bring actors now contending with the disadvantages of very different theatres and different audiences to comparisons with actors past. It is nugatory and frivolous, if done to flatter the living; unjust and cruel, if intended to disparage them. The present stage, whilst possessed of Mr. Kemble, has to boast of a performer, more deeply scientific, more learned and more laborious in his profession than is probably to be found in the annals of the British theatre. Although Garrick and Barry, Quin and Henderson, Woodward and O'Brien have passed off; although Mrs. Cibber and Mrs. Barry, Mrs. Pritchard and Mrs. Yates, Mrs. Abington and Miss Farren will be seen no more, the few old fellows like myself, who have lived through the whole list, and admired every one of them in their turns, would be the most illiberal of bigots, if we did not acknowledge the merit of those, who have succeeded to delight us, and support the undiminished credit of the stage.

1 cannot quite take leave of Mr. Kemble without noticing Mr. Hunt's remarks upon orthoëpy, as applied to that elaborate performer: I confess I wish him not to be too precise in, his pronunciation, but to content himself with speaking what is commonly called court-language, without too marked an aspiration of certain vowels. In some instances, that are urged against him, I think him right, yet I would recommend it to him to restrain his zeal for reforming customs, so long as they are sanctioned by the best societies, and are not inelegant. That he pronounces aiches, as those who employed the word, meant it to be spoken, I am well convinced: the metre puts it out of doubt; but it is not worth his while to be in a minority for a word-Let him say to himself--

Mr. Elliston, the Gracioso of Drury-Lane, always enterprising, and as various as a hero of a country company, has spirit to undertake and address to execute a great diversity of

parts. Those, which require little else than memory, he seizes with facility; but if deliberation, time and study shall be wanting, I cannot see where he will find those favours to bestow upon them. If he is not extravagantly fond of praise, I think he must be more than satisfied with the very fine things, which Mr. Hunt has said of him: 1 suspect he has a few failings, which it would be well to correct, but, lest he should not be quite as well pleased with advice, I shall forbear to obtrude it upon him. A man of lively parts is apt to catch at an apology for carelessness, and if you can inspire him with a high opinion of his genius, you may take no further pains about instruction; he will be sure enough to hold it in contempt. If genius may be said to consist in the variety of its operations without any regard to the dignity and importance of them, then may a maker of toys be called a man of more genius than the builder of a ship.

Endowed with an excellent and well-informed understanding, graced with a becoming person, and modest unassuming manners, the junior Mr. Kemble wants nothing but opportunities to display in new and more important parts the histrionic powers, which he possesses in no less degree than others of his family. As I am persuaded that this rising actor has too much real merit to disdain the advice of a judicious critic, I hope he has noticed Mr. Hunt's remark, and will correct his indolence, if indolence canfairly be imputed to him; but if he only wants animation in some unanimating undercharacters, and possesses it to the full in such leading parts as Romeo and Jaffier, (which I am told is the case) it only proves that he is alive to good writing, and a lazy advocate in a lame cause and for an unworthy client. As his talents have been gradually expanding and improving from the first hour when he stepped upon the stage, I would advise him now, before he has the responsibility of a leader upon him, to lay out for excursive service, by which he may diversify his walk. No man can exactly foresee to what extent

the elasticity of talent may be stretched by the energy of ambition.

When Mr. Cooke is Richard, or Iago, or Sir Pertinax, he is in his proper post, and whilst he bears his faculties in steady poise, no actor can surpass him. He is then the main-prop of the drama he is engaged in; but should that main-prop totter, what disgrace can be greater than that of an actor so disabled, what resentment more justifiable than of an audience so disappointed!

Of Mr. Alexander Rae, now acting on the Dublin stage, I am glad to find that Mr. Hunt conceives favourably. What his advances may have been since he appeared in the summer-theatre I cannot say; but of a mind so well informed, so open to instruction and so totally devoid of self-conceit, as I believe his mind to be, I augur confidently and expect great produce.

High as my opinion of Mr. Dowton's abilities as an actor is known to be, and much as I regard him, it is enough for me to say that I am particularly gratified to find my opinion so flatteringly confirmed by the ingenious author of these Essays.

That so many comic actors and actresses, capable of doing justice to the best productions, have been seen to sacrifice their admirable talents to buffoonery and farce, is much to be regretted, and I cannot but agree with Mr. Hunt, that it has been evidently prejudicial to some amongst them of the higher order. Woodward I confess was a harlequin, and would jump through the dial-plate of a clock, but he would not grin through a halter. If more than that degree of spectacle and splendour, which is auxiliary to dramatic compositions, must be employed to meet the great outgoings of a theatre, there is no reasoning in the case. It is to be hoped however, that in the construction of the new and magnificent theatre now erected in Covent-Garden, care will be taken that the voices of the performers may have a fair chance to reach the ears of the audience; and as this is unquestionably the first thing

needful, there can be little fear of its being overlooked and neglected. Means may at the same time be taken to secure and guard the interior of the theatre from those unseemly noises and disorderly interruptions, that have been matter of such just complaint; and when the avenues and lobbies shall be kept free from those disgraceful scenes, which to every person that passed through them exhibited the licentiousness of a brothel, a great and very needful thing will be effected; The consequence of this reform will be, that in proportion to the respectability of the assembly, so will be that of the entertainment. Authors, who have been in the practice of writing to the galleries, must give place to those, who can address themselves to hearers of a purer taste; and actors, who, in compliment to those gallery-authors, have condescended to become buffoons, must recollect themselves and be comedians:

Much will depend upon the construction of this new theatre about to open, and still more upon the style and character, which the conductors shall give to its representations, and of what description the first novelties shall be, which they offer to the public. If the splendid pile be really meant to be a playhouse, and if song and scenery and show are to be employed as ornamental not as essential, then indeed, provided there be genius in the age to furnish dramas of true sterling worth, there seems no reason why nonsense should pass current, merely be cause it glitters.

That there is this genius in our contemporaries I cannot doubt, but in the fitness and capacity of those, who may be selected to pass judgment on their tenders to the stage, I have not the same confidence. This important task of deciding upon the elegibility of dramatic compositions offered to the stage has sometimes been confined to one, sometimes in the hands of a committee, and at other times so involved in mystery, that the candidate for acceptance knew not who were his judges, nor could easily find out the channel, through which to make his ap

proaches to the secret tribunal. Now as it cannot be for the honour, or advantage, or repose of the conductor of a theatre, that discouragements should be thrown in the way of men of talents, who might otherwise be disposed to write for the stage, nothing seems more easy than to give promptitude and security to an intercourse between parties, who seem to have a common interest, and no real cause for disagreement.

The proprietor's object is to have a variety of dramatic novelties, and out of these to select such, as shall be judged most likely to attract the public and ensure success.

it.

The man, who offers his production for the stage, naturally wishes and requires to be secured against the mortifying necessity of waiting for an answer tediously postponed, and perhaps after much solicitation at length discovering that his unhappy manuscript has been mislaid or lost: he can ill submit to have his offers treated, and his feelings tortured in this manner: he is undoubtedly entitled to receive a speedy and respectful answer, and has a right to know by whom his work has been read, and of course, who it is that is responsible for the judgment, that has been passed upon - If these positions are admitted, the remedy is obvious: the only thing wanting is to appoint the reader, and adjust the rules: What plea can any writer have for discontent, if a period were named for all offers to be made, and a time limited, within which all answers should be giyen ? No one need subject himself to be announced as the author of a rejected piece, if he subscribed his direction and withheld his name. The accepted author only would be summoned to a revisal of his drama at a conference with the reader, who would be prepared to suggest whatever might be thought of to improve, and perfect it for representation, before the parts were cast, and it was recited in the Green-room.

Should it be asserted, that the eventual remuneration, which the stage holds forth, is encouragement enough for every man to write, that can write, I dissent from that assertion, belie