disserted on such topics with my usual freedom: but
as I was pretty much unacquainted with the present state of the stage, I
demanded who were the present theatrical writers in vogue, who the Drydens and
Otways of the day. - »I fancy. Sir,« cried the player, »few of our modern
dramatists would think themselves much honoured by being compared to the writers
you mention. Dryden and Row's manner, Sir, are quite out of fashion; our taste
has gone back a whole century, Fletcher, Ben Johnson, and all the plays of
Shakespear, are the only things that go down.« - »How,« cried I, »is it possible
the present age can be pleased with that antiquated dialect, that obsolete
humour, those over-charged characters, which abound in the works you mention?« -
»Sir,« returned my companion, »the public think nothing about dialect, or
humour, or character; for that is none of their business, they only go to be
amused, and find themselves happy when they can enjoy a pantomime, under the
sanction of Johnson's or Shakespear's name.« - »So then, I suppose,« cried I,
»that our modern dramatists are rather imitators of Shakespear than of nature.«
- »To say the truth,« returned my companion, »I don't know that they imitate any
thing at all; nor indeed does the public require it of them: it is not the
composition of the piece, but the number of starts and attitudes that may be
introduced into it that elicits applause. I have known a piece, with not one
jest in the whole, shrugged into popularity, and another saved by the poet's
throwing in a fit of the gripes. No, Sir, the works of Congreve and Farquhar
have too much wit in them for the present taste; our modern dialect is much more
natural.«
    By this time the equipage of the strolling company was arrived at the
village, which, it seems, had been apprised of our approach, and was come out to
gaze at us; for my companion observed, that strollers always have more
spectators without doors than within. I did not consider the impropriety of my
being in such company till I saw a mob gather about me. I therefore took
shelter, as fast as possible, in the first ale-house that offered, and being
shewn into the common room, was accosted by a very well-drest gentleman, who
demanded whether I was the real chaplain of the company