We can fancy the effect of this speech upon the pit of Drury Lane, given as Edmund Kean would have given it, when the play was first written, in 1822.

The comedy of Pride shall have a Fall, dedicated by permission to the Right Hon. George Canning, and first acted at Covent Garden, on the 11th of March, 1824, is of a totally different class. Here we have humorous dialogue, familiar incident, and characters drawn from every-day life. The introduced songs are too numerous, and not very appropriately introduced. They lengthen the play, and impede the action; but Miss Paton was at that time one of the most attractive vocalists on the English stage, and it was considered essential that she should be included in the cast. Pride shall have a Fall was repeated twentyseven times to full houses, and became for a season sufficiently popular to be brought forward in all the leading provincial theatres. Much of this attraction arose from the author having interwoven in his plot certain absurdities, for which a gallant regiment of Hussars had rendered themselves at that time particularly notorious. Follies engendered in the idleness of peace, when soldiers have more leisure for ball rooms, embroidery and affectation, than the stern realities of war permit in periods of greater activity. There was no doubt of the intended application, which was well understood and enjoyed. Cornet Count Carmine of the "Twentieth Royal Sicilians," is set forth as a type of the dandy class, and was excellently embodied by poor Frederick Yates, then a rising actor at Covent Garden. The play is written partly in prose and partly in blank verse, a mistake as we think, but for which there is abundance of precedent. The characters of Count Ventoso and his pompous wife, are rather tiresome, and commonplace; but Torrento, the adventurer,

ho is, in fact, the fiddle of the piece, is infinitely amusing. Take for a sample, his harangue to his fellowprisoners, when he thinks their privi

(He falls suddenly, and dies.)

leges are invaded. They have mounted him on a bench as a rostrum. "Gentlemen of the jail! are we to suffer ourselves to be molested in our domestic circle-in the loveliness of our private lives, in our otium cum dignitate? Is not our residence here for our country's good? Would it not be well for the country if ten times as many, who hold their heads high, outside these walls, were now inside them? I scorn to appeal to your passions; but shall we suffer our honourable straw, our venerable bread and water, our virtuous slumbers, and our useful days, to be invaded, crushed, and calcitrated, by the iron boot-heel of arrogance and audacity? No! Freedom is like the air we breathe without it we die! No! every man's cot is his castle. the law, we live here; and should not all that live by the law, die by the law? Now, gentlemen of the jail, a general cheer! Here's liberty, property, and purity of principle!"

By

[They carry him round the hall, with reiterated cheers.]

At the end, when informed that he is son and heir to a rich banker, he thus apostrophizes the omnipotence of wealth:

"A banker's son! magnificent! A golden shower! Leonora, my love, we'll have a wedding worthy of bankers. What trinkets will you buy? The Pitt diamond or the Great Mogul? A banker, my angel! 'Tis your bankers that sweep the world before them! What army shall I raise? What cabinet shall I pension? What kingdom shall I purchase? What emperor shall I annihilate ? I'll have Mexico for a plate-chest, and the Mediterranean for a fish-pond. I'll have a loan as long as from China to Chili. I'll have a mortgage on the moon! Give me the purse, let who will carry the sceptre."

The leading idea in this speech, which is true both in philosophy and practice, scems as if it had been suggested by Lord Byron's conclusion that Rothschild and Co., through their countless millions,

"hold the balance of the world." If

the author of Catiline and Pride shall have a Fall, had continued, in maturer life, to write in the same line, our dramatic literature would, in all probability, have been enriched by many good comedies and tragedies; but in that case, the pulpit would have lost an ornament and a zealous expounder. In striking a balance in the matter, as it stands, the advantage may be pronounced to lie on the right side.

THOMAS COLLEY GRATTAN, of whom a succinct and interesting biography appeared in No. 252 (Dec. 1853) of this Magazine, has established a name in varied branches of literature, which stands gracefully beside the high patriotic celebrity of the race from which he is descended; but before he became known as the author of "Highways and Byways," he had courted Melpomene with youthful adoration. The tragedy of Ben Nazir, the Saracen, although not acted until 1827, had been written several years earlierand as he himself says in his preface, previously to those other works, for the reception of which he has reason to be so thankful. The writer of this notice had become acquainted with him at a still more remote period, and knew that his bent was theatrical, and that his genius naturally inclined to poetical and dramatic composition. If Ben Nazir had met with the success which the author had every reason to anticipate, he might have been encouraged to persevere in the course which an unexpected, and we may add, an undeserved failure, induced him to suspend. The circumstances which attended the production of the play were of an extraordinary nature; perhaps, without parallel. As the curtain fell on the last scene, an apology was made from the stage for the imperfectness of the great actor who had filled the principal character. This had been moulded exactly to suit his peculiar excellences; he himself had frankly acknowledged that he saw opportunities of producing great effects with it, and undertook the study in the full expectation, that while he served the author, who was his friend, he had materials to work with, which would revive and restore his own tottering reputation. Had Edmund Kean, in 1827, been the man he was in 1816, when he established the fame of Maturin in his first tragedy, it is very possible that the success of Ben Nazir

might have equalled that of Bertram: but he was broken in health, unhinged by vexations of a private nature, his memory impaired, and his fiery energy reduced to the shadow of what it once had been. The play was severely dealt with by a portion of the press, and the author then printed it in his own vindication. The plot is partly founded on history, and partly on a French romance. The interest is centred in the character of the Moorish chief, which is repulsive, but full of strong passion and effective situations. The dark shades of the human heart afford a more ample scope to the dramatist than the delineation of the gentler virtues. Shylock may be cited as an example. He is made up of avarice, hatred, and revenge (the most unsocial elements by which man can be deformed), with scarcely a redeeming tinge of natural weakness or feeling. Yet he almost monopolises the attention of the audience while he is on the stage, and commands their exclusive applause. So do Richard the Third and Sir Giles Overreach-the one a regal, the other a domestic monster, without ruth or remorse.

The language of Mr. Grattan's play is always impressive; sometimes, it is true, a little forced and exaggerated, but not unfrequently soaring into highly imaginative poetry. That he felt his disappointment bitterly is evidenced by his having said in a published statement, that he renounced dramatic writing in consequence. That Kean intended to exert his utmost ability, and failed solely from a premature loss of the power of study, are also facts beyond dispute. His conception was everything that the author could desire. At one of the rehearsals, he read his part with such energy and effect, that no one present had a shadow of doubt as to the impression he would produce on the audience. The episode is as remarkable as it is melancholy in the life of one of the greatest actors that ever lived. It must be observed, that he had himself selected the play from five or six which had been placed before him by Mr Price, the manager, Knowles's Alfred the Great being one of the number. He had returned recently from a second most successful visit to the United States; the outcry occasioned by the "Cox" trial, had entirely subsided; the public hailed their old favourite with revived enthusiasm ;

and he wanted but a new character with which to immortalise a regeneWhen The Iron

rated appearance. Chest failed on its first production, Colman attributed the mishap entirely to the apathy, illness, or incompetence of John Kemble,* who sustained the hero. Accordingly he vented his spleen in a bilious preface, overflowing with acrimony, sarcasm, and hard abuse. This so far answered his purpose that the play sold, although it did not act. In due time he repented, and suppressed the scurrilous diatribe, which then assumed importance as a sort of literary curiosity, and was considered clever in proportion as it had become scarce. Two guineas have been demanded and paid for a copy of the edition to which the original preface is affixed. Such is the curiosity excited by malicious wit. Mr. Grattan, under somewhat similar circumstances, adopted a very different course from Colman. He

expressed himself "more in sorrow than in anger," and said, in gentle terms,-"I have been long aware of the manifold defects of the play, and that it had no chance of success on the stage, but in the strong delineation of the leading part. The spirit with which that part was entered upon by Mr. Kean, and his entire confidence of success, somewhat deceived me, I confess, as well as others--and most of all, and most unfortunately, himself. But if anything can relieve my disappointment on personal accounts, it is the generous regret which he suffers, and the great kindness I have met with, both before and behind the curtain."

Time has continued to roll on, and with its unerring course, Thomas Colley Grattan has increased in reputation and fortune; has filled a difficult diplomatic post in America for many years, with remarkable assiduity, patriotism, and popularity, and has apparently removed himself from the turmoil of political and literary life to enjoy social intercourse, and to fall back on the stores of a mind well stocked by reading and observation. Report whispers that he has amused his leisure by writing a comedy, illustrative of national character, which is likely soon

to be produced at one of the leading theatres in London-the hero to be sustained by Hudson, upon whom the mantle of Tyrone Power seems at last to have fallen, as if by legitimate succession. We have reason to believe that the rumour has a better foundation than ordinary green-room gossip.

For a general biography of SAMUEL LOVER We must refer our readers (as in the preceding instance of Colley Grattan) to No. 218 of this Magazine (February, 1851). Therein will be found much information respecting his birth, parentage, education, and early pursuits; how Nature made him a poet, a painter, and a musician, and how, thus highly and unusually gifted, he obtained an early celebrity in three of the most fascinating arts which adorn society and soothe the cares of life. It is unnecessary to repeat what has been already written. Our task here, therefore, will confine itself more immediately to a short review of his dramatic essays, and these we must look upon more in the light of accessories than principals, as being incidental to his songs, and vehicles for their introduction, rather than as ambitious and distinct specimens of theatrical composition.

In 1831, the writer of this notice, being then in his second season as manager of the Dublin theatre, was desirous of producing an original operatic drama on an Irish subject, in which unhackneyed melodies should be freely intermixed. He had often listened to Lover's humorous recitations of his own tales, and this, joined to his knowledge of his musical accomplishments, induced him to urge on the poet-painter an attempt in a line to which he had not turned his thoughts. This led to the production of Grana Uile, or The Island Queen, a national opera, founded on some well-known traditionary incidents, ascribed, on good authority, to the reign of Elizabeth. Fiction, as admissible in such cases, was mixed up with history. The piece was well received, and repeated six times to good houses. On the third representation, the success encouraged the author to announce his name in the bills. The music, the play, and the acting, deserved a more decided

seen a more perfect realization than he exhibited of Lover's gallant and humorous hero.*

After Rory O'More was finished and accepted, Yates told the author that the management was previously in possession of two MSS. founded on the same story, but that both were pronounced unsuitable from the undramatic winding-up. In the course of rehearsals, Lover, who had contracted a close intimacy with Power during his frequent visits to Dublin, observed that he assumed suddenly a crusty and distant manner, for which he strove in vain to account. A considerable time after, when their old familiarity had returned and was increased, Power, in the unreservedness of an after-dinner conversation, cleared up the mystery by explaining that he had himself concocted a play on the novel of "Rory O'More," which he intended to offer to the Adelphi Theatre, and was quite taken aback when he found he was forestalled. With equal frankness he confessed that he preferred some parts of his own adaptation, but acknowledged that the new creation of the third act, with the Fox story and its dramatic result, made Lover's, taken for all in all, better than his own.

The musical hit of Rory O'More was the song of "The Land of the West," which became extremely popular, the author still carrying out the idea and practice of seeking to enhance the attractions of his dramas by the introduction of new melodies. His next piece was the White Horse of the Peppers, acted at the Haymarket in 1838. On the original representation, Webster admirably supported Power in the character of Major Hans Mansfeldt. Aggy, too, was given with a mixture of tenderness and merriment truly Irish, by Mrs. Fitzwilliam, whose sweet voice and charming expression, conveyed to the introduced songs all that the most fastidious author could desire. "Oh! Native Music," and the "Convent Belle," were frequently encored in her hands. The former has obtained a permanent celebrity.

The comic extravaganza of the Happy Man, came out in 1839, also at the Haymarket, and with equal success.

*

Power acted in this, only one season, as he departed in the year following, on his last fatal visit to the United States. But the piece has held its ground since, with undiminished attraction. For the Happy Man, the song of "The Birth of St. Patrick" was especially written, and may be referred to as a good specimen of the author's comic vein, although too familiar to require quotation.

Next on the list is The Greek Boy, a musical drama, produced at Covent Garden, under the management of Madame Vestris, in 1840, she herself personating the Greek Boy, in which was introduced a barcarole, entitled, "Gondolier Row," always encored, and sometimes called for a third time. Another appropriate song attached to the same character was "Cupid's Wing," which partakes of the spirit of a Greek Idyl; and, as less known than many others, and in contrast to a style of inferior refinement, we may be excused for occupying a small space by its insertion here:-

CUPID'S WING.

"The dart of Love was feather'd first From Folly's wing, they say; Until he tried his shaft to shoot

In Beauty's heart one day.

He miss'd the maid so oft, 'tis said,

His aim became untrue,

And Beauty laugh'd as his last shaft, He from his quiver drew: 'In vain,' said she, you shot at me,

You little spiteful thing

The feather on your shaft I scorn,
When pluck'd from Folly's wing.

But Cupid soon fresh arrows found,
And fitted to his string;

And each new shaft he feather'd from
His own bright glossy wing.
He shot until no plume was left

To waft him to the sky;
And Beauty smil'd upon the child,
When he no more could fly;
Now, Cupid, I am thine,' she said,
Leave off thy archer play,
For beauty yields when she is sure
Love will not fly away!"

The Hall Porter and Il Paddy Whack in Italia, were brought out at the Lyceum Theatre in 1842, under