“The company consisted but of Mr. Rogers himself, Lord Byron, Mr. Sheridan, and the writer of this Memoir.  Sheridan knew the admiration his audience felt for him; the presence of the young poet, in particular, seemed to bring back his own youth and wit; and the details he gave of his early life were not less interesting and animating to himself than delightful to us.  It was in the course of this evening that, describing to us the poem which Mr. Whitbread had written, and sent in, among the other addresses for the opening of Drury Lane theatre, and which, like the rest, turned chiefly on allusions to the Phoenix, he said—­’But Whitbread made more of this bird than any of them:—­he entered into particulars, and described its wings, beak, tail, &c.;—­in short, it was a poulterer’s description of a Phoenix.”—­Life of Sheridan.]

* * * * *

On the same day I received from him the following additional scraps.  The lines in italics are from the eulogy that provoked his waggish comments.

“TO ——­

    1.

    “‘I lay my branch of laurel down.’

    “Thou ’lay thy branch of laurel down!”
      Why, what thou’st stole is not enow;
    And, were it lawfully thine own,
      Does Rogers want it most, or thou? 
    Keep to thyself thy wither’d bough,
      Or send it back to Dr. Donne—­
    Were justice done to both, I trow,
      He’d have but little, and thou—­none.

    2.

    “’Then thus to form Apollo’s crown.

    “A crown! why, twist it how you will,
    Thy chaplet must be foolscap still. 
    When next you visit Delphi’s town,
      Enquire amongst your fellow-lodgers,
    They’ll tell you Phoebus gave his crown,
    Some years before your birth, to Rogers.

    3.

    “‘Let every other bring his own.’

    “When coals to Newcastle are carried,
      And owls sent to Athens as wonders,
    From his spouse when the * ’s unmarried,
      Or Liverpool weeps o’er his blunders;
    When Tories and Whigs cease to quarrel,
      When C ’s wife has an heir,
    Then Rogers shall ask us for laurel,
      And thou shalt have plenty to spare.”

The mention which he makes of Sheridan in the note just cited affords a fit opportunity of producing, from one of his Journals, some particulars which he has noted down respecting this extraordinary man, for whose talents he entertained the most unbounded admiration,—­rating him, in natural powers, far above all his great political contemporaries.

“In society I have met Sheridan frequently:  he was superb!  He had a sort of liking for me, and never attacked me, at least to my face, and he did every body else—­high names, and wits, and orators, some of them poets also.  I have seen him cut up Whitbread, quiz Madame de Stael, annihilate Colman, and do little less by some others (whose names, as friends, I set not down) of good fame and ability.