Daughter of misery, sad his thy prospect here; Famine and fell disease shortly will wear thee down, Soon thou wilt sink into death's silent slumbering, Nor shall a single stone tell where thy bones are laid. Once wert thou happy-thou wert once innocenct, Now he perhaps is reclin❜d on a bed of down, God of the red right arm! Where is thy thunderbolt ? IMITATION. THE CHIMNEY SWEEP. DACTYLICKS. MAN of the bawling voice! ah for thy sooty coat; Crawling up chimney, to scrape the passage clean; Dang'rous is thy chance, thou man of elevation, Destin'd to live enclosed in a dirty garb; Spurn'd by the beings whose dwellings thou hast saved Friends thou hast none, because of thy dusty dress ; Son of the brush and bag, hard is thy living got; Then wilt thou reel away, into the first grog-shop, These vicious courses, shortly will wear thee out; Once thou wert sober, thou wert once clean and neat ; Now he, perhaps, is laying on his bed of rest, THE STAGE. Hard is his lot, who here by fortune plac'd, REMARKS ON "LOVE AND PHYSICK," Which according to the advertisement of the Boston Theatre, is 66 A NEW FARCE, NEVER PERFORMED." WHEN Sir John Falstaff is reproached by Prince Harry, for the tatterdemalion appearance of his company, and calls them a parcel of scare-crows, he replies to him, very justly, "food for powder, food for powder, Hal; they'll fill a pit as well as better men.' Something parallel to this observation, may be fairly applied to the dramatick compositions of this country; "food for criticks, food for criticks; they'll employ their wits as well as better plays." And we think the farce of Love and Physick, has afforded to the criticks, much delectable food, as perhaps it would be asking too much to be treated with, oftener than once in a season. If we considered the composition before us as a mere standing dish, and not a very great variety, we should perhaps refrain from falling on it very greedily; but as it is certainly very uncommon in its relish, we cannot debar ourselves the pleasure of offering up to our readers a taste of this highly flavoured production. : The story has but little incident, and can be shortly told the conduct, we think, will afford abundant satisfaction in the relation; and as to the diction, we shall offer some specimens as far as our recollection will favour us, which will exhibit the refined taste in which it was dictated, and afford a specimen of the kind of wit which does not fail to set the barren spectators of a Boston Theatre in a roar of laughter, and draw down thundering plaudits on the devoted heads of the performers. The scene, we believe, is laid in London, and the plot is not by any means complex; for there is no counter action of its regular proVol. 1. H gression from one end to the other of the piece; it goes straight on, and meets with no perplexity in the developement, but the delay of time. This is a novel idea in dramatick composition; generally speaking, an author confounds his heroes in disappointments, and embarrasses the lover and his mistress with difficulties, which it is the object of his piece to overcome. Here, however, every thing succeeds to a charm; nothing goes wrong; from the physick which a principal part of the characters are made to dabble in, to the contrivance of the lover to marry his mistress. But to the story. Sparkle, a very young rake, is in love with Laura, the ward of Mr. Tobias Weezle, and she, on the other hand, is equally enamoured of him. Laura, it seems, is so closely watched by her guardian, Weezle, and his maiden sister, Miss Weezle, for fear of this spark, Sparkle, that she cannot find an opportunity to see him or speak to him, notwithstanding the old folks are confined to their chamber with sickness, and she has a pert chambermaid, ready to wait all her commands. In this state of things, Sparkle is disguised as a great physician, palms himself off as such, upon Doctor Squills, an illiterate quack, with whom he agrees to visit, bleed and blister for him, on condition of receiving a small part of the fees of office, and of practicing on the "squillonian system," of killing all who are very sick, and making sick those who are well; and this he agrees to, in hopes that he may be sent to visit the patients of Doctor Squills, Mr. and Miss Weezle, who are full of complaints, and by that means to have an opportunity of speaking with his dear Laura. Matters have thus far proceeded before the piece begins; and we first discover Sparkle, in his assumed character of physician, thumping in a mortar. Events turn out very favourable to him, for no sooner does he begin his new occupation, than he is recommended by Squills to visit the house of his enamoretta, as a wonderful physician. Besides this, Sparkle has a friend, named Bloom, who is very poor, and wishes to get rich by marriage; so on the first visit which our new physician makes to the old pleople, he undertakes to cure Mr. Weezle himself, but recommends Bloom as an eminent ladies' Doctor, to take care of Miss Tabby. She consents to receive him, and Doctor Sparkle departs. No sooner is he gone, however, than old Weezle, who has been highly delighted with his learning, proposes him as a match for his ward, Laura. Tabitha readily falls into the scheme, and matters are settled that he should be introduced to Laura, on his next visit. In the mean time Laura had dispatched her chambermaid, Hit, to find out what had become of Sparkle, of whose contrivances she was utterly ignorant. Bloom is now visited by Sparkle, who acquaints him with his scheme, and informs him he must play well his artillery of flattery; and Tabby with all her fortune will be his forever. Accordingly, Bloom visits Miss Tabby in the character of a young physician, and she very soon consents to run away with him, to be married; and agrees to meet him in the garden at 8 o'clock: we are not informed of the necessity of their elopement; it however is agreed on by the parties, and that perhaps is enough. The prescriptions of Sparkle had confined Weezle to his bed, and Laura is seen watching by his side. After her guardian mentions to her his intention of marrying her to the new Doctor, (Sparkle) his arrival is announced. This greatly distresses Miss Laura, especially as Hit, the chambermaid is just informing her that she can no where find out what has become of her lover. Thus singularly situated she thinks it best to go to sleep upon the occasion, and accordingly seats herself upon the sofa, just as the Doctor is coming in, and soon is engaged in a comfortable nap. Sparkle no sooner enters, than old Weezle proposes to him as physician, after a little circumlocution, to marry his ward; the Doctor consents, with some hesitation, and old Weezle accordingly leaves the room, that the Doctor and his mistress, (who is all this time asleep) may bring matters to bear. 99 66 He soon discovers himself to her; she is highly delighted; and they, at first, determine to proceed to church, as soon as wings can add speed to their feet. But the lady very prudently bethinks herself that her sudden acquiescence will cause suspiscion, agrees to defer the ceremony. "But not so soon, say at seven ;" yet in the height of her joy, she observes" we'll meet at, say seven,' yes, say seven ;" and then hey for the church, the ceremony, love and Sparkle. Things being thus agreed upon between Sparkle and his Laura, we will see what the other characters are about. It seems the servant of Old Doctor Squills, wants to kiss Miss Hit, the servant to Laura, but she very frankly tells him she is tired of kissing, she has had kissing enough, and now she wants-yes, she wants to be married. Well, after some little explanations, they determine to meet in the garden, at 8 o'clock, to go to church. The next scene is the garden; and first enters Bloom, in expectation of meeting Miss Tabby, and he meets Miss Hit, whom he unhappily and singularly mistakes for his mistress, and though he talks with her for a quarter of an hour, and perseveres in his error, they are sad. ly perplexed to find the garden gate, and they go off in search of it. Presently, Tabby herself enters, and finds Hit's lover instead of her own; neither his recollection nor hers appears very sharp, for they converse a long time together, without discovering their mistake, and they proceed to seek their way out of the garden. They depart, and then enter Hit and Bloom, who have not yet discovered each other, though they have been a long time wandering about the garden, probably to give the other couple an opportunity to meet and talk a little, without rectifying their blunder. However, the watchman sounds his racket just at this juncture, who it seems, must have discovered them in the garden, before they could possibly find the gate to get out, and this too," when it was so dark, Hal, that you could not see your hand." He probably discovered them through the wall; at any rate, his racket charmed them so much that all of them fell into his custody, like a bird into the fangs of a rattle snake. In the next scene, we find a table set, and Old Weezle and Doctor Squills waiting anxiously for the return of Sparkle and Laura, from church; when information is given that the watchman had discovered some robbers in Mr. Weezle's garden, and had brought them into the house. This alarms him and Doctor Squills excessively; however, they very heroically determine to see the culprits, after hearing they are tied together, and that the "watchman will stand by them :" accord ingly, one of them seizes a knife, and the other a fork, and with a cou ple of dish-covers, for shields, they stand upon the defensive. These culprits turn out to be none other than Bloom, Tabby, Hit, and her lover, whom the watchman had supposed to be thieves.-After this difficulty is settled, Sparkle enters in his real character, with Laura, they having now become man and wife. This, of course, creates considerable uneasiness; but all things are reconciled, without much difficulty, and Bloom and Tabby are regularly married to each other. Hit and her lover are united, and all parties are made as happy as marriage, physick, and money can make them. This is perhaps an imperfect account of the story; but the diction is so uncommonly ambitious, and dictated by so refined a taste, that we cannot refrain from offering some of the most striking images which we can recollect. Speaking of his feelings, old Weezle talks about a "rat running up and down his throat: his bowels, he said, felt as if a house-swallow had built her nest there, and the young ones were sticking to his ribs; but I'll drown them at least," &c. and then he takes physick. Some of the characters speak of "carrying guts to a bear," of medicine "playing the devil, and turning up jack in his belly;" of an old lady's lips resembling" a red cabbage leaf in a fros'y morning." A lady is desired to "wipe her snout, and mop out her eyes ;" and a physician, among other operations of his craft, talks of going to "give a clyster to a child one night old." Laura descried her lover at an opera house, says that " if he applauded, in a trice the whole audience will take the contagion, you will see rows of teeth round the rows of boxes, from those as white as a vein of alabaster, to those as black as a range of grave stones in a church yard!" "Pot-hooks and trammels, emeticks, blisters, catharticks," and all kinds of medicinal operations, are scattered over this play in wonderful profusion. The pit and gallery seemed highly delighted with the treat, and laughed till their very sides did ache; and the piece was announced for a second representation, amidst hisses and applauses, equally violen and determined. |