Henry Fielding - The Works of Henry Fielding, vol. 12

Luck . You are warm, my friend.

Wit . It is because I am your friend. I cannot bear to hear the man I love ridiculed by fools – by idiots. To hear a fellow who, had he been born a Chinese, had starved for want of genius to have been even the lowest mechanick, toss up his empty noddle with an affected disdain of what he has not understood; and women abusing what they have neither seen nor heard, from an unreasonable prejudice to an honest fellow whom they have not known. If thou wilt write against all these reasons get a patron, be pimp to some worthless man of quality, write panegyricks on him, flatter him with as many virtues as he has vices. Then, perhaps, you will engage his lordship, his lordship engages the town on your side, and then write till your arms ake, sense or nonsense, it will all go down.

Luck . Thou art too satirical on mankind. It is possible to thrive in the world by justifiable means.

Wit . Ay, justifiable, and so they are justifiable by custom. What does the soldier or physician thrive by but slaughter? – the lawyer but by quarrels? – the courtier but by taxes? – the poet but by flattery? I know none that thrive by profiting mankind, but the husbandman and the merchant: the one gives you the fruit of your own soil, the other brings you those from abroad; and yet these are represented as mean and mechanical, and the others as honourable and glorious.

Luck . Well; but prithee leave railing, and tell me what you would advise me to do.

Wit . Do! why thou art a vigorous young fellow, and there are rich widows in town.

Luck . But I am already engaged.

Wit . Why don't you marry then – for I suppose you are not mad enough to have any engagement with a poor mistress?

Luck . Even so, faith; and so heartily that I would not change her for the widow of a Croesus.

Wit . Now thou art undone, indeed. Matrimony clenches ruin beyond retrieval. What unfortunate stars wert thou born under? Was it not enough to follow those nine ragged jades the muses, but you must fasten on some earth-born mistress as poor as them?

Mar. jun . [ within ]. Order my chairman to call on me at St James's. – No, let them stay.

Wit . Heyday, whom the devil have we here?

Luck . The young captain, sir; no less a person, I assure you.

Mar. jun . Mr Luckless, I kiss your hands – Sir, I am your most obedient humble servant; you see, Mr Luckless, what power you have over me. I attend your commands, though several persons of quality have staid at court for me above this hour.

Luck . I am obliged to you – I have a tragedy for your house, Mr Marplay.

Mar. jun . Ha! if you will send it to me, I will give you my opinion of it; and if I can make any alterations in it that will be for its advantage, I will do it freely.

Wit . Alterations, sir?

Mar. jun . Yes, sir, alterations – I will maintain it. Let a play be never so good, without alteration it will do nothing.

Wit . Very odd indeed!

Mar. jun . Did you ever write, sir?

Wit . No, sir, I thank Heaven.

Mar. jun . Oh! your humble servant – your very humble servant, sir. When you write yourself, you will find the necessity of alterations. Why, sir, would you guess that I had altered Shakspeare?

Wit . Yes, faith, sir, no one sooner.

Mar. jun . Alack-a-day! Was you to see the plays when they are brought to us – a parcel of crude undigested stuff. We are the persons, sir, who lick them into form – that mould them into shape. The poet make the play indeed! the colourman might be as well said to make the picture, or the weaver the coat. My father and I, sir, are a couple of poetical tailors. When a play is brought us, we consider it as a tailor does his coat: we cut it, sir – we cut it; and let me tell you we have the exact measure of the town; we know how to fit their taste. The poets, between you and me, are a pack of ignorant —

Wit . Hold, hold, sir. This is not quite so civil to Mr Luckless; besides, as I take it, you have done the town the honour of writing yourself.

Mar. jun . Sir, you are a man of sense, and express yourself well. I did, as you say, once make a small sally into Parnassus – took a sort of flying leap over Helicon; but if ever they catch me there again – sir, the town have a prejudice to my family; for, if any play could have made them ashamed to damn it, mine must. It was all over plot. It would have made half a dozen novels: nor was it crammed with a pack of wit-traps, like Congreve and Wycherly, where every one knows when the joke was coming. I defy the sharpest critick of them all to have known when any jokes of mine were coming. The dialogue was plain, easy, and natural, and not one single joke in it from the beginning to the end: besides, sir, there was one scene of tender melancholy conversation – enough to have melted a heart of stone; and yet they damned it – and they damned themselves; for they shall have no more of mine.

Wit . Take pity on the town, sir.

Mar. jun . I! No, sir, no. I'll write no more. No more; unless I am forced to it.

Luck . That's no easy thing, Marplay.

Mar. jun . Yes, sir. Odes, odes, a man may be obliged to write those, you know.

Luck , and Wit . Ha, ha, ha! that's true indeed.

Luck . But about my tragedy, Mr Marplay.

Mar. jun . I believe my father is at the playhouse: if you please, we will read it now; but I must call on a young lady first – Hey, who's there? Is my footman there? Order my chair to the door. Your servant, gentlemen. — Caro vien . [ Exit, singing .

Wit . This is the most finished gentleman I ever saw; and hath not, I dare swear, his equal.

Luck . If he has, here he comes.

Luck . Mr Bookweight, your very humble servant.

Book . I was told, sir, that you had particular business with me.

Luck . Yes, Mr Bookweight; I have something to put into your hands. I have a play for you, Mr Bookweight.

Book . Is it accepted, sir?

Luck . Not yet.

Book . Oh, sir! when it is, it will be then time enough to talk about it. A play, like a bill, is of no value till it is accepted; nor indeed when it is, very often. Besides, sir, our playhouses are grown so plenty, and our actors so scarce, that really plays are become very bad commodities. But pray, sir, do you offer it to the players or the patentees?

Luck . Oh! to the players, certainly.

Book . You are in the right of that. But a play which will do on the stage will not always do for us; there are your acting plays and your reading plays.

Wit . I do not understand that distinction.

Book . Why, sir, your acting play is entirely supported by the merit of the actor; in which case, it signifies very little whether there be any sense in it or no. Now, your reading play is of a different stamp, and must have wit and meaning in it. These latter I call your substantive, as being able to support themselves. The former are your adjective, as what require the buffoonery and gestures of an actor to be joined with them to shew their signification.

Wit . Very learnedly defined, truly.

Luck . Well, but, Mr Bookweight, will you advance fifty guineas on my play?

Book . Fifty guineas! Yes, sir. You shall have them with all my heart, if you will give me security for them. Fifty guineas for a play! Sir, I would not give fifty shillings.