display its puny imitation of the terrors and victories of the second-to discover freedom in the excesses of a hired rabble, and the regeneration of the human race in a government without balance, in which parties immolated each other in succession and any opinions held beyond the ascendant of the hour, exposed the venerable and the wise, the virtuous and the beautiful, to the pike of the assassin, or the equally thirsty axe of the guillotine. Such exhibitions of the stage require tact rather than talent; the writers keep up the madness of the hour, and are hardly named when it is past. attempt at composition would be ridiculous, and useless if it were made; happier in one thing than the events they celebrate, that the dramas may be forgotten with pleasure, and the subjects of them are held in constant and painful remembrance.* Any * After all the horrible excesses of the revolutionary mania had passed away, and the vast talents of Buonaparte had reduced the discordant elements to subjection; when the Bourbons had revisited and occupied their ancient throne, and a charter had been consecrated, which seemingly established them for ages; a childish invasion of representative rights and the freedom of the press, has driven Charles the Tenth and his family once more into exile, and stained his brief annals with the blood of his people, unnecessarily and wantonly shed. But Napoleon had pardoned the POLIGNACS, who were in his power! August, 1830. 163 CHAPTER VIII. The summer of 1789-Tate Wilkinson's benefit at Leeds, Mrs. Jordan arrives to act for him-The Yorkshire prudery— Mrs. Jordan at Harrowgate on her way to join Mr. Jackson at Edinburgh-Mrs. Siddons at York-Mary, Queen of Scots-Mrs. Fawcett's compliment to her-Mrs. Siddons prefers to act in London, and why-Mrs. Jordan and Miss Farren in the same places-The Prince of Wales-Miss Catley's death-The Two Gentlemen of Verona idly revived -Mrs. Jordan's first appearance at Drury Lane this season, so late as February, 1790-Mr. Kemble engages her brother, Bland-He acts Sebastian to her Viola-Mrs. Behn's Rover altered by Mr. Kemble-Jordan and Woffington in Hellena -Young Bannister-His character through life-Morris's Adventurers-Mrs. Jordan's Little Pickle-The Spoil'd Child called her own, perhaps Bickerstaff's-The Intriguing Chambermaid-Better late than Never-Mrs. Jordan the heroine -Munden comes to town from Chester-Mrs. Jordan plays Celia in the Humorous Lieutenant of Fletcher-Beauties of that character-Her alarming Epilogue by Harry BunburySummer of 1791, a journey to York-Kemble vice Jordan. MRS. JORDAN, in the summer of 1789, took her usual northern tour; and her old manager, Tate Wilkinson, having been crippled by accident, received a letter from her, to tell him that she would act at Leeds for his benefit, and appointing the play and farce. We are here furnished with a lively instance of her power of sustaining fatigue. The night fixed upon was Monday, the 6th of July, and at two o'clock of that day Mrs. Jordan was not arrived. The manager in distress had put off his benefit until the Wednesday; but at half-past four on the Monday, she sent him word that she was just arrived, and ready to act Sir Harry Wildair and Nell on that very evening, and was quite astonished to see the play changed. She had come post from London, and was in the family-way very obviously; the play not having been done at the theatre a long time, needed rehearsal. She told Tate, that if she did not act that night she could not play at all, for she was on the wing to Edinburgh, with a 500l. penalty to pay, if she did not arrive at the appointed time. By great persuasion she consented to stay till the Wednesday, but when he hinted at the gratis performance, she said that was now quite out of the question, her time was too valuable just then; if she staid she should be put to great inconvenience, and must have thirty guineas. However she agreed to accept twenty, and stay the two days for her old friend; and on Wednesday astonished the precise ladies of Leeds with Sir Harry Wildair and his gallantries. The manager fancied the applause not so violent as she had been accustomed to in London, and supposed that the country ladies did not think Sir Harry's chastity improved by a female representative. This fact I have already presumed to doubt; and as to the applause, the payment of twenty guineas, unwillingly, might make a lame man, with a doctor and apothecary at his elbow, turn a deaf ear to it. Nell, at all events, had none of Farquhar's freedom to restrain the thunder of applause. It is dangerous to begin the habit of resting on a journey, for upon leaving Leeds she reached Harrowgate, only fourteen miles off, when a subscription purse from the company at the different hotels so strongly tempted her, that she agreed to recruit herself there for three or four days, and diversify the amusements of the devotees to sulphurated springs. But the penalty, which she had awaked at Leeds to operate upon Tate Wilkinson, was brought still nearer enforcement by her stay at Harrowgate; and, on her arrival at Edinburgh, she |