In Chriftian charity, a good-natur'd age!
That they are fafe; finners of either fex
Tranfgrefs what laws they may. Well drefs'd,
well bred,

Well equipag'd, is thicket good enough
To pafs us readily through ev'ry door.
Hypocrify, detest her as we may,

(And no man's hatred ever wrong'd her yet)
May claim this merit ftill, that she admits
The worth of what the mimics with fuch care,
And thus gives virtue indirect applaufe;
But he has burnt her masks not needed here,
Where vice has fuch allowance, that her shifts
And fpecious femblances have lost their use.

NUMBER XXXI.

The scene's a juft one, and the story true.

AN ACCOUNT OF A COMPANY OF PLAYERS, IN A COUNTRY TOWN.

THE HE players, you must know, finding this a good town, had taken a leafe the laft fummer of an old fynagogue deserted by the Jews; but the mayor, being a prefbyterian, refused to

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license their exhibitions: however, when they were in the utmost despair, the ladies of the place joined in a petition to Mrs. Mayoress, who prevailed on her husband to wink at their performances. The company immediately opened their fynagogue-theatre with the Merchant of Venice; and finding a quack doctor's zany, a droll fellow, they decoyed him into their fervice; and he has fince performed the part of the Mock Doctor with universal applaufe. Upon his revolt the doctor himself found it abfolutely neceffary to enter of the company; and, having a talent for tragedy, has performed with great fuccefs the Apothein Romeo and Juliet.

cary

The performers at our ruftic theatre are far beyond thofe paltry ftrollers, who run about the country, and exhibit in a barn or a cowhoufe for (as their bills declare) they are a company of Comedians from the Theatre Royal; and I affure you they are as much applauded by our country critics, as any of your capital actors. The fhops of our tradefmen have been almoft deferted, and a crowd of weavers and hard-waremen have elbowed each other two hours before the opening of the doors, when the bills have informed us, in enormous red letters, that the part of George

Barnwell was to be performed by Mr., at the particular defire of feveral ladies of diftinction. 'Tis true, indeed, that our principal actors have most of them had their education at Covent-garden or Drury-lane; but they have been employed in the business of the drama in a degree but just above a scene-shifter. An heroine, to whom your managers in town (in envy to her rifing merit) fcarce allotted the humble part of a confidante, now blubbers out Andromache or Bevildera; the attendants on a monarch ftrut monarchs them felves, mutes find their voices, and meffage-bearers rife into heroes. The humour of our best comedian confists in fhrugs and grimaces; he jokes in a wry mouth, and repartees in a grin; in fhort, he practifes on Congreve and Vanburgh all those distortions which gained him fo much applaufe from the galleries, in the drubs which he was obliged to undergo in pantomimes. I was vaftly diverted at feeing a fellow in the character of Sir Harry Wildair, whofe chief action was a continual preffing together of the thumb and fore-finger, which, had he lifted them to his nofe, I fhould have thought he defigned as an imitation of taking fnuff: but I could eafily account for the cause of this fingular gesture, when I difcovered that

Sir Harry was no lefs a person than the dexterous Mr. Clippit, the candle-fnuffer.

You would laugh to fee how rangely the parts of a play are caft. They played Cato: and their Marcia was fuch an old woman, that when Juba came on with his-Hail! charm•ing_maid !'—the fellow could not help laughing. Another night I was surprized to hear an eager lover talk of rufhing into his miftrefs's arms, rioting on the nectar of her lips, and defiring (in the tragedy rapture) to hug her thus, and thus, for ever;' though he always took care to ftand at a most ceremonious distance. But I was afterwards very much diverted at the cause of this extraordinary respect, when I was told that the lady laboured under the misfortune of an ulcer in her leg, which occafioned fuch a disagrecable ftench, that the performers were obliged to keep her at arms length. 'The entertainment was Lethe; and the part of the Frenchman was performed by a South Briton; who, as he could not pronounce a word of the French language, fupplied its place by gabbling in his native Welsh.

The decorations, or (in the theatrical dialect) the property of our company, are as extraor dinary as the performers. Othello raves about

a checked handkerchief; the ghost in Hamlet ftalks in a poftilion's leathern-jacket for a coat of mail; and Cupid enters with a fiddle-cafe flung over his fhoulders for a quiver. The apothecary of the town is free of the houfe, for lending them a pestle and mortar to ferve as the bell in Venice Preferved: and a barberfurgeon has the fame previlege, for furnishing them with bafons of blood to befinear the daggers in Macbeth. Macbeth himself carries a rolling-pin in his hand for a truncheon; and, as the breaking of glaffes would be very expensive, he dafhes down a pewter pint-pot at the fight of Banquo's ghost.

A fray happened here the other night, which was no small diverfion to the audience. It feems there had been a great contest between two of those mimic heroes, which was the fittest to play Richard the Third. One of them was reckoned to have the better perfon, as he was very round-fhouldered, and one of his legs was fhorter than the other; but his antagonist carried the part, because he started beft in the tent fcene. However, when the curtain drew up, they both rufhed in upon the stage at once; and, bawling out together, Now are our brows bound with А а 3.