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Article ANECDOTES OF THE LATE HUGH KELLY. ← Page 2 of 6 →
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Anecdotes Of The Late Hugh Kelly.
a Thornton , a Foote , a Garrick , a Smart , a Colman , a Goldsmith , Sec . Sec . names that will be as long . remembered for - thcintrinsic value of their pens , as they must be regretted by a comparison with their successors , Kelly being thus situated , in regard to settled work , did not stop here —the activity ofhis mind induced him to search for other objects for his penand the stage , the earl y mistress ofhis imagination , soon pre- !
, seated one . It was now some years since Churchill had published his " Rosciad ; " and the well-known success of that poem , with the early fame that it established for him , spurred our author ' s genius to an imitation ; he , therefore , in the winter of if 66 , produced a poem called " Thespis ; or , A Critical Examination into the Merits of all the principal perform ,
ers belonging to Drury-Lane Theatre . " When this poem was first announced by advertisement , the perform mers , who had scarcely recovered from the lash of Churchill's pen , were on the tip-toe for its publication ; but no sooner did it appear , than the aggrieved of Drury-lane Green-Room were instantly up in arms ; the men talked of little less than " swords , pistols , and a saw-pit " - ^ whilst
some of the ladies said , " they could not appear before the eyes of the public , thus shorn of their usual attractions . " -- ' The late Mrs . Clive and Mrs . Barry ( no \ y- ' Mrs . Crawford ) . were both best heard on this occasions-then- merits were most wantonly de graded . Barry had been charged with " cramming his , moon-eyed ideot on the town" whilst Mrs . ' Clive's person and temper were
, poor so coarsely caricatured , that the public were unanimous in their disapprobation . Kelly himself soon became sensible of his fault , and pub . licly atoned for it in his second edition of the same poena , in the fc . l _ lowing manner :-m
f < And here , gll-burning with ingenuous shame , The bard his recent virulence must name , When wUh a ruffian cruelty he flew Tp rake up private characters tp view ,-And , dead to candour , quite forgot to spare The helpless woman in the wounded player ,, Here then , as odious utterly to light , He damns the passage tp eternal night ;
From ev'ry breast entreats it may be thrown , To sting with ceaseless justice in his own . " This recantation , we believe , pacified Mrs Clive ; and as the offence to Mrs . Barry was not near so strong , she was so , softened by a . personal apology , that she some time after appeared in a principal 9 haracter of our Author ' s first comedy , " False Delicacy . "
But though the . ladies were thus appeased , some from apologies and recantations-, and some from the prudential fear , " that stirring onr Author ' s resentment mig ht make it worse "—the gentlemen were not so easily pacified . Some expressed their resentment generally , but one comedian felt himself so severely and personally ill-treated , _ that he publjcl y denounced the Author in the Green-Room , and saidi " i | *" - ' ' . ' G 2
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Anecdotes Of The Late Hugh Kelly.
a Thornton , a Foote , a Garrick , a Smart , a Colman , a Goldsmith , Sec . Sec . names that will be as long . remembered for - thcintrinsic value of their pens , as they must be regretted by a comparison with their successors , Kelly being thus situated , in regard to settled work , did not stop here —the activity ofhis mind induced him to search for other objects for his penand the stage , the earl y mistress ofhis imagination , soon pre- !
, seated one . It was now some years since Churchill had published his " Rosciad ; " and the well-known success of that poem , with the early fame that it established for him , spurred our author ' s genius to an imitation ; he , therefore , in the winter of if 66 , produced a poem called " Thespis ; or , A Critical Examination into the Merits of all the principal perform ,
ers belonging to Drury-Lane Theatre . " When this poem was first announced by advertisement , the perform mers , who had scarcely recovered from the lash of Churchill's pen , were on the tip-toe for its publication ; but no sooner did it appear , than the aggrieved of Drury-lane Green-Room were instantly up in arms ; the men talked of little less than " swords , pistols , and a saw-pit " - ^ whilst
some of the ladies said , " they could not appear before the eyes of the public , thus shorn of their usual attractions . " -- ' The late Mrs . Clive and Mrs . Barry ( no \ y- ' Mrs . Crawford ) . were both best heard on this occasions-then- merits were most wantonly de graded . Barry had been charged with " cramming his , moon-eyed ideot on the town" whilst Mrs . ' Clive's person and temper were
, poor so coarsely caricatured , that the public were unanimous in their disapprobation . Kelly himself soon became sensible of his fault , and pub . licly atoned for it in his second edition of the same poena , in the fc . l _ lowing manner :-m
f < And here , gll-burning with ingenuous shame , The bard his recent virulence must name , When wUh a ruffian cruelty he flew Tp rake up private characters tp view ,-And , dead to candour , quite forgot to spare The helpless woman in the wounded player ,, Here then , as odious utterly to light , He damns the passage tp eternal night ;
From ev'ry breast entreats it may be thrown , To sting with ceaseless justice in his own . " This recantation , we believe , pacified Mrs Clive ; and as the offence to Mrs . Barry was not near so strong , she was so , softened by a . personal apology , that she some time after appeared in a principal 9 haracter of our Author ' s first comedy , " False Delicacy . "
But though the . ladies were thus appeased , some from apologies and recantations-, and some from the prudential fear , " that stirring onr Author ' s resentment mig ht make it worse "—the gentlemen were not so easily pacified . Some expressed their resentment generally , but one comedian felt himself so severely and personally ill-treated , _ that he publjcl y denounced the Author in the Green-Room , and saidi " i | *" - ' ' . ' G 2