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CHAP. IL] DAVID GAERIGK.

thus affronted by Shakspeare, Fletcher, Shirley, and Lilliput. 1759.
They were Whiteheacl, Crisp, Francis, Francklin, Glover, iBt.3i.
Brown, Mallet, Murphy, and Dodsley: for denying whose
higher attractiveness to the Shakspeares and Fletchers, nay,
for preferring even the comic to that tragic Lilliput,* the
puhlie seems a better object of attack than the manager.
When, some years afterwards, Horace "Walpole joined the cry,
this had sarcastic admission. " G-arrick is treating the town
" as it deserves," he said," and likes to be treated: with scenes,
'•' fireworks, and his own writing. A good new play I never
" expect to see more; nor have seen since the Provoked
" Husband, which came out when I was at school." t Was
it Garrick's crime, without good new plays, to make the
venture of good old ones ?

In truth, looking fairly at his theatrical management, with

" terms in my power to use ; and if some little impatience had been visible at
" bottom, allow me to ask you, Sir, whether it would not have been nobler in you
" to have imputed it to the peevishness incident to all mankind under disap-
'' pointments and difficulties, and whether in your happy situation you could not
" very well have afforded to do so. For the rest, Sir, you must be convinced that
'' I cannot be so absurd as to put my time into the scale against yours or even
¹¹ your very harlequins. I was in fact desirous to avoid a farther eclaireissement
" which I foresaw would administer no consolation to me; and as to the favours you
'' have done me, and the trouble you have bestowed upon me, nothing that
'' has happened, or can happen, shall ever put me on diminishing their value, or
" explaining away the duties of acknowledgment incumbent on me for them.
" Being still, with truth and sincerity, Sir, Your most obliged, humble Servant,
'' J. RALPH." It is characteristic of Mr. Kalph, that even in this last appeal for a
friendly settlement before open war (for so I apprehend the letter should be taken), he
cannot suppress his jeer about the harlequins.

* Most happily did Goldsmith himself, a few months later, ridicule these
tragedies, as "good, instructive, moral sermons enough," which a theatre-goer
might turn to much profit. " There," he says, " I learn several great truths :
"as, that it is impossible to see into the ways of futurity; that punishment
'' always attends the villain ; that love is the fond soother of the human breast;
'' that we should not resist heaven's will, for in resisting heaven's will, heaven's
" will is resisted : with several other sentiments equally new, delicate, and
" striking." "Bai-barossa I have read," says Gray, "but I did not cry ; at a
" modern tragedy, it is sufficient not to laugh." WorJcs, iii. 127.

f Collected Letters, v. 388.



	CHAP. IL] DAVID GAERIGK. thus affronted by Shakspeare, Fletcher, Shirley, and Lilliput. 1759. They were Whiteheacl, Crisp, Francis, Francklin, Glover, iBt.3i. Brown, Mallet, Murphy, and Dodsley: for denying whose higher attractiveness to the Shakspeares and Fletchers, nay, for preferring even the comic to that tragic Lilliput,* the puhlie seems a better object of attack than the manager. When, some years afterwards, Horace "Walpole joined the cry, this had sarcastic admission. " G-arrick is treating the town " as it deserves," he said," and likes to be treated: with scenes, '•' fireworks, and his own writing. A good new play I never " expect to see more; nor have seen since the Provoked " Husband, which came out when I was at school." t Was it Garrick's crime, without good new plays, to make the venture of good old ones ? In truth, looking fairly at his theatrical management, with " terms in my power to use ; and if some little impatience had been visible at " bottom, allow me to ask you, Sir, whether it would not have been nobler in you " to have imputed it to the peevishness incident to all mankind under disap- '' pointments and difficulties, and whether in your happy situation you could not " very well have afforded to do so. For the rest, Sir, you must be convinced that '' I cannot be so absurd as to put my time into the scale against yours or even ¹¹ your very harlequins. I was in fact desirous to avoid a farther eclaireissement " which I foresaw would administer no consolation to me; and as to the favours you '' have done me, and the trouble you have bestowed upon me, nothing that '' has happened, or can happen, shall ever put me on diminishing their value, or " explaining away the duties of acknowledgment incumbent on me for them. " Being still, with truth and sincerity, Sir, Your most obliged, humble Servant, '' J. RALPH." It is characteristic of Mr. Kalph, that even in this last appeal for a friendly settlement before open war (for so I apprehend the letter should be taken), he cannot suppress his jeer about the harlequins. * Most happily did Goldsmith himself, a few months later, ridicule these tragedies, as "good, instructive, moral sermons enough," which a theatre-goer might turn to much profit. " There," he says, " I learn several great truths : "as, that it is impossible to see into the ways of futurity; that punishment '' always attends the villain ; that love is the fond soother of the human breast; '' that we should not resist heaven's will, for in resisting heaven's will, heaven's " will is resisted : with several other sentiments equally new, delicate, and " striking." "Bai-barossa I have read," says Gray, "but I did not cry ; at a " modern tragedy, it is sufficient not to laugh." WorJcs, iii. 127. f Collected Letters, v. 388.