appeared at the centre window of the one pair of stairs room, with his velvet night-cap, and, after making three low bows, addressed the children of plunder thus:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, upon my honour I have sent to Giffard's brewhouse for some porter; in the meantime I must humbly solicit your usual indulgence.'

QUIN used to say, he always looked at a London Theatre as the main ocean; for, continued he, when an author writes a piece here, he launches it upon the sea of criticism; and every one knows this is a most dangerous navigation, full of rocks and shoals, and no sure pilots but novelty, wit, and sense. An actor here first sets sail for the port of applause, and if lucky enough to double the cape of approbation, he may weather out a season, and taste the benefit of the April monsoons. As to the busses, smacks, frigates, transports, and tenders, which cruise here in fleets, they carry on a very illicit and dangerous trade, and if it was not for Philips's Insurance Office, no navigator could get underwrote for less than cent. per cent. for though there are but few privateers upon this station, the fire-ships are innumerable.

MADAME MARA.

Or the celebrated Madame Mara, it may be remembered how, during the performance of one of Handel's grand choruses in Westminster Abbey, she kept her seat, while the Royal Family, with all who were present besides, who were all the principal nobility and gentry of the kingdom, stood up. This was known at Oxford, when she was engaged there for the Grand Music Meeting, and they resolved to teach her better in future. As soon, therefore, as she appeared in the Theatre, she was called upon from all sides to avow whether she meant to practise the same there. Upon this, the worthy Professor, Dr. Hayes, who was fond of speechifying, came forward to assure the audience, that Madame Mara would stand up during the performance of the chorus in question; but, in his eagerness to allay the storm he saw arising, instead of this, the first words of the chorus running in his head, he told them, that Madam Mara would rise when "the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." This laughable blunder put the audience in such good humour, that, perhaps, it did more for the lady than even one of the Doctor's best speeches could have done. This, however, did not last long, a performer in the orchestra, who was accompanying her in one of her songs, happening to play a little out of tune, so disarranged the lady's feelings, that she turned round and flung the book she was singing from at his head. Upon this, Dr. Chapman, then Vice-Chancellor, rose, and in a tone of authority indignantly exclaimed, "Madame Mara has conducted herself too ill to be suffered to sing any more before this audience." Immediately, an arch wag cried out, "A riot, by permission of the Vice-Chancellor !" The confusion instantly became universal, and the lady was handed out amid the hisses of an indignant auditory.

FRENCH CRITICISMS ON MATHEWS AND YATES,

THE following are some of the remarks of one of the French critics on the performances of these actors.

"This was an extraordinary representation, and the audience which attended it was no less so. Conceive a Theatre Royal, in the most brilliant quarter of Paris, filled from ceiling to floor with a company among which not a hundred French of both sexes could be counted!"-" At the rising of the curtain, Mr. Yates pronounced a short preliminary speech, in very good French, but with an English accent, which was applauded by the French part of his audience only -the English part not understanding a single word of the matter. But their turn came next. Their favourite actor, Mathews, had only to show himself, to excite a universal shout of pleasure.

"The physiognomy of Mathews is, in its natural state, insignificant, and even vulgar; and his voice is hard, sharp, and harsh. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, he however sometimes produced a sufficiently comic effect: we say, sometimes, because in his ordinary recitation, he is overpowering from his volubility, and wearying from his monotony. He promised his auditory a history of his whole life; and he was unkind enough to keep his word."- "His Irish and Scotch songs, invariably sung in a key altogether different from that of their accompaniment, were perfect martyrdom to ears of any delicacy; and they occurred every now and then, by way of parenthesis, in his narration." [The critic evidently thinks that the patter of the songs was part of the narrative of Mathews's life!] After admiring the astonishing celerity of Yates in his transformations, &c. the critic adds,-"We are not aware what may be the comparative degree of merit assigned to these two famous mimics by the English public; but, to judge by the effect which they produced on the French portion of their audience, Yates would amuse more in a quarter of an hour, than Mathews in the whole hour."

SEVERAL noticeable changes have taken place in the Drury Lane Company since last season, the result of which, it is said, will be a saving to the entrepreneur of 3000l. a year. Price is said to have offered Keeley and his wife 267. a week, their salary at Covent Garden having been 167. only; but Keeley has refused the offer under the present condition of the Covent Garden Company. The price to the Boxes is lowered to 6s., and it is understood that it will be the same at Covent Garden.

We understand that there is no doubt whatever of Covent Garden Theatre opening the first week in October. Among the first novelties will be the appearance of a daughter of Mr. Kemble, as a representative of youthful tragic heroines. The first novelty among dramatic pieces will be a tragedy by the author of "Woman's Love." Fawcett retires from the stage management of Covent Garden Theatre, and Bartley takes his place.

Laporte has offered the Covent Garden Company a night at his Theatre free of expense, the proceeds to go towards the fund for opening the Theatre. It is said also, that Kean has offered to play twenty-four nights gratis.

They are said to have some clever actors in the Botany Bay Theatre, but no authors to supply them with pieces. It has therefore been suggested that the Colony should petition Parliament to make a law punishing literary theft with transportation; in which case the supply of dramatic authors would be rapid and plentiful!

GAMMER GURTON'S NEEDLE.

THE second act of this comedy is opened with the following song, which is said to be the first ever written in our language:

POETRY.

THESPIAN GALLERY.
(Continued from page 221.)

"Come like shadows, so depart."

YOUNG.*

LED by Melpomene with dignified mien,
Young, her chaste and favoured child, is seen;
Whose acting has much of the Kemble school,
But he woes not with nature, but makes her his rule.
His deportment is grand, his mind comprehensive,
His conceptions are both just and extensive.

In thunder harmonious his cadences roll,

And the full tide of eloquence flows on the soul.

This favourite performer was the son of Mr. Thomas Young, a surgeon, and was born in Fenchurch-street, on the 10th of January, 1777. He received the rudiments of his education under an eminent private teacher at home, and at the age of nine, accompanied a Danish Physician to Copenhagen, who had been some time in this country for professional improvement.

After an absence of a year he returned to his native country, and was sent to Eton, where he continued two or three years, and derived all the scholastic benefits that belong to that great seminary. The remainder of his classical education was conducted by the amiable and learned Mr. Bishop, at Merchant Taylors' School. It is said, that in his youth his declamation was distinguished by much point and theatrical effect. At the age of eighteen he was placed in the counting-house of one of the most respectable firms in the city, where he pursued commercial affairs for some time; but the apparent pleasures attendant on the exhibitions of the stage, operated to destroy his resolution for business, and he accordingly quitted his situation in about two years. With a view to try the effect of his powers in public, he performed a few times at the Private Theatre, Tottenham-court-road, with very marked and distinguished approbation. In 1798 he was engaged by Mr. Aicken, the then proprietor of the Liverpool Theatre, where he made his first appearance, in the character of Douglas, under the feigned name of Green.

It has been observed by his biographer, in the Monthly Mirror, "that the oldest performers declared, that they never had witnessed so excellent a first appearance." The success of his first effort, together with his increasing popularity, induced him to relinquish his assumed name. His fame having reached some distance round the country, he was engaged in the winter of 1798 and the following year as the hero of the Manchester theatre; and in the intermediate summer he returned to Liverpool, where he played every succeeding season while Mr. Aickin held the theatre. In the winter of 1800, 1801, and 1802, he displayed his talents in the leading characters at the Glasgow theatre, with the continued approbation of an admiring public.

In

On the opening of the new theatre at Liverpool, in 1802, by Messrs. Lewis and Knight, Mr. Young was engaged, where he continued every winter to support an extensive line of business, with the most approved success. October, of the same year, Miss Grimani, from the Haymarket house, became a member of the above theatre; to whom he was married at Liverpool, on the 9th of March, 1805. In October of that year, he purchased Mr. Bellamy's share in the Chester theatre, where he and his wife enjoyed the patronage and respect of the public, and at which place he remained until he came to London. În 1807, he suffered an irreparable loss in the death of his amiable companion; who, shortly after conferring on Mr. Young the title of father, fell a victim to a biliary fever. On the 21st of June, 1807, he appeared on the Haymarket boards, in the character of Hamlet.

His tones the cold ear of criticism warming,

Are audible, sonorous, manly and charming.

In the great points of acting, when the judgment's delighted,
The rays of concordance are aptly united:

The arm and the voice, the eye and the mien,
In him correspond to give force to the scene.
No abrupt opposition, the sense to confound,
Like a trumpet that's cracked, a hiatus in sound;
For the whirlwind of passion, though furious and warm,
The force of his judgment, e'en gives laws to the storm.
He roves the dominion of human ability,

But stops on the verge, ere he passes possibility.
Thus his sallies so aptly accord with his sense,
We can applaud without giving judgment offence.
Some critics there are, would his merits estrange,
And limit his powers to a trifling range.

Go find me his equal in Hamlet, Pierre, Oakley,
In Zanga, Chamont, Prospero and Beverly.
In the subtle Iago, sublimely infernal,

He bares ghastly vice, and exposes the kernel:
And so well clears the text of our moralist's pen,

That the head asks the heart, if such villains are men?
In the Stranger his woes are so ably exprest,
That the tale of his wrongs fill the void of each breast.
All the force of allusion attends on his will,

And the tears that gush forth prove the test of his skill.
Our pulses flow faint as the ear drinks the sigh
Of the despairing husband, whose wish is to die.
An integral dramatic performance, I ween,

Is seldom, alas! in these times to be seen.
Some component particle mostly is wanting,

To perfect the whole, when the muse is descanting.
And yet I challenge the critic's keen eye,
In Young's Rienzi,* one fault to espy.
'Tis a total perfection, an excellent whole,
A felicitous union of body and soul.

WEEKES,

Mark Weekes, like a whale, bears his fatness before him,
As the sprats of the Drama for mercy implore him;
His high garnished phiz, gives young pleasantness birth,
And his well-fed abdomen's a mountain of mirth.
Impertinent doubts run to measure his size,
While temperance looks at his frame with surprise;
Still the rich fat brogue of his Connaught spalpeens,
Conveys to the ear all propriety means.

His Father Luke's the true, sly, rotten prop of old Peter,
And Dan, in Donahue, could not be play'd neater.
But why for us critics need he care a fig?

If none call him great, all the world swears he's big.

* Miss Mitford, in her preface to Rienzi, states that Young's Rienzi was the

very portrait her mind's-eye had drawu when writing the character.