A question which immediately drew from the poet the following reply

"Thou son of fire! with thy face like maple,

The same difference as between a scalded and a coddled apple!"

SHUTER.

THIS excellent comedian was once in disgrace with the audience, in consequence of irregularities: they demanded an apology. Shuter was somewhat tardy; and a lady was going on with her part; but the audience calling out "Shuter, Shuter," the arch comedian peeped from behind the curtain, and said, " Pray, do not shoot her; the lady is innocent, the fault is entirely my own." This put the house in good humour, and Shuter was received with applause.

GEORGE III. AND MR. SHERIDAN.

GEORGE III. displayed great fortitude on the attempt made on his life, at Drury Lane Theatre, by Hatfield; after which, the first levee was the most brilliant, and the most numerously attended, that had ever been witnessed. All parties were present, and it seemed to be the meeting of one great family.

At the arrival of Mr. Sheridan, he was particu

larly noticed by his Majesty, who expressed to him the extreme satisfaction he felt for the peaceable demeanour of the audience, their remaining in the house after the first ebullition of public resentment had subsided, and their manifestations of personal regard to himself. Mr. Sheridan, with all the grace of a courtier, instantly attributed this to the noble example of fortitude and magnanimity which the Sovereign himself displayed; expatiating, at the same time, upon the ruin, destruction, and loss of lives, which must inevitably have ensued, if the King had quitted the box, and suspended the performances. To which the King replied" No doubt, that would have been the case; but" (added the King, with a degree of dignity,) " I should have despised myself for ever, had I stirred but a single inch. A man, on such an occasion, should need no prompting, but immediately feel what is his duty."

DEATH, THE ACTOR.

THIS gentleman's name, as might be conjectured, supplied the minor wits and "full grown" punsters of his day with witticisms innumerable, which were smuggled into each journal's columns

devoted to theatrical criticism: if he performed well, they remarked, that "last night, Death was quite alive; " and if he acted ill, they did not fail to add, that " Death, as might be guessed, was devoid of all animation."

When his great namesake, Death, claimed a closer acquaintanceship with him, they did not "let him shuffle off this mortal coil" without a few flying shots, in the form of epigrams and epitaphs on his unfortunate name. The following is selected from the quantity which were so generously administered to the public.

Epitaph on Mr. Death.

DEATH levels all, both high and low,

Without regard to stations;

Yet, why complain,

If we are slain?

For here lies one, at least, to shew

He kills his own relations.

MYSTERIES.

A custom of representing some event recorded in Scripture, at every solemn festival, became almost general, nearly at the same period, in the south, the west, and even in the north of Europe. The Jews, themselves, had the Stories of the Old Testament exhibited in the dramatic form. Part

of a Jewish piece, on the subject of Exodus, written in Greek Iambics, by one Ezekiel, who styles himself the Poet of the Hebrews, is still preserved. The principal characters of the Drama are,-Moses, Sepphora, and "God speaking from the bush;" the Prologue is delivered by Moses, in a speech of 60 lines, and his rod is changed into a serpent upon the stage.

These Scriptural Pieces were called Miracles, or Mysteries, and no other species of the drama was known at Rome and Florence in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Even in a more polished age, we have seen the subjects of Scripture delivered in a dramatic form by Milton, Racine, and Metastasio. Our own great poet had even begun a tragedy on the Fall of Man; and "Paradise Lost," that noblest effort of genius, which would alone suffice to perpetuate the English language, "to the last syllable of recorded time," in all probability owed its existence to an idea, which Milton conceived from a Mystery of Andreino; and every one knows, that his intended drama was to have begun with the beautiful Address to the Sun, in the fourth book of his divine poem. One of these ancient Mysteries, entitled "Candlemas day, or the Killing of the

Children of Israel," is preserved among the Digby MSS. in the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, and has been published by Hawkins, in his "Origin of the English Drama." In this rude play, which was written by John Parfre, in 1512, the Hebrew soldiers are made to swear by Mahomed, or Mahomet, who was not born till near 600 years after; Herod's Messenger is called Watkins; and the "Knights" are directed to walk about the place till Mary and Joseph be conveyed into Egypt." This, however, is far from being one of the earliest of these productions, for, in the year 1110, as Dr. Percy and Mr. Warton have observed, the Miracle-Play of "St. Catherine," written by Geoffry, a learned Norman, was acted in the Abbey of Dunstable; and William Fitz-Stephen, who wrote about the year 1174, mentions, that "London, for its theatrical exhibitions, has religious plays, either the representation of Miracles wrought by holy Confessors, or the sufferings of Martyrs." Mr. Warton also remarks, that "in the time of Chaucer, plays of Miracles appear to have been the common resort of the idle gossips of Kent." The most considerable collection of Mysteries extant, are the Ludus Conventriæ, in the Cotton collection, and