494 Memoir of James Sheridan Knowles. [MAY, 



misgiving himself for his want of address, took it in his head once to 

 study rope-dancing, and actually had a lance-wood pole fitted up in his room 

 on which the future dramatist, we believe, practised with him. The boy 

 once sat to him for his picture (for Mr. Hazlitt originally intended him- 

 self for a painter,) and perplexed him with the unmarked rotundity of his 

 little visage. " Hang your fat cheeks!" cried the impatient artist: 

 " frown, James." 



It is worth while to dilate a little upon the origin of Virginius. Mr. 

 Knowles, finding great difficulty in getting up any thing at the London 

 theatres, had laid aside the pen for several years, when meeting Mr. Kean, 

 at Glasgow, that great actor said, that if he would write a play in which 

 he could perform the principal part, he would bring it out -, and he sug- 

 gested to him the story of Virginius. The piece, however, was transferred 

 to Covent Garden, because another on the same subject had been previ- 

 ously received at Drury Lane, and, after all, it first came out at Glasgow, 

 the part of Virginius being performed with great applause by Mr. Cooper. 

 A friend of Mr. Macready's sent him an account of the play : he requested 

 to see it in the manuscript, read it, and wrote a highly flattering letter to 

 the author, the consequence of which was an acquaintance between them, 

 and the appearance of this pathetic tragedian in his most applauded 

 character. 



All these circumstances contributed to our author's familiarity with life 

 and the stage, and it is an honour to his energies to add, that the pro- 

 foundest of all teachers has not been wanting to him, adversity. 



Mr. Knowles is married, and has a family, we believe, of six children^ 

 He is somewhat under the middle height, stout, and well-built, with a 

 pleasant, ardent, and manly aspect, and a demeanour with a cast of rough- 

 ness in it, but nothing clownish or ill-bred : it is all cordiality and good- 

 nature, with a relish, as well as a crust upon it, of old port. Mr. Knowles 

 squeezes a hand with right friendly ferocity, and is famous among his 

 friends for the happy buoyancy, as well as the vigour, of his feelings. He 

 is not so good an actor as he is an author: none of his extraordinary 

 class have been : it would have been too much fame for the same man : 

 but his acting is far from being common-place. So much has been said 

 of his merit as a writer, elsewhere, that we shall not add any thing on the 

 subject in this hasty sketch. Suffice it to say, that we have the good for- 

 tune to write in his character the two best praises that can be given to 

 any one he is an admirable writer, and a good man. 



