pointed him out as fitted rather to command than entreat the good-will of a manager. Aided by Horace Walpole, whose good offices were likewise sought, and who felt interested in a scion from his own stock, he succeeded. It was performed on November 17, 1781; ran nine nights in succession, and for twenty-one during the season.[1] Malone to his other services added the following epilogue, of which his friend the Rev. W. Jephson writes in March, 1782:—“I believe I never told you how much we admired your epilogue. We all agree that it is complete. I really did not think you could write such good verses, at least upon a very short warning. I do not suppose there are more than three in the language that come near it. We hear that you spend much time with Mr. Walpole. I hope it is the case. Such company is exactly to your taste.”
EPILOGUE TO THE “COUNT OF NARBONNE.’
Spoken by Miss Younge.
The hardest sure on dramatists is laid:
No easy task in this enlighten’d time
It is, with art “to build the lofty rhyme,”
To choose a fable nor too old nor new,
To keep each character distinctly true;
The subtle plot with happy skill combine,
And chain attention to the nervous line;
With weighty clashing interest to perplex,
Through five long acts—each person—of each sex;
- ↑ Geneste, in his History of the Stage, says nineteen. Walpole himself was not a little elated by its success. Next day (Nov. 18th) he writes to General Conway of “tending and nursing and waiting on Mr. Jephson’ play. I brought it into the world, was well delivered of it; it can stand on its own legs, and I am going back to my own quiet hill, never likely to have anything more to do with the theatre.”
