Sancho, Charles Ignatius (1729-1780)

Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African

London

Printed by J. Nichols

1782

"The Prologue is well--the Epilogue worth the whole--such is my criticism--read--stare--and conclude your friend mad--tho' a more Christian supposition would be--(what's true at the same time) that my ideas are frozen, much more frigid than the play;--but allowing that--and although I confess myself exceeding cold, yet I have warmth enough to declare myself yours sincerely."

I HAVE read, but have found nothing of the striking kind of sentimental novelty--which I expected from its great author--the language is good in most places--but never rises above the common pitch.--In many of our inferior tragedies--I have ever found here and there a flower strewn, which has been the grace and pride of the poetic par terre, and has made me involuntary cry out, Bravo!--from dress--scenery--action--and the rest of play-house garniture--it may shew well and go down--like insipid fish with good sauce;--the Prologue is well--the Epilogue worth the whole--such is my criticism--read--stare--and conclude your friend mad--tho' a more Christian supposition would be--(what's true at the same time) that my ideas are frozen, much more frigid than the play;--but allowing that--and although I confess myself exceeding cold, yet I have warmth enough to declare myself yours sincerely, [...]
(I.xl, pp. 107-8; p. 79 in Carretta)

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Reading; text from DocSouth

Five entries in ESTC (1782, 1783, 1784). [Second edition in 1783, third in 1784.]

See Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African. In Two Volumes. To Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of His Life (London: Printed by J. Nichols, 1782). <Link to text from Documenting the American South at UNC>

Reading Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, ed. Vincent Carretta (New York: Penguin, 1998).

07/11/2013