Despairing at the loss of his mistress and the absence of any legitimate fortune, Roderick plunges into gaming, at one point winning a thousand pounds before losing everything down to five guineas. He departs for London by stagecoach, brooding even of highway robbery on Bagshot Heath, and takes up his old lodgings. Banter, a disreputable acquaintance, counsels him to bilk his tailor by ordering rich suits and selling them at half-price to a Monmouth Street salesman; Roderick raises five-and-twenty guineas by the scheme. In his absence, a letter from Narcissa arrives, confirming her constancy, assuring him of her strict confinement, and warning him against any attempt at contact that might prolong her captivity. Strap, weeping at his master’s ruin, offers to hire himself as a journeyman barber to keep them both alive, and consoles Roderick with the possible return of his wealthy uncle, Mr. Bowling, whose ship is daily expected from the Indies.
CHAPTER LXIII / CHAPTER LXV
CHAPTER LXIII opens as the final installment of the story of struggling playwright Mr. Melopoyn, a tale he recounts to narrator Roderick Random while both are imprisoned for debt in London. After scraping by through the previous winter, Melopoyn turns to his friend Mr. Supple, who arranges an introduction to Lord Rattle, a well-connected young nobleman who claims exceptional dramatic taste and enough social influence to overcome the “envy and ignorance” Melopoyn has faced in the London patent theatre system. Supple assures Melopoyn that literary merit alone will not guarantee stage success, and that Lord Rattle’s patronage is his only viable path. Melopoyn secures new clothes on his landlord’s credit, delivers his tragedy and Supple’s introduction to Lord Rattle’s lodgings, and is told to return in a week.
When Melopoyn returns, Lord Rattle praises the play as the best debut he has ever read, but demands extensive marginal alterations. Melopoyn, desperate to secure the nobleman’s support, complies in less than a month, not daring to dispute even the most trivial of Lord Rattle’s notes. Lord Rattle then has a veteran actor read scenes from the revised play at a gathering of his wealthy acquaintances; the actor, though skilled at emphasis and pronunciation, is deeply illiterate and dismissive of Melopoyn’s wording, and Lord Rattle forbids Melopoyn from defending his work, insisting the actor understands stage “economy” better than any living person. The play is nonetheless applauded by the group, and Lord Rattle promises to act as its “careful nurse,” demanding further immediate revisions per the attendees’ feedback. Before Melopoyn can deliver the new copy, however, Mr. Supple has sold his patent to new theatre manager Mr. Brayer, forcing Melopoyn to rebuild his patronage from scratch. Lord Rattle recommends the play strongly to Brayer, who claims it has “indubitable merit” but is already pre-engaged to another author for the upcoming season, offering to produce it the following year if Melopoyn makes further marginal alterations. Melopoyn is thunderstruck by the delay, but Lord Rattle rebukes him for complaining, insisting Brayer is a man of honour whose failure to produce the play is just forgetfulness—a conclusion Melopoyn will later choose to accept, rather than credit the manager with intentional perfidy.
Melopoyn then turns to London’s second patent theatre, where Lord Rattle writes a recommendation to Mr. Bellower, the prime minister of manager Mr. Vandal. Melopoyn waits an hour in the lobby to see Bellower, who receives him with supercilious rudeness, tells him to return in a week, and when Melopoyn returns, claims he has not read the play. When Melopoyn demands his manuscript back in annoyance, Bellower pulls a bundle of unread plays from his desk, throws them on a table, and tells Melopoyn to take whichever is his—a humiliating encounter that reveals the dozens of new plays submitted to the London stage each year. Melopoyn complains to Lord Rattle, who tells him he must learn to bear the “humours of the players” if he wants to write for the stage, and advises him to wait for Brayer to produce the play the next season. Melopoyn, with no other path to the fortune and reputation he promised himself from the tragedy, agrees, and spends the next eight months wrestling with extreme poverty, waiting for the promised production.
When the new season arrives, Melopoyn learns Lord Rattle is going abroad, and Brayer is in the country. Lord Rattle writes a strong recommendation to Brayer, but when Melopoyn delivers it, Brayer’s servant lies that his master is out, even as Brayer watches Melopoyn leave through a window. Melopoyn sends a letter demanding a categorical answer, and Brayer immediately agrees to see him, flooding him with apologies for the servant’s mistake, claiming Brayer was ordered to deny everyone but Melopoyn. Brayer gives Melopoyn a free season pass to the theatre, which Melopoyn uses often, and repeatedly asks when the play will go to rehearsal, only for Brayer to claim he is too busy with other work. Melopoyn is shocked to see another new play, submitted and rehearsed in just three months, appear in the papers, and though he initially suspects Brayer of perfidy, he later chooses to ascribe the manager’s failure to natural defects of memory and judgment, more worthy of compassion than reproach.
Desperate for new patronage, Melopoyn is put in touch with a gentlewoman who claims to have connections to Earl Sheerwit, a national Maecenas whose approval alone can stamp value on any literary work. Melopoyn withdraws his play from Brayer and gives it to the gentlewoman, who conveys it to Earl Sheerwit within a month; within a few weeks, Melopoyn hears the earl has read and approved the play highly. When Melopoyn hears nothing further for three months, he briefly suspects the gentlewoman of lying, but soon learns Earl Sheerwit has indeed recommended the play to celebrated actor Mr. Marmozet, who has such sway over London theatres that managers dare not refuse his recommendations. Marmozet tells Melopoyn he will act in the play the next season, takes the manuscript to the country to review it, and promises to write with notes in ten days. When six weeks pass with no word, Melopoyn’s hot-headed friend tells him Marmozet is dissembling, already engaged with manager Mr. Vandal, and planning to block Melopoyn’s play to make way for a comedy he purchased to advance his own profits. Melopoyn refuses to believe Marmozet could be so perfidious, choosing to see him as a man of talent undeserving of such slander.
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