the most consummate excellence. It was remarked, on this occasion, that his sister astonished even those best acquainted with her Lady Randolph-it was a noble contest for preeminence. Perhaps, too, the acting with her brother, in the agonizing fifth act, allowed a freer course to the feelings of the actress. There is always some reserve in a woman of delicacy towards a mere representative relation.

I will not interrupt the narrative of that great display which Kemble made of himself this season: other matters shall form a supplement. On the 19th of January, 1789, he performed Zanga, in the Revenge, and in the truly great scene with Alonzo in the fifth act, towered above himself. Yet the vast explosion upon the words "Twas I!” however answered by the applause of the audience, was but mere noise, compared with the sensibility as to the blow throughout, and the dismission of enmity at the offender's death

"A lion preys not upon carcasses."

But he turned to Shakspeare once more this season for striking effect, and produced Coriolanus, with a few additions from Thomson-I mean nearly in the state in which the play was left by old Sheridan in the year 1755, when he himself acted the haughty patrician at Covent Garden Theatre. I do not pretend that, at the first production, either Kemble or Mrs. Siddons achieved the fame subsequently attached to their performance of Coriolanus and Volumnia. By a course of peculiar study, antiquity became better known to Mrs. Siddons; and Mr. Kemble also grew more completely Roman. Mrs. Damer had led her friends into admiration of the forms which she had modelled; and I presume it was from the display of that lady's talent, that the great actress became attached to the same pursuit. The application to statuary is always the study of the antique. It soon became apparent, that Mrs. Siddons was conversant with drapery more dignified than the shifting robes of fashion; and in truth her action also occasionally reminded the spectator of classic models. had not derived this from any foreign theatres, for she had then seen none. Her attention to sculpture accounts for it satisfactorily.

As to Mr. Kemble, though he never handled the pencil, he had a great affection for the art, and well understood how far it could be serviceable to his own. In our morning walks together, we called upon the artists to whom we were alike known, and viewed the progress of their works, whether of history or portrait, with sincere satisfaction. Mr. Kemble's

politeness and modesty at such times rendered him a welcome visitor; and the silence that invades every body, I think, in a gallery of pictures, was seldom broken by my friend, who usually reserved all remarks until we had taken our leave. The mention of this circumstance brings affectingly to my recollection the many, many hours I have enjoyed of his unreserved communication, and the steadiness of his friendship at all times-I am obliged to quit the subject abruptly.

Mr. Kemble this season fully developed his system as a manager: it was that of good sense and fine taste. He had thoroughly estimated the genius of his contemporaries, and might, with modesty, think himself" as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of them." Without proscribing new efforts, he did not court them, and certainly expected from them nothing that could bear the neighbourhood of Shakspeare. The earth-born spirits, therefore, were keptat proper distance and in due subordination; and imitating the wisdom of Copernicus, he placed our dramatic sun in the centre of the system.

4

CHAP. II.

Other novelties of Kemble's first season as manager.—Mrs. Goodall in Rosalind.-Mrs. Jordan also acts that character.-Her Nell.-Corinna.-Lady Bell.-Her Foible.New pieces, Cumberland, Cobb, Mrs. Inchbuld.-The Prophet.-Rd. Bentley.-O'Keefe.-Aladdin.--St. John's Mary Queen of Scots.--General Conway.-Richmond House theatricals.-The king's recovery.-The queen's first drawing-room--Author's tribute to her majesty's excellence.She appears at Covent Garden Theatre.-Mrs. Siddons in Juliet.-Reynolds, his dramatist.--Mr. Macklin.-The Author's knowledge of him.-Burning of the Opera House.Talents that had been displayed in it.—Its visitors.—Manchester Theatre burnt.-Mr. Kemble, with Mr. Aicken, takes the Liverpool House. The opening prologue.--Mr. Kemble's Tragedy.-His Macchiavel.-Mrs. Inchbald's Married Man. Mr. Colman's Battle of Hexham.-Pleasantry of the author.

WHEN I decided not to break the series of Mr. Kemble's performances, I promised a supplement as to the other novelties of the season of 1788-9. They were so numerous, that the mention of them must necessarily be as brief, as consists with my design of combining, with the life of its great ornament, the view of the stage itself during that life.

Mrs. Goodall, from the Bath Theatre, made her first appearance at Drury Lane on the 2d October, 1788, in Rosalind. She gave no unsuitable impression of the character, if it be limited to Oliver's phrase from Orlando's mouth, "the shepherd youth whom he, in sport, doth call his Rosalind." The elevated mind of this rival of Grecian beauties, as it displayed itself either in exquisite sensibility or exquisite humour, resided only in the breast or brain, which-ever may claim the perfections, of Mrs. Siddons.

With respect to a greater essential with vulgar audiences, the figure of Mrs. Goodall, in the male habit, was more decidedly deceptive than any other, which the spirit of travesty has displayed, in the persons of Miss Walpole, Mrs. Jordan, Madame Hilligsberg, and Miss Tree. How far the assurance, shrouded under this dress, could be carried, and Hh

with, or without "a pure blush" passed current, Mrs. Jordan fully established on the night of her benefit--but her laugh and her voice were irresistible. There was the Devil to Pay after it, and her inimitable Nell, to conciliate every body. She added to her stock this season, what was peculiarly happy, Corinna in Vanbrugh's Confederacy; and the part of Lady Bell, in Murphy's Know your own Mind. This was the foible of Mrs. Jordan; but she never could look the woman of fashion. It was a smart soubrette, who had hurried on her lady's finest apparel, and overacted the character to avoid being detected. Her tragedy, too, was insufferable notwithstanding her fine organ.

I have let pass a stroke of undesigned severity, in mentioning the performers before the authors of novelties; but Mr. Cumberland supplied the two houses with a couple of very careless productions, The Impostor, at Drury Lane, a sort of Beaux Stratagem; and the School for Widows, at Covent Garden, open only three nights, and forsaken the second.

Cobb had done great service at Drury Lane, on various occasions, and his Doctor and Apothecary, besides making known the whim and tact of its author, introduced to the British public the musical talents of Stephen Storace, who, shortly after, in the Haunted Tower, taught the proper use to be made of the Italian opera.

Mrs. Inchbald, always assiduous to serve her friend Mr. Harris, gave him a valuable four-act piece from the Zelie of Madame de Genlis, called the Child of Nature. It will always charm in the hands of any lovely and sensible young actress, such as Miss Brunton was, when she acted Amanthis. It is now, I believe, cut into fewer acts than four; but in comedy to have fewer than the usual five, indicates deficient business; and the hint of compression once given, is usually followed to a degree, that renders the fable unintelligible.

A fortnight afterwards, Mr. Harris produced a comic opera, called the Prophet, which had, perhaps, formed one of the day-dreams of Richard Bentley, the great critic's son; and who had employed his pencil, at times, at the suggestion of Walpole, and for the embellishment of Gray. Poor Bentley had died in 1782, and left the Prophet among his papers. But, living or dead, he was fated to be unsuccessful; and the Prophet, after a short struggle, sunk "to endless night." Could Bentley have been contented to seek any thing by the common road to it, he had power of mind to have achieved, by common industry, very desirable success; but he flew off after some crochet of the brain, and rendered his talent unsuitable, and his friends useless. The stage has had to

display, however, in their turn, models of perseverance in a given track men who, without positive genius and with slender knowledge, have acquired the rewards, if not the honours, of the drama. It is even dangerous to THINK above the mind of your audience.

O'Keefe was in no danger of the sort just hinted and his comedy of the Toy met with ample success. It is included by him in the collection of his works, though it was suspected to be little more than Pilon's unfinished Ward in Chancery. Managers have many opportunities of this sort, and frequently a plot dramatic, as well as political, could it change hands, would succeed.

ALADDIN, or the Lamp, which has been a wonder in the present days, was no slight pantomimic attraction in the Christmas time of the year 1788. The story was followed only through three scenes, and then, as might be expected, and indeed desired, the Sicur Delpini, relieved from Probationary Odes, had it all to himself.

The Honourable John St. John had ventured to compose a tragedy upon the subject of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Kemble and Mrs. Siddons condescended to act the parts of Norfolk and the Queen. But versifying the descriptions of Ro- · bertson, and thinking without a catholic mind, and with no enthusiasm, either for Mary or ancient times, will do nothing in this drama. There can be no sort of doubt as to the philosophic candour, and the beautiful language that distinguish both Hume and Robertson. But the rudest chronicler of past ages is infinitely better suited to the dramatic poet. HE wants a fulness of statement, because he must not only know events in their abstract; he requires detail, to put the scene before you; and the more passion and prejudice and peculiar manners, the Chronicler notes, the better his chance of holding up the dramatic mirror to actual nature. How would even Shakspeare have invented the arguments for Henry's invasion of France, or the inimitable address of Queen Katharine, on her trial, first written by a man who actually heard her majesty deliver it? The lapse of time, too, begets ignorance of manners; and the nearer the record to the fact, the greater the likeness to the action; or to what people then thought of it; and this is every thing to the stage-poet.

General Conway's False Appearances, I only notice, because its attraction at Richmond House transferred it with undiminished effect to the regular stage. When I say this I, in course remember, that the private theatrical was sustained by Lord Henry Fitzgerald, Lord Derby, Captain Merry; the Hon. Mrs. Damer, and Miss Hamilton. At one of these