Some Account of the HOBBY HORSE, a new Farce, said to be written by a Sea-Officer, and performed at the Theatre Royal in DruryLane. TH HE reprefentation of this piece was preceded by a prologue. The farce confifts of a number of hobby-horfeical characters :t he wit and humour is different from any thing yet produced on the theatre: it is an imitation of no author, and yet has marks of nature and living character. The farce opened with Lord Helicon (who is fond of the Mufes) follicited by an Irish and Scotch author for fome reward for their services, bringing with them specimens of their works for his approbation: these characters were well fupported by Meffrs. Dodd, Moody, and Love. The part in which the Hobby threw the author was in the manege. There feemed to be a confufion and diffidence in the performers, peculiar to a firft night; but yet Mr. Palmer was a true Yorkshire 'fquire, and acquitted himself well. The author appears to fail in incident, he has a deal of character, &c. but fomething is wanting to keep the people's attention up. The plot is, Mifs Flirt, (play'd by Mifs Pope, and with uncommon fpirit) is intended to be married to Lord Helican, but having an inclination for Capt. Dangle, is refolved to elope with him to Scotland. The captain is a blade of the town, and pros pofes to her to feduce Mifs Martingal for his friend, which is accomplithed by an airing in the Park; but in their flight towards Scotland, Lord Helicon intercepts their going off, and brings Mifs Martingal back to her father. The moral of the piece fhews, women fhould be careful of their female acquaintance, and parents less rigid in their obli gations of matrimony. ANECDOTE of Mr. GAY. SOON after Mr. Gay had com pofed his tragedy called The Captives, he had intereft enough with the late queen Caroline, then princess of Wales, to excite her royal highness's curiofity to bear him read it to her at Leicester house. The day was fixed, and Mr. Gay was commanded to attend. He waited fome time in a prefencechamber with his play in his hand; but being a very modeft man, and unequal to the trial he was going to, when the door of the drawing room, where the princess fat with her ladies, was opened for his entrance, he was fo much confused, and concerned about making his proper obeifance, that he did not fee a low footstool that happened to be near him, and ftumbling over it, he fell against a large fcreen, which he overfet, and threw the ladies into no fmall diforder. Her royal highness's great goodness foon reconciled this whimsical accident, but the unlucky author was not fo foon clear of his confufion. COMPENDIOUS HISTORY OF FRANCE. [Continued.] IT is impoffible to conceive a country more miferable than France, upon the falling out of this untoward event. The king had left no regent, and confequently no legal reprefentaive in the kingdom: but the dauphin, affuming the title of his lieutenant, endeavoured to fupply this defect, by calling an affembly of the ftates, to be held at Paris, which was the more neceffary, as the nobility paid him no great respect, and seemed difpofed to lay hold of this opportunity to raise their own power, and to live in all respects, like princes. The dauphin found the reft of the affembly of the states exactly in the fame difpofition; so that, without attending either to his or the public diftrefs, they began to prefcribe to the dauphin whom he fhould turn out, or whom he should take in, fo that he was glad to let them feparate, under pretence of giving him time to make a visit to his uncle the emperor. Soon after the king of Na. varre made his escape, and was in a little time brought in triumph to Paris, where by his eloquence, of which he made a very free ufe upon all occafions, he governed the populace at his pleasure, fo that the dauphin knew not what to do, or whom to truft. He was obliged to call another affembly of the ftates, but instead of governing them, they appointed a council to govern him. Upon this he followed the example of the king of Navarre, began to harangue the citizens at their common-hall, and made in a short time, a great progrefs in popularity. An accident fpoiled all. A common April 1766. fellow murdered the treasurer of France, and then retired into a privileged place; upon which the dauphin fent the two marshals of Dauphine and Champagne to take the criminal out of fanctuary and hang him, which they did. The bishop of Paris immediately exclaimed that the privileges of the church were invaded; and the provost of the merchants, Marcel, by whofe inftigation the murder was done, having raised a general infurrection, went to the lodgings of the dauphin, butchered both the marfhals before his face, and fome of their blood flying upon him, the dauphin afked with fome emotion, if he was to fhare the fame fate? The provoft told him that he was not; and as a mark of fecurity and protection, fnatched his embroidered hat, or hood, off his head, and clapped his own blue one, which was the fignal of the Navarre faction, upon the dauphin, who was forced to diffemble his refentment, and take all in good part. He had been compelled to grant all the king of Navarre defired, and obliged to live upon fair terms with him; though he fufpected that a dose of poifon he had received, and by which he loft his hair and his nails, and had loft his life too, had not the fkill of the emperor's phyfician, who, by the help of a perpetual isfue, hindered the venom from falling on his vitals, preferved him. The fcheme of the malecontents was to change the form of the government, to veft the fupreme power in the third estate, and to leave the king his title with Bb 1357 little little or no authority; but when the chiefs of the citizens of Paris made a propofal of this fort to the other great cities in the kingdom, it was rejected with contempt. The dauphin seeing this, conceived hopes; and taking advantage of the king of Navarre's being in Normandy, went to the parliament, and demanded from them the title and authority of regent, which was granted; and upon this he gave the great feal to his chancellor of Normandy, and the sword of conftable to Moreau de Fiennes : afterwards he held the states of Picardy and Champagne, where he was received, obeyed, and affilted, to the utmost extent of his wishes and their power. While the dauphin was thus employed, the miseries of the kingdom, which feemed fcarce capable of any augmentation, were neverthelefs heightened by fo new and unexpected an evil, as, for the time it lafted, abated the confideration and even the sense of all the reft. The nobility, as we before obferved, were fo far from entertaining any just fentiments of the danger and diftrefs to which the nation was exposed, that, on the contrary, they pushed their pride, luxury, and ill-timed magnificence, further than can be well imagined, pillaging the poor peasants who inhabited their lands, and using it as a common phrafe of reproach, Jaque bon homme, that is, good man James; or, as we would fay, the poor Jacks fhall pay for all. The common people, in this ftarving condition, rendered the more confpicuous, and at the fame time the more intolerable, by that splendour and profufion which appeared in their lords houfes, could not help venting their complaints to each other, deploring the hapless ftate they were in, and the want of any reasonable hopes of feeing things mend. It happened that fome peafants about Beauvois difcourfing about this fubjea, and inveighing against the inhumanity of their lords to themfelves, their want of regard to the honour of France, and their contemptuous behaviour to the king under his misfortunes, wrought themfelves at laft to fuch a height of fury, that they refolved to extirpate the whole nobility; and laying hold of pitch-forks, ftaffs, reap-hooks, and fuch rough inftruments of mischief as came in their way, began to carry their desperate defign into execution, destroying, without mercy, the families of fuch as they could furprize, and plundered their houses. This humour diffused itself into feveral provinces; and this mutinous rabble, from the circumftances before-mentioned, were stiled the Ja-. querie. The danger being general, the nobility, who in those days made the ufe of arms their fole profeffion, affembled for their own defence, and, in a little time, took a fevere revenge on these undisciplined multitudes. The duke of Orleans charged them in the neighbourhood of Paris, and cut off ten thousand; the king of Navarre fell upon another body, and put twelve thousand to the fword, with their principal leader William Caillet. The regent also laid hold of this occafion to raise an army of thirty thousand men; but, acting with more moderation, engaged many of them to lay down their arms, and at length appeared with his forces before Paris. The citizens, fenfible of the ill ufage he had received, endeavoured to pacify him; but the provoft Marcel, foreseeing that he fhould be the victim in cafe of an accommodation, excited a fresh fedition, and called in the king of Na vare with a body of English and Norman troops; but as thefe did not observe the ftri&teft difcipline, new disturbances happened, and they were expelled. The provoft and his faction confpired to deliver the city entirely into his hands; but their design being discovered at the very point of execution, the provoft, with the ringleaders of his party, were destroyed, and the gates being opened to the regent, the public tranquility was gradually reftored, notwithstanding the efforts made by the king of Navarre to prevent it, which at length rofe fo high, that he fent a public defiance to the regent, and broke out into open war. The circumstances he was then in rendered this extremely difficult to that young prince. As there were at this time great bodies of English troops in different parts of France, under the command of officers who fubfifted them as they could, who acknowledged no fuperior, and acted on no principle but that of getting the moft they could, it was by the affiftance of these that the king of Navarre hoped to carry his point; and what that was will not be difficult to learn, when we know that he made a folemn declaration, that, for the future, he would never acknowlege any right in the house of Valois to the crown of France. By the help of these independent bodies of Englifh, who were, beyond comparison, better foldiers than the dauphin's new-raifed troops, he fo ftraighten ed the city of Paris, in which he had ftill a great number of friends (for, with all his faults, he had a great facility in making, and a more wonderful art in keeping them), that at length it became more than probable he would have prevailed, and have had the city delivered to him by capitulation at least, if not with out. But of a fudden, and contrary to all expectation, and without any vifible motive, he demanded an interview with the regent, and concluded a peace with him on moderate and reasonable terms. The writers of those days attribute this to inspiration from heaven; on the other hand, his brother Philip faid he was bewitched; later writers afcribe it to the inconftancy of his temper; but all agree, that this con. duct of his faved France, and the fubfequent part of this history will put it beyond doubt. The truth of this perplexed business seems to have been, that, in his harangue to the people of Paris, he had fuffered words to escape him to this effect, "That, if right took place, he had a better title to the crown of France than either he who wore it, or he who pretended to it ;" which being reported in England, he quickly found that he was to expect no farther affittance from thence; for, as to what was given him by the truce before-mentioned, Edward difavowed it. The king of Navarre, therefore, began to confider what effects would follow upon the taking of Paris; and perceiving clearly that it would serve only to enrich the free-booters, his allies in the first inftance, and facilitate Edward's defign of fetting that crown on his own head, with whom he should be much lefs able to deal than with though a princefs of incomparable merit, being little regarded at Paris, withdrew into her fon's dominions, and died in Burgundy. His ranfom, or his liberty, fcarce occupied the attention of any of the affemblies; and, in a word, he seem king John and the dauphin, he very wifely altered his plan, and made an equitable peace, to which his brother Philip refused to accede, but continued to carry on the war in Normandy in conjunction with the English. All this time king John remained to be fo thoroughly abandoned, ed in England, under circumftances none of the most pleafing. On his arrival he made a public entry into the city of London, but it was fuch an entry as could give him no dif. quiet. He rode on a white courfer, which, in thofe days, when punetilios were much obferved, was a mark of fovereignty, and the glorious prince of Wales, on a little black horfe, rode by his fide. He had lodgings affigned him in the Savoy, where he was treated with all the respect due to his high rank, and with all the esteem which his great perfonal merit deferved. The king, the queen, the princes of the royal blood, paid him their vifits, and endeavoured to comfort him: he had liberty to go where he pleased, to take the diverfion of hunting, was feafted and careffed by the nobility, and adored by the people; for with all the heat of his temper, he had an affability and a condefcenfion that made fubjects of all who approached him; and he had his favourite fon Philip, to whom Edward is faid to have given the furname of Hardy, for reprimanding a gentleman who ferved that monarch with wine before his father. But, notwithstanding all this, he had his forrows. His fubjects had fhewn but little concern for him from the time he was taken. On the contrary, in the firft affembly of the ftates, all they laboured was to reduce his authority. His queen, that he took a refolution of concluding a treaty with Edward upon the best terms he could: but when he had concluded it, and, in conjunction with Edward, fent it over to the regent in order to have it ratified, the ftates thought them fo hard and fo difhonourable, that they refufed their approbation, which equally difpleafed both kings, and gave Edward an opportunity of returning to France as foon as the truce expired. This truce was made for two years; and fome of the French authors feem to think, that if the cardinals who made it had not prevailed, France must have been inevitably conquered. Yet, if we confider facts, they will fearce leave us any room to doubt that this truce was more fatal to France than if the war had continued; for this afforded leifure for civil broils, left thofe independent corps, who were ftiled companions, to plunder, whereever they were strongeft; made way for other infurrections, and deprived the dauphin, and other princes of the blood, of that authority, which, with an army in the field, they must have had. Edward was aware of all this, and, under colour of punishing fuch as were in the file of his court rebels alike to both kings, he raised an army, and equipped a fleet, which plainly enough expreffed his real intention. to become the mafter, as well as to affume the title, of France; and accounts |