gravity and sedateness, and some few with tears; but after the third day
they also took the hint, and have ever since been very loud in their
claps. There are still sober men who cannot be of the general opinion,
but the laughers are so much the majority that one or two critics seemed
determined to undeceive the town at their proper cost, by writing
dissertations against it to encourage them in this laudable design. It
is resolved a preface shall be prefixed to the farce, in vindication of
the nature and dignity of this new way of writing."[1] The fact is that,
as Johnson put it, "the images were comic and the action grave," and
there were many mock-heroic passages which parodied tragedies, including
Addison's "Cato" and Otway's "Venice Preserved," well-known in that day.
Also it contained several ballads, of which perhaps the best is "'Twas
when the seas were roaring" (Act II., Scene 8).

"The What D'ye Call It" was not a piece of much value, but it pleased
the audience, and Gay was highly delighted. "Now my benefit night is
over, it should be my first care to return my thanks to those to whom I
am mostly obliged, and the civilities I have always received from you,
and upon this occasion too, claims this acknowledgment," the author
wrote to Caryll on March 3rd: "'The What D'ye Call It' met with more
success than could be expected from a thing so out of the common taste
of the town. It has been played already five nights, and the galleries,
who did not know at first what to make of it, now enter thoroughly into
the humour, and it seems to please in general better than at first. The
parts in general were not so well played as I could have wished, and in
particular the part of Filbert, to speak in the style of the French
Gazette. Penkethman did wonders; Mrs. Bicknell performed miraculously,
and there was much honour gained by Miss Younger, though she was but a
parish child."[2] Filbert was played by Johnson, Jonas Dock by
Penkethman, Joyce ("Peascod's daughter, left upon the parish") by Miss