The Stage

Inutility of Biography-Various views of management and various managers-Lord Byron and Mr. Robins-Receipts to Kean's first appearance-Mr. Henry Harris-Mr. R. Sheil-Mr. C. Kemble— Mr. Elliston-King George and King Robert-Break up of the old understanding between the two Theatres-and its consequences -Mr. Price and Mr. Bish-A bad actor a bad bargain-The American Stage the ruin of the English Stage-Advantages of utility-Curious illustration thereof Combination of Kean and Young in tragedy, and Liston and Mathews in comedy-Ingredients of an utilitarian—Failure of the theatres the fault of the public— Sir Robert Walpole, and his medical advisers.

THOSE who open the following pages for the mere purposes of idle curiosity, to ascertain if the writer had any ordinary or extraordinary father or mother, uncle or aunt, brother or sister, relative or friend,

VOL. I.

ર

INUTILITY OF BIOGRAPHY.

will decidedly be disappointed. Those who seek for information or amusement, it will be his utmost endeavour to satisfy.

The object of the work is not biographical-it can be a matter of no moment to any one, ignorant of the fact, when or where the writer was born, what was his parentage, or what the nature of his education. Though the prejudice may run in favour of the usual number of limbs, and a limited quantity of back*, yet it would no more detract from my doings, for the stranger to be told that I was short of a leg, or had a hump on each shoulder, than it would add to them for him to hear I was a perfect Adonis.

I have stood in the dwellings, and beside the tombs, of some of earth's greatest people, with whose biography the world at large is perfectly familiar, and heard such monstrous falsehoods roundly asserted as truths, that I have returned home content, as a very little person, with the knowledge there was no biography of myself extant. In the room where Shakspeare is generally supposed to have been born, at Stratford-upon-Avon, my late esteemed and eminent friend, Charles Mathews, and I, have heard its defunct tenant, Mrs. Hornby, of garrulous memory, with a pair of bright blue eyes glistening under a flaxen front, positively aver, that a rusty rapier, hanging up over the mantel piece, was the identical one worn by the poet when he enacted the character of Romeo-a

The Rivals-Act III. Scene 1.

character which, it is perfectly well known, he never enacted at all! We two have been "authoritatively" informed, in the lodge of Warwick Castle, that a metal vessel shown there by the porter, holding about ONE HUNDRED GALLONS, contained, when full, the daily breakfast of the renowned Guy, Earl of Warwick, and that the instrument in it, resembling in size and shape a modern pitchfork, was what he used to eat it with a recital which naturally induced Mathews say, the noble Earl was able to swallow more than he and I, put together, could.

There are those now living, whose ancestors landed with the Norman, and were a party to the celebration of the historical anecdote yclept "the Battle of

Hastings," whom Duke William would not have suffered to wipe his sword clean from the stain of that memorable onslaught. What could biography do for such varlets as these? There are those also living who, holding a conspicuous place in the world's eye, are readily disposed to believe they had ancestors, but have not the remotest conception who they were. The man who

"Was not of an age, but for all time,"

has very truly said, that "some are born great, some "achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust

upon them." It is not for me to say, what I have achieved, but I have had a great deal "thrust upon me,” which I have found unpleasant to bear, and extremely difficult to get rid of. The reader, I

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Books

The Stage: Both Before and Behind the Curtain, from ..., Volumes 1-3