mers than had been seen since the time of Booth, Wilks, and Cibber. Mr. Lacy in the preceding summer was greatly alarmed at so formidable a junction, and, in order, if possible, to make head against it, he went to Dublin, and saw Barry, who was the idol of the people. He offered him handsome terms, and engaged him to act at Drury-Lane. Barry had very great requisities for the profession, in which he had recently embarked: he was a fine figure, full six feet high, well made, his whole frame in just symmetry and proportion, graceful in his movements, and certainly one of the handsomest men in Europe. He was sensibly alive to all the passions, and acted from the impulse of his feelings; his heart was his prompter, and under that guide, he was sure He was allowed to be to imitate nature. the most accomplished lover on the stage. Castalio, in the Orphan, and Varanes, in the tragedy of Theodosius, drew from him notes of the most exquisite pathetic. In Othello, he was master of the quick vicissitudes of love, of grief, of rage, and tenderness, and in the conflict, or, as Shakespeare has it, in the tempest and whirlwind of the passions, his voice was harmony in an uproar. And yet, with all those powers, he was not able to cope with the combined forces of Covent Garden. Quin and Garrick carried on their business in perfect good humour with each other. Each in his turn played his favourite characters; but, it was universally agreed, that Quin gained no addition to his fame, by appearing in Lear, Richard, and Macbeth. They acted frequently in the same play: In Jane Shore, Quin was Glocester; Garrick, Lord Hastings; in the Orphan, Quin was Sciolto, Garrick, Chamont; in the first part of Henry IV. Garrick played Hotspur, in order to give new attraction to Quin's Sir John Falstaff The Fair Penitent was their strong play; Quin performed the part of Horatio, with that emphasis and dignity, which his elocution gave to moral sentiments. Garrick, in Lothario, was the gay young man of intrigue, and with that spirit, which, in fashionable language, is called a sense of honour, he well might say, And love and war take turns like day and night, The public was delighted to see the contest between two such rivals, and, accordingly, the Fair Penitent was their Saturday-night play against the Opera. GARRICK GARRICK had already tried his genius as a dramatic writer, in the farces of Lethe and the Lying Valet, both to this day in high estimation. Early in January 1747, he produced Miss in her Teens; a piece at that time greatly admired, and to this day worthy of more notice than it meets with from those, whose province it is to cater for the public taste. The severest critic must allow that the fable is well imagined; the incidents spring out of one another in a well connected series, with frequent turns of surprise, but never violating the rules of probability. Captain Flash and Fribble are not the mère offspring of the poet's imagination, they were copied from life. The coffee-houses were infested by a set of young officers, who entered with a martial air, fierce Kavenhuller hats, and long swords. They paraded the room with ferocity, ready to draw I 3 draw without provocation. In direct contrast to this race of braggarts, stood the pretty gens tlemen, who chose to unsex themselves, and make a display of delicacy that exceeded female softness. To expose these two oppo-, site characters to contempt and ridicule was the design of Miss in her Teens, and this was effectually done by Woodward, in Captain Flash, and Garrick in the mincing character; of Fribble. The ferocious, swaggering Bravo did not chuse to be called Captain Flash, and, the delicate beau was frightened out of his little wits by the name of Fribble. They were both laughed out of society. To this piece succeeded in the month of February 1747, the Suspicious Husband, a comedy by Dr. Hoadley. This was the first good comedy from the time of the Provoked Husband in |