The Covent Garden Theatre, or Pasquin Turn'd DrawcansirMacklin, Charles
General
The Covent Garden Theatre, or Pasquin Turn'd Drawcansir
Macklin, Charles
English drama
my Wit over Night, and, have had the Honour of being in the Bastile the
next Morning. indeed I fared but indifferently in Holland; for, all that
my Flattery, or Satyr, my Ridicule or my Wit, cou'd procure me there,
was an Appartment in the Rasp House. At length, most Gracious and
Indulgent Britons, I am arrived in this Great Metropolis! this Magazine
of all the World! this Nurse of Trade! this Region of Liberty! this
School of Arts and Sciences! This Universal Rendevouz of all the
Monsters produced by wagish Nature & fantastick Art, here Panopticons,
Microcosms, Bears, Badgers, Lyons, Leapords, Tygers, Panthers, Ostriches
and Unicorns,-- Giants, dwarfs, Hermorphradites and Conjurers, Statemen,
Nostrums, Patriots and Corncutters! Quacks, Turks, Enthusiasts, and Fire
Eaters. Mother Midnights, Termagants, Clare Market, and Robin Hood
Orators, Drury Lane Journals, Inspectors, Fools, and Drawcansirs, dayly
Tax the Public by Virtue of the Strangeness the Monstrosity or delicacy
of their Nature or Genius, And hither I am come, knowing you were fond
of Monsters, To exhibit Mine, the newest & I hope the greatest Monster
of them all, for the Public is a common Bank, upon which every Genius
and every Beauty has a right to draw in proportion to their merit, from
a Minister of State and a Maid of Honour, down to a Chien Savant or a
Covent Garden Mistress, To Conclude, my Business in this Land may be
Sum'd up in a few Words; it is to get your money and cure you of Your
Foibles. for wherever Pasquin comes the Public is his Patient; its Folly
his Support. (#bows#) So much by way of Oratia now for Action-- then for
Peroration.
Hollo! Marforio! (#goes to the door#).
Enter Marforio.
Mar:
Here my Fellow Labourer!
Pas:
Have you prepared for general Search?
Mar:
I have-- but let me once more entreat you to alter your design. do not
behave with your usual Sacasm and boldness upon your first appearance.
Strive to gain the favour of the Public by Morality and Panegyrick-- not
by undaunted Satyr--
Pas:
Marforio, We are come to England to make Our Fortune by Our parts, And
you Advise to begin with Morality and Flattery. You might as well Advise
a Soldier to make his Fortune by Cowardice. No Sir, he, who wou'd gain
the Esteem of a Brave, a wise, and a free people, must lash their Vices,
and laugh at their Folies.
Mar:
Well, if you must be Satyrical, confine Your Satyr to the City.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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