(533) The tragedy of “Barbarossa” met with some success, principally from the advantages it appeared under, by the performance of Garrick and Mossop, in the parts of Achmet and Barbarossa.  Garrick also supplied the prologue and epilogue,.  It being mentioned to Dr. Johnson, that Garrick assisted the author in the composition of this tragedy, “No, Sir,” said the Doctor, “Browne would no more suffer Garrick to write a line in his play than he would suffer him to mount his pulpit."-E.

(534) The author was the ingenious but unhappy Dr. John Browne, who was also author of the “Essays on Satire,” occasioned by the death of Pope, and the celebrated “Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times.”  He had the misfortune to labour under a constitutional dejection of spirits; and in September 1766, in an interval of deprivation of reason, put a period to his existence, in his fifty-first year.-E.

(535) No. 92, Reflections on the Drinking Club; No. 98, On the Italian Opera; No. 100, On Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary; and No. 101, Humorous Observations on the English Language; by Lord Chesterfield.-E.

(536) No. 103, On Politeness; and the Politeness of Highwaymen.-E.

(537) The Czar Paul the first.

(538) Henry Earl of Lincoln, nephew to the Duke of Newcastle, to whose title he succeeded.

(539) The British Inquisition was opened in 1754, by a public ordinary, where every person was permitted, for three shillings a-head, to drink port, or claret, or whatever liquor he should choose.  This was succeeded by a lecture on oratory.  The plan did not succeed; for while Macklin was engaged in drilling his waiters, or fitting himself for the rostrum, his waiters, in return, were robbing him in all directions; so that, in the February of this year, he was declared a bankrupt, under the designation of a vintner.-E.

(540) George James Williams, Esq. son of the eminent lawyer, William Peere Williams.-E.

233 Letter 120 To George Montagu, Esq.  Arlington Street, Jan. 7, 1755.

I imagined by your letter the Colonel was in town, and was shocked at not having been to wait on him; upon inquiry, I find he is not; and now, can conceive how he came to tell you, that the town has been entertained with a paper of mine; I send it you, to show you that this is one of the many fabulous histories which have been spread in such quantities, and without foundation.

I shall take care of your letter to Mr. Bentley.  Mr. Chute is at the Vine, or I know he would, as I do, beg his compliments to Miss Montagu.  You do not wish me joy on the approaching nuptials of Mr. Harris and our Miss Anne.  He is so amorous, that whenever he sits by her, (and he cannot stand by her,) my Lady Townshend, by a very happy expression, says, “he is always setting his dress.”  Have you heard of a Countess Chamfelt, a Bohemian, rich and hideous, who is arrived here, and is under the protection of Lady Caroline Petersham @ She has a great facility at languages, and has already learned, “D—­n you, and kiss me;” I beg her pardon, I believe she never uses the former, but upon the miscarriage of the latter:  in short, as Doddington says, she has had the honour of performing at most courts in Europe.  Adieu!