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soap-they say it is coming down."—"I am glad of it."- "Indeed, sir, you have cause, if one may judge from your appearance." Here was a general laugh, which the beau seemed not to regard; but, nodding his head, and hitting his boots with a small rattan, rang the bell with an air of importance, and inquired if he could have any thing for supper. "What do you think," said Cooke, “of a roasted puppy? because," taking up the poker, "I will spit you, and roast you in a minute." This had a visible effect upon the dirty beau; he retreated towards the door, Cooke following with the poker, exclaiming, "Avaunt, and quit my sight; thy face is dirty, and thy hands unwashed: avaunt! avaunt! I say:"-then, replacing the poker, and returning to his seat, he continued, "Being gone, I am a man again."

MACKLIN'S DEFINITION OF ESQUIRE. MACKLIN, going to insure some property, was asked by the clerk how he would please to have his name entered: "Entered!" replied Macklin;

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'why I am only plain Charles Macklin, a vagabond by Act of Parliament: but, in compliment to the times, you may set me down Charles

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Macklin, Esquire, as they are now synonymous terms."

THE MAIN CHANCE.

WHEN Whitley, manager of the Nottingham company, was enacting Richard III. he shewed a tolerable proof of having constantly an eye to his interest and to his audience. In the character of the crook-backed tyrant, he exclaimed:

“Hence, babbling dreams! you threaten here in vain," (That man in the brown wig there, has got into the pit without paying,)

"Richard's himself again!"

LAW, AND THE SCOTTISH THANE.

ONE evening, during the representation of " Macbeth," an eminent special pleader graced the boxes of Drury Lane Theatre, to see it performed. When the hero questions the Witches, as to what they are doing; they answer a deed without a name." Our counsellor, whose attention was at that moment directed more to Coke upon Littleton than to Shakspeare, catching, however, the words in the play, repeated, "A deed without a name !-why, 'tis void."

TRAGEDY AND COMEDY.

ROUSSEAU makes this distinction between tra

gedy and comedy. In comedy, the plot turns on marriage; in tragedy, it turns on murder. The whole intrigue, in the one and the other, turns on this grand event:—will they marry? will they not marry? will they murder? will they not murder? There will be a marriage; there will be murder; and this forms act the first. There will be no marriage; there will be no murder; and this gives birth to act the second. A new mode of marrying and of murdering is prepared for the third act. A new difficulty impedes the marriage or the murder, which the fourth act discusses. At last, the marriage and the murder are effected for the benefit of the last act.

FOOTE.

DR. Barrowby, a famed dramatic critic of that day, spoke of him, we are told, in the following

terms:

"He came into the room in a frock suit of green and silver, bag-wig, sword, bouquet, and point ruffles, and immediately joined the critical circle at the upper end. Nobody knew him; but he soon entered boldly into conversation, and by the brilliancy of his wit, the justness of his remarks, and his unembarassed freedom of

manners, attracted the general notice.

The buz of the room went round- Who is he? Whence came he?'-which nobody could answer, until a handsome carriage stopping at the door, to take him to the assembly of fashion, they learned from the servants, that his name was Foote, that he was a young man of family and fortune, and a student of the Inner Temple."

ILL-TIMED MIRTH.

A GREAT actress travelling with her son through a village, where they stopped for the night, in a journey to the north, by way of passing their time, they went to see the play of "Pizarro" enacted in a barn, and displayed their merriment on its representation rather ill-naturedly, and to the great mortification of the abashed performers. On the conclusion of the first act, the fiddler, who composed the orchestra, struck up very appropriately :

"Through all the employments of life,
Each neighbour abuses his brother."

SHERIDAN'S. WAY OF SATISFYING ELECTORS.

WHEN Sheridan first stood for Stafford, he made abundant promises to procure places for such electors as would vote for him; and, won

derful to relate! he kept his word, for numbers of them were appointed to offices in Drury Lane Theatre and the Opera House. By this munificence he gained his election; but, in a very short time, he found opportunities to oblige new friends, most of the others being obliged to relinquish their situations, from receiving no pay.

PUFFING BURLESQUED.

From the

THE following whimsical account of Mrs. Siddons's first appearance in Dublin, is extracted from an old Irish newspaper:-"On Saturday, Mrs. Siddons, about whom all the world has been talking, exposed her beautiful, adamantine, soft, and lovely person, for the first time, at Smock-Alley Theatre, in the bewitching, melting, and all-tearful character of Isabella. repeated panegyrics in the impartial London newspapers, we were taught to expect the sight of a heavenly angel; but how were we supernaturally surprised into the most awful joy, at beholding a mortal goddess. The house was crowded with hundreds more than it could hold, with thousands of admiring spectators, that went away without a sight.

"This extraordinary phenomenon of tragic ex

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