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GRAY, WALPOLE, ASHTON. 43

truth, worthy a Sage of yr honor's magnitude. The
end of yr researches, I mean whatever your profound
Contemplation brings to light, I shd be proud to be
acquainted with, whether it please to be invokd under
the appellation of Sermon, Vision, Essay or dis-
coxirse; in short, on whatever head, you may chuse
to be loquacious (Wall on Infant Baptism excepted) a
dissertation will be very acceptable, and receivd with
a reverence due to the hand it comes from.

We have seen here your " Gustavus Vasa¹" that.
had raisd the general expectation so high, long ago.
a worthy piece of prohibited Merchandise, in truth t
The Town must have been extreme mercifully dis-
posd ; if for the sake of ten innocent lines that may
peradventure be pickd out, it had consented to spare
the lives of the ten thousand wicked ones, that-
remain. I dont know what condition your Stage is
in, but the French is in a very good one at present..
Among the rest they have a Mad^lle Dumenil² whose

¹ "Walpole wiiting to "West from. Bheims June 18,1739 N.S.,
describing his exercises in French says 'Besides this, I have
paraphrased half the first act of your new ' Gustavns' which
was sent us to Paris; a most dainty performance, and just
what you say of it.' Henry Brooke's ' Gustavus Yasa' was pro-
hibited by Sir Robert Walpole's Act for Licensing Plays. The
prohibition called forth Johnson's ironical 'Vindication of the
Licensers of the Stage.⁷ Brooke subsequently wrote 'The Pool
of Quality,' a novel, by which he is better known.

² Marie Francoise Dtunesnil, of the ComSdie Franchise,
born in 1711, retired from the stage 7 April 1776 and died in<



	GRAY, WALPOLE, ASHTON. 43 truth, worthy a Sage of yr honor's magnitude. The end of yr researches, I mean whatever your profound Contemplation brings to light, I shd be proud to be acquainted with, whether it please to be invokd under the appellation of Sermon, Vision, Essay or dis- coxirse; in short, on whatever head, you may chuse to be loquacious (Wall on Infant Baptism excepted) a dissertation will be very acceptable, and receivd with a reverence due to the hand it comes from. We have seen here your " Gustavus Vasa¹" that. had raisd the general expectation so high, long ago. a worthy piece of prohibited Merchandise, in truth t The Town must have been extreme mercifully dis- posd ; if for the sake of ten innocent lines that may peradventure be pickd out, it had consented to spare the lives of the ten thousand wicked ones, that- remain. I dont know what condition your Stage is in, but the French is in a very good one at present.. Among the rest they have a Mad^lle Dumenil² whose ¹ "Walpole wiiting to "West from. Bheims June 18,1739 N.S., describing his exercises in French says 'Besides this, I have paraphrased half the first act of your new ' Gustavns' which was sent us to Paris; a most dainty performance, and just what you say of it.' Henry Brooke's ' Gustavus Yasa' was pro- hibited by Sir Robert Walpole's Act for Licensing Plays. The prohibition called forth Johnson's ironical 'Vindication of the Licensers of the Stage.⁷ Brooke subsequently wrote 'The Pool of Quality,' a novel, by which he is better known. ² Marie Francoise Dtunesnil, of the ComSdie Franchise, born in 1711, retired from the stage 7 April 1776 and died in<