20 Maria Riddell, the Friend of Burns. 



Mr, Jekyll had behaved, she proceeds, very badly at their 

 farewell meeting : — 



" You know at the Royalty Theatre you offended me amazingly, 

 For while you went on talking prai singly 



(If I may use the expression) and telling an intolerable set of fibs 

 Your eyes were perpetuallj^ fixed on Mrs Gibbs ;12 

 Nay, every time she crossed the stage, the Loon 

 Kept his eyes rolling like two poch'd eggs in a spoon." 



The metre of these last lines may not be above suspicion, 

 but Mr. Jekyll got as good as he gave. His " fair Maria " 

 ends with : — 



" Sooner shall beaux St. James's Street forsake 

 Or village maids forbear the sprightly wake ; 

 Sooner shall willing Landsdowne rule the State 

 Or Jack-Daw Phoenixes forget to ijrate ; 

 Sooner shall lawyers honesty profess, 

 Than Mr Jekyll shall my heart possess." 



The Marquis of Landsdowne, as already noted, was Jekyll 's 

 patron. The lucky barrister had been styled a " Jack-daw 

 Phcenix " in a Political Satire, or Eclogue, as it was called ;15 

 a fact which also explains the line in the first extract, where 

 he is described as the " worthy subject of an Eclog'ue. " 



On nth April, 1788, Maria Riddell left England with 

 her father and m.other for the Leeward Isles, and there is an 

 account of her voyage in a little book she published four 

 years afterwards, i'' This forgotten volume is mainly in- 



12 Celebrated actress, b. circa 1770; played at "The Royalty" 

 as principal character in the serious pantomimes ; described as of 

 " a plump figure, a light complexion, and blue-eyes " ; ?«.. the actor 

 George Colman (the younger), and after his death in 1836 lived in 

 retirement at Brighton, where she d. circa. 1844. 



13 " Jekjdl the wag of law, the scribbler's pride, 



Calne to the senate sent when Townshend died ; 

 So Landsdowne willed, the hoarse old rook at rest, 

 A jackdaw phcenix chatters from his nest." 



The Jekyll, a Political Eclogue, by the authors of The Bolliad, etc. 

 J. Richardson, etc. 1788. 



14 Voyages to the Madeira and Leeward Carribhean Islands, by 



Maria B Edinburgh: Printed for Peter Hill, and T. 



Cadell, London, 1792. (See Appendix A.) 



