911] Kean's Richard III.-Memoirs of Morland, the Painter. thing of apparent indecision is perhaps attributable to the circumstance of her only acting at present on particular occasions. An actress who appears only once a year cannot play so well as if she was in the habit of acting once a week.--Examiner. MR. KEAN IN DUBLIN. 1912 cular spot, but, when thrown into strong relief by an adventitious ray, you instantly acknowledge its presence and its power. We do not mean by any means to defend Mr. Kean's Readings. Nay, we think some of them erroneous---but we feel persuaded, that, if the eye is watched---if the labouring soul is followed THE announcement of Mr. Kean brought through all the workings of his countenance, one of the most crowded houses this season. It much of that censure which has been lavished was absolutely crammed. We own we were upon Mr. Kean's New Readings, as they are called, must vanish. One thing, however, glad, independently of the pleasure which we should be recollected, that, though those readalways feel when talent is honoured, at the ings occasionally bring down" plaudits, view of the house last night. We really thought that the people of Dublin were stolen they are only the secondary beauties of Mr. Kean's performance. If they were all omitted away by the ears---that they were music mad, though we should miss some peculiarities, and that they had not a soul for the severer Richard, in Mr. Kean's personation, would be beauties of Tragedy. But we rejoice to find as effective as it is. In fact, it is this peculiarithat they only want the proper attraction-ty that has given Mr. Kean such sway and and that they know how to value, as becomes masterdom in his profession---it is the pervading themselves and him, the performance of such mind---it is the vigour and the soul which pervades and inspires the man---the mens agitat molem--the living and exhaustless light--the fire in his heart, and the fire in his brain, which glows with such intenseness, and shines out with such brilliancy---these are the secrets of Mr. Kean's success; and, when another actor shall be so fortunate as to find them, he may an actor as Mr. Kean. calculate on the same renown. His entré was greeted, as might be easily expected, with the most enthusiastic welcome; and his first speech, given with familiar and original boldness, was applauded to the echo that should applaud again. The eyes of this man are truly magical. Those in a remote part of the Theatre, who are not blest with strong sight, can have no idea what wonders We have left ourselves no place for particuhe does with the piercing, rapid alteration of lar criticism. Nor, indeed, is it necessary. this organ. It is the glass of Banquo. All We are all familiar with Mr. Kean's Richard, the passions in the royalty of nature, appear and should only repeat what has been said a and vanish on its changing surface. It begins thousand times by an induction of particulars. to speak before the lips move, and it occasion- Suffice it to say, then, that it was bloody, bold, ally belies the language of the lips. Hence and dangerous---that the sarcasms were given the panses, which, to those who can see the with infinite bitterness, and the hypocrisy outline of the face alone, appear sometimes maintained with consummate address. But it uncalled for, or contrary to the ordinary is in the fire, and stir, and bustle of the piece that reading of the text, when accompanied with Mr. Kean, to use a familiar term, is at home--the pregnant comment of the eye become in that he blazes, and burns, and goes out at a moment natural, forcible, and striking. His eye is like a sudden beam of light upon a hid-length, like a Volcano, with an explosion that is tremendous.---Dublin Paper, July 1, 1817. den truth. You do not expect it in any parti Μ MEMOIRS OF EMINENT PERSONS. GEORGE MORLAND, THE PAINTER.* From La Belle Assemblee, ORLAND had taken a house in ed in it with only a boy to attend on him. Charlotte-street, Fitzroy-square, These were the periods, when left to after having obtained a fourth letter of thought and reflection, that he would relicence. Here his establishment soon minate on his folly, and lament his many bore the appearance of confirmed irregu- mispent hours; for the heart of Morland larity: his domestic life had little to at- was never corrupt, however depraved tach a man of such dissipated habits, and was his general conduct: frequent were he had no children to engage him to alter the resolutions he made to reform, but them though a very sincere regard sub- these always vanished at the end of a sisted between him and his wife, yet their few weeks; domestic differences drove disagreements were frequent, and he was him from home, and his vicious companoften absent from his home for three or ions again drew him into the vortex of four months together, during which time his former dissipations. she would quit her house to reside with her parents, leaving the premises without any superintendant; and it was no unusual thing for her, on any of their disputes, to quit her home, while he remain *Concluded from Ath. Vol. I. p. 834. His constitution at length yielded to the assaults of excess: his eye-sight failed, his hand shook, his spirits flagged, and the melancholy idea of putting an end to his existence sometimes assailed his mind to avoid this act of despondency. 913] Memoirs of Morland, the Painter. [914 he became yet more intemperate, till, after next took shelter at Mr. Merle's, carver an attack of apoplexy, he brought on a and gilder, in Leadenhall-street; bere he complication of disorders; and the con- met with true kindness, Mr. Merle being finement to which he submitted, in order one of those few friends who never took to elude the pursuits of his creditors, ac- advantage of his distresses. Morland's celerated the progress of his diseases. He conduct here serves to shew how much seldom quitted his painting room till it real kindness, wrought on a disposition was time to go to bed, and took his meals naturally good, and that to the mistaken behind his easel, though never at regular rigidity of his well-meaning father might periods. Beef-steaks and onions, with be attributed his governing himself with purl, gin, and a pot of porter, generally so loose a rein when he arrived at mancomposed his breakfast: his dinner he hood. During his stay at Mr. Merle's, would take at eleven, twelve, one, or he laboured diligently in his profession, three o'clock, just as his appetite prompt- he rose at six, and continued painting till ed, very seldom eating his meals with his three or four: the pernicious habit of wife during the whole day he swallow- drinking spirits, he could not, however," ed every kind of strong liquor, never resolve to quit; it increased upon him," drinking tea. and though he was so industrious during When he found he could no longer the day, he seldom retired to bed till two reside in Charlotte-street, he removed to or three hours after midnight. Chelsea, where he was arrested by an old Fancying himself insecure, be retreated friend, to whom he owed upwards of to Hackney, where the neighbours were three hundred pounds, the artist was, astonished at the vast sums he was said however, soon extricated from this diffi- to receive, and the profusion with which culty, having always bail at his command. His next removal was to Lambeth, where he lodged with his man in the house of a waterman; yet he here began to doubt his security, and took a ready-furnished house at East Sheen, where he resided for some time, till he was betrayed by another of his creditors, in whom he had placed his confidence. When this affair was arranged, he took up his abode in Queen Ann-street, East, where he remained perfectly safe for three months, though in the midst of his creditors. he spent them in short, they suspected he was there for no good, and after several surmises, they concluded that he was a fabricator of forged Bank notes; and an information was lodged against him. Morland seeing the officers coming, retreated the back way, over the fields to London, leaving his wife to receive the strangers. The officers broke open every drawer, searched every place, but finding only unfinished pictures, pipes, pots, and whimsical sketches, an explanation took place, and they retired. In 1798, Mr. Lynn, a surgeon in Westminster, attended Mrs. Morland in an illness, and Morland expressing a wish to be rid of the set that haunted him, Mr. Lynn, who had a picturesque cottage at Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, generously offered him the use of it. Mrs. Morland and her servant immediately went thither, in April, 1799, and was soon followed In November, 1797, Morland's father died, at the age of eighty-five: and soon after this event our artist was advised to claim the dormant title of Baronet, which had been left by Sir Samuel Morland, an ingenious mechanic and mathematician, on whom it was conferred by Charles II., and from whom Morland was lineally descended. Finding, however, that no emolument was attached to by her husband and his man. it, but that it would be assumed not Though the alledged object of his without great expence, he relinquished journey was retirement, the apartment in the design, observing, that plain George which he painted was filled with sailors, Morland would always sell his pictures, fishermen, and smugglers, from morning and there was more honour in being a to night; yet the general conduct of fine painter than a titled gentleman. Morland was such as to gain the friendAfter several removals, he hired lodg- ship of Mr. Lynn, who recommended ings in the house of a methodist cobler, him to an excellent patron in a medical at Kennington-green, who made many friend, who purchased up his efforts to reclaim him without success. He sketches at an immense price. 915] Memoirs of Morland, the Painter. [916 His life, at this period, was fast approaching to its close; he was taken in execution by a publican for debt, and conveyed to a spunging-house, where, overwhelmed with misfortunes, debts, and neglect, the sure attendant on adversity, he swallowed in despair a great quantity of spirituous liquors: that resource was now in vain; the next morning be dropped off his chair in a fit, as he was sketching a bank and tree in a drawing which his mother long possessed. After this he never spoke coherently, but remained eight days delirious and convulsed, and expired on the 29th of October, 1804, in the forty-second year of his age. On Morland's return to London, find- to such a state of weakness was his nering it impossible to satisfy his creditors, vous system at length reduced, that a sinhe caused himself to be arrested, and ob- gle glass of liquor would intoxicate him. tained the rules of the King's Bench pri. He grew so hypochondriacal, that the son. His wife, his brother, with a man idea of being alone in darkness, tho' but for and maid-servant, formed his establish a moment, became insupportable; and to ment; here he kept open house, and sat relieve his terrors, he sought relief in visitdown to a plentiful table, at which Mrs. ing night-houses instead of retiring to bed. Morland presided, and he generally got so completely intoxicated that his bed was the floor; he having given particular orders never to be carried to his chamber in that state. The ruin of his character and constitution might now be said to be completed; his excesses were without intermission, and he had no opportunity of exercise to carry off their baneful effects; he had even so little confidence in himself that he feared to touch a picture lest he should spoil it; for though common report has asserted that he painted best when intoxicated, the following remark of the artist himself proved it to have been otherwise: a friend once The mutual affection of Morland and speaking with him on one of his paintings where the colours were discordant, his wife, evinced itself in the alarm that Morland remarked it, and said, “Can it each felt if the other was indisposed. It be wondered at? I was half drunk when is remarkable that they frequently observI did it:" accordingly painted it all over ed, in their conversations, that they felt a again. Certainly he had tippled till his strong presentiment that one would not brain was affected, and then was obliged long survive the other. It was intended to take a certain quantity of spirits to steady to keep the death of Morland a secret his hand his nerves, as well as his mind, requiring a support from false energy. An Insolvent Act, in 1802, liberated him from his confinement. He did not, however, quit his house in Lambeth-road, till he was attacked by a second fit of apoplexy, which greatly alarmed him. Being annoyed also with his creditors, he removed to the Black Bull, at Highgate, but quarreling with his landlord, he repaired to his brother's in Dean-street. Previous to his removal from the King's Bench, his wife had taken lodgings at Paddington for the recovery of her health; where, to his everlasting credit, he allow ed her two or three guineas a week, which were regularly paid during his greatest exigencies. At this place he painted his curious picture of his own garret, with himself at work, and his man Gibbs, who was his cook, frying sausages. His apoplectic fits now became more frequent, and each fit left him in a greater state of debility than the preceding; and 3N Eng. Mag. Vol. I. from his wife as long as possible: but she could not be induced to credit the assertion that he yet lived: having obtained the fatal conviction that her fears were just, she gave a piercing shriek, fell into convulsive fits, which lasted three days, and expired on the 2d of November, in the thirty-seventh year of her age: one grave contains their bodies, in the burial-ground of St. James's Chapel. Though the merit of this artist must be allowed to be great, yet he certainly owed his popularity very much to circumstances; the anecdotes attached to his pictures forwarded the sale of them: many persons thought he could not live long, therefore they bought his pieces on speculation, imagining that every one he drew would be his last, and that their profits would be largely increased by his death: and, indeed, when that event did happen, his pictures rose considerably, both in price and fame. The year 1790 was the time that Morland rose to his meridian, he was 917] Varieties: Literary, &c. [918 then able to paint whatever subject he ly represented than the little roguish chose; he had confidence in his own Welch poney of the carter, and the papowers, aided by a knowledge of nature; tient humble jackass. his best productions were interiors, and he was peculiarly happy in depicting the stunted dwarf pollard oak, with a group of sheep underit in such objects he was unequalled, but his cottages are wanting in taste and variety, and he was apt to slight his back grounds. In tranquil scenes also he might be said to excel; a proof of this is in The Labourer's Luncheon, The Return from Market, The Weary Travellers, The Tired Cart Horse, Baiting the Horses, and Watering Cattle. The expression of his dogs are powerful; The Butcher's Stall, whence a dog has stolen some meat, and which is shrinking from the blow of a stick, is so exquisitely pourtrayed, that, to use the words of Mr. Dawe, "you may almost imagine that you hear him shriek." His guinea pigs and rabbits are the best ever painted, and his cart horses are excellent. Nothing was ever more happi All his pencil sketches evince a strong conception, an ease, and a distinguishing character rarely to be found in other artists; and though his mode of preparing his pictures was often hasty and irregular, simplicity was their chief characteristic. Morland's touch did much, for he had the discernment to perceive, that it is touch more than labour which finishes a picture; and be was always particularly careful in using the very best oils and colours; while his constant advice to students was to copy nature, and if they wished to draw a tree well, to place their easels in a field, and copy the tree exactly as it stood before them. Upon the whole, to conclude in the words of his best biographer, "Morland's paintings indicate a mind which, with due cultivation, was capable of very high attainments, and excite our admiration that so much could be effected during a life spent like his." VARIETIES: CRITICAL, LITERARY, AND HISTORICAL. RIDICULE. from the French, by a Member of the WHETHER or not ridicule be the Faculty. It seems to have two objects proper test of truth, is not, per- in view -1st. To invite the medical haps, fully decided; but it is most cer- profession, more particularly than has tain, that it might be used in many cases been the case hitherto, to adopt a branch in the place of severe chastisement, and in surgery which has been unaccounta sometimes with a more lasting effect, es- bly allowed to wander out of the regular pecially among young people. One sphere, and thus supersede the host of scheme of this kind was tried, with great empirics who, under the name of Densuccess, by Dr. Newcome, who governed a tists, infest all our large cities. 2d. To school at Hackney. When any mistake detect and point out the baneful qualihappened in the pronunciation of a Latin ties of many of those means which are word, he used to make the faulty lad re- so much vaunted as dentifrices. All the peat after him, before the whole school. diseases of the teeth and mouth are suc"Nos Germani, non curămus, quantită- cinctly and popularly treated of, and tem, syllăbărum."* And this penalty there is so much good sense and judgwas more dreaded by the boys than the ferula or the rod.--Euro. Mag. An absurd assertion, all in false quantity, supposed to be made by a German, importing that "His countrymen minded not how they pronounced Latin." THE TEETH. To the Editor of La Belle Assemblee. SIR-W ein London a few days ago, I was so fortunate as to purchase Gerbaux on the Teeth and Mouth, lately translated ment throughout the whole, that I am sure all your elegant readers will be pleased with the following quotation. "The teeth are the most lovely ornament of the human countenance; their regularity and their whiteness constitute that ornament; these qualities rivet our regards, and add new charms to the beauty of the countenance. If the mouth exceeds in size its ordinary proportions, fine teeth serve to disguise this 919] Varieties: Critical, Literary, and Historical. [920 natural error in its conformation, and as to improve the heart as well as to enoften even the illusion which results from large the understanding. Collections the perfection of their arrangement is for this purpose are numerous; but the such, that we imagine the mouth would one now offered to parents and instrucnot have looked so well if it had been tors has many prominent advantages to smaller. Observe that lady smile whose render it deserving of their patronage. mouth discloses the perfection of their It is constructed with more simplicity, arrangement; you will never think of and is better adapted to the exercise of remarking the extent of the diameter of the memory, than the poetical compilaher mouth, all your attention will be fix- tions which have fallen in our way. ed upon the beauty of her teeth, and The selection has been made with great upon the gracious smile which so gener- taste, and it is enriched by some original ously exposes them. pieces of peculiar beauty-one of which we shall here transplant for the edification of our readers: it is a version of Miriam's song after the destruction of the Egyptian host "This ornament is equally attractive in both sexes; it distinguishes the elegant from the slovenly gentleman, and diffuses amiability over the countenance by softening the features; those of the black African cease to frighten the timid beauty when he smilingly shews his teeth sparkling with whiteness. But it is more particularly to women that fine teeth are necessary, since it is her destiny first to gratify our eyes before she touches our soul and captivates and enslaves our heart. The influence which the teeth exercise over beauty justifies the preeminence which I attribute to them over all the other attractions of the counteLet a woman have fine eyes, a pretty mouth, a handsome nose, a well turned forehead, elegant hair, a charming complexion; but let her also have had teeth, teeth blackened by caries, and we should cease to think her beautiful, nance, "When nature, sparing of her gifts, shall have failed to bestow them on the teeth, making them defective in form and tarnished in colour, care and extreme cleanliness must be resorted to in order to supply the imperfections and hide the faults. In this case, at least, if the teeth do not attract our regards, they do not affect us disagreeably." Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea! 66 THE POPE, US. BIBLE SOCIETIES. On the occasion of a Bible Society being about to be established lately in Poland, the present Pope, with the full concurrence of all the Cardinals, issued a bull against Bible Societies. The de. sign of circulating the Holy Scriptures is characterized as an abominable device, by which the very foundation of religSacred Poems; selected from the best ion is undermined;" and it is declared Writers: designed to assist Young to be the duty and object of the See of Persons to read and recite metrical Rome, "to employ all means for the compositions with propriety; and to purpose of detecting and rooting out inculcate the most important princi- such a pestilence in every way." The ples of Love to God and Benevolence following is a translation: to Man. By Ph. Le Breton, A. M. Master of the Academy in Poland Street. 18mo. 12s. Poetry never fails to afford pleasure to young minds; and therefore it is to direct that taste in such a way proper PIUS P. P. VII. Health and apostolic benediction. |