CHAPTER VI.

The Covent Garden performers take refuge in the Hay Market. -The Exile.-Raising of the New Theatre,-Foundation laid by the Prince of Wales.-The Dinner.-Mr. Kemble, -The late Duke of Northumberland.- The destruction by fire also of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.-Proceedings of the parties concerned,

AMONG all the evils which attend upon our condition here, it is fortunate that, when once ascertained, the mind of man invariably turns itself to seek for consolation: nor is this relief confined to the expectation or the hope of GOOD, but often springs from a conviction that what has really befallen us might have been even yet more severe.

Something like this, I know, did strike the proprietors of Covent Garden Theatre, when the effect of their first shock a little subsided. The sum recovered on the policies of insurance was, I think, £44,500, itself no inconsiderable part of a fund by which to commence another building. Calamity, too, gives a claim upon the liberal, more promptly, obeyed than the call of un suffering speculation. Mr. Harris knew one side of the theatre to be unsound, and he was confident that in a very few years the proprietors must have raised a new pile exclusively from their own funds.

What, therefore, ultimately remained, that admitted only the palliative of time, was the miserable loss of lives by the over hardihood at the great piazza door. The commercial character of the concern, to speak the language of business, was high. The proprietors of this theatre were men to be relied on. They could easily have raised twice the sum they did, and it would have been better for them to have done so.

Mr. Kemble turned himself to the task of preparation with great method and invincible application. The hospitable roof of the Opera-House was once again his shelter, and the sliding partitions being removed, the boxes were soon rendered even comfortable to the dramatic visitor. By the 26th of the same month, only six days after the conflagration, the Covent Garden company performed Douglas in the King's Theatre. After God save the King, which implies, in England, the salvation of every thing valuable, Mr. Kemble came forward to address the

people, who received him with almost rapturous applause. After apologising for any imperfection in his thanks, imputable to the full sense of all their favours to him, he proceeded to inform them that the proprietors had not even delayed the performance of their duty to the humble talents by which they were surrounded-they had supplied the pressing wants of the workmen in their employ, while they were busied in the arrangements to resume their place among the amusements of the town. He then laid before them the necessity for their indulgence in the exhibition of our native drama in the theatre of Italian Opera; but assured them daily progress would be made in bettering the provision there, while they immediately set about the erection of a new theatre, worthy of the Metropolis, and in which their hope was to be ready to receive the public by next September.

Even in their disaster they were too strong to fear competition. The other house had no prominent feature but Mrs. Jordan, and was overwhelmed with its embarrassments. To show, however, something as to the entire destitution of Covent Gar den Theatre at this time, I one morning met Mr. Kemble, who said to me-Show me where Mrs. Bland lodges, and come and help me to persuade her." We were close to the door; she was at home, and we went up to her. "My dear," said Mr. Kemble," we are going to do As You Like It, and Ware (the leader) can manage pretty well as to the rest of the music, but he can't get the air you sing in the last act, 'Good Duke, receive thy Daughter'-one of Arne's, of which we had the score." So, she said, "Dear me, I have it not; beside, if I had, it would only be the voice part, and then what would you do for the orchestra ?" "Why, if you will note the song down for us," said the manager, "Ware can put the harmony to it; if not Arne's, near enough to pass for the occasion." This the really kind creature said she would do with all her heart, and, after a few complimentary expressions, we took our leave.

They did, indeed, daily augment their provisions of scenery and decoration; for by the 7th of Oct. they brought forth a new melodrama, called The Forest of Hermanstadt, in which Liston was let loose upon Parissot and Deshayes, and stept forth at once the farcical dieu de la danse. Mrs. H. Johnston became even popular now, by the beauty of her attitudes and the loveliness of her expression. This was a compression of Skeffington's Mysterious Bride, by T. Dibdin, who produced a very interesting piece in two acts.

Reynolds in the mean time had read the enchanting romance of Madame Cottin, called Elizabeth, which he dramatised under the title of The Exile; and it was first acted with infinite splendour at the Opera-house, on the 10th of November. The effect of it was prodigious--it has been a fortune at every distinct re

vival on our stage, and its procession was both graceful and ele gant. The long peregrination of the daughter lost much of its pathos in the shifting of stage scenery--it is "as fleet as a glance of the mind." The remembrance of the romance was absolutely needed for the interest of the heroine. Here again Mrs. Johnston was fortunate in being cast into Alexine; and for state and majesty few empresses, even of the stage, could compete with the towering grandeur of Mrs. St. Leger.

Pope was now again with the Covent Garden manager; and to show the total want of management at the other house, they had allowed Kemble to possess himself of Young also; so that tragedy could really be acted no where else. He performed Daran with characteristic ardour, and the Exile, perhaps, has equalled the attraction even of Pizarro. But the combination of talent was extreme--Reynolds had persuasion equal to his tact, and secured the further aid of Mrs. Dickons and Incledon, and Munden, and Fawcett, and Liston. And this is no trifling art in the preparation of an author's triumph.

The grand incident, rushing into the sovereign's presence, reminded the critics of Mr. Colman and his Africans. How enviable was the lot of Madame Cottin on this occasion, who really invented the situation!

Mr. Robert Smirke, jun. was selected to be the architect of the new Theatre Royal; and the anticipation of classical structure was carefully kept awake by reports of his travels and his taste, and his peculiar study of theatres. The site of the new play-house, (if such a word still remain in our language,) was somewhat extended-a circumstance afterwards affecting a legal covenant ;-some adjacent houses were bought, so as to open the area: the architect might have surrounded the house by a colonnade, and facilitated the departure of the spectators by stair cases of considerable width, and doors to be open only at the close of the amusement. He did not choose such a plan; but loaded his design with a bleak, a barren, and a portentous portico, and strengthened his walls, as though they were bound to resist every thing but the "crack of doom." So solid an edifice required funds to no mean amount even in the outset, and £50,000 in £500 shares, were subscribed in a very few days. They secured a deposit of 40 per cent., and the remainder was conveniently enough arranged; the whole, with £44,500 from the fire offices, was to be paid into the bankinghouse of Stephenson, Batson, and Co., there to be expressly and solely appropriated to the erection, and completion, and furnishing of the new theatre. The most costly materials were always chosen; the proprietors seemed never to recollect their personal responsibility for every thing--they were building a temple and

a palace, as if it had been voted by the people of England, and their representatives had constituted them the committee of taste for its erection.

The 30th of December was the day devoted to the ceremony of laying the first stone of the building. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales was present on the occasion; and deputations from the Masonic Lodges in town assembled at Freemasons' Tavern to meet their grand master. A merely nominal alliance may be better than none: whatever union might once have existed between the symbol and its subject, the free and the real MASON, I presume at the present day, unless the architect should condescend to be a mason, few members of the craft know a triglyph from a metope. I have never presumed to enter the Hall of Mystery in Queen Street, and therefore, as Gibbon observes of Virgil, in reference to the Eleusinian mysteries,* "Should it appear probable, that I had no opportunity of learning the SECERT, it will be something more than probable, that I shall not reveal what I never knew."

The whole of the proceedings were under the direction of Mr. Kemble, who paid every possible attention, as well to the accommodation of those who were admitted to see the formalities, as to the ceremony itself. The streets surrounding the theatre were lined by the Life Guards, and detachments of infantry were placed in situations to secure a facility of access to the doors of admission, and keep off the crowd. Covered platforms were raised within the interior of the building, for the accommodation of the spectators, and an open platform, from the grand entrance in Bow-street, to the north-east part of the building, where the stone was laid, was railed off, and the flooring covered with green cloth, bordered with crimson, directing the progress of the masonic brethren to the spot where the ceremony was to take place. At the north-east extremity of this platform, in a raised gallery, were placed the bands of the Life Guards, and of the Coldstream; and at the opposite side of the platform, the Duke of York's band was stationed, and played alternately the most admired martial pieces. A marquee was also erected, provided with refreshments; and a covered way built up for the masons to retire to in case of rain. The grenadier compa

On this subject even the wonderful reading of Gibbon, in bis reply to Warburton, left his argument unsatisfactory. It was not necessary for Vir gil to be initiated in the mysteries of Ceres to make them a subject of his poem. In the letters of Cicero to Atticus, he seconds the entreaties of his friend CHILIUS, the poet, to send to him an account of these very rites. They were, therefore, no doubt, ready for the poetical use of VIRGIL, without either the trouble of initiation, or sustaining personally the anathema of Horace. "Chilius te rogat, et ego ejus rogatu Evμendur árṣia.” Cic. Gronov. p. 858.

nies of the Foot Guards were stationed at the grand entrance door; flags were hoisted at the four corners of the building, and about forty Life Guards, who were masons, lined the space along which the procession was to pass. The company began to as-, semble as early as ten o'clock, and before twelve the seats were occupied with elegant females, the gentlemen standing on a raised platform behind them. The other parts of the stage erected for public accommodation, were also crowded, and the workmen employed upon the building were placed on scaffolds at a greater distance.

Mr. Harris and Mr. Kemble, the latter of whom was made a mason only on the preceding evening, both wearing the insignia of masons, received his Royal Highness as he alighted from his carriage, and conducted him to the marquee, where the grand officers were waiting his arrival, the band playing the Grenadier's March. The Prince was accompanied by the Duke of Sussex, the only branch of the royal family who was a mason except his Royal Highness, and Earl Moira, as deputy grand master. Colonel Bloomfield, one of his Royal Highness's household, was also of the party, dressed in the old uniform.

The company all rose as his Royal Highness passed along the platform, the gentlemen remained uncovered, and the workmen gave three cheers, the band playing, "God save the King." A royal salute of twenty-one guns was then fired from carronades placed in the building, and the upper part of the stone was raised for the purpose of the ceremony.

After the Prince had passed a short time with the grand officers and others in the marquee, he came forward, uncovered, and prepared to lay the stone. The grand treasurer of the superior lodge deposited a bronze box, containing divers coins and medals of the King's reign, in the cavity of the foundation stone; and the cement being prepared, the Prince, as Grand Master, spread the same abroad with his silver trowel, and the stone, weighing upwards of three tons, was then let down, the bands continuing to play a martial air. The senior and ju nior wardens, and the deputy grand master, the Earl of Moira, having severally presented his Royal Highness with the plumb, the level, and the square, and the Prince having applied them to the fabric, and, pronouncing the work correct, he gave the stone three knocks with his mallet, and the ceremony of placing the stone was finished.

Three cups were then given to his Royal Highness containing corn, wine, and oil, which he scattered and poured upon the stone; then placing a plan of the building in the hands of Mr. Smirke, the architect, he desired him to complete the structure, according to that plan. His Royal Highness then turning to