542 
above all things else beware of this. Repu- 
tation resembles a more tangible species of 
wealth, in various particulars ; but in none 
more than this, that it cannot be squandered 
away, and kept, at one and the same time. 
Let the voice of a real well-wisher warn 
Mr. Mathews of his danger in regard to 
both the above named possessions. That 
the Adelphi Theatre is a mine of wealth, we 
do not intend to deny: but let Mr. Ma- 
thews beware, lest, by his mode of working 
it, it prove (like most other mines) a place 
for the deposition of wealth rather than the 
extraction of it. We shall pay more than 
usually strict attention to the proceedings of 
this little theatre, and do not care how soon 
we have occasion to reverse the opinion we 
Monthly Theatrical Report. 
[Nov. 
haye just pronounced as to its future pros- 
pects. 
Covent Garden has produced one success.. 
ful new piece, and some new performers 5 
Mr. Kean has been playing (we hear) with. 
a vigour and spirit that bring back to re~ 
membrance the early days of his (and cur) 
theatrical life. But the lateness of the time 
prevents us from going further into detail. 
till our next. 
We have also a French Company at Tot- 
tenham Strect, a I’'rench conjurer at the 
Haymarket, and a French puppet-shew at 
the Argyll Rooms, allof which may chance 
to gain notice from us, if our critical duty 
to more important matters permit. 
VARIETIES, SCIENTIFIC AND MISCELLANEOUS. 
oe 
Apology for Jacobinism.—The effect of 
an heroic passage in one of Voltaire’s most 
celebrated tragedies, was completely de- 
stroyed among the Parisians by a ridiculous 
parody to which it gave rise. The lines 
were :— 
Quand on a tout perdu et qu’on n’a plus d’espoir, 
La vie est un opprobre et la mort un deyoir ;— 
for the latter of which some wiseacre sub- 
stituted— 
On prend Je pan de sa chemise et en fait un mou- 
choir! 
Racine’s tragedy of Berenice is reported to 
have totally failed on the stage from a simi- 
lar absurd application. An attendant in- 
quires on entering, “ On est la reine Bere- 
nice?’? Some michievous wag in the pit 
replied in an indecorous rhyme, which con- 
vulsed the house with laughter, and the play 
was hissed. Among sucha “thinking people” 
as the English, ludicrous associations are not 
equally omnipotent; but the story of Dryden 
and the Earl of Rochester is well known ; 
and, amongst the green-room_ traditions of 
Covent Garden theatre, there is one which. 
regards a tippling actress, who was hooted 
off the stage in the piece of Cymon, from 
some one of the audience having replied, in 
her absence, to her lover’s question— 
“ Ah! is she then gone? where shall I o’ertake 
her ??— 
"She has stepped to a gin-shop hard by in 
Long Acre!’ 
Lord Chesterfield, if we recollect right, par- 
ticularly mentions to his son to avoid all 
words which can, by any possibility, suggest 
other ideas than those they are intended to 
conyey. Now a plain matter-of-fact cor- 
respondent of ours has been greatly scan- 
dalized by the following passage from Sir 
W. Scott’s Life of Napoleon :—“ The red 
night-cap was the badge of breechless liber- 
tye Viol ay. ps LIS. 
Apology for Sans Culottes ! 
And froma pen like Walter Scott's!!! 
The thing’s as strange as true: 
I would not credit Byron's lore, 
Nor Hazlitt, Campbell, Hunt, nor Moore, 
Nor Jeffery’s yellow and blue ; 
But it must strike opponents speechless, 
To hear from Scott that they were “ breech- 
fess!” 
This worthy correspondent is not, however, 
the only one who remarked this singular 
passage in the first romancer of the day. 
From a different quarter we hear :— 
Paris, when blessed in ninety-three 
With Jacobinic Liberty, 
Though Liberty shone fall upon her, 
Could not be termed the seat of honour; 
Nor cou!d Sir Walter mean to teach less 
In calling this same goddess “* breechless.”’ 
Another friend writes in a similar strain :— 
Fair Liberty! thy tree to plant 
All France took up the spade ; 
Yet honour’s seat, we all must grant, 
Was not beneath that shade; 
And that I deem the reason why 
Scott calls thee “ breecliless Liberty!” 
Couching for Cataract.—A_ great deal is 
said in this country about the operation for 
removing cataract, which is represented by 
those who practise it as a sort of mystery, 
which but few can exercise. This may be 
true, so far as the English oculists are con- 
cerned, but few of them being men whose 
education. has been such as to render their 
success any thing short of a miracle. Very 
different has been the case in India, with 
Mr. Assistant-Surgeon Richmond, of His 
Majesty’s 4th Light Dragroons, who has for 
some years held the situation of oculist to 
the subordinate station of the Bombay resi- 
dency. The couching-needle used by that 
gentleman is extremely delicate and spear- 
pointed, and the handle not quite an inch 
long. The success of his practice is sur- 
