Night, pitchy night would envelop the stage.
Ah! could I some girl from yon box for her youth pick,
I'd love her as long as she blossomed in youth;
Oh! white is the ivory case of her toothpick,
But when beauty smiles how much whiter the tooth!
[P. 21.] The Rebuilding. By James Smith.
[P. 29.] Laura Matilda. Horace Smith, the author of Drury's Dirge, wrote that 'the authors, as in gallantly bound, wish this lady to continue anonymous,' and as a consequence there have been several attempts to pierce the veil of anonymity. One annotator boldly 'assumes the lady to have been' Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802-1836), who was ten years of age when the Rejected Addresses were published. The motto from The Baviad which stands at the head of the parody is sufficient indication that the original was to be found among the 'Della Cruscans,' whose 'namby-pamby' verses, after appearing in the World, were published in two volumes as The British Album in 1790 (see the note on p. 405). The chief lady among those sentimentals was 'Anna Matilda,' otherwise Hannah Cowley (1743-1809), a dramatist of considerable, and a poet of but little, ability. As Mrs. Cowley had died three years before the Addresses were sent in, it is probable either that the parodists did not know of her death or that they merely meant to make fun of the school of which she was a leader. The passage from Gifford's Baviad given by way of motto is taken from that part of the satire in which the writers of The British Album are more particularly castigated.
[P. 32.] A Tale of Drury Lane. By Horace Smith.
[P. 38.] Johnson's Ghost. By Horace Smith.
[P. 42.] The Beautiful Incendiary. By Horace Smith. Spencer's best-remembered work is the tragic ballad of Beth Gelert.