only in metaphor; their hearts and heads and hands were devoted to his service! Oh, most certainly!

But enough upon such a subject. The performers of Drury Lane Theatre, and Mrs. Jordan particularly, thought it hard that they should so seldom have the honour of acting before the sovereign, on account of Sheridan's opposition to his government; and they had, therefore, hopes from some late speeches of his in the Commons' House, and a few recent effusions by Rolla in their own, that his Majesty might allow them fair play in his sight, and repeat his visits, if he found himself entertained. The princesses were naturally anxious to see Mrs. Jordan in particular, who had appeared to justify a permanent attachment in one so dear to them, and to retain his respect, as well as his affection. Everything seemed to be working in their favour, when this miserable event was likely to revive a distaste for their theatre that had been sweetened away by the eloquent Peruvian.

Mr. Harris, of Covent Garden Theatre, as a man of business, was superior to most. Highly distinguished by the court, he was particularly attentive to the feelings of his royal patrons; and,

perhaps, for mere amusement, the passing laugh of light matter, and temporary satire, the novelties there, and the performers alike, were the most welcome to them. We think Lewis, Quick, Munden, Fawcett, Emery, and Blanchard soon, with Mattocks and Davenport, "confident against the world," in humour. Quick certainly possessed a peculiar tact in exciting the royal laugh; and the good-humoured monarch noticed him off the stage, with that condescension which his Majesty never bestowed upon persons of doubtful or indecorous character.

The Haymarket Theatre this season abounded in novelty. There was "Obi, or Three-finger'd Jack," the "Point of Honour," and the "Review, or the Wags of Windsor," all abundantly successful. Among the waggeries of the latter was one of the author, who, on this occasion, chose to distinguish himself harmoniously to the tune of Arthur Griffenhoofe, Jr., which, perhaps, excited a laugh from those who were in the secret. As to the "Review" itself, it raised unbounded laughter in the hands of Suett, Johnstone, Emery, and Fawcett; and this was all it professed to do. We had at this time two actors upon the stage who might be said to suggest character to their wri

ters. Emery, though not literally born in Yorkshire, was bred there; few men were so highly accomplished as this comedian: he was an excellent musician, and played the violin at twelve years of age in the orchestra; he was a fine draughtsman, and painted in oil with the skill of an artist. Perhaps no man was ever so completely successful as Emery in the Yorkshire character; it appeared, through life, to have been, "meat and drink to him to see a clown." He was so perfect a representative of the loutish cunning of the three ridings, that it was difficult to believe that he had, or could have any personal or mental qualities, to discriminate the man from the actor. To say truth, he delighted to exhibit the "knowing lad," and he had a fund of stories, which he told in the greenroom of the theatre, and at table where he dined, some of which have, assuredly, never been equalled for exactness. There are many who speak a Yorkshire dialect as they do Scotch, but with little accuracy; and the jargon printed in play-books as the language of the North, is oftener the language of Babel, when languages were confounded. But Emery's ear was too perfect to mistake, and the pleasure he took in the exhibition too great for negligence; he was

perfect to an aspirate, or the want of one. It was from Emery that I first heard "scho," for the feminine pronoun she, preserved to us copiously, as the true dialect of the North, by Gawin Douglas, in his invaluable translation of Virgil. Thus he says of Juno:

"Scho did behald amid the feildis plane.”

To show how the lowland Scotch poetry illustrates the pronunciation of the illiterate peasant in our northern counties.

The other actor was John Johnstone, in whom the Irish character was certainly somewhat refined, but who taught our dramatists quite enough for their use, namely, all that was pleasant. Rock and others rendered it vulgar, whereas Johnstone made it sparkle with humour, and in either blunder or mischance, anger or jest, uniformly delightful. Alas! to how many great artists am I obliged to add the farewell of regret to the just estimate of their merits!

CHAPTER III.

Season of 1800-or- Kemble Opened with His Hamlet - Probable Result of His Purchasing - The "Indian" - Doctor Houlton's Prologue - Innocent Operas-Vauxhall Hooke - The Plowdens 'Virginia," An Opera - Kemble Ready to Withdraw It - "Bold Stroke for a Wife," the Stop-gap"Antonio," Another Sacrifice -The Procession of Tragedies - Mrs. Siddons Shakespeare Revivals - Hopes of the Renters - Want of Colours and Canvas in the Painting-room - Aversion to Modern Plays - Even Colman Not Engaged to Write Comedy - Apparent Jealousy - Mrs. Jordan, Even Cumberland Short of Her Powers - The Modern Writers Ignorant of Female Character-Cumberland and Burgoyne -The Latter Would Have Written for Jordan - Jealousy of Kemble-Cooke invited to Covent Garden-Sketch of That Strange Being - Made a Rival to Kemble in Richard Permitted a Year's Triumph Kemble and Cooke as Macbeth-Cooke's True Power His Dislike of Kemble-The Country Girl Returns to the Stage in March.

HE season of 1800-01 commenced at Drury Lane Theatre on the 16th of September, 1800, under the management of Mr. Kemble, and he played his Hamlet on the first night. The notion that he would purchase a fourth of the property was again current,