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the year 1790, Elliston delivered an English Thesis, of which this was the subject; nemo con fidat nimium secundis.' The approbation he received on this, and other occasions of a similar kind, was too flattering to be forgotten; from the extracted speeches of plays, he turned to the plays themselves, and, soon imagining himself the character he read, he made his appearance in Pierre, before a private audience at the Lyceum, in the Strand. This dramatic bias produced serious remonstrances from his relations; but the die was cast, young Ammon would go on.' He went to Bath, and, introducing himself to the Manager, was permitted to perform Tressel in Richard III. He was greatly applauded, but the company being full, he was recommended by the father of Miss Wallis, to Tate Wilkinson at York. With this gentleman he continued one season; having however few opportunities of displaying his talents in the principal characters, and finding by this time, that an actor's, no more than the statesman's bed, is not always a bed of roses, he wrote to Dr. Elliston, soliciting his forgiveness; still pleading, however, his partiality for the profession he had adopted, and expressing a desire to try his fortune on the London boards. His uncle was not made of steel; his friend Dr. Farmer recommended our young Roscius to his brother commentator George Steevens, who introduced him to Mr. Kemble; that gentleman told him to prepare himself in Romeo against the opening of the new Drury Lane theatre; but, too impatient to wait for the workmen, and not being able to feed upon a distant hope, he applied for an engagement to Mr. Dimond the Bath Manager, then performing for a few nights at Richmond. The agreement was settled at once; and, instead of Drury Lane, he performed his Romeo at Bath, in the year 1793. His success was complete, and he rose rapidly into favour with the audience. His name was mentioned with high encomiums, and patronage and profit attended his exertions. When the new Drury Lane opened in 1794, enquiry was made as to the terms which would be given him on his joining the company; he was offered forty shillings a week; but not chusing to starve in the metropolis on a paltry sum, the tardy offer of which, was with difficulty obtained through the joint interest of Dr. Farmer, George Steevens, and Mr. Kemble, he preferred living in credit

and affluence at Bath, by the independent exertion of his own unassisted abilities.

Our Romeo was soon destined to play the character of a lover on the stage of life; and he found a most lovely and interesting Juliet, in the person and accomplishments of Miss Rundall. Some impediments arose to the match, but they were removed by degrees, and their union took place three weeks before Mr. Elliston made his triumphant debut on the London stage, in the characters of Octavian and Vapour. The torch of Hymen has seldom waved over more propitious nuptials. From his own Honey-moon, down to Mr. Tobin's, and from thence until this moment, his history presents nothing but a series of good fortune. On and off the stage his career has been uniformly prosperous. His performance of Octavion was greatly admired and followed; and the failure of the Iron Chest, with Mr. Kemble in Mortimer, at Drury Lane, and its success when Mr. Elliston played that character at the Hay-Market, (which gave rise to much conversation and criticism) was a circumstance that did the young tragedian essential service. We never were, and we think never can be of opinion, that the condemnation of the Iron Chest was owing entirely to the bad acting of Mr. Kemble; but however this may be, the play which died on the third night at Drury Lane, was revived by the skill and animation of Mr. Elliston, and he enjoys all the fame of having restored it to the life it now enjoys.

To Mr. Harris, a new face is a sort of Jack-a-lanthorn ; follow it he must; and it often leads him into a bog, and there leaves him. When the Hay-Market closed,' Mr. Elliston was under the necessity of returning to' his situation at Bath; but the Covent-Garden proprietor engaged him to play once a fortnight, for a certain numnber of nights. The celerity of his movements, so necessary to enable him to fulfil his duty, both at Bath, and in London, procured him the appellation of "the Telegraph, or Fortnight Actor." This arrangement was soon found to be mutually inconvenient, and after a few nights was abandoned.

He returned to the Hay-Market the ensuing season, and was eminently successful in a variety of opposite characters. The following summers he passed in different parts of the country. Being much countenanced

by the Royal Family, his visits to Weymouth in partia cular, were very frequent and very profitable: but when Mr. Colman, that he might open his theatre on the 15th of May, resolved on collecting a company of performers entirely from the country, and applied to Mr. Elliston to take the stage management, and the lead as an actor, he was tempted again to return to London; and Mr. Colman's new and hazardous scheme was infinitely indebted for its success to his enterprizing spirit, and the promptitude and versatility of his profes sional abilities. Mr. Mathews also distingished himself as a comedian of genuine merit.

Mr. Elliston's engagement was for three seasons. At the close of the second summer, having received offers from the proprietors of Drury Lane, such as it had been folly to reject, he obtained the consent of the Bath proprietors to give up a year of his articles, and made his appearance, at length, on the boards of the magnificent theatre in Drury-Lane; not as he would have done in 1794, as "steward, substitute and lowly factor," at forty shillings a week; but in Rolla the Peruvian General, at a salary and with privileges, seldom before bestowed on any performer. The secession of Mr. Kemble paved the way to Mr. Elliston's promotion to the highest rank, and most enviable honours of his profession.

In the full enjoyment of these honours we now leave him. In the course of this Publication we shall have sufficient opportunities of pointing out his particular merits and deficiencies as an actor. He has written one piece for the stage, called the Venetian Outlaw, founded on the story of the Bravo of Venice. We cannot judge: of it as a composition; but we remember that its dramatic effect was very striking, and the applause it received abundant.

Mr. Elliston, we believe, has five or six children; and, if report tells but half the truth, the recent death of his respectable uncle, has left him in a state of very handsome, independence, in point of fortune.

The portrait which accompanies this sketch, exhibits him as the Duke, in the Honeymoon.

MARSHAL RANTZAU.

WHAT contrarieties often occur in the same person! How often the indulgence of one vice, prevents the ex ertion and the advantage of many good qualities, and of many virtues! Auberi du Maurier, in his "Memoires de Hambourg," thus describes the celebrated Marshal Rantzau-" He was a German of high birth, and a General of such great note, that Mazarin used to ops pose to the Prince of Condé, when that great Commander had the misfortune to be in arms against his country and his Prince." M. Rantzau possessed admirable qualities both of body and mind. He was tall, fair, and very handsome. To see him only, one would say he was born to command.. He was the finest horseman ever beheld. He would hit a single piece of money with a pistol, at a hundred paces distant. He was invincible with the small-sword. He spoke the principal languages of Europe, and had a general taste for the sciences. He was acquainted with all the great Generals of the age, having made war under them from the time he was able to bear arms. He said in conversation many lively things; and as an infallible proof of the force of his eloquence in any council of war in which he ever sat, he always drew over the other members to be of his sentiments, so ably did he support them with powerful reasons. If he spoke well, he wrote still better. Tot his courage nothing was impossible. He possessed perfect coolness in the greatest danger, and found expe-> dients under the heaviest misfortunes. His liberality procured him the love and esteem of his soldiers, and no General knew how to give his orders so well. But so many excellent and rare virtues were effaced by his great vices. Never was there a more determined debauchee. He loved wine and women to excess, and the most seasoned drinkers were afraid of him. He sought their company from, all parts, and no one could equal him in this species of vice. He sometimes remained in a state of insensibility for whole days. The disorder that reigned in his private affairs was inconceivable. He gave away whatever he had about him without discrimination, and he always had much money in his pocket, which he was robbed of during his inebriety.

Thus, like a cask ́ ́ without a bottom, all the riches of India would not have been sufficient for him, and he found himself compelled to sell all his effects. for little or nothing. He often lost his best friends for a bon-mot. Du Maurier, who was Rantzau's great friend, told this, extraordinary man one day, that his excesses and irregularities would destroy his health, and that they would prevent his rising to the principal employments in the state. "I would not," answered he, darting a most ferocious and haggard look upon Du Maurier, "I would not give up my pleasures to become Emperor of Germany." His excesses, during the siege of Dunkirk by the Spaniards, are thought to have lost that place. He was, however, confined for some time in the castle of Vincennes for this supposed neglect, and was cleared from any imputation of treachery or cowardice. He died soon after his release. During the siege of Gravelines, he had one day appointed the Duke of Orleans, and some of the principal French Nobility, to sup with him. He went, however, in the morning, to pay a visit to the famous Dutch Admiral Van Tromp, where he got so drunk with Malaga wine, that he fell under the table as if he was dead, and was obliged to be put to bed. His Aid-du-camp made an apology to the Duke of Orleans, for his master's not being able to attend him at supper, and put it upon an excessive swell of the sea, which had prevented his leaving the Admiral's ship.

To shew the dangers of ebriety, the catholic legends tell us of some of their Hermits to whom the Devil gave his choice of three crimes; two of them of the most atrocious kind, and the other to be drunk. The poor Saint chose the last, as the least of the three; but when drunk, committed the other two.

The baneful effects of this pernicious vice upon the body are described by the ingenious Dr. Darwin, in his "Zoonomia," under an allegory which would not have disgraced the splendid imagination of Lord Bacon himself.

"Prometheus," says the Doctor, 66 was painted as stealing fire from Heaven, that might well represent the inflammable spirit produced by fermentation, which may be said to animate or enliven the man of clay; whence the conquests of Bacchus, as well as the temporary mirth and noise of his devotees. But the afterpunishment of those who steal this accursed fire, is a

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