Page "Charles Churchill (satirist)" Paragraph 3

Churchill had already done some work for the booksellers, and his friend Lloyd had had some success with a didactic poem, The Actor.

Churchill's knowledge of the theatre was now made use of in the Rosciad, which appeared in March 1761.

This reckless and amusing satire described with the most disconcerting accuracy the faults of the various actors and actresses on the London stage ; in a competition judged by Shakespeare and Jonson, Garrick is named the greatest English actor.

Its immediate popularity was no doubt largely due to its personal character, but its vigour and raciness make it worth reading even now when the objects of Churchill's wit are forgotten.

The first impression was published anonymously, and in the Critical Review, conducted by Tobias Smollett, it was confidently asserted that the poem was the joint production of George Colman the Elder, Bonnell Thornton and Robert Lloyd.

Churchill immediately published an Apology addressed to the Critical Reviewers, which, after developing the subject that it is only authors who prey on their own kind, repeats the fierce attack on the stage.

Incidentally it contains an enthusiastic tribute to John Dryden, of whom Churchill was a devotee.

In the Rosciad he had praised Mrs Pritchard, Mrs Cibber and Mrs Clive, but no leading London actor, with the exception of David Garrick, had escaped censure, and in the Apology Garrick was clearly threatened.

He deprecated criticism by showing every possible civility to Churchill, who became a terror to the actors.

Thomas Davies wrote to Garrick attributing his blundering in the part of Cymbeline " to my accidentally seeing Mr Churchill in the pit, it rendering me confused and unmindful of my business.