372). Meanwhile,
it is his fate to-day to be mainly remembered by three words
(not always attributed to him) in a couplet from what Johnson
styled 'perhaps the meanest' of his performances, the 'Elegy --
to an Old Beauty':--
And all that's madly wild, or oddly gay,
We call it only 'pretty Fanny's way'.
THE CLOWN'S REPLY.
This, though dated 'Edinburgh 1753,' was first printed in 'Poems
and Plays', 1777, p. 79.
l. 1. -----
"John Trott" is a name for a clown or commonplace
character. Miss Burney ('Diary', 1904, i. 222) says of Dr.
Delap:-- 'As to his person and appearance, they are much in the
'John-trot' style.' Foote, Chesterfield, and Walpole use the
phrase; Fielding Scotticizes it into 'John Trott-Plaid, Esq.';
and Bolingbroke employs it as a pseudonym.
l. 6. -----
"I shall ne'er see your graces". 'I shall never see a
Goose again without thinking on Mr.
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