Diveft yourself of hearers, if you can,
And strive to speak, and be the very man.
Why should the well-bred actor wish to know
Who fits above to-night, or who below?

So, 'mid th' harmonious tones of grief or rage,
Italian fquallers oft difgrace the stage;

When, with a fimp'ring leer, and bow profound,
The fqueaking Cyrus greets the boxes round;
Or proud Mandane, of imperial race,
Familiar drops a curt'fie to her

grace.

To fuit the dress demands the actor's art,
Yet there are those who over-dress the part.
To fome prescriptive right gives settled things,
Black wigs to murd'rers, feather'd hats to kings.
But Michael Caffio might be drunk enough,
Though all his features were not grim'd with snuff.
Why should Pol Peachum fhine in fatin clothes?
Why ev'ry devil dance in fcarlet hofe?

But in ftage-cuftoms what offends me most
Is the flip-door, and flowly-rifing ghoft.
Tell me, nor count the question too severe,
Why need the dismal powder'd forms appear?
When chilling horrors fhake th' affrighted king,
And guilt torments him with her scorpion fting;
When keeneft feelings at his bofom pull,
And fancy tells him that the feat is full;
Why need the ghoft ufurp the monarch's place,
To frighten children with his mealy face?
The king alone should form the phantom there,
And talk and tremble at the vacant chair.

VOL. LXVIII.

C

If

If Belvidera her lov'd lofs deplore,

Why for twin fpeêtres burfts the yawning floor?
When with diforder'd starts, and horrid cries,
She paints the murder'd forms before her eyes,
And ftill pursues them with a frantic ftare,
"Tis pregnant madnefs brings the vifions there.
More inftant horror would enforce the scene,
If all her fhudd'rings were at fhapes unfeen.

Poet and Actor thus, with blendid skill,
Mould all our paffions to their inftant will;
'Tis thus, when feeling Garrick treads the stage,
(The speaking comment of his Shakespear's page)
Oft as I drink the words with greedy ears,
I fhake with horror, or diffolve with tears.
O, ne'er may folly feize the throne of taste,
Nor dulnefs lay the realms of genius wafte!
No bouncing crackers ape the thund'rer's fire,
No tumbler float upon the bending wire!
More natural uses to the ftage belong,
Than tumblers, monsters, pantomime, or fong.
For other purpose was that spot defign'd:
To purge the paffions, and reform the mind,
To give to nature all the force of art,

And while it charms the ear to mend the heart.
Thornton, to thee, I dare with truth commend,

The decent ftage as virtue's natural friend.
Though oft debas'd with fcenes profane and loofe,
No reafon weighs againft its proper ufe.
Though the lewd prieft his facred function fhame,
Religion's perfect law is ftill the fame,

4

Shall

Shall They, who trace the paffions from their rife,
Shew scorn her features, her own image vice?
Who teach the mind its proper force to scan,
And hold the faithful mirror up to man,
Shall their profeffion e'er provoke disdain,
Who ftand the foremost in the moral train,
Who lend reflection all the grace
of art,
And strike the precept home upon the heart?
Yet, hapless Artift! though thy fkill can raise
The bursting peal of univerfal praise,

Though at thy beck Applause delighted stands,
And lifts, Briareus' like, her hundred hands,
Know, Fame awards thee but a partial breath!
Not all thy talents brave the stroke of death.
Poets to ages yet unborn appeal,

And latest times th' Eternal Nature feel.

Though blended here the praise of bard and play'r.
While more than half becomes the Actor's fhare,
Relentless death untwifts the mingled fame,

And finks the player in the poet's name.
The pliant muscles of the various face,

The mien that gave each sentence strength and grace,
The tuneful voice, the eye that spoke the mind,
Are gone, nor leave a fingle trace behind.

THE LAW STUDENT*.

TO GEORGE COLMAN, ESQ.

Quid tibi cum Cirrha? quid cum Permefidos unda?
Romanum propius divitiufque Forum eft.

Mart.

NOW Chrift-Church left, and fixt at Lincoln's Inn,
Th' important ftudies of the Law begin.

Now groan the shelves beneath th' unusual charge
Of Records, Statutes, and Reports at large.
Each Claffic Author feeks his peaceful nook,
And modest Virgil yields his place to Coke.
No more, ye Bards, for vain precedence hope,
But even Jacob take the lead of Pope!

While the pil'd fhelves fink down on one another, And each huge folio has its cumb'rous brother, While, arm'd with thefe, the Student views with awe His rooms become the magazine of Law,

Say whence fo few fucceed? where thousands aim,
So few e'er reach the promis'd goal of fame ?
Say, why Cæcilius quits a gainful trade

For regimentals, fword, and fmart cockade?

*In the Preface to Colman's profe that gentleman claims the prefent performance, and says that it was given to our Author to fill up a volume of poems published by subscription.

Or

Or Sextus why his firft profeffion leaves

For narrower band, plain shirt, and pudding fleeves?
The depth of law afks ftudy, thought, and care?
Shall we feek these in rich Alonzo's heir?
Such diligence, alas! is feldom found

In the brisk heir to forty thousand pound.
Wealth, that excufes folly, floth creates,
Few, who can spend, e'er learn to get estates,
What is to him dry cafe, or dull report,
Who ftudies fashions at the Inns of Court;
And proves that thing of emptiness and show,
That mungrel, half-form'd thing, a Temple-Beau?
Obferve him daily faunt'ring up and down,
In purple flippers, and in filken gown;
Last night's debauch, his morning conversation;
The coming, all his evening preparation.

By Law let others toil to gain renown!
Florio's a gentleman, a man o'th' town.
He nor courts clients, or the law regarding,
Hurries from Nando's down to Covent-Garden:
Yet he's a Scholar;-mark him in the Pit
With critic catcall found the stops of wit!
Supreme at George's he harangues the throng,
Cenfor of ftile from tragedy to fong:
Him ev'ry witling views with fecret awe,
Deep in the Drama, fhallow in the Law.

Others there are, who, indolent and vain,
Contemn the science, they can ne'er attain:
Who write, and read, but all by fits and starts,
And varnish folly with the name of Parts ;