‘Archangels must write very indifferent poetry if he is,’ remarked William Henry smiling.
‘Just so—a deuced bad poet!’ rejoined Mr. Erin. ‘His prologue, even without an “if“ in it, would damn any play; I’ll write to Burgess—Sir James will do it, I’ll warrant.’
And Sir James did it accordingly, and in a fashion much more agreeable to ‘Vortigern’s’ sponsors.
No common cause your verdict now demands,
Before the court immortal Shakespeare stands;
.......
Stamp it your own, assert your poet’s fame,
And add fresh wreaths to Shakespeare’s honoured name.
There was no doubt in Mr. Erin’s mind as to Sir James Bland Burgess being a better poet than Mr. Pye.
There were other hitches—nay, absolute breaks-down—which could not be so easily mended. Mrs. Siddons, who it was hoped would play the chief female character, Edmunda, had a severe cold, which was suspected by many people, and known by her friends, to be a stage cold—a malady which actors and actresses assume at pleasure as a pretext for declining any objectionable part. When a barrister refuses a brief, it is naturally concluded that his client’s cause is precarious—a lawyer, it is argued, would never send money away from his doors except for the gravest reasons; and similarly the ‘Vortigern’ suffered in public estimation when the news of Mrs. Siddons’s indisposition got abroad. Her reason, as Malone and Company averred, was that ‘the whole play was an audacious imposition.’ In this case that flattering unction of ‘There are as good fish in the sea,’ &c., could hardly be laid to Mr. Erin’s soul; it was unquestionably a bitter disappointment; the part had to be given to Mrs. Powell, a much prettier and younger woman, but not the queen of the stage. His sister’s conduct, too, seemed to have an unfavourable effect on Kemble, whose interest in the play was already at the best but lukewarm, and it was felt absolutely necessary to conciliate him.
Mr. Erin wrote to him to say that, notwithstanding the circumstance of ‘Vortigern and Rowena’ being the production of the immortal bard, the great tragedian was at liberty to use his own excellent judgment in preparing it for the stage.
A cold reply was received, to the effect that it should be acted faithfully from the copy sent to the theatre.