And, pleased with Nature, must be pleased with thee. 1070 Now might I tell how silence reign'd throughout, And deep attention hush'd the rabble rout; How every claimant, tortured with desire, Was pale as ashes, or as red as fire; But loose to fame, the Muse more simply acts, Rejects all flourish, and relates mere facts. The judges, as the several parties came, With temper heard, with judgment weigh'd each claim; And, in their sentence happily agreed, In name of both, great Shakspeare thus decreed:-- 1080 If manly sense, if Nature link'd with Art; If thorough knowledge of the human heart; If powers of acting vast and unconfined; If fewest faults with greatest beauties join'd; If strong expression, and strange powers which lie Within the magic circle of the eye; If feelings which few hearts like his can know, And which no face so well as his can show, Deserve the preference--Garrick! take the chair; Nor quit it--till thou place an equal there. 1090 * * * * * Footnotes: [1] 'The Rosciad:' for occasion, &c., see Life. [2] 'Roscius:' Quintus Roscius, a native of Gaul, and the most celebrated comedian of antiquity. [3] 'Clive:' Robert Lord Clive. See Macaulay's paper on him. [4] 'Shuter:' Edward Shuter, a comic actor, who, after various theatrical vicissitudes, died a zealous methodist and disciple of George Whitefield, in 1776. [5] 'Yates:' Richard Yates, another low actor of the period. [6] 'Foote:' Samuel Foote, the once well-known farcical writer, (now chiefly remembered from Boswell's Life of Johnson), opened the Old House in the Haymarket, and, in order to overrule the opposition of the magistrates, announced his entertainments as 'Mr Foote's giving tea to his friends.' [7] 'Wilkinson:' Wilkinson, the shadow of Foote, was the proprietor of Sadler's Wells Theatre. [8] 'Palmer:' John Palmer, a favourite actor in genteel comedy, who married Miss Pritchard, daughter of the celebrated actress of that name. [9] 'Barry:' Spranger Barry, an actor of first-rate eminence and tall of size. Barry was a competitor of Garrick. Every one remembers the lines in a poem comparing the two-- 'To Barry we give loud applause; To Garrick only tears.' [10] 'Coan:' John Coan, a dwarf, showed himself, like another Tom Thumb, for sixpence a-head. [11] 'Ackman:' Ackman ranked as one of the lowest comic actors of his time. [12] 'Sterne:' the celebrated Laurence Sterne. [13] 'Franklin:' Dr Thomas Franklin, the translator of Sophocles, Phalaris, and Lucian, and the author of a volume of sermons; all forgotten. [14] 'Colman:' Colman, the elder, translator of Terence, and author of many clever comedies.