii. 234. Mr Dodd. James William Dodd (died 1796) created the parts of Dangle in The Critic, Sir Benjamin Backbite in the School for Scandal, and Lord Foppington in the Trip to Scarborough. Lamb spoke highly of his representation of Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

I. ii. 237. Mr Palmer. John Palmer (died original Joseph Surface in the School for Scandal. took the part of Sneer.

1798) was the

In The Critic he

I. ii. 240. Mr King. Thomas King (1730-1805) was the first Sir Peter Teazle, and the humour of the present passage lies in the fact that he acted the part of Puff, and thus had to utter these compliments about his fellow actors in this scene, and especially himself.

I. ii. 244. Mr De Loutherbourg. Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg (1740-1812) became a Royal Academician in 1781. He rendered great service to the stage between 1773 and 1785, in designing scenery and superintending costumes, but he quarrelled with Sheridan, who wished to reduce his salary.

I. ii. 353. Tablature. Lord Shaftesbury writes:-" "Tis then, that in painting we may give to any particular work the name of tablature, when the work is in reality a single work, comprehended in one view, and formed according to one single intelligence, meaning, or design."

I. ii. 393. Paul Jones (1747-1792), a Scotchman, was a naval adventurer, who served in the American war against England. In the autumn of 1779 he was cruising in the North Sea, threatening Leith and the Tyne.

I. ii. 394. John Byron, vice-admiral (1723-1786), had two indecisive encounters with the French fleet in the West Indies in July 1779.

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