heir father's, presumably. The break up seems to
have been effected in confusion, but the good-humoured mummer, taking
one consideration with another, compares it to eating an artichoke,
where 'we have some fine mouthfuls, but also swallow the leaves and the
hair, which are confoundedly difficult of digestion. After all, I am
highly satisfied with my artichoke.'

He brought 'the warbling of his muse' with him. It is no better or worse
than the staple. In the character of a Corsican, he sings--

'From the rude banks of Golo's rapid flood,
Alas! too deeply tinged with patriot blood;
O'er which, dejected, injur'd Freedom bends,
And sighs indignant o'er all Europe sends,
Behold a Corsican! In better days
Eager I sought my country's fame to raise.
Now when I'm exiled from my native land
I come to join this classic festal band;
To soothe my soul on Avon's sacred stream,
And from your joy to catch a cheering gleam.'

After an apostrophe to happy Britons, on whose propitious isle
propitious freedom ever deigns to smile, he closes with an appeal--

'But let me plead for liberty distress'd,
And warm for her each sympathetic breast;
Amidst the splendid honours which you bear,
To save a sister island be your care;
With generous ardour make us also free,
And give to Corsica a noble Jubilee.'

Colman and Foote, of course, as comedians were there, but Goldsmith and
Johnson shewed their sense by their absence. The only trace of Davy's
old master was found in a Coventry ribbon put out by 'a whimsical
haberdasher,' with the motto from Johnson's _Prologue_ at the opening of
Drury Lane in 1747--'Each change of many colour'd life he drew.'

Boswell had a free hand as a writer for the _London Magazine_, in which
he had a proprietary interest. To it he contributed the following
account, accompanied with a portrait--the source of much of Macaulay's
indictment. 'One of the most remarkable masks upon this occasion was
James Boswell, Esq., in the dress of an armed Corsican chief. He entered
the amphitheatre about twelve o'clock. He wore a short dark-coloured
coat of coarse cloth, scarlet waistcoat and breeches, and black
spatterdashes; his cap or bonnet was of black cloth; on the front of it
was embroidered in gold letters _viva la liberta_, and on one side of it
was a handsome blue feather and cockade, so that it had an elegant as
well as a warlike appearance. On the breas