304 George Caiman's Random Records. [MARCH, 



Pegasus, this " veteran stager," as he calls himself, doubts, very natu- 

 rally. 



" Some few dramatists have told me, that they have written with 

 such ease and rapidity, that I have been astonished, or indeed have 

 scarcely believed them." He sarcastically adds, " My wonder and in- 

 credulity have generally ceased upon a perusal of those gentlemen's 

 productions." His conclusion is fair and forcible. " After all, success, 

 may tickle an author's vanity, but failure sadly mortifies his pride : 

 particularly in writing for the stage, where success or failure are so imme- 

 diate, and so marked ; and, to say the best of it, a dramatist's is a 

 devil of a life." 



Here spoke the philosopher : the punster follows. " The theatre 

 upon Richmond Green (where he saw his first play, he being then in 

 petticoats), was built in 1765 by Mr. James Dance, better known as 

 Mr. Love, which was his nom de guerre when he came upon the stage, 

 a translation of his wife's maiden name Delamour. In .this change of 

 appellative, it is presumed that both husband and wife cordially agreed, 

 it least it is evident that there was no Love lost between them." The 

 anecdote of Dodd the actor, shews what helps a dramatic genius may 

 give a man in doubtful circumstances. Dodd lived in lodgings near the 

 Richmond theatre with a companion of his solitude, who assumed the 

 privileges without the rights of a wife. They were fond, but they 

 sometimes differed, to the full extent of matrimonial customs, and the 

 argument was often reinforced by " missiles rather than metaphors ; the 

 chairs, tables, and chimney-piece crockery, flying about the room," 

 until they produced conviction. In one of those domestic fracas, 

 which happened at an early dinner upon a shoulder of mutton, while 

 Dodd clattered and the lady screamed, the landlord rushed upon the 

 scene of action, in hopes to prevent the further breaking of his pro- 

 perty : " How dare you, Mister," exclaimed Dodd, who was brandish- 

 ing the shoulder of mutton, " obtrude into our apartment while we 

 were rehearsing ?" " Rehearsing 1" cried the landlord, while the bits 

 of china were crashing under his feet, " I could have sworn you were 

 fighting/' " No, Sir," said Dodd, " we were rehearsing the supper 

 scene in Catherine and Pelruckio, or the Taming -of a Shrew." Dodd 

 directed him to examine the play-bill for the performance, which the 

 landlord answered by presenting his own, with a formidable list of 

 undone earthenware, headed, " Mr. Dodd, debtor to John Wilson, for 

 choice articles of rare and ornamental china, broken at the rehearsal of 

 the Taming of the Shrew" 



Coleman was sent to Westminster School, then under Dr. Smith, 

 <e A very dull and good-natured head-master he was. Vincent, the 

 late dean, was second master, e a man of nous and learning, but 

 plaguily severe/ which is partially accounted for by saying that there 

 is ' no ratiocinating with the younger fry, and nothing is left for 

 it but an appeal to their tails/ And this last was Vincent's way of 

 disciplining his infantry, but he lost his temper, and struck and 

 pinched the boys in sudden bursts of anger, which was unwar- 

 rantable." One of the boys drew a caricature of him, which was 

 published in the print-shops with the following hexameter under it : 

 ' Sanguineos oculos volvit, virgamque requirit/ We have the ' old 

 Westminster's ' verdict against Fagging, a practice whose absurdity can 



