66 66 They were devotedly attached to me, and watched me day and night. I am more indebted to a good con"stitution for having got over this attack, than to the drugs "of an ignorant Turk, who called himself a physician. He “would have been glad to have disowned the name, and 66 resigned his profession too, if he could have escaped "from the responsibility of attending me; for my Al“banians came the Grand Signior over him, and threatened "that if I were not entirely recovered at a certain hour 66 on a certain day, they would take his life. They are "not people to make idle threats, and would have carried "them into execution had any thing happened to me. "You may imagine the fright the poor devil of a Doctor was in; and I could not help smiling at the ludicrous 66 way in which his fears shewed themselves. I believe he was more pleased at my recovery than either my faithful 66 66 nurses, or myself. I had no intention of dying at that "time; but if I had died, the same story would have been 66 told of me as was related to have happened to Colonel "Sherbrooke in America. On the very day my fever was 66 at the highest, a friend of mine declared that he saw me "in St. James's Street; and somebody put my name down "in the book at the Palace, as having enquired after the King's health. 66 "Every body would have said that my ghost had appeared." "But how were they to have reconciled a ghost's writing?" asked I. "I should most likely have passed the remainder of my "life in Turkey, if I had not been called home by my "mother's death and my affairs," said he. "I mean to 66 return to Greece, and shall in all probability die there.” Little did I think, at the time he was pronouncing these words, that they were prophetic! 66 "I became a member of Drury-lane Committee, at the request of my friend Douglas Kinnaird, who made over "to me a share of 500l. for the purpose of qualifying me "to vote. One need have other qualifications besides 66 money for that office. I found the employment not over pleasant, and not a little dangerous, what with "Irish authors and pretty poetesses. Five hundred plays 66 66 66 were offered to the Theatre during the year I was Literary Manager. You may conceive that it was no small "task to read all this trash, and to satisfy the bards that 66 it was so. "When I first entered upon theatrical affairs, I had "some idea of writing for the house myself, but soon "became a convert to Pope's opinion on that subject. "Who would condescend to the drudgery of the stage, and enslave himself to the humours, the caprices, the "taste or tastelessness, of the age? Besides, one must "write for particular actors, have them continually in one's 66 66 66 66 eye, sacrifice character to the personating of it, cringe to some favourite of the public, neither give him too many nor two few lines to spout, think how he would mouth "such and such a sentence, look such and such a passion, "strut such and such a scene. Who, I say, would sub"mit to all this? Shakspeare had many advantages: he 66 66 was an actor by profession, and knew all the tricks of the trade. Yet he had but little fame in his day: see what Jonson and his contemporaries said of him. Besides, how "few of what are called Shakspeare's plays are exclusively "so!-and how, at this distance of time, and lost as so many works of that period are, can we separate what really is from what is not his own? 66 66 M "The players retrenched, transposed, and even altered "the text, to suit the audience or please themselves. Who "knows how much rust they rubbed off? I am sure there "is rust and base metal to spare left in the old plays. "When Leigh Hunt comes we shall have battles enough "about those old ruffiani, the old dramatists, with their " tiresome conceits, their jingling rhymes, and endless 66 66 66 play upon words. It is but lately that people have been "satisfied that Shakspeare was not a god, nor stood alone "in the age in which he lived; and yet how few of the "plays, even of that boasted time, have survived, and fewer still are now acted! Let us count them. Only one of Massinger's (New Way to pay Old Debts), one of Ford's,* one of Ben Jonson's, and half-a-dozen of Shakspeare's; "and of these last, The Two Gentlemen of Verona' and " "The Tempest' have been turned into operas. You cannot "call that having a theatre. Now that Kemble has left the "stage, who will endure Coriolanus? Lady Macbeth died "with Mrs. Siddons, and Polonius will with Munden. Shakspeare's Comedies are quite out of date; many of "them are insufferable to read, much more to see. They 66 66 6 are gross food, only fit for an English or German palate; * Of which I have forgot the name he mentioned. 66 they are indigestible to the French and Italians, the politest people in the world. One can hardly find ten "lines together without some gross violation of taste or 66 66 decency. What do you think of Bottom in the 'Midsummer Night's Dream?' or of Troilus' and Cres"sida's passion?" "You Here I could not help interrupting him by saying, have named the two plays that, with all their faults, contain, perhaps, some of the finest poetry.” 66 Yes," said he, "in "Troilus and Cressida :' 66 - Prophet may you be! "If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth. "When Time is old, and hath forgot itself, "When water-drops have worn the stones of Troy, up, "And mighty states characterless are grated "To dusty nothing,-yet let memory "From false to false, among false maids in love, 66 Upbraid my falsehood! when they 've said,--As false "As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth, "As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf, "Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son; |