Com. Mr. Pasquin, the Public know they have Follies, as well as Individuals; and, so far from being Angry with the Man, who ridicules them, they always reward him with Approbation and Esteem.
Pas: Why then Sir, under the Protection of the Town, and the Patronage of Common Sense, I will, like a faithfull Painter, not a modern Dedicator, finish up the Blemishes as highly as I have the Beauties of my Patron.
Bob. Ay, now, now for the Town, I should be glad to see our own blind side. be sure to be Severe, give us no Quarter.
Pas. I shall not Sir— You, the Town, are a Monstor, made up of Contrarieties, Caprice Steers— Steers your Iudgement— Fashion and Novelty, Your Affections; Sometimes so Splenitic, as to damn a Cibber, and, even a Congreve, in the Way of the World;— And some times so good-Natured as to run in Crowds after a Queen Mab, or a Man in a Bottle.
Hyd. Why, the Town are a little whimsical sometimes I believe? I beg pardon Mr. Pasquin for breaking in upon You.
Pas. O no Offence, Sir, the Town has always a right to interrupt, and disturb a Performance. It is their Prerogative, and shews their Taste and their good Breeding
Hyd. You are right— go on, go on,— a good Sensible Fellow, and knows the Right and Privilege of the Town, go on, go on.
Pas. You are a Being, composed of all the Virtues and Vices, Wisdom and Folly of Human Nature. All Men dread you; all Men Court you; All Men love You— and yet All Men strive to be independent of You. For you are so inconsistent, that you are Constant in nothing, but Inconstancy—— So good Natur’d, so techy, so wise— and sometimes so otherwise— In Short, so much every thing, that were the whole Sisterhood of the imitative Arts in emulous Association joyn’d, with the Genius of your own Great Shakespear at their Head, Directing their different Powers, and wing his own boundless Imagination into Satyr and Panegirick for the Purpose— They could not be too Severe upon Your Vices— nor could they do Iustice to your Matchless Virtues.
Omn. Bravo, bravo Pasquin.
Bob. A very good Peroration upon Honour; I believe he Stole it from the Robin Hood Society