was fairly good but ran for nine nights only, though Garrick played Don Alonzo; Holland, Don Pedro; Mrs. Cibber, Elvira, and Mrs. Pritchard, the Queen.

Garrick also played Sir Anthony Branville in "The Discovery" of Mrs. Frances Sheridan, Sheridan, her husband, who was not regularly engaged, appearing as Lord Medway. This bright piece ran seventeen nights. Concerning Garrick's performance Victor says: "Sir Anthony was a character entirely new to Garrick; as in other comic parts he was remarkable for his ease, spirit and expression, in this he seemed utterly to have extinguished his natural talents; he assumed a dry, stiff manner, with an immovable face, and thus extracted from the pedantic object much entertainment for the audience and great credit for the author." A less generous interpretation was placed by Davies upon his conduct. Davies says "that Garrick either did not or would not understand the idea of the author." Garrick's dislike to Sheridan was well known. The direct implication is that he did not intend the piece to succeed.

For the first time during this season, Garrick in reviving the "Fair Penitent," abandoned his famous character of Lothario, which was taken by O'Brien, in favour of that of Sciolto.

CHAPTER XI.

DURING this same season of 1762-63, the results of Garrick's interference with the privileges of the Mohocks, who insisted on sitting on the stage, were shown in an alarming outbreak. The date of this was 25th January, 1763, when for the benefit of Victor, who was responsible for the alterations in the text, a sixth representation of "The Two v Gentlemen of Verona" was given. The nominal cause of riot was the refusal of admission at halfprice at the end of the third act, a curious practice in the theatres which lingered until a generation ago.

At the head of the movement to resent this was Fitzpatrick, an Irishman of some social position, whose name has already been mentioned in connection with a quarrel with Woodward. Fitzpatrick, who was a dandy and donkey of the first water, had already had some démêlés with Garrick. He had espoused with some warmth the cause of Mossop against Garrick, and had, at the gatherings at the "Bedford Tavern," a noted haunt of actors, dramatists, critics, and men of the world, organized an opposition to Garrick's supremacy.

Some tiffs had followed, and Fitzpatrick, who had a large and rather rowdy following, attacked his

adversary. He is said even to have placed himself with his companions in the front of the pit when Garrick was playing, maintaining a stony gravity" during the performance of comedy, and laughing in the most solemn moments of tragedy. Fitzpatrick's attacks in The Craftsman under the signature X. Y. Z., had been collected into a shilling pamphlet and issued in 1760, with the title, "An Enquiry into the Real Merits of a Certain Popular Performer. In a Series of Letters, just published in The Craftsman or Gray's Inn Journal, with an Introduction to Dd Gk, Esq.”

David, we are told by his widow, "always wrote his own criticisms." He made a strenuous effort to write his own satires, the satires, that is, on himself. Many of these survive and cast a curious light on his character. He could not obtain a monopoly of such productions, however, and his own satires carry far fewer guns than those of his adversaries, and are altogether less formidable. Regardless of the fact that a stalwart champion came to his aid in the person of Churchill, the author of "The Rosciad," Garrick descended into the fray with "The Fribbleriad," which he issued in 1761.

In this the epicene manners of Fitzpatrick, designated under the name Fitzgig, and his associates, are amusingly bantered. Though coarse in parts and weak in others, "The Fribbleriad" is a fairish satire. A little ingenuity and industry might discover the originals of the various characters introduced, but no good would attend the process. The caricature of

Fizgig or Fitzgig is able, but its best passages are nowadays scarcely quotable. In place of this, then, let us read a few of the really vigorous lines descriptive of Fitzpatrick which are given in "The Rosciad":

"With that low cunning, which in fools supplies,
And amply too, the place of being wise,
Which Nature, kind, indulgent parent! gave
To qualify the blockhead for a knave;

Which..

Fawns in the day, and butchers in the night;
With that malignant envy which turns pale
And sickens, even if a friend prevail,
Which merit and success pursues with hate,
And damns the worth it cannot imitate;

A motley figure of the Fribble tribe,

Which heart can scarce conceive, or pen describe,
Came simpering on; to ascertain whose sex
Twelve sage, impannell'd matrons would perplex.
Nor male, nor female; neither, and yet both;
Of neuter gender though of Irish growth;
A six-foot suckling, mincing in Its gait,
Affected, peevish, prim, and delicate.

Much did It talk, in Its own pretty phrase,
Of genius and of taste, of players and plays;
Much, too, of writings, which Itself had wrote,
Of special merit, though of little note;
For Fate, in a strange humour, had decreed
That what It wrote, none but Itself should read.
Much, too, It chatter'd of dramatic laws,
Misjudging critics, and misplaced applause,
Then, with a self-complacent jutting air,
It smiled, It smirk'd, It wriggled to the chair.

At the Bedford Fitzpatrick reigned in some such fashion as Garrick and Churchill indicate. He was at the head of a gang of young roughs called "The Town," who, following his mischievous lead, determined to compel the Drury Lane management to admit them at half-price on every night except during the run of a pantomime.

During the representation on the before-mentioned 25th January Fitzpatrick came to the front of the boxes, harangued the audience on the imposition of the manager, and pleaded vehemently the right of the public to fix the prices of admission. Garrick, endeavouring to speak, was received with noise and uproar, and treated by Fitzpatrick and his partisans with the utmost contempt. Not a moment was allowed for deliberation or council. Upon his refusal to concede instantaneously their demands, the benches were torn up, the lustres were broken, and acts of outrageous violence were committed. One madman went so far as to attempt to set the scenery on fire, and was only prevented by the interference of Moody, who seized upon him and dragged him away. The same proceedings were renewed next night, and Garrick found it prudent to comply with the demands of the rioters. A victim was necessary to the mob, and it was found in Moody, from whom an apology was demanded. Thinking to treat the matter as a joke, Moody, speaking in Irish tones, said, " he was sorry he had displased them by saving their lives, in putting out the fire." This further inflamed the