Since all things lost on earth are treasur’d there. Lord Chesterfield also refers to the ‘happy extravagancy’ of Astolpho’s journey in his _Letters_, 1774, i. 557. at Foote’s Alone. ‘Foote’s’ was the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, where, in February, 1773, he brought out what he described as a ‘Primitive Puppet Show,’ based upon the Italian Fantoccini, and presenting a burlesque sentimental Comedy called _The Handsome Housemaid; or, Piety in Pattens_, which did as much as _ She Stoops_ to laugh false sentiment away. Foote warned his audience that they would not discover ‘much wit or humour’ in the piece, since ‘his brother writers had all agreed that it was highly improper, and beneath the dignity of a mixed assembly, to show any signs of joyful satisfaction; and that creating a laugh was forcing the higher order of an audience to a vulgar and mean use of their muscles’—for which reason, he explained, he had, like them, given up the sensual for the sentimental style. And thereupon followed the story of a maid of low degree who, ‘by the mere effects of morality and virtue, raised herself [like Richardson’s _Pamela_], to riches and honours.’ The public, who for some time had acquiesced in the new order of things under the belief that it tended to the reformation of the stage, and who were beginning to weary of the ‘moral essay thrown into dialogue,’ which had for some time supplanted humorous situation, promptly came round under the influence of Foote’s Aristophanic ridicule, and the _ comédie larmoyante_ received an appreciable check. Goldsmith himself had prepared the way in a paper contributed to the _Westminster Magazine_ for December, 1772 (vol. i. p. 4), with the title of ‘An Essay on the Theatre; or, A Comparison between Laughing and Sentimental Comedy.’ The specific reference in the Prologue is to the fact that Foote gave morning performances of _The Handsome Housemaid_. There was one, for instance, on Saturday, March 6, 1773. The Mohawk. This particular species of the genus ‘rake’ belongs more to Swift’s than Goldsmith’s time, though the race is eternal. There is an account of the ‘Mohock Club’ in _Spectator_, No. 324. See also _Spectator_, No. 347; Gay’s _ Trivia_, 1716, Book iii. p. 74; Swift’s _Journal to Stella_, March 8 and 26, 1712; and the _Wentworth Papers_, 1883, pp. 277–8. Still stoops among the low to copy nature. This line, one would think, should have helped to convince Percy that the epilogue was intended for _She Stoops to Conquer_, and for no other play. THE CAPTIVITY.