but the Prince of Wales threatens to reveal everything to the public. The fit passes over, and George in royal robes goes to open Parliament, but the Prince, by his side, endeavours, by whispering to him of a plot, to cause a relapse. He succeeds but too well, and in his delirium George apostrophises the Whig leaders, flings his robes on the table, and in boxing attitude challenges Sheridan. Pitt with great difficulty leads him away. The debate then begins, and the Opposition are demanding a regency when a French landing is announced. Grey proposes to go and welcome the French; a republic is proclaimed, the heads of the Prince of Wales and Pitt are cut off and paraded through the streets. George, shut up in a carriage, is drawn to Bedlam by Burke, Grenville, and Chesterfield. Fox and Sheridan in red caps insult him, and the curtain falls on Fox's exclamation that if the King recovered his reason he would be the first to demand his death.
Desnoireterres[1] finds something Shakesperean in this sorry burlesque, the author of which afterwards fawned on Napoleon. The proceedings of the Convention were almost as grotesque. On the 1st February 1793 it issued an address to the English people, Paine being one of the framers, though a small minority objected to it as useless, as all England was for war. In the following
- ↑ La Comédie Satirique au XVIII. Siécle.
