Henry Fielding produced his "Tom Thumb" in 1730, and added the notes of
Scriblerus Secundus in 1731, following the example set by the Dunciad as
published in April 1729, with the "Prolegomena of Scriblerus and Notes
Variorum." Paul Whitehead added notes of a Scriblerus Tertius to his
"Gymnasiad" in 1744. Fielding was twenty-four years old when he added
to his "Tom Thumb" the notes that transmit to us lively examples of the
stilted language of the stage by which, as a gentleman's son left to his
own resources, he was then endeavouring to live. This was four years
before his marriage, and ten years before he revealed his transcendent
powers as a novelist.
Henry Carey's "Chrononhotonthologos," three years later, in 1734, carried
on the war against pretentious dulness on the stage. The manner of
the great actors was, like the plays of their generation, pompous and
rhetorical, full of measured sound and fury signifying nothing. Garrick,
who made his first appearance as an actor in 1741, put an end to this.
"If the young fellow is right," said Quin, "We are all in the wrong;"
little suspecting that they really were all in the wrong. Henry Carey,
a musician by profession, played in the orchestra and also supplied the
stage with ballad and burlesque farces and operas. But also he wrote
"Namby Pamby." It was said of him that "he led a life free from reproach,
and hanged himself October 4th, 1743."
"The Rovers, or the Double Arrangement," was a contribution to "The
Anti-Jacobin," by George Canning, and his friends George Ellis and John
Hookham Frere. Canning had established "The Anti-Jacobin," of which the
first number was published on the 20th of November, 1797. Its poetry,
generally levelled through witty burlesque at the false sentiment of the
day, was collected in 1801 into a handsome quarto. This includes "The
Rovers," which is a lively caricature of the sentimental German drama.
Goethe's "Stella," as read in the translation used by the caricaturists,
is not less comical than the caricature. I have a copy of the "Poetry
of the Anti-Jacobin," in which one of the original writers has, for the
friend to whom he gave the book, marked with his pen and ink details of
authorship. From this it appears that the description of the _dramatis
personæ_ in "The Rovers" was by Frere, the Prologue by Canning and Ellis,
the opening scene by Frere as far as Rogero's famous song, which was by
Canning and Ellis. All that follows to the beginning of the fourth act
was by Canning, except that Frere wrote the scene in the second act on
the delivery of a newspaper to Beefington and Puddingfield. The fourth
act and the final stage directions were by Frere, except the Recitative
and Chorus of Conspirators. These were by George Ellis.
"Bombastes Furioso," first produced in 1810, was by William Barnes
Rhodes, who had published a translation of Juvenal in 1801 and "Epigrams"
in 1803. He formed a considerable dramatic library, of which there was a
catalogue printed in 1825.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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