Address, Spoken at the Opening of Drury-Lane Theatre, Saturday, October 10, 1812

1. 1In one dread night our city saw, and sighed,
2. 2Bowed to the dust, the Drama's tower of pride;
3. 3In one short hour beheld the blazing fane,
4. 4Apollo sink, and Shakespeare cease to reign.

1. 5Ye who beheld, (oh! sight admired and mourned,
2. 6Whose radiance mocked the ruin it adorned!)
3. 7Through clouds of fire the massy fragments riven,
4. 8Like Israel's pillar, chase the night from heaven;
5. 9Saw the long column of revolving flames
6. 10Shake its red shadow o'er the startled Thames,
7. 11While thousands, thronged around the burning dome,
8. 12Shrank back appalled, and trembled for their home,
9. 13As glared the volumed blaze, and ghastly shone
10. 14The skies, with lightnings awful as their own,
11. 15Till blackening ashes and the lonely wall
12. 16Usurped the Muse's realm, and marked her fall;
13. 17Say--shall this new, nor less aspiring pile,
14. 18Reared where once rose the mightiest in our isle,
15. 19Know the same favour which the former knew,
16. 20A shrine for Shakespeare--worthy him and you?

1. 21Yes--it shall be--the magic of that name
2. 22Defies the scythe of time, the torch of flame;
3. 23On the same spot still consecrates the scene,
4. 24And bids the Drama be where she hath been:
5. 25This fabric's birth attests the potent spell----
6. 26Indulge our honest pride, and say, How well!

1. 27As soars this fane to emulate the last,
2. 28Oh! might we draw our omens from the past,
3. 29Some hour propitious to our prayers may boast
4. 30Names such as hallow still the dome we lost.
5. 31On Drury first your Siddons' thrilling art
6. 32O'erwhelmed the gentlest, stormed the sternest heart.
7. 33On Drury, Garrick's latest laurels grew;
8. 34Here your last tears retiring Roscius drew,
9. 35Sighed his last thanks, and wept his last adieu:
10. 36But still for living wit the wreaths may bloom,
11. 37That only waste their odours o'er the tomb.
12. 38Such Drury claimed and claims--nor you refuse
13. 39One tribute to revive his slumbering muse;
14. 40With garlands deck your own Menander's head,
15. 41Nor hoard your honours idly for the dead!
16. 42Dear are the days which made our annals bright,
17. 43Ere Garrick fled, or Brinsley ceased to write
18. 44Heirs to their labours, like all high-born heirs,
19. 45Vain of our ancestry as they of theirs;
20. 46While thus Remembrance borrows Banquo's glass
21. 47To claim the sceptred shadows as they pass,
22. 48And we the mirror hold, where imaged shine
23. 49Immortal names, emblazoned on our line,
24. 50Pause--ere their feebler offspring you condemn,
25. 51Reflect how hard the task to rival them!

1. 52Friends of the stage! to whom both Players and Plays
2. 53Must sue alike for pardon or for praise,
3. 54Whose judging voice and eye alone direct
4. 55The boundless power to cherish or reject;
5. 56If e'er frivolity has led to fame,
6. 57And made us blush that you forbore to blame--
7. 58If e'er the sinking stage could condescend
8. 59To soothe the sickly taste it dare not mend--
9. 60All past reproach may present scenes refute,
10. 61And censure, wisely loud, be justly mute!
11. 62Oh! since your fiat stamps the Drama's laws,
12. 63Forbear to mock us with misplaced applause;
13. 64So Pride shall doubly nerve the actor's powers,
14. 65And Reason's voice be echoed back by ours!

1. 66This greeting o'er--the ancient rule obeyed,
2. 67The Drama's homage by her herald paid--
3. 68Receive our welcome too--whose every tone
4. 69Springs from our hearts, and fain would win your own.
5. 70The curtain rises--may our stage unfold
6. 71Scenes not unworthy Drury's days of old!
7. 72Britons our judges, Nature for our guide,
8. 73Still may we please--long, long may you preside.