he received a pension of three hundred pounds per annum, with a coach and equipage kept for him at the King's expense.

Ferdinand continued that attachment so eminently displayed by Philip, and even went beyond his predecessor in liberality. This fortunate foreigner was honoured with the Cross of Calatrava, one of the most ancient orders of Knighthood in Spain. Whilst he was undergoing the ceremony of the investiture, and the spurs were being fixed to his heels, according to the custom of the knighthood, an old Spanish noble, disgusted by the prostitution of such honour, could not forbear exclaiming: "Well! every country has its customs-in England, they arm their game-cocks with spurs in Spain, I find they put them upon capons."

INTERPOLATIONS OF ACTORS.

THAT particular class of actors, who have received the appropriate name of "low comedians," have, at times, been justly blamed, for adding to the author's text, and, in the words of Shakspeare," speaking more than is set down for them."

Tarleton and Kempe, the two best Clowns of our early stage, were men of exceeding ready wit

and flowing humour, which often carried them away from the business of the scene. Such, however, was the estimation in which they were held by the audience of those days, that this practice, which would at present be considered a gross indecency and an insult to the spectators, was then, and for many years afterwards, not only tolerated, but applauded.

Will. Pinkethman, of merry memory, who flourished rather more than a century ago, was guilty of this fault to a great excess, and held such full possession of the galleries, that he would frequently maintain a discourse with them of several minutes' duration. To fine him for this offence was useless; he could not abandon his propensity, and the managers were too generous to curtail his income of its fair proportions." He and Wilks, at length, came to the following whimsical agreement upon the subject; that whenever Pinkethman was guilty of corresponding with the gods, he should receive on his back three smart strokes of Wilks's cane. This fine was in all probability never exacted. One instance of his unseasonable drollery will suffice.

In the "Recruiting Officer," Wilks was the Captain Plume (one of his best characters) and

Pinkethman, one of the recruits. The captain, on enlisting him, inquired his name, and instead of answering as he ought, Pinkey replied,

Why don't you know my name, Bob? I thought every fool had known that!" Wilks, in a rage, whispered to him the name of the recruit, Thomas Appletree. The other retorted aloud, "Thomas Appletree! Thomas devil! my name's Will. Pinkethman ;" and immediately addressing an inhabitant of the upper regions, he said, "Hark you, friend, don't you know my name?" "Yes, master Pinkey (said a respondent); we know it very well." The play-house was now in an uproar; the audience at first enjoyed the petulant folly of Pinkethman, and the distress of Wilks; but, on the progress of the joke, it grew tiresome, and Pinkey met with his deserts, a very severe reprimand in a hiss. This mark of displeasure, he, however, contrived to change into applause, by crying out, with a countenance as melancholy as he was capable of making, and in a loud nasal twang; "Odso! I fear I am wrong."

GRATEFUL RETURN FOR A THOUSAND POUNDS.

THE following very agreeable detail is ex

tracted, verbatim, from the 1st vol. of "The Monthly Mirror."

"Reynolds began, like most other dramatic writers, with tragedy. "Werter," which he produced at a very early age, was presented to Mr. Harris, for the Covent Garden stage; but, notwithstanding the popularity of the subject, it was returned to the author, who took it with him to Bath, and there it was first performed, for the benefit of the Theatre. The money it brought at Bath was so inviting, that Mr. Harris began to think he was out of his reckoning, and, accordingly, had it cast with all expedition. The run was very considerable, and the manager got many hundreds by a play, which he had originally rejected as unfit for representation. As a transfer merely from Bath to Covent Garden, the author had no right to his nights, the profits of which were little short of ONE THOUSAND POUNDS! But though he got no money, he got, what no doubt he thought an equivalent, a footing in the Theatre; and immediately produced a second tragedy, called "Eloise," which went but three nights, and brought him eight pounds!!"

Such was the encouragement he met with, at the commencement of his dramatic career;

and he certainly must have been very difficult to please if he was dissatisfied with it: as he appears merely to have had his property made use of, when it was indisputably proved to have been good for something; and, in return for this great favour, and the trifling profit of a thousand pounds, he was treated with great civility: he might also have had (for what we know) a few orders to boot.

This incident ought to be made as public as possible, as it might operate as an encouragement to rising geniuses to devote their talents to dramatic compositions. If this was but known, what shoals of Farquhars and Sheridans the town would be deluged with; the recompense is so much beyond the labour, that we think a new Shakspeare might be calculated upon, while Ben Jonsons and Massingers might be reasonably expected to spring up by dozens.

PLAYS IN THE TEMPLE.

THE societies of the two Temples gave grand entertainments, at their halls, to the Lord Chancellor and many of the nobility, in February, 1715; but the most remarkable accompaniment to these convivial meetings was the representation of the comedy of "The Chances," performed within the