 (the physician) made feeble
efforts to join him, being easily retained by the other soldier; and Pallet,
dreading the consequence in which he himself might be involved, bellowed aloud
for prevention.
    Our hero endeavoured to quiet the commotion, by representing to the Scot,
that he had already taken satisfaction for the injury he had received; and
telling the doctor, that he had deserved the chastisement which was inflicted
upon him: but the officer (encouraged perhaps by the confusion of his
antagonist) insisted upon his asking pardon for what he had said; and the
doctor, believing himself under the protection of his friend Pickle, far from
agreeing to such concession, breathed nothing but defiance and revenge: so that
the chevalier, in order to prevent mischief, put the soldier under arrest, and
sent him to his lodgings, under the care of the other French gentleman and his
own companion; they being also accompanied by Mr. Jolter, who having formerly
seen all the curiosities of Lisle, willingly surrendered his place to the
physician.
 

                                   Chapter LV

Pickle engages with a Knight of Malta, in a Conversation upon the English Stage,
which is followed by a Dissertation on the Theatres of the Ancients, by the
Doctor
 
The rest of the company proceeded to the arsenal, which having viewed, together
with some remarkable churches, they, in their return, went to the comedy, and
saw the Cid of Corneille tolerably well represented. In consequence of this
entertainment, the discourse at supper turned upon dramatic performances; and
all the objections of Mons. de Scudery to the piece they had seen acted,
together with the decision of the French academy, were canvassed and discussed.
The knight was a man of letters and taste, and particularly well acquainted with
the state of the English stage; so that when the painter boldly pronounced
sentence against the French manner of acting, on the strength of having
frequented a Covent-Garden club of criticks, and been often admitted by virtue
of an order, into the pit; a comparison immediately ensued, not between the
authors, but the actors of both nations, to whom the chevalier and Peregrine
were no strangers. Our hero, like a good Englishman, made no scruple of giving
the preference to the performers of his own country, who, he alledged, obeyed
the genuine impulses of nature, in exhibiting the passions of the human mind;
and entered so warmly into the spirit of their several parts, that they often
fancied themselves the very heroes they represented. Whereas, the action of the
Parisian players, even in their most interesting characters, was generally such
an extravagance in
