_ Ay, faith, and her grandmother's chin to a hair.
Sheridan, as we have observed, was not more remarkable as a dramatist
than as a man of society, and passed for what was called a "wit." The
name had been applied two centuries before to men of talent generally,
especially to writers, but now it referred exclusively to such as were
humorous in conversation. These men, though to a certain extent the
successors of the parasites of Greece, and the fools of the middle ages,
were men of education and independence, if not of good family, and
rather sought popularity than any mercenary remuneration. The majority
of them, however, were gainers by their pleasantry, they rose into a
higher grade of society, were welcome at the tables of the great, and
derived many advantages, not unacceptable to men generally poor and
improvident. As Swift well observed, though not unequal to business,
they were above it. Moreover, the age was one in which society was less
varied than it is now in its elements and interests; when men of talent
were more prominent, and it was easier to command an audience. It was
known to all that Mr. ---- was coming, and guests repaired to the feast,
not to talk, but to listen, as we should now to a public reading. The
greatest joke and treat was to get two of such men, and set them against
each other, when they had to bring out their best steel; although it
sometimes happened, that both refused to fight.
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