unavoidable defect, an affectation, or is it a new reading? Is Kean really ambitious of setting up for an emendator and critic, with the view of rivalling John Kemble in his aitches and his Coriolanus? If so, he is perhaps, in this instance, to the full as successful as his great precursor in the line of criticism; for most certainly there is something fatal to sense and meaning, in an unreal mockery, from which, in good fundamental English, must be inferred no mockery at all, but a reality; even as an unreal falsehood must pass lawfully and currently for a truth. Whether we are to suppose that Kean purposely compels the adjective to stand alone, in spite of grammatical injunction, for the sake of avoiding an absurdity in terms, and that we are thence to compliment him on so admirable a new reading, must depend entirely upon his own confession.

The reader will recollect what I have said of the different modes of passionate expression in different men. In my first letter, I objected to the tone in which Kean delivered the finale of his speech to the messenger, who brought him the fatal news of a moving wood. A similar objection, still lies against his conclusion of the dagger scene. On his conviction of the mere shadowy and ideal nature of the dagger, and that it was presented merely to his mind's eye, he suddenly puts off his heroic action, his passion ceases, and he repeats in a tone, calculated for the most common and trivial occasion"there's no such thing;" whilst his elevated patrons, fail not to applaud him hand, foot, and tongue, for so notable and workman-like a transition. Now doubtless, in this

passage, a variation and lowering of tone is necessary, but by no means to the degree of common colloquial life, which could ill accord with the situation of the hero, or the passion which had not yet subsided in his breast. Cook also, was extremely addicted to these pauses and lowerings of the voice, and not seldom applauded for them. From Kemble's mouth, the words, "there's no such thing," proceed indeed in a lowered and musing tone, but accompanied with a pathos, grace, and dignity, which fully befitted the hero, and the dilemma in which he was placed.

For common sense, for propriety sake, Mr. Editor, for the sake of our national reputation in theatrical affairs, let us not pass by, without its merited share of ridicule, and uncorrected, the gross and fancy-tickling absurdity of a great conqueror and king, giving a royal banquet, and making the princely and noble guests whom he meant to conciliate and reconcile to his usurpation, wait, with their bodily and mental appetites, yearning, and on the stretch, and all the choice delicacies of the table, waxing cool and spiritless, whilst he gives audience to an assassin! and to insure the deep and double damnation of absurdity in all this, the audience of the theatre also, must sit with their eyes and ears wide open the while, as being necessarily let into the profound secret! and said English audiences for hundreds of years past, have sate very composedly, unconsciously, and contentedly, to witness it! and no Garrick or Kemble, manager or critic, have ever yet attempted to strangle and banish from the stage, such an ill placed and uncalled for, however admirable, piece of sheer

wit!!

wit!! Why not this interview with the murderer, previous to the appearance of the banquet, and by itself? But since it has been ever thus, and therefore, according to the noble and orthodox doctrine of precedent, must necessarily ever continue, permit me, theatrical managers and theatrical amateurs, so sage, to make an improvement upon precedents perfectly congenial. Let the assassin be announced, and formerly introduced by the king himself, receive the paternal hug and the honour of a sitting at the banquet! Why should I, who am an ultra, be outdone in absurdity?

I now venture on strange ground, and request information. I have heard it asserted formerly, that both Donaldbane, and even Macbeth, are not pronounced on the English stage, after the genuine Scotish idiom. The first, it is pretended, ought to be sounded short, in similar cadence with Breadalbain; and that it disgusts pure Scotch ears, to hear such broad stress laid upon Mac, in Macbeth, the Scotch making the first syllable short and soft, and laying the stress upon the last-M'Bath.

My satisfaction and my objections to Kean's acting, in Hamlet, are not quite upon a level with those which respect his Macbeth. The latter character suits his present state of improvement best.He is not yet sufficiently travelled in the refinements and delicacies of carriage and conduct in a high bred prince, to represent Hamlet to full advantage; and particularly, in the impressive scene with his mother, he was far too heroic and too rough, the effects of which were, no doubt, felt by the delinquent Queen, next morning, on her first waking,

in the elbow and shoulder joints.To digress in a line or two, the meritorious new comedian Farren also, has somewhat of importance yet to learn, in the delineation of the character of Lord Ogleby. The desideratum is an old and decrepid lord, as well as an old decrepid man. Farren's Ogleby is doubtless, very correctly, an old man, They who witnessed with gout, Tom King's representation of the character, will readily comprehend my meaning. King had, either from nature, or had acquired by observation and study, the real air de qualité. He possessed the power of creating a lord, without either birth or patent.

I shall wind up this long rigma→ role, as a certain writer styles every thing of length, not written by himself, with a pleasing reminiscence of the dead yet alive, who I hope is yet happy, as the melancholy sequel of his mortal pilgrimage can possibly admit. I shall strictly adhere to the old adage-de mortuis nil nisi bonum. I enjoyed, once or twice, the singularly great pleasure of being placed very near to George the Third, at the Theatre, when he had commanded his favourite afterpieces,

The Upholsterer, or What News?' and Tom Thumb the Great.Ned Shuter was in his place in the former piece. The excess of enjoyment overflowing on the real King, at witnessing the Court etiquette and assumed majesty of his burlesque brother, was to me a greater proof of good sense and sterling relish for a joke, which in itself, by the bye, is no slight indication of mind, than a whole folio, gilded, lettered, and tooled of panegyric.

A BIT OF A JOCKÈY.

To the Editor of the Sporting Magazine.
SIR,

THERE are a number of very amiable and intelligent persons who read the public prints, that seem most amused with those parts of them that detail the arrivals and departures of particular people

One of the admirers of these articles was much surprised with the arrival at various places, of a person called "Sir James Smith," who seemed to divide himself more than any other human being, and to appear-ubiquity itself. Being led to enquire after the person so designated, no such person as Sir James Smith was to be found: at least it was ascertained that the person assuming that name, did not bear the appellation. On being questioned as to the deception, he very frankly said, "that such was not his name: but having observed, from the public papers, that certain great people travelled in cog. and called themselves by names which did not belong to them; he thought he had as great a right to do so as they had; particularly as he meant to elevate himself by the title he borrowed, and it was noticeable to every body, that they took lower names than their own, which must be for the purposes of deception-at least with the design of inducing the innkeepers to bring in moderate charges, and not noble ones." Whether this excuse may prove available with the public, we know not, but it may perhaps induce these princely incognitos to travel by their real names, instead of their disguised ones; for we cannot hold it more pardonable for a great person to travel by a fictitious appellation, than an itinerant Vor III. N. S.-No. 13.

ANECDOTE OF DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.

THE Doctor, in his tour through

North Wales, (which he never published, but of which he wrote a mere itinerary never designed for publication), passed two days at the seat of Colonel Myddleton, of Gwynanog. The first day was employed in a survey of the Colonel's domain, and in completing a plan for the building of a principal drawing-room to be attached to the mansion, the architectural proportions and ornaments of which were devised by the Doctor. The room was afterwards built by the Colonel in strict conformity to the plan;' and after the Doctor's decease, in memorial of the visit, a cenotaph was erected by this gentleman, on the spot which his learned guest occupied at the instant in which he suggested this addition to the original building.

On the second day it happened that the Colonel's gardener found a hare on its form, amidst some potatoe plants. He caught it, and brought it to his master, while he was engaged in conversation with Joknson. An order was given to carry it to the cook. As soon as the Doctor heard the sentence of death pronounced, he requested to have the animal placed in his arms,

D

at the same time anxiously extend ing them to receive it. The creature was immediately transferred from the gardener's grasp to the Doctor's embrace. Poor puss, poor puss," exclaimed Johnson, with the accompanying action of compassionately stroking its long squatted ears" and so thou art doomed to the ignoble fate of pampering the appetite of thy fellowanimal, man- tis a hard fate, Colonel! I must intercede for puss between sentence and execution she is no criminal, at least there is no evidence against her if she be indicted for a trespass, I think the laws of hospitality will plead in her favor." While he uttered these words he gradually approached the window, which was half open; and as soon as he reached it, he restored the object of his compassion to her liberty, shouting after her that she might make the best of her way. "What have you done," cried the Colonel; "why, Doctor, you have rabbed my table of a delicacy, and perhaps deprived us of a dinner." So much the better, Sir," replied this champion of a condemned hare, "for if your table is to be supplied at the expence of the laws of hospitality, I envy not the appetite of him who eats at it. This, Sir, is not a hare feræ naturæ, but one which had placed itself under your protection; and savage indeed must be that man, who does not make his hearth an asylum for the confiding stranger."

ELEPHANT AND TIGER.

An Elching by HoWITT,

TWO gentlemen being shooting in India, one of them (Col. B.) was on a favorite male elephant, and his friend at a little distance in the jungle: the elephant suddenly

began to press forward, as if running the foot of some animal, when the Colonel perceived a large tiger, almost by the side of his friend, crawling among the bushes, and apparently ready to make the fatal spring, the gentleman leisurely walking on, unconscious of his danger;-warned, however, by instant and anxious exclamation, he had the fortune to make good his retreat. The elephant was stopped for a moment, aud he mounted,immediately the elephant rushed towards the tiger, who facing about to receive the attack, a most furious engagement began, which was not very speedily decided the violent motion obliging the persons on the elephant to confine their exertions almost entirely to the maintenance of their situation. Two servants were desperately wounded endeavouring to afford assistance; and the elephant having at length, and with great difficulty, destroyed his terrible adversary, threw up his trunk streaming with blood, and phrenzied with fury and the pain of his wounds, ran utterly uncontroulable for several miles: in his course, meeting a man near a village, he pursued him with the rage of a vicious bull; but he luckily made his escape. One of the gentlemen, as the animal turned the corner of a house, threw himself upon the thatch, and clung there: the other, with the driver, was hurried on, till utter fatigue put a period to the elephant's career.