SIXTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SHAKESPEARE CLUB, November 17, 1824. JAMES RIMINGTON ESQ. IN THE CHAIR. THE Members of this Club held their Annual Dinner at the Angel Inn, on Wednesday, November 19, 1824: James Rimington, Esq. President; B. Hounsfield, and E. Bishop, Esqrs. Vice Presidents. The Meeting, which was in every respect highly gratifying to those who were present, was attended by upwards of sixty gentlemen. Mr. Hemings provided a most sumptuous and elegant dinner for the occasion. On the cloth being removed, the President gave— The King. The Duke of York and the Army. The Duke of Clarence and the Navy. The Chairman would now beg to propose a toast more peculiarly affecting the object for which they were then met. They were assembled there to pay due homage to that man, who, at a time the most unfavourable for the developement of the genius which it was his lot to possess, shone forth like the autumnal meteor, with a light so brilliantly irradiating as to dazzle and astonish K us, even after the lapse of centuries. He would not follow the steps of his friends who had preceded him in that Chair, and cite passages from the works of the immortal Bard, for they must be familiar to every one present; they must be regarded as a sacred and invaluable treasure; they must be reverenced as Household Gods. They were told, however, that Shakespeare had his faults. He (the Chairman) would ask, were they not the faults of the age in which he lived? While Elizabeth was on the throne, pedantry and puritanism had obtained in a very high degree;* and when James succeeded, there succeeded with him indelicacy and grossness of manners. And was it to be wondered at that Shakespeare should have imbibed in some degree the manners of the times? If the blemishes which might be found were compared with the beauties, they were forgiven, forgotten;—(applause)-they were remembered by none but bad poets, and ill-natured critics; and no British poet or critic of any judgment had existed since the time of Shakespeare, who had not paid his tribute of respect to his talents and to his writings, as a poet and a dramatist. SONG "The Mulberry Tree,”—Mr. Cannon. The Memory of David Garrick and John Kemble. On giving this toast, the President observed, that they were both of them known by their performances to every * Hence Spenser, (who wrote in the reign of Elizabeth), alluding to the professors of Puritanism, which was then gaining ground,— "Like that ungracious crew which fains demurest grace." In 1579, (the twenty-first year of the reign of Elizabeth,) one Stephen Gosson wrote a pamphlet with this title :-" The Schools of Abuse, containing a pleasaunt invective against poets, pipers, plaiers, jesters, and such-like caterpillars of a commonwealth." This was soon followed by many others of the same kind. See Warton's Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser. one present; and the latter not only by his performance, but also by his exertions with reference to the costume of the Drama, and that both of them were the best commentators on the text of Shakespeare. The President believed Mr. Neville had an original song on the birth of Shakespeare. Mr. Neville begged they would pardon the composition, and think only of the motive. He then sung a song on the birth of Shakespeare, which was received with much applause. The President said, having given the memory of John Kemble, he should be wanting in judgment did he omit to give Mrs. Siddons, the Tragic Muse. He was sure, that whoever had seen her play in Shakespeare's play of Macbeth, the part of Lady Macbeth, could never again see the part performed without having the remembrance of her brought to his mind. DUET-"Tell me where is Fancy bred ?"-Messrs. Bellamy and De Camp. The President proposed the health of— Mr. Young; Whom he characterised as the best performer of the day, and no less respectable in the social walks of life than as a performer. The President would now propose the Memory of Ben Jonson, who, it might perhaps not be remembered, was the contemporary of Shakespeare. It had been generally believed that Ben Jonson had felt a degree of envy of the talents of Shakespeare, and that, in consequence, they had never been friends, but were, in fact, enemies of each other. This, he was happy to say, was not the case; and it was most incontestably proved, by the recent Editor of the works of Ben Jonson, that they were actually friends;-that they were members of the same Club, for there were Clubs even in the days of Shakespeare ; (applause)-yes; and amongst the names of their Club they would find those of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Sir Walter Raleigh, Beaumont, Fletcher, Carew, Donne, and those of many others, who were the brightest ornaments of what had been termed the Augustan age of English literature. He would give them the memory of Ben Jonson, not so much as an ancient and excellent comic writer, but as the friend and companion of Shakespeare. (Applause.) The Memory of Ben Jonson. SONG "See the gaily circling glass"-Mr. De Camp. The Duke of Norfolk, the first Peer of the Realm, and our townsman. Mr. De Camp was highly honoured by the very elegant manner in which the Chairman had given, and by the gratifying way in which the company had drank his health. He was truly proud to be surrounded by so respectable a body of gentlemen, and particularly so since he was sure, that never at any period, did the Drama require less support than it did at present. Surrounded by gentlemen of rank, fortune, and respectability, both on the one hand and the other, it was highly gratifying to him thus to address them. It had been urged that dramatic representations were injurious to morals; he denied the fact. Of this there was no proof whatever; not the slightest had as yet been adduced. It had never been shewn that any one individual had received an injury from frequenting dramatic exhibitions; while, on the other hand, it had been proved, and was an admitted fact, that great benefits might and did result from them. Most plays conveyed a moral lesson, which every person seeing them would apply to himself: and he was sure, with a late writer, that "where one rascal is preached or beaten out of follies, thousands are laughed or ridiculed out of them;" and as the object of the stage is "to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature," every one might there behold his own faults or failings, and beholding, learn to amend them. He was convinced that the stage might be made a school of morality, and therefore become one of the best and most beneficial institutions of which a nation can boast. He exhorted them to proceed in the work which they had begun,—to maintain their rights, and to justify their opinions. He was glad to see, from the report of the Managers of Covent Garden Theatre, that the public taste for the legitimate Drama was again restored. They might rest assured, that while he had the honour to be the caterer for their amusement, every means should be used to obtain so desirable an end. He was sorry to have trespassed so long on the time and attention of the company, and would beg sincerely to thank them in return for the honour done him, and to drink all their good healths. SONG "I'se a Yorkshireman, just come to town". Mr. Butler. Our venerable and charitable neighbour, Earl Fitzwilliam ; A man who is never so happy as when he is conducing to the happiness of others. The President gave— The Lord Lieutenant of the Riding, Lord Harewood; Who, as a commoner, so strenuously exerted himself for his constituents. |