Mrs. Porter, and the highwayman

Liston's Lord Grizzle, in "Tom Thumb,"

The Covent Garden patent

"

High Life below Stairs," in Scotland

Ben Jonson at the Devil Tavern

Abstraction of a tragic poet

.

Mrs. Oldfield

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240

Stephens, the button maker and tragedian

The last appearance of John Kemble

First performance of "The Gentle Shepherd,"
Barry, the tragedian, in his zenith and decline

Letter from Mr. Garrick to the Secretary of the Cus

Prologue on opening the Theatre, at Botany Bay

Dominique, the French harlequin

Dr. Johnson's opinion of Mrs. Siddons

Delpini's remonstrance

The Duke and Duchess of Queensbury, and "The Beg

THEATRES & THEATRICALS.

THE PERPETUAL COMEDY.

THE world is the stage-men are the performers-chance composes the piece-fortune distributes the parts-the fools shift the scenery— the philosophers are the spectators-the rich occupy the boxes-the powerful have their seat in the pit, and the poor sit in the gallery-the fair sex present the refreshments-the tyrants occupy the treasury benches-and those forsaken by Lady Fortune, snuff the candles-Folly makes the concert-and Time drops the curtain.

THE DRAMA IN ITS INFANCY IN SPAIN.

LOPE DE RUEDA took Comedy out of the cradle, and attired her in splendid and magnificent garments. In the time of that celebrated

VOL. I.

B

Spaniard, all the properties of a writer of plays, or a manager of a theatre, were contained in a bag, and consisted of four shepherd's white robes or frocks, bordered with gilt leather, four beards and false heads of hair, and four crooks, more or less. Plays were nothing more than conversation, similar to eclogues, between two or three shepherds and a shepherdess; they were diversified and lengthened by two or three interludes, the characters of which were, a negress, some intermedlers, some stupid clowns, and some Biscayans. The same Lope used to perform these four different characters, with all the excellence and discrimination imaginable. At this period, there were no side scenes, no battles between Christians and Moors, either on foot or on horse-back; no figures issuing or appearing to issue out of the centre of the earth; and the stage itself consisted of four or six planks, placed on four benches laid across, and forming a platform raised about four palms above the ground. Angels were never seen descending from the skies, nor spirits mounted aloft on clouds; all the ornament of the stage was an old blanket tied up by ropes, fastened from one side to the other, and dividing the dressing rooms

from the stage. The musicians were placed behind the curtain, and usually sung some old romance, accompanied by the guitar. Naharro, a native of Toledo, succeeded Lope de Rueda ; he gained great reputation, especially in the part of a cowardly intermedler. Naharro added a little to the stage decorations, and exchanged the clothes-bag for chests and trunks. He brought the musicians before the curtain, and took away the beards from the buffoons, for, up to this time, nobody appeared on the stage without a beard. He invented side scenes, clouds, thunder and lightning, duels and battles; but in no particular were theatrical exhibitions carried to the perfection produced by Cervantes. He was the first who embodied the phantoms of imagination, and the hidden thoughts of the soul, by introducing on the stage, with the general applause of the spectators, the attributes of mortality. He wrote from twenty to thirty plays, which all passed representation, without the performers receiving volleys of cucumbers or oranges, or any of those missiles with which the audience were wont to express their disapprobation.