Some hissing was heard at the commencement of the new drama,
and placards were exhibited in the pit condemning the horses; but in
the end "Timour" triumphed over all opposition, and rivalled the run
of "Blue Beard." It is to be remembered, especially by those who
insist so much on the degeneracy of the modern theatre, that these
"horse spectacles" were presented in a patent house during the palmy
days of the drama, while the Kemble family was still in possession of
the stage of Covent Garden.
These equestrian doings were satirised at the Haymarket Theatre in the
following summer. "The Quadrupeds of Quedlinburgh, or the Rovers of
Weimar," was produced, being an adaptation by Colman of a burlesque,
attributed to Canning, in "The Anti-Jacobin." It was designed to
ridicule not merely the introduction of horses upon the stage, but
also the then prevailing taste for morbid German dramas of the
Kotzebue school. The prologue was in part a travestie of Pope's
prologue to "Cato," and contained references to the plays of "Lovers'
Vows" and "The Stranger."
To lull the soul by spurious strokes of art,
To warp the genius and mislead the heart,
To make mankind revere wives gone astray,
Love pious sons who rob on the highway,
For this the foreign muses trod our stage,
Commanding German schools to be the rage.
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