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Mirror of Taste, 1810), went to England while the theatre was being built, and the company he brought out now opened with Gustavus Vasa and Modern Antiques; Mr. and Mrs. Powell, Mr., Mrs., and Miss, Baker, Mr. and Mrs. Collins, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, Messrs. Bartlett, Kenny, Nelson, and S. Powell, (brother to Charles, and afterwards manager), Mrs. Abbot, and Miss Harrison, who will be noticed by us, with the respect due to her talents and virtues, as Mrs. S. Powell.

Mr. Buckingham says, that "none of the rejected addresses were ever published," but gives us a prologue by an adversary to the theatre, which we think superior in some respects to Mr. Paine's prize poem. The salutary "if," the great poet's great peace-maker, renders these lines as acceptable to the friend of the Drama as to the enemy; and appropriate to the opening of any play-house whatever. The line in italics is a fair and palpable hit given to Mr. Paine and the directors.

PROLOGUE.

“Apollo consecrates thy walls profane.”

YE sons of liberty, with awe profound,
Survey these walls and tread this classic ground;
And you, ye fair, whose footsteps here incline,
To pay your vespers at Apollo's shrine,
At this, his porch, in solemn stillness, hear
The friendly voice, which asks a list'ning ear.

If here the drama rapturous scenes disclose,
And all the heart with liveliest passion glows;
If in this dome, gay pleasure's luring smile
Enchant the soul, and midnight hours beguile;

If here, entranced, ye nobler views forego,
And cares domestic yield to fancied wo;
If, at your home, the babe or prattling boy
Ye heedless left for visionary joy;

If, borne from far, the wit of Albion's race,
As dissolute as gay, these walls disgrace;
If foreign brogues and foreign manners strive
Your speech to dictate and the ton to give ;
If alien vices, here unknown before,
Come, shameless, to pollute Columbia's shore;
If, here profan'd, Religion's sacred name
Be dress'd in ridicule and mark'd with shame;
If yon bright temples, which the good revere,
And rites most sacred, meet the pointing sneer;
If dipp'd in gall, the unhallow'd comic rod
Touch, unprovoked, the ministers of God;
If here, regardless of the Power on high,
The impious buskin dare his wrath defy;
Indignant rise! and fly these curs'd abodes,
To vice devoted and to heathen gods;

And save, while yet ye may, your spotless name,
Your own chaste virtue, and your country's fame.
But if this voice be doom'd in vain to call,
If deaf to counsel, ye approach this hall;
If here, triumphant, vice her standard rear,
And ye, as votaries to her throne, repair;
If from this dome the dire contagion spread,
And blushing virtue hide her drooping head;
O, may the lightning rend these walls profane,
And desolation o'er the ruins reign!

A master of ceremonies was appointed by the trustees of the theatre, whose business it was to see that those who had taken seats should be accommodated according to contract to direct the manner of taking up and putting down those who came to the door in coaches-and other matters of equal importance, besides suppressing "all kinds of disorder and indecorum." The trustees reserved

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to themselves the power of dismissing any performer from the stage or orchestra for misconduct -a power to be exercised in the form of a request to the manager.

The season ended with the fourth of July, before which time, Mr. Buckingham says, "Powell and Baker quarrelled; from what cause is not very material to be known. The dispute was brought before the public in the newspapers, and ended in the secession of Baker, his wife, and daughter, from the company." We hope the Bakers made bread elsewhere, but we hear no more of them.

CHAPTER XII.

Hallam and Hodgkinson open the New-York Theatre, December 1794 Mr. Benjamin Carr - Mr. and Mrs. Marriott Mr. Munto - Mr. Nelson Mrs. Solomons Mons. and Madame Gardie - Mrs. Faugeres' Belisarius - Fontainville Abbey — Mr. Fawcet First plan of the Park Theatre Mrs. Hallam withdrawn from the Stage Hartford Providence Theatre - The Friendly Club.

THE old American company, under Hallam and Hodgkinson, visited Philadelphia in the summer of 1794, and opened the old theatre in Southwark, but with little success, as might have been anticipated. The citizens had been satiated with dramatic novelties and excellencies. Such as were friends of the Drama gave their countenance to the splendid establishment of Wignell and Reinagle, and frowned on those who took advantage of the closing of the new house for the summer, to intrude upon the territory now devoted to the men who had so eminently gratified taste by the introduction of a company that might defy all oppo

sition.

Hallam and Hodgkinson opened the theatre in John Street, New-York, on the 15th of December, 1794. The opening pieces were Love in a Village, and The Liar.

In the opera, Mr. Benjamin Carr, well known afterwards, and much esteemed in Philadelphia as

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a teacher of music, made his first appearance in Young Meadows. His deportment was correct, but timid, and he never acquired or deserved reputation as an actor. His voice was mellow, and knowledge of music without the graces of action made him more acceptable to the scientific than to the vulgar auditor. We shall have occasion to mention him again, although he did not continue long on the stage. An overture, composed by him, was performed and much approved: the orchestra had been enlarged, and the best band collected that ever had been heard in the New-York Theatre.

Mr. Munto was brought forward in Eustace, but was merely tolerable. An actress of the name of Solomons appeared for the first time, but soon disappeared.

In the afterpiece, to any one who had not seen John Palmer's admirable Young Wilding, Hodgkinson would appear unrivalled.

Miss Chaucer was another debutante on this evening; but the strength of the company was in the performers heretofore mentioned. Foote's admirable comedy of The Liar is an alteration from Sir Richard Steele's Lying Lover. Still The Liar is Foote's.

Before the opening, a series of numbers on the theatre were commenced in the New-York Magazine for November 1794, called the Theatrical Register, which thus speaks: "The next month is the time fixed for commencing the first campaign