master. Gasping in folds of mortal enmity, And thus in frowns expir'd." All this, it is true, was trimmed and tuned to the fine ear of Garrick. But Betty waited its effect with his eye, as he described the action, like a The trial of Othman's principles, and the ultimate communication that Selim was yet alive— the lowered tone of voice, the prying caution lest he should be overheard, were all as finished efforts as if such a man as my friend Waldron, with all his impressions of Garrick as vivid as they were at first, had shewn the youth the manner in which the mighty master moved himself through all the business of the scene. The part of Selim is kept rising judiciously to the close of the act, and he left his audience perfectly transfixed in admiration and astonishment. Irene, The third act shewed the mere boy. young and beautiful, excited nothing consonant in him. He was a stranger to the passion of love, and time had not yet matured him into the expres sion of its language. voted to his mother. All his tenderness was de- as a son, it seemed, though not as a lover. The message to Zaphira, which Achmet delivers to her from her son, whom she supposes at a distance, is well written on the model of Addison. "Bid her remember that the ways of Heaven, Tho' dark, are just; that oft some guardian pow'r But if high Heaven decrees our fall! oh! bid her To live and die.-And then he wept, as I do." Nothing can be prettier than this address of Selim, in the last line. But the soliloquy with which the act ends, and young as the speaker then looked, the destruction of the tyrant there menaced, was the prime favourite. His energy was so striking as to keep it from ridiculous bravado. The difficulty vanished before him. The fourth act had some fine bursts. The fifth has little or nothing for the actor. Dr. Brown, as a dramatic poet, could do nothing but what had been done before. He had not even the talent of new combination in a slight degree. His play, in fact, is Merope, newnamed. Some of the faults of this singular youth have been hinted already. The most decided flatterer could not talk down the most obvious oneit proceeded from a want that can only be corrected by advanced, perhaps begun education. He did not syllabicate, his notion of a word was often caught from vulgar speakers, and Selim, in his utterance, was sometimes Calum. He did not aspirate where he should-probably did not know that others do it. I saw little beyond Selim in any of his other characters-there was no original conception of the part-it was the prompter's tradition of great men executed by a surprising boy. At Covent Garden he also acted Young Norval, another Selim, and Frederick, in Lovers' Vows. 179 CHAPTER XXI. The young Roscius acts Norval to great houses-The nightly average-The receipts of his twenty-eight nights at DruryTalk of erecting statues-Opie and Northcote paint whole lengths-Duke of Clarence accepts the dedication of Northcote's picture-Medical men usually wild about the stageThe professional policy-One physician supremely ridiculous -Betty taken to the Adelphi-A Westminster dormitoryIntroduced to the Archbishop of York-Probable advice from Markham-Old actors affect to admire the boy, because they hated Kemble-Mrs. Litchfield strikes a blow for her own benefit-How it benefited others-Kemble appears in Othello -The town begins to awake-Richard the Third acted by the little Duke of York-The boy for the first time hissed— Siddons, after long absence, returns-Kemble now presumes to act Macbeth-Miss Mudie-The Fund applies to Betty to act a night for his poor brethren-Aid refused-A peep at Coventry in Passion Week-Hough, the prompter, versus Betty-Pensioned off at last to keep him quiet-Mrs. Jordan acts for Macklin's widow, at Covent Garden-The riot at the Opera House, as to Sunday-The mischief done by the clerical interference-Reason written upon the subject-The Judge's decision at Warwick Assizes-Shakspeare pictures sold-Poor Suett's funeral; no requiem-the moderate fees could not talk down the most obvious oneit proceeded from a want that can only be corrected by advanced, perhaps begun education. He did not syllabicate, his notion of a word was often caught from vulgar speakers, and Selim, in his utterance, was sometimes Cælum. He did not aspirate where he should-probably did not know that others do it. I saw little beyond Selim in any of his other characters-there was no original conception of the part-it was the prompter's tradition of great men executed by a surprising boy. At Covent Garden he also acted Young Norval, another Selim, and Frederick, in Lovers' Vows. |