From sanction is the English stage become
Equal to Athens, and above old Rome.

If from that stage an actress, fill'd with fears, New to this northern scene, to-night appears, Intent-howe'er unequal to the flight,

To hit-what critics call-the

She builds not on your sister's

happy right:'

fond applause, But timidly to you submits her cause: For Taste refined may as judicial sit Here-as she found her in an English pit.

Your plaudit must remove the stranger's fear; The sons of genius are the least severe. Some favour from the fair she's sure to find; So sweet a circle cannot but be kind. Then to your candid patronage she'll trust, And hopes you gracious--as we know you just.

ON REVIVING

" THE MERCHANT OF VENICE,'

AT THE TIME A BILL HAD PASSED FOR NATURALIZING THE

JEWS.

'TWIXT the sons of the stage, without pensions or places,

by slander,

And the vagabond Jews, are some similar cases; Since time out of mind, or they're wrong'd much [wander: Both lawless, alike, have been sentenced to Then, faith, 'tis full time we appeal to the nation, To be join'd in this bill for na-tu-ra-li-za-ti-on ; Lard, that word's so uncouth!-'tis so irksome to speak it! [take it. But 'tis Hebrew, I believe, and that's taste, as I

1 London.

Well-now to the point-I'm sent here with . commission,

To present this fair circle our humble petition : But conscious what hopes we should have of succeeding,

Without (as they phrase it) sufficiently bleeding; And convinced we've no funds, nor old gold we can rake up, [Jacob; Like our good fathers-Abraham, Isaac, and We must frankly confess we have nought to pre[tent ye. But Shakspeare's old sterling-pray let it conThis Shylock, the Jew, whom we mean to restore ye,

sent ye,

Was naturalized oft by your fathers before ye; Then take him to-night to your kindest compassion,

For to countenance Jews is the pink of the fashion.

FOR SOME COUNTRY LADS, PERFORMING
THE DEVIL OF A WIFE,'

IN THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS.

IN days of yore, when round the jovial board,
With harmless mirth and social plenty stored,
Our parent Britons quaff'd their nut-brown ale,
And carols sung, or told the Christmas tale;
In struts St. George, Old England's champion
knight,

With hasty steps, impatient to recite

How he had kill'd the dragon, once in fight. From every side-from Troy-from ancient Greece,

Princes pour in to swell the motley piece;

And while their deeds of prowess they rehearse, The flowing bowl rewards their hobbling verse.

Intent to raise this evening's cordial mirth, Like theirs, our simple stage-play comes to birth. Our want of art we candidly confess,

But give you Nature in her homespun dress;
No heroes here-no martial men of might;
A cobbler is the champion of to-night;
His strap, more famed than George's lance of old,
For it can tame that dragoness, a scold!
Indulgent then support the cobbler's cause,
And though he mayn't deserve it, smile applause.

TO THE RECRUITING OFFICER'.

SPOKEN AT SHREWSBURY, WHERE MR. FARQUHAR IS SAID TO HAVE WRITTEN THAT COMEDY.

[come,

FROM the fair mansions of illustrious shades,
From groves of bliss, poetic painted meads,
Should Farquhar, deck'd with deathless laurels,
Obedient to his own recruiting drum;
Conscious to-night of the superior grace,
The nobler beauties, that adorn this place,
Here would he fix-enraptured, here abide,
And change Elysium for the Severn's side.

Let boasting Rome of one Mæcenas tell,
Countless are those that by the Severn dwell;
Parnassus' Mount let future bards disclaim,
Hark! how the Wrekin's hospitable name
Swells in the voice of Farquhar and of Fame.

2

1 Mr. Farquhar dedicated his play of the Recruiting Officer to his friends.

2 The Wrekin, a remarkable mountain in the county of Salop, not far from Shrewsbury.

Sabrina! softest nymph that glides along, Winding and various as her Farquhar's song, Indulgent smiled, to bless the poet's toil, And straight his bays bloom'd fresh, and own'd the generous soil.

[mix'd! Here-Beauty beams, with social sweetness Here-true politeness has her standard fix'd! Here-let the Muse her sacred numbers swell, And here let sportive wit and gay-dress'd humour O, may our secondary labours find [dwell! The brave propitious, and the beauteous kind! So may Salopian plains, that bloom so gay, Ne'er know a blast, but wear perpetual May!

INTRODUCTION,

SPOKEN AT THE THEATRE IN SUNDERLAND, TO A PLAY PERFORMED THERE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE WIDOWS AND ORPHANS OF THAT PLACE.

ON widows-orphans-left, alas! forlorn
(From the rack'd heart its every comfort torn),
Humanity to-night confers relief,

And softens though she can't remove their grief:
Blasted her hopes, her expectations kill'd,
The sons of sympathy (with sorrow chill'd)
Behold the wretched matron-madly weep,
And hear her cry- My joys are in the deep!'
To the tremendous Power that rules mankind,
Lord of the seas-the calm and boisterous wind,
We bow obedient, and with awe resign'd.
His ways, inscrutable, we can't explore,
No-we may wonder, but we must adore!
3 The poetical name for the river Severn.

Happy for ever be the generous breast
That feels compassion for the poor distress'd;
Happy the hand that stops the sufferer's tear!
Such hands there are, and such we find are here.

PETITION

TO THE WORSHIPFUL FREEMASONS,

DELIVERED FROM THE STAGE BY A LADY, AT A COMEDY COUNTENANCED BY THAT FRATERNITY.

BROTHERS!-'tis bold to interrupt your meeting, But from the female world I wait you-greeting: [Courtesies.

The ladies can advance a thousand reasons,
That make them hope to be received as Masons :
To keep a secret,-not one hint expressing,
To rein the tongue-O husbands, there's a bless-
ing!

As virtue seems the Mason's sole foundation,
Why should the fair be barr'd from-Installation?
If you suppose us weak, indeed you wrong us ;
Historians, Sapphos too, you'll find among us;
Think-brothers-think, and graciously admit us;
Doubt it not, sirs, we'll gloriously acquit us:
How to be wiser and more cautious, teach us;
Indeed 'tis time that your instructions reach us:
The faults of late, and every foul miscarriage,
Committed in the sphere of modern marriage,
Were caused (if I've a grain of penetration)
From each great lady's not being made a Mason.
Accept us then, to brotherhood receive us,
And virtue, we're convinced, will never leave us.