Theatres. 5J 



the scandal of having had his play acted in the 

 theatre in Edinburgh, and some of his clerical friends 

 were publicly rebuked for going to see it. Our family 

 was perfectly liberal in all these matters. The first 

 time I had ever been in a theatre I went with my 

 father to see " Cymbeline." I had never neglected 

 Shakespeare, and when our great tragedians, Mrs. 

 Siddons and her brother, John Kemble, came for a 

 short time to act in Edinburgh, I could think of 

 nothing else. They were both remarkably hand- 

 some, and, notwithstanding the Scotch prejudice, 

 the theatre was crowded every night. It was a 

 misfortune to me that my mother never would go 

 into society during the absence of my father, nor, 

 indeed, at any time, except, perhaps, to a dinner 

 party; but I had no difficulty in finding a chaperone, 

 as we knew many people. I used to go to the 

 theatre in the morning, and ask to see the plan of 

 the house for the evening, that I might know which 

 ladies I could accompany to their boxes. Of 

 course I paid for my place. Our friends we,re so 

 kind that I saw these great artists, as well as 

 Charles Kemble, Young, and Bannister, in " Ham- 

 let," "Macbeth," "Othello," " Coriolanus," "The 

 Gamester," &c. 



It was greatly to the honour of the British stage 

 that all the principal actors, men and women, were 



