1768. THE BRITISH THEATRE. a padlock on a door again, will you? Ha! ha ha! Dieg. Did'nt I hear mufic? Dieg. Was it not the found of a guit tar? Mung. Yes, he play on de guittar rarely-Give me hand; you're old rafcal-an't you? Dieg. What dreadful fhock effects me, I'm in a cold sweat, a mist comes over my eyes, and my knees knock together, as if I had got a fit of the shaking pally. Mung. I'll tell you a word in your ear. Dieg. Has any ftranger broke into my house? Mung. Yes, by-hic-a fine young gentleman, he now in a next room with miffy. Dieg. Holy Saint Francis! is it poffible? Mung. Go you round foftly-you catch them togeder. Dieg. Confufion ! distraction! I shall run mad. O wherefore this terrible Alurry! From my top to my toe, My heart in my bosom a bumping. Goes thumping, And jumping, And thumping: Is't a spectre I fee! Hence, vanish, ah me! My fenfes deceive me, Soon reafon will leave me: What a wretch am I destin'd to be! SCENE VII. Mungo, Urfula, Leander, Leonora. Urf. O hame, monftrous, you drunken fwab, you have been in the cellar, with a plague to you. Mung. Let me put my hands about your neck Urf. Oh, I fhall be ruin'd! Help, help, ruin! ruin! 1. Goodness me, what's the matter? . Oh dear child, this black villain has frighten'd me out of my wits; he has wanted Mung. Me, curfe a heart, I want nothing wid her 509 Leo. Urfula, the gentleman fays he has fome friends waiting for him at the other fide of the garden wall, that will throw him over a ladder made of ropes which he got up by. Leand. Then must I go? Leon. Yes, good fir, yes, Leand. A parting kiss! Leon. No, good fir, no. Leand. It must be fo. By this, and this, Here I could for ever grow; 'Tis more than mortal bliss. Lean. Well now, good night; Pray ease our fright. You're very bold, fir; Let loose your hold, fir; I think you want to scare me quite. Leand. O fortune's fpight. Leon. Good night, good night. A. z. Hark! the neighb'ring convent's bell, Tolls the vefper hour to tell i A thousand times farewell. SCENE THE LAST. Don Diego, Leonora, Leander, Urfula, Mungo. Dieg. Stay, fir, let nobody go out of the room. Urf. (falling down) Ah! ah! a ghoft! a ghost! Dieg. Woman ftand up. Urf. I won't, I won't: murder ! don't touch me. Dieg. Leonora, what am to think of this? Leon. Oh, dear, fir, don't kill me. Dieg. Young man, who are you, who have thus clandestinely, at an unfeafonable hour broke into my houfe? Am I to confider you as a robber, or how? Leand. As of one whom love has made indifcreet; of one whom love taught industry and art to accomplish his defigns. I love the beautiful Leonora, and the me; but, farther than what you hear and fee, neither one nor nor the other have been culpable. Mung. Hear him, hear him. Leand. Don Diego, you know my father well, Don Alphonfo de Luna; I am willing to fubmit to whatever punishment THE BRITISH THEATRE. 510 Dieg. Thus then my hopes snd cares are at once fruftrated; poffeffed of what I thought a jewel, I was defirous to keep it for my felf; I raised up the walls of this houfe to a great height, I barr'd up my windows towards the street, I put double bolts on my doors; I banifh'd all that had the fhadow of man, or male kind; and I ftood continually centinel over it my felf, to guard my fufpicion from furprize; thus fecur'd, I left my watch for one little moment, and in that Dieg. No, child, I only am to blame, who should have confidered that fixteen and fixty agree ill together. But, though I was too old to be wife, I am not too old to learn; and fo, I fay, fend for a smith directly, beat all the grates from my windows, take the locks from my doors, let egrefs and regrefs be given freely. Leon. And will you be my husband, fir? Dieg. No, child, I will give you to one that will make you a better husband; here young man, take her; if your parents confent, to-morrow fhall fee you join'd in the face of the church; and the dowry which I promifed her in cafe of failure on my fide of the contract, shall now go with her as a marriage portion. Leand. Signior, this is fo generous-Dieg. No thanks, perhaps I owe acknowledgements to you; but you, Urfula, have no excufe, no paffion to plead, and your age fhould have taught you better. I'll give you five hundred crowns, but never let me fee you more. Mung. And won't give me noting. Dieg. Yes, baftinadoes for your drunkenness and infidelity. Call in my neighbours and friends. Oh, man! man! how fhort is your forefight, how ineffectual your prudence, while the very means you use are destructive of your ends. After this each of the characters addreffes the audience in a fhort fong -and Leander's, which we have fubjoined, contains the moral of the performance. Oct. This little piece has given much fatisfaction on the ftage, notwithstanding the author's inftruments are of more confequence than his agents, if we may fo exprefs ourselves, or in ftill plainer terms, notwithstanding Mungo and Urfula, who are nothing but vehi cles to carry on the bufinefs of the other characters, are made confidera bly fuperior in dramatic importance to Don Diego, Leander, and Leonora. Mungo's inftant return to fobriety is also a fault; but it is a fault which may be eafily avoided; by omitting his part of the laft fong.-However the opera is a fpecies of compofition which we must not examine with too critical an exactness; and indeed it would be a kind of ingratitude not to make fome fmall allowances, where, like the Padlock, it affords a very agreeable entertainment. As to the merit of the performers, Mr. Bannifter, in Don Diego, was defervedly approved; and it is but truth to acknowledge, that the universal applause which marked the performance of Mr. Vernon and Mrs. Arne was as juftly merited. In the course of the late month, a young actress appeared at Drury-lane houfe, in the character of Imogen in the tragedy of Cymbeline; and, if we can form any judgment from a first effay, we may venture to affure the world, that the will prove, especially under the inftruction of fo capital a mafter as Mr. Garrick, a most valuable acquifition to the theatre. Her perfon is elegant-her face has an uncommon fhare of sweet fenfibility-and there is a strength together with a bar mony in her voice, that is capable of prodigious execution. — Requifites like thefe, when they are added to fuch a judgment as this lady feems to poffefs, afford a reasonable ground for expectation, and give us room to hope that another Mrs. CIBBER will be one day admired in Miss Young. 1768. Duke of Northumberland's Entertainment. 511 To the Freeholders of the County of Mid- certainly is moft capable of defending Gentlemen, dlesex. S the election for the county must A indifpenfibly for the co, do not be too hafty in your promifes, but look before you leap, for as Horace fays: Et femel emissum, volat irrevocabile verbum. Therefore, the greatest caution and care depends upon your choice, whether you choose a courtier, or a man fo publickly known, for his abilities in protecting and defending the caufe of our most noble and illuftrious patriot. If you choofe the one, undoubtedly you lie under imminent danger continually, because he being a courtier, will undoubtedly cling together with the rest of thofe nobles who compofe the prefent adminiftration. I have heard indeed that Sir William would not fpend a farthing for his election: for Heavens fake! where must the money come from then. Such things are generally attended with expence: must not the money come from the treasury, or where else can it come from. The court fay they will fpend forty thousand pounds but they will carry the day; but God knows they can but poorly afford it at prefent: Will you be bought? God for bid you fhould; you have already made choice of one able member, and I hope will make choice of another. And I make no doubt but you will. I know there are feveral noblemen canvaffing for Sir William: they will ufe their utmost endeavours to obtain their ends, I hope the freeholders will not be biaffed nor corrupted, but choofe to their own wishes and country's good. Sir William fays he has reprefented them for several years, I fhould be glad to know any one fignal fervice he did, when he reprefented them. On the other hand if you chufe Mr. Serjeant Glynn, I am truly fenfible of his abilities, and know him to be much more capable of that important truft than Sir William. Some of Sir William's hirelings exclaim against Mr. Glynn as being a lawyer. I fhould be glad to know who is more capable of that office than a lawyer. Have not we experienced his abilities, is he not converfant and grounded thoroughly in the law of his country? he knows the state and foundation thereof, and it. You have once exerted yourself in the cause of Liberty, and I make no doubt, but on every emergent occafion you will do the and my country's fatisfaction, to live Particulars of the Entertainment given his arrival, the king was re ceived at the coach door by the duke and duchefs, and conducted by them through the grand fuite of new apartments into the gallery, where he amufed himself till dinner time. At dinner, the company confifted of the king of Denmark, feveral of the foreign minifters and their ladies, the Danish noblemen, and fome of the firft nobility of both fexes of this kingdom. Three courfes of whatever was most rare and excellent in this country were ferved up in gilt plate, followed by a moft fuperb and highly ornamented defert, and a band of mufic from the veftibule accompanied the whole. After dinner, coffee, tea, and other refreshments, were ferved to the company, which towards the evening was increased to above two hundred, and confifted of their royal highnefies the princefs Amelia, the dukes of Gloucefter and Cumberland, and many other perfons of the first quality and diftinction. About nine o'clock his majesty of Denmark, attended by this noble aflembly, being in the gallery, the folding doors were fuddenly thrown open, and difplayed to him a most fuperb and magnificent round temple, communicating with four open pivilions of Grecian architecture, erected in the great inner court of Sion house, and ornamented with transparent paintings of the arms of Great Britain and Denmark, and the badges of the feveral orders of knighthood of both kingdoms, with feftoons and pyramids of lights; and a variety of emblematical devices, the whole being illuminated with upwards of fifteen thousand lamps. A band of mufic was placed in the pavilions, which on his majesty's appearance incumbent on all their friends and well-wishers, as well as thofe of our eftablished religion, to defire them for religion's fake, and their own, to put an end to a controversy on a fubject of fuch a mysterious nature. I must confefs, that my own concern is chiefly for the gentlemen themselves, though intirely unknown to me, and otherwife I should not have thought it worth while to have troubled you with reading, nor myfelf with writing, this letter. Dr. Swift, who has taken as fafe and as proper a method of expounding these arcana as any man, perhaps, would, in all probability, have loft the ufe of his intellects long before that calamity befel him, and been the first most proper inhabitant of his own hofpital, had he ftudied and wrote more on that fubject than he did. Be fo good, fir, ergo, for the fake of thefe gentlemen, and for the fake of common fenfe, to defire them to lay afide pen, ink, and paper, for a feafon, and apply to the doctor in time, in order venienti occurrere morbo. In a prefcription that eminent man wrote for Trinity funday, there are thefe words" It is highly probable, that if God fhould pleafe to reveal unto us this great mystery of the Trinity, or fome other myfteries in our holy religion, we fhould not be able to understand them, unless he would at the fame time think fit to bestow on us fome new powers, or faculties of the mind, which we want at prefent, and are referved to the day of refurrection to life eternal." Your's, SINE QUA Hints to fome late Writers. 512 hofpitality, for which they have al- Whis month, with a PLAN of E have obliged our readers, ways been fo much diftinguished. To the AUTHOR of the LONDON SIR, Treaders of the London Magazine, who are much concerned for some of the continuation of the ROAD (see p. 333.) from London to Bristol, commencing at Marlborough, and ending at High-Crofs, Brittol, with the merfetthire: road from thence to Huntfpill, in So Alfo with a beautiful FRONT VIEW of the earl of Westmoreland's elegant feat in Kent, with part of the park. (See p. 456.) The |