WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. Expraved by Icons from the Sponsor from the original picture, in the possession of Mr Richardson. AN ESSAY ON THE SCIENCE OF ACTING. BY A VETERAN STAGER. You say the thing is incorrect-why, take it, BIBLIOTHEEK London: COWIE AND STRANGE, 64, PATERNOSTER-ROW, AND 24, FETTER-LANE 1828. PREFACE. THE last page of my work was completed; and, seated at my breakfast table, I anxiously awaited the arrival of the devil, whose discontinued cry of "more copy" would, I had fondly imagined, release me from typographical tyranny, and restore my mind to its almost forgotten independence. But, in the most humble stage of society, and more particularly amongst those who are rash enough to protrude their literary labours on the public attention, there will be found a continual clinging to "the pomp and circumstance of empty life," and a sacrifice of substantial enjoyment to mere form. I confess that I am not without my weakness in this particular, and felt the greatest anxiety to impress on |