"The dialogue is poor, the plot badly constructed;" i.e., "These are the two things for which everybody is going to praise this dramatic author. So I'll have my knife into him."
"The music is pretty enough, though some of the principal melodies irresistibly call to mind the popular works of other composers;" i.e., "He'll be praised for his originality. Bah! I've written things just as good as these."
"A most amusing Article, but a little of it goes a long way;" i.e., Is tired of his subject, and wants to turn his attention to something else.
Social.
"It's a very curious fact;" i.e., "Now to pile on the embroidery."
"Now, do drop all formality, and look in to dinner quite in a friendly way. But you must take us just as you find us;" i.e., "It counts as a formal invitation, and he's sure not to come."
"You can't come! Oh, I'm so sorry!" i.e., "Didn't even know I'd asked her."
Platformulars.
"If at any time, by one jot, or one tittle, or one hair's breadth, or in the very slightest degree, or in the least;" i.e., "What, oh, what was I going to say? Can't go on like this for ever."
"Never was the country menaced with a more critical danger; never was our Party more enthusiastically united in confronting it;" i.e., "It won't make a bad cry, and may pull the stragglers together a bit."