We were sorry to find such great
Talents so very ill employed. The melting Tones of a _Cibber_ should
make every Eye stream with Tears. _Pritchard_ should always elevate.
_Garrick_ give Strength and Majesty to the Scene. Let us soften at
the keen Distress of a _Belvidera_; let our Souls rise with the
Dignity of an _Elizabeth_; let us tremble at the wild Madness of a
_Lear_;[F] but let us not Yawn at the Stupidity of uninteresting
Characters.
_FINIS_
* * * * *
NOTES ON _CRITICAL STRICTURES_
[Footnote A: (P. 5) Advertisement. Johnson's dictum first appeared in
the abridgment of his dictionary, 1756, under _Alias_, which he defined
as "A Latin word signifying otherwise; as Mallet _alias_ Mallock; that
is, _otherwise_ Mallock." In four places in his _Memorials and Letters
Relating to the History of Britain in the Reign of James the First_
(1762) Dalrymple had given Mallet "his real name"; he had repented after
the sheets were printed and had inserted a corrigendum, "For Malloch, r.
Mallet," which only made matters worse. See _The Yale Edition of Horace
Walpole's Correspondence_, iv. 78 _n._ 17. Dalrymple chided the
authors of _Critical Strictures_ gently for using his name, and said
he was sorry for having thus yielded to a private pique (LJ, p. 190
_n._ 6). But the matter remained of interest to him, for as late as
1783 he sent Johnson a copy of one of Mallet's earliest productions, the
title-page of which bore the name in its original spelling (_Life_,
iv.
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