The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume III.Cibber, Theophilus
General
The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume III.
Cibber, Theophilus
Poets, English -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Poets, Irish -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
I had not gone far, but I 'spied two brawney champions at a rubbers
of cuffs, which by the dexterity of their head's, hands, and heels,
I judged could be no other than Englishmen: nor were my sentiments
groundless, for presently I heard the mob cry out, O! rare Jo! O! rare
Jo! and attentively Surveying the combatants, I found it to be the merry
Jo Haynes, fallen out with Plowden the famous Lawyer, about a game
at Nine-holes; and that shout had proclaimed Joe victorious. I was
something scrupulous of renewing my acquaintance, not knowing how the
conqueror, in the midst of his success, might use me for making bold
with his character in my letters from the read; though I felt a secret
desire to discover myself, yet prudence withstood my inclination, 'till
a more convenient season might so that I brushed off to a place where I
saw a concourse of the better sort of people; there I found Millington
the famous Auctioneer, among a crowd of Lawyers, Physicians, Scholars,
Poets, Critics, Booksellers, &c. exercising his old faculty; for which,
gentlemen, he is as particularly famed in these parts, as Herostratus
for firing the famous Temple, or Barthol Swarts, for the invention of
Gunpowder. He is head journey-man to Ptolemy, who keeps a Bookseller's
shop here, and rivals even Jacob Tonson in reputation among the great
wits.
But most of all I was obliged to admire my friend Millington, who, by
his powerful knack of eloquence, to the wonder of the whole company,
sold Cave's Lives of the Fathers to Solomon the Magnificent, and the
Scotch Directory to the Priests of the Sun; nay, he sold-Archbishop
Laud's Life to Hugh Peters, Hob's Leviathan to Pope Boniface, and pop'd
Bunyan's Works upon Bellarmine for a piece of unrevealed Divinity; After
the sale was over, I took an opportunity of making myself known to him,
who caressed me with all the freedom imaginable, asking me, how long
I had been in these parts? and what news from the other world? and a
thousand particular questions about his old friends; to all which I
responded as well as I could: and having given me a caution to avoid
some people, by whom I was threatened, for exposing them in my letters,
we went to take a bottle together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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