212 ITS PERFORMANCE 



or justify its introduction on those boards where my 

 departed friend had presided with so much eclat. 



On my calling at the theatre some little time after, this 

 hallucination was soon dispersed by the reader, who 

 returned it with many fair speeches, first telling me that 

 Mr. Macready's lease had nearly expired, and at the 

 same time stating that they had another play with the 

 same title. 



Thinking this a very strange coincidence, I resolved upon 

 publishing mine, which I did by subscription, and it was 

 honoured with the names of the Lord Lieutenant of the 

 County, some of the most distinguished members of the 

 University, as well as nearly all the nobility and gentry of 

 the western division of the county of Norfolk. It was 

 performed at both the Cambridge and Lynn theatres, — 

 the good old Field-Marshal bespeaking at one, and the 

 popular member for "West Norfolk at the other.^ Its 

 reception at both places, by genteel and crowded 

 audiences, particularly at the latter, was highly satis- 

 factory, and far more agreeable then than is the 

 recapitulation of such flattering testimonies now. 



It was not long after this that I was requested by the 

 editor of one of the Cambridge papers to write a critique 

 on Mr. C. Kean's performance of Richard. This led me 

 into a dissertation upon the garbled and mutilated text 

 of that fine original, whicli I delivered in the shape of a 

 lecture at Cambridge, Ely, and Lynn, severally, at each 

 of which places I had no reason to complain of the manner 

 of my reception. 



^ W. Bagge, Esq., to whose liberal and constant patronage, with that 

 of his family, the author cannot sufficiently express his gratitude. 



