hending that the representation of the country might fall into the hands of the "small attorneys," himself being an attorney "something of the smallest, Master Stephen." Nevertheless, we are inclined to think, (with all due reprobation of Mr. Rotch,) that the temper of the actors of modern times forms a considerable bar to the resuscitation of the Drama. Were an honest sketch to be given of the performers of the present day, by any person unfortunate enough to have been at the mercy of their caprices,—managers, authors, dressers, or prompters,—it would be seen, that the concentrated morgue of the House of Peers, including even the Duke of Newcastle and the Earl of Winchelsea, is more than equalled in the green-room of either patent theatre. Not one of them but seems to think his chief importance lies in the power of thwarting his employer, disappointing the public, and professing superiority to his profession. The unlucky dramatist, whose piece has overcome the reluctance of reader, manager, and stage-manager, and been read in the green-room amid the sneers of the company, finds that his greatest difficulty of all lies in propitiating the cavilling spirit of a set of men, for the most part grossly ignorant, and for the whole part misjudging. Green-room damnation invariably foreshows the triumph of a play; unless, as is often the case, a manager is weak enough to condemn his author to truckle to the criticisms of his actors. One of them, being "fat, and scant of breath," insists on having no particles in his lengths-away go conjunctions and disjunctions, "ifs," "buts," "ands," and "fors." Another is "genteel," like Goldsmith's bear-leader. "You have given me the expression of a bone to pick,' Mr. Vapid. I beg to tell you that the pit won't stand anything low-lived. I shall give the passage a nut to crack, or a pill to swallow.' I shan't commit my reputation by such vulgarity as a bone to pick!' Another insists upon a pocket handkerchief passage; and, blest with a peculiar grace in unfolding his cambric, requires a little bit of pathos" in all his comic parts. These, nevertheless, are the gentlemen so facetious, and so courteous at a Theatrical Fund Dinner, and so gentlemanly in their breeding at any other. But plant their foot upon the boards, and the transition in the manners of a naval captain between the boudoir and the quarter-deck, is not more remarkable. No dramatist dares complain; his mouth is sealed by the interests of his next piece. No manager dares condemn or punish, or he would be attacked in the Sunday newspapers, and calumniated at "tavern meetings." But the knowledge of the spirit of offence prevented Scott from applying his great talents to the stage, and will confine the dramatic authorship of the times, either to actors themselves, who understand the secrets of the prison-house, or to men hardened to the vocation, who meet the heroes of the sock and buskin in their own style, aud bully or cajole them into good humour. It is not, however, such as these who will regenerate the stage; it is not such as these to whom the dramatic art is a matter of worship as well as of cultivation; and Charles Kemble may almost be forgiven the scorn of a profession which forms the pedestal of his family, expressed in the strong reluctance he avowed and almost boasted, to his daughter's appearance on the stage. 6 At this very moment,- -a moment so critical to the interests of the drama,-what is the line of conduct pursued by the chief actors of the metropolis, with regard to the patent theatres,- -on the success of which Fact! meo periculo. depends the permanency of their calling? A lessee, backed as they admit, to such an extent as to secure the fulfilment of his engagements, pledges himself to devote Drury Lane Theatre to the support of the legitimate Drama, Comedy, Tragedy, and Farce, on which these ladies and gentlemen affect to lean, for the support of their professional reputation; and which they petition Parliament for a third theatre to cultivate after their own fashion. But instead of adhering to a cause which is, and which they admit to be their own, not one of them but flies to any gimcrack mountebank stage, by which he can secure half-a-crown per week more than at Covent Garden or Drury Lane. Even Farren, the most finished and most successful comedian on the boards, refuses an engagement of £35 per week for himself and his wife, Mrs. Faucit, in the expectation of making a trifle more elsewhere. We appeal to those who are aware at what rate literary labour is rewarded in the present day, whether thirty guineas a week be not a fair remuneration for a performer whose line of characters is so very limited, that last year, (during the success of the "Rent Day," in which he refused a capital part,) he did not appear more than twice a week. Farren is an admirable actor; but his "Hunchback" was inferior to that of Knowles,―infinitely inferior to that of Ward. He must not forfeit the favour of the public by undue arrogance, or by turning his back on the temple of his art. Again, Sheridan Knowles has refused from the new lessee the sum of L.500 for a play, on commission; and this circumstance, it is said, tended considerably to secure the King's rejection of the petition for a third playhouse. The refusal of such terms was, in fact, preposterous! 66 In defiance of the attacks to which we expose ourselves by the assertion, we do not hesitate to confess our opinion, that his Majesty's servants ministered more to the satisfaction of the public, and their own renown, before they quitted their station as Comedians, and affected that of men of wit and pleasure about town. A man who looks to his profession for his reputation, honours it, studies it, and makes it the end and aim of his existence, Apollo's venal son," who puts up with the dishonour of delivering a certain number of phrases in the public ear, on Mondays and Thursdays, for the satisfaction of receiving a certain portion of current coin on Saturday morning, and appearing at supper parties, clubs, operas, and in the Park, the intervening days, will never find his way into Westminster Abbey. He may consider it a fine thing to harass his manager, thwart his author, perplex his prompter, damn his scene-shifter, and shirk rehearsal; but he will never rise to historical eminence in his profession. Instead of passing his time over the punchbowl with dissipated young lords, whom he has a right to despise, and who resort to the green-room, not as to the portico, but as to a haram, he ought to be engaged in study, or in such bodily recreation as tends to fortify his health, and relax, without brutalizing, his mind. How different the system of things in France; where, in spite of the march of intellect and the influence of Moliere and Talma, a player is still the Paria of society!-Denied the empty distinction of a funeral ceremony, and the pernicious fellowship of the great, the French actor applies himself to unremitting cultivation of his art, as a rock on which he elevates himself in superiority to the prejudices of the world. He spares neither his time nor trouble; goes hand in hand with his author. Instead of reading over his part, like the English mime, to ascertain what he can "cut out," he studies it in the hope of discovering some additional effect beyond the reach of a writer's inexperience. Whenever U VOL. IV. NO. XXI. a new piece of merit appeared at the Français, during his time, Talma committed the whole to memory; and was in the habit of prompting the other actors at rehearsal, and aiding the young performers, male or female, in the study of their parts. After Talma had said, "It should be given thus," no one dreamed of giving the passage otherwise; for his brethren were aware that he had applied his whole attention to every syllable of the piece. Nor did he ever appear on the stage in his most familiar parts, Nero, Sylla, Hamlet, without a diligent rehearsal in the course of the morning! He was seen to sit poring over Oreste, within six months of his retirement from the stage, ascertaining whether experience suggested any new interpretations of the text. And what was the result? That he lived wealthy and died immortal. The name of Talma is honoured in France beyond that of any histrion in England. The writer of these rambling observations was conversing one evening, last summer, with one of the guardians of the Père la Chaise cemetery ; when a simple country lad, of about twenty years of age, came up, with his garland of laurel and everlasting in his hand, to inquire the way to the grave of "le grand Talma,” that he might deposit his offering on the tomb! In the same way, the monument of Mademoiselle Raucourt, (whose bust presents, and whose acting presented a striking resemblance to our own Siddons,) is frequently covered with fresh flowers. At the present moment, most of the great poets of France are writing for the stage; Victor Hugo, Delavigne, De Vigny, and others. Nor do the peculiar advantages connected with dramatic copyright afford their sole inducement. Nothing can be more courteous and satisfactory than their connexion with the players; who are not taught to look upon authors as poor devils, infinitely worse remunerated than themselves. By the wisdom of managers, too, the scenery, decorations, and costuming of the piece of his invention, are left to the suggestion of the author; so that the actors are not allowed to make buffoons of themselves, according to their own sense of the becoming, and their want of any other sense. *A five act piece is carefully rehearsed, for six or seven weeks, previous to representation; no performer presumes to absent himself on idle pretexts: and, at length, the play is given with a dress rehearsal to a select critical audience,—an advantage only accorded in London to the Christmas pantomimes. Ten days, and even a week, are usually given at our patent theatres to the preparation of five act pieces; and it is rare, indeed, that more than two-thirds of the actors appear at rehearsal ;—the costumes are never even seen by the author (unless in some favoured instance) till they appear on the stage before the public. One of the cleverest and most amusing specimens of the histrionic art, ever imposed on an audience, lies in the humility, the deprecation, the reverence of the actor's bow to the applause of the house, whose audience, one second before, in the slips, he has been treating with a contumely of scorn, seldom expressed against any portion of the public, e ept in Parliamentary language. A survey of the house is generally taken through the curtain, for the information of the green-room; and pronounced to be a "box audience," or a 66 gallery audience,” or a "minor-theatre audience;" and the actor plays Othello black or white, 豪 An exclamation of one of our leading English actresses, (now highly married,) may be cited in evidence :" La! Mr. Elliston!-there's Mr. going to act the Black Prince, and I declare he hasn't got his face blacked." and the manager snows white or brown, accordingly. Behind the scenes Macbeth may be seen tapping one of the prettiest of the witches under the chin; and Richard Crookback flirting with the soubrette who plays the elder nephew he is about to smother. Talma would never allow a syllable to be uttered in the part of the slips where he stood apart, immersed in contemplation, summoning around him the images and associations preparatory to the emotions of the coming scene. In the memorable urn scene in the French Hamlet, (rendered ludicrous by Matthews' imitation,) so real was the passion of the tragedian, that the tears often rolled down his cheeks upon the funeral urn; and nervous attacks, almost epileptic, often followed his performance of his more energetic parts. With the exception of Macready, Farren, Harley, and Ward, there is scarcely a performer now on the Engiish stage who is ever perfect, even in the words of his part; and their carelessness is, we must admit, fully sanctioned by the indifference of the public. Kean has often been known to introduce into one of Shakspeare's plays long passages from another, without any token of detection or disapproval from the house. Instead, therefore, of sneering (with Mr. Benjamin Rotch) at actors for being only actors, we own it will give us great pleasure when we find them aspiring to be nothing else. As actors, we admire them, we respect them, we hear of their ailings with regret, and their deaths with affliction. But a fine actor makes a very poor gentleman, and can make something far nobler in the eyes of his contemporaries. While they boast, at tavern dinners, of their parts and education, nine in ten are capable, like old Fawcett, of reproaching a brother actor with talking of imminent danger. 66 Why, Sir, there's not a grammar-school boy, but would teach ye the word is eminent. Eminent danger! Sir. Let me hear no more imminents where I am stage manager. Pray, Sir, are you from Ireland ?" Yet Fawcett could draw tears, or produce roars of laughter, where Gibbon, or Johnson, or Rogers would not so much as have dictated a source of passion. We wish the Drama well. We care nothing for Mr. Bunn, except as the present steward of its fortunes. But whenever or wherever circumstances come to our knowledge connected with the secret obstacles laid in the way of the progress and prosperity of the dramatic art, we shall unscrupulously expose them. The interests of the Drama are now under the attention of the legislature. And it is fitting that the green curtain should be fully drawn up; and the whole mysteries of the modern stage exposed to examination. NOTES ON PARIS; Or Correspondence of the Grimm of the Cockneys with the NOTE II.-FRENCH POLITICS. WHAT traveller in Switzerland neglects to visit the site of the village of Goldau, near the lake of Lanerz, overwhelmed, some years ago, with all its inhabitants, by the fall of a mountain? Or who, when an earthquake has "toppled down high towers and moss-grown steeples,"throwing up new soil and new productions in their place,—but hastens to the scene of convulsion, to investigate the fruits brought forth by U 2 the renovated earth? In Sicily, the wine (Terra mota) is estimated the finest, where the vineyard has been shaken with an earthquake ! So is it after a revolution! The moral mineralogist proceeds to the spot, with his hammer in his hand, to scrutinize what novelties the creation has unfolded through those fissures of the earth, which enable us to pry into her mysteries. The agriculturist busily compares the growth of the new stratum brought to the surface, with the harvests reared upon that old alluvial soil deposited by the floods of time,-shakes his head on observing the abundant crop of weeds, which have sprung up from the rankness of its redundant and unpurified strength; and regrets that the shortness of human life will, during his day, afford no estimate of the influence of the new stratification on forest trees of nobler growth. It is something, however, to watch their slow progress towards maturity; and the lapse of three years since the Three Glorious Days of July, 1830, enables us, in some measure, to conjecture whether posterity will confirm, in their honour, the decree of contemporary enthusiasm ; and to decide whether, although the French nation have got something better in place of what was bad, they may not aspire, at some future epoch, to achieve the best? The quality of the "better" is that which first imports us to determine. There has been time for the new ground to settle into some degree of stability; and we have a right to look to the progress of the legislative and correctional tribunals, to the state of public worship, to the prospects of art and science, to the tone of literature and of the Drama, to the moral regeneration of the people, and the re-establishment of social institutions, in evidence of the advantages secured. Investigations of this comprehensive nature have recently been attempted in France; but by partisans either of the monarchical or republican factions. The facts of one side have consequently been the lies of the other; and it will probably be a foreigner who sets the question in a fair and equitable light. Meanwhile, conscious of our inadequacy to a task which demands a prolonged residence on the spot, and an intimate familiarity with the customs and characteristics of the people, we are willing to contribute our quota of information, in the shape of a nosegay, of such weeds as may be culled by any idle passenger over the new territory; or a handful of the pebbles which lie upon the surface, too trivial for the attention of the scientific mineralogist. Paris, in October, 1833, compared with Paris in June, 1830, will be an amusing, as well as an edifying study! The first question we are inclined to ask is, Carlists or Holy Alliance party?" "What has become of the "Have they sunk in earth, or melted in air? The Carlists, like the Tories, deal vengeance upon the offending people, by withdrawing the light of their countenance; a light which, after all, was only darkness visible! The Tories take to their travelling carriages, and quit England for the Continent. The Carlists,―creatures of office, -possessed of little besides their hotels in the Faubourg St. Germain, and their dilapidated chateaus in the provinces, having no money for travelling expenses, either exile themselves to the latter, or bastile themselves within the former, unmissed, unmourned, unwept ! Eighteen of the most considerable private hotels in Paris have been shut up for the last three years; but who cares for their desertion, unless the unfortunate tradesmen, in whose books the names and debts of the illustrious owners |