buying the other moiety of Drury Lane. This theatre, which took its name
from the old Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane, where Killigrew acted in the
days of Charles II. is famous for the number of times it has been
rebuilt. The first house had been destroyed in 1674; and the one in
which Garrick acted was built by Sir Christopher Wren and opened with a
prologue by Dryden. In 1793 this was rebuilt. In 1809 it was burnt to
the ground; and on its re-opening the Committee advertised a prize for a
prologue, which was supposed to be tried for by all the poets and
poetasters then in England.[7] Sheridan adding afterwards a condition
that he wanted an address without a Phoenix in it. Horace Smith and his
brother seized the opportunity to parody the style of the most
celebrated in their delightful 'Rejected Addresses.' Drury Lane has
always been grand in its prologue, for besides Dryden and Byron, it
could boast of Sam. Johnson, who wrote the address when Garrick opened
the theatre in 1747. No theatre ever had more great names connected with
its history.

[7: None of the addresses sent in having given satisfaction, Lord Byron
was requested to write one, which he did.]

It was in 1778, after the purchase of the other moiety of this property,
that Sheridan set on its boards 'The Critic.' Though this was denounced
as itself as complete a plagiarism as any Sir Fretful Plagiary could
make, and though undoubtedly the idea of it was borrowed, its wit, so
truly Sheridanian, and its complete characters, enhanced its author's
fame, in spite of the disappointment of those who expected higher things
from the writer of 'The School for Scandal.' Whether Sheridan would have
gone on improving, had he remained true to the drama, 'The Critic'
leaves us in doubt. But he was a man of higher ambition. Step by step,
unexpectedly, and apparently unprepared, he had taken by storm the