we could still boast of a few names who had shed a long stream of lustre on the theatres they had belonged to; but Mrs. Glover, Mrs. Bartley, Mrs. Gibbs, Mrs. W. Clifford, &c., have gone to "that bourn from which no traveller returns." Miss Kelly, alas! has fallen into decay, by foolishly expending the profits of a long life of professional enchantment in erecting an out-of-the-way and unneeded theatre; and William Farren, the genuine successor of Munden, is dropping his money (he has no longer any voice to drop!) at the Olympic, in the back slums of Drury Lane, and exhibiting, to feed the vanity of either himself or his sons, the "last remains" of a marvellous talent; while Liston, the unique and inimitable, Richard Jones, Wrench, Dowton, Russell (the Major, and the Jerry Sneak!), the marvellous Ducrow, the ubiquitous Yates, &c., have also joined their ancestors. These personators of our dramatic literature have passed away; and they have been joined in their flight by the ablest of our writers in that branch of composition, who have disappeared during the same period. Joanna Baillie, the pourtrayer of human passion in all its variety of display; Shiel, who had great, though ephemeral, popularity during the VOL. II. G career of Miss O'Neil; those popular dramatists, Reynolds, Morton, Beazley, &c., are all numbered with the things that were; while the eminent, the good, the gentle-hearted Sheridan Knowles, is reposing in the comforts of a well-earned pension in Scotland, and John Poole vegetating on a smaller one in Paris! As very little talent, entitled to note, has succeeded to this vast loss, it is evident that the means of supplying any foreign market, have yearly become diminished. Grisi and Mario, about (it is said!) to visit the States, may fill up a gap for the time being, and their matchless warblings may be followed by the pomposity* of one tenor and the nasality of another; but wiser and better would it be for America, if her many gifted sons would cultivate a taste for dramatic literature, and encourage the study of the * Pope must have had this race of people in his head, when he wrote: "Oh you! whom Vanity's light bark conveys dramatic profession, rather than trust to any importation of foreign conceit, and foreign insufficiency. America has, however, wondrous resources in her Lyceums, and other Lecture establishments (to which we have already made reference), that have, to a very great extent, superseded theatres. There is more entertainment, and infinitely more instruction to be found in them, and at an infinitely cheaper rate; moreover, the society in them is not so promiscuous, and thus the student is less interrupted, and the mere learner less embarrassed. The drama can only permanently flourish in a country that is essentially dramatic, that does not look to any other for the furtherance of its purposes, but relies on itself for their accomplishment. It is the conservation of this principle which has made these Lyceums such important features in the literary character of America; for while they do not shut their doors to foreign talent (as the recent brilliant success of my eminent friend Thackeray, and, if we may be pardoned for so much egotism, the contemporary reception of ourselves, bear ample testimony), yet they have names of the highest distinction, as we have previously enumerated, which their Lyceums have brought into the fore most phalanx of fame, from which theatres would, more than probably, have excluded them. The establishment of these admirable institutions is antidotal to theatres in Old England, New England, and all other American States-a truth that it is absurd attempting to deny. Performers all swear to the contrary, because their impression is, that all the world are thinking of them; and consequently, "self" being the only doctrine they preach, their opinion is not entitled to the slightest consideration. CHAPTER V. AMERICAN NOTIONS, AND SOME OF THEM VERY FUNNY ONESHOW TO PARE AN APPLE-THICK SKINS AND THIN SKINSAMOUR PROPRE, AND TOO MUCH OF IT-ALL AMERICA'S GREAT PEOPLE ARE NOT AMERICANS A MISTAKE ABOUT HER DISCOVERIES RECTIFIED JONATHAN'S MODE OF REGU LATING HOTEL CHARGES-THE CUBAN QUESTION-SHOOTING SPANIARDS AND SHOOTING SPARROWS-LORD JOHN RUSSELL AND MR. EVERETT JAMAICA WORTH LOOKING AFTER"ELSE" AND "IF" FULLY EXPLAINED-NOT TO BE POOR AND SEEM SO, AT THE SAME TIME-THE ONLY BEGGAR IN AMERICA - COPYRIGHT QUESTION, AND THE BEST WAY TO SETTLE IT-THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN HIGH AND LOW PRICES CONGRESS MAKE ACTS, AND THE PEOPLE REPEAL THEMINTEREST THE ONLY SETTLER OF DISPUTES-EARLY RISING, OF LORD BYRON AND THE BENEFIT THEREOF-OPINIONS AND SIR JOHN SINCLAIR THEREON-EXEMPLIFICATION OF IT BY A BOND STREET TRADESMAN-HOW TO GET BAILED |