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t comes from Padua, from Bellario:

There you shall find, that Portia was the doctor;
Nerissa, there, her clerk: Lorenzo here
Shall witness, I set forth as soon as you,
And but even now returned; I have not yet
Entered my house.-Antonio, you are welcome :
And I have better news in store for you,

Than you expect: unseal this letter soon;
There you shall find three of your argosies
Are richly come to harbour suddenly:

You shall not know by what strange accident
I chanced on this letter.

Bass. (R.) Were you the doctor, and I knew you not? Gra. Were you the clerk that is to make me cuckold? Ner. (L.) Ay; but the clerk that never means to do it, Unless he live until he be a man.

Bass. Sweet doctor, you shall be my bedfellow; When I am absent, then sleep with my wife.

Ant. Sweet lady, you have given me life and living; For here I read for certain, that my ships

Are safely come to road.

Por. How now,

Lorenzo?

My clerk hath some good comforts, too, for you.
Ner. Ay, and I'll give them him without a fee.-
There do I give to you and Jessica,

From the rich Jew, a special deed of gift,
After his death, of all he dies possessed of.

Lor. (L.) Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way
Of starvéd people.

Por. It is almost morning,

And yet, I am sure, you are not satisfied
Of these events at full; let us go in ;
And charge us there upon inter'gatories,
And we will answer all things faithfully.
Gra. Let it be so: the first inter'gatory
That my Nerissa shall be sworn on, is,
Whether till the next night she had rather stay,
Or go to bed now, being two hours to day:
But were the day come, I should wish it dark,
That I were couching with the doctor's clerk.
Well, while I live, I'll fear no other thing
So ere, as keeping safe Nerissa's ring.

THE END.

No. LXII.

OLD HEADS & YOUNG HEARTS

A Comedy

IN FIVE ACTS.

BY DION BOURCICAULT,
Boricicaul

WITH THE STAGE BUSINESS, CAST OF CHARACTERS, COSTUMES, RELATIVE POSITIONS, ETC.

NEW-YORK:
WILLIAM TAYLOR & CO.,

No. 18 ANN-STREET.

EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION.

BORCICAULT may be considered to be the originator cf what has been very aptly designated as the "Upholstery School of COMEDY," in which the decorations and novel effects derivable from the appointments and accessories, which modern improvement has introduced on the stage, form the prominent features of the piece. That the comedies of this author owe much of their success to these novel introductions, cannot be denied, but Borçicault also possesses the talent of infusing into his compositions a sparkling vivacity of dialogue, a neatness in the construction of his plot, a knowledge of cha racter, drawn from a close observance of the follies and vices of our period, and a happy skill in the management of his incidents and situations; and by these united qualifications, he has succeeded in producing two or three comedies, that never fail to amuse and attrac audiences, aided as they are by the adornments of costly stage appoint

ments.

The chief defect, we consider, in all Borçicault's productions, is the utter heartlessness that pervade his pictures of modern manners. His epigrammatic wit, and his polished keenness of satire, seem to revel in representing the most selfish characteristics of modern fashionable society. The exclusiveness of this society, perhaps, exposes it to the censure of the satirist; and the Dramatic writer, whose province it is to "shoot folly as it flies,” may be pardoned if he faithfully represents the classes, from which he draws the originals of his fictitious creations. He may draw from these equivocal fountains large draughts of wit and humour, and he may excite the risibilities of his audiences, with displays of his peculiar genius: but we humbly conceive that the brightest flashes of his wit, will be wanting in that other essential elément of true Dramatic wit-Protry, while the moral influence of such exhibitions of real life, in a Dramatic form, is deleterious in its effects on an audience. We are not so visionary in our theories as to look to the stage for any high code of morals, although we believe such might be its legitimate province; yet we contend that the stage is a school where a pure and correct taste may be oultivated; and

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