| Citation |
FJ.781.065
19 Dec 1781:11 (35)
The Pilgrim, No. 5. [Continuation of essay on frailties of
English.]
. . . Their credulity has also often made them the dupes of
knaves and sharpers. I remember while I was in London, the
proprietor of one of the less considerable theatres fell
upon a scheme of levying large contributions upon the
public, merely from practising upon their weakness in this
respect.
He advertised in the public papers, that a person of
middling stature should appear upon the stage on an
appointed evening, who should then, in view of the whole
company, without equivocation, leap into a quart bottle (or
for a double price into a pint bottle) that he should there
be corked up, and while in that situation should sing any
song that a majority of the company should pitch upon; that
he should remain confined in the bottle for at least a half
an hour, or as much longer as the spectators saw fit; that
immediately upon his release, he should take a common
walking staff from any one of the company, and should not
only play, upon the same, whatever tune should be demanded,
but also in the particular music of every modern instrument,
from the organ down to the jews harp.
The public were both pleased and amazed at the prospect
of such agreeable entertainment, and without once allowing
themselves to reflect upon the impossibility of these
promises being accomplished, strove who should be foremost
in purchasing tickets to gain admission to these
extraordinary exhibitions. The Princes of the blood, the
fathers of the people, the nobles of the land, the reverends
and right reverends, the gentry and the vulgar, contended
who should be earliest at the scene of action. The doors of
the theatre were at length thrown open, the stage lighted
up, and the company sat some time in anxious expectation;
but by means of a malicious whisper, soon found to their
confusion, that they have come to see what it was impossible
should be seen, and had paid away their money as the price
of their folly and delusion. It was in vain to seek the
author of the deception; he had prudently made a timely
escape with the money so easily acquired; The theatre,
however, with its furniture, was demolished to satisfy the
rage of the audience, who returned to their abodes vexed,
ashamed, and disappointed.
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