Page:The Rosciad - Churchill (1761, 2nd edition).djvu/27

The nice punctilio-mongers of this age,
The grand minute reformers of the stage, 510
Slaves to propriety of ev'ry kind,
Some standard-measure for each part should find;
Which, when the best of actors shall exceed,
Let it devolve to one of smaller breed.

All actors too upon the back should bear 515
Certificate of birth;———time, when;———place, where.
For how can critics rightly fix their worth,
Unless they know the minute of their birth?
An audience too, deceived, may find, too late,
That they have clapp'd an actor out of date. 520

Figure, I own, at first, may give offence,
And harshly strike the eye's too curious sense:
But when perfections of the mind break forth,
Humour's chaste sallies, Judgment's solid worth;
When the pure genuine flame, by Nature taught, 525
Springs into Sense, and ev'ry action's Thought;
Before such merit, all objections fly;
Pritchard's genteel, and Garrick six feet high.

Oft have I, Pritchard, seen thy wond'rous skill,
Confess'd thee great, but find thee greater still. 530
That worth, which shone in scatter'd rays before,
Collected now, breaks forth with double pow'r.