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the room, that he lamented the refusal, as the Duke of Northumberland would be greatly disappointed. On hearing the name of the Duke, Mr. Kemble desired the doctor to stay, and immediately said, "the Duke has a right to command me." Accordingly, he attended the present Duke for some time, giving him lessons on Elocution. But no satisfactory return was made, or even seemed to be contemplated, by the noble family. Time went on the day of kindness came. On the very morning of the theatre's being burnt down, his Grace wrote to Mr. Kemble, and proffered him the loan of 10,000l. if it would be a convenience to him, upon his personal security. It was a convenience; Mr. Kemble accepted the offer with readiness and gratitude, and paid the interest, as the quarters came due, to the steward. On the day, however, upon which the first stone of the New Covent Garden Theatre was laid, the Duke wrote again to Mr. Kemble, and observing in his letter, that he had no doubt that day was one of the proudest of Mr. Kemble's life-time, and that his Grace was anxious to make it one of the happiest, he enclosed the cancelled bond.

ISABELLA ANDRECINI.

THIS lady, who distinguished herself both as an actress and a poetess, was born at Padua, in 1562. After gratifying her country by the exertion of her diversified talents, she visited France, where they shone in all their wonted lustre, and where she was received with particular attention by the court. Her husband, Francis Andrecini, who was sensible of her abilities, encouraged her in the most flattering terms, and when, in 1601, she died of a miscarriage, in her forty-second year, at Lyons, he honoured her memory by the following epitaph: the orginal is written ́in Latin: "Isabella Andrecini, a native of Padua, distinguished by her great virtues, an ornament to female honour, pre-eminent in nuptial fidelity, eloquent in speech, highly gifted in mind, religious, pious, a lover of music, and at the head of the histrionic art, here reposes, in expectation of a joyful resurrection."

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

THESE dramatists having concerted the plan of a tragedy over a bottle, they settled which part of the play they should respectively take; which being perfectly adjusted, "Well," said Fletcher, "it

shall be so; you manage the rest, and I'll undertake to kill the king." These words being overheard, they were presently made prisoners; but having it in their power easily to prove that they only meditated the assassination of a theatrical monarch, the whole went off in a jest.

FOOTE'S LAST JOKE.

WHEN Foote was on his way to France, for change of air, he went into the kitchen at the Inn at Dover, to order a particular dish for dinner. The true English cook, disposed to smoke the traveller, boasted, that for her part she had never set foot out of her own country.-On this, the invalid gravely observed, "why, Cookey, that's very extraordinary, as they tell me above stairs that you have several times been all over grease!" "They may say what they please, above or below stairs," replied the cook, "but I was never ten miles from Dover in my life!"-" Nay, now that must be a fib," says Foote, for I have myself seen you at Spithead."-The next day, (October 21, 1777), this exhausted wit "shuffled off this mortal coil."

JEWISH DRAMA.

A Jewish play, of which fragments are still preserved in Greek iambics, is the first Drama known to have been written on a Scriptural subject. It is taken from Exodus,-"The Departure of the Israelites from Egypt, under their leader and prophet, Moses." The principal characters are Moses, Sapphora, and God from the bush, or God speaking from the burping bush. Moses delivers the prologue of this, in a speech of sixty lines, and his rod is turned to a serpent on the stage. The author of the play was Ezekiel, a Jew; who is called a tragic poet of the Jews. Warton supposes it was written after the destruction of Jerusalem, as a poetical spectacle to animate the dispersed brethren with the hopes of a future deliverance from their captivity, under the conduct of a new Moses; and that it was composed in imitation of a Greek Drama, at the close of the second century.

BENEVOLENCE OF GARRICK.

THERE are two remarkably generous deeds of Mr. Garrick, which are so well authenticated, that it were an act of injustice to his memory to conceal them from the world. A gentleman of

fashion, and a man universally beloved and esteemed, borrowed five hundred pounds of Mr. Garrick, for which he gave his note-of-hand. By some vicissitudes of fortune, the affairs of this gentleman were greatly distressed; his friends and relations, who loved him, were determined to free him from uneasiness, by satisfying his creditors. A day of meeting for the purpose was appointed, on which they were to be very cheerful. Mr. Garrick heard of it, and instead of taking advantage of the circumstance, to put in his claim, he inclosed the note-of-hand for the £500 in a letter, in which he also told the gentleman, that he had been informed, that a jovial meeting was to take place between him and his friends, and that it was to be a bonfire-day; he, therefore, desired he would consign the note to the flames!!

The other anecdote is still more to his honour. He was very intimate with an eminent surgeon, who died several years since; a very amiable man, who often dined and supped with Mr. and Mrs. Garrick. One day, after dinner, the gentleman declared, that, without the assistance of a friend who would lend a thousand pounds, he should be at a loss what to do. "A thousand pounds!" said Mr. Garrick; "that is a very

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