_Miscellanies_, were among his earliest attempts. In the little farce of
_Miss Lucy in Town_, 1742, he had, he says, but "a very small Share."
Besides these, there are three hasty and flimsy pieces which belong to
the early part of 1737. The first of these, _Tumble-Down Dick_; or,
_Phaeton in the Suds_, was a dramatic sketch in ridicule of the
unmeaning Entertainments and Harlequinades of John Rich at Covent
Garden. This was ironically dedicated to Rich, under his stage name of
"John Lun," and from the dedication it appears that Rich had brought out
an unsuccessful satire on _Pasquin_ called _Marforio_. The other two
were _Eurydice_, a profane and pointless farce, afterwards printed by
its author (in anticipation of Beaumarchais) "as it was d--mned at the
Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane;" and a few detached scenes in which, under
the title of _Eurydice Hiss'd; or, a Word to the Wise_, its untoward
fate was attributed to the "frail Promise of uncertain Friends." But
even in these careless and half-considered productions there are happy
strokes; and one scarcely looks to find such nervous and sensible lines
in a mere _a propos_ as these from _Eurydice Hiss'd_:--

"Yet grant it shou'd succeed, grant that by Chance,
Or by the Whim and Madness of the Town,
A Farce without Contrivance, without Sense
Should run to the Astonishment of Mankind;
Think how you will be read in After-times,
When Friends are not, and the impartial Judge
Shall with the meanest Scribbler rank your Name;
Who would not rather wish a _Butler's_ fame,
Distress'd, and poor in every thing but Merit,
Than be the blundering Laureat to a Court?"

Self-accusatory passages such as this--and there are others like it--