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RECOLLECTIONS OF THE OLD ACTORS. No. III. 

 BY T. SHELDRAKE, ESQ. 



THE comedy of our Old English writers seems to have been 

 founded principally upon the manners, principles,, and characters of 

 the persons who were living in the times and places where their re- 

 spective authors lived and wrote. Their plots were often borrowed 

 from the fashionable works, original or translated, as they were known 

 at the time. These are, perhaps, the most popular, but not always 

 the most durable works, because it requires but a certain quantity of 

 scenic representations to satisfy the public taste for the time com- 

 pletely. Hence it is, if one piece more be added than may be said 

 to be wanted, it pushes those actually in favour towards obscurity ; 

 and if the succession be very quick, the existence of each becomes 

 more ephemeral. 



It is for this reason that, in looking over the list of dramatic pieces 

 which have been, more or less, universal favourites during the course 

 of the last two or three centuries, we may see the names of many pieces 

 of which we can now obtain little or no actual knowledge ; yet, of 

 what was once an object of so much curiosity, we may be reasonably 

 allowed to wish to know something ; and this admitted, a desire to 

 gratify that wish may, perhaps, be received with indulgence. 



If, taking this view of the subject, we look at the dramatic writers 

 of the Elizabethan age, or of those which immediately either pre- 

 ceded or followed it, we shall find there is much truth in the obser- 

 vation that their characters are such correct representations of ordi- 

 nary nature as to account for the favour they find in all times. 

 Dogberry and Verges may be found in all times and places; and 

 being specimens of common nature, are identified and appreciated. 

 Falstaff, however, is a rarer character and such an extraordinary 

 creation that it lays stronger claim to our admiration than the works 

 of other authors, who usurped his place in their day, and who may 

 have persuaded themselves Beaumont and Fletcher, for instance 

 that Bessus or Sir Epicure Mammon are equal to Shakspeare's Falstaff. 

 Posterity, however, does justice to genius. 



The "Alchemist," "Old City Manners," and other powerful 

 comedies of Ben Jonson and the contemporary dramatists, have often 

 been acted to most crowded houses in my time ; have conferred 

 justly, indeed, during their own time very lasting and well-merited 

 reputation on the eminent actors who performed in them ; yet these 

 pieces will, in all probability, never be performed again with a like 

 relish, at least, not in our day, for this simple reason the merit of 

 the performance would not be felt nor relished by the audience, to 

 whose notice they might be offered. Of this inability to appreciate 

 character I will give an example, which, though rather broad I must 

 confess, I know to be quite correct. 



Garrick, in the very earliest part of his career, acquired a very 

 high reputation for the power he displayed in performing Abel 

 Drugger in the " Alchemist " the most powerful contrast which 

 couhf be produced to Richard, Hamlet, Macbeth, and other prodigies 



M. M. No. 99. 2 L 



