We were all, at the first night of it, in great uncertainty of the
event, till we were very much encouraged by overhearing the Duke of
Argyll, who sat in the next box to us, say, 'It will do--it must do!
I see it in the eyes of them.' This was a good while before the
first act was over, and so gave us ease soon; for that Duke (besides
his own good taste) has a particular knack, as any one now living,
in discovering the taste of the public. He was quite right in this,
as usual; the good-nature of the audience appeared stronger and
stronger every act, and ended in a clamour of applause."

Its reception is thus recorded in the notes to the "Dunciad":--

"This piece was received with greater applause than was ever known.
Besides being acted in London sixty-three days without interruption,
and renewed the next season with equal applause, it spread into all
the great towns of England; was played in many places to the
thirtieth and fortieth time; at Bath and Bristol fifty, etc. It
made its progress into Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, where it was
performed twenty-four days successively. The ladies carried about
with them the favourite songs of it in fans, and houses were
furnished with it in screens. The fame of it was not confined to
the author only. The person who acted Polly, till then obscure,
became all at once the favourite of the town; her pictures were
engraved and sold in great numbers; her life written, books of
letters and verses to her published, and pamphlets made even of her
sayings and jests. Furthermore, it drove out of England (for that
season) the Italian Opera, which had carried all before it for ten
years."

Of this performance, when it was printed, the reception was