e of the same common entertainment. I could not but fancy to
myself, as the old man stood up in the middle of the pit, that he made a
very proper centre to a tragic audience. Upon the entering of
Pyrrhus[178], the Knight told me that he did not believe the King of
France himself had a better strut. I was indeed very attentive to my old
friend's remarks, because I looked upon them as a piece of natural
criticism, and was well pleased to hear him, at the conclusion of almost
every scene, telling me that he could not imagine how the play would end.
One while he appeared much concerned for Andromache; and a little while
after as much for Hermione; and was extremely puzzled to think what would
become of Pyrrhus.

When Sir Roger saw Andromache's obstinate refusal to her lover's
importunities, he whispered me in the ear, that he was sure she would
never have him; to which he added, with a more than ordinary vehemence,
"You cannot imagine, sir, what it is to have to do with a widow." Upon
Pyrrhus his[179] threatening afterwards to leave her, the Knight shook
his head and muttered to himself, "Ay, do if you can." This part dwelt so
much upon my friend's imagination, that at the close of the third act, as
I was thinking of something else, he whispered me in the ear, "These
widows, sir, are the most perverse creatures in the world. But pray,"
says he, "you that are a critic, is the play according to your dramatic
rules, as you call them? Should your people in tragedy always talk to be
understood? Why, there is not a single sentence in this play that I do
not know the meaning of."

The fourth act very luckily begun before I had time to give the old
gentleman an answer: "Well," says the Knight, sitting down with great
satisfaction, "I suppose we are now to see Hector's ghost." He then
renewed his attention, and, from time to time, fell a praising the widow.
He made, indeed, a little mistake as to one of her pages, whom at his
first entering he took for Astyanax[180]; but quickly set himself right
in that particular, though, at the same time, he owned he should have
been very glad to have seen the little boy, "who," says he, "must needs
be a very fine child by the account that is given of him." Upon
Hermione's going off with a menace to Pyrrhus, the audience gave a loud
clap, to which Sir Roger added, "On my word, a notable young baggage!"

As there was a very remarkable silence and stillness in the audience
during the whole action