At first the audience enjoyed the folly of
Pinkethman, and the distressed air of Wilks; but soon the joke grew
tiresome, and hisses became distinctly audible. By assuming as
melancholy an expression as he could, and exclaiming with a strong
nasal twang: "Odds, I fear I'm wrong," Pinkethman was enabled to
restore the good-humour of his patrons. It would seem that on other
occasions he was compelled to make some similar apology for his
misdemeanours. "I have often thought," Cibber writes, "that a good
deal of the favour he met with was owing to this seeming humble way of
waiving all pretences to merit, but what the town would please to
allow him." A satiric poem, called "The Players," published in 1733,
contains the following reference to Pinkethman:
Quit not your theme to win the gaping rout,
Nor aim at Pinkey's leer with "S'death, I'm out!"
An arch dull rogue, who lets the business cool,
To show how nicely he can play the fool,
Who with buffoonery his dulness clokes,
Deserves a cat-o'-nine-tails for his jokes.
At this time, Pinkethman had been dead some years, and it is explained
in a note, that no "invidious reflection upon his memory" was
intended, but merely a caution to others, who, less gifted, should
presume to imitate conduct which had not escaped censure even in his
case.
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