TENTH ANNIVERSARY

OF THE

SHAKESPEARE CLUB,

December 17, 1828.

JAMES SORBY, ESQ. IN THE CHAIR.

THE Tenth Anniversary of this Club was held on Wednesday, December 17, 1828, at the Tontine Inn. Upwards of seventy gentlemen sat down to a most sumptuous dinner, which was served up in a manner highly creditable to Mrs, Lambert, under whose judicious management it was arranged. The decorations of the room were in the usual tasteful and appropriate style.

Grace before dinner :

"Now good digestion wait on appetite, and health on both." After dinner, the following grace was sung:

"Praise God, from whom all blessings flow," &c.

The Chairman then rose and said:-Gentlemen,—As faithful subjects, it is a duty which we owe to our Sovereign, to give him as our first toast, and which I doubt not you will all have pleasure in doing. I will take the prescut early opportunity of stating to you, that my responsibility as your Chairman has been materially lessened by the kind assistance of your Committee, with whose co-operation I have arranged a number of toasts and songs, which I trust will prove satisfactory to you. I

U

mention this in the hope that no gentlemen present will
wish to break in upon this arrangement, by volunteering
any toast until our own list is exhausted. I now beg
that you
will drink to the health of George the Fourth,
by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith; he
being also, (as his late revered and pious father was,) a
liberal patron of the drama. And

"The King is full of grace and fair regard,
And a true lover of the Holy Church."

The King.

ANTHEM-" God save the King."

The Duke of Clarence, and the other branches of the Royal Family. The Chairman.-Gentlemen,-On your account, as well as my own, I regret that the much-respected individual whom we had expected would have presided at our festive board on this occasion, found it necessary to decline doing so, owing to the recent delicate state of his health, but I rejoice to find that he is now so far recovered as to be enabled to dine with us; and being fully aware, how admirably calculated he is (when in health) to discharge the duties of such an office, you might justly consider it a bold undertaking on my part in consenting to become his humble substitute-(applause)-and which I certainly should not have ventured to do, had I not been convinced that I should receive considerable assistance from several friends in this Club, and I am sure I shall not be disappointed in that respect. I shall, therefore, in the course of the evening, occasionally take the liberty of calling upon a member of the Club for a toast, which will no doubt add materially to your gratification, there being so many, in this company, so much more highly gifted than myself. And, Gentlemen, although I feel honoured by

your having placed me in my present situation, yet I may truly say, in the language of Shakespeare,

"Into what dangers would you lead me,

That you would have me seek into myself

For that which is not in me."

It has been the practice of my predecessors to offer an eulogium on the transcendant genius of Shakespeare; but so much having been adduced on former occasions, it is unnecessary, and would be in vain for me to attempt any new encomium; for he himself says,

"To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,

To throw a perfume on the violet,

To smooth the ice, to add another hue
Unto the rainbow; or with taper light

To seek the beauteous eye of Heaven to garnish,

Is wasteful and ridiculous excess."

Without further preface or comment, we will, with your permission, drink

The immortal memory of William Shakespeare, the Poet of Nature. This toast was drank with the greatest enthusiasm,

SONG "The Mulberry Tree."

Mr. John Sykes Bramhall, Secretary to the Society, said, that invitations had been sent to Mr. Manly, and to Mr. Middleton of Leam, to honour the Club with their presence at dinner, and he would read their answers. The Secretary then read the letters of these gentlemen.

B. Sayle, Esq. also read a letter from Mr. Ebenezer Rhodes, to whom an invitation had been given, in which he most respectfully declined availing himself of the. honour done him.

Mr. Bramhall stated, in answer to a question from the Chair, that during the past year twelve new members had joined the Club. (Here Mr. Bramhall announced the

appointment of L. Palfreyman, Esq. as President for the next year.)

Mr. William Smith stated, that the Club now consisted of eighty-five members.

The Chairman.-This Club has now been established nine years; and although it has from time to time been assailed from various quarters, yet, I am happy to say, that it has hitherto withstood the attacks of its opponents; (applause) and, I confidently trust, will long continue to withstand them: indeed, the annual accession to our number fully warrants that confidence. I now beg to propose,

Perpetuity to the Sheffield Shakespeare Club.

The Chairman then called upon B. Sayle, Esq. for a

toast.

Mr. Sayle. Mr. Chairman,In obedience to your call, I rise to propose a toast, but, previous to doing so, I will, with your leave, make a few brief remarks upon the English Drama, which I hope will not be considered irrelevant to the object of our meeting. I will assume Shakespeare to be the father of the Drama in this country; for, though several plays were written and acted before his time, yet I believe not one of them is ever brought upon the boards at the present day. At the time that his talent and genius broke out like a meridian sun from behind a cloud, to cheer and enlighten our hemisphere, let us ascertain what was then the state of public feeling and of public taste. We shall find it was licentious, dissolute, and depraved: we must also recollect, that, driven from his home, and branded as a thief, an outcast upon his country, and without a single friend or adviser in the world,-to this public was the young and inexperienced Shakespeare driven, not only for pro

tection, but support. (Applause.) Now, Sir, I will contend, that with his matchless talent, and his magic pen, if he had been so disposed, he could have levelled with the dust most of the then remaining notions of virtue or morality; but, Sir, did he so employ himself? Look to his works, where, so far from wondering that there are so many blemishes, my wonder is there are so few. (Applause.) Will any man say that his works tend to subvert virtue, or morality, or to disgrace religion? His grateful country has long since answered this question by erecting a monument to his memory amongst the illustrious dead in Westminster Abbey. (Applause.) It is urged, Sir, against the friends of the Drama, that the acting of plays is sinful and wicked. Many of the old musty fathers of the Church have told us so, and may, for ought I know, believe it; but if we read the Scriptures through, we shall not find a single express injunction against attending the theatre; and Sir, had it then been what it is now stated to be by modern divines, it is not likely that St. Paul, with his fearless and intrepid character, would have shrunk from warning us against it; on the contrary, we find the apostle himself, introducing into one of his finest compositions, a quotation from the Greek dramatist Menander, and here, Sir, 'tis somewhat curious to observe, that this quotation has lately been made the text to a sermon preached in this town against the amusements of the Stage. Let us now come down to more modern authors, and see who have been the defenders and supporters of our drama, keeping in view the private characters of those individuals. About the latter end of the 16th century, we find a defence of the stage by Milton, in the preface to his Sampson Agonistes. In the beginning of the 17th century, we find Rowe, Young, and Ad