All this excellence produced effects fully corresponding-Pizarro was acted thirty-one nights in succession, that is, leaving out the Sundays in course from the 24th of May to the 29th of June; the season did not close till the 4th of July. It may be observed that Addison's Cato, with all political factions to aid it, on its first run was acted only eighteen times. The continued performance of Pizarro was therefore, in the serious drama, up to that time unprecedented. Comedy and opera have been allowed, perhaps, in a few cases, an uninterrupted progress equal to this; but I presume tragedy to have intermitted, more on account of its superior fatigue, than from any inferiority of attraction. There was a political point, of no mean importance, obvious in this play; we had Mr. Sheridan (formerly furious in the cause of France, invoking destruction upon the heads of the BRITISH CABINET, and coveting for himself the "blow of vengeance") Now speaking with the heart and voice of his country, his perfect abhorrence of the conduct and the principles of revolution; and urging by every oratorical charm his countrymen to resist and disdain the arms and arts of France. If any very furious Whig, anxious for the political wisdom or the consistency of Sheridan, should remind me that this intruded harangue is in the character of a PERUVIAN. and its invectives pointed at a SPANISH invader; I think myself able to prove, that they were inserted because they applied to the condition of this country. If he were to add, that even this concluded nothing as to the real sentiments of Mr. Sheridan; I confess I should feel indifferent on that point, provided he allowed, as I think he must do, that, even in Mr. Sheridan's opinion, Rolla but uttered the feelings and the sentiments of the English people. Among his audience Sheridan had the honour to number Mr. Pitt. The minister smiled significantly at the speech of Rolla; recognised some favourite figures, that he had before admired at the trial of Mr. Hastings; and pronounced Mr. Kemble to be "the NOBLEST ACTOR that he had ever seen." The press sent forth 30,000 copies of this play, which was read with the greatest avidity; and the author, after it had brought at least fifteen thousand pounds into the theatre in its first season, in a strain of martial gallantry, not very usual among managers, declared that "Mrs. Sheridan's approbation and delight in its applause were to HIM the highest gratification its success had produced." Here, however, appeared to open a vein of wealth which, followed out with decent industry, might have relieved the theatre and its proprietor soon from a crowd of embarrassments; and yet I shall almost immediately have to show the usual want of resources, and the old menaces of retirement from the scene, if money were not provided by the treasury. The summer theatre presented to us the current rage, Kotzebue, and his self immolation, under the title of Family Distress. Pope sustained the miserable victim, Maxwell; and though the scene was laid in London, the spectator doubted that such complicated wretchedness could here attend an honest but unfortunate man. Yet in London does not the, sharper seek an associate-does not the attorney find false witness? Is not the man absorbed in domestic affliction of his own, however inconsistently, indisposed to attend to that of others? All her charities, and she is among cities the first for charitable provision, all her charities must frequently fail to reach the timid and retiring virtue, abashed as well as ruined -destitute and silent. The Castle of Sorrento, which Fawcett had fully prepared for, was extremely attractive here, and in Paris had been acted 60 nights in succession. Le Texier had employed his astonishing talent upon it during the winter. I think Fawcett heard him read it; nothing, however, could well be more effective than his own Blinval. On the 30th of July, Prince Hoare fitted up another drama of Kotzebue's, called Sighs! or the Daughter. But he introduced a sort of Cocker in the person of Totum, calculated to exhibit the peculiar humour of Fawcett-and sent on him and Mrs. Gibbs with an epilogue, written by himself it appeared, but that every body must have attributed to Colman, in which numbers were very pleasantly sported with from the deuce to the audience. Holman, too, admiring strongly the Robbers of Schiller, produced an alteration under the title of the Redcross Knights, which came out on the 21st of August, and ran through the rest of the season. The little manager at the close, complained of the growing curtailment of his period, but he had encouragement from the public, and what he lost as a manager by the winter potentates, he contrived, as we have seen, to get back as an author. The youngest daughter of their Majesties, the Princess Amelia, being recovered from a dangerous illness, her illustrious sister, the Princess Elizabeth, on the 7th of August, at Frogmore, planned an entertainment to the nobility on the occasion, and Mr. Wyatt was at hand to execute the design of her Royal Highness. The building was in the shape of a barn, and had three arched roofs or divisions supported by two rows of pillars. The middle space was allotted to the dancers; the sides to the company: all the effect was rustic. The chandeliers wore, in form, bee-hives, crowned with wheat -the pillars were only the supporters of artificial flowersand the very lamps were united by ropes of wheat interlacing blue-bells, violets, and lilies of the valley. The very chairs for the company were cottage furniture. When a royal mind, accustomed to painted halls and gilded roofs, turns its fancy to some exquisite enjoyment, the scene of it we find is in a cottage, or a barn, and a rush chair is the greatest personal indulgence. Upon a variety of occasions an attentive observer will recollect an external sympathy of nature with remarkable events--all antiquity is uniform as to such singular accompaniments. This day of festivity was remarked for a deluge of rain that came down incessantly. The lovely OBJECT of the entertainment was not destined long to survive; and some circumstances attending her dissolution pressed so poignantly upon her venerable father, that a long night of reason succeeded and attended him to the grave. In looking over my papers, as to what associates the above fête with theatrical history, I find that Quick, Mrs. Mattocks, and Elliston, were professionally employed-that Mrs. Mattocks screamed out Falstaff, and Mr. Elliston in the character of Merlin (him of Hanover Square ?) was, poor man, doomed to deliver some lines of superlative dulness, written with the best intention by a "person of honour." The Princess Amelia was thus saluted "And thou, sweet maid, permit ME THEE to greet." But the Princess of Orange came in for the choicest sweets of "Thou, too, my greetings shar'st, respected Dame! The reader sees how happily on such occasions we had now forgotten HIM, who equalled Shakspeare in the Masque of Queens; and taught the lyric strain to Milton in the Vision of Delight, and a long succession of learned and elegant inventions, by which he charmed, and generally employed, the courts of James and Charles. CHAP. XIII. Season of 1799-1800.-More Decorations.-Management.- On the 16th of September, Covent Garden Theatre opened for the season of 1799-1800, and Drury Lane on the day following. The former house again boasted of its decorations ; but I really am heart-sick of this most childish folly, now grown into a ruinous evil. Cumberland wrote an address spoken by Pope, which must have astonished the audience. He told them that their triumphs had spread from the Texel to the Nile-that from Syria their career advanced, and stretched still onward from the spicy shore of Ceylon to the citadel of rich Mysore. He told them, moreover, that their taste was to point the genius of the stage; and the actor added "We are your servants-and it is agreed, SERVANTS should follow-MASTERS should precede." Mischievous nonsense! the usual falsehood of those who debauch the public taste. We are your servants! To be sure. So was Shakspeare; but to lead, not follow, the people into rational and dignified amusements. Reynolds, on the last of October, brought out his comedy, called Management. Professional habits cling to a man. In going slightly, of course, over this author's fables, it is amusing to see the eternal recurrence of bill, bond, and will,-the plaintiff, the bailiff, and the gaol. We have another of his widows, and a bad specimen of the order.-Mrs. Dazzle has a reversion of one hundred thousand pounds, if Juliana marries. As she is devoted to Lavish, a young spendthrift, the widow measures the young lady's purity by her own, and imagines that she will not, by the church's aid, divest herself of her fortune. She therefore agrees to wave her own claim for an annuity of 2001. per annum, and so removes the only bar to their legal union. Lavish, a captain by the by, is a character written for Lewis, and frequently found in life, who, unable to resist a present temptation to expense, indulges the whim, if he is to save it a thousand ways; these disproportioned outlays to be compensated by petty self-denials, are among the delusions of fancy, and heralds of disaster. It was as moral in its tendency, as entertaining in its progress. The comedy was finely acted, and stood its ground, in defiance of the German genius, that mental coMET, as Taylor well called it in his prologue, which had darted upon us from a distant sphere. He was fortunate also in an epilogue by Colman, spoken by Fawcett, as a manager of a country theatre, sold off to various buyers. "A sturdy farmer bought the walls-why then, What was a barn, will be a barn again, Corn on the stage, not mummers will be seen; And oats be thresh'd where ACTORS Should have been." Knight, the actor, a man of talent, by the opera of the Turnpike Gate, increased his value greatly with the manager. His own Maythorn was beautiful acting-and Munden valued himself always highly upon the performance of Crack, in the Turnpike Gate. At Drury Lane, Linley, under the title of the Pavilion, tried an Arabian Night's entertainment, but it did not suit the climate. We had been indebted to Kotzebue, in the summer, for Family Distress. The Wise Man of the East changes the sex of the victim. The infamy which constitutes the fable of this play is a nonpareil in depravity-a heartless invention of the German muse, and a libel upon our nature. Ellen Metland, from the distresses of her parents, becomes dependent upon Lady Diamond. Her ladyship has planned the ruin of young Clarenceforth, and Ellen flies to save him, by possessing him of the plan and some of the means. In making this discovery she in course loses her patroness, and therefore begs him to procure a coach for her, and send her to her friends. The gratitude of this monster leads him to lodge her in a brothel, for the purposes of seduction. Ellen effects her escape, passes the night under a shed, and in the morning implores the other jewel, Lady Diamond, not to acquaint her family with |