afflicted! The widow's and the orphan's noble, generous benefact refs! In fact a benefactress to all who stand in need of affiftance.

She is,-but words are wanting to say what!

Say all that's good and great-and fhe is that."

Among the many charitable inftitutions that owe their origin to the foftering hand of Mrs. Latouche, is that noble work of benevolence "the Female Orphan School" on the Circular Road, near Pruffia-ftreet, confifting of 120 poor children of all fects who are clothed, lodged and dieted, and of which he is the chief governefs and direct refs.*

But what perhaps is unequalled in this kingdom, as arifing from the munificence of one individual, is a school of twenty-four poor girls which the has established on her own demefne at Bell vue in the county of Wicklow. Thefe children the has made her own peculiar care, has them lodged and dieted, and clothed in a style much fuperior to the generality of fuch inftitutions. She even devotes much of her time to their examination in the refpective branches of inftruction they are taught, and encourages the diligent by rewards and commendation.

This pleafing fubject would almoft tempt us to proceed to a more diffufe and prolix account of this lady's merits, than we had prefcribed to ourselves, we hall, however, clofe it here, with a regret that we could offer but fo feeble a tribute at the brine of this lady's deTerts.t

NOTE S.

A charity fermon is announced to be preached on the 20th of this month by Mr. Kirwan, for their fupport.

See Magazine for July laft, page 3, alfo for fome elegant poetry on Mrs. Latouche, fee Mag. for June 1794, page 553, October 1794, page 378, and May 1795, page 468.

Biographical Sketch of Frederick
Reynolds, Efq.

URIOSITY is fo forcible a princi

CURI

ple in the human mind, that it has not improperly been termed one of the grand agents which direct its inquiries and impel its efforts. It is feldom that we are contented with effects, without endeavouring to trace the caufe from whence they fprung. The public, indecd, are fo pertinacious in their tem per, that they have no fooner derived amufement from a man's writings, than they are folicitous to become acquainted with the man; they would behold him in his clofet, attend him in his friendly vifits, obferve his manners, his purfaits, and follow him through all the intricacies of his private and domeftic conduct.

It is from this obftinate inquifitivenefs, that men, high in office and rank, as well as PUBLIC CHARACTERS OF every defcription, have been recommended, by all the moralifts that ever wrote, to be particularly attentive to the leffons and practice of virtue, fince. imitation is either the happiness or the bane of fociety, according as men of eminence are virtuous or depraved. Hence again arifes the utility, as well as the entertainment, of biography; inafmuch as while the curiofity of men is fatisfied, their manners are guided by the reprobation of bad, and by the approval of good example.

Mr. Reynolds, who ftands fo confpicuoufly forward in the drama of the prefent day, is the younger fon of a gentleman of equal eminence in the profeffion of the law, whofe receipts were at one time no lefs than five thou fand pounds a year. There are those who can remember, with more accuracy than the writer of this memoir, the time when the name of patriot, as it is now, was in the mouths of more men than understood the term; when the present chamberlain of London, caught by the found, talked pretty warmly of popular rights, and minifterial wrongs, and fo became the object of legal perfe cution. As under heriff to that gen

tleman,

1796: Biographical Sketch of tleman, Mr. Reynolds's father made no inconfiderable figure; he will, however, be more memorable, perhaps, as folicitor to the great lord Chatham. Reynolds received his education at Weftminfter fchool, which he went through with very diftinguished reputation. Among the boys that were with him, who have rendered themselves confpicuous for their talents, were young Colman, the duke of Bedford, &c. &c.

The little ceremony with which Mr. Reynolds treats the profeffion of the law, whenever it falls in his way, will be thought rather fingular, when they are told that he was defigned for that profeffion himself, and that he has a brother a barrifter. Reynolds, indeed, has never been called, nor probably ever will be, though he has kept his regular terms in the temple, and performed every initiatory duty as a ftudent. But, notwithstanding the ftrength of family prejudices in general, we are not bound to admire what our fathers admired before us; and to a man like Reynolds, the ftudy as well as practice of the law, might have been a matter of very ferious difcouragement. That profeffion, to whatever caufe it may be attributed, has certainly to place many defertions to the account of the drama. Banks, Wycherly, and a variety of others, whofe names are familiar to the theatrical reader, thought perhaps with Reynolds, that one page of Shakespeare was worth all the maxims of Puffendorff in a lump, and a small fprig of bays, infinitely more ornamental to the head, than a judge's wig and coif.

other

Reynolds began, like most dramatic writers, with tragedy. Wer ter, which he produced at a very early age, was prefented to Mr. Harris, for the Covent garden ftage; but, notwithftanding the popularity of the fubject, it was returned to the author, who took it with him to Bath, and there it was firft performed for the benefit of the theatre. The money it brought at Bath was fo inviting, that Mr. Harris began to think he had been out in his reckoning, and accordingly had it caft with all expedition. The run was very confiderable, and the manager got many

Frederick Reynolds, Efq.

99

hundreds by a play which he had origi-
nally rejected as unfit for reprefen-
tation. As a transfer merely from Bath
to Covent Garden, the author had no
right to his nights, the profits of which
were little thort of one thousand
pounds. But though he got no money,
he got, what no doubt, he thought equi-
valent, a footing in the theatre; and
immediately produced a fecond tragedy
called Eloifa, which went but three
nights, and brought him eight pounds!

Such was the encouragement he met with at the commencement of his dramatic career. It is well for the public, perhaps, that it was no better; for to this circumftance may be attributed his courtship of the comic mufe, and confequently the production of one of the moft whimfical and orginal comedies that enliven the modern stage-we mean the Dramatist.

This play, however, as well as Werter, was not fortunate enough to meet the manager's approbation, and we should probably have been deprived of the author's talents for ever, if there had not been others who thought better of its merits than Mr. Harris. It was acted at length for the benefit of Mrs. Wells. How it was admired, applauded, and fought after, is known to every perfon in the leaft acquainted with dramatic affairs.

The Crufade followed next, and in the conftruction of this opera, the auto the thor had to ftruggle with an impediment which is little known public; that is, of adapting his dialogue and incidents to fcenery, previously painted for a performance which had proved unfuccefsful. Thus extraordinary was the introduction and establishment of Reynolds in Covent-Garden :

he writes an original play which is rejected there, and fucceeds elsewhere, and foon after is engaged to fashion a story to the fecond-hand decorations of a piece, which, at the fame theatre, had heen accepted and failed! So much for the infallibility of a manager's tafte, and fo much for the ingenuity of Reynolds, who, while he did himfelf credit as a writer, could avert the confequences of one man's mistaken judge Notoriety ment, and another's abortive defign. N 2

Notoriety, How to Grow Rich, the Rage, and Speculation, complete the number of his dramatic performances. Mr. Reynolds is now no more than thirty-one years of age; what then may we ftill expect from a writer, who, more than any other, has found the way to make the ftage fubfervient to the beft ufes of morality, by reflecting from its broad and expanfive Mirror, "the very age and body of the times?" or by making comedy, what Cicero defines its nature and properties to be, "Imitatio vite-Speculum confuetudiis-imago veritatis."

fication of the very foible he acknow
ledges and reprehends.*

No one, however, knows better than Reynolds, to accommodate his own experience to the purpofes of the drama; and a man of his acute penetration, may, like Vapid in his own play, extract traits of characters from each individual acquaintance, and mould every occurrence he meets with, into incident and ftage-effect.

Such as have alledged that Mr. Reynolds is entirely dependant on the ftage, are mistaken; exclufive of a genteel private fortune, he has great and well-founded expectations from a rich relation; and we have only to regret, that the probability of fuch expectations being realized, fhould he furvive the party, is too ftrong, not to leave the public great caufe for alarm, left the ftage fhould be eventually deprived of thofe talents, from the exercife of which they have derived fo much amusement and inftruction.

Of Reynolds it may jufily be faid, that he has no enemies; for every acquaintance would wish to be called a friend, and he never made a friend that he loft. His fuccefs on the ftage, while it has been more brilliant than that of any dramatic writer of the present day, has been a matter of congratulation and triumph, even to his competitors.

It is natural to fuppofe, that what a man adopts by choice, would be the grand, if not the fole object of his delight: that where his purfuits had been directed, there alfo his affections would incline but Reynolds is a paradoxical inftance to the contrary. The drama affords him a fecondary pleafure only. If cld Dornton is fur prifed at the tranfmigration of the foul of Socrates into the body of a ftockingweaver, how would he wonder to fee an author, poffeffed of every effential requifite for one of the moft ufeful fpecies of compofition, facrificing a noble gratification to a mere paftime. ComFared with cricket, the delights of the drama are but as the duft in the balance of his judgment; and, if all the comedies he has written, the pains, the application, the fame, and we could almoft fay the profits which have attended them, were put into one fcale, and a bat and ball in the other, we need not fay which would preponderate in his imagination. Were it poffible for man to choose the employment of an existence, Reynolds would at once forego all other confiderations, and fix on a life of cricket. Six months out of the twelve he invariably devotes to an attendance on all the matches of confequence throughout England; and, after a grand day at Lord's, he will dwell on a long-ftop and by ball with all the enthufiafm of a lover's retrofpection. Thus, while he glances through the world of fashion in order to lath its abfurdities, he becomes the butt of his own fatire, and an exempli- of Speculation.

No author has lefs confidence about a firft night, notwithstanding the amazing run of all his comedies; his tremor commences about a fortnight before the time, and continues till the curtain drops;-he is alarmed about every point, and dreads the reception of every character; fo that when his fituation might naturally be fuppofed to be a defirable one, from the recollection of his general fuccefs, he is, in fact, an object of the fincereft pity..

Reynolds has none of the tenaciousness of an author; and this it is probably that makes him, behind the scenes, more a favourite than moft men who have

NOTE.

In Young Arable, in the comedy

written

itten for the flage. The caprice of a manager, or the captioufnefs of a performer, have little effect on a mind conciliatory in the extreme, objections are no fooner ftarted than obviated; he will expunge, correct, transpose, resrite, nay, re-conftruct, to make the caft of his play agreeable; fo that the curtain never rifes without a determination, on the part of the actors, to give every fpirited aid to the fcene,

Good humour and Reynolds are indeed the fame; his companionable qualities are invaluable; his converfaton is, like his drama, familiar, brifk, and whimfical; like his drama too, it bears along with it irrefiftible laugh and merriment to the end. Success has had no power to make him vain: he wants even the decent pride that would become him.

If vanity, in a man of talent, has been generally excufable, on account of the liability of human nature to plume felf on literary fuccefs, and the confequent homage which the public are accuftomed to pay to fuperior ability, how much more reverence is due to a character who has efcaped this common infirmity; and, in the zenith of his reputation, appears equally influenced by popular praife, as if he had it all to gain? the operations of fame and flattery, conjunctively, few of the beft and wifeft men have had fortitude enough to refifton Reynolds, however, they feem to have no other effect than that of making him more diffident and unaffuming.

The Biographift never executes his duty with greater pleafure, than when in his record of life and character he is enabled to ftate that one is as blamelefs as the other. Talent is an equivocal term, and may be perverted to the moft deteftable purpofes: but virtues are fure, fteady, and indeviable. A man is juftly eftimable only where there is an affociation of moral principle with natural endowments-and it is with this conviction that we close our remarks on Mr. Reynolds, with a teftimony more honourable than any other we could bear to his merits, which is that he is not more a man of genius than he is a man of worth and honour.

Female Manners in Portugal.

THE PORTUGUESE ladies pof

fefs many amiable qualities; they are chafte, modeft, and extremely af fectionate to their kindred. No woman goes out of doors without the permiffion of her husband or parent. To avoid all fufpicion, men, even though relations, are not allowed to vifit their apartments, or to fit befide them in public places. Hence their lovers are feldom gratified with a fight of them except in the churches; here they make fighs and fignals:

Addrefs and compliment by vifion,
Make love and court by intuition.
HUDIBRAS.

Notwithstanding the watchful eye of the duenna, the lovers contrive to exchange billet-doux, and that in fo fubtie a manner, that none can perceive it whofe breaft glows not with a fimilar flame. The little boys who attend at the altar, are often the meffengers on these occafions. When one of thefe winglefs cupids receives the letter, he makes his way through the audience till he approaches the fair one, then he throws himself on his knees, repeating his ave Maris fella, and beating his breaft; afrer finishing his ejaculations and crofling his forehead, he falls on his face and hands, and fervently kiffes the ground; in the mean time he conveys the letter under the lady's drapery and brings back another.

At other times when the lovers are coming out of the church, their hands meet as it were by chance in the holy water font; by this means they exchange billets, and enjoy the delectable pleasure of preffing each other's fingers.

Various are the contrivances to which they are compelled to refort, in order to elude fufpicion; and in no part of their lives do they evince more prudence than during their courtship. Their natural difpofition to fecrecy is the means of their continuing for years under the impreffion of the tender paffion; and they must have fallen victims

to