David Garrick (1717 – 1779)
English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Samuel Johnson.
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Here lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll,
Who wrote like an angel, and talk’d like poor Poll.
Corrupted freemen are the worst of slaves.
Heart of oak are our ships,
Heart of oak are our men;
We always are ready.
Their cause I plead,—plead it in heart and mind;
A fellow-feeling makes one wondrous kind.
Prologues like compliments are loss of time;
’T is penning bows and making legs in rhyme.
Here lies James Quinn. Deign, reader, to be taught,
Whate’er thy strength of body, force of thought,
In Nature’s happiest mould however cast,
To this complexion thou must come at last.
This scholar, rake, Christian, dupe, gamester, and poet.
Are these the choice dishes the Doctor has sent us?
Is this the great poet whose works so content us?
This Goldsmith’s fine feast, who has written fine books?
Heaven sends us good meat, but the Devil sends cooks?
I am disappointed by that stroke of death that has eclipsed the gaiety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure.
His profession made him rich and he made his profession respectable.
Let others hail the rising sun:
I bow to that whose course is run.
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