This is a very fair specimen of this mystery; the following is from the Deluge, which was represented by the Dyers. Noah is entreating his wife to enter the ark, after all the beasts and fowls are safely housed therein.

Noe.-Wife come in, why standes thou there?

Thou art ever froward, that dare I sweare,
Come in on Godes halfe; tyme it were,
For fear that lest we drowne.
Wife. Yea, Sir, set up your saile,
And rowe forthe with evil haile,
For withouten anie faile

I will not oute of this towne ;
But I have my gossipes evrich one,
One foot further I will not gone;
They shall not drown, by St. John,
And I may save ther life.

They loved me full well, by Christ :
But thou will set them in thie chist,
Ellis rowe forth Noe, when thou list,
And get thee a newe wife.

Noe.-Sem, sonne, nowe thie mother is war o'woe,
By God faith another I doe not knowe.
Sem.-Father, I shall fetch her in I trowe,

Withouten anie faile.

Mother, my father after thee sends,

And biddes thee into yonder shippe wends;

Looke up

and see the winds,

For we bene readie to sayle.

Wife.-Sonne, go again to him and saye,

I will not come therein to-daye.

Noe.-Come in wife, in twenty devill way,

Or ellis stand there without.

Cham.-Shall we all fetch her in?

Noe.-Yea, sonnes, in Christ's blessing and mine,

I would ye hied, yea, bety me;

For of this flood I stand in doubt.

The Good Gossipes.-The flood comes fleeting in a-pace,

One every side it spreadeth full fore;
For fear of drowning I am agast.
Good gossipes, let me draw neare,
And let us drink ere we depart ;

For oft-times we have done so :

For at a draught thou drinks a quart,
And so will I doe or I goe.

(To be continued.)

MISCELLANIES.

"From grave to gay, from lively to severe."

When Mr. Colman had written his excellent piece called the Spanish Barber, elated with the happy incidents which he had chosen, he immediately repaired to Foote to give him an account of it. The wit listened with very great attention, and Mr. C. with great satisfaction explained it, adding that he had fixed upon one of the happiest duets imaginable: "One fellow sneezing, and another yawning; now I have found a player who sneezes most admirably, but there's not one I can teach to yawn." "Well, well," returned Foot, with a smile of pleasure; "that can easily be remedied: take him, whoever he is, to your house, and read the last two acts of the English Merchant, and I engage you make him yawn."

Drury Lane Theatrical Dinner.-On Wednesday the Anniversary Dinner of the Drury Lane Theatrical Fund took place at the Freemasons' Hall; his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence in the Chair. A most numerous and elegant auditory congregated to do honor to the occasion. Messrs. Broadhurst, T. Cooke, Bianchi Taylor, Leete, Evans, Fitzwilliam, Stansbury, Nicholson, and Masters Smith, King, and Foster, contributed in no small degree to enhance the evening's entertainments. The Duke of Clarence, on his health being drank, said, it was his opinion, as a statesman, that no country could be well governed unless it was happily governed, and the happiness of the subject ought to be the first consideration of the state, and that nothing would contribute so much to that happiness as a well regulated and well conducted stage. Mr. Harley, on behalf of the charity, made a most forcible and eloquent appeal to the hearts of the company, which was received with the loudest plaudits. He stated, that from 1793 to 1818 the Fund was so much depressed, that the utmost it allowed to the annuitants was from 30l. to 451. per annum; many are now receiving from it an annual income of from 40l. to 100l. Among the subscriptions announced we have much pleasure to record the following;-His Most Gracious Majesty the King, 100%.; his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, 501.; the Duchess of St. Alban's, 50l.; the Duke of Bedford, 50l.; the Duke of Montrose, 50l.; the Marquis of Stafford, 501.; the Marquis of Clanricarde, 50l.; the Earl of Chesterfield, 25l.; the Earl of Essex, 10. 10s.; Lord Fife, 10.; Sir Gilbert Heathcote, 10.; Stephen Price, Esq. 251.; Edmund Kean, Esq. 20.; with a variety of other subscriptions, making in the whole upwards of 1,000l.

A Minor Theatrical Fund is, we are glad to hear, about to be established. A second meeting of the actors of the Coburg Theatre, at ` which theatre the proposition originated, was held on the 13th, when the first subscriptions were received.

DRURY LANE.

Persons.

The Dress Circle of Boxes will contain 26 Boxes, 9 per-
sons in each

234

(From the Companion to the Theatre.)

Mr. Cumberland.-It was reported that Mr. Cumberland had received a handsome present from the Israelites, in consequence of the whitewashing, or rather gilding he had given them in his Jew. This report induced a gentleman to ask him the question-"No," said Mr. C. "they gave me nothing, and, to tell you the truth, I am rather glad of it, for if they had, in all probability, I should have been indicted for receiving stolen goods."

Expences of the Theatres.—In 1805 Drury Lane Theatre held 3611 persons, when the receipts amounted to £770. 16s. The expences including performers, lights, ground-rent, &c. were upwards of £200 per night. Salaries £740 per week, or about 124 per night. The receipts of Drury Lane Theatre during the four years after building in 1812, were, first year £79,924; second year £78,389; third year £71,585; fourth year £49,586. In 1816, the seven last nightly receipts on Kean's performance (as Sir Giles Overreach, and one as Bertram) were £3984, averaging £569 each night. From a statement of the accounts of Covent Garden Theatre from 1803 to 1809, six years, it appears that the receipt of each season averaged £61,000, and the average profit of each year £8345.

It appears by the pending suit in Chancery relative to Covent Garden

Theatre, that the annual expences of that establishment amounted to an average of about £53 or £54,000, making the nightly expences between £3 and 400. By the same proceeding it appears that the average profits are about £12,000 per annum, The nightly expences

of each patent theatre is elsewhere stated to be from 200 to 220 guineas, and Mr. T. Dibdin, who has examined the Drury Lane books, gives the expences of that house at the latter sum.

The Devil in the Theatre.-It is told of some English theatre, that, during the performance of Doctor Faustus, the audience and the doctor suddenly discovered one more and much uglier devil than belonged to the piece, who was dancing and kicking his heels about very merrily with the rest. Immediately on his being observed, he took flight, and, it is added, carried away with him the roof of the theatre. I find this story alluded to in a curious work, entitled "The Blacke Booke," (a proper depository!) "London, printed in black letter, by T. C. for Jeffery Chorlton, 1604." "The light-burning Serjant Lucifer," says of one running away through fear of fire at a brothel, "hee had a head of hayre like one of my divells in Doctor Faustus, when the olde theater crackt and frighted the audience." The French have amongst them a similar fable. J. J. Rousseau, in his "ŒŒuvres Diverses," Amst. 1761, vol. ii. p. 186, relates it thus, according to my translation: "I have in my youth read a tragedy called The Slave, in which the devil was represented by one of the actors. The piece was once performed, as I was informed, when this personage coming on the stage, found himself in company with a second devil, the original, who, as if jealous of the audacity of the counterfeit, appeared in propria persona, frightened all the people out of the house, and put an end to the representation."

We insert the following passage from the life of the late Dr. Cumberland, to contradict a very silly anecdote that has been long circulated against him:

"It is not my single misfortune to have been accused of vanity which I did not feel, of satires which I did not write, and of invectives which I disdained even to meditate. It stands recorded of me in a review to this hour, that on the first night of The School for Scandal, I was overheard in the lobby endeavouring to decry and cavil at that excellent comedy: I gave my accuser proof positive that I was at Bath during the time of its first run, never saw it during its first season, and exhibited my pocket-journal in confirmation of my alibi; the gentleman was convinced of my innocence; but as he had no opportunity of correcting his libel, every body that read it remains convinced of my guilt. Now as none, who ever heard my name, will fail to suppose I must have said what is imputed to me in bitterness of heart, not from defect in head, this false aspersion of my character was cruel and injurious in the extreme. I hold it right to explain that the reviewer I am speaking of has been long since dead."

Macklin, the celebrated performer, being with a party of friends one evening, was asked, whether Mr. Macklin, the late printseller in Fleet-street, was any relation of his? "No, Sir; I am the first of my name; there was no other Macklin before me, as I invented it merely to get rid of that damned Irish name, M'Laughlin." "But might not such a name exist without your knowing it?" said a dignitary of the church present. "No, Sir," growlingly. "Why, now I think of it," replied the other, there was a printer, towards the close of the sixteenth century, near Temple-bar, of that name;" and appealing to a gentleman present very conversant in black-letter learning, "I believe you might have seen books of his printing." "O, yes," says the other; "several works with the name of Macklin at the bottom of the titlepage." Upon this most of the company exclaimed, "Well, Mr. Macklin, what do you say now? Here is proof positive." "Say now, Sir?" says Macklin; "why, all I have to say is, that," looking the two antiquarians full in the face, " black-letter men will lie like other men." This did not, however, interrupt the harmony of the company, and Macklin fell into his good-humoured way of talking again, which he continued to the end of the evening, exhibiting a very uncommon specimen of spirits and conversational talents for the age of ninety-one.

DRAMATIC WORKS LATELY PUBLISHED.

Longinus; a tragedy, in five acts. By Jacob Jones, Esq. Second Edition.

The Stepmother; a tragedy, in five acts. By Jacob Jones, Esq.

The Companion to the Theatres, and Manual of the British Drama. By Horace Foote. This little work is literally what the title-page expresses, a companion to the theatres, and, in addition to a complete history of all the metropolitan theatres, abounds in a variety of matter deeply interesting either to the play-going person or lover of the drama. We have made a few extracts from it, but refrain from taking more, as we think most of our readers will have this valuable work in their possession.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MISS PHILLIPS,

OF DRURY LANE THEATRE.

"The Poet designs for representation, but it is the Performer who gives to the draught a form, a spirit, a countenance, a mind."-MURPHY.

The interesting subject of this brief memoir affords but little of that broad and dazzling material which is calculated to attract the curious reader. She has herself excited a most unusual and deserved sensation;