certainly an alteration as well as improvement in his ftyle of acting, was noticed by the spectators in general.

A hiftory of Mr. Garrick and his theatre, will unavoidably comprehend an account of the most remarkable dramatic pieces acted under his aufpices. The first comedy. that was brought on the ftage after he had refumed the management of it, was an alteration of Wycherley's Plain Dealer. The play, as it originally ftood, was greatly celebrated for wit, character, and fatire. James the Second was fo delighted with it, that on feeing it acted, he was determined to make the author happy by paying his debts; but Wycherley's modefty prevented the king's generous intention, for he prefented him with a schedule which did not contain one half of what he owed.

The licentious manners of Charles the Second's reign are fo incorporated in this play, from the beginning to the end, that it was impoffible to feparate them from the ground plot, without pulling down the whole fabric. A man may as well expect to

walk

walk the streets in the dress of that merry monarch's time without being stared at or ridiculed, as to think of mixing the language of these times with that of a hundred years paft. Bickerstaff, the reviver, found the task of adapting the Plain Dealer's old wit to modern delicacy fo difficult, that half the comedy was curtailed in the acting; however, the characters were fo properly distributed, that the play had good fuccefs. Mrs. Clive, in the Widow Blackacre, found a proper subject to display her rich vein of humour; and Mrs. Yates, in the conftant. and tender Fidelio, acted with that modest diffidence and sweet fimplicity, which are the chief characteristics of that amiable part. Mr. Yates is always fure to please ; but neither his age nor his look were fuited to Jerry Blackacre, a ftripling of feventeen; an old woman of fixty might with equal propriety have attempted to represent a Mits in her Teens, But this impropriety I attribute rather to the managers than the player; they are unwilling to lose the name of an established actor in their bills. I have

H 3

I have feen Hippifley, when near fixty, act Daniel in Oroonoko, another boy about the age of Jerry Blackacre; the galleries it is true laughed, but the reft of the house gave such ridiculous mifrepresentations a fmile of contempt.

The Clandeftine Marriage, acted foon after the Plain Dealer, was the joint labour of Mr. Colman and Mr. Garrick. It has been obferved, and I believe justly, that. there has been no dramatic piece, fince the days of Beaumont and Fletcher, written by two authors, in which wit, fancy, and hu-. mour, are so happily blended, that the texture of the whole might well be supposed to be woven by one hand, as in this comedy. The part of Lord Ogilby is a finished portrait; an enervated debauchée, affecting. all the warmth and gaiety of youth, and making love to a fine young lady, is a cha-; racter, if not odious, at least contemptible; but the ikilful hand of the author, by giv, ing him humane and generous principles, has not only faved him from our hatred, but has dignified him with a degree of appro

I

bation

bation which the man of a benevolent mind will always be sure to obtain.

This part Mr. Garrick intended to have acted himself; but apprehending, from his frequent attacks of the gout and stone and his advanced age, too much fatigue from the playing fuch an important character feveral nights fucceffively, he refigned all thoughts of it. Mr. Colman was not pleased with lofing the performance of fo great a mafter as Mr. Garrick in the play; but his ideas of Ogilby were faithfully transcribed by Mr. King, who in that difficult part far exceeded all that was hoped for or expected from a man of his great industry and merit. King's Ogilby is as fingularly meritorious, as the part is happily difcriminated from any other li

bertine of rank.

The great run of the comedy, which was acted excellently in all its parts, foon reconciled Mr. Colman to his disappointment. Mrs. Clive almoft clofed her long list of comic characters in Mrs. Heidelberg; for this was her laft new character H 4 except

except one, which was Lady Fuzz, in the Peep behind the Curtain.

Falstaff's Wedding, approved by the audience, and commended by all perfons of tafte as the only good imitation of Shakespeare's richest vein of humour, did not continue long upon the ftage. Whether the acting of Falstaff by Love, a good general actor, was fuperior to the performer's abilities, or from what other cause the neglect of Falstaff's Wedding proceeded, I am not a judge; but as we have in Mr. Henderson an admirable representer of the jolly knight, I hope Falstaff's Wedding will be restored to the publick.

Mrs. Griffith's School for Rakes was condemned by the actors, but greatly applauded by the publick. This too was the cafe with Mr. Colman's English Merchant, a very successful comedy: two principal players were greatly disappointed in meeting with the applaufes, when they expected the hiffes of the audience. Le Sage, in his Gil Blas, has deservedly cenfured the actors

of