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sounded in December, 1825. It was read in the greenroom by Charles Kemble about the middle of this month, and one of the persons who was to act in it wrote Mr. Payne that all present were deeply affected, and that it was considered as one of the best plays which had been heard for some years. It was played a few nights and then withdrawn, exception being taken to the plot. "I went to see it last night," writes a literary friend to Mr. Irving. "It is very well got up; the dresses are beautiful, and the effect is more that produced by a piece at the Français, than any thing I have seen. The dialogue is particularly well done, and the laughter all in the dress circle.

It is thought highly of, and only wants a little correction to be the best thing we have seen of the age." It was put to press in New York, by a Mr. Murden, a publisher of plays, at the close of 1826, with the following dedication by Payne.

MY DEAR IRVING:

[To Washington Irving.]

It is about twenty years since I first had the pleasure of knowing you; and it is not very often that people are found better friends at the later part of so long an acquaintance than at the beginning. Such, however, has been the case with us; and the admiration which I felt for you when I was a boy, has been succeeded by gratitude for steady and intrepid kindness now that I am no longer one.

Although I have had better opportunities to know you than the world, by whom you are valued so highly, I should not

have ventured to make a public display of our acquaintanceship under any other circumstances than those by which it is drawn forth at present. I am under obligations to you beyond the common kindnesses between friends of long standing, which it is fitting I should acknowledge. In the little comedy of Charles the Second I have referred to the assistance you gave me, without venturing to violate your injunction with regard to the concealment of your name. But that aid has been repeated to such an extent in the present work, as to render it imperative upon me to offer you my thanks publicly, and to beg you will suffer me to dedicate it to one from whose pen it has received its highest value. I only regret it is not in my power to make a more adequate return for the many encouragements amid discomfort, which you have so frequently and so spontaneously bestowed upon,

My dear Irving,

Your sincere and grateful friend,

PARIS, No. 89 RUE DE RICHELIEU,

February 13, 1826.

JOHN HOWARD PAYNE.

March 15, 1827, we have this final allusion to Richelieu, in a letter of Ebenezer to his brother Washington: "I have not been able to make any thing out of your friend Payne's drama of Richelieu. The publisher tried hard to get it performed at one of our theatres, but could not succeed; the managers were afraid to attempt it, alleging that it was deficient in incident, particularly in the latter scenes. The publisher had one thousand copies printed at his own ex

pense, seven hundred of which are in my hands. The other three hundred he has to repay him his expenses."

This is the last trace I get of Richelieu. Whatever its merit as a composition, the plot was objectionable, and the play much better suited to the closet than the stage.

CHAPTER X.

REVOLVING LITERARY PLANS-EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOK-TALMA-ADMIRAL HARVEY-KENNEY'S ANECDOTES-LORD JOHN RUSSELL-CAPTAIN MEDWINBYRON-PASTA-CORRECTS SALMAGUNDI FOR GALIGNANI-LETTER TO LESLIE -PROPOSITION OF GALIGNANI FOR AN EDITION OF BRITISH AUTHORS-PROJECT OF A SECOND SKETCH BOOK-LETTERS TO MURRAY ABOUT TALES OF A TRAVELLER.

HAVING glanced at this theatrical episode in the

author's life, I now resume the regular course of my narrative, going back to a period shortly succeeding Payne's departure for London, and just after Peter had left Havre for Paris, to become a member of his bachelor establishment. At this time, Nov. 8, 1823, Murray applies the following spur to his lagging pen.

Nov. 8th-" Mr. H. Payne tells me he is a fellowlodger with you at Paris, and as he is expected quickly to return, I cannot refrain from sending compliments to you, and of adding an inquiry as to your literary occupations, and what your publisher may be allowed to expect from you in the course of the winter. I am perfectly ready for you, and the sooner you take the field the better." Thus stimulated, he VOL. II.-S* (12)

felt increased impatience to mature some of the literary plans he had been revolving. "Wrote a little at History of an Author," is one passage in his memorandum book." "Tried to commence work on Germany, but could not do any thing," is another. Then follows: "Toward twelve o'clock, an idea of a plan dawned on me-made it out a little, and minuted down heads of it. Felt more encouraged-felt as if I should make something out of it." This was a plan, as he once told me, to mingle up the legendary superstitions of Germany, in the form of tales, with local descriptions and a little of the cream of travelling incidents, but he added, "there was a rawness about every attempt to bring it into shape. It needed time to mellow in my mind." At a later date, Dec. 17, I evolve from the scarcely legible leaves of his pencilled memorandum this passage: "Woke carly-felt depressed and desponding-suddenly a thought struck me how to arrange the MSS. on hand, so as to make two volumes of Sketch Book-that quite enlivened me. At breakfast communicated it to Peter, who was highly pleased with it." Under this animating impulse, he writes to Murray, Dec. 22, telling him he should "probably have two volumes of the Sketchi Book ready for him in the spring," and his note-book shows him at work the next day on an article on

*This was the title selected for the novel in which he was intending to expand Buckthorne and his Friends, as before mentioned; which purpose, however, he never fulfilled.

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