Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/69

 INTRODUCTION Ixv ���spring of her brain, has been refused by the theater, is by a vulgar series of double meanings interpreted into an acknowledgment by her of a crime that should be laid at the door of Mrs. Townley, the immoral heroine of the farce. The character of Phoebe Clinket is drawn merely for the purpose of caricaturing a learned lady. A brief analysis of the first act will serve to show the points of general satire as well as the points to be interpreted as especially applying to Lady Winchilsea. �When Mrs. Clinket appears on the stage she has on an ink-stained dress, and pens are stuck in her hair. She is accompanied by her maid carrying strapped to her back a desk on which her mistress may write. The following con- versation shows the authoress in the throes of creation: �Maid. I had as good carry a raree-show about the street. Oh! how my back aches! �Clink. What are the labours of the back to those of the brain? Thou scandal to the muses, I have now lost a thought worth a folio, by thy impertinence. �Maid. Have I not got a crick in my back already, that will make me good for nothing, with lifting your great books? �Clink. Folio's call them and not great books, thou monster of impropriety. But have patience, and I will remember the three gallery-tickets I promised thee at my new Tragedy. �Maid. I shall never get my head-cloaths clear-starch'd at this rate. �Clink. Thou destroyer of learning, thou worse than a book- worm! Thou hast put me beyond all patience. Remember thou my lyric ode bound about a tallow-candle; thy wrapping up snuff in an epigram; nay, the unworthy usage of my Hymn to Apollo, filthy creature! read me the last lines I wrote upon the Deluge, and take care to pronounce them as I taught you. �Maid. Swell' d with a dropsy, sickly Nature lies, And melting in a diabetes, dies. �[Reads with an affected Tone.] �Clink. Still without cadence! �Maid. Swell' d with a dropsy ��� �