have roared and chuckled, at the slightest possible expense of thought; and, laughing much themselves, in their turns, perhaps, set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too.' Peace to all such! It was the strong sense of Henderson's excellence in Falstaff, that made me miserable whenever Mr. Kemble announced his intention of assuming the character."

VORTIGERN AND ROWENA.

THE story on which this play is said to be founded, is thus related by Sir Richard Baker, the historian.

"When the Romans had left the country to take care of itself, King Lucius dying without issue, and the Picts and Scots destroying all before them by frequent invasion, the Britons made choice of Vortigern, Earl of Cornwall, one extracted from the regal line, to be their King; who, ill-advised by the sage Merlin, applied for aid to the Saxons, a warlike people of Germany.

"Hengist and Horsa came over with nine thousand Saxons, and were presented with the Isle of Thanet. Like Cæsar, they came, saw, and overcame; and, shortly after, Hengist, erecting Thong Castle, invited Vortigern to a feast, who there fell in love with Rowena, the niece of Hengist, whom he married. Hengist presuming on this match, and the doating fondness of the royal bridegroom, grew intolerable and insupportable to the Britons, who, at length, deposing Vortigern, placed his son Vortimer on the throne.

Vortimer, during a successful reign of four years, proved a fatal scourge to the Saxons; till at length the victor was vanquished by his fair mother-in-law, Rowena, who took him off by poison; and then, by the witchcraft of fair word, so enchanted the British nobility, that Vortigern, like old Lear, became a king again.'

"Vortigern, his kingdom once more overrun with Saxon locusts, retired into Wales, building there a castle, strong enough to laugh a siege to scorn; which being at length beset by Aurelius Ambrosius, whether by wild-fire, or by fire from Heaven, both Vortigern and his castle, yea, all that were within it, were burnt to ashes."

THE FIVE AUTHORS' COMEDY.

CARDINAL Richelieu caused a comedy to be produced, composed by five different persons, each of whom wrote an act. This play was called "La Comedie de Tuilleries, Par Les Cinques Auteurs." It was represented before the King, the Queen, and the Court of France, with great magnificence. The actors sat by themselves on a bench. The idea was thought to have originated with Chapelain. He, however, only corrected the piece in several places. The cardinal requested his assistance in the business, promising to give Chapelain his help on a similar occasion.

MASKS IN THE PLAY-HOUSE.

Ir is not very easy to determine the precise period of time when the fashion of females going masked to a play originated in this country. We may be almost certain, that no such practice existed before the Civil wars, for we find no allusions to it in the works of our older dramatic writers, and the same reason induces us to believe that it did not come into fashion for some time after the Restoration.

These masqued ladies are, however, referred to in a multitude of passages in the prologues and epilogues to Dryden's, Lee's, and Otway's plays. The custom was, doubtless, imported from France, and, in all probability, about the year 1666 or 1667. The many disturbances which these disguised females (whose characters may be readily understood from the nature of the allusions of which they are the subject,) continually caused in the pit and boxes, at length almost entirely drove the women of character and respectability from the Theatre; and such was the continual scandal arising from it, that the sober and grave part of the town were frequently, by the tumults and disorders to which it gave

rise, deprived of the pleasure of witnessing the theatrical entertainments.

Constant uproars and riots, which sometimes reached an alarming height, called loudly for public redress; and, at length, after this nuisance had been endured for nearly forty years, an accidental dispute, concerning one Mrs. Fawkes, which terminated in a duel, produced an entire prohibition (emanating, it is to be conjectured, from the Lord Chamberlain, whose powers, in controlling the Theatres, were, however, not so well defined in those days as at present) of women's wearing masks in play-houses, which took place about the year 1707.

EARLY PUBLICATION OF SHAKSPEARE'S

PLAYS.

"EVERY writer on Shakspeare," says Dr. Farmer, "hath expressed his astonishment, that his author was not solicitous to secure his fame by a correct edition of his performances. This matter is not understood. When a poet was connected with a particular play-house, he constantly sold his works to the company, and it was their interest to keep them from a number of rivals.” A favourite piece, as Heywood informs

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us, only got into print when it was copied by the ear," for a double sale would bring on suspicion of honestie."

Shakspeare, therefore, published none of his dramas when he left the stage, his copies remained with his fellow managers, Heminge and Condell, who, at their own retirement, about seven years after the death of the author, gave the world the edition now known by the name of the first folio; and call the previous publications (of separate plays,)" stolne and surreptitious, maimed and deformed by the frauds and stealths of injurious impostors." But this (the folio) was printed from the play-house copies; which, in a series of years, had been frequently altered, through convenience, caprice, or ignorance. We have a sufficient instance of the liberties taken by the actors, in an old pamphlet by Nashe, called "Lenten Stuffe, with the prayse of the red herring, 4to. 1599," (reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany,) where he assures us, that in a play of his, called "The Isle of Dogs," foure acts, without his consent, or the leaste guesse of his drift or scope, were supplied by the players."

This, however, was not his first quarrel with them. In the epistle prefixed to Greene's Arcadia,