DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70266#0019
ROBERT COATES, ESQ. /
of rich jewellery, in all the various shapes of collars,
buckles, buttons, &c. to the amount, it was said, of several
thousand pounds. We are not disposed to be severe on
Mr. Coates’s performance, which afforded singular amuse-
ment; but it is necessary, in order to give a just idea of it,
to say, that for some time it was not so much below
mediocrity, that it appeared likely to pass off in that flat
routine which is neither forcible enough to affect the feeling
in the pathetic, nor absurd enough to amuse by provoking
the risible faculties. At length a sudden start, or rather
frisk and jump, in one of the love speeches, called forth an
universal burst, and from that moment the laugh was not
discontinued, nor the audience composed for one instant to
seriousness for the remainder of the night; and whether
Romeo addressed Juliet, or Juliet pronounced the praise of
Romeo, laughter convulsed the house, and made it some-
times impossible for the love-sick maid herself (though
represented in a very superior manner by a young lady of the
name of Watson) to forbear from a smile and a titter, where
a sob and a tear would be appropriate, if the tragedy had
not been so superlatively comedized, or rather farcified by
her lover.
“ Oh Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’’
was harped upon in a very particular manner; but when
she spoke of cc cutting him up into little stars,” &c. the effect
produced was beyond all description. Every one in the
house burst by one common and irresistible impulse into a
peal of laughter, which shook their frames, the benches,
and the house with them : it would be tiresome to notice
every successive instance in which this recurred. It was
most forcible at the time when the hero forgot his text, and
trying back to recover the cue, as the prompter calls it, after
audibly expressing his doubt and hesitation, by the contra-
dictory monosyllables, no, yes, actually begun over again
of rich jewellery, in all the various shapes of collars,
buckles, buttons, &c. to the amount, it was said, of several
thousand pounds. We are not disposed to be severe on
Mr. Coates’s performance, which afforded singular amuse-
ment; but it is necessary, in order to give a just idea of it,
to say, that for some time it was not so much below
mediocrity, that it appeared likely to pass off in that flat
routine which is neither forcible enough to affect the feeling
in the pathetic, nor absurd enough to amuse by provoking
the risible faculties. At length a sudden start, or rather
frisk and jump, in one of the love speeches, called forth an
universal burst, and from that moment the laugh was not
discontinued, nor the audience composed for one instant to
seriousness for the remainder of the night; and whether
Romeo addressed Juliet, or Juliet pronounced the praise of
Romeo, laughter convulsed the house, and made it some-
times impossible for the love-sick maid herself (though
represented in a very superior manner by a young lady of the
name of Watson) to forbear from a smile and a titter, where
a sob and a tear would be appropriate, if the tragedy had
not been so superlatively comedized, or rather farcified by
her lover.
“ Oh Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’’
was harped upon in a very particular manner; but when
she spoke of cc cutting him up into little stars,” &c. the effect
produced was beyond all description. Every one in the
house burst by one common and irresistible impulse into a
peal of laughter, which shook their frames, the benches,
and the house with them : it would be tiresome to notice
every successive instance in which this recurred. It was
most forcible at the time when the hero forgot his text, and
trying back to recover the cue, as the prompter calls it, after
audibly expressing his doubt and hesitation, by the contra-
dictory monosyllables, no, yes, actually begun over again