lords Surrey and Norfolk, was truly inimitable. It is in the delicate touches of nature like these, that the comparative excellence of actors can be fairly tested. To catch and embody, as it were, by the combined force of genius and judgment, a concealed beauty that has forever escaped vulgar perception, is the peculiar province and the highest merits of an exalted performer. Mr. Cooke was by no means as successful in the fifth as in the preceding acts. His exclamation on starting from his couch,

Give me another horse-bind up my wounds!
Have mercy Jesu!

were not sufficiently descriptive of the wildness and disorder which, at that moment, haunted the guilty soul of Richard. In this and the following passage, where he exclaims "a thousand hearts are swelling in my breast," there was less force and vehemence in his manner, than we have been accustomed to witness in the Richard of Cooper, and less, we think, than the character demanded. Upon the whole, however, Mr. Cooke is unquestionably the best representative of the part that has ever appeared on the American boards. It is a character which he has so profoundly studied, so happily conceived, and so masterly delineated, that perhaps, taking it all in all, we shall never witness a performance so replete with beauties, so finished, and so faultless."

To lament that the efforts of superior genius should be counteracted by great faults and foibles, would perhaps, be to impeach the dispensations of Providence, and to lament that men are men. It was Swift, I believe, who said that a few men of genius (I don't know how many, but certainly not more than four or five), if combined together and true to each other, could control and govern mankind: But that Providence, in order to prevent that mischief, implanted in the nature of such men unextinguishable hatred and hostility to each other. May not something of the same kind be said of men of superior talents, individually? May we not, as a theory at least, suppose that the follies or the vices which are, with so very few exceptions, seen coupled with genius in every department of life, mechanic and scientific, are placed there for the purpose of preventing that undye ascendency which it might otherwise enable its possessors to obtain over others. Let us then take men as nature or accident, both alike in the directing hands of the Creator, may have moulded them; VOL. III.

D

Let us make use of the good and overlook the evil: and if in the present instance some blemishes at times break in upon, and for the moment impair the excellence of the actor, let us recollect that they do not destroy it; let us call to mind what as pious and virtuous a man, and as profound a moral philosopher as any that ever lived from the creation of the world to this day, once said of Mr. Fox, and apply it to the present subject. "He has faults; but they are faults that, though they may in a small degree tarnish the lustre, and sometimes impede the march, of his abilities, have nothing in them to extinguish the fire of great excellence." "What contrarieties," says the enlightened Auberi du Maurier, "often occur in the same person! How often the indulgence of one foible prevents the exertion and the advantage of many good qualities, and many virtues!" This he says by way of exordium to the history of Marshal Rantzau, in his memoirs of Hamburgh. The only failing which can be set off against the great merits of George Frederick Cooke is unfortunately too well known to require particular mention in this place; if it were not, we should not even distantly allude to it; and in adverting to it we have no other object in view but, while recognising the fact, to assure our readers that it happens much seldomer than the foulmouthed tongue of slander has related; that it leaves still a great superabundance of means to please, to delight, and to instruct; and that in a public career of many, many years, it has not yet been able to lower his professional character below the standard of the first living actor.

LIFE OF MR. QUICK, THE CELEBRATED COMEDIAN.
Extracted from a London publication.

THIS excellent comedian was born in the neighbourhood of Whitechapel, where his father was an eminent brewer. At the age of fourteen, he left his parents for the precarious life of a player, and joined a little strolling company, in the vicinity of London, whose manager was the famous Oliver Carr, who boasted of having taught Garrick* to act, when he first made his appearance at Goodman's Fields.

It is said that Carr dressed Richard in the same garments which were worn by Garrick on his first appearance in that part at Goodman's Fields. This dress was held by the strollers of his company, in high estimation; and

At Fulham Mr. Quick commenced his theatrical carreer; and, for the first time offered himself to public notice, in the character of Altamont, in the Fair Penitent, which he personified so much to the satisfaction of the manager Mr. Carr, that he desired his wife in the course of the play, to set young Quick down a whole share, which at the close of the farce, amounted to three shillings. In the counties of Kent and Surrey, he figured away, with great success; and before he was eighteen, performed Hamlet, Richard the Third, Romeo, George Barnwell, Jaffier, Tancred, and many other characters, in the higher walks of tragedy. While he was in Kent, he and his brother adventurers made a halt at a country town, and put up at a small alehouse, as their place of residence during their performance. Their appearance however not being much approved of by the landlord, he secured two large trunks which contained the riches of the company, who intended to represent Macbeth on the following day. In the evening they all repaired to the barn to rehearse: at the same time the landlord, being intent upon observing their movements, applied his ear to a crevice in the door, and hearing the song of the assembled witches of, "we'll fly by night," in consternation from fear of losing his bill, exclaimed, to the astonishment of the weird sisters, “ay, ay, you villains, you may fly, but I'll be d-d if I hav'nt stopped your boxes."

One night old Carr, the manager, was dressed to perform Hamlet, at Croyden, and the hay loft in which he exhibited contained a door, behind the scenes, which was about ten feet from the ground, and opened over a dunghill that had been made up of a large quantity of human soil. Poor old Carr, who was generally in a state of intoxication, had mistaken this door for one of a better communication, and the first step instantly precipitated him into the filth, where he lay floundering for near an hour.

In a few minutes his presence was necessary to begin the play; but, to the surprise of every one behind the scenes, he was not to be found; there was no suspicion of his having gone out that way. The audience presently became clamorous, and demanded a reason for the delay; when they were immediately informed by a performer, that Mr. Carr had suddenly vanished, and the most in

as their wardrobe was not overstocked, it was frequently used in comedy as well as tragedy.

dustrious search for him had proved unsuccessful; that they had sent to all the public houses in the neighbourhood, but could not hear any tidings of the manager. He then observed, that poor Mrs. Carr, who was to personate the queen, had gone about the scenes to look for her dear husband, and had also vanished, though there was no probable way out, but by the stage door, which had never been left all the evening. This address threw the audience into the utmost consternation and alarm: some persons said, that the players were the children of the devil, and that his black majesty had joined the company, to kick up capers with them: others observed that it was a trick to cheat them out of their money, and not perform.

During this whimsical scene of confusion, however, some of the spectators near the stairs up which they came into the theatre, cried out a stink! a stink!

This drew the attention of the company to the entrance of the house, when to the astonishment of every one present, up came Hamlet and his wife, completely enveloped in the golden treasure of Cloacina's Temple; and being in the utmost paroxysm of rage at their ill fortune and filthy condition, they pushed through the audience to the stage, regardless of either the clothes of their company, or the delicacy of their olfactory nerves.

As soon as the confusion was a little appeased, old Carr came forward and told the company, that though the queen and himself had been interred before their time, he would with their permission begin the play, which he did, to the great entertainment of his rustic auditors; who, through every scene of the tragedy, exhausted their wit and jokes, at the expense of the manager and his com

pany.

During Mr. Quick's theatrical travels, a whimsical dispute took place, at St. Mary Cray in Kent, between him and a brother actor, with respect to which of the two should be the first gravedigger in Hamlet. The contest was carried on, even to the representation before the audience, in which the rivals took their stations opposite to each other in the grave; where to the no small entertainment of the house, they chaunted the same ditty, and repeated the same part. At length, however the good humor of the audience was exhausted; and opinions, concerning the right of choice between the Thespian heroes, were divided. Presently all was confusion and uproar, which at length subsided, on Quick's grappling the skull,

which was a sheep's head, together with a long beef marrow bone: of these he kept possession until the entrance of Hamlet, whose gravity was not a little disturbed on the occasion.

An arch wag among the spectators, on Hamlet's saying to the skull, "Get thee to my lady's chamber," said, "no, no, send it to little Quick's dressing room."

But to pursue Mr. Quick's professional progress more immediately, it is necessary to observe, that in a few years he greatly distinguished himself as an actor of versatile talents; and his fame having reached Mr. Foote, he was engaged by that gentleman, for some of the minor parts of the drama. In this theatre however, he remained without having an opportunity of showing his talents to advantage, till Mr. Shuter, in June 1766, took an extra benefit. and asked Mr. Quick to perform Mordecai, in Love-a-la-Mode. Macklin, who was standing by, immediately encouraged him to take the part, and promised to give instructions with respect to his manner of playing it. When Quick waited on Macklin to receive his instructions, he asked the young comedian whether he knew the first qualification of an actor, and immediately gave the precept, which was, to be able to stand still.

Quick closely adhered to the advice of his preceptor; and when he personified the Jew, Macklin expressed his high approbation of Quick's exertions, together with a prediction of his future excellence. Woodward and Shuter, who were present, took also particular notice of his performance, and warmly recommended him to Mr. Colman, who that year had become a patentee of Covent Garden theatre, and engaged him. For a season or two, he was the fag of the theatre, and happy to get any of the characters which Woodward, Shuter, and Dunstall, either gave up, or objected to perform. At length an opportunity offered, which at once established Quick's consequence with the manager and the public.

Younger, the prompter had seen him perform Mungo at Canterbury, with great success; and, while arranging with Mr. Colman the performers to represent the Padlock, he recommended Quick in the strongest terms; in consequence of which our young hero got the part instead of Mr. Dyer, to whom Mr. Colman first intended to give Mungo. His personification of the whimsical black procured considerable favour with the public, and laid the foundation of his future fame. The next character in which he displayed his comic powers to advantage, was Tony Lumpkin; and, his assump