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I must not omit to tell you that to my infinite comfort it turned out, that my precautions after the death of the monk were effectual for preventing any mischief to the head of my family, who ftill preferves his rank, title and estate unfufpected; and although I was outlawed by name, time had wrought fuch a change in my person, and the affair hath fo died away in men's memories, that I trult I am in fecurity from any future machinations in that quarter: Still I hold it just to my family and prudent towards myself to continue my precautions: Upon the little fortune I raised in Smyrna, with fome aids I have occafionally received from the head of our house, who is my nephew, and several profitable commiffions for the fale of Spanish wool, I live contentedly, though humbly as you fee, and I have befides wherewithal, (bleffed be God!) to be of fome use and affiftance to my fellow-creatures.

Thus I have related to you my brief history, not concealing that bloody act, which would fubject me to death by the sentence of a human tribunal, but for which I hope my interceffion and atonement have been accepted by the Supreme Judge of all hearts, with whom there is mercy and forgiveness. Reflect I pray you upon my fituation at that dreadful moment; enter into the feeling of a fon; picture to your felf the fcene of horror before my eyes; conceive a brutal zealot spurning the dead corpfe of my father, and that father his moft generous benefactor, honoured for his virtues and adored for his charities, the best of parents and the friend of mankind; reflect, I fay, upon these my agonies and provocations, make allowance for a distracted heart in fuch a crifis, and judge

judge me with that charity, which takes the law of God, and not the law of man for its direction.

Here Abrahams concluded, and here alfo I fhall adjourn to the fucceeding volume what remains to be related of the perfons, whofe adventures have already engroffed fo large a portion of this mifcellaneous work.

N° CXXIII.

Natio comoda eft.

IF the prefent tafte for private plays fpreads as faft as most fashions do in this country, we may expect the rifing generation will be, like the Greeks in my motto, one entire nation of actors and actreffes. A father of a family may fhortly reckon it amongst the bleffings of a numerous progeny, that he is provided with a fufficient compa ny for his domeftic ftage, and may caft a play to his own liking without going abroad for his theatrical amusements. Such a steady troop cannot fail of being under better regulations than a fet of ftrollers, or than any fet whatever, who make acting a vocation: Where a manager has to deal with none but players of his own begetting, every play bids fair to have a strong caft, and in the phrafe of the ftage to be well got up. Happy author, who fhall fee his characters thus grouped into a family

family piece, firm as the Theban band of friends, where all is zeal and concord, no bickerings nor jealoufies about ftage precedency, no ladies to fall fick of the fpleen, and tofs up their parts in a huff, no heart-burnings about flounced petticoats and filver trimmings, where the mother of the whole company ftands wardrobe-keeper and propertywoman, whilft the father takes poft at the fide fcene in the capacity of prompter with plenipotentiary controul over P S's and O P's.

I will no longer speak of the difficulty of writing a comedy or tragedy, becaufe that is now done by fo many people without any difficulty at all, that if there ever was any myftery in it, that myf. tery is thoroughly bottomed and laid open; but the art of acting was till very lately thought fo rare and wonderful an excellence, that people began to look upon a perfect actor as a phenomenon in the world, which they were not to expect above once in a century; but now the trade is laid open, this prodigy is to be met at the turn of every ftreet; the nobility and gentry to their immortal honour have broken up the monopoly, and newmade players are now as plentiful as new-made peers.

Nec tamen Ant`ochus, nec erit mirabilis illic
Aut Stratocles aut cum molli Demetrius Hamo.

Garrick and Powell would be now no wonder,
Nor Barry's filver note, nor Quin's heroic thunder.

Though the public profeffors of the art are fo compleatly put down by the private practitioners of it, it is but justice to observe in mitigation of their defeat, that they meet the comparison under fome difadvantages,

difadvantages, which their rivals have not to contend with.

One of thefe is diffidence, which volunteers cannot be fuppofed to feel in the degree they do,. who are preffed into the service: I never yet faw a public actor come upon the ftage on the first night of a new play, who did not seem to be nearly, if not quite, in as great a fhaking it as his author; but as there can be no luxury in a great fright, I cannot believe that people of fashion, who act for their amufement only, would fubject themfelves to it; they muft certainly have a proper confidence in their own abilities, or they would never step out of a drawing room, where they are fure to figure, upon a ftage, where they run the rifque of expofing themfelves; fome gentlemen perhaps, who have been muta perfona in the fenate, may start at the first found of their own voices in a theatre, but graceful action, juft elocution, perfect knowledge of their author, elegant deportment, and every advantage, that refined manners and courtly addrefs can beftow, is exclufively their own: In all fcenes of high life they are at home; noble fentiments are natural to them; love-parts they can play by instinct, and as for all the cafts of rakes, gamefters and fine gentlemen they can fill them to the life. Think only what a violence it must be to the nerves of an humble unpretending actor to be obliged to play the gallant gay feducer and be the cuckold-maker of the comedy, when he has no other object at heart but to go quietly home, when the play is over, to his wife and children and participate with them in the honeft earnings of his vocation; can

fuch

fuch a man compete with the Lothario of high life?

And now I mention the cares of a family, I strike upon another disadvantage, which the public performer is subject to and the private exempt from: The Andromache of the ftage may have an infant Hector at home, whom the more tenderly feels for than the Hector of the scene; he may be fick, he may be fupperlefs; there may be none to nurse him, when his mother is out of fight, and the maternal intereft in the divided heart of the actress may preponderate over the heroine's: This is a cafe not within the chances to happen to any ladyactress, who of course configns the talk of education to other hands, and keeps her own at leisure for more preffing duties.

Public performers have their memories loaded and distracted with a variety of parts, and often. times are compelled to fuch a repetition of the fame part, as cannot fail to quench the fpirit of the reprefentation; they must obey the call of duty, be the caft of the character what it may

-Cum Thaida fuftinet, aut cum

Uxorem comadus agit.

Subject to all the various cafts of life,

Now the loofe harlot, now the virtuous wife.

But, what is worse than all, the veterans of the public ftage will fometimes be appointed to play the old and ugly, as I can inftance in the perfon of a most admirable actress, whom I have often feen, and never without the tribute of applaufe, in the cafts of Juliet's Nurfe, Aunt Deborah, and other venerable damsels in the vale of years, when I am confident there is not a lady of independent rank

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