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Salmoneus of Covent-Garden.’

The Petition of all the Devils of the Play-house in behalf of themselves and Families, setting forth their Expulsion from thence, with Certificates of their good Life and Conversation, and praying Relief.

The Merit of this Petition referred to Mr. Chr. Rich, who made them Devils.

The Petition of the Grave-digger in ‘Hamlet’, to command the Pioneers in the Expedition of Alexander.

Granted.

The Petition of William Bullock, to be Hephestion to Penkethman the Great. [4]

Granted.

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The caricature here, and in following lines, is of a passage in Sir Robert Stapylton’s ‘Slighted Maid’: ‘I am the Evening, dark as Night,’ etc.

In the ‘Spectator’s’ time the Rehearsal was an acted play, in which Penkethman had the part of the gentleman Usher, and Bullock was one of the two Kings of Brentford; Thunder was Johnson, who played also the Grave-digger in Hamlet and other reputable parts.

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[Footnote 1: ‘March’ was written by an oversight left in the first reprint uncorrected.]

[Footnote 2: No. 31.]

[Footnote 3: Mr. Bayes, the poet, in the Duke of Buckingham’s ‘Rehearsal’, after showing how he has planned a Thunder and Lightning Prologue for his play, says,

Come out, Thunder and Lightning.
 

[Enter Thunder and Lightning.]

‘Thun’. I am the bold ‘Thunder’.

‘Bayes’. Mr. Cartwright, prithee speak that a little
louder, and with a hoarse voice. I am the bold
Thunder: pshaw! Speak it me in a voice that
thunders it out indeed: I am the bold
‘Thunder’.

‘Thun’. I am the bold ‘Thunder’.

‘Light’. The brisk Lightning, I.’]
[Footnote 4: William Bullock was a good and popular comedian, whom some preferred to Penkethman, because he spoke no more than was set down for him, and did not overact his parts. He was now with Penkethman, now with Cibber and others, joint-manager of a theatrical booth at Bartholomew Fair. When this essay was written Bullock and Penkethman were acting together in a play called ‘Injured Love’, produced at Drury Lane on the 7th of April, Bullock as ‘Sir Bookish Outside,’ Penkethman as ‘Tipple,’ a Servant. Penkethman, Bullock and Dogget were in those days Macbeth’s three witches. Bullock had a son on the stage capable of courtly parts, who really had played Hephestion in ‘the Rival Queens’, in a theatre opened by Penkethman at Greenwich in the preceding summer.]

* * * * *

ADVERTISEMENT.

A Widow Gentlewoman, wellborn both by Father and Mother’s Side, being the Daughter of Thomas Prater, once an eminent Practitioner in the Law, and of Letitia Tattle, a Family well known in all Parts of this Kingdom, having been reduc’d by Misfortunes to wait on several great Persons, and for some time to be Teacher at a Boarding-School of young Ladies; giveth Notice to the Publick, That she hath lately taken a House near Bloomsbury- Square, commodiously situated next the Fields in a good Air; where she teaches all sorts of Birds of the loquacious Kinds, as Parrots, Starlings, Magpies, and others, to imitate human Voices in greater Perfection than ever yet was practis’d. They are not only instructed to pronounce Words distinctly, and in a proper Tone and Accent, but to speak the Language with great Purity and Volubility of Tongue, together with all the fashionable Phrases and Compliments now in use either at Tea-Tables or visiting Days. Those that have good Voices may be taught to sing the newest Opera-Airs, and, if requir’d, to speak either Italian or French, paying something extraordinary above the common Rates. They whose Friends are not able to pay the full Prices may be taken as Half-boarders. She teaches such as are design’d for the Diversion of the Publick, and to act in enchanted Woods on the Theatres, by the Great. As she has often observ’d with much Concern how indecent an Education is usually given these innocent Creatures, which in some Measure is owing to their being plac’d in Rooms next the Street, where, to the great Offence of chaste and tender Ears, they learn Ribaldry, obscene Songs, and immodest Expressions from Passengers and idle People, and also to cry Fish and Card-matches, with other useless Parts of Learning to Birds who have rich Friends, she has fitted up proper and neat Apartments for them in the back Part of her said House; where she suffers none to approach them but her self, and a Servant Maid who is deaf and dumb, and whom she provided on purpose to prepare their Food and cleanse their Cages; having found by long Experience how hard a thing it is for those to keep Silence who have the Use of Speech, and the Dangers her Scholars are expos’d to by the strong Impressions that are made by harsh Sounds and vulgar Dialects. In short, if they are Birds of any Parts or Capacity, she will undertake to render them so accomplish’d in the Compass of a Twelve-month, that they shall be fit Conversation for such Ladies as love to chuse their Friends and Companions out of this Species.

R.