Let this small monument record the name
Of Cadman, and to future times proclaim
How, by an attempt to fly from this high spire
Across the Sabrine stream, he did acquire
His fatal end. 'Twas not for want of skill,
Or courage, to perform the task, he fell:
No, no,—a faulty cord, being drawn too tight,
Hurry'd his soul on high to take her flight,
Which bid the body here beneath, good night.
A prelate being asked permission for a line to be fixed to the steeple of a cathedral church, for this daring adventurer, replied, the man might fix to the church whenever he pleased, but he should never give his consent to any one's flying from it. It seems that some exhibitor of the same kind met with a similar inhibition here in London. I learn from Mist's Journal for July 8, 1727, that a sixpenny pamphlet, intituled, "The Devil to pay at St. James's, &c."[6] was published on this occasion, Again, in The Weekly Miscellany for April 17, 1736. "Thomas Kidman, the famous Flyer, who has flown from several of the highest precipices in England, and was the person that flew off Bromham steeple in Wiltshire when it fell down, flew, on Monday last, from the highest of the rocks near The Hot-well at Bristol, with fire-works and pistols; after which he went up the rope, and performed several surprising dexterities on it, in sight of thousands of spectators, both from Somersetshire and Gloucestershire." In this print also is a portrait which has been taken for that of Dr. Rock, but was more probably meant for another Quack, who used to draw a crowd round him by seeming to eat fire, which, having his checks puffed up with tow, he blew out of his mouth.[7] Some other particulars are explained in the notes to the poetical epistle already mentioned.
[1] In the Craftsman, 1733, was this advertisment; "Mr. Hogarth being now engraving nine copper-plates from pictures of his own painting, one of which represents the Humours of a Fair, the other eight the Progress of a Rake, intends to publish the prints by subscription, on the following terms: each subscription to be one guinea and a half: half-a-guinea to be paid at the time of subscribing, for which a receipt will be given on a new-etched print, and the other payment of one guinea on delivery of all the prints when finished, which will be with all convenient speed, and the time publicly advertised. The Fair, being already finished, will be delivered at the time of subscribing. Subscriptions will be taken in at Mr. Hogarth's, the Golden Head, in Leicester Fields, where the pictures are to be seen."
[2] Highmore was originally a man of fortune; but White's gaming-house, and the patent of Drury-Lane theatre, completely exhausted his finances. Having proved himself an unsuccessful actor as well as manager, in 1743 he published Dettingen, a poem which would have disgraced a Bell-man. In 1744 he appeared again in the character of Lothario, for the benefit of Mrs. Horten. From this period his history is unknown. If Hogarth's representation of him, in the print entitled The Discovery, was a just one, he had no external requisites for the stage.
[3] In a two-shilling pamphlet, printed for J. Mechell at The King's Arms in Fleet street, 1740, entitled "An Apology for the life of Mr. T—— C——, comedian; being a proper sequel to the apology for the life of Mr. Colley Cibber, comedian; with a historical view of the stage to the present year; supposed to be written by himself in the stile and manner of the Poet Laureat," but in reality the work of Harry Fielding; the following passages, illustrative of our subject, occur. "In that year when the stage fell into great commotions, and the Drury Lane company, asserting the glorious cause of liberty and property, made a stand against the oppressions in the patentees—in that memorable year when the Theatric Dominions fell in labour of a revolution under the conduct of myself, that revolt gave occasion to several pieces of wit and satirical flirts at the conductor of the enterprize. I was attacked, as my father had been before me, in the public papers and journals; and the burlesque character of Pistol was attributed to me as a real one. Out came a Print of Jack Laguerre's, representing, in most vile designing, this expedition of ours, under the name of The Stage Mutiny, in which, gentle reader, your humble servant, in the Pistol character, was the principal figure. This I laughed at, knowing it only a proper embellishment for one of those necessary structures to which persons out of necessity repair." p. 16, &c.—Again, p. 88.—"At the Fair of Bartholomew, we gained some recruits; but, besides those advantages over the enemy, I myself went there in person, and publickly exposed myself. This was done to fling defiance in the Patentee's teeth; for, on the booth where I exhibited, I hung out The Stage Mutiny, with Pistol at the head of his troop, our standard bearing this motto,—We eat."—Whether this account which Cibber is made to give of his own conduct is entirely jocular, or contains a mixture of truth in it, cannot now be ascertained. Hogarth might have transplanted a circumstance from Bartholomew to Southwark Fair; or Fielding, by design, may have misrepresented the matter, alluding at the same time to Hogarth's print.
[4] Mr. Victor, speaking of this transaction, observes, that "the general observation was, what business had a gentleman to make the purchase?"
[5] In The Gentleman's Magazine for 1740, p. 89, is no bad copy of verses "on the death of the famous Flyer on the Rope at Shrewsbury". It is therefore here inserted.
—————-Magnis tamen excidit ausis.
Fond Icarus of old, with rash essay,
In air attempted a forbidden way;
Too thin the medium for so cumb'rous freight,
Too weak the plumage to support the weight.
Yet less he dar'd who soar'd on waxen wing,
Than he who mounts to æther on a string.
Just as Arachne, when the buzzing prey
Entangled flutter, and would wing away,
From watchful ambuscade insidious springs,
And to a slender twine, ascending, clings.
So on his rope, th' advent'rer climbs on high,
Bounds o'er cathedral heights, and seeks the sky;
Fix but his cable, and he'll tell you soon,
What sort of natives cultivate the moon.
An army of such wights to cross the main,
Sooner than Haddock's fleet, shou'd humble Spain.
As warring cranes on pigmies thund'ring fall,
And, without scaling ladders, mount the wall,
The proudest spire in Salop's lofty town
Safely he gains, and glides as safely down;
Then soars again aloft, and downward springs,
Swift as an eagle, without aid of wings;
Shews anticks, hangs suspended by his toe;
Undazzled, views th' inverted chasm below.
Invites with beat of drum brave voluntiers,
Defies Jack Spaniard, nor invasion fears,
Land when they will, they ne'er cou'd hurt his ears.
Methink I see as yet his flowing hair
And body, darting like a falling star:
Swifter than what "with fins or feathers fly
Thro' the ærial or the wat'ry sky."
Once more he dares to brave the pathless way,
Fate now pursuing, like a bird of prey;
And, comet-like, he makes his latest tour,
In air excentric (oh! ill-omen'd hour!)
Bar'd in his shirt to please the gazing crowd,
He little dreamt, poor soul! of winding shroud!
Nothing could aught avail but limbs of brass,
When ground was iron, and the Severn glass.
As quick as lightning down his line he skims,
Secure in equal poize of agile limbs.
But see the trusted cordage faithless prove!
Headlong he falls, and leaves his soul above:
The gazing town was shock'd at the rebound
Of shatter'd bones, that rattled on the ground;
The broken cord rolls on in various turns,
Smokes in the whirl, and as it runs it burns.
So when the wriggling snake is snatch'd on high
In eagle's claws, and hisses in the sky,
Around the foe his twirling tail he flings,
And twists her legs, and writhes about her wings.
Cadman laid low, ye rash, behold and fear,
Man is a reptile, and the ground his sphere.
Unhappy man! thy end lamented be;
Nought but thy own ill fate so swift as thee,
Were metamorphoses permitted now,
And tuneful Ovid liv'd to tell us how;
His apter Muse shou'd turn thee to a daw,
Nigh to the fatal steeple still to kaw;
Perch on the cock, and nestle on the ball,
In ropes no more confide, and never fall. J. A.
[6] Supposed to have been written by Dr. Arbuthnot, and as such preserved in the Collection of his Works. The full title is, "The Devil to pay at St. James's: or, a full and true Account of a most horrid and bloody Battle between Madam Faustina and Madam Cuzzoni. Also of a hot Skirmish between Signor Boschi and Signor Palmerini. Moreover, how Senesino has taken Snuff, is going to leave the Opera, and sings Psalms at Henley's Oratory. Also about the Flying Man, and how the Doctor of St. Martin's has very unkindly taken down the Scaffold, and disappointed a World of good Company. As also how a certain Great Lady is gone mad for the Love of William Gibson, the Quaker. And how the Wild Boy is come to Life again, and has got a Dairy Maid with Child. Also about the great Mourning, and the Fashions, and the Alterations, and what not. With other material Occurrences, too many to insert."