CHARACTERS. 



29: 



n month or two's subsistence ; and 

 for these he exchanged the friend- 

 sliip and protection of one of the 

 greatest cliaractcrs of the age — a 

 character that the scholar and mau 

 of rank, mnst pride themselves to be 

 acquainted with, but to him must 

 be an acquisition which could r;ire- 

 ly fall to the lot of his description 

 in life. 



Andyet, perhaps, reasoning in tliis 

 nianner, however ]ust, but ill de- 

 scribed Jones's real feelings. The 

 man that could, in the first instance, 

 stoop to borrow mo.iey from the 

 servant of his friend, must be pretty 

 callous to the finer sensations; — he 

 must likewise very well know the 

 result of such a conduct, and must 

 be supposed to estimate, in some 

 degree, the vahie of the money he 

 borrowed, by what he was about 

 to lose. Whatever he thought upon 

 the subject, the connection between 

 lord Chesterfield and him eaded 

 here ; though, we believe, .lones 

 afterwards toolf some pains to revive 

 it, if we may judge from the follow- 

 ing lines addressed to loid Tyraw- 

 ley, entitled, " On his sending me 

 to lord Chesterfield wh>eu I i:/i/rst 

 not knock at his door." 



Rcin'.c'd 1 wenF, of '■peedinc; sfure. 



My lord ! ai your command 

 I boldly stood at Stanhoijc's door. 



And stoutly stjctch'd my hand. 



The sounding brass I rashly rais'd, 

 Resolv'd my hopes to crovvn ; 



Some powtr uiiNfeii my senses sciz'd, 

 I laid it silent down. 



The knocker thus I thrice upheld, 



And thrice 1 m;idt essay — 

 For your command my arm impell'd. 



And 1 would fain obey. 



But Fate forbid th' intruding sound 

 Which would his cars assail ; 



By greatness aw'd, and woith rcnown'd, 

 iliieriiian front must faiL 



.lones, thus emancipated from the 

 awe of his patron, seemed to turn 

 his thoughts to the stage, as the best 

 resource for his future fame and for- 

 time. He had at that time made 

 stime progress in a tragedy, called 

 " Plarold," and lis flattered himself 

 much on the profits of this produc- 

 tio;. ; but in this he neither esti- 

 mated his uidustr)'', his economy, or 

 reputation. He raised money (as 

 we before observed)" upon this tra- 

 gedy in embryo, and such was his 

 unaccountable indolence, and neg- 

 lect of all character, that sooner than 

 finiiih it for the stage, which in all 

 probability would produce him a 

 fair fame, and considerable profits, 

 he chose to employ it as the tem- 

 porary expedient of raising money 

 under false pretences. 



His intercourse with some of tha 

 principal performers of both houses 

 is pretty evident, from the poenrs 

 he dedicated to them from time to 

 time. He wrote a prologue for old 

 Husbands, the player; paid some 

 poetical compliments to Barr}' on 

 his H?.mlet ; and as Jones's muse 

 not only reached the principal per- 

 formers of his time, but occasionally 

 stooped to flatter those of that pro- 

 fes8i^)n who might be serviceable to 

 him in his wants and his pleasures. 

 The fact is, he had the lower part 

 of I he green-room at that time un- 

 der a kind of contribution. He 

 lived with them either at their 

 lodgings, or at ale-houses, borrowed, 

 money of them, &c. Sec. and for 

 this he repaid them ^<^th pufTs and 

 poetical compliimnits preceding 

 their benefits. He could be coarse 

 tqo upon parricuiar occasions ; and, 

 like his friend Hiffernan, was sub- 

 ject to fii'.i limier the tyranny of the 

 tanhard. In thest" moods he used to 

 abuse tlic profession of the stage? 

 U 3 calhnii 



