CHAP. II. Other novelties of Kemble's first season as manager.-Mrs. Goodall in Rosalind.—Mrs. Jordan also acts that character.-Her Nell.-Corinna.-Lady Bell.-Her Foible.New pieces, Cumberland, Cobb, Mrs. Inchbald.-The Prophet.-Rd. Bentley.-O'Keefe.-Aladdin.--St. John's Mary Queen of Scots.--General Conway.-Richmond House theatricals. The king's recovery.—The queen's first drawing-room.--Author's tribute to her majesty's excellence.She appears at Covent Garden Theatre.-Mrs. Siddons in Juliet.-Reynolds, his dramatist.--Mr. Macklin.—The Author's knowledge of him.--Burning of the Opera House.Talents that had been displayed in it.—Its visitors.-Manchester Theatre burnt.-Mr. Kemble, with Mr. Aicken, takes the Liverpool House.-The opening prologue.--Mr. Kemble's Tragedy.-His Macchiavel.-Mrs. Inchbald's Married Man.—Mr. Colman's Battle of Hexham.-Pleasantry of the author. WHEN I decided not to break the series of Mr. Kemble's performances, I promised a supplement as to the other novelties of the season of 1788-9. They were so numerous, that the mention of them must necessarily be as brief, as consists with my design of combining, with the life of its great ornament, the view of the stage itself during that life. Mrs. Goodall, from the Bath Theatre, made her first appearance at Drury Lane on the 2d October, 1788, in Rosalind. She gave no unsuitable impression of the character, if it be limited to Oliver's phrase from Orlando's mouth, "the shepherd youth whom he, in sport, doth call his Rosalind." The elevated mind of this rival of Grecian beauties as it displayed itself either in exquisite sensibility or exquisite humour, resided only in the breast or brain, which-ever may claim the perfections, of Mrs. Siddons. With respect to a greater essential with vulgar audiences, the figure of Mrs. Goodall, in the male habit, was more decidedly deceptive than any other, which the spirit of travesty has displayed, in the persons of Miss Walpole, Mrs. Jordan, Madame Hilligsberg, and Miss Tree. How far the assurance, shrouded under this dress, could be carried, and Hh with, or without "a pure blush" passed current, Mrs. Jordan fully established on the night of her benefit-but her laugh and her voice were irresistible. There was the Devil to Pay after it, and her inimitable Nell, to conciliate every body. She added to her stock this season, what was peculiarly happy, Corinna in Vanbrugh's Confederacy; and the part of Lady Bell, in Murphy's Know your own Mind. This was the foible of Mrs. Jordan; but she never could look the woman of fashion. It was a smart soubrette, who had hurried on her lady's finest apparel, and overacted the character to avoid being detected. Her tragedy, too, was insufferable notwithstanding her fine organ. I have let pass a stroke of undesigned severity, in mentioning the performers before the authors of novelties; but Mr. Cumberland supplied the two houses with a couple of very careless productions, The Impostor, at Drury Lane, a sort of Beaux Stratagem; and the School for Widows, at Covent Garden, open only three nights, and forsaken the second. Cobb had done great service at Drury Lane, on various occasions, and his Doctor and Apothecary, besides making known the whim and tact of its author, introduced to the British public the musical talents of Stephen Storace, who, shortly after, in the Haunted Tower, taught the proper use to be made of the Italian opera. Mrs. Inchbald, always assiduous to serve her friend Mr. Harris, gave him a valuable four-act piece from the Zelie of Madame de Genlis, called the Child of Nature. It will always charm in the hands of any lovely and sensible young actress, such as Miss Brunton was, when she acted Amanthis. It is now, I believe, cut into fewer acts than four; but in comedy to have fewer than the usual five, indicates deficient business; and the hint of compression once given, is usually followed to a degree, that renders the fable unintelligible. A fortnight afterwards, Mr. Harris produced a comic opera, called the Prophet, which had, perhaps, formed one of the day-dreams of Richard Bentley, the great critic's son; and who had employed his pencil, at times, at the suggestion of Walpole, and for the embellishment of Gray. Poor Bentley had died in 1782, and left the Prophet among his papers. But, living or dead, he was fated to be unsuccessful; and the Prophet, after a short struggle, sunk "to endless night." Could Bentley have been contented to seek any thing by the common road to it, he had power of mind to have achieved, by common industry, very desirable success; but he flew off after some crochet of the brain, and rendered his talent unsuitable, and his friends useless. The stage has had to display, however, in their turn, models of perseverance in a given track-men who, without positive genius and with slender knowledge, have acquired the rewards, if not the honours, of the drama. It is even dangerous to THINK above the mind of your audience. O'Keefe was in no danger of the sort just hinted and his comedy of the Toy met with ample success. It is included by him in the collection of his works, though it was suspected to be little more than Pilon's unfinished Ward in Chancery. Managers have many opportunities of this sort, and frequently a plot dramatic, as well as political, could it change hands, would succeed. ALADDIN, or the Lamp, which has been a wonder in the present days, was no slight pantomimic attraction in the Christmas time of the year 1788. The story was followed only through three scenes, and then, as might be expected, and indeed desired, the Sieur Delpini, relieved from Probationary Odes, had it all to himself. The Honourable John St. John had ventured to compose a tragedy upon the subject of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Kemble and Mrs. Siddons condescended to act the parts of Norfolk and the Queen. But versifying the descriptions of Robertson, and thinking without a catholic mind, and with no enthusiasm, either for Mary or ancient times, will do nothing in this drama. There can be no sort of doubt as to the philosophic candour, and the beautiful language that distinguish both Hume and Robertson. But the rudest chronicler of past ages is infinitely better suited to the dramatic poet. HE wants a fulness of statement, because he must not only know events in their abstract; he requires detail, to put the scene before you; and the more passion and prejudice and peculiar manners, the Chronicler notes, the better his chance of holding up the dramatic mirror to actual nature. How would even Shakspeare have invented the arguments for Henry's invasion of France, or the inimitable address of Queen Katharine, on her trial, first written by a man who actually heard her majesty deliver it? The lapse of time, too, begets ignorance of manners; and the nearer the record to the fact, the greater the likeness to the action; or to what people then thought of it; and this is every thing to the stage-poet. General Conway's False Appearances, I only notice, because its attraction at Richmond House transferred it with undiminished effect to the regular stage. When I say this I, in course remember, that the private theatrical was sustained by Lord Henry Fitzgerald, Lord Derby, Captain Merry; the Hon. Mrs. Damer, and Miss Hamilton. At one of these exhibitions at Richmond House, the play was Lee's Theodosius; and Miss Hamilton sang the very last air composed by Sacchini. The reason of noticing it in this place is to preserve the words written to that air by Mrs. Piozzi. They will at all events convert digression into beauty. SONG BY MISS HAMILTON. "Vain 's the breath of adulation, Holds the wandering mind away! Art in vain attempts to borrow Fix'd to die-and die to-morrow, What can touch her soul to-day?” Miss Farren, I believe, used to look on at these rehearsals; and the dresses worn by Mrs. Damer were refined models of decoration, frequently suggested both by herself and Mrs. Siddons. And I may be permitted to ask what could equal such an amusement in the circle of fashion, limiting its indulgence strictly to their own rank? It required talent, and it displayed it in the eye of majesty itself. By these entertainments an attempt was made to revive the gothic triumphs in the courts of James and Charles, and something was enjoyed beyond a concert or a crowd! Mrs. Siddons this season, at her first benefit, employed her skill upon captain Jephson's Law of Lombardy. It is certainly the least attractive of his tragedies. She even acted in the farce for the amusement of her friends; and tried the effect of the fine lady in Garrick's Lethe. But the manners of the former fine lady were forgotten. It is often to be regretted that temporary pleasantries cannot be adapted to fluctuating life; and when they are ingenious like Lethe, remain stock-pieces for a century. In a former chapter of this work, I was under a necessity of noticing the king's most afflicting indisposition, and the political struggle in which Mr. Pitt maintained a position the most dignified and extraordinary that any minister ever assumed. The stage, during the few months of his majesty's calamitous depression, sympathized in every proper way with the national feeling. The admirable supplication, "God save the king," was demanded usually by the audience, and sung by the whole house with the deepest reverence. length the hopes of all good men were realised, and on the 26th of February every symptom of the royal complaint had At vanished. The minister received the great reward of his steadiness in the approbation of his majesty, and a triumph that resounded through the nation obliterated in a moment the former fierce struggles of party, On such an event much splendour might be looked for at court, and the queen's first drawing room was a display somewhat theatrical. I shall, in such a view, insert a short notice of it. Before an assemblage of all that was noble in birth, or gay or beautiful in higher life, her majesty, on the 26th of March, 1789, appeared, to receive congratulations upon the greatest event of her existence. The queen sat on this occasion in a chair of state, under a magnificent canopy, attended by her household. She was a perfect blaze of diamonds, disposed with every possible application to the circumstances that had occurred. The sentiment which seemed to be impressed by the display, was unbounded exultation, that, under Providence, she had been enabled to discharge the high duties of her great and difficult position. Round the queen's neck was a medallion, tied with a double row of gold chain, and across her shoulders was another chain of pearls in three rows; but the portrait of the king was suspended from five rows of diamonds fastened low upon the dress behind, and streaming over her person with the most gorgeous effect. The tippet was of fine lace, fastened with the letter G in brilliants of immense value. In the front of her majesty's hair, in letters formed by diamonds, were easily legible the words "God save the king." The princesses were splendidly, but not equally, adorned. The female nobility wore emblematical designs beautifully painted on the satin of their caps, and fancy teemed with the inventions of loyalty and joy. At half after six o'clock her majesty quitted the drawing-room for duties still more interesting. Upon the present occasion I cannot close the subject without expressing the full conviction of my understanding and my heart, that a more glorious being than the consort of George the Third never existed. I have lived to see a miserable delusion withdraw some part of the affection of the multitude for a time; but she was in truth the idol of the people, and they paid to her that sort of homage, as if in her person they were reverencing the form of VIRTUE itself. The king's health being completely re-established, the queen made her first appearance before the public on the 15th of April, 1789, by coming to Covent Garden Theatre in state; accompanied by three of the princesses-the princess royal, |