John Howard Payne the eldest of nine children-seven sons and two daughters. One of the latter shared to some extent in his precocious fame. At the age of fourteen, after eight days' study of the Latin language, she underwent an examination by the classical professors of Harvard College, and displayed a remarkable skill in construing and parsing. She was afterwards highly distinguished as an amateur artist, and her literary compositions, none of which have been published, and correspondence, were said, by some of the best authorities of the country, to have been "among the most favorable specimens of female genius existing in America." Soon after Payne's birth, his father accepted the charge of a new educational establishment in Boston, and the family removed to that city. Here our author first came before the public as the leader of a military association of schoolboys who paraded the streets, and became the town-talk. On one occasion of general parade, when drawn up in the common near the regular troops, they were formally invited into the ranks, and reviewed by the commanding officer, Major-General Elliott. We soon after hear of him on a scene which was a nearer approach to that of his future fame. His father was highly celebrated as an elocutionist. A nervous complaint, by which the son was incapacitated for two or three years from severe study, was supposed to be benefited by exercises of this character. The pupil showed a remarkable aptitude, and soon became a leader in the school exhibitions in soliloquy and dialogue. A Boston actor, fresh from the performances of Master Betty in London, whose reputation was then worldwide, was so struck with the ability of Master Payne, that he urged his father to allow him to bring out the youth on the stage as the young American Roscius. The offer, much to the chagrin of its subject, was declined. He made his debut, however, in literature, becoming a contributor to a juvenile paper called the Fly, which was published by Samuel Woodworth, from the office where he worked as a printer's boy. At this period, William Osborn, Payne's eldest brother, a partner in the mercantile house of Forbes and Payne, died, and partly with a view of weaning him from the stage, the would-be Roscius was set to "cramp his genius" among the folios of the counting-house of Mr. Forbes, who continued the business of the late firm, in the hope that Payne might ultimately fill the deceased brother's place. He was, however, no sooner installed in the new post in New York, than he commenced the publication of a little periodical, entitled The Thespian Mirror. One "Criticus" demurred to some of its statements and opinions, and the announcement in the Evening Post, that his communication would appear in the next newspaper, brought a letter to the editor from his juvenile contemporary, who, fearful of the anger of his relations, who were ignorant of his publication, besought the senior not to allow his incognito to be broken. Mr. Coleman invited Payne to call upon him, naturally interested in a boy of thirteen, who was a brother editor, and, as he states in his paper of Jan. 24, 1806, was much pleased with the interview. "His answers," he says, "were such as to dispel all doubts as to any imposition, and I found that it required an effort on my part to keep up the conversation in as choice a style as his own." Mr. Coleman's object in making the incident public, in spite of Payne's objections, was to call attention to his remarkable merits, and to create an interest in his career. In this he was so successful, that a benevolent gentleman of this city, Mr. John E. Seaman, volunteered to defray the youth's expenses at Union College. The offer was gladly accepted, and Payne took his departure for Albany in a sloop, in company with his friend and kind adviser, Charles Brockden Brown. He kept a journal of the tour, of which the following poetical fragment is all that has been preserved: On the deck of the slow-sailing vessel, alone, As I silently sat, all was mute as the grave; It was night-and the moon mildly beautiful shone, Lighting up with her soft smile the quivering wave. So bewitchingly gentle and pure was its beam, woes. And I felt such an exquisite mildness of sorrow, While entranced by the tremulous glow of the deep, That I longed to prevent the intrusion of morrow, And stayed there for ever to wonder and weep. At college he started a periodical, called The Pastime, which became very popular among the students. The busybodies, who had pestered him with their advice after Mr. Coleman's publication in New York, continued their favors to him at Schenectady, especially after the publication of a Fourth of July ode, which was composed by Payne, and sung by the students in one of the churches. The author, as a joke, published an article in one of the Albany papers, berating himself, after the manner of his critics, in round terms. It produced a sensation among his associates, many of whom turned the cold shoulder upon him. The affair came to an issue at a supper party, where an individual gave as a toast The Critics of Albany," and was, in common with the other carpers, satisfactorily nonplussed by Payne's quietly rising and returning thanks. Soon after Payne's establishment at college, he lost his mother. The effect of this calamity on his father, already much broken by disease, was such as to incapacitate him for attention to his affairs, which had become involved, and his bankruptcy speedily followed. In this juncture, the son insisted upon trying the stage as a means of support, and obtaining the consent of his patron and parent, made his first appearance at The Park Theatre. the Park Theatre as Young Norval on the evening of February 24, 1809, in his sixteenth year. The performance, like those of the entire engagement, was highly successful. A writer, who had seen Garrick and all the great actors since his day, said, "I have seen Master Payne in Douglas, Zaphna, Solim, and Octavian, and may truly say, I think him superior to Betty in all. There was one scene of his Zaphna, which exhibited more taste and sensibility than I have witnessed since the days of Garrick. He has astonished everybody." From New York Payne went to Philadelphia, and afterwards to Boston, performing with great success in both cities. He also appeared at Baltimore, Richmond, and Charleston, where Henry Placide, afterwards the celebrated comedian of the Park Theatre, gained his first success by a capital imitation of his style of acting. On his return to New York, after these engagements, Payne yielded to the wishes of his family by retiring from the stage, and started a circulating library and reading-room, the Athenæuin, which he designed to expand into a great public institution. Soon after this, George Frederick Cooke arrived in America. Payne, of course, became acquainted with him, and was very kindly treated by the great tragedian, who urged him to try his fortune on the London stage. They appeared once at the Park Theatre together, Payne playing Edgar to Cooke's Lear. Other joint performances were planned, but evaded by Cooke, whose pride was hurt at "having a boy called in to support him." The Athenæum speculation proving unprofitable, he returned to the stage. While playing an engagement at Boston, his father died. He afterwards played in Philadelphia and Baltimore. During his stay in the latter city, the printing-office of his friend Hanson, an editor, was attacked by a mob during the absence of its proprietor. He offered his services, and rendered essential aid to the paper at the crisis, and Mr. Hanson not only publicly acknowledged his services, but exerted himself in aiding his young friend to obtain the means to visit Europe. By the liberality of a few gentlemen of Baltimore this was effected, and Payne sailed from New York on the seventeenth of January, 1813, intending to be absent but one year. His first experience of England, where he arrived in February, was a brief imprisonment in Liverpool, the mayor of that city having determined to act with rigor in the absence of instructions from government respecting aliens. On arriving in London, he spent several weeks in sight-seeing before applying to the managers. By the influence of powerful persons to whom he brought letters, he obtained a hearing from Mr. Whitbread of Drury Lane, and appeared at that theatre as Douglas, the performance being announced on the bills as by a young gentleman, "his first appearance," it being deemed advisable to obtain an unbiassed verdict from the audience. The debut was successful, and he was announced in the bills of his next night as "Mr. Payne, from the theatres of New York and Philadelphia." After playing a triumphant engagement, he made the circuit of the provinces, and, upon his return to London, visited Paris principally for the purpose of seeing Talma, by whom he was most cordially received. Bonaparte returned from Elba soon after his arrival, and he consequently remained in Paris during the Hundred Days. He then repaired to London, taking with him a translation of a popular French melodrama, The Maid and the Magpie, which he had made as an exercise in the study of the language without any view to representation. He was asked to play at Drury Lane, but by the influence of Mr. Kinnaird, one of the committee of stockholders who then conducted the management, his reappearance was postponed until a more favorable period of the theatrical season. Happening to be questioned about the famous new piece in Paris, Payne produced his version, and it was read by Mr. Kinnaird, who was so much pleased that he proposed to the translator to return to Paris for the purpose of watching the French stage, and sending over adaptations of the best pieces for the Drury Lane management, regretting, at the same time, that having engaged a translation of The Maid and the Magpie, it was impossible to produce Mr. Payne's superior version. He accepted the proposal, but before his departure, Mr. Harris, the rival manager of Covent Garden, purchased his manuscript of The Maid and the Magpie for one hundred and fifty pounds. Soon after his arrival, he sent over the play of Accusation, so carefully prepared for the stage, that it was performed six days after its reception, and was successful. Payne remained steadily at work for some months, sending over translations and drafts for cash to meet the heavy expenses incurred by his agency; but finding that the first were not produced, and the second not paid, returned to London to settle matters. Here the contract was repudiated by the management, on the ground that it was made by Mr. Kinnaird in his private capacity, and not as a member of the committee. In the midst of the controversy, Harris, the rival manager, stepped in and engaged Payne for Covent Garden at a salary of £300 for the season, to appear occasionally in leading parts, and look after the literary interests of the theatre, further remuneration being secured in the event of original pieces or translations from his pen being produced. The arrangement lasted but one season, difficulties springing up in the company with regard to the distribution of parts. Payne was repeatedly announced to appear in the tragedy of Adelgitha by Monk Lewis, in connexion with Miss O'Neil, and Messrs. Young and Macready, and was naturally desirous of taking part in so strong a cast, but the performance was postponed, as the appointed evening approached, by the "indisposition" of one or another of his colleagues. Towards the close of the season he sprained his ankle, and so was prevented from appearing. On his recovery he was offered the parts in which Charles Kemble had appeared, a proposal which, not wishing to bring himself into direct comparison with an established favorite, and incur the charge of presumption from the public, he declined. This led to a rupture, and The close of the engagement with Harris. Released from this charge, Payne devoted himself to a tragedy, which he had long planned, on the subject of Brutus. It was designed for, and accepted by Kean, and produced by him at Drury Lane, December 4, 1818, with a success unexampled for years. In the height of its popularity, the printer of the theatre made the author an offer for the copyright, which was accepted. It was printed with the greatest expedition, the manuscript being taken, page by page, from the prompter during the performance, to a cellar under the stage, where the author descending to correct the proofs, found to his surprise that august body, the Roman senate, busy, with their togas thrown over their shoulders, "setting type." The hurry necessitated a brief preface, but in it the author made a distinct avowal of his obligations to the plays on the same subject, no less than seven in number, which had preceded his. "I have had no hesitation," he says in it, "in adopting the conceptions and language of my predecessors, wherever they seemed likely to strengthen the plan which I had prescribed." The play was published, and in spite of the avowal we have quoted, the cry of plagiarism was raised. A long discussion of the question ensued. Eschylus" and "Vindex" maintained a long and angry controversy in the Morning Post, and many other periodicals were similarly occupied. Payne had been too long before the public not to have made enemies. He was assailed on all sides. One of the very proprietors who were making money out of the piece, told him that the owners of Cumberland's play of the Sybil, one of the seven predecessors of Brutus, intended to bring an action for the invasion of 66 the copyright, and that an injunction on the performance of the play by the government, on the ground of the dangerous democratic sentiments it contained, was anticipated. He promptly disposed of these charges by notes, which produced emphatic disclaimers of the alleged designs by the publisher of Cumberland's works, and Sir William Scott, who was said to have suggested the injunction to his brother the Lord Chancellor. The dramatist met with as harsh and unfair treatment within as without the theatre. The proceeds of the benefits, which were the stipulated sources of his remuneration, were reduced on various pretences; and the leading performer, whose popularity had received a powerful impulse from the run of the piece, presented a gold snuffbox to the stage-manager, but made no acknowledgment of his indebtedness to the author. At the suggestion of the actor, the dramatist wrote and submitted a second classical play, Virginius, which was laid aside in favor of one on the same subject by a competitor, whose production was damned the first night. Annoyed by these and similar mishaps, Mr. Payne leased Sadlers' Wells, a theatre then on the outskirts of the city, and became a manager. He produced several new pieces, and appeared himself with success, but the situation and previous character of the house, and the interruption of the performances by deaths which occurred in the royal family, were obstacles which he could not surmount, and he retired at the end of the season sadly out of pocket. His next play was Therese, or the Orphan of Geneva, adapted from a French original, and produced by Elliston, who had succceded the committee of Drury Lane as manager of that theatre. It was very successful, but the author's profits were impaired by the production of a pirated copy, taken down in shorthand during the performance of the original, at a minor theatre, and a rival version at Covent Garden. Payne next went to Paris, in the interests of Elliston. Here he was visited by one Burroughs, who made a similar contract for the Surrey Theatre. Both proved bad paymasters, and Payne is said to have suffered much from actual want. Meanwhile, Charles Kemble became manager of Covent Garden, and applied, like his predecessors and rivals, to Payne for aid. He offered the new manager a number of manuscripts for £230. The odd thirty was the value set opposite the piece afterwards called Clari. Kemble closed with the offer, and produced this piece, which, at his request, the author had converted into an opera. It made the fortune of every one prominently connected with it, except the usual exception in these cases-the author. It gained for Miss M. Tree (the elder sister of Mrs. Charles Kean), who first sang "Home, sweet Home," a wealthy husband, and filled the house and the treasury. HOME, SWEET HOME. 'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Still, be it ever so humble, there's no place like home; A charm from the skies seems to hallow it there, Which, go through the world, you'll not meet else where. Home, home, Sweet home! There's no place like home- An exile from home, pleasure dazzles in vain, Home, home, &c. He Upwards of one hundred thousand copies of the song were estimated in 1832 to have been sold by the original publishers, whose profits, within two years after it was issued, are said to have amounted to two thousand guineas. It is known all over the world, and doubtless, years after its composition, saluted its author's ears in far off Tunis. not only lost the twenty-five pounds which was to have been paid for the copyright on the twentieth night of performance, but was not even complimented with a copy of his own song by the publisher. Author and actor soon after made a great hit in Charles the Second. It became one of Kemble's most favorite parts. The author sold the copyright for fifty pounds, one quarter of the average price paid for a piece of its length. Soon after this, Payne returned to London, on a visit to superintend the production of his version of a French opera, La Dame Blanche, and started a periodical called The Opera Glass. Its publication was interrupted by a long and severe illness. On his recovery he found Stephen Price, with whom he had had difficulties in the Young Roscius days at the Park, vice Elliston, bankrupt. Price still showed Payne the cold shoulder, and soon followed Elliston, with his pockets in a similar condition. Charles Kemble held on, but with almost as much ill success. These gloomy theatrical prospects led to Payne's return home, in August, 1832. Soon after his return he issued the prospectus of a periodical, with the fanciful title, Jam Jehan Nima, meaning the Goblet wherein you may behold the Universe. "It is scarcely necessary to add," says the prospectus, "that the allusion is to that famous cup, supposed to possess the strange property of representing in it the whole world, and all the things which were then doing, and celebrated as Jami Jemsheed, the cup of Jemshud, a very ancient king of Persia, and which is said to have been discovered in digging the foundations of Persepolis, filled with the elixir of immortality." The work was to appear simultaneously in England and the United States, and be contributed to by the best authors of both countries; to be the organ of American opinion in Europe, and of correct views of Europe in America. It was to be published in weekly numbers, of thirty-two octavo pages, at an annual subscription price of ten dollars. The affair never, however, got beyond a prospectus of eight pages, of unusually magnificent promise even among the hopeful productions of its class. He contributed, in 1838, to the recently established Democratic Review, a number of prose papers, one of which contains his pleasant picture of East Hampton. During this period, while travelling in the southern states, he was arrested by some over-zealous soldiers belonging to the At the time of Payne's return, in 1832, two long and interesting articles on his career were published in the New York Mirror, from the pen of his friend Theodore S. Fay. We are indebted to these for our full account of Payne's experiences with the London managers, a curious chapter of literary history, which could not, without injury to its interest, have been compressed in closer limits. Our portrait is from an original and very beautifully executed miniature by Wood, and represents the young Roscius about the period of his first histrionic triumphs. ODE. For the Thirty-First Anniversary of American Written as a College Exercise. When erst our sires their sails unfurled, They saw their homes recede afar, They ploughed the swelling surge! No splendid hope their wand'rings cheered, The climes where proud luxuriance shone, Though hungry wolves the nightly prowl Their wild-wood shelter shook; When giant Power, with blood-stained crest, And dared the warriors of the West Our young COLUMBIA sprang, alone Thus nobly rose our greater Rome, Shall we, the sons of valiant sires, Such glories tamely stain? Shall these rich vales, these splendid spires, Must here a sceptre wave, THE TOMB OF GENIUS Where the chilling north wind howls, Mourned by the weeping willow, The winding-sheet his form encloses, Stealing from the groves around, Soft they tread the hallowed ground, And scatter wild flowers o'er his bier. By the cold earth mantled All alone Pale and lifeless lies his form: Silent now his tuneful numbers, Here the son of Genius slumbers: Stranger! mark his burial-stone! The author, in a note, regrets that he has not space to insert the music composed for these verses by Miss Eleanor Augusta Johnson, who, at the tender age of fourteen, has thrown into her valued complement to the poetry, a skill and expressiveness which, for one so young, may be regarded as little less than miraculous. JAMES HALL Was born in Philadelphia August 19, 1793, and commenced the study of law in that city in 1811. At this period he saw something of military life. In 1813 he was one of a company of volunteers, the Washington Guards, commanded by Condy Raguet, Esq., afterwards United States Minister to Brazil, who entered the service of the United States and spent several months in camp, on the Delaware, watching the motions of a British fleet, performing all the duties of soldiers. At the close of that year he was commissioned a Third Lieutenant of Artillery, in the Second Regiment, commanded by Colonel Winfield Scott, who about that time became a Brigadier-General. In the spring of 1814 he marched to the frontier with a company of artillery commanded by Captain Thomas Biddle, and joined the army at Buffalo under General Brown, in which Scott, Ripley, and Porter were Brigadiers. In the battle of Chippewa he commanded a detachment from his company, and had a full share of that brilliant affair. He was in the battle of Lundy's Lane (or Bridgewater), at Niagara, the siege of Fort Erie, and all the hard fighting and severe service of that camVOL. II.--10 paign, and was commended afterwards officially, as having rendered "brave and meritorious services." At the close of the war, unwilling to be inactive, Mr. Hall went to Washington and solicited a Midshipman's warrant in the Navy, in the hope of going out in Decatur's squadron against the Algerines, but without success. Subsequently it was decided to send out with that expedition a bomb-vessel and some mortars to be used in the bombardment of Algiers, under the command of Major Archer of the artillery; and our author had the honor of being selected as one of four young officers who accompanied him. He sailed in September, 1815, from Boston in the United States Brig Enterprise, commanded by Lieutenant Lawrence Kearney, now the veteran Commodore. The war with Algiers was a short one, and after a brief, but to him most delightful cruise in the Mediterranean, he returned at the close of the same year and was stationed at Newport, Rhode Island, and afterwards at various other ports until 1818, when he resigned, having previously resumed the study of law at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was then stationed, and been admitted to the bar. In the spring of 1820, having no dependence but his own exertions, with great ardor and hopefulness of spirit, and energy of purpose, he resolved to go to a new country to practise his profession where he could rise with the growth of the population; but allured in fact by a romantic disposition, a thirst for adventure, and a desire to see the rough scenes of the frontier, he went to Illinois, then recently admitted into the Union as a State, and commenced practice at Shawneetown, and edited a weekly newspaper, called the Illinois Gazette, for which he wrote a great deal. The next winter he was appointed Circuit Attorney, that is public prosecutor for a circuit containing ten counties. In a reminiscence of these journeyings, which were to supply the author with that practical knowledge of the people of the west, and the scenes of genial humor which abound in his pages, he remarks" Courts were held in these counties twice a year, and they were so arranged as to time that after passing through one circuit we went directly to the adjoining one, and thus proceeded to some twenty counties in succession. Thus we were kept on horseback and travelling over a very wide region the greater part of our time. There was no other way to travel but on horseback. There were but few roads for carriages, and we travelled chiefly by bridle-paths, through uncultivated wilds, fording rivers, and sometimes swimming creeks, and occasionally 'camping out.' There were few taverns, and we ate and slept chiefly at the log cabins of the settlers. The office of prosecuting in such a country is no sinecure. Several of the counties in my circuit were bounded by the Ohio river, which separated them from Kentucky, and afforded facilities to rogues and ruffians to change their jurisdictions, which allured them to settle among us in great gangs, such as could often defy the arm of the law. We had whole settlements of counterfeiters or horse thieves with their sympathizers, where rogues could change names, or pass from house to house, so skilfully as to elude detection, and where, if detected, the whole |
