fellow (a star in the country) would, if not watched, walk up to. her and seriously bewail the sad condition of his darling wife. Brereton, in his day, had seen as much misery while strolling, as Bensley, a gentleman as well born as himself. The latter once tramping it with Robinson, they found that they had but a penny between them. They tossed as to who should have the mutton pie which it could purchase, and Bensley burst into tears while the winner devoured the prize. Their next dinner was purchased by their cutting off their hair, then worn long, and selling it. And this incident of the hair reminds me of Fox, the manager's son at Brighton, who, when hair-powder was worn by some and denounced by others, because of the tax upon it, appeared, in some fine gentleman's part, with his head half in powder, and half without. To allay the uproar that ensued, he explained that he did it to please both parties, and of course gratified neither. Some old strolling companies, on the tramp, walked very many hundreds of miles, during the year. Even the richer brethren of the craft sometimes suffered tribulation. As once happened with the Bath company, when their scenery, machinery, dresses, and "property" of every theatrical sort, were burnt in their caravans, as they were crossing Salisbury Plain. I return again to the old houses, for a moment, to consider three subjects not yet touched upon,-the old rage for prologues and epilogues,—the “dedications” of plays, and the “benefits” of the actors. CHAPTER XXIII. PROLOGUE, EPILOGUE; DEDICATIONS AND BENEFITS. In looking over the poetical addresses made to audiences in former days, our regret is that such abundant illustration, as they give, of life in and out of the theatre, is rendered unavailable by a licentiousness which runs through every line. From those of Aphra Behn, and her contemporaries and immediate successors, filthy missiles, as it were, were flung at morals generally, and at the audience in particular. Nevertheless, and down to a later period, the British appetite for prologue and epilogue was for many years insatiable. The public, though often insulted in both, with that sort of license which belonged to the old jester, whose master, however, conld as readily chastise as laugh at him, listened eagerly; and only with reluctance saw the time arrive when the play was considered safe enough to go on without the introduction. Even when old plays were revived, the audience expected the prologue to enjoy resuscitation also. So, when "Cato" was reproduced at Covent Garden, for Sheridan, and the play commenced without the famous introductory lines by Pope, there was a vociferous shout from the house of "Prologue! prologue !" That eccentric actor, Wignell, was then on the stage as Portius, and in his fantastically pompous way had pronounced the opening passage of his part— "The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers, And heavily, with clouds, brings on the day," when he was interrupted by renewed vociferations for the prologue. Wignell would neither depart from his character, nor leave the house without satisfactory explanation; and accordingly, after the word "day," without changing feature or tone, he solemnly went on, with this interpolation : - "(Ladies and gentlemen: there has not been For years a prologue spoken to this play-). The great, the important day, big with the fate Sometimes the prologue, in preceding the piece, did so in mournful verse, "As undertaker walks before the hearse ;" and in the case of tragedy, it was etiquette for the speaker to be attired in solemn black, generally a court suit. Occasionally, the prologue to an historical tragedy was a brief lecture for the enlightenment of an ignorant audience. At all times it was held to be a better means of instruction than that followed by French writers of tragedy, through confidants,—— "Who might instruct the pit, By asking questions of the leading fow, And hearing secrets, which before they knew." Few men wrote more of them than Garrick, though in that to "Virginia" he says that "Prologues, like compliments, are loss of time, But he subsequently wrote in the epilogue to the "Fathers," that "Prologues and epilogues-to speak the phrase— Are cannons charged, or should be charged, with wit, Garrick, however, only wrote according to the humor of the hour, for elsewhere he describes prologues as "the mere ghosts of wit;" and proposes their abolition. Their alleged falseness of promise he illustrates, in a "Prologue upon Prologues," spoken when none at all was needed, by a story : All stared and rose, the house forsook, It is a singular thing that authors had little or no control over the prologues or epilogues attached to their plays. In this respect, the manager acted as he pleased, licensed such sentiments as he approved of, and was irresponsible. Thus, the refined Dr. Young was insulted by an unclean epilogue attached to his "Brothers," which was played for the benefit of the Society for the Propaga tion of the Gospel; and Dr. Browne, one of the vainest of authors, was horrified by hearing Garrick, in the epilogue to "Barbarossa,” make Woodward ask the public-referring to the doctor, to “Let the poor devil cat! allow him that!" Home, however, seems to have exercised, in some respect, his own judgment, when "Douglas" was played. That is, he refused to tag a satirical address to so solemn a tragedy; but another poct laughed at him, through Barry, who came on exclaiming :— "An epilogue I asked! but not one word Our bard would write! He vows 'tis most absurd Of tragedy, and make your sorrows vain." But Shenstone, in his epilogue to Dodsley's "Cleone," a few years later, followed a double course. After that tragedy of anguish, the address began with, "Well, ladies, so much for the tragic style And now the custom is-to make you smile." Then came hints that had the absent husband Lefroy lived in modern times, his Cleone would have proved a different damsel to her depicted by the poet; but Shenstone adds, in his moral strain :— 666 'Tis yours, ye fair, to bring those days again, And form anew the hearts of thoughtless men. Make beauty's lustre amiable as bright, And give the soul, as well as sense, delight; Reclaim from folly a fantastic age, That scorns the press, the pulpit, and the stage." This was a good attempt to raise the character of women by pointing to a duty which they might perform; and a similar moral strain was adopted long after by Sheridan. In the epilogue to his "Rivals," spoken by Mrs. Bulkeley, he says: "Our moral's plain, without more fuss, Man's social happiness all rests on us: Through all the drama, whether damned or not, Among the curiosities of prologues and epilogues, may be reckoned the boasts, promises, and little confidences, in those delivered on the occasion when "Cato" was played at Leicester House, by the children of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and some of the young nobility. The prologue, indeed (spoken by Prince George), afterwards George III., was not especially remarkable. It lauded the wisdom of men who declared that "To speak with freedom, dignity and ease, To learn those arts which may hereafter please," nothing was required, but that "youth in earliest age" should "Rehearse the poet's labors on the stage." As for patriotism, said Prince George," Know,-'twas the first great lesson I was taught !" And, of course, he gloried that he was "A boy, in England born, in England bred!" Artists, who may hereafter paint the scene, will do well to remember what pictures were suspended on the walls : "Before my eyes those heroes stand, Whom the great William brought to bless this land;— Of power well bounded, which he first began." The epilogue was spoken by Lady Augusta (as Prince Frederick called his daughter) and Prince Edward, afterwards Duke of York. It was mere doggerel; but Augusta flouted at the fine phrases of the prologue, and Edward,-intrusted with a sly hit at George's boast of being English born,-declared that George had "Vouchsafed to mention His future gracious intention, In such heroic strains, that no man |