REJECTED ADDRESSES:

OR,

THE NEW THEATRUM POETARUM

By JAMES SMITH & HORACE SMITH.

“Fired that the House reject him!  ’Sdeath, I’ll print it,
And shame the Fools!”

Pope.

NEW EDITION.

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1879

“I think the ‘Rejected Addresses’ by far the best thing of the kind since ‘The Rolliad,’ and wish you had published them.  Tell the author ‘I forgive him, were he twenty times over our satirist;’ and think his imitations not at all inferior to the famous ones of Hawkins Browne.”

Lord Byron to Mr. Murray, Oct. 19, 1812.

“I like the volume of ‘Rejected Addresses’ better and better.”

Lord Byron to Mr. Murray, Oct. 19, 1812.

“I take the ‘Rejected Addresses’ to be the very best imitations (and often of difficult originals) that ever were made; and considering their great extent and variety, to indicate a talent to which I do not know where to look for a parallel.  Some few of them descend to the level of parodies; but by far the greater part are of a much higher description.”

Lord Jeffrey (in 1843), Note in Essays, iv. 470

ADVERTISEMENT
TO
THE TWENTY-SECOND EDITION.

James Smith and Horace Smith, authors of the Rejected Addresses; or, The New Theatrum Poetarum, were the sons of Robert Smith, solicitor to the Board of Ordnance.  James was born at No. 36, Basinghall Street, London, on the 10th of February, 1775; and Horace in the same house on the 31st of December, 1779.

James was educated under the Rev. Mr. Burford at Chigwell in Essex; articled to his father on leaving school, subsequently taken into partnership with him, and eventually succeeded to his father’s business, as well as his appointment of solicitor to the Ordnance.  Horace received the same education as his brother, became a member of the Stock Exchange in London, acquired a fortune, and retired with his wife and family to Brighton.  James, who lived and died single, was the author of several small copies of verses, since collected by his brother; and Horace was the author of “Brambletye House,” a novel in three volumes, well received at the time of its publication.

The work by which the brothers are best known, and by which they will long continue to be remembered, is the Rejected Addresses.  This delightful volume—one of the luckiest hits in literature—appeared on the re-opening of Drury Lane Theatre, in October, 1812; the idea, as Horace relates, having been casualty started by the late Mr. Ward, secretary to the theatre, exactly six weeks before the night when the opening Address was to be spoken.  The hint thus thrown out was eagerly adopted.  The brothers arranged what authors they should respectively imitate; and James executed his portion in London, and Horace the remainder at Cheltenham.  James supplied the imitations of Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, Crabbe, and Cobbett, and Nos. 14, 16, 18, 19, and 20.  The Byron was a joint effusion—James contributing the first stanza, and Horace the remainder.  The Fitzgerald, the Sir Walter Scott, &c., were by Horace.  The corrections which each supplied to the compositions of the other seldom exceeded verbal alterations or the addition of a few lines.

The copyright, which had been originally offered to Mr. Murray for 20l., and refused without even looking at the MS., [0a] was purchased by that gentleman in 1819, after the book had run through sixteen editions, for 131l.

James Smith died at his house, No. 27, Craven Street, Strand, on the 24th December, 1839, in the 65th year of his age; and was buried in the vaults of the church of St. Martin’s in the Fields.  Horace died at Tunbridge Wells, on the 12th of July, 1849, in the 70th year of his age, and was buried in the churchyard of Trinity Church, Tunbridge Wells.

P. C.

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

On the 14th of August, 1812, the following advertisement appeared in most of the daily papers:—

“Rebuilding of Drury Lane Theatre.

“The Committee are desirous of promoting a free and fair competition for an Address to be spoken upon the opening of the Theatre, which will take place on the 10th of October next.  They have, therefore, thought fit to announce to the public, that they will be glad to receive any such compositions, addressed to their Secretary, at the Treasury-office, in Drury Lane, on or before the 10th of September, sealed up, with a distinguishing word, number, or motto, on the cover, corresponding with the inscription on a separate sealed paper, containing the name of the author, which will not be opened unless containing the name of the successful candidate.”

Upon the propriety of this plan men’s minds were, as they usually are upon matters of moment, much divided.  Some thought it a fair promise of the future intention of the Committee to abolish that phalanx of authors who usurp the stage, to the exclusion of a large assortment of dramatic talent blushing unseen in the background; while others contended that the scheme would prevent men of real eminence from descending into an amphitheatre in which all Grub Street (that is to say, all London and Westminster) would be arrayed against them.  The event has proved both parties to be in a degree right, and in a degree wrong.  One hundred and twelve Addresses have been sent in, each sealed and signed, and mottoed, “as per order,” some written by men of great, some by men of little, and some by men of no talent.

Many of the public prints have censured the taste of the Committee, in thus contracting for Addresses as they would for nails—by the gross; but it is surprising that none should have censured their temerity.  One hundred and eleven of the Addresses must, of course, be unsuccessful: to each of the authors, thus infallibly classed with the genus irritabile, it would be very hard to deny six stanch friends, who consider his the best of all possible Addresses, and whose tongues will be as ready to laud him as to hiss his adversary.  These, with the potent aid of the bard himself, make seven foes per address; and thus will be created seven hundred and seventy-seven implacable auditors, prepared to condemn the strains of Apollo himself—a band of adversaries which no prudent manager would think of exasperating.

But, leaving the Committee to encounter the responsibility they have incurred, the public have at least to thank them for ascertaining and establishing one point, which might otherwise have admitted of controversy.  When it is considered that many amateur writers have been