d been long kept back for want of
encouragement. But in this benevolent purpose he met with no small
difficulty from the temper of Johnson, which could not brook that a
drama which he had formed with much study, and had been obliged to keep
more than the nine years of Horace, should be revised and altered at
the pleasure of an actor. Yet Garrick knew well, that without some
alterations it would not be fit for the stage. A violent dispute having
ensued between them, Garrick applied to the Reverend Dr. Taylor to
interpose. Johnson was at first very obstinate. 'Sir, (said he) the
fellow wants me to make Mahomet run mad, that he may have an opportunity
of tossing his hands and kicking his heels.' He was, however, at last,
with difficulty, prevailed on to comply with Garrick's wishes, so as to
allow of some changes; but still there were not enough.

Dr. Adams was present the first night of the representation of Irene,
and gave me the following account: 'Before the curtain drew up, there
were catcalls whistling, which alarmed Johnson's friends. The Prologue,
which was written by himself in a manly strain, soothed the audience,
and the play went off tolerably, till it came to the conclusion, when
Mrs. Pritchard, the heroine of the piece, was to be strangled upon the
stage, and was to speak two lines with the bowstring round her neck.
The audience cried out "Murder! Murder!" She several times attempted to
speak; but in vain. At last she was obliged to go off the stage alive.'
This passage was afterwards struck out, and she was carried off to be
put to death behind the scenes, as the play now has it. The Epilogue,
as Johnson informed me, was written by Sir William Yonge. I know not how
his play came to be thus graced by the pen of a person then so eminent
in the political world.

Notwithstanding all the support of such performers as Garrick,
Barry, Mrs. Cibber, Mrs. Pritchard, and every advantage of dress
and decoration, the tragedy of Irene did not please the publick. Mr.
Garrick's zeal carried it through for nine nights, so that the authour
had his three nights' profits; and from a receipt signed by him, now in
the hands of Mr. James Dodsley, it appears that his friend Mr. Robert
Dodsley gave him one hundred pounds for the copy, with his usual
reservation of the right of one edition.

When asked how he felt upon the ill success of his tragedy, he replied,
'Like the Monument;' meaning that he continued firm and unmoved as
th