ADDRESS, SPOKEN AT THE OPENING OF DRURY-LANE THEATRE, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1812.1 In one dread night our city saw, and sighed, Ye who beheld, (oh! sight admired and mourned, i. As flashing far the new Volcano shone And swept the skies with S meteors or, As flashed the volumed blaze, and not their own. sadly shone ghastly The skies with lightnings awful as their own.- or, As glared each rising flash, and ghastly shone 1Ο [Letter to Lord Holland, Sept. 27, 1812.] 1. ["Mr. Elliston then came forward and delivered the following Prize address. We cannot boast of the eloquence of the delivery. It was neither gracefully nor correctly recited. The merits of the production itself we submit to the criticism of our readers. We cannot suppose that it was selected as the most poetical composition of all the scores that were submitted to the committee. But perhaps by its tenor, by its allusions to Garrick, to Siddons, and to Sheridan, it was thought most applicable to the occasion, notwithstanding its being in part unmusical, and in general tame."-Morning Chronicle, October 12, 1812.] 2. ["By the by, the best view of the said fire [February 24, 1809] The skies, with lightnings awful as their own, Yes-it shall be the magic of that name Defies the scythe of time, the torch of flame; On the same spot still consecrates the scene, And bids the Drama be where she hath been: This fabric's birth attests the potent spellIndulge our honest pride, and say, How well! ii. As soars this fane to emulate the last, Here your last tears retiring Roscius drew, i. Till slowly ebbed the lava of the wave. or, Till ebb'd the lava of. (the burning) that molten wave, And blackening ashes mark'd the Muse's grave. [Letter to Lord Holland, Sept. 28, 1812.] ii. That scorns the scythe of Time, the torch of Flame.- [Letter to Lord Holland, Sept. 28, 1812.] 20 30 (which I myself saw from a house-top in Covent-garden) was at Westminster Bridge, from the reflection on the Thames."-Letter to Lord Holland, September 25, 1812, Letters, 1898, ii. 148.] That only waste their odours o'er the tomb. 40 50 Friends of the stage! to whom both Players and Must sue alike for pardon or for praise, i. Far be from him that hour which asks in vain Tears such as flow for Garrick in his strain; or, Far be that hour that vainly asks in turn Sad verse for him as {crowned his $} Garrick's urn.— wept o'er [Letter to Lord Hollana, Sept. 30, 1812.] ii. Such are the names that here your plaudits sought, When Garrick acted, and when Brinsley wrote.-[MS.] 1. [Originally, "Ere Garrick died," etc. "By the by, one of my corrections in the fair copy sent yesterday has dived into the bathos some sixty fathom 666 "When Garrick died, and Brinsley ceased to write.' Ceasing to live is a much more serious concern, and ought not to be first; therefore I will let the old couplet stand, with its half rhymes 'sought' and 'wrote' [vide supra, variant ii.]. Second thoughts in every thing are best, but, in rhyme, third and fourth don't come amiss. I always scrawl in this way, and smooth as much as I can, but never sufficiently."-Letter to Lord Holland, September 26, 1812, Letters, 1898, ii. 150.] Whose judging voice and eye alone direct And made us blush that you forbore to blame- This greeting o'er-the ancient rule obeyed,' 1. [The following lines were omitted by the Committee :- That late she deigned to crawl upon all-fours. brutes man From {babes and brats call a nation's taste; Then pride shall doubly nerve the actor's powers, Nor shift from man to babe, from babe to brute." 60 "Is Whitbread," wrote Lord Byron, "determined to castrate all my cavalry lines? . . . I do implore, for my own gratification, one lash on those accursed quadrupeds-'a long shot, Sir Lucius, if you love me.'"-Letter to Lord Holland, September 28, 1812, Letters, 1898, ii. 156. For "animal performers," vide ibid., note 1.] 2. [Lines 66-69 were added on September 24, in a letter to Lord Holland.] Receive our welcome too-whose every tone Springs from our hearts, and fain would win your own. The curtain rises-may our stage unfold Scenes not unworthy Drury's days of old! Britons our judges, Nature for our guide, Still may we please-long, long may you preside. [First published, Morning Chronicle, Oct. 12, 1812. 70 PARENTHETICAL ADDRESS.1 BY DR. PLAGIARY. Half stolen, with acknowledgments, to be spoken in an inarticulate voice by Master at the opening of the next new theatre. [Stolen parts marked with the inverted commas of quotationthus ". -".] "WHEN energising objects men pursue," Then Lord knows what is writ by Lord knows who. 1. [The original of Dr. Busby's address, entitled "Monologue submitted to the Committee of Drury Lane Theatre," which was published in the Morning Chronicle, October 17, 1812, "will be found in the Genuine Rejected Addresses, as well as parodied in Rejected Addresses ('Architectural Atoms). On October 14 young Busby forced his way on to the stage of Drury Lane, attempted to recite his father's address, and was taken into custody. On the next night, Dr. Busby, speaking from one of the boxes, obtained a hearing for his son, who could not, however, make his voice heard in the theatre. . To the failure of the younger Busby (himself a competitor and the author of an 'Unalogue' .) to make himself heard, Byron alludes in the stage direction, to be spoken in an inarticulate voice.'" (See Letters, 1898, ii. 176; and for Dr. Busby, see Poetical Works, 1898, i. 481, 485.) Busby's "Address follows: "When energising objects men pursue, As Harlequin had smote the slumberous heap, ran as |