the celebrated soliloquy, the advice to the players, and the grave diggers' scene, we will venture to say he rivalled Garrick, to whom, in many parts, and in the tones of his voice, he bore a very striking resemblance.

He wanted support in the other characters of the play. The best actor cannot singly support a play, and the manager should be at pains to procure good performers, and to cast the characters so as to give a decent support. But, as Hamlet says, "Oh there be players, that neither having the accent, nor the gait of Christian, Pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed, that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well-they imitated humanity so abominably."

FOR THE

EDINBURGH EVENING COURANT.

SIR,

Edinburgh, Feb. 1. 1786. Ar this season, when there is little to do in the country, I took my wife's advice to pass a few days in the town. The first amusement I

thought of was the Playhouse; and accordingly I directed my steps to it on Saturday, not without having almost broken my neck in your new improved street, as it is called. When I got seated in the back row of a box, I found the play was to be Sheridan's Duenna. The com pany were genteel, the house clean, neat, and well lighted, and the scenery very good.-Next as to the performers and conduct of the piece. I mean to say nothing of the absurdity of operas in general; custom has given them sanction, and we must see them. The performers were strangers to me; but I will tell you what struck me with regard to them. The lady who played the Duenna was most extravagantly dressed, and through the whole part was outré, and exhibited the burlesque more suited for St Bartholomew's Fair than for a genteel audience, and was altogether inconsistent with the character. In her first dress, she looked more like a Squaw Indian who had escaped from the scalping knife, than a Duenna of Spain.

Another lady played a double part, viz. that of Don Carlos, and Donna Clara; a violation of propriety which nothing but necessity can excuse. This in some measure might be the case,

as in the part of Don Carlos there are three fine songs, and I understood from the gentleman who sat next to me, that the lady was reckoned the principal singer on this stage. Upon this infor mation I bent all my attention to her. The ap pearance in Don Carlos, to be sure, was ludicrous enough a little short figure in an old masquerade domino-with a bushel of curls on the head, which would not allow the hat to go on, so that it lay like a bottle bonnet on a bull's forehead. However, this I easily got over, expecting to be amply rewarded by the fine singing. When Don Carlos came to sing "Had I a heart for falsehood fram'd," to the tune of "Will you go to Flanders," I heard a hale, clear, powerful voice, but the tune no more like what it should have been than the variations of Duncan Gray are to Tweed Side. It is a general fault of great performers, to aim at astonishing the audience by the power of their execution, rather than to please by simplicity, The whole scale of notes is tortured and rumbled about, with sudden starts, high squeaks, long dying shakes, and sudden falls, and all this to shew their powers, without either taste or composition. By this means they often get out of tune, lose sight of the subject, embarrass themselves, and distress the audience. Had the lady kept to the

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simple melody, with a few chaste graces, she would have performed well, for she has a fine voice, with great compass and command. Her second song, "For sure a pair was never seen," was well sung, by keeping simply to the tune. The lady who played Donna Louisa (Mrs Kemble, I think, was her name) was extremely pleasing in her part. She acted with elegance, simplicity, and ease.

Her voice is sweet and

melodious, though not powerful; and she sung with taste. Upon the whole, I was very tolerably amused, and shall attend the theatre every evening I can during my stay in town.

I cannot conclude without observing how much matters are changed since I was a young fellow, and used to attend theatrical representations. A parcel of beardless, witless boys, from what I saw last night, seem to assume to themselves the privilege of being dictators of public taste. They applauded by loud clapping of hands, where they ought to have been silent; and the galleries, always ready to join in an uproar, followed the example, while the company in the pit and boxes stared with astonishment and pity. Young people at their age, in my time, were modest and diffident.-The impudence of some of the school-boys, with their lank hair over their shoulders, to me was mar

vellous indeed!-Several of them, with great effrontery, put on the broad cock of their hats before, and boldly marched up to the side boxes, where the poor wretched creatures, the girls of the town (as I was told) were sitting, with a mother bawd at their head, like the mistress of a boarding-school; the young misses below looking up to the young masters, their dancingschool companions, and giggling at the frolic.

Had one of my sons done so, I would have whipped him severely, or sent him to the sea as a never-do-well.

- As my friends in the country read your paper, your inserting this will save me a good deal of writing.

I am, &c.

JOHN PEPPERCORN.

[It is difficult to account for the versatility of manners and fashions in a country.-The weekly dancing assemblies, for many years, were the most fashionable and crowded resorts of elegant and polite company.—They suddenly became deserted; which gave occasion to the following paper.]