be sufficient. "I tremble at the very name of Reform. The Scotch and English lawyer in conjunction, with both the Indies in their patronage, point to the Ecce Homo with a sneer; and insultingly bid us Behold the fate of a Reformer!"" -Diversions of Purley, Vol. 11. p. 486.

To return to Mrs. Inchbald. The great object of either actor or actress is to be constantly in the public eye, and very few of their list can therefore venture to refuse such parts as may be offered to their acceptance. Except Mrs. Cowley, there was really very little dramatic talent just then stirring in comedy; and, having done all that was in her power to sustain 'Duplicity,' Mrs. Inchbald next fell into the hands of The Banditti, or Love's Labyrinth, a comic opera, by O'Keeffe. The music was by Doctor Arnold, and much too good to be lost. The author submitted to be condemned till the next year, when it succeeded so greatly as 'The Castle of Andalusia,' that few pieces ever brought more money into a theatre.

The pantomime usually prepared for the Christmas holidays embittered all the compliments of the season to Mrs. Inchbald. The entries in her diary express her horror at walking in it. "On the 17th December, at the rehearsal of a pantomime. Mr. Harris spoke to me concerning it. On the 19th called to the pantomime, but did not go: 20th, heard that I was forfeited for not attending the call. Agreed to contract with Mr. Wilson,

(some country speculation perhaps): 22nd, did not call on Mr. Harris, as I intended. On the 24th, sat in a box at the rehearsal of the pantomime in the evening, writing to Mr. Harris."

Part of her letter to the manager she has preserved. He had been told that she ridiculed him. Hear her frank explanation, and description of the crabbed counsellor before alluded to.

"Mr. , unprovoked, first takes an opportunity to say, 'Every actor or actress there is an object of ridicule-is fit only for York-would do very well at York, &c.' He says I am only fit for Queen Sheba; mimicks my stuttering; and says he told Mr. Harris, the first night I played, that I was not worth a farthing, and he was taken in. I replied that was impossible, alluded to the salary, &c. &c. He said, the moment my mouth opened, he called to the people that were with him, There I told your how it was!' He tells me that my salary is so much given away.' Says, he read my Polygamy ;' it was indecent, and not a word spelt right.' These things (pleasant man!) he declares publicly. I forgive him, because I think he is joking; and, in the same manner, think he will not be offended if I joke with him. But I have sometimes found the contrary, and then have begged his pardon, and he has promised to think no more of it: but, I believe he has often broke that promise, for I challenge the whole world to say that I ever spoke dis

respectfully of Mr. Harris to any soul living but to him; and then I was urged to it, by being first provoked by himself. Perceiving, after our first or second conversation, that nothing but turning his beloved friend into ridicule could draw his attention from making me the object of his, I used you, but as a defensive weapon. I confess my obligations to you. And had you never wantonly made me unhappy, by business you forced me to do, purely to show your power, and make the poor piece of bread you gave me bitter to me, your name, even in sport, should have been spared."

How this was read, or spelt by one of the two friends, nobody we suppose will care; but Harris was not without feeling as a gentleman, to correct the occasional harshness of management. Besides, he did not look at her as he afterwards did, and as we shall long do, as a lady able to invent the Simple Story,' and to contest the palm of novelwriting, with even the most accomplished of her countrywomen. The exterior garb of her candidate farces, ragged paper, rude penmanship, and careless orthography, was not at all prophetic of a Dramatic Muse, who should become one of the best supports of comedy, and rank with Centlivre and Cowley.

CHAPTER VIII.

Exercises herself in the pantomime as usual-Her friend Wilson discharged-Tries to get to Bath-Turns out her lover, Dr. Brodie-Her mind almost entirely philosophic-Slander as to herself and Harris-Mr. Pratt solicits her friendship-Engages with Colman in the summer; and, discharging her sitting-room, reduces her rent to 3s. 6d. per week-Colman gave her Thirty Shillings salary - Harlequin Teague-In September doubles. her rent-Her sister Dolly writes to her about their mother -Her affectionate and admirable reply Makes an engagement with Daly-Acts at Shrewsbury-Journey with HitchcockThey arrive in Dublin, where she meets Kemble in high favour -Daly engages Mrs. Siddons after the Drury-Lane seasonKemble evidently a favourite with Mrs. Inchbald; his honour and prudence-Daly her lover, as usual with him; foiled here, and exasperated of course-Buys her benefit-Kemble brings her guineas for the amount-She embarks for England-Appears on the Haymarket stage without powder - Theatrical degrees of virtue, a scrap of Mrs. Inchbald's own writing- Description of her person by an amateur-August, 1783, Kemble arrives in town-Her friend Davis in difficulties; pays him £43. 8s.Discouraged as a writer, she studies the harder.

We have spoken on the subject of pantomime, not gravely, for it is hard to write upon such trash, even while we run after it. The child sel

dom grows entirely out of his early habits. C'est que l'homme est toujours enfant. The manager of a theatre, however, looks at Pantomime as the grand source of emolument; and so entirely is this taken for granted, that the forecast of a season divides itself into but two parts-" how to get on till the Pantomime," and, after it has done its duty, "till the Benefits."

A manager must not be seen to be mastered

""Twould be recorded for a precedent,

And many an error by the same example
Would rush into the State. It cannot be."-

MERCHANT OF VENICE.

Notwithstanding Mrs. Inchbald's bread was made bitter to her, she continued to eat it, but not without efforts to sweeten the morsel. She really, on the 26th of December, walked in the pantomime, and continued that exercise. On the 28th of the month her friend Wilson neither coming to the theatre, nor any tidings of him arriving, his part in Duplicity 'Duplicity' was read for him; and soon after she heard that he was discharged. This word we have observed to blank the countenances

in a green-room, through a whole evening. The performers miss their comrade, rather more than the audience their actor. You can only play with a man, who reads out of a book to you.

Mrs. Inchbald, to have got out of the first or