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size. When I bound them together I asked him to letter the volume for me, and he called it "Kemble's Covent Garden Theatre."

But as I must soon quit him in his new element, I just notice his success in Lord Townley, with that lovely woman, Miss Louisa Brunton, for his lady. Like Miss Farren, she was found to possess charms of every sort worthy of a coronet, but did not, when she assumed it, take away quite so much genius from the stage. Cooke was still the Richard, and Kemble condescended to Richmond in the hope of conciliating his dear George; but when the return arrived of Cooke's condescension, namely, to act Pizarro to Kemble's Rolla, he came on knowing nothing of the language, and soon fell backwards as mute as a turtle. Happily his new friend was at hand to say that he was really ill (which everybody saw), and Mr. Henry Siddons ready to read the part for him; at which few, I imagine, could grieve. His illness had left him by the tertian intermittent, for on the twentieth he stood his ground in the character without shaking. Mrs. Siddons, as poor Richardson told Sheridan she would, had now fallen into Elvira sufficiently; and this was, perhaps, the greatest injury which the Kembles inflicted upon Drury; for

Sheridan had very indiscreetly published the play, so that any theatre could act it. He got a large sum, it is true, for the copyright.

Mrs. Jordan had no new character to the end of the year. She about this time, upon Frances, her eldest daughter's, coming of age, took a handsome house for her in Golden Square, and she became at length Mrs. Alsop. Her two sisters, Lucy and Dora, lived with her in town, but they were frequently at Bushy with their mother. I understand some old gentleman, of the name of Bettesworth, offered Miss Jordan a very handsome fortune to take his name and become his representative.

CHAPTER VI.

The Reservoirs of Some Use at Drury Lane

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The "Caravan " and the Dog Carlo-Story of the Piece-Sheridan and His Preserver" Cinderella" and her Slipper, with Venus and the Graces-Cherry's "Soldier's Daughter"- Mrs. Jordan in the Widow Cheerly - Her Epilogue, a Female ArmyThe "Sailor's Daughter," by Cumberland - Mrs. Jordan's Benefit The "Middle Dish". Bannister Returns to the Haymarket - Fawcett Makes a Ballet from the Action of Shakespeare's "Tempest "- The "Gay Deceivers "— Elliston and His Address — Master Betty at Edinburgh — Home and His "Douglas"— A Really Great Genius of the North Descending to Works below Him - Rewriting All Our Literature Substitutes Standard Works to Be Carefully Reprinted-The Followers of Didot His Application at Seventy-three-Elliston at the Opera House - Mrs. Jordan Herself Opens the Season of 1804-05 in Widow Cheerly - Mathews and Elliston Now at Drury-Miss Duncan's First Night Phantom Lathom and His "Dash"- A Fête Royal at Weymouth - Elliston and Miss Decamp — The Royal Game, and the Michaelmas Goose on a BirthdayAnother Farce for Mrs. Jordan, Called " Matrimony."

NOW return a little to commemorate a striking event in the history of the

National Theatre. The reservoirs, which

had been prepared in the contemplation of its danger from fire, absolutely saved the concern, for

a time at least, from sinking under its burthens. I allude to the production, on the 5th of December, 1803, of a serio-comic romance, called the "Caravan," attendant upon which, in the person of a Newfoundland dog, called Carlo, Reynolds started the first formidable rival to the new management.

The story merits a few lines, though I have not read it in "Mariana." The regent of some time or other, for period is immaterial, is desperately in love with another man's wife. The lady, at least on the stage, is, as usual, a paragon of fidelity. The husband, who is a Marquis of Calatrava, is sent by the caravan from Madrid to Barcelona, with orders to the driver, who bears the discreet name of Blabbo, to starve him on the journey; but if he should be able upon the chameleon's dish, the air, to reach Barcelona, then, and in that case provided, the governor, Mr. Dowton, has sealed orders to destroy him. As to the marchioness, silly woman, she follows her husband, and for her there are brave punishments in reserve. If she does not overcome her vulgar prejudice, the marquis is to be put on board a fireship and blown up, and her son Julio is to be thrown from a rock into the sea to join the

remains of his father. "Oh, this love, this love!" But Blabbo nourishes the marquis on the journey by dividing with him the dog's meat and his own. The marquis is not blown up, though the ship is, and Carlo the dog, with his master's humanity, no sooner sees the child Julio thrown from the rock into the sea than he jumps in after him and brings him ashore in his mouth with the utmost ease.

The maternal feelings of the house had never been before at so high a pressure; the boiler was almost bursting, for here was really danger,real water, a real dog, a real splash, and a special interposition. Well might Sheridan rush into the greenroom and call out, "Where is my preserver?" Well might the author modestly present himself, and well might the manager say, "Pooh! I meant the dog!"

The run of the dog was the triumph of fourfooted sagacity; it was succeeded by the slipper of glass worn by Cinderella, and the reign of honest Carlo interrupted by Mother Goose. "Cinderella" was attributed to a gentleman of Oxford, and he very classically rescues his heroine from the doubtful patronage of witchcraft, and produces all the effects of magic by the influence of beauty and love and marriage and grace, which

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