ugly when adorned, he contrives, cunningly as he imagines, to disguise the loveliness of his face before Lovell, by concealing in his pocket his -bolster neck-kerchief and wig, which he restores when he attempts to seduce Mrs. Lovell. Mr. Mathews, by wearing a false tooth in front, and tying a string round his head, so as to draw his nose flat, succeeded in making himself laughably ugly; but, the pains which he took to produce this effect, may, perhaps, subject him to the joke, that it was not altogether necessary! This part had some drollery in it, which enlivened the first act, but it was too trifling to run through both, and the want of interest in the plot, as well as wit or humour in the dialogue, entitles the piece to what we have already said of it, and no more. We may further observe of the design, that Mrs. Lovell makes her husband a witness to the addresses paid to her by Spectre, which restores her to his confidence. The under-plot, contrived in the very spirit of trite insipidity, exhibits Lord Sedley planning the ruin of Miss Melvil, in which he is frustrated by Fitzalban, who fell in love with her at an accidental meeting, as a man falls into a pit. Mrs, Mathews, performing the part of Miss Melvil, made this circumstance less shocking to probability: Some other nymphs, with colours faint,' And pencil slow, may Cupid paint, SHE has a stamp, and prints the boy! WALLER. THEATRICAL CHIT-CHAT. The Bank of England by no means acted with the becoming dignity exhibited by the Treasury, on the application of the Managers to stay the visits of their respective clerks to Covent-garden Theatre. The Governors of the Bank complied, and signified their wish that they should not go, which, being a sort of command, was, with a little mutiny, yielded to. But the reply of the Lords of the Treasury was→→ "While our Clerks are here, they are amenable to us; when they leave our offices, they are alone amenable to the laws." The Theatre Royal, Dublin, has undergone great alterations, and experienced many improvements. It opened on the 25th of October, under the excellent mauagement of Mr. H. Johnstone, with a Concert, for the 'Debtors' Jubilee fund. The New Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, is finished. It is in the gothic style. Mr. H, Siddons being the manager, with such a helpmate as Mrs. Siddons, the happiest auspices attend the concern. A pious writer, Laicus, in The Times of the 2d of November, assures us, that all those who reprobate the immorality and indecency of Mr. Reynolds's song, called Mr. Lobski, will hereafter be "graciously rewarded in the sight of an assembled world.” · Mr. ELLISTON and HIS PEN are again before the public. The Proprietors of Drury have commenced an action against him for desertion, and his Pen says, that Mr. Elliston no longer holds himself artieled to then-he seems to think, that the burning of the house has burnt the writings. At any rate, for the sake of his fellow sock and buskin, (if he has any fellow buskin) whose sunshine he has shared, he should have had more feeling, and a better sense of gentlemanly conduct, than to desert the corps, when "clouds and darkness set upon them." Statement of what the London Theatres would hold, in money and people, in July, 1805: Covent Garden.-Persons, 3,041;-Money, 6301.-Nightly expences, 1601.-Average receipts nightly during the season, 3001. Drury-lane.-Persons, 3,611;-Money, 770l. 168.-The expences, including performers, lights, ground-rent, and every contingent, were upwards of 2001. per night.-Salaries, 7407. per week, or about 1241. per night. The season consists of 200 nights. Statesman, Oct. 9. Mrs. Jordan was present at Mrs. Edwin's personation of Beatrice, and paid her some high compliments on her powers. In The British Press, of the 23d of November, we have an acrostic to Miss Mellon, signed C. R. Sheridan. Who is this Mr. Sheridan? He begins "Mine be the Maid."-Where did he get his intelligence? He ends "Who, rear'd in Nature's school, Nature has taught to feel without a rule." Where did he get his grammar? / Mr. Smith, the rough, of the Lyceum, one night elegantly excused himself for not singing in the Jubilee, by stating, that he had just had a Burgamy (Burgundy) pitch plaister, put on his breast." 66 OLYMPIC PAVILION. WE announced the opening of this elegant, convenient, and entertaining little theatre-we might, amongst the commendatory epithets, have added peaceable. The wit and invention of Mr. Astley, junior, appear in their best robes, in a new serio comic spectacle, called Almira, and in the new pantomime of The Frozen Mountain. On the stage we find Crossman, Norman, Hartland, and Mrs. Parker; on the horse, Smith; and on the rope, Saunders. Of its kind there is nothing better. Painted by Northcote, Engraved by Freeman. Noel Desenfans, Esq. Published by Vanor, Hood & Sharpe, Poultry, Jan.1.1810. THE observation in GRAY's beautiful Elegy, a work familiar to every poetic mind, respecting the obscurity of persons, who, if born under happier auspices, might have distinguished themselves in the world, is in some degree applicable to the subject of our present notice, for though he did not pass through life in so humble a condition as the supposed "Village HAMPDEN," and "mute inglorious MILTON," but, on the contrary, was much known and respected, yet his circle of action was by no means calculated to display the extent of those powers with which na ture had gifted him, and which his own assiduity had improved, by all the aids that learning and reflection could afford. NOEL DESENFANS, Esq. was born in the year 1745, at Douay, in Flanders. After he had obtained all the advantages of educa tion which could be derived from the college of his native place, and received those prizes which are awarded to students of preeminent talents and acquisitions; he was removed to the University at Paris, where he also distinguished himself so much as to acquire similar honours, and where the general propriety of his conduct and character excited a confident expectation that he would become an ornament of society, in morals as well as genius. This expectation was realized by the whole of his subsequent career, through every situation in which his talents and his influence found room for exertion.. At the age of eighteen, Mr. Desenfans wrote a work intitled, L'Eléve de la Nature, in two volumes, which was translated into S SVOL, VI.* 1 |