Page images
PDF
EPUB

prepossessing in my physiognomy, I shall not take on me to determine; but I received several hearty embraces, while, to my shame be it spoken, I remained perfectly neuter: reversing thus the order of the sexes, or if for a moment active, struggling to save myself from the gripe of these Lancashire amazons.—The lobby exhibited tumult, riot, and drunkenness-sailors, mates, and captains of vessels,. uncoated, unshaved, covered with filth and tar," with all their imperfections on their head," walked about drinking grog, and smoking tobacco. I could not forbear remarking to the friend who accompanied me, the miserable situation of an elegant female like Miss-- obliged to exhibit herself for the entertainment of such an audience, adding, that if I was a young woman, I would rather throw myself into one of their own docks-" la tête la premiere."-I extricated myself from the fair syrens I had got entangled with, though from the shoving and pulling I experienced, I was very near, Josephlike, leaving my skirt behind me.

CHAP. II.

Liverpool-Remarks on quackery-Theatre-Lear—Mr.

Roscoe.

Liverpool, August. I AM still here, and as the wind continues obstinately in the N. W. here I am likely to remain. I learn from the waiter, who, seeing me chagrined, kindly undertook to comfort me, that he has known instances of this wind blowing for weeks together-a comfortable prospect truly. But this is not a solitary instance of

my ill-luck--the same evil fortune has followed me in almost every journey I ever undertook; I never went to sea, no matter at what season, or however fine the weather was before, that a storm did not rise immediately afterwards. I hardly ever got on horseback that I did not run the risk of having my neck broken, nor did I scarcely ever set off on a walking-party, that the rain did not set off along with me. I remember in one of those excursions through Wales, I had three ferries to cross; I was detained a day each at two of them, and was nearly drowned in crossing the third. Some people, says the proverb, are born with a silver spoon in their mouth, and others with a wooden ladle -I fear I am of the latter description; I am sure at least I am none of those who (as I have read in some old French play or other) if they were thrown naked into the sea, would rise up again with a bag-wig and sword.

Of all things, I detest a sea-port the most; and here I am left in this great bustling place, where every one seems busy but myself, with hardly a single acquaintance; for I cannot reckon as such the stupid drones I meet with in the public room of my inn, whose whole conversation is the price of sugar and rum, Manchester cottons and Sheffield hardware, with occasional digressions on the scarcity of corn, and the price of black cattle." How a good yoke of bullocks at Stamford Fair?" without even the redeeming reflection, "that we shall all die."

After the declaration I have just made, that I have hardly an acquaintance in this town, it would be absurd to give an opinion of it; I shall therefore barely remark, that it appears to me a mere sea-port. The

smell of tar assails one in every quarter-in Castle Street, and the squares, as well as in the docks; and, as we are told from high authority, that there is no touching tar without being defiled, it is no wonder we imagine we perceive it in the manners of the men, and the faces of the women. The streets in general are narrow, crooked, and irregular, though there some good houses in the town, and still more in the neighbourhood. The house of a celebrated medicine-vender, about two miles off, on the London road, is particularly distinguished for its neatness and elegance-a happy monument of his own craft, and the folly of the good people of England, who in this, as in various other instances, have proved themselves, "whatever he may be," no Solomons.-I have tried the medicine, and find it pleasant to the taste, and harmless in its effects, which is more than can be said for many medicines highly vaunted; but had it been as nauseous as asafoetida, and as deadly as night-shade, there would have been found people enough to have swallowed it.-The credulity of John Bull is as great as the adventurers are numerous who prey on it; he is the great Leviathan of the ocean, whose blubber gives food to all the smaller fish: his is the true ostrich stomach, and luckily for politicians and quack-doctors, it will digest any thing.

I am just returned from the theatre-the play was King Lear, the part of King Lear by Mr. Cooke, Cordelia by Mrs. H. Johnston. Mr. Cooke and Mrs. H. Johnston are the great load-stones of attraction at present; they are coupled together in large characters on the play-bills, and always appear hand in hand like the two kings of Brentford. The last evening I witnessed a pleasant, this evening an extraordinary

performance: when the good old king made his first appearance, I was at a loss to know what to think of him-it was too soon for him to lose his wits from sorrow, I therefore feared he had from brandy; I feared that the natural had been too strong for the artificial character, and that the actor was sunk in the excesses of the man-I soon perceived, however, that I was mistaken, and that he was perfectly sober: I then imagined, that, despising his amphibious audience, and not liking to "cast his pearls before swine," he was burlesquing the part; nor am I yet recovered from the astonishment I was thrown into on this occasion. His performance was not only faint, flat, and spiritless, which might be attributed to illness; but he seemed to have no conception of his author's meaning: out of every hundred men in the habit of reading Shakspeare, ninety-nine, I have little doubt, would read the part better than he played it. The other performers did not do a jot better than their venerable chief-they were truly

"Cantare pares, et respondere parati."

Poor Tom played the fool to be sure, but it was in undertaking a part for which he was so ill qualified— he ran about crying" poor Tom's a-cold," until, as the weather was warm, he threw himself into a profuse perspiration. I do not know whether it proceeded from his, or the ladies' exertions, but I was obliged oftener than once to put lavender on my handkerchief, to sweeten an atmosphere, which assuredly bore little resemblance to the "sweet south,

"When it breathes over a bank of violets."

Regan and Goneril, with their inflamed eyes, daubed

cheeks and red noses, might have been mistaken for a couple of enraged landladies, quarrelling with an unlucky guest after having robbed him of his half-crown each; while the pious, the gentle, the soul-subduing Cordelia, with her smart air, cocked-up hat, cotton stockings, and short petticoat, looked more like a country lass decked out for a village fair than a king's daughter. To mend the matter, they were all imperfect in their parts, and after the prompter was heard first, came halting and hesitating the performer, a second or two afterwards. In short, a more miserable performance I believe was never witnessed in the barn of a country town-having" neither the accent of christians, nor the gait of christian, pagan, nor man, they so strutted and bellowed, that they looked as if Bonaparte, or some of his journeymen, had made them kings and queens, and not made them well, they imitated royalty so abominably."

I am just now summoned, as the wind is becoming favourable; I cannot quit Liverpool, however, without paying the humble tribute of my respect to a man whose virtues and talents are an honour, not to this town only, but to his country and to human nature: every reader I am sure will anticipate who I meanthe reviver of Italian literature, the mild advocate of freedom, the enemy of slavery, the friend of man-the humane and benevolent Roscoe. Born in a humble station, with no other inheritance than the sacred fire of genius, he has given himself wealth, and rank, and consideration; he has done more he has given refinement to grossness, knowledge to ignorance, taste and humanity to cumbersome and overgrown riches; he has transfused a portion of his own spirit into the

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »