been told of an unsuccessful experiment once made to introduce Lady Macbeth's surprise and fainting scene; which Garrick thought so favorite an actress as Mrs. Pritchard could not attempt. Macklin agreed about the inability of Pritchard; but was clearly of opinion, that Mrs. Porter could have credit with an audience to induce them to endure the hypocrisy of such a scene.

TOM WALKER,

as he was constantly called, (the so much celebrated original Macheath in The Beggar's Opera,) was well known to Macklin both on and off the stage. He was a young man, rather rising in the mediocre parts of comedy, when the following accident brought him out in Macheath. Quin was first designed for this part, who barely sung well enough to give a convivial song in company, which, at that time of day, was an almost indispensible claim on every performer; and on this account, perhaps, did not much relish the business: the high reputation of Gay, however, and the critical junto who supported him, made him drudge through two rehearsals. On the close of the last, Walker was observed humming some of the songs behind the scenes, in a tone and liveliness of manner which attracted all their notice. Quin laid hold of this circumstance to get rid of

the part, and exclaimed, " Aye, there's a man who is much more qualified to do you justice than I am." Walker was called on to make the experiment; and Gay, who instantly saw the difference, accepted him as the hero of his piece.

Whilst on the subject of The Beggar's Opera, any little circumstance relative to this celebrated piece, we trust, cannot but be entertaining to the amateurs of the drama; and as such, we insert the following; well knowing how perishable the anecdotes of modern times are, which, from being too often only committed to memory, die with the present possessors, and are lost to posterity. How little, for instance, do we know of the familiar life and habits of Shakespeare, who lived in an age when history began to assume a creditable shape, and whose high and transcendant talents should have commanded the attention of the whole literary world! yet that little would have been less, were it not for the researches of Rowe, who, perhaps, just in time, snatched those materials from perishing, and left them as a basis for his succeeding biographers to build upon.

This celebrated opera was first brought out at the Theatre in Lincoln's Inn, in the spring of the year 1728, and the characters were as follow.

MEN.

Thomas Walker, the original Macheath, was the son of Francis Walker, of the parish of St. Anne's, Soho, and was born in the year 1698. He was bred under Mr. Medow, who kept a priyate academy near his father's house.

Having

Having an early inclination for the stage, he first tried his success in a Mr. Shepherd's company, where he was first found out by Mr. Booth, acting the part of Paris, in the Droll of "The Siege of Troy," who saw in him such an early promise of talent, that he recommended him to the Manager of Drury Lane; where he made his first appearance in the character of Lorenzo, in "The Jew of Venice," about the year 1716.

The following year we find him at Drury Lane Theatre, in the part of Charles, in "The Nonjuror," a Comedy founded on Moliere's "Tartuffe," and altered by Colley Cibber. This gave him his first establishment as an actor, which he supported with increasing credit till the beginning of the year 1728, when accident, as we have before related, brought him out in the character of Macheath, under the management of Mr. Rich, Lincoln's Inn Fields: so that, as it was then said of him, Booth found him a hero, and Gay dubbed him a highwayman.

His

The applause which he obtained in Macheath, checked his progress as a general actor. company, from this circumstance, was so eagerly sought after by the gay libertine young men of fashion, that he was scarcely ever sober, insomuch that we are told by the contemporary writers of that day, that he was frequently under the necessity of eating Sandwiches (or, as they were

then

then called, anchovy toasts) behind the scenes, to alleviate the fumes of the liquor.

He was not, however, altogether without his hours of study and retirement, as we find him, a few years after his success in "The Beggar's Opera," sitting down to an alteration of some part of D'Urfey's Works. Tom D'Urfey, the wellknown dramatic poet, having wrote two plays under the title of Massianello, founded on the celebrated rebellion of Naples, by Thomas Anello, a fisherman of that city, Walker took some pains, in the course of a summer vacation, to shut himself up in the Theatre, for the purpose of reducing them into one piece. This task he performed, and brought it out the following winter with some success. A ballad at that time, written by Leigh the Actor, and Author of a Comedy called "Kensington Gardens," takes notice of this circumstance in the following stanzas:

"Tom Walker, his creditors meaning to chouse, Like an honest, good-natur'd young fellow, Resolv'd all the summer to stay in the house,

And rehearse by himself Massianello:

But as soon as he heard of the Baron's success,

He stript off his night-gown, and put on his dress,

And cried, "D-mn my bl-d, I will strike for no less."
So he call'd o'er the hatch for Will Thomas.*

A waiter at the Coffee-house, Portugal-street, opposite

the stage door.