1799-1 
the bufinefs kind, T am not well pleafed 
when I find the public determined, as it 
were, to ftand ftill and devote their whole 
attention to one thing only. I do not 
like to hear people fay, ‘‘ now we have 
got a fit fubje&t for converfation through 
the reft of our lives, let us defpife and for- 
get evei'y thing elfe.” And ‘yet, Sis, 
fomething Very like this I have certainly 
heard fince the firft performance cf Pi- 
zarro; the very words may not have been 
exprefled, but as I have iince heard no- 
thing but about Pizarro, it is but fair to 
concludethat the fentiment prevails. Now, 
Sir, I fhould reilly be glad to. know how 
long this play is to engrofs our attention, 
or whether fafhion, in fome evil hour of 
omnipotent fway, has not decreed that both 
at bed and at board, whether walking, 
riding, fitting, eating or drinking, whe- - 
ther in town or'country, in church and 
fynagogue, in the fenate or at the bar, we 
are to hold no converfation for the re- 
mainder of our lives unlefs about Pi- 
2arro.** * 
I fay, Sir, I really fhould be glad to 
know this, for although I am ready to 
allow all the merit due to this play in all 
its editions and tranflations, and as many 
more editions and tranflations as the ad- 
mirers of Kotzebue, or the mutilators of 
Kotzebue, fhall in their great liberality 
be pleafed to give us, and although [ 
would not for the world throw out the 
leaft hint of difapprobation or exception 
to any one line or word that either Kotze- 
bue, Mr. Sheridan, or any of the tranfla- 
tors, or mutilators aforefaid, have written 
or fhall hereafter write, yet I own my 
failing: I do not like to be Pizarroed out 
of my memory and recolleétion, in every 
‘company I enter, and every fociety I fre- 
quent. ‘I fhall make no objeétion to Pi- 
zarro at Drury-lane, or in the bookfeller’s 
fhops, but I do not like to meet him at the 
corner of every ftreet, to fee him lurking 
among the difhes of the table, difputing 
or caufing difputes among the quidnuncs 
of the coffee-houfe, and following us not 
only to the doors, but half up the ailes 
of the churches. : ; 
Yes, Sir, monotonoufly grievous as 
this is, if it were all, it were nothing to 
the giant ftrides Pizarro is taking to an- 
nihilate all fubje&ts of converfation but 
himfelf. He marches through Germany 
and Switzerland and Italy, and in a mo- 
ment obliterates the memory of the Arch- 
~duke Charles, of Marfhal Suwatrow and 
General Moreau. In Egypt he combines 
with Sir Sidney Smith and that other hero, 
Pizarro the Univeral Topic ! 
Is) 
whofe name is eafier to write than pro- 
nounce, Ghezzar Pacha, to annihilate 
Buonaparte; and as to France, he has 
really and truly rendered the affairs of the 
Direétory and Councils not worth talking 
about, compared to himfelf. Is fuch a 
monopoly of human attention to be tole- 
rated, a monopoly compared to which the 
Ireland-Shakefpeare, or Shakefpeare-Ire- 
land, was a meteor which glided by me 
ia moment, with Edmund Matone and 
George Chalmers Hanging at its tail~ 
compared to which the difpute alout the 
author of the Purfuits of Literature took 
up no more time than the-authorfhip of 
a haltpenny ballad, or a Vauxhall fong 
generally occupy. 
This is a ferious confideration. I afk 
again, are we to be thus eternally Pizar- 
roed out of all we ever knew or heard, all 
that is faying and doing, and has been 
faid and done in this wide world? fs the 
Royal Society or the Aritiquary Society 
to have their labours neglected in order to 
afcertain the merits of Pizarro? ITs the 
parliament to neglect all as of their own 
making for the five aéts Mr. Sheridan has 
prefented to'the public? Ts the Bench of 
Bifhops, conyerfant as they are in tran/la- 
tions, to determine who has done moft jul 
tice to the German dramatift?) Are coun- 
ties, cities and corporations to affemble, 
and prefent petitions and remonftrances 
on the merits of Pizarro? Arethe clergy 
to recommend Pizarro by a brief read in 
all churches and chapels? In a word, 
Mr. Editor, is Pizarro for ever to engage 
the attention, the thoughts, words, and 
aétions of ‘‘ all people that on earth de 
dwell ?”” | 
The diftrefles of an individual in fach 2 
cafe may perhaps’ appear trifling, and be 
laughed at; but I cannot help faying, 
that not being awate of the univerfal man- 
date to *¢ {peak nothing but what had 
Pizarro in it,”’ I have lately got into fome 
whinifical {crapes by attempting to direct 
the converfation to other topics. Indeed 
among my acquaintances I fhould give 
lefs offence by afking for money, than by 
putting a queftion that had no conneétion 
with the dear Pizarro. - ) 
The faét, however, is, that having by 
fome means efcaped the general contagion, 
I flatter myfelf I am qualifted to give 2 
more impartial criticifm on this celebrated 
play than many others, and as I have 
ever found your Magazine open to, the 
advocates for both fides of a queltion; E 
fhall now take the liberty to tell you ex- 
actly what I think ; and this I hepe to a 
abk 
