pleased the town quite as much as Farewell to the Mountain.' The song I mean was sung by Wood in the Invincibles. But enough on this subject. I have just one word to say of the singers. The opera was very creditably represented on the whole; but Miss Shirreff, as the prima donna, has displayed powers, vocal and histrionic, of which few before considered her possessed. She sings very correctly and very sweetly. Occasionally, perhaps, there is too much show of effort, both in the singing and in the acting; but, as she acquires greater confidence in the situation she has so well achieved for herself, this, no doubt, will disappear. Phillips, to the astonishment of the critics and the cockneys, plays a comic part, and plays it right well. Stupid, ignorant people may be amazed at this, because this excellent singer is a man of grave and saturnine appearance for that he is black,' and so forth, like Othello; but I myself have no hesitation in declaring my conviction that Phillips's forte is comedy, and that it will be found before long, and manifest to all, that he has in him the stuff to make an admirable comic actor in opera.

"For a great number of nights Drury Lane has been crowded, the performances being the Siege of Rochelle and the Jewess. The latter is a melodramatic spectacle, which has in its story the touch of interest; and which, in splendour of dresses, decorations, and all the pride, pomp, and circumstance' of gorgeous processions, never, I do believe, was surpassed on any stage in the world. The dialogue, without containing one single new idea, fancy, conceit, or expression, is neatly written; but there is frequently to be remarked an affectation of pure old English, which is rather ludicrous in so very small a littérateur as the playwright. Still, the dramatic portion of the piece is interesting, and the spectacle throughout adds to, instead of marring, the effect. There is, for example, something absolutely affecting in the contrast between the pride of the assistants in the emperor's triumphal procession, and the utter desolation of the heart-sick girl as she lies on the threshold of the house into which her false lover has fled. Miss Ellen Tree played this girl, and fully deserves all the approbation that has been heaped upon her for the per

formance. Mr. Vandenhoff, too, has gained favour by his impersonation of the Jew, her father. Thus much of Drury Lane."

The Lord Protector then desired the speaker to pass on to the rest; but he, with many apologies, begged to be excused, upon the plea of weariness and indisposition; and he was finally permitted to delegate the task to a Polander, named Felix Fantowzlevitch; who, after some prefatory matter, in which he complimented his predecessor, declared his humble duty to OLIVER YORKE, and besought the indulgence of the Fraserian audience generally, he went on to speak of

COVENT GARDEN THEATRE,

and said:"Here, my Lord Protector, you have a cheap company, at low prices. The boxes have been reduced to four shillings, and so on for the rest of the house proportionably. I have been informed the house has been generally pretty full; and as there is little expense, I should presume that, up to this time (and it is the most perilous of the season), the speculation must have been, if not actually successful, so very little removed from it as to answer the just expectations of the lessee. I have said he had a cheap company, and, from the quality of the actors, there never could be a doubt such is the fact. They are, I dare say, effective enough in melodrama; and if he confined his performances to this, it would be all well. A second Astley's might be comfortably maintained on this, the larger and more populous side of the river. But why, oh! why will they assault farce and murder comedy? I do not speak of tragedy -I should not dream of warning them off-for I look upon a tragedy enacted after their fashion as a matter of curious amusement. And Mr. Osbaldistone has latterly introduced it, as a gracious relief to the more energetic action and noisier and more indiscriminate slaughter of his melodramas. The effect has been good; and if it were not for the introduction of Power, we should have concluded the lessee was playing upon a system 'on a sustem,' as Doctor O'Toole says; but there is too much genuine humour about Power to be controlled by the accessories of the scene, animate or inanimate.

1

Ma

femme et quatre poupées,' quoth M. Villebrunque, to form an opera. Power

Oliver Yorke.-" Go on, Fantowzlevitch! Never mind Morgan - poor fellow, he has been very queer of late -oppressed

With musing melancholy,
And thick-coming fancies.""

Morgan Rattler.-"Thank you for nothing, your highness! I tell you, if you do not make Fraser move for a new trial, and employ Sir Charles Botherall, I never will write another line for your Magazine, cognate or comical."

Oliver Yorke (with great dignity).— "I again say, go on, Felix Fantowzlevitch !"

Felix resumed, accordingly. "I again say, sir, I felt the utmost anxiety to see Mr. Kemble's Hamlet, in consequence of his daughter's having described it as the most exquisitely beautiful performance that ever yet was witnessed; and, of course, on her judgment I had the most implicit reliance. I knewfor I read all the newspapers and reviews, the best public instructors that she was the greatest actress that ever appeared upon the British boards, and that her tragedy was the noblest production of modern times."

"Stop, my friend!" exclaimed Pierce Pungent; "I must set you right! You are altogether on a wrong scent--you have been misled. Listen for a moment! Of all the atrocious humbugs ever perpetrated upon the public for any length of time, that about Fanny Kemble was the greatest. She had nothing whatsoever to recommend her as an actress. I am quite persuaded that John Braham would play some of those buskined parts, such as Richard III., to which he is said to aspire, better than she impersonated those delicate creations of Shakespeare in which she was SO vehemently applauded. The fact is, the London press played upon the kindly feelings of a good-natured public. People permitted the eloquent scribes of the newspapers to exhaust their stock of laudatory words and metaphors, the while they invested her with all the attributes of a Una, and every other most exquisite heroine of romance -and this simply because the girl had been put forward in a congenial occupation to assist her embarrassed parents. Verily, the praise lavished on her was most preposterous, and the gaping assent of John Bull thereunto most ridiculous. The critics of the Magazines

and Reviewsflared up' in rivalry of the critics of the Press. It was a question whether Milman, the prosing poet of the Quarterly, or the poetic prosers of the newspapers, should administer the hugest doses of praise. And yet what was there in the play worth any thing, except a passage or two, belauded with such overweening tenderness by the Professor of Poetry, as to make his paternal relation to the same very probable. As to the hero, the subject, the plot and incidents-to say the least, the selection ofthem was queer. Yet I must acknowledge that, with respect to the Royal Martyr, Miss Kemble was not original in her choice. It appears that the Limosin, qui contrefaisoit le languaige François,' as Miss Fanny very often did our English, was in reality a damsel of Picardy, named Lizane de Crenne; who, according to Pâquier, 'traduisit en François les quatre premiers livres de l'Enéide, qu'elle dédia au roi, François I. Et elle fit aussi l'histoire, non de sa vie seulement, mais de sa propre mort, dans un livre imprimé à Lyon, et en 154 à Paris, sous le titre des Angoisses douleureuses que procédent d'Amours.'

Morgan Rattler.-" By the staff and beard of Esculapius, the soul of that damsel of Picardy must have transmigrated into Miss Martineau! But what of that? The fact is, sir, these poor foreigners do not know much about either of the ladies; so it is a charity for you to tell them. They are clever fellows, however, and industrious too; and they earn their halfpence very hard by idling about for you in theatres, and other such foolish places. But, as this gentleman has told you, they were in foreign parts during the Fanny-mania, and so know nothing except through the newspapers; and, OLIVER, do you not remember what uncommonly grand writing there used to be in them in those days? This language was ransacked for superlatives wherewith to dilate upon her genius, her wit, her beauty, her shoes, her gloves, her pocket-handkerchief! An Abderite madness had seized upon the critics. I recollect one of them, in a most poetic article, compared the applause in anticipation of her appearance on the stage to the pattering of rain on the roof of a house; and the burst of welcome with which, on her actual advent, she was received, to the reverberated roar of the multi

tudinous waves, as they lash a rocky shore in the hour of tempest."

Oliver Yorke.-"And right pleasant similes they were, as far as they went. But, you remember, there were three species of applause used in the theatres of old, and two of them only are al luded to by the learned critic.'

Morgan Rattler.-"Ay! Nero had five thousand shepherds to administer the bombos, the imbrices, and the testus, when he sung in public. Our friend omitted the bombos, not considering it a genteel sort of applause for a young lady; but the other two he has right enough imbrices was a noise resembling the rattling of rain upon the tiles, and testas was in imitation of the slapping a brace of tiles together. By the by, à propos to Nero and buffoonery, I wonder Mulgrave, who is a great play-actor and posture-maker, does not perform at the Dublin Theatre, and insist upon O'Connell and his tail attending as claqueurs."

Henry Mildmay. "I am afraid Dan would prove as restive as old Vespasian, who always fell asleep, or stole out of the room, when Nero was singing."

Morgan Rattler.--" Yes, but the old beggarman got punished for the same—he was sent to snooze in foreign parts."

Oliver Yorke.-" That is more than the Dictator would; and, for my part, I think any man would be justified in pretending to be dead, for the purpose of getting himself conveyed away from any theatre in which Mulgrave was acting as it is related a senator once did, to get out of earshot of Nero."

Morgan Rattler." I do not see why a man should not die altogether on such an occasion, if he liked. But that is nothing to the purpose. I want to praise Fanny Kemble

not as an

authoress, not as an actress, but as a woman of discrimination, sense, and courage. She herself was as conscious as any body could be of the horrid nonsense that was written about her by her demented admirers, and she loathed them for it-she hated the sight of them, as she did that of a bug;' and now that she no longer needs them, she has had the pluck to say so: and from the bottom of my heart I honour her for it. So let the Polander go on, and say no more about her. Warned by the example of the critic-bugs, he

It

"In addition to what has been already told, I have to state that these theatres are apparently in a prosperous condition. The company at the Olympic is a very good one, and there you may laugh till you are tired. A son of Mathews, the deceased player, has made a successful début as an actor ; and Lover, already so highly distinguished as a painter, a tale-writer, and a lyric poet, has made an equally successful first appearance as a dramatic writer. The Adelphi, under the management of Mrs. Nisbett, flourishes; and Braham's new theatre has been opened next door to Crockford's Bazaar, which rumour states is to be converted to good purpose. is whispered that Braham is not the sole speculator in this theatre, but that Crockford, envious of the success of Mr. Bond, has determined on having a dash at theatricals on his own account. A great deal of maudlin nonsense has been prated about Bond's investing his money in a playhouse of one description, because he is said to have kept a playhouse of another. I never heard that managers of theatres were remarkable for morality, any more than they are for honesty. They are very commonly adventurers without one penny, and commence with the determination to swindle every body that will permit them. If a gentleman engage in such matters, he is quite sure of being robbed ; and if he withdraw not timeously, of being beggared. Even at this moment, when the honesty, morality, and piety of all the managers of all the theatres are no doubt conspicuous, the only very markworthy difference I can observe between Mr. Bond and his brother and sister speculators is, that he is supposed to begin with a great deal of money-a vice which the rest are suspected not to have yet acquired. But really these Tweedledum and Tweedledee distinctions are lamentably absurd. The less that is said about morality, in reference to theatres, in any of their departments, the better. Let me only add that