'"
In reference to this article, she remarks in "Thraliana":
"There seems to be a language now appropriated to the newspapers, and
a very wretched and unmeaning language it is. Yet a certain set of
expressions are so necessary to please the diurnal readers, that when
Johnson and I drew up an advertisement for charity once, I remember
the people altered our expressions and substituted their own, with
good effect too. The other day I sent a Character of Baretti to 'The
World,' and read it two mornings after more altered than improved in
my mind: but no matter: they will talk of _wielding_ a language, and
of _barbarous_ infamy,--sad stuff, to be sure, but such is the taste
of the times. They altered even my quotation from Pope; but that was
too impudent."
The comparison of Baretti to the hornet was truer than she
anticipated: _animamque in vulnere ponit_. Internal evidence leads
almost irresistibly to the conclusion that he was the author or
prompter of "The _Sentimental_ Mother: a Comedy in Five Acts. The
Legacy of an Old Friend, and his 'Last Moral Lesson' to Mrs. Hester
Lynch Thrale, now Mrs. Hester Lynch Piozzi. London: Printed for James
Ridgeway, York Street, St. James's Square, 1789. Price three
shillings." The principal _dramatis personae_ are Mr. Timothy Tunskull
(Thrale), Lady Fantasma Tunskull, two Misses Tunskull, and Signor
Squalici.
Lady Fantasma is vain, affected, silly, and amorous to excess. Not
satisfied with Squalici as her established gallant, she makes
compromising advances to her daughter's lover on his way to a
_tete-a-tete_ with the young lady, who takes her wonted place on his
knee with his arm round her waist.
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