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quarter: Still I hold it just to my family and prudent towards myself to continue my precautions: Upon the little fortune I raised in Smyrna, with fome aids I have occafionally received from the head of our house, who is my nephew, and several profitable commiffions for the fale of Spanish wool, I live contentedly, though humbly as you see, and I have besides wherewithal, (blessed be God!) to be of some use and assistance to my fellow-creatures.

Thus I have related to you my brief history, not concealing that bloody act, which would subject me to death by the sentence of a human tribunal, but for which I hope my interceffion and atonement have been accepted by the Supreme Judge of all hearts, with whom there is mercy and forgiveness. Reflect I pray you upon my situation at that dreadful moment; enter into the feelings of a fon; picture to yourselves the scene of horror before my eyes; conceive a brutal zealot spurning the dead corpse of my father, and that father his most generous benefactor, honoured for his virtues and adored for his charities, the best of parents and the friend of mankind; reflect, I say, upon these my agonies and provocations, make allowance for a distracted heart in such a crifis, and judge me with that T4 charity, charity, which takes the law of God, and not the law of man for it's direction.

Here Abrahams concluded, and here also I shall adjourn to the succeeding volume what remains to be related of the perfons, whose adventures have already engrossed so large a portion of this miscellaneous work.

IF

No CXXIII.

Natio comœda eft.

F the present tafte for private plays spreads as faft as moft fashions do in this country, we may expect the rifing generation will be, like the Greeks in my motto, one entire nation of actors and actresses. A father of a family may shortly reckon it amongst the blessings of a numerous progeny, that he is provided with a fufficient company for his domeftic stage, and may caft a play to his own liking without going abroad for his theatrical amusements. Such a

steady steady troop cannot fail of being under better regulation than a set of strollers, or than any fet whatever, who make acting a vocation: Where a manager has to deal with none but players of his own begetting, every play bids fair to have a strong cast, and in the phrase of the stage to be well got up. Happy author, who shall see his characters thus grouped into a family-piece, firm as the Theban band of friends, where all is zeal and concord, no bickerings nor jealoufies about stage-precedency, no ladies to fall fick of the spleen, and toss up their parts in a huff, no heart-burnings about flounced petticoats and filver trimmings, where the mother of the whole company stands wardrobe-keeper and propertywoman, whilst the father takes poft at the fide scene in the capacity of prompter with plenipotentiary controul over P S's and O P's.

I will no longer speak of the difficulty of writing a comedy or tragedy, because that is now done by so many people without any difficulty at all, that if there ever was any mystery in it, that mystery is thoroughly bottomed and laid open; but the art of acting was till very lately thought so rare and wonderful an excellence, that people began to look upon a perfect actor as a phenomenon in the world, which they were not to expect above once in a century;

but

but now that the trade is laid open, this prodigy is to be met at the turn of every street; the nobility and gentry to their immortal honour have broken up the monopoly, and new-made players are now as plentiful as new-made peers.

Nec tamen Antiochus, nec erit mirabilis illic
Aut Stratocles aut cum molli Demetrius Hamo.

Garrick and Powell would be now no wonder,
Nor Barry's silver note, nor Quin's heroic thunder.

Though the public professors of the art are fo compleatly put down by the private practitioners of it, it is but justice to observe in mitigation of their defeat, that they meet the comparison under fome disadvantages, which their rivals have not to contend with.

One of thefe is diffidence, which volunteers cannot be supposed to feel in the degree they do, who are pressed into the service: I never yet faw a public actor come upon the stage on the first night of a new play, who did not feem to be nearly, if not quite, in as great a fhaking fit as his author; but as there can be no luxury in a great fright, I cannot believe that people of fashion, who act for their amusement only, would fubject themselves to it; they must certainly have a proper confidence in their own abilities, or they would never step out of a

drawing

drawing room, where they are fure to figure, upon a stage, where they run the rifque of ex posing themselves; some gentlemen perhaps, who have been mutæ perfonæ in the senate, may start at the first found of their own voices in a theatre, but graceful action, just elocution, per fect knowledge of their author, elegant deport ment, and every advantage, that refined manners and courtly address can bestow, is exclu fively their own: In all scenes of high life they are at home; noble sentiments are natural to them; love-parts they can play by instinct, and as for all the cafts of rakes, gamesters and fine gentlemen they can fill them to the life. Think only what a violence it must be to the nerves of an humble unpretending actor to be obliged te play the gallant gay seducer and be the cuckold. maker of the comedy, when he has no other ob ject at heart but to go quietly home, when the play is over, to his wife and children and parti cipate with them in the honest earnings of his vocation; can such a man compete with the Lothario of high life?

And now I mention the cares of a family, I strike upon another disadvantage, which the public performer is subject to and the private exempt from: The Andromache of the stage may have an infant Hector at home, whom the

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