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benedictine nunnery, it is known, Robin Hood lies buried:Thoresby, from the papers of doctor Gale, has preserved the following inscription on his tomb, now no longer legible:

Hear undernead dis laith stearn,
Laiz Robert earl of Huntingtun,

Na arcir ver az hie sae good,
And pipl kauld him Robin Hood;
Sick ulaws az hie an iz men,
Vil England nivr si agen.

Obit. 24. Kal. Dekembris, 1247.

In modern English thus :--

Here, underneath this humble stone
Lies Robert earl of Huntingdon;
No archer was like him so good,
And people call'd him Robin Hood;
Such outlaws as he and his men
England will never see again.
He died December 24, 1247.

The name of Fitz Hugh, given to this person, is near enough to justify it as being of Norman origin; Hugh or Hugues, was common in France. The change from Hugh or Ooth, is easily accounted for. The fact is that D represents in Welsh orthography to this day, the Saxon Theta, answering to our th. The Saxons wrote nord and sud, not north and south. This appears also in Robin Hood's epitaph; for undernead, if properly pronounced, is underneath, and dis is this. The middling sort of people in the provinces, it is clear, have retained most of the language of our ancestors, in its purity; they not being exposed, like the higher classes and those of the capital, to a more free but corruptive intercourse with foreigners.

DRAMATICUS-NO. III.

A NEW MODE OF AIDING DANCERS.

In the year 1749, a company of French performers having hired the Haymarket theatre, the London populace resolved to prevent them from playing—and accordingly large parties were formed, who were distributed over the house, and by their vociferations and outrages hindered the players from even making a commencement with the performance. Two magistrates had been provided, who took their seats in the pit, and a party of soldiers were in waiting, ready to obey the call of the magistrates, to preserve the peace, and support the performers in their representation of the play. The populace pertinaciously persisting in the uproar, one of the magistrates made an attempt to read the proclamation, but was prevented by a gentleman from procuring a candle for that purpose. As the people in the house would not hear the performers, an attempt was made to pacify them by a grand dance. But this was defeated by several persons in the gallery who had prepared themselves with a quantity of peas for the purpose, of which they threw a bushel or two on the stage, which rendered it unsafe for the dancers to proceed. After several debates and parleys, victory declared itself in favour of the people, and the performers were obliged to dismiss the house without any performance.

PRICE OF ADMISSION TO THE THEATRE.

In the infancy of the stage in England, the price of admission was as low as two-pence. Afterwards the seats were raised to six-pence, a shilling, and the highest for a long time were only two shillings and six pence.

FEMALE PERFORMERS.

TILL Some time after the restoration, no female performer ever appeared on the stage in England. Sir William Davenant, proprietor of one of the London theatres, first innovated upon this ancient custom. Mrs. Hughes, in the character of Desdemona, is said to have been the first who appeared on the stage.f † Baker.

Victor's history of the stage.

BEAUTIES OF PROSE.

ANTHONY PASQUIN, the biographer of John Edwin, comedian, has some most sublime plunges into the true bathos, not to be equalled by any of the heroes of the Dunciad: e. g.

"In some of his actions he was puerile to the extreme, which I always thought indicatory of innate goodness." If this were a real indication of “ innate goodness?” it would prove that there is vastly more of that very excellent quality among mankind than philosophers have generally been willing to admit.

On the question whether the audiences at theatres have any right to scrutinize the private characters of actors, Pasquin makes the following profound observation; "Though the right of investigation must be denied, yet there is a proper something in volved in the public interference in such events, as is not repugmant to the common ideas of justice, though it is hostile to the immediate letter of relative concerns." It is much to be regretted that this admirable writer did not condescend to inform us what is this " proper something," which is "hostile to the immediate letter of relative concerns;" for I dare say not one in a thousand of his readers has ever been able to discover the important secret.

"Though in the curvetings of his existence, he may have been known sometimes to violate the chastity of social worth, we should not bedim his memory by the black influence of uncharitableness." Happy would it be for a reader condemned to the toil of wading through the lucubrations of Anthony Pasquin, if they were not so frequently "bedimmed" with the obfuscations of folly and nonsense.

"His gesticulation in the scene relative to the procession of lady Godiva, was most wonderful-he was meretricious without crimsoning the cheek of modesty."S Meretricious, according to the dictionaries, means whorish, or lewd; and it remained for this luminous writer to discover how it is possible to be either one or the other without "crimsoning the cheek of modesty."

• Eccentricities of John Edwin, vol. 2. p. 4.

† Ibid. + Ibid.

$ Ibid.

Gustavus Vasa.

It is generally known that this tragedy which was written anno 1738, was prohibited to be represented by the lord chamberlain of England. But it is known to few that it had been rehearsed at the Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane, that the actors were all ready, and that the interdiction was to the last degree unexpected by the author. He did not however suffer any pecuniary disadvantage by the prohibition; as a subscription was immediately opened for the publication of the play, which met with such great success that it amounted to eight hundred pounds sterling.*

THE theatre was at a very low ebb about the commencement of Shakspeare's career as a dramatist. The curtain was nothing more than a blanket, or a piece of coarse cloth-the walls were totally bare of ornament. This mean appearance arose principally from the reduced prices of admittance which I have mentioned above, resulting from the competition between the numerous theatres then in London. There were generally six or seven open at once, and at one period, there were no less than seventeen.t

FEELINGS OF AN ACTOR, WITH AN ANECDOTE OF GARRICK.

Much stress has always been laid on this passage in Horace, De arte poeticâ sive dramaticâ ;

Si vis me flere, dolendum est
Primum ipsi sibi.

and it is supposed, in a highly wrought scene of wo, the actor suffers sensibly from the distress of that passion. We have all heard it said, that the effect produced on Mrs. Siddons, from entering too deeply into the feelings, which she so admirably excites in the character of Isabella, has been very alarming; and that other preformers have been unable, at the end of a piece, to walk off the stage. Such may have been the effect, but we are not ready to admit that the true cause has been alleged. Affectation out of the question; † Ibid, 115.

Baker's Biographia Dramatica, I. 46.

it may, in my opinion, arise from excessive fatigue, through violent efforts, but never from the indulgence of the passion which they mimick. Take this anecdote to support the assertion.

Garrick roused the feelings more than any actor on record, and most probably suffered as much from this exertion. However, I have lately learned, from a medical gentleman of eminence, that on his once making the above remark to Tom King, the comedian, he received this reply:-" Pooh-he suffer from his feelings! why, sir, I was playing with him one night in Lear, when in the middle of a most passionate and afflicting part, and when the whole house was drowned in tears, he turned his head round to me, and putting his tongue in his cheek, whispered "Damme, Tom, it'll do!" so much for stage feeling! In fine, an actor may make others feel, without feeling himself, as a whetstone can work up steel until it cuts, which the whetstone never does.

THE PRAISE OF WINE.

From Rousseau.

Every intemperance is a vice, especially that which deprives us of our noblest faculty. Excess of wine degrades the man, suspends his reason for a certain time, and, if persevered in, at length brutalizes his nature. But love of wine is not a crime; it rarely is the cause of one; for it rather makes men stupid than wicked. For one slight quarrel which wine may occasion, it paves the way to a hundred lasting friendships. Generally speaking, bacchanalians are full of cordiality and frankness; they are all good, upright, just, faithful, brave and honest men, even to their own detriment. Can the same be said of other vices, which some would substitute in its place? How many seeming virtues often conceal real vices. The sage is sober through temperance, the villain through deceit. In countries where treason and adultery prevail, they fear a state of indiscretion which discovers the heart unintentionally. In those places in which the people most abhor drunkenness, there it is that they have the most interest to guard against its generous effects. In Switzerland, it is almost held in admiration; at Naples it is looked upon with horror: but let me ask, which, at the bottom, is most to be feared, the intemperance of a Swiss or the reserve of an Italian?

* Qr. A drunken man upright! EDITOR.

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