so! Come, let us hence, dear Osmar, and leave all care for the hereafter to Cupid, God of Love !33

Bul. It is impossible; the Princess cannot pass these gates without the special order of the Emperor. The guardians of the Valley of Emeralds dare not suffer her to quit it. Their death would pay the forfeit of their disobedience.

Osm. 'Tis but too true.

Fan. Then all our hopes are vain.4

35 (Shows a

Wilk. Not so fast: never despair while I am with you.35

ring.) What's this?

Fan. O joy! my father's ring."

Wilk. Who'll oppose us now, I should like to see! The Emperor gave this to Kheran for the very purpose. Master Kheran and I had a sort of tussle together, you must know; and in the fight he dropped it from his finger-and here it is.

Ösm. How shall we thank you?

So take my arm,

Wilk. By coming out of this place as fast as you can. my little Bulbul, and let us trudge on. Friend Osmar, do you lead the way.

[Going.

Guard (approaching). You cannot pass. Wilk. Can't pass! Come, that's a good joke! (Draws his knife.) Pray, friend, did you ever happen to peep in at my shop-window in the Old Bailey, and see me knock off a chicken's head at a stroke?

Guard. No trifling; attempt to pass and you are a dead man.

Wilk. Am I? (Shows the ring.) Just look at this, my little bantam. Guard. Ha! the Emperor's ring! Pass.

Wilk. So, it is pass now, is it? But I say, my friend, if ever you venture to talk to Bob Wilkins again about his being a dead man, he'll just whisk off your head, turban and all; make a foot-ball of it, and trundle it all the way to Eloris. Ha, ha, ha! (Laughs heartily.)

Scene VI.-A ravine leading to the Yellow Desert.

Enter KHERAN.

[Exeunt.

Khe. Yet no reply from Osmar! Should he refuse his aid, then must Khoraddin, the fiery spirit of the Deserts, be invoked, and he will lend me his unearthly succour. But, hark! I hear the tramp of a speed-impelled courser. Ha! this way the sound is borne. I see the rider's form down. bent with urging haste. An Arab, by his garment. Ha! he is here. (JAFFNAH, on horseback, gallops on.) Speak! art thou friend or foe? (JAFFNAH makes a sign that he is unarmed) Unarmed! Thou art Jaffnah, Osmar's faithful follower, and bringest Osmar's greeting to Kheran: I am he. (JAFFNAH, by signs, expresses his unwillingness to doubt a gentleman's word; but, at the same time, his mission being of deep importance, he is bound to exercise the utmost circumspection in the execution of it. Nay, doubt it not-let this convince thee. (Shows the tusk suspended round his neck, and JAFFNAH delivers him a scroll-he reads:) "Follow my faithful mute-he will conduct thee safely to Osmar's presence." Enough; I follow thee. Now, then, the die is cast.

(JAFFNAH blows a bugle; instantly an Arab gallops in, dismounts, and

33 Pretty; but not strictly Persian.

34 Do the ingrates forget their friend from the Old Bailey?

85 We were sure of him.

35 So much is attempted by certain professors of the pantomimic art, that we do not despair of seeing Hamlet's soliloquies, or even a chapter in Locke, delivered by signs.

gives his horse to KHERAN, who mounts it. JAFFNAH, after making several turns about the stage 37, gallops off, followed by KHERAN.

Scene VII.-The Arab Encampment by Moonlight; Horses in various picturesque groups and positions are seen; a quantity of Men strewed about amongst them. On the right is a perpendicular Cataract, on the left an inaccessible mountain, and in the distance an impregnable Fortress. Beyond this is seen the lonely Pyramid of the Fiery Spirit Khoraddin.

[We had intended to give the whole of this splendid, grand, magnificent, eastern, equestrian, elephantic spectacle; but having presented our readers with sufficient to convey to them a general notion of its plot of the powerfully-fine writing of the serious portions of its dialogue-and of the wit and humour of the comic, we will proceed no further nor need we. The principal business of the remainder is clearly indicated by the description of Scene VII.; and even the more minute points will be easily anticipated by such of our readers as have witnessed the exhibitions of this kind during the last twenty years. Kheran will, of course, invoke the fiery spirit, who will, of course, in exchange for his soul, invest him with a magic talisman, which, in the hour of his need, will of course fail him. There will, of course, be a general battle between the horses and the elephantine legions; troops of cavalry will, of course, rush down the perpendicular cataract; the inaccessible mountain will, of course, be scaled, and the impregnable fortress will, of course, be taken. The women will, of course, be in the midst and thickest of the fight, and, of course, escape unhurt. Osmar, of course, the victor, will, of course, be declared the rightful heir to the throne; of course he will marry Fantullah, who, of course, will give Bulbul in marriage to Bob Wilkins, who, of course, has performed prodigies of valour, and who also, of course (he the said à-la-mode beef man) is made prime minister to the new emperor of Eloris. Of course, the whole will conclude with the appearance of the fiery spirit of the desert, who will, of course, bear away the traitor Kheran, in the midst of the most magnificent display of crimson-and-blue fire, of course, ever presented on any stage.]

7 There seems to be no other necessity for such an evolution than—that it is always performed.

38" Men strewed about amongst them!" Were not the word in the MS. as plain as a pike-staff, we should have been inclined to read sau-dust. But we must not complain; men have had their day on the stage-'tis the horses' turn now, They cannot both be uppermost in consideration at the same time.

THE BOBOLI GARDENS, FLORENCE.

A CHARM-BUILT lovely Nature!--but severe
Reined in and stately!-Here the alley-walks
Seem proud of their court-chains, with walls of clear
Colossal verdure, built all round, and roofed
With the broad bending skies, at eventide
One uniformity of unbroken blue

Depth within depth, a bold embracing frame
To the earth's picture. Every nameless hue,
From the sharp bronzing light which takes direct
Yon mass of shadows in their midst, to greens
Of thick sepulchral darkness; sullen greys,
And gleams of mystic wanness, sad cold blacks
Spread pall-like near the day, and riotously
Dashes of red rejoicing in their strength,-
All, all, are here, a wayward crowd, best seen
Tangled with noontide dreams, thro' half-shut eye,
When buried voices wake, and the moved heart
Gives up its prisoners. Here let us pause
Awhile, and breathe; life moves within us here
Like the faint flow and ebb of sleep:-how smooth
Peace spreads upon the world! here let us sit
By the blue stone bench, muffled well with things
Of every beauty, prodigal, and proud,

And overflushed with life-or near yon broad
And tranquilling glass of waters, starred

With bashful flowers, or with the haughtier crowd
Of foreign beauties, shrub with linked shrub
Mosaic bright, the sultry hours wear down,
Building our reveries for many a day

Thro' the long future. What fair shapes are these!
Peeping at every step, from mystic nook,
Then lost again-then found: bevies of nymphs,
Naiads, and warriors bowered in wood, or case,
And happy islands, floating some, some fixed
In the mid-waters, chapletted with flowers,
Or high pasillimed with a waste of wood
Let forth at once. Lo! in the midst, as god
Of the well-guarded lake, strong Neptune sits,
Wrapt in his deity, on his car of sponge
Now frozen into stone, and by him sweep
Deep-plunging horse and horsemen ; and still on
Her white uncumbered side, the lake-nymph swells
Half-arched, above the waters, to the eye

Of lurking satyr, and the waters glide
Wooingly round her, as for love, or now
Sudden, like spark on spark, from Triton conch
Strike out grotesquely. Fair and solemn spot!
I must not soon forget thee!

RECORDS OF A STAGE VETERAN.-NO. V.

Predecessors of Mathews.-Foote was the founder of what Miss Kelly might call the sola system; in his performance, however, he was aided by others. After him, Tate, Wilkinson, and many others, gave entertainments à la Foote; then G. A. Steevens started with his Lectures on Heads; Lee Lewis followed in his footsteps; Henderson gave some readings at the Freemasons' Tavern; and the thing was getting out of fashion when Collins started his Evening Brush; then Aaron Kean (uncle, as it is said by some, father, as reputed by others, of the tragedian) gave a mixed performance of stories, songs, ventriloquism, and legerdemain. Charles Dibdin about this time commenced his entertainments, which, from their literary merits, rather than his powers, either vocal or mimetic, were extraordinarily attractive; he very happily fell in with the feeling of the time, and made as much by the sale of his songs as by the performance. Edwin contemplated an "At Home" a little before his death. When Dibdin's years increased, and his attraction failed, a season or two elapsed without any adventurer starting. Bannister was induced at last to open his " Budget at the Freemasons: he was succeeded by the man who is indeed in himself a theatre.

Charles Dibdin. It has been said that his pathetic ballads were really from the pen of Bickerstaff, who fled from England many years since, but who had been a kind friend to Dibdin in his youth and poverty. Dr. Kitchener, who was a warm admirer of Dibdin, believed that two or three songs were Bickerstaff's; but admitting, for argument's sake, thirty to have been his, enough are left to prove Charles a first-rate lyrist in his peculiar style. Poor Dibdin was very Mahomedan in his notions respecting the other sex, and he generally gave feasts on the birth-days of his sultanas; when I knew him two feast-days per week must have been about the average. He was a shrewd man-an accurate, not an acute observer-a good musician-had an extensive voice, but almost wholly without tone: his style of entertainment would not be endured now-it was too sentimental-there never was a hearty laugh to be had out of him.

George Alexander Steevens.-It is perhaps little known that this celebrated man, whose reputation in his day was greater as it is now less than it ought to be, expired" a driveller and a shew;" nay, what is still worse, lived for years a piteous spectacle of dotage and imbecility. I well remember in my boyhood seeing poor Steevens led about by a footboy; he was in a hopeless state as regarded his intellect, though he was not very old (he did not appear above fifty or fifty-five), nor was he suffering from any bodily infirmity. Mr. Ireland (father of Shakspeare Ireland) told many anecdotes of Steevens-his distresses, his humour, and his subsequent good fortune. By his lecture on heads he netted in America, about 1765, upwards of 20007., and was the first English dramatic adventurer who went through the States. A poem of his, similar in character to Savage's "Bastard," contained some powerful writing; speaking of himself in this, he says—

"Pleased with each passion, I pursued their aim,
Cheered the gay pack and grasped the guilty game;
Revelled regardless, leaped reflection o'er,

"Till youth, 'till health, fame, fortune, are no more."

If his early life had been one of riot and pleasure, never was there commentary more awfully striking than his appearance inage (say 1778 or 1779) -pale, slavering, and idiotic, tottering and laughing vacantly, as he went down Swallow-street and through the cross street to Hay-hill, which was then the walk they took him every morning: he was subsequently removed to the country, but he never recovered-he died in 1784 or 1785.

The three Drury-lane Theatres.-Old Drury-lane, or, as it was generally called, Garrick's theatre, was taken down in 1791: it was about the size of the present Haymarket theatre. The Old Drury that arose in 1793 (and which was burnt down in 1809) held 3,611 persons, producing 8261. 6s. ; Drury-lane, built in 1812, would hold 2,810 persons, producing 7501.; and Drury-lane, as altered by Mr. Beasley, in 1822, holds 2,790 persons, producing 7487.

Original Professions of Performers.-Very few actors have been regularly bred to the stage, as the following list of professions, trades, and callings, in which they were originally engaged, and which they left for the sock and buskin, will show :

Law, in the various branches of that profession-Serle, Harley, Buckstone, Browne, George Smith, Munden, T. Knight, Wrench.

Physic-Young, Sherwin, Rumball, Stephen Kemble.
Divinity-John and Charles Kemble.

Army, in different ranks-Warde, Yates, Jack Johnstone, G. F. Cooke, Hooper, Mude, Benson Hill, and Sinclair.

Navy-Incledon, Pearman, G. Bennett, T. P. Cooke, O. Smith, W.

Bennett.

Artists-Bannister, Pope, E. Knight (little Knight).

Printers Oxberry (the late), Blanchard, Keeley, Charles Baker, Wilson (the singer), Davidge.

Mathews was a bookseller; Liston a schoolmaster; Jones an architect; Reeve a banker's clerk.

Kean, the two Wallacks, Emery, F. and J. Vining, Grimaldi, Miss Kelly, Mrs. Davison, Mrs. Glover, Mrs. Yates, Mrs. Orger, Mrs. Gibbs, and Mrs. C. Kemble, were bred from infancy (with two exceptions, and in those cases from very early years) to the stage.

A Stage Trick.-A comedian at present in great repute was some seven or eight years since in great embarrassments, and, to use his own phrase, could not street-ize; he ate, drank, and slept in the theatre; divers scions of the Doe family essayed in vain; at length D——s, the officer, got admittance to the theatre during a rehearsal. "Faustus" was about to be produced, and had the comedian been secured the theatre would have been reduced to great inconvenience. D- watched his victim, and was walking towards him, when the actor, with extraordinary presence of mind, threw himself upon the vampire trap, and went through the stage, as if by magic. That piece of stage machinery (now common in many pieces) had then never been exhibited in London. The officer grew terrified, and picking his way over the stage, like a tabby over a muddy crossing, walked out of the theatre.

W. Farren's Shylock.-For this character, though out of his usual line, Mr. Farren has a great desire, and frequently plays it for his benefit. He is not very portly now, but when he enacted Shylock at Birmingham, he was certainly one of Pharaoh's lean kine. The performance went pretty smoothly until Shylock says

"The pound of flesh that I demand is mine,

'Tis dearly bought, and I will have it."

When a fellow in the gallery called out, "Oh! let old skinny have the pound of flesh, you can see he wants it bad enough."

*To the uninitiated it may be necessary to say that these traps are formed of part of the boarding of the stage, detached from the rest, and put on hinges; they are kept up by pullies and a weight nearly according to the weight of the individual who is to dash through; his additional weight, and the impetus with which he comes, makes the boards yield and he falls into a sort of hammock which is continually slung beneath. The effect, as most of my readers know, is extraordinary and startling-the operation occupies less than two seconds.