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Italian Theatre, in Paris; her husband, who was cashier of the Theatre, employed a party to hiss every actress, but Madame Linguet, and to applaud her "to the echo."-This went on famously for some time, till the secret was found out by the following sad mistake.

Linguet, in his instructions to his men, said, "You must hiss the first actress who appears, and applaud the second-now, mind you make no mistake, hiss the first and applaud the second." They followed their instructions with the most implicit obedience; but, unfortunately for Madame Linguet, the play was changed, and in the new piece, she appeared first, when she was overpowered with hisses, to the great amazement of the audience.

The desire of being revenged for this unlucký circumstance, immediately determined Monsieur Linguet on making free with the money intrusted to his care; he, accordingly, collected all that he was possessed of, with which he absconded, and took refuge in "The Temple," then an asylum, where a person could not be arrested.

KOTZEBUE ON STAGE LANGUAGE.

"IT has hitherto (says Kotzebue) been sup

posed necessary for an actor to understand the language which he speaks on the stage, and many of our so-called artists have been reproached with their ignorance of German. The following fact, related by an eye-witness, proves these performers might, with great justice, reply, "We need not understand it, if we do but speak it."

"Count John Branicki, Generalissimo of Poland, was accustomed to give grand fêtes on St. John's days, at his palace at Brulistock. The most illustrious were invited, and I was once there, with the Papal Nuncio, in the year 1762. We found a very numerous company, and were sumptuously entertained. After we had been treated with fireworks, balls and concerts, to satisfy us, a play was announced. The Theatre was erected in the Orangery of the palace; the principal actor was an Italian singer, tenor and buffo, who had recently come from Russia, and whose name was Comparsi. The piece was an Italian intermezzo, in which Comparsi performed the chief part, and, next to him, a young Polish female, who had a good voice, understood something of music, but not a single word of Italian. Comparsi had, with the assistance of an interpreter, instructed

her in her part. The orchestra was good, the singer pretty; and thus the opera proved a very pleasing interlude between the acts of a well known French comedy, by Destouches, entitled "The Nocturnal Drummer." In this piece, the only actor who understood a word of French, was a Bohemian, the general's secretary. He had taught two or three women, in the service of the general's lady, their parts, which they repeated like parrots, without understanding a single syllable of what they said. The whole went off extremely well, and I should scarcely have discovered the circumstance, if the actresses, to whom I would have paid a compliment after the performance, had not themselves acknowledged their ignorance."

"What a comfort for the performers, whose acting went off extremely well, though they understood not the language which they spoke. Twenty-six years after, the author witnessed also a similar circumstance. In the representation of Lessing's "Minna von Barnhelm," a Mr. Nabel was to personate Ricaut de la Martiniere. He was in the same predicament as the Polish ladies, before mentioned; he knew not a word of French. I wrote down the words for him according to

their pronunciation, and also gave him real assistance. He had an excellent memory, spoke with great fluency, and obtained universal applause."

FOOTE AND GARRICK.

FOOTE's envy of Garrick, and his endeavours to lessen him in the public opinion, were unceasing. His favorite scheme was to introduce a paste-board figure of the Roscius in his celebrated puppet show, upon the stage of the HayMarket Theatre, and one of the punchinello school was to repeat these lines:

"A nation's sense depends on you,

Perhaps a nation's virtue too!"

The fac-simile of Garrick was to make no reply but-" Cock-a-doodle-do."

At a time, when this was in embryo, and every

thing about him " gave note of dreadful preparation," Garrick paid the satirist a visit, with the hope of inducing him to lay aside his design, by an apparent ignorance of the matter, and a display of his customary friendship. Upon being admitted into the presence of the wag, he was surprised to observe a bust of himself, placed upon a bureau. "Is this intended as a compliment to me?" said Garrick." Certainly."—

"And can you trust me so near your cash and bank notes?""Yes, very well, for you're without hands.".

All Garrick's rhetoric and professions of esteem were, in this instance, unavailing, for, though his "tongue might wheedle with the devil," Foote was proof against its force; the interference, however, of a mutual friend of the parties prevented the exhibition, and its annoying consequences, both to the monarch of Drury and the votary of the mimic art.

WILLIAM PEER.

WILLIAM Peer, at the time of the Restoration, was particularly distinguished in two characters, in which, it is said, no man ever excelled him. One was the speaker of the prologue to the play in "Hamlet," the other The Apothecary, in "Caius Marius," as it is named by Otway; "Romeo and Juliet," in Shakspeare.

In the mock play, in "Hamlet," such was his masterly delivery of the words,

For us, and for our tragedy,

Here stooping to your clemency

We beg your hearing patiently;"

in which, apparently, nothing of importance is expressed, that it gained him great applause; and

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