In one place, Smith, the aforesaid onlooker, complains that, amid all the talk, the plot stands still; to which Bayes replies, "Why, what the devil is the plot good for but to bring in fine things?" At another juncture we have the first hint of a bit of persiflage which Sheridan afterwards imitated in "The Critic." It has reference to the portentous reticence of some of the dialogue in Restoration plays. An usher and a physician are on the stage:-- _Phys._ If Lorenzo should prove false (which none but the great gods can tell) you then perhaps would find that---- (_whispers_). _Usher._ Alone, do you say? _Phys._ No, attended with the noble---- (_whispers_). _Usher._ Who, he in grey? _Phys._ Yes, and at the head of---- (_whispers_). _Usher._ Then, sir, most certain 'twill in time appear, These are the reasons that have induc'd 'em to't; First, he---- (_whispers_). Secondly, they---- (_whispers_). Thirdly, and lastly, both he and they---- (_whispers_). [Exeunt whispering. "Well, sir," says Smith to Bayes, "but pray, why all this whispering?" "Why, sir," replies the dramatist, "because they are supposed to be politicians, and matters of state ought not to be divulg'd." In its direct travestie "The Rehearsal" is often very happy. Dryden had claimed for his tragedies that they were written by "th' exactest rules"; so Bayes exhibits to his friends Smith and Johnson what he calls his "Book of Drama Commonplaces, the mother of many plays," containing "certain helps that we men of art have found it convenient to make use of." "I do here aver," he says, "that no man yet the sun e'er shone upon has parts sufficient to furnish out a stage, except it were by the help of these my rules." Davenant, in his "Love and Honour," had portrayed a mental and spiritual struggle between those potent forces. Bayes, accordingly, is made to introduce a scene in which Prince Volscius, sitting down to pull on his boots, wonders whether he ought or ought not to perform that operation:-- My legs, the emblem of my various thought, Show to what sad distraction I am brought. Sometimes, with stubborn Honour, like this boot, My mind is guarded, and resolv'd to do't: Sometimes, again, that very mind, by Love Disarmèd, like this other leg does prove. Shall I to Honour or to Love give way? Go on, cries Honour; tender Love says, Nay; Honour aloud commands, Pluck both boots on; But softer Love does whisper, Put on none. In the end, he "goes out hopping, with one boot on, and t'other off." Again, there was a passage in the drama called "The Villain," in which the host supplied his guests with a collation out of his clothes--a capon from his helmet, cream out of his scabbard, and so on. In like manner, Pallas, in Mr. Bayes's tragedy, furnishes forth the two usurping kings:--