other clime would have used such an expression as "horse exercise." It is redolent of the Epping Hunt. "The new jockey mounted with alacrity, and whipped and spurred with all his characteristic energy." Incredible. Such could never have been the conduct of one "who at Bartholomew Fair injured his shins so severely whilst riding in the ring, that his legs, otherwise exceedingly wellshaped, never entirely recovered their original beauty." He must have been up to a thing or two above that-and we take upon ourselves to assert, that he never so much as called upon his horse till within the distance-post, and began to apply the persuaders when close upon the booth denominated the Grand Stand. Difficult as this Cockney-whose hand, no doubt, is " open as day to melting charity"-says Kean found it to extract "siller" from the pockets of the "kail-gatherers" of "the prudent land of North Britain," we find, that in the extremity of this ragged company's wretchedness, a person with whom Kean had made acquaintance, clubbed with some friends, and sent them a purse containing several pounds." This was almost as liberal as the largesse of Mrs Clarke, wife of "the grave stout man who had left off going to plays," who lent Kean's mother, Miss Carey, a shilling "to take the spangled tiffaney petticoat out of pawn when she wanted to appear in it at Richmond to morrow." Some years afterwards Kean again visited Dumfries. "Towards our poor tragedian, Dumfries certainly did not exhibit any very liberal patronage. He arrived there without money, took refuge in a poor public house, hired a room, and announced, in the usual attractive style, his intention to give exhibitions of singing and recitations. We do not know what might have been his expectations from the gratitude! or admiration of the people of Dumfries, before whom he had played repeatedly some few years previously; but whatever they were, they were speedily converted into certainty. The night for his performance arrived. The entrance-money (he had an eye to the national character) was sixpence. Sixpence! Let the reader pause upon the sum, and then let him know that there was in the house-(for house read room, as aforesaid)-how much? Twenty pounds? Ten? Five? One? Ten shillings, perhaps? Or-we must cut the matter short-there was sixpence in the house? There was one person in Dumfries bold enough to part with sixpence to hear the FIRST TRAGEDIAN OF HIS TIME! recite the beautiful words of Shakspeare. How we should like to know the name of that ONE, (the Great Unknown of Dumfries!) in order that we might celebrate his liberal spirit with due honour." Its Dumfries is a beautiful town of the fourth order-and like Kilkenny "it shines well where it stands,”and that is on the side of the Nithmost lucid of our rivers-the Tweed alone excepted - and the clouds know that they all are clear. inhabitants are a cheerful people; and we hope they will not sink under the satire of one who "does not presume to be a wit." Kean arrived among them, it would appear, almost in a state of starvation, from Whitehaven, which we believe is in England. At Whitehaven he had arrived almost in a state of starvation from Waterford, which we believe is in Ireland, where, "to get rid of the debts and difficulties that surrounded him, he gave an entertainment (songs and recitations) at the Assembly-House, which produced a trifle; sold some articles of dress which yielded a little more, and thus slenderly provided bade farewell to Ireland.' Almost in a state of starvation he had arrived in Waterford from Swansea, which we believe is in Wales-and almost in a state of starvation he had arrived in Swansea from Birmingham-via Bristolboth of which populous places we perceive named in the map of England. Indeed the account of the journey on foot made by Kean and his wife from Birmingham to Bristol and thence to Swansea-would be affecting, but for its affectation, and every other vice of the Cockneyschool. They walked slowly, for Mrs Kean was now very infirm many months gone with child-and arranged that they should travel about ten or twelve miles a-day if possible. "Kean, dressed in blue from head to foot, with his dark, sharp resolute face, a black stock, and four swords over his shoulder (suspending the family-bundle of clothes) looked like a poor little navy lieutenant, whom the wars had left on half-pay and penniless, trudging on with his wife to his native village." Yet, excepting from a kind-hearted schoolmistress, and an irascible, but charitable landlady of an inn, they met not with a single look, word, or act of benevolence on their transit through one of the richest districts of England. We are told indeed that this resemblance (to a poor little navy lieutenant and his wife) "procured them, from time to time, some little attentions, and always commanded respect." But some little attentions and much respect are not what empty stomachs yearn for, and they were hungred. A few miles from Swansea, Kean "endeavoured to obtain from the occupier of a cottage a little milk for his wife, who was sinking with fatigue. The churl refused." He was not among the "kail-gatherers of Dumfries-shire""brose" would now have been a luxury indeed—and we speak from experience when we say, that not a churl among all the "bonnie blue hills of Scotland" would have refused a cup of milk-had there been any in the house-to a naval man asking it for a woman fainting by the wayside. sees in ships-while the less that is said the better about the scabbards. What is “a family-bundle of clothes?" Was it supposed to contain all the lieutenant's traps as well as his wife's? or is it generally believed between Birmingham and Bristol that a navy lieutenant, on his return perhaps from a foreign station, seldom possesses more than a spare shirt? We have in our day seen as many navy lieutenants as most land-lubbers, and have frequently met or overtaken one padding the hoof, but never with four swords over his shoulder, either with or without the family-bundle of clothes. Too many of them have wives-indeed, on an average, every officer in the navy has one wifebut who ever saw a navy lieutenant "trudging on with his wife to his native village?" Where the devil were they trudging from? Does the biographer fondly and dotingly believe that navy lieutenants are allowed to take their wives with them to sea—that the ladies belong regularly to the gun-room mess, and that nothing is more common in an officer's cabin than an accouchement? It would seem as if he did, for Mrs Kean was now great with child. There is something exceedingly rural and romantic to our ear in the words "native village." "Our hero" is always born in a "native But did Kean really look like "a village." If a sailor-far inlandpoor little navy lieutenant?" What and thence his passion for the sea. signs did he show of the service? But "our hero"-if a poor navy He was "dressed in blue from head lieutenant-on going to sea, almost to foot." But that will not of itself always leaves his wife in her or his make a man look the least like a "native village," with an aunt or a navy lieutenant? Was his coat cut grandmother. This arrangement preaccording to the regulations? Was vents the necessity of trudging to he in the naval uniform? Did his and fro Portsmouth, Plymouth, Falbutton bear the anchor? Nothing of mouth, &c. which may be one and the sort. But then there were all remote from "our native village" "four swords over his shoulder, sus--and thus saves much shoe-leather. pending the family bundle of clothes." That was at least three too many, for you seldom see a navy lieutenant on the high-road, at a distance from any sea-port town, with a sword at all, and, indeed, what would be the use of it? Why, to bear the family bundle of clothes. You may tell that to the marines. Then such swords! Not lath, perhaps but probably tin-but, of whatever metal composed, certainly with no family resemblance to those one cr The pay of a "navy lieutenant" is not high, Heaven knows; but "the wars" did not leave our tars" penniless”— though too many of them poor; and indeed no man can be truly said to be "penniless" who is at the same time truly on "half-pay." One seldom has an opportunity afforded him of becoming acquainted with so very silly a passage as this—and it deserves a reprint. "Kean, dressed in blue from head to foot, with his dark, sharp resolute face, a black stock, and four swords over his shoulder (suspending the family bundle of clothes), looked like a poor little navy lieutenant whom the wars had left on half-pay and penniless, trudging on, with his wife, to his native village." From Whitehaven to Dumfries Kean travelled in a superior stylein a taxed cart-with the owner thereof his own wife and two children-like an admiral. "At that time our tragedian had a dog called Daran, so named after the black hero in the Exile.' Daran was a fine fellow, who trotted merrily by the side of the family carriage (we hear no more of the family bundle), and killed sheep by the way." In case the provident reader should be desirous of knowing at what expense he may transfer his family, after the before-mentioned fashion, from Whitehaven to Dumfries, be it known that it will cost him four pounds. If he have a dog like Daran, indeed, who can provide mutton for his family, he may perhaps do it for less. For Kean, it is proper to observe, did not use his fourfooted friend as a purveyor. "Whatever the hunter Daran killed, he consumed or left." The "aforesaid cart "and "the before-mentioned fashion" -are very felicitous phrases-so are "fine fellow," "fourfooted friend," and our tragedian." "Our biographer," with all his sneers about "siller," is not the man who would give by mistake a sovereign for a shilling, to the Jehu of a cab. In money matters he is by no means magnificent-and speaks of the circulating medium with all the precision of a scrivener. He pretends here to think "four pounds" a ludicrously small sum-a taxed cart a humble vehicle; but" the provident reader" will know better than to travel at such ruinous expense from Whitehaven to Dumfries-for he may steam it in the steerage for a pound with his whole establishment. Had Daran killed a single sheep by the way, he would not have been suffered to kill a second-and as for "consuming" whatever he killed,-there is no mention of mice,-nobody would have said so who knew any thing about the doings of dogs when athirst for the blood of the woolly people. "If you have a dog like Daran, indeed, who can provide mutton for his family, he may perhaps do it for less " and get hanged at the public expense. Seeing that Kean in England, Kean in Wales, Kean in Ireland, was almost always in a state bordering on starvation, why should his biographer discharge all the vials of his wrath on the heads of the people of Dumfries? "We do not know what might have been his expectation from the gratitude! or admiration of the people of Dumfries!" Gratititude for what? For having "played repeatedly before them some few years previously!" The whole town with the gallant De Peyster at their head-should have gone out some miles on the road to Annan to meet the stroller. So had they fitly shown their "gratitude" to the illustrious personage, for "the purse containing several pounds" with which some of the citizens had presented him on his former advent. "The entrance money" (he had an eye to the national character) "was sixpence." Many a time and oft, in the dominions of the lineal descendants of King Lud, had he exhibited himself standing on his head to any Cockney who could raise half that sum; nor, in his empty booth, dreamt of charging England with the crime of national ingratitude. "What, sir, can you expect for sixpence?" yet sixpence is not a sum to be sneezed at by a people of "kail-gatherers," who live on "brose and oatmeal." Kean was a better philosopher and political economist than his biographer, and "had an eye" not so much to the national character as to the national resources. Scotland was then, and is now, comparatively a poor country, yet she had then, and has now, fewer paupers than her opulent sister. The lower classes have still something else to do with their sixpences-s0 they think-than to give them to strolling players, traversing the country in taxed carts, and with sheep-killing Newfoundland dogs. A Cockney must not think to understand the national character till he has mastered the subject of "brose." He asks" how much was there in the HOUSE? Twenty pounds ?" Kean "had taken refuge in a public house, and hired a room to give exhibitions of singing and recitations." In twenty pounds there are eight hundred sixpences and could this cruel Cockney have crowded into one hired room-say twenty feet by fifteen-eight hun dred Christian bodies and souls ? wits with the rust of Levinz and Comberbach, did not choose to run the risk of becoming dullards by listening to the puerile fancies of Shakspeare." Such teasing trash is enough to irritate one's temper, and we feel half-disposed to give the creature the knout. But we know he would shriek so piteously, that our tender heart could not endure to hear him, so we leave his toby to be tickled by some more truculent critic exempli gratia OLIVER YORK. Yet here is an interesting passage though it begins and ends sillily -and is sprinkled with sillinesses throughout and, therefore, was called by us the silliest book of the season. "After leaving Carlisle, our adventurers visited Appleby, Penrith (where their finances compelled them to part with the mutton-eating Daran), Richmond, in Yorkshire, and various other places, and at last found themselves-utterly destitute "There was sixpence in the HOUSE!" Nobody troubled their heads about the announcement "of his intention to give exhibitions of singing and recitations," though made in the "usual attractive style," and poor Kean had-as usual-to sell part of his library and wardrobe. However, "There was one person in Dumfries bold enough to part with sixpence to hear the FIRST TRAGEDIAN OF HIS TIME recite the beautiful words of Shakspeare." We daresay he recited them very welland that Sixpence the representative of the monied interest in Dumfries-smiled as brightly as on the morn he issued from the Mint. Perhaps there would have been a more overflowing HOUSE, had the Dumfriesians been supernaturally inspired with the knowledge of the fact, that the stroller who "wrote out his bills (which he always did to save the expense of printing), and despatched his usual herald, the bellman, with them round the city," or town, or village, was indeed" the first tragedian of his time." But that was not known to man who is born of a woman and to trouble as the sparks fly upward-till some years laterwhen it was suddenly revealed to the people on the boards of Drury--the tears of the woman, and the Lane. "The ONE-the great unknown of Dumfries "-whose name our friend would like to know, "in order that he might celebrate his liberal spirit with due honour"was a half-witted annuitant—a resident but not a native-endearingly called "Daft Jock"-but his real name was Bauldie Strang. In merry Carlisle -a few days afterwards" the landlord, in answer to the clamours of the children for food, said that he had nothing to give them;" and the assizes having thrown a large quantity of lawyers into the city, Kean addressed a letter to the barristers, proposing to recite only, and to leave the reward to their generosity; but the answer was, that they did not want to hear any thing of the sort. "Our learned friends, accustomed to sharpen their VOL. XXXVIII. NO. CCXXXVII. at York. It is needless to repeat the everyday wants and troubles which the poor actor and his family, day after day, encountered in this and other peregrinations. Their long journeys, in all weathers,—their arrivals, weary and foot-sore, at the squalid public-houses where they put up, their scanty meals,—their visits to the pawnbroker and the Jew, their hopeless appeals to the public taste, the cries of the children (from fatigue or want of food), At curses of the man,-all these, fifty F of extricating her infants from the load of misery and want which oppressed them. More than once, she has knelt down by the side of her bed, in which the two half-famished children lay, and prayed that they and herself might at once be released from their sufferings. Happily they were relieved by the intervention of a friend. The wife of a Mr Nokes (then a dancing-master at York) heard of their extreme distress, and went with a heart brimful of benevolence to their aid. She was shown up to the room where Mrs Kean and the children were, and after having ascertained the truth of the report concerning their condition, she spoke kindly to them all, put something in Mrs Kean's hand, wished her good morning, and left the house. On her departure, Mrs Kean opened the paper which this excellent woman had left, and discovered that she had given her a L.5 bank note! She threw herself on her knees, and fainted. They had been rescued from absolute starvation. "Mrs Nokes's kindness did not stop here. She interested her husband on behalf of her protegés; and he (who seems to have deserved such a wife) lent Kean the room in which he received his pupils. An impediment, indeed, was unexpect edly thrown in the way of this kind act, by Nokes's landlord (a person of the name of Flower, a clergyman), who said that no theatrical people should have the room;' but this was finally surmounted by the independent spirit of Nokes. He resolved that Kean should have the use of the room, and accordingly the tragedian had it, gave his recitations in it, and cleared L.9 by his exertions. Before we leave York for London, the next stage in our hero's journey, let us consecrate one sentence to the memory of this excellent pair. The active benevolence of the wife, and the kindness and resolute spirit of the husband, ought never to be forgotten. We wish that our history were immortal for their sakes." The Nokeses were a truly excellent pair, and their goodness had a reward "transcending in its worth" such feeble and affected eulogy. Does the writer who "wishes that our history were immortal for their sakes," suppose that such acts of kindness are rare among such people? Every one who knows any thing of human life, in a Christian country like ours, knows that they are common-and are performed without a thought of their being meritorious on the part of those who cheerfully make the sacrifice. We have ourselves known of hundreds, yet not one of the parties actively concerned in such relief would have thanked us for letting their next-door neighbour know of what they had done, so little did they think of what was in course of nature-for such benevolence is a virtue natural to all goodhearted people who are thoughtful enough to reflect on the precariousness of their own condi tion. After a long weary journey, "partly on foot, partly by provincial carts, or by the common waggons," the family were at last within a few miles of London. How else, pray, were people without money to travel? Taxed carts, provincial carts, common waggons, are all comfortable conveyances; and are all ordinarily used by persons in every way more respectable than strolling players. Our tears will not flow for such miseries-they are all in the way of the profession and many a family have we seen solacing themselves among the straw within those moving mountains that loom not unmagnificently, emerging perhaps from the morning mist, or from some noble grove through which passes some one of the many thousand royal roads of England, seldom seen for a minute at a time without the appearance of human life. Kean never had conduct; and, therefore, he was seldom out of want. Turbulent pleasures he often enjoyed-but how few days-hours of happiness! He had many good qualities; but virtues as well as vices, are habits and he never had resolution to persist in well-doing long enough to make it easy and pleasant-his life was broken into fragments - some fiery-some cold almost as death. But we are not going to philosophize to moralise; but leave that to his biographer. Our travellers were now within five miles of London. "Now," said Kean, "we will walk the remainder alone." "It was a word and a blow with him. He dismounted; sent forward the children in the |