A Just View of the British Stage
[3] In the print, the production of popularist plays are taken to an extreme by suggesting that the three impresarios are planning a spectacle which combines Dr Faustus with Harlequin Sheppard.[4] To make it more ridiculous "comical humours" are added from Ben Johnson's Ghost and the exploits of "Scaramouch" Jack Hall, who here is depicted as escaping Newgate by lowering himself down the privy.The caption mocks the players further suggesting that in the conclusion to the play the three men will perform the "Hay Dance" while suspended from ropes hanging from the painted depiction of the nine muses above, and concludes: "The Bricks, Rubbish &c will be real, but the Excrements upon Jack Hall will be made of Chew'd Gingerbread to prevent Offense".On the model privy pages from Shakespeare's Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Hamlet and Congreve's The Way of Ye World hang as toilet paper.Wilks (to the left of the picture) declares "Poor R—ch, Faith I pitty him" as he sits dangling a puppet of Mr. Punch, a none-too subtle suggestion that he exceeds Rich in his desire to pander to the lowest denominator.