ance, Tate Wilkinson. In the York company, he certainly laid the foundations of that comic versatility, which, in the most rapid changes of voice and manner, and even personal appearmade him master of the whole surface of life at an early period of his own. Studies of a peculiar kind, the employ ment of his leisure, have at length given mind to the external mass; and perhaps, either as to thought or action, the infinite diversities of human nature find in Matthews "a glass that features them," and from him might be securely estimated the greater as well as less features of either national or local peculiarity. On Colman's first night, he acted the meagre Jabal, in Cumberland's Jew, and followed it by Lingo, in the Agreeable Surprise. Matthews was a nervous man, and like the class, too much in a hurry to be rid of what he felt embarrassing; but there was enough drollery in his manner to render him at first a diverting, and soon a favourite actor. The influence obtained by Mr. Colman at the palace, on the present trial, may be judged of by the immediate appearance of their majesties this season; nine years having passed away, without a single visit, since the melancholy accident at their last command, on the 3d of February, 1794. Mrs. Goodall, the Floranthe of the Mountaineers, when Kemble performed Octavian, returned to the Haymarket, on the 19th of the month, to act with the younger strength of Elliston, and the company wore an appearance of duration. Mrs. Gibbs, in herself, was no slight attraction. The farce of Mrs. Wiggins, on the 27th, gave Matthews an opportunity of convulsing the audience with laughter, in the character of a bloated country gentleman, who, running away from a termagant helpmate, finds it quite impracticable to run from the name. Some Mrs. Wiggins or other is for ever bursting upon a moment's quiet. This farce was written by a Mr. Allingham, of whom I know little, but that he diversified his leisure by mechanics, and disdaining the ascending power of gas, like the artist in Rasselas, taught himself the office of a fowl ;" and by a very artificial construction of wings, with springs of steel, succeeded sufficiently to break his shins, in fluttering about his apartments like a dab chick. 66 So happy a commencement was a spur to his invention. He calculated the duration of his strength, and saw that he needed some supplement to the power of his arms. He therefore attached the balloon to his apparatus; which, filled with common steam, he imagined capable to sustain his weight, standing in a sort of wooden shoes, so as to leave him no care but the management of his wings. He now appeared, to him self, to have combined a principle of government along with the ascending medium. "Thus, with expanded wings, he steer'd his flight, Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air, PARADISE LOST. "Thrice he assayed, and thrice in spite of skill" burst his balloons. Poor fellow! the experiments cost him more than two hundred pounds, and the loss of time that, dramatically employed, would have produced three times the money. Allingham had yet another distinction he exchanged shots with a DAILY CRITIC in a turnip-field. The sequel is melancholy; with an agreeable person, and a jovial temper, he led a life of unthinking gaiety; became dreadfully embarrassed in his circumstances, and died yet young the victim to disease, brought on by intemperance. The season of 1802-3 had been one of the best that Covent Garden Theatre had ever known; and against Colman's theatre, they acted his John Bull to the 23d of June, their last night. A rough estimate carried the profits of Mr. Harris to 30,000%. But notwithstanding the severe check furnished by his own genius, Colman was now doing very well in his lovely little summer box. Elliston, continued to be attractive in Octavian, Sir Edward Mortimer, Gondibert, St. Pierre, and even Richard III. Under the style of Arthur Griffinhoofe, the manager produced une folie, as they called it in Paris, by the title of Love laughs at Locksmiths; and he contributed to Mr. Boaden's Maid of Bristol, an epilogue, which, as far as verse could do, laid bare the atrocious ambition of the Corsican. There was a nerve in this composition, that reminded you of the rough vigour of Churchill. In my time no lines spoken on a stage ever produced equal effect. How well he understood his object, WELLINGTON has demonstrated. "God! must this mushroom despot of the hour Can man forbid it? YES:-the ENGLISH CAN." The Theatres Royal were at this period not so identified with the Amphitheatre of Mr. Astley, as they have since become. They are now the winter stables of his horses, and a change of scene for the noble brutes, who are thought able to entertain an enlightened public, and reward the spirit of an enterprising manager. Thus, without feeling a gratitude for which no cause then existed, the historian of the stage records with sincere sorrow the destruction, by fire, of the Amphitheatre, a second time, on the 2d of September, 1803. A fatal neglect on the part of those, whose duty it was to see every light in the theatre extinguished, allowed some flame or spark to communicate with combustibles collected together for occasional fire-works; and the destruction of the whole premises was known to be inevitable at the first perception of the disaster. Mrs. Woodham, the mother of Mrs. Astley, jun., who slept in an apartment in the front of the house, aged and infirm, perished in the flames. Perhaps, at least forty contiguous houses were consumed in the rapid conflagration. The distress of the sufferers, their shrieks, and the fruitless attempts to save part of their slender property, menaced as much by thieves as by the flames, composed a scene of wretchedness, to which the pecuniary loss of the Astleys, considerable as that appeared to be, was of little moment.* A liberal subscription, or a few successful seasons, may repair the losses of a theatre; but the few articles about the dwellings of the poor are accumulated with difficulty; are the produce often, and the pride of a life of labour; are seldom insured; and the loss of them is an almost hopeless destitution, that "weighs upon the heart," and hastens the already faltering feet to the last abode of infirmity and age. * The theatre was estimated at 30,000l.; little or nothing was insured. The horses, by great address and perseverance, were all saved. 1 - CHAPTER I. Weekly Salaries in Mr. Kemble's last year at Drury Lane.~ Mr. Kemble negotiates, through Mrs. Inchbald, with Mr. Harris.-Sets out on his travels.-His letter from Paris.— Description.--French theatre.--Friends there.--Lord Egremont.-Lord Holland.-Talma.-Napoleon's hat.-Madrid. -La Tyranna.-Letter from Mr. Kemble while at Madrid. -His account of that Capital.-Its population.—Its buildings. Their theatres.-La Rita Luna.-A bull fight.How he was accommodated.--Censures of his countrymen. -His own correct feeling.-The death of old Mr. Kemble. -His son's letter on that event.-Filial piety.-Mrs. Kemble, his mother.-His wife's affection and cheerfulness.How his father's remains should be distinguished.—Advice to his brother Charles.-Returns to England.-Duties of a stage-manager.-Mr. William Lewis.-His daily habits. -Peculiar opinions.-Once a proprietor.-Schism in the theatre. Mrs. Lewis alarmed.-Relinquishes his sixth share of Covent Garden.- Mr. Kemble purchases.-Value of the property. And distribution of it.—Improvements of the House. BEFORE We attend Mr. Kemble upon his travels, it may be worth while to look a little at the arrangements of the theatre which he had just quitted. The scale of expense, as to the performers, was then, at all events, moderate. In our own times engagements have been compulsorily formed between managers and actors, which it may be quite clear the former would never concede, had they a less fearful alternative than absolute ruin or no profit. If they yield to the enormous demands and pay the salaries, they cannot gain, with the utmost success if they resist demands quite wanton and really disproportioned to the talent, they are then certainly ruined, because the public will never follow substitutes of lower powers or prices. I am, as I ought to be, quite indifferent as to the opinion which may follow my disclosure. Any influence but that of truth and justice, I hope always to disdain. But I confess I have a wish to try, at all events, to save the stage, by recalling the subject to a new and temperate examination. With this view, I publish the following authentic list of the weekly salaries of the Drury Lane company in the last season of Mr. Kemble's management, 1801-2. All the salaries below 31. per week I purposely omit, that I may not seem to discredit the names of very deserving people. When Mr. Kemble quitted Drury Lane Theatre, it was decidedly with a view to the purchase of one-sixth of the property of the rival house. The intermediate person was Mrs. Inchbald, who conducted to its close the negotiation between Mr. Harris and himself. Mr. Kemble was not a wealthy man; but he could be at no loss for aid in making the purchase; Mr. Heathcote was anxious to supply what was required on the occasion. In so total a change of interest, the shifting of his scene * That is, as actor and manager. |