character. Armed with a table-book, in which he occupied himself, during the performance, with noting down passages for criticism, not forgetting, at the same time, to preserve such jests, and crums of wit, as would bear repeating at the ordinary, or at the tables of the great, he was regarded by the dramatic poet with far more dread than the newspaper reporter of modern days. The allusions to these tables, (pocketbooks,) in our old plays, are numerous. "There are a sort," says Ben Jonson, in his Every man out of his Humour," "of these narrow-eyed decypherers, that will extort strange and abstruse meanings out of any subject, be it never so conspicuous, and innocently delivered. But to such, where'er they sit concealed, let them know, the author defies them, and their writing tables; and hopes, no sound or safe judgment will infect itself with their contagious comments; who, indeed, come here only to pervert and poison the sense of what they hear, and for nought else." Thus, also, Marston, in the Malecontent:" "I am one that hath seen this play often; I have most of the jests here, in my table-book." And Beaumont and Fletcher, in the Woman-hater :' "If there be any lurking among you, in corners,

with table-books, who have some hopes to find fit matter to feed their malice, let them clasp them up, and slink away."

It was also in vogue, among these witlings, to affect disgust at the performance, by significant signs, and indecent indications of contempt:

Mew, blirt, ha

"that's not so good,
ha! light, chaffy stuff."

They would laugh aloud in the most serious scenes of a tragedy; and, sometimes, rise and quit the theatre, as it were in scorn. The boisterous manifestations of dislike, however, as hisses, howls, whistles, and imitations of the mewings of a cat, were more effectual, in the condemnation of a new play, the fate of which was then, as now, determined on its first performance. The " gallants of this mark" are thus described by Ben Jonson :

"Who, to be thought one of the judicious,

Sits with his arms thus wreath'd, his hat pull'd here,

Cries mew,
and nods, then shakes his empty head;
Will show more several motions in his face,
Than the new London, Rome, or Nineveh;
And, now and then, breaks a dry biscuit jest,
Which, that it may more easily be chew'd,
He steeps in his own laughter."

and further on:

"How monstrous and detested is't, to see
A fellow, that has neither art nor brain,
Sit like an Aristarchus, or stark ass,
Taking men's lines, with a tobacco face,

In snuff; still spitting, using his wry'd looks,
In nature of a vice, to wrest and turn

Bird

The good aspect of those, who shall sit near him, From what they do behold! Oh, tis most vile!" Shakspeare, too, in 'Love's Labour Lost:" "Your hat, pent-house like, o'er the shop of your eyes; with your arms crossed on your thin belly doublet, like a rabbit on a spit." And Shirley, in a Cage :' "You see, I do not wear my hat in my eyes, crucify my arms," &c. With respect to crying mew, it appears to have been an old and approved method of expressing dislike, at the first representation of a play. Decker has many allusions to the practice, and, what appears somewhat strange, in his " Satiromastix," charges Jonson with mewing at the fate of his own works. "When your plays are misliked at court, you shall cry mew, like a puss, and say, 'you are glad you wrote out of the Courtiers' Element.'', Our gallery critics, perhaps, will be pleased, and proud, to hear, that their formidable cat-calls have so remote an origin.

FIRST APPEARANCE OF KEMBLE IN LONDON.

It was on the 30th of September, 1783, that Mr. Kemble made his first bow in a London Theatre. The character chosen by him for his debut was Hamlet; and he sustained the Danish prince in such a manner as to justify the expectation which had been formed of his merits; he received the most flattering testimonials of approbation. Mr. Henderson was still on the stage when Mr. K. first appeared, and though the latter was entitled to the applause he met with, he was not considered equal to his justly esteemed rival. The consideration, however, with which he was now regarded, must have been highly pleasing to his mind. His praises formed the general topic of conversation, and the provincial managers evinced an eagerness to engage him during the Summer recess. From motives of a laudable nature, independently of those which concerned his interest, he gave the preference to. his friend, Mr. Younger, of Liverpool. On Mr. Henderson's decease, Mr. K. became the first tragedian of the age. Throughout a variety of characters, which he successively sustained, he advanced both in excellence and public estimation.

POLUS, THE ACTOR.

WHEN this famous tragedian was to play a part, which required to be represented with remarkable passion, he, privily, brought in the urn and bones of his dead son; whereby, he so excited his own passions, and was moved to deliver himself with that efficacy, both in words and in gestures, that he filled the whole theatre with unfeigned lamentations and tears.

THE ANCIENT DRAMA.

THE first comedy was acted at Athens, on a scaffold, by Saffarian and Delon, 562 years before Christ; the first in England was in the year 1551. Tragedy was first acted, at Athens, in a waggon of musicians and dancers, who, as they danced, sung hymns to the praise of Bacchus ; and in order that the musicians and dancers might have time to rest, and that the people should have some new diversion, introduced an actor between every two scenes, who repeated some discourse on a tragical subject. This actor's discourse was called the episode. Thespis also furnished satyrs with actors; and Horace says, he brought forth his satyrs in an uncovered chariot where they rehearsed; their persons and faces