him, and bowing their knees in derision, worshipped him, and gave him gall and vinegar to drink.' I am more particularly induced at the present moment to address your Lordship upon this subject, because a kind of half measure has been adopted, this Lent, to prevent its being violated by public exhibitions. Mr. Palmer, who last season was allowed to give Readings at the Lyceum, has been forbidden to repeat them. Öther places of evening ainusement, heretofore open, have also been closed. The public are debarred from enjoying a a recreation in itself allowable and innocent, but they may go without impediment to the theatre; because that place, though shut against its rightful tenants is fully authorized to burlesque the Christian religion, its followers, its ministers, and its adorable Founder. I shall expect next year to see the Bishop of London, and the Lord Chamberlain of the Household, standing at the Two Box Doors with the Crozier and White Staff, publicly inviting the people to assist at this solemn mocI am, my Lord, kery. Good Friday, Your Lordship's very humble servant, March 27, 1807. CLERICUS. THE FIRST AND SECOND FOLIO EDITIONS OF SHAKSPEARE. From Mr. Beloe's Literary Anecdotes. PERHAPS there is no book in the English language which has risen so rapidly in value as the first edition of the works of our great natural poet. I can remember a very fine copy to have been sold for five guineas. I could once have purchased a superb one for nine guineas. At the sale of Dr. Monro's books it was purchased for thirteen guineas; and two years since, I was present when thirty-six guineas were demanded for a copy. I take this opportunity of correcting a mistake of Mr. Steevens, relative to the second folio edition of Shakspeare. Dr. Askew had a fine copy of this book, with the aut trograph of Charles the First. Mr. Steevens purchased it at Dr. Askew's sale for 51. 10s. In this book, Charles the First had written these words: DUM SPIRO SPERO, C. R. And Sir Henry Herbert, to whom the King presented it the night before his execution, had also written, "Ex dono serenissimi Regis Car. Servo suo Humiliss. T. Herberts." Mr. Steevens has been guilty of an error concerning this Sir Thomas Herbert, which could hardly have been expected from so very accurate a pen. He affirms that this Sir Thomas Herbert was Master of the Revels, the following words being copied from his own handwriting: "Sir Thomas Herbert was Master of the Revels to King Charles the First." Whereas it was a Sir Henry Herbert who had that office. This mistake was immediately detected and rectified by his present Majesty, in his own hand, by which circumstance this book possesses the autographs of two sovereigns of England. Beneath the above words of Mr. Steevens, his present Majesty has written thus: This is a mistake, he (Sir Thomas Herbert) having been Groom of the Bed Chamber to King Charles I. but Sir Henry Herbert was Master of the Revels.” It was Dr. Askew purchased this identical copy at Dr. Mead's sale for two guineas and a half. For this book, says Steevens, I gave the enormous sum of 51. 10s. purchased for the King's Library for eighteen guineas. I wonder what, under its present circumstances, it would produce at this time. TOWN AND COUNTRY, A Comedy by Thomas Morton, Esq. TO this gentleman the public are infinitely indebted. His former comedies rank with the best which the age has produced, and will be selected by posterity from the perishable trash of the day, as the fairest specimens of our dramatic composition. The present is not his happiest performance, but its merits are nevertheless very striking, and in popularity and attraction it is likely to vie with the most favourite productions of his pen. The plot is full of business and intricacy; perhaps it is rather too much involved. To follow it would be difficult, and as we find we have not the room to render it justice, we shall merely state the leading circumstances. The strong interest consists in the supposed voluntary elopement of Rosalie Somers from her guardian in Wales, with a man of fashion, whom accident has brought into the family. Reuben, a man of strong feelings and the most honourable character, is ardently attached to her, and had reason to think his affection returned. The sudden departure of Rosalie, and her apparent preference of another, acts like a death-blow to his hopes. He sinks immediately into despondency, and almost into distraction; but tidings arrive that his brother, an officer in the army, the victim of London disipation and vice, is on the verge of ruin; his virtuous feelings are again excited, and to save this unfortunate youth he hastens to London. He finds his brother at the gaming table, having just lost the whole of his property, and on the point of selfdestruction. The man who had by a villainous artifice seduced Rosalie from her friends, has, like another Stukeley, prevailed on Captain Glenroy to stake his last shilling on the dice, in order to accomplish his base views on the wife, who is virtuous, but indiscreet, and too fond of fashionable connections. Reuben has the satisfaction of rescuing her brother from impending ruin, of recalling Mrs. Glenroy to the duties of domestic life, of exposing and punishing the fashionable destroyer of private repose, and of recovering, still faithful and unpolluted, his beloved Rosalie Somers. The character of Reuben has occupied the author's particular attention. All his scenes are most interesting and important, but particularly that in which he is apprised of Rosalie's flight, and the interview with her brother and Plastic. The warm and active interest he takes in the welfare of others, while he has himself so strong a claim on our sympathy, renders his character doubly engaging. The comic characters are powerfully drawn, and have as much originality as can reasonably be expected, considering that the track is so beaten and hacknied. Cosey, an honest stock-broker, prefers the comforts, or what others would perhaps call the miseries of London, to all the charms of a country life, but carries wherever he goes a feeling-heart and a charitable VOL. I. hand. Trot, on the contrary, who is hurried by his wife, a would-be woman of fashion, to town, to squander in its multifarious diversious, some of the wealth he has amassed as a cotton-spinner, sighs to hear once more the clack of his mill, and rejoices at the loss of a considerable part of his fortune, because it makes it necessary for him to return to Staffordshire and rural felicity. Both these characters are pourtrayed with infinite humour. The Language in the serious scenes is vigorous, elegant, and impressive. The lighter dialogue is easy and vivacious, and gleams occasionally with wit, particularly in the scenes in which Mrs. Glenroy is concerned. The sentiments are not interspersed merely to catch applause, they flow naturally from the incidents, and strike home to the heart. The vice and misery of gaming are exhibited in the strongest colours, and the wickedness and unnatural cruelty of tearing a child from its maternal pillow, to derive its nourishment from a stranger's breast, are marked with just and pointed reprehension. The foibles and depravities of high life, so often traced and censured, are lashed with an unsparing hand. They are a dramatic writer's fair game, and we know nobody who is better qualified to hunt them down, or is a more unerring marksman, than Mr. Morton. Of the Acting we cannot speak too highly. Kemble played admirably, and treated us into the bargain with another specimen of his vicious orthoëpy, by pronouncing legislature, leegizlitchure: ("a plague of these antic, affected fantasticos, these new tuners of accents.") He dressed the character also with ridiculous and affected singularity. A man like Reuben, the son of a Welsh clergyman, and who delights to catch the breeze among his native mountains, would hardly wear a pair of fashionable Hessian boots, and fill his hair with powder. Fawcett, in Cosey, was, to use his own phrase, what we call comfortable. He brings out the part very boldly, and displays in it all his characteristic humour and spirit. Blanchard had the disadvantage of acting a part written expressly for Munden, and of studying it at a short notice; but he performed it in a very able manner, and was greatly applauded. The Author is particularly indebted to Mr. Charles Kemble for the judgment with which he supported so obnoxious a character as Plastic, which, in less respectable hands, might have proved fatal to the piece. The Ladies, upon whom the Author has not made a very strong call, did every justice to their respective characters. A Song is introduced by Miss Tyrer, with a harp accompaniment. It is pretty enough, and was very sweetly sung, but both the air and the accompaniment should have been in the style of the Welsh music. Upon the whole, the new comedy pessesses every recommendation to render it attractive, both in Town and Country. LULLI, THE CELEBRATED FRENCH MUSICIAN. THIS great Musician was one day reproached with setting nothing to music but the languid verses of Quinault. He ran immediately to his harpsichord, and with great violence of gesture, sang froin Racine's tragedy of 'Iphigenie" the following terrific liues : 66 Un pretre environné, d'une foule eruelle Dans son cœur palpitant consultera les Dieux. Lulli, thinking himself dying, sent for his confessor, who would not give him absolution unless he burnt the last opera he had composed, and which was in manuscript. Lulli disputed for some time, but all in vain ; at last he threw it into the fire before the priest's face, and received absolution. On his getting better, the Prince of Condé caine to see him, and told him what a simpleton he had been to destroy one of his finest compositions. "Do not condemn me, Sir, unheard," replied the musician to the Prince, "I knew very well what I was about: I have another copy." Lulli died at last of a wound which he had given himself in his foot, by beating time with too much violence with his cane. Agitated by the extreinest remorse for the free life which he had led, he ordered himself to be placed upon ashes, and a rope to be put about his neck, and with tears in his eyes expired, chanting from the "Prosa Ecclesiastica" of the Romish church, "Oh wretched sinner, you must die!" When Cardinal d'Estrées was at Rome, he praised, Corelli's Sonatas very much before that exquisite Au thor. "Sir," replied Corelli, "if they have any merit, it is because I have studied Lulli." Handel himself has imitated Lulli in many of his Overtures. |