more tenderly feels for than the Hector of the scene; he may be sick, he may be supperless; there may be none to nurse him, when his mother is out of fight, and the maternal interest in the divided heart of the actress may preponderate over the heroine's: This is a case not within the chances to happen to any lady-actress, who of course consigns the task of education to other hands, and keeps her own at leifure for more pressing duties.

Public performers have their memories loaded and distracted with a variety of parts, and oftentimes are compelled to such a repetition of the fame part, as cannot fail to quench the spirit of the representation; they must obey the call of duty, be the caft of the character what it may

-Cum Thaida fuftinet, aut cung

* Uxorem comœdus agit.

Subject to all the various casts of life,
Now the loose harlot, now the virtuous wife.

But, what is worse than all, the veterans of the public stage will sometimes be appointed to play the old and ugly, as I can inftance in the perfon of a most admirable actress, whom I have often seen, and never without the tribute of applaufe, in the cafts of Juliet's Nurse, Aunt Deborah, and other venerable damsels in the vale

of

of years, when I am confident there is not a lady of independent rank in England of Mrs. Pitt's age, who would not rather struggle for Miss Jenny or Miss Hoyden, than stoop to be the representative of such old hags.

These and the subjection public performers are under to the caprice of the spectators, and to the attacks of conceited and misjudging critics are amongst the many disagreeable circumstances, which the most eminent must expect and the most fortunate cannot escape.

It would be hard indeed if performers of distinction, who use the stage only as an elegant and moral resource, should be subject to any of these unpleasant conditions, and yet as a friend to the rifing fame of the domeftic drama I must observe, that there are fome precautions necefsary, which it's patrons have not yet attended to. There are so many consequences to be guarded againft, as well as provisions to be made for an establishment of this fort, that it behoves it's conductors to take their first ground with great judgment; and above all things to be very careful that an exhibition so ennobled by it's actors, may be cast into such a stile and character, as may keep it clear from any possible comparison with spectacles, which it should not condescend to imitate, and cannot hope to equal,

1

This I believe has not been attempted, perhaps not even reflected upon, and yet if I may speak from information of specimens, which I have not been present at, there are many reforms needful both in it's external as well as internal arrangement.

By external I mean spectacle, comprehending theatre, stage, scenery, orchestra, and all things else, which fall within the province of the arbiter deliciarum: These should be planned upon a model new, original and peculiar to themselves; so industrioufly distinguished from our public play-houses, that they should not strike the eye, as now they do, like a copy in miniature, but as the independant sketch of a master, who disdains to copy. I can call to mind many noble halls and stately apartments in the great houses and castles of our nobility, which would give an artist ample field for fancy, and which with proper help would be disposed into new and striking shapes for fuch a scene of action, as should be. come the dignity of the performers. Halls and faloons, flanked with interior columns and furrounded by galleries, would with the aid of proper draperies or scenery in the intercolumnations take a rich and elegant appearance, and at the fame time the music might be so disposed in the gallery, as to produce a most animating effect. A very

A very finall elevation of stage should be allowed of, and no contraction by side scenes to huddle the speakers together and embarrass their deportment; no shift of scene whatever, and no curtain to draw up and drop, as if puppets were to play behind it; the area, appropriated to the performers, should be so dressed and furnished with all suitable accommodations, as to afford every possible opportunity to the performers of varying their actions and postures, whether of fitting, walking or standing, as their situations in the scene, or their interest in the dialogue may dictate; so as to familiarize and affimilate their whole conduct and conversation through the progress of the drama to the manners and habits of well-bred persons in real life.

Prologues and epilogues in the modern stile of writing and speaking them I regard as very unbecoming, and I should blush to fee any lady of fashion in that filly and unfeemly situation: They are the last remaining corruptions of the antient drama; reliques of servility, and only are retained in our London theatres as vehicles of humiliation at the introduction of a new play, and traps for false wit, extravagant conceits and female flippancy at the conclufion of it: Where authors are petitioners, and players fervants to the public these condescensions must be made, but but where poets are not suitors, and performers are benefactors, why should the free Muse wear shackles? for such they are, though the fingers of the brave are employed to put them on the limbs of the fair.

As I am fatisfied nothing ought to be admitted from beginning to end, which can provoke comparisons, I revolt with indignation from the idea of a lady of fashion being trammelled in the trickery of the stage, and taught her airs and graces, till she is made the mere fac-fimile of a mannerist, where the most she can aspire to is to be the copy of a copyist: Let none such be confulted in dressing or drilling an honorary novitiate in the forms and fashions of the public stage; it is a course of discipline, which neither perfon will profit by; a kind of barter, in which both parties will give and receive false airs and false conceits; the fine lady will be disqualified by copying the actress, and the actress will become ridiculous by apeing the fine lady.

As for the choice of the drama, which is so nice and difficult a part of the business, I scarce believe there is one play upon the lift, which in all it's parts and passages is thoroughly adapted to such a cast as I am speaking of: Where it has been in public use I am fure it is not, for there comparisons are unavoidable. Plays profefsedly