116 NINE YEARS OF AN ACTOR ? S LIFE. 



cals which are, in our opinion, deserving of serious con- 

 sideration. 



" Returned from school, I had now many opportunities of visiting 

 the Theatre, much, by the way, against the wishes of my friends ; 

 and soon, on paying the sum of 15s. entrance, I became an acting 

 member of the Stonehouse Amateur Company, on the Coal Quay ! 

 Here, let me protest against the existence of such societies, for 

 they are vicious in their construction, and fatal in their consequence. 

 The only dishonest action I ever in my life committed was to sup- 

 port my expences in a private theatre. A member of this very com- 

 pany, a corporal in the. Marines, (you cannot be select in mixed 

 society) was broken to the ranks, tied up to the halberts, and flogged. 

 I saw him faint under the torture, and all for some peculation in the 

 Pay Office, to enable him to meet his expences. A young man of 

 limited means cannot be conscientiously honest in a private theatre. 

 He has to pay his entrance fee his weekly subscription for his 

 books his stage dresses : but here the evil does not end, for after 

 the play it is usual to adjourn to some tavern, and there sip ale and 

 flattery until the amateur is intoxicated by the strength of the one, 

 and the sweets of the other. Granting, however, that a young man's 

 pecuniary resources are equal to his expenditure, if he be engaged 

 in business he cannot be just to his employer; for time is necessary 

 for study, and as time is his master's wealth, if he robs him of this. 

 he may as well pick his master's pocket. Besides there are strong 

 and irresistible temptations to vice in the female society of a private 

 theatre ; and though I know many men who have passed unscathed 

 J do not know one amateur lady who has borne an unblemished re- 

 putation. 



I would advise all young persons to shun even the atmosphere of 

 a private theatre, for it will breed in them a love of idle pleasure, 

 and, unless Fortune favour them, unfit them for the discharge of 

 their duties as respectable men. Unfortunately, there is an infatua- 

 tion in theatricals, against which reason and parental authority have 

 no force; and I know no way of checking a tendency of this baneful 

 nature, other than by calling in the power of the magistracy to sup- 

 press the came. It is strange, that not one of my Coal Quay asso- 

 ciates made the stage a profession." 



From being an amateur Mr. Dyer in due time became 

 a paid performer and, from the evidence which his book 

 contains, was exceedingly successful as a provincial 

 performer, and was acknowledged to display much tul- 



