]83L] Mrs. Jordan and her Biographer. 57' 



the economy of the wardrobe, and they could not be tempted by all the 

 eloquence of Tom King (the manager) to venture on the smallest outlay 

 without the consent of Sheridan, who was always too busy either to give 

 or refuse it. Thus it was that Harris, at the other house, beat him, with 

 all the cards absolutely in their hands " 



One of the oddities of theatrical life is that all the leading actors origi- 

 nally mistook their talents. John Kemble began in comedy, and the 

 delusion lasted with him longer than with most of them ; for, to his 

 dying day, he thought he could flourish in Charles Surface. Jones, the 

 gayest of actors, and whose absence from the stage has left it sombre, 

 began in the most formal tragedy ; Listen played Othellos and Julius 

 Ccesars ; and Fawcett is here recorded as having began with Romeo a 

 character which, when we recollect Fawcett's granite physiognomy, 

 must have been one of the miracles of love-making. Fawcett's voice, 

 which Colman compared, with the happiest accuracy, to something 

 generated between the grinding of a corn-mill and the sharpening of a 

 saw, must have been an incomparable illustration of 



" How silver sweet are lovers' tongues by night ! 

 Like softest music to attending ears." 



But, after his Romeo exhibition, he was brought to his natural line by 

 Miss Farren ; to whose Violante he played Colonel Britton, and had the 

 felicity of being pronounced, by that fashionable authority, tf a very pro- 

 mising young actor." Peeping Tom decided his forte, and the Hull 

 audience gave their fiat to the comedian, if Peeping Tom, the most 

 vulgar of grotesques, could entitle him to such fame, and Fawcett flew, 

 on the breath of country applause, up to London. 



We then have a sketch of one of those only sure events in the History 

 of Theatres, a conflagration. 



" I was coming across the Park, from Pimlico, on the night of the 17th 

 of June, when, on turning the corner of the Queen's house, this dreadful 

 conflagration burst upon my eye. It seemed as if the long lines of 

 trees in the Mall were waving in an atmosphere of flame. The fire ap- 

 pears to have commenced in the roof, and its demonstration to have 

 commenced rather earlier than the incendiary had calculated. The 

 dancers had been rehearsing a ballet on the stage that evening, and sparks 

 of fire fell upon their heads, as, in great terror, they effected their escape. 

 Madame Ravelli was with difficulty saved by a fireman. Madame Gui- 

 mard lost a slipper ; but her feet, as they ever did, saved her. 



" There never was the least doubt that the malignity of some foreign 

 miscreant had effected the destruction. The whole roof was in combus- 

 tion at one moment ; a cloud of heavy smoke, for a few seconds, hung 

 over the building, succeeded by a volume of flames, so fierce that they 

 were felt in St. James's Square, and so bright that you might have read 

 by them as at noon-day. A very excellent artist, who had been many 

 years connected with the Opera House, told me, that Came vale, upon 

 his death-bed, revealed the name of the incendiary. As was customary 

 in those days, the Bridewell boys served their great engine, with the 

 vigour of youth, and the sagacity of veterans. Burke might have come 

 out of Carltori House ; he was standing before it, and anxiously directing 

 the attention of the fireman to its preservation. Mr. Vanbrugh, a de- 

 scendant of Sir John, was in the greatest peril of all the sufferers ; he 

 had an annuity of eight hundred pounds upon the building. At the 

 back of the ruins, the fire was burning fiercely, though low, at twelve 

 o'clock the next day. The books of the theatre were saved, so was the 

 M.M. New Series VOL. XI. No. 61. I 



