Transcription
The following lines are addressed to MR. ASTLEY by a LADY; on seeing his performances.
HERE taste and fancy blend to please,
The heart from care to give release.
Here novelty o’er all presides;
While excellence each action guides.
Thus all your efforts fame repays;
For all that come bestow their praise.
You’ve something ev’ry sense to charm,
And ev’ry breast with transport warm.
In fair assemblage you excell[sic];
For ev’ry part is rang’d so well
As your amusements are display’d,
Like paintings that from light and shade
Receive the charm which forms their grace,
The same? fame?in all your acts we trace.
Your exquisite display of art
Must to each sense new joys impart.
While you some wond’rous skill display
In admiration lost we stray,
When next some sportive scene appears
That with delight out bosom cheer.
Thus ev’ry passion’s charm’d by you,
In all we hear, in all we view.
You at command make brutes obey,
Walk, work, or dance, with movement gay.
Your horses far excel reporr,
Whose minuet might grace a Court;
Their hornpipe quick to music true,
They seem as if each step they knew;
But all the art and skill’s with you.
The monkey, though of race despis’d,
Unequall’d must by all be priz’d.
His excellence excites surprise;
For e’en with man for fame he vies.
The dancing dogs, where Lady Flaunt
In chariot plac’d to take a jaunt,
With flirting airs so perfect seen,
She seems to move a fairy queen.
The hunting, where the taylorschace,
A fox with mirth o’erspreads each face.
Your Pantomime with humour teems,
And for its worth unrivall’d seems.
With such agility at will,
Your pupils shew their grace and skill,
Pleas’d and astonish’d all around
Your Theatre their praise resound;
While your spirit rules the whole,
For ‘tis the animating soul
Which wakes the mind to new delight
Your theatre affords each night.
Thus emulous the town to please,
Let, as your days, your fame encrease[sic].
