On the 19th, 25th, 26th, 9h. 7m. 40s afternoon 4h. 33 m. 3s. morning. 11h. 1m. 34 s. afternoon He comes to an opposition with the sun on the 30th, at 124 h.; after which he will be an evening star. The Moon is in apogee on the 5th, in opposition on the 13th, in perigee on the 17th, and arrives at the change on the 27th. The best time for observing the inequalities of her surface is at the quarters, as the shadows projected from the lunar mountains appear the longest when the enlightened edge is turned towards the sun. But as the moon at her last quarter does not generally rise till about midnight, it is better to secure an opportunity of viewing her through a telescope at the first quarter, when she may be seen at any time in the evening. THEATRES. PASCHE. old dramatic register:-" The Wary Widow, or Sir Noisy Parrot, a comedy, by Henry Higden, in 1693. This is very far from being the worst of our English comedies, being ushered into the world by several complimentary verses, and a prologue written by Sir Charles Sedley, yet it was damned the first night, owing to a very extraordinary circumstance, which much drinking of punch into the play, was, that the author had introduced so that the performers got drunk during the acting of it, and were unable to go through with their parts; on which account, and hisses and cat-calls in consequence of it, the treatment the audience gave them by the house was obliged to be dismissed at (For the Mirror.) SUCH was the delight of our ancestors in dramatic entertainments, that no fewer than nineteen play-houses had been opened at different times before the year 1633, when Prynne published his Histriomastix. The amusements before the commencement of the play were of various kinds: "While some part of the audidience entertained themselves in reading or playing cards, others were employed in less refined occupations, in drinking ale or smoking tobacco." With these they were furnished by male attendants, of whose clamour a satirical writer of the time of James 1. loudly complains. It appears from a passage in "Puttenham's Art of English Poetry, 1589," that vizards were, on some occasions, used by the authors of those days. Till the beginning of Queen Anne's reign, women used to come to the theatre in masks. This practice was forbidden by a proclamation of that queen, in the first year of her reign. The prices usually paid for the copyright of plays will be seen by the following information, which is gleaned from an old account-book of Bernard Lintot, the bookseller. Tragedies were then the favourite dramas, and generally obtained the best price. Dr. Young received for his Busiris, 841.; Smith for his Phædra and Hippolytus, 501.; Rowe for his Jane Shore, 501. 15s., and for Lady Jane Grey, 751. 5s.; Cibber for his Nonjuror had 1057. To this we may add the following curious account of the cause of damning" a play, not contemplated by modern dramatists. It is related in an the end of the third act." The cost of admission to the theatres in the days of Elizabeth was very moderate. "Let me never live to look so high as the two-penny room again," says Ben Jonson, in his prologue to Every Man Out of His Humour, acted for the first time at the Globe, on Bankside, in 1599. The price of the "best rooms," or boxes, was a shilling; of the lower places two-pence; and in some places only a penny. The twopenny room above mentioned was the gallery. Thus Decker: "Pay you twopence to a player, and you may sit in the gallery."-Bellman's Night-Walk. And Middleton, "one of them is a nip; I took him once into the two-penny gallery at the Fortune." The place, however, seems to have been very discreditable, for it is commonly described as the resort of the worst characters. In Every Man Out of His Humour, there is also mention of "the lords' room over the stage." The lords' room answered to the present stageboxes. The price of admission to them appears to have been originally a shilling. Thus Decker in his Gul's Hornbook, 1609:-" At a new play you take up the twelve-penny room, next the stage, because the lords and you may seem to be hail fellow well met." In the reigns of Charles I. and II. there were six play-houses allowed to be opened at one time in London; that is, at Blackfriars, for the king's company; the Globe, on the Bankside; the Bull, in St. Johnstreet; one in Salisbury-court; the Fortune and the Cockpit, in Drury-lane. The admission to the play-house, called the Globe, in Shakspeare's time, about 1603, was one shilling to the boxes and sixpence to the pit; and a two-penny gallery is mentioned in the prologue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Woman-Hater. Seats of three-pence and a groat are also mentioned; and afterwards to some of the houses the prices were from sixpence to two shillings and sixpence. At the theatre in Drury-lane, 1703, the price to the boxes was four shillings, to the pit two shillings and sixpence, first gallery one shilling and sixpence, and upper gallery one shilling. Many years after that period the price to the boxes was raised to five shillings, the pit to three shillings, and the first gallery to two shillings. Since then, the proprietors of some of the theatres have raised the price of the boxes to six shillings, and the pit to three shillings and sixpence. In the year 1809, the proprietors of Covent-Garden Theatre raised the price of the boxes to seven shillings, and endeavoured to raise the pit to four shillings. F. R. Y. ORIGIN OF THE KNIGHTS OF (who were thirteen in numb 11 allusion to our Saviour and t twelve Apostles) were most richly aressed, in their parliamentary robes, having embroidered on their left shoulders Saint Andrew's Cross, within a blue rundle, and in the centre of the said cross was a crown composed of golden fleur de lis. This order has been frequently neglected, and as often resumed. It consists at present of a sovereign and twelve companions. H. W. D. THE GLOW WORM. THE glow worm is the wingless female of a beetle insect. The male is of a dusky THE THISTLE OR OF ST. AN. hue, without much beauty or peculiarity DREW IN SCOTLAND. (For the Mirror. HUNGUS, king of the Picts, the night previous to the battle that was fought between him and Athelstan, king of England, saw in the sky a bright cross, in the shape of that on which Saint Andrew suffered martyrdom, and the issue of the battle proving successful to Hungus, in memorial of the said apparition which predicted so happy an omen, the Picts and Scots have ever since borne on their ensigns and banners the figure of the said cross, which is in the shape of saltier.* a From this circumstance it is supposed that this order took its rise, which was about the year of our Lord 810. For king Hungus and Achains (confederates against Athelstan) went barefooted and very devoutly to the kirk of Saint Andrew, to return thanks to God and his Apostles for their victory; vowing for themselves and their posterity, ever to use the said cross on their ensigns in any warlike expedition. The principal ensign of this order is a golden collar, composed of thistles, intermixed with annulets of gold, to which hangs the figure of Saint Andrew with his cross, and this motto: Nemo me impune lacessit.† But for their common ensign they wore a green ribbon to which hung a golden thistle crowned with an imperial crown, with a circle of gold, with the motto. Their grand meeting was annually on Saint Andrew's Day, in the church of the town of Saint Andrew, and during the solemnity of the feast, these knights Guillim's Heraldry, p. 235. None shall safely provoke me of marking. The female is more like the larva or grub of a beetle, than a full grown insect. The light, which is of a the three last rings of the body; it seems beautiful sulphur colour, proceeds from pleasure. From the circumstance of the to have the faculty of giving it out at male being a winged animal, and the female not, it was necessary that some con. trivance should be had recourse to for directing the rambler to his sedentary mate. What more beautiful, and at the same time sufficient guide could be pos sibly contrived than this self-lighted hymeneal torch? "Thine is an unobtrusive blaze, Content in lowly shades to shine; Anecdotes and Recollections. Notings, selections, Anecdote and joke Our recollections; With gravities for graver foik. A BARRISTER. A BARRISTER in his chambers is one thing; a barrister at the bar is another; and a barrister on his vacation-tour is another. A barrister in his chambers is a wise man, a barrister at the bar is a wise man, and a barrister on his vacationtour is a wise man; but the wisdom of chambers is one thing, and the wisdom of the bar is another, and the wisdom of the vacation is another. In his chambers, the barrister looks profoundly wise and oracular, and his books form part of the wisdom of his looks, and his looks form part of the wisdom of his books. At the bar, the barrister looks wise; but the gravity of the oracle is somewhat blended THE following sonnet contains an allusion to a well-known custom in the East-Indies. When a female is separated from her lover, she repairs in the evening to the Ganges and launches a small floating lamp. Should the lamp, or the light be extinguished, before it has passed a certain distance down the stream, it is considered emblematical of the fate of the absent lover, who is supposed to have met with an untimely end. The shades of evening veil the lofty spires Along the dusky shores their crimson fires, The Brahmin dare not question-he is dead! ETYMOLOGIES. MR. HORNE TOOKE, in his "Diver sions of Purley," introduces the derivation of King Pepin from the Greek noun osper! as thus-osper, eper, oper; diaper; napkin, nipkin, pipkin, pepin-kingKing Pepin! And, in another work, we find the etymology of pickled cucumber from King Jeremiah! exempli gratiâ, King Jeremiah--Jeremiah King; Jerry, king; jerkin, girkin, pickled cucumber! Also, the name of Mr. Fox as derived from a rainy day; as thus-Rainy day, rain a little, rain much, rain hard, reynard, fox! Every scholar must also be able to prove to demonstration that a pigeon-pie is an eel-pie. Lest the reader may not be a student or an etymologist, here it is-pigeon is pie-jack; pie-jack is jack-pie; jack-pie is fish-pie! fish-pie is eel-pie! MARCH. March, various, fierce, and wild, with wind-crackt cheeks, By wilder Welshmen led, and crowned with leeks. THERE are frequently mornings in March, says Time's Telescope, when a lover of nature may enjoy, in a stroll, sensations not to be exceeded, or, perhaps, equalled by any thing which the full glory of summer can awaken-mornings which tempt us to cast the memory of winter, or the fear of its recurrence, out or our thoughts. The air is mild and balmy, with, now and then, a cool gush by no means unpleasant, but, on the contrary, contributing towards that cheering and peculiar feeling which we experience only in spring. The sky is clear, the sun flings abroad not only a gladdening splendour, but an almost summer glow. The world seems suddenly aroused to hope and enjoyment. The fields are assuming a vernal greenness the buds are swelling in the hedges-the banks are displaying, amidst the brown remains of last year's vegetation, the luxuriant weeds of this. There are arums, ground-ivy, chervil, the glaucus leaves, and burnished flowers of the pilewort. "The first gilt thing Which wears the trembling pearls of spring;" and many other fresh and early bursts of rreenery. All unexpectedly too, in some embowered lane, you are arrested by the delicious odour of violets, those sweetest of Flora's children, which have furnished so many pretty allusions to the poets, and which are not yet exhausted; they are CHURCHILL. like true friends-we do not know half some clear In the fields, the labourers are plashing and trimming the hedges, and in all dithe wholesome, and we may truly say, rections are teams at plough. You smell aromatic soil, as it is turned up to the sun, brown and rich, the whole country over. It is delightful as you pass along deep, hollow lanes, or are hidden in copses, to hear the tinkling gears of the horses, and the clear voices of the lad 160 calling to them. It is not less pleasant to catch the busy caw of the rookery, and the first meek cry of the young lambs. The hares are hopping about the fields, the excitement of the season overcoming their habitual timidity. The bees are revelling in the yellow catkins of the sallow. The woods, though yet unadorned with their leafy garniture, are beautiful to look on; they seem flushed with life. Their boughs are of a clear and glossy lead colour, and the tree-tops are rich with the vigorous hues of brown, red, and purple; and if you plunge into their solitudes, there are symptoms of revivification under your feet, the springing mercury, and green blades of the bluebells and perhaps, above you, the early nest of the missel-thrush perched between the boughs of a young oak, to tinge your thoughts with the anticipation of summer. These are mornings not to be neglected by the lover of Nature; and if not neg lected, then, not to be forgotten, for they will stir the springs of memory, and make us live over again times and seasons, in which we cannot, for the pleasure and the purity of our spirits, live too much. A valuable contributor, the Delta of Blackwood's Magazine, has written expressly for Time's Telescope an appropriate March Invocation, which is admirably descriptive of the various appearances of Nature in this month : 'Come hither, come hither, and view the face of nature, enrobed in her vernal grace.— By the hedgerow way-side flowers are springing; On the budding elms the birds are singing, And up-up-up to the gates of heaven Mounts the lark, on the wings of her rapture driven: ; The voice of the streamlet is fresh and loud; Haste out of doors-from the pastoral mount The midge and the fly from their long dull sleep The hare leaps up from his brushwood bed, And limps, and turns its timid head; Come, hasten ye hither-our garden bowers The jonquil boasteth, «Ere few weeks run, My golden sunlet I'll show the sun ;” By the kissing winds are wooing and wooed; While the wall-flower threatens, with bursting bud To darken its blossoms with winter's blood. 'The fruit buds of the jargonelle; On its yet but leaf let greening boughs The apricot open its blossom throws; See, the gooseberry bushes their riches show, With my grateful coolness on harvest days." Out upon in-door cares-rejoice In the thrill of nature's bewitching voice! |