"Mum! mum! mum!"

"You misunderstand my question," replied Cibber, calmly; "I know your
_dramatis personae_ but where the devil are your actors?"

Here was a blow.

"The public," said Quin, in some agitation, "would snore if we acted as
they did in your time."

"How do you know that, sir?" was the supercilious rejoinder; _"you never
tried!"_

Mr. Quin was silenced. Peg Woffington looked off her epilogue.

"Bad as we are," said she coolly, "we might be worse."

Mr. Cibber turned round, slightly raised his eyebrows.

"Indeed!" said he. "Madam!" added he, with a courteous smile, "will you
be kind enough to explain to me how you could be worse!"

"If, like a crab, we could go backward!"

At this the auditors tittered; and Mr. Cibber had recourse to his
spy-glass.

This gentleman was satirical or insolent, as the case might demand, in
three degrees, of which the snuff-box was the comparative, and the
spy-glass the superlative. He had learned this on the stage; in