anticipation of some of Mr. KEAN'S decided admirers, particularly in the opening acts.-As may be naturally supposed, one of the most effective passages was his imprecation on Goneril, which was horribly grand, and cannot but be remembered by every auditor. But Mr. K. reserved himself for the two last acts. His interviews with Cordelia and the gradual resumption of his dominion of reason, which had been for a while suspended were pourtrayed with a fidelity to nature that reached every heart-and drew forth rapturous applause. His exclamation to Gloster "The King would speak with Cornwall; the dear father And upon the entrance of Cornwall and Regan,— Or at their chamber door I'll beat the drum, -Oh! are you come?” Were given with electric effect. Indeed if we take this performance "With all its imperfections on its head," we must allow that since the days of Garrick "the techy choleric old king fourscore years and upward" has never been so faithfully or so grandly pourtrayed. We must now conclude our sketch, But previously, we call on all lovers of good acting to admire Mr. KEAN for his near approach to the standard of unrivalled excellence. Let the captious, carp on at the spots in the sun, till their captious spirit shall of itself expire. Its brightness is sufficient to dazzle the eyes that would pry into its obscurities and defects. Of Mr. KEAN we may justly say in the words of the "immortal bard," whom he so admirably illustrates"He is a man-take him for all in all We ne'er shall look upon his like again.” If we attend to the drawbacks on his acting, he is alto gether without competition.-Give him but the allowance due to them, and he must be acknowledged a prodigy! 66 -To the sight No giant form sets forth his common height; The following is a list of those Characters Mr. Kean has sustained since his first appearance on the metropolitan boards, Characters which we trust 'ere long to see him again reviving to the support of our stage, and the gratification of his innumerous admirers. *April 29, Virginius. Isaac.-[" He- June 12,-Jaffier, and Ad April 24,-King Lear. mirable Chrichton. ON AUTHORS' BENEFITS. It is uncertain at what time the usage of giving authors a benefit on the third day of the exhibition of their piece, commenced. Mr. Oldys in one of his manuscripts, inti * Of those characters marked with (*) Mr. Kean was the original representative. mates that dramatic poets had anciently their benefit on the first day that a new play was represented; a regulation which would have been very favourable to some of the ephemeral productions of modern times. I have found no authority which proves this to have been the case in the time of SHAKESPEARE; but at the beginning of last century, it appears to have been customary in Lent for the players of the theatre in Drury Lane to divide the profits of the first representation of a new play among themselves. (1) From D'Avenant, indeed, we learn, that in the latter part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the poet had his benefit on the second day. (2) As it was a general practice in the time of SHAKESPEARE, to sell the copy of the play to the Theatre, I imagine, in such cases, an author derived no other advantage from his piece, than what arose from the sale of it. Sometimes, however, he found it more beneficial to retain the copy-right in his own hands; and when he did so, I suppose he had a benefit. It is certain that the giving authors the profits of the third exhibition of their play, which seems the usual mode during a great part of the last century, was an established custom in the year 1712; for Decker, in the prologue to one of his comedies, printed in that year, speaks of the poets' third day. (3) The unfortunate Otway had no more than one benefit (1) Gildon's Comparison between the Stages. 1702. p.9. (2) See "The Playhouse to be Let;" 66 Players. There is an old tradition, Of conjuring Faustus and the Beauchamps bold, (3) "It is not praise is sought for now, but pence, Though dropp'd from greasy apron'd audience. on the production of a new play; and this too, it seems, he was sometimes forced to mortgage, before the piece was acted. (4) Southerne was the first dramatic writer who obtained the emoluments arising from two representations; (5) and to Farquhar, in the year 1700, the bene (4) "But which amongst you is there to be found, Will take his third days pawn for fifty pound." Epilogue to "Caius Marcius," 1680. (5) "I must make my boast, though with the most acknowledging respect, of the favours of the fair sex-in so visibly promoting my interest on those days chiefly (the third and sixth) when I had the tenderest relation to the welfare of my play."-Southerne's dedication to "Sir Antony Love," a Comedy, 1691. Hence Pope: "May Tom, whom heaven sent down to raise The price of prologues and the price of plays," &c. It should seem, however, to have been some time before this custom was uniformly established; for the author of "The Treacherous Brothers," acted in 1696, had only one benefit. "See't but three days, and fill the house, the last, He shall not trouble you again in haste."-Epilogue. On Pallas' shield, not caring, so he gains 1 A cramm'd third day, what filth drops from his brains!” Prologue to "If this be not a good Play, the Devil's in't." 1612. Yet the following passages intimate, that the poet, at a subsequent period, had some interest in the second day's exhibition. "Whether their sold scenes be disliked or hit, An empty second day, or a thin share." Prologue to "The City Match," a Comedy by J. |