BEN JONSON AT THE DEVIL TAVERN.

In an ancient MS., preserved at Dulwich College, there are some of this comic writer's memoranda, which prove, that he owed much of his inspiration to good wine, and the convivial hours he passed at this tavern.* The following passages justify the opinion:"Mem. I laid the plot of my wrote most of it, after a present of ten dozen of palm sack, from my very good Lord T―; that play I am positive will last to posterity, and be acted, when I and Envy be friends, with applause."

Volpone,' and

Catilina,'

"Mem. The first speech in my spoken by Sylla's ghost, was writ after I parted with my friend, at the Devil Tavern. I had drank well that night, and had brave notions. There is one scene in that play, which I think is flat. I resolve to drink no more water with my wine."

"Mem. Upon the 20th of May, the King (heaven reward him !) sent me a hundred pounds. At that time I went often times to the Devil;'

*The Devil Tavern was situated in Fleet Street, near Temple Bar, on the site where Child's Place now stands.

and, before I had spent forty of it, wrote my "Alchymist.""

"Mem. The Devil an Ass,' the Tale of a Tub,' and some other comedies, which did not succeed, written by me. In the Winter, honest Ralph died, when I and my boys drank bad wine at the Devil."

ABSTRACTION OF A TRAGIC POET.

CREBILLON, the celebrated French tragic poet, was enamoured of solitude, that he might indulge, without interruption, in those fine romances, with which his imagination teemed. One day, when he was in a deep reverie, a friend entered, hastily. "Don't disturb me," said the poet, "I am enjoying a moment of happiness; I am going to hang a villain of a minister, and to banish another, who is an idiot."

MRS. OLDFIELD.

MRS. OLDFIELD was of a superior height, but with a lovely proportion; and the dignity of her soul, equal to her form and stature, made up of benevolent charity; affable and good natured to all that deserved it. Savage, the poet, son to the Earl Rivers, when he was persecuted by his

unnatural mother, received, from her ever-giving and bountiful hand, fifty pounds a year, during her life; and she was, with Mrs. Wilks, a main means of saving him from an ignominious end.

MOSSOP.

THIS Votary of the buskin was haughty, and much offended, at times, if a favour was offered him; often ridiculously so,—as in the case of a Major, who, at the time the circumstance happened, was devoted to the interests of the tragedian; and, although Mossop was, at the time, in great distress, he wanted to fight his friend, only because he used to go to every door, and pay at each, when he perceived that the house was half empty.

Mossop was particularly attached to various food, according to the line of character he was to represent. Broth, for one; roast pork, for tyrants; steaks, for "Measure for Measure ;” boiled mutton, for lovers; pudding, for Tancred, &c.

PERILOUS SITUATION OF INCLEDON AND HIS
WIFE.

THE Vessel, in which Incledon and his wife had embarked, at Dublin, in the summer of 1803,

to return to England, was upset in passing the bar. Several of the passengers were lost. Incledon saved himself, by climbing to the round top, with his wife lashed to him. For several hours, they were in this perilous condition; at length, they were picked up by some fishermen, who saw their distress from the shore.

MADEMOISELLE MARS.

the

MADEMOISELLE MARS, celebrated as first comic actress in France, was a great admirer of Bonaparte; and, after his return to France, in 1815, she constantly wore the violet (the symbol adopted by his partisans) on some part of her dress. One of her friends, a royalist, observed, on the occasion, "I do not wonder at it; the Emperor has always considered Mars as the first of the gods." "Yes," replied she, "and Mars regards the Emperor as the first of mortals."

On another occasion, when M. Papillon de Ferté, superintendant of the theatres, said to her, in a tone at once gentle and gallant, "Charming rose, when will you cease to be a violet?" "When the Papillon (butterfly) becomes an eagle," was the reply.

SUNDERLAND SHAKSPEARE CLUB.

RAYNER, the successor of Emery, is devotedly attached to Shakspeare; and first suggested, and, with the co-operation of two other individuals, finally carried into effect, the establishment of an anniversary of the birth of "the Immortal Bard," in Sunderland; which has continued to flourish (to the honour of the town) ever since.

The late Stephen Kemble, whose friendship he enjoyed, presided at the first anniversary, in 1817, and, in prefacing the memory of the immortal poet, after dwelling, with great ability, on the genius of Shakspeare, exclaimed, "What would my sister, Mrs. Siddons, have been, but for Shakspeare? Where would have been the laurels of Coriolanus and Lady Macbeth, but for Shakspeare? Gentlemen,-some of our puritanical writers have applied to the immortal bard, the epithet of THIEF-and they are right; he was a thief! the greatest thief that ever lived; for he stole the sign manual from Nature, and applied it to mankind, for the benefit of posterity."