tracted, verbatim, from the 1st vol. of "The Monthly Mirror."

"Reynolds began, like most other dramatic writers, with tragedy. "Werter," which he produced at a very early age, was presented to Mr. Harris, for the Covent Garden stage; but, notwithstanding the popularity of the subject, it was returned to the author, who took it with him to Bath, and there it was first performed, for the benefit of the Theatre. The money it brought at Bath was so inviting, that Mr. Harris began to think he was out of his reckoning, and, accordingly, had it cast with all expedition. The run was very considerable, and the manager got many hundreds by a play, which he had originally rejected as unfit for representation. As a transfer merely from Bath to Covent Garden, the author had no right to his nights, the profits of which were little short of ONE THOUSAND POUNDS! But though he got no money, he got, what no doubt he thought an equivalent, a footing in the Theatre; and immediately produced a second tragedy, called "Eloise," which went but three nights, and brought him eight pounds!!"

Such was the encouragement he met with, at the commencement of his dramatic career;

and he certainly must have been very difficult to please if he was dissatisfied with it: as he appears merely to have had his property made use of, when it was indisputably proved to have been good for something; and, in return for this great favour, and the trifling profit of a thousand pounds, he was treated with great civility: he might also have had (for what we know) a few orders to boot.

This incident ought to be made as public as possible, as it might operate as an encouragement to rising geniuses to devote their talents to dramatic compositions. If this was but known, what shoals of Farquhars and Sheridans the town would be deluged with; the recompense is so much beyond the labour, that we think a new Shakspeare might be calculated upon, while Ben Jonsons and Massingers might be reasonably expected to spring up by dozens.

PLAYS IN THE TEMPLE.

THE Societies of the two Temples gave grand entertainments, at their halls, to the Lord Chancellor and many of the nobility, in February, 1715; but the most remarkable accompaniment to these convivial meetings was the representation of the comedy of "The Chances," performed within the

greater hall, by the comedians of Drury-Lane Theatre.

FORCE OF CONSCIENCE.

AMONG the numerous instances of this nature, adduced by Thomas Heywood, in his excellent "Apology for Actors," published in 1612, the following is, perhaps, the most striking.

"The comedians, belonging to the Earl of Sussex, acted a play called "Friar Francis," at Lynn Regis, in Norfolk, in which the story of a woman was represented, who, to enjoy unmolested the company of a young fellow, had murdered her husband, and she is brought on the stage as haunted by his ghost.-During the exhibition of their play, a woman, who was an inhabitant of Lynn, was struck with what she saw upon the stage, and cried out, "Oh! my husband! my husband!" On the people's enquiring the reason for this exclamation, she confessed, that, several years before that time, to secure the love of a certain gentleman, she had poisoned her husband, whose fearful image seemed to appear before her in the shape of the ghost in the play. The woman was afterwards tried and condemned for the fact."

For the truth of this singular story, Heywood

refers his readers to the records of Lynn, and to many living witnesses. It is thus referred to in "A Warning for Fair Women," published in 1599.

A woman that had made away her husband,
And sitting to behold a tragedy,

At Lynn, a towne, in Norfolk,
Acted by players travelling that way,
Wherein a woman that had murder'd her's
Was ever haunted by her husband's ghost;
The passion written by a feeling pen,
And acted by a good tragedian,

She was so moved with the sight thereof,

As she cried out, the play was made by (of) her,
And openly confess'd her husband's murder.

SPRANGER BARRY'S POWERS OF PERSUASION. THIS gentleman, besides the splendour of his dramatic talents, possessed, in a very eminent degree, the fascinating powers of polite address and persuasive insinuation. At no period of its history, could the Dublin stage boast so powerful a combination of talents, as when under the direction of Mr. Barry; and, although the salaries of the very best actors in that day bore no sort of comparison to that of very inferior talents in this, yet his receipts were frequently inadequate to his expenditures: and he was, in conse

VOL. III.

M

quence of that, and his style of living, constantly embarrassed. He had, of course, a crowded levy of importunate claimants, but no man ever possessed, more eminently, the power of soothing that "horrible monster, hated of gods and men," —a Dun! for though most of them were sent empty away, none departed with an aching heart, for he adorned his impunctualities with such witching politeness, and so many satisfactory reasons, and cherished hopes with such encouraging prospects, as reconciled disappointments and silenced the most rude and determined importunacy. Numberless are the instances related of his management in this respect: one or two specimens may serve to illustrate his talents.

His stage tailor, at Dublin, had agreed, in order to secure to himself all the profits of his contract, to furnish materials as well as workmanship; but the manager, in process of time, had got so deeply into his books, as to expose him to much embarrassment from his own creditors: unwilling to offend so good a customer, the man had worn out all patience in the humilities of civil request and pressing remonstrances: at last, he was determined to put