produce that endless variety of intonation with which Mrs. Siddons declaims.

"Mrs. Pritchard's voice was clear, distinct, and various; but her figure coarse and large; nor could her features, plain even to hardness, at least when I saw them, exhibit the witchery of expression. She was a just and spirited actress; a more perfectly good speaker than her more elegant, more fascinating, contemporary.

"Mrs. Siddons has all the pathos of Mrs. Cibber, with a thousand times more variety in its exertion; and she has the justness of Mrs. Pritchard; while only Garrick's countenance could ever vie with her's in those endless shades of meaning, which almost make her charming voice superfluous; while the fine proportion and majesty of her form, and the beauty of her face, eclipse the remembrance of all her consummate predecessors." -Miss Seward.

FAREWELL ADDRESS,

Spoken by John Kemble, at the Edinburgh Theatre,

WRITTEN BY SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.

As the worn war-horse at the trumpet's sound
Erects his mane, and neighs and

ground

paws the

Disdains the ease his generous lord assigns,
And longs to rush on the embattled lines,
So I, your plaudits ringing on mine ear,
Can scarce sustain to think our parting near;
To think my scenic hour for ever past,
And that those valued plaudits are my last.
But years steal on-and higher duties crave
Some space between the theatre and grave;
That, like the Roman in the capitol,
I may adjust my mantle, 'ere I fall.

My life's brief act, in public service flown,
The last, the closing scene, must be my own.
Here, then, adieu! while yet some well grac'd

parts

May fix an ancient favourite in your

hearts;

Nor quite to be forgotten, even when
You look on better actors, younger men;
And if your bosoms own this kindly debt
Of old remembrance, how shall mine forget?—
O how forget, how oft I hither came

In anxious hope, how oft return'd with fame!—
How oft around your circle, this weak hand
Has wav'd immortal Shakspeare's magic wand,
Till the full burst of inspiration came,

And I have felt, and you have fann'd, the flame!

By mem❜ry treasur'd, while her reign endures, These hours must live-and all their charms are

yours.

Oh! favour'd land, renown'd for arts and arms,
For manly talent, and for female charms;
Could this full bosom prompt the sinking line,
What fervent benedictions now were thine!
But my last part is play'd, my knell is rung,
When e'en your praise falls fault'ring from my
tongue;

And all that you can hear, or I can tell,
Is-friends and patrons, hail, and fare ye well!

THE ANCIENT MORALITIES.

ONE of the earliest improvements on the Old Mystery, was the Allegorical Play, or Morality, as it was called, in which the virtues and vices were introduced as personages of the Drama, for the purpose of instilling moral truth, or inculcating some useful lesson for the conduct of life. These Moralities indicate dawnings of the dramatic art; they contain some rudiments of a plot, and even attempt to delineate characters, and to paint manners; hence, the gradual and easy transition to real historical personages and

romance, was natural and obvious.

"I am un

able," says Mr. Malone, "to ascertain when the first Morality appeared, but incline to think, not sooner than the reign of King Edward the Fourth (about 1460). The public pageants of the reign of his predecessor were uncommonly splendid, and being then first enlivened by the introduction of speaking allegorical personages, properly and characteristically habited, they naturally led the way to those personifications by which Moralities were distinguished from the simple religious dramas, called Mysteries."

Mr. Warton observes, that this species of entertainment was become so fashionable a spectacle, about the close of the reign of Henry the Seventh, that" John Rastale, a learned typographer, brother-in-law to Sir Thomas More, extended its province, which had hitherto been confined either to moral allegory, or religion blended with buffoonery; and conceived the design of making it the vehicle of science and philosophy. With this view, he published A new Enterlude and a Merry, of the nature of the four elements, declaring many proper points of philosophy, natural, and divers strange lands,' &c. In the cosmographical part of the play, in

which the poet professes to treat of divers strange lands, and the new-found lands,' the tracts of America, recently discovered, and the manners of the natives, are described. The characters are, a Messenger, who speaks the prologue; Nature, Humanity, Studious Desire, Sensual Appetite, a Taverner, Experience, and Ignorance.'

Detailed accounts and analyses of several of the most interesting of these entertainments, will be found in different parts of these volumes.

CORRESPONDENCE

BETWEEN GARRICK AND
STONE.

Ar the time that Garrick and Lacy were joint Managers of Drury Lane, it was Garrick's department to engage all performers, &c.; and he had a humorous fellow in his pay, whose office it was to procure persons competent to act subordinate characters, and for whom he received a certain sum per head. Several epistles passed between Garrick and his "theatrical crimp," as he was then called; and the following, written in 1780, are specimens of their correspondence:

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