e note preceding this), i. 126-127, or the Limited
Edition of _Boswell's London Journal, 1762-1763_, McGraw-Hill and
Heinemann, 1951, p. 101. Hume protested vigorously, though with good
humor, at this breach of confidence, and Boswell wrote a flippant reply
(LJ, pp. 206-207, 208-209).]
[Footnote C: (P. 20) "... her Punishment was reserved for the Farce, which
for that Purpose was, contrary to Custom, added to the Play." Stock plays
were always followed by an afterpiece, but the afterpiece was in most
cases omitted during the first run of a new play. For example, Mrs.
Sheridan's _Discovery_ opened 3 February 1763 and ran for ten nights before
an afterpiece was added. The afterpieces presented with _Elvira_ up to
27 January were as follows: 19 January, _The Male Coquette_ (Garrick);
20 January, _High Life Below Stairs_ (Townley); 21 January, _Old
Maid_ (Murphy); 22 January, _Catharine and Petruchio_ (Garrick's
adaptation of Shakespeare's _Taming of the Shrew_); 24 January, _High
Life Below Stairs_; 26 January, _Catharine and Petruchio_; 27
January, _Edgar and Emmeline_ (Hawkesworth). But Mrs. Pritchard, who
played the Queen in _Elvira_, seems not to have appeared in any of
these afterpieces, and no one of them contains a queen (Dougald MacMillan,
_Drury Lane Calendar_, 1747-1776, Clarendon Press, 1938, pp. 94, 217,
239, 260, 282, 297). Furthermore, if the jest could be understood only
with reference to a particular farce, that farce would surely have been
named. This is no doubt a case where less is meant than meets the ear.
The authors are merely saying that Mallet's play is badly constructed,
and is so ridiculous generally that no one will know when the tragedy
ends and the farce begins.]
[Footnote D: (P. 21) "Though in general this Tragedy is colder than the
most extreme Parts of _Nova Zembla_ ..." This is perhaps the only passage
in _Critical Strictures_ that can be attributed with certainty to one of
the three authors. The remark is Dempster's, and had been made some time
before Elvira was presented; in fact, he had applied it originally to
Johnson's _Irene_. See LJ, pp. 69, 306.]
[Footnote E: (P. 22) "... a Simile of a Bundle of Twigs formed into a
Rod ... Mr. _Malloch_'s original Profession ..." Garrick's epilogue to
_Elvira_ contains the following lines:
A single critick will not frown, look big,
Harmless and pliant as a single twig,
But crouded _here_ they change, and 'tis not odd,
For tw
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