_Tom Thumb_ he places under the Reign of King _Arthur_; to which third
_Tom Thumb_, says he, the Actions of the other two were attributed. Now,
tho' I know that this Opinion is supported by an Assertion of _Justus
Lipsius, Thomam ilium Thumbum non alium quam Herculem fuisse satis
constat_; yet shall I venture to oppose one Line of Mr. _Midwinter_,
against them all,

_In_ Arthurs' Court Tom Thumb _did live_.

"But then, says Dr. _B-----y_, if we place _Tom Thumb_ in the Court of
King _Arthur_, it will he proper to place that Court out of _Britain_,
where no Giants were ever heard of. _Spencer_, in his _Fairy Queen_, is
of another Opinion, where describing Albion, he says,

Far within, a salvage Nation dwelt
Of hideous Giants.

And in the same canto:

Then _Elfar_ with two Brethren Giants had
The one of which had two Heads,--
The other three.
Risum teneatis, Amici."

Of the play itself it is difficult to give an idea by extract, as nearly
every line travesties some tragic passage once familiar to play-goers,
and now utterly forgotten. But the following lines from one of the
speeches of Lord Grizzle--a part admirably acted by Liston in later
years [Footnote: Compare Hazlitt, _On the Comic Writers of the Last
Century._]--are a fair specimen of its ludicrous use (or rather abuse)