The Adventures of Roderick Random

Earl Sheerwit’s Recommendation to Mr. Marmozet

In conversation with Mr. Marmozet, Melopoyn is astonished and pleased to learn that Earl Sheerwit has spoken very warmly in praise of the tragedy and has even sent Mr. Marmozet the copy, with a message expressing a desire that he act in it the next season. Marmozet, far from being backward, commends the piece in terms so flattering that Melopoyn declines to repeat them, and assures him that he will appear in it, provided he is engaged to play at all during the ensuing season. In the meantime, Marmozet asks leave to peruse it in the country, where he intends to remove the next day, in order to have leisure to consider and mark such alterations as may be necessary for its representation, and takes Melopoyn’s direction so that he may communicate his observations by letter.

Mr. Marmozet’s Evasive Abandonment of the Play

Six weeks elapse, and Melopoyn is at a loss to reconcile Marmozet’s silence with his promise of writing within ten days of his departure. A letter at last arrives, stating that Marmozet has made remarks on the tragedy which he will freely impart at a meeting, and advising him to lose no time in placing the play in the hands of the manager who has the best company, since Marmozet himself is entirely uncertain whether or not he shall be engaged that winter. A friend whom Melopoyn consults interprets this as a plain indication of Marmozet’s wish to escape from his promise: his pretended uncertainty about acting next winter is a scandalous evasion, for he is already engaged, or in terms, with Mr. Vandal, and his design is to disappoint Melopoyn in favour of a new comedy he has purchased from its author and intends to bring upon the stage for his own advantage.