tempted the management of the Charleston theatre, but failed in it, or was discouraged, and relinquished the scheme. Mr. Holman conducted the southern theatre for one season, and went to England for recruits at the end of it. But though successful in his errand, his plans were frustrated by his sudden death.

The recent purchase of Louisiana, and settlement of the great valley of the Mississippi, will make the theatre of this vast and populous region a subject for a subsequent work; we will only briefly and rapidly notice the progress of the drama of the west.

The French theatre was planted in New-Orleans as early as 1809; but it did not flourish until a new house was built in 1818, by John Davis, Esq., and a regular company imported from France. The gentleman who introduced the English drama into these regions is entitled to our notice on many accounts. In a future work we shall speak more fully of him.

James H. Caldwell commenced his managerial career in 1817, in the District of Columbia, and built by subscription, in 1818, a new theatre in Petersburg, Virginia. In the same year he performed the first play that had been witnessed in Richmond after the calamitous fire which we have recorded above. Having been invited to make an establishment at New-Orleans, he embarked with a company of great force at City Point, James' River, and on the 7th of January, 1820, represented at New-Orleans the first English drama ever performed in that city by a regular corps dramatique. The Honey-moon, and Three and Deuce,

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were the pieces of the evening. After a season of four months, Mr. Caldwell returned to Petersburg. He has continued annually to visit New-Orleans from that time, and has introduced most of the actors of merit, known to the continent, either as residents or visitors.

On the 29th of May, 1822, the corner-stone of the first American theatre in New-Orleans was laid. This house is nearly on the model of the Chestnut-street theatre, Philadelphia. It has been recently enlarged and improved. It will contain 2000 people. On the 9th of May, 1823, this house was first opened, with The Honey-moon, and Three and Deuce. It was not then finished, but in 1824, on the 1st of January, it was opened in a state of complete preparation, with an appropriate address.

The gradual decline of the drama in Virginia induced Mr. Caldwell to try Nashville, the capital of the state of Tennessee. Acordingly he built a handsome theatre, to contain 700 auditors, which was opened on the 9th of October, 1826. The HoneyMoon was again the opening play, to which was added the farce of Of Age To-morrow.

Several attempts had been made to establish the drama at Natches, in the state of Mississippi. A temporary building for that purpose had been erected in 1818, and had been occupied by amateurs, and occasionally a corps of Thespians. In 1822, this building was destroyed by fire. On the 30th of April, 1828, Mr. Caldwell opened a very neat and commodious brick theatre, capable of containing 700 persons. The

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same enterprising manager established himself at St. Louis, and opened a new theatre at Huntsville, Alabama, in 1826.

Thus we see an intelligent and enterprising gentleman establishing himself and the drama in this great and rapidly increasing portion of the United States, and growing with its growth, which is beyond parallel in the history of the world.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Two Letters from two Dramatists.

IN answer to queries made by us we have received two letters from two distinguished dramatists, written with such frankness, and in a style so congenial to the feelings intended to be expressed in this work, that we know no mode of communicating the information they contain that will be so acceptable to the reader as by giving them in the words of the writers. The plays of these gentlemen are an honour to the dramatic literature of the country, and we feel that the brief and pleasant sketch given by the authors will induce those who have not before met with such as are published, to lose no time in becoming acquainted with them by perusal. Both these dramatists are honourably employed in the civil service of their country, and we hope will be protected in their evening of life from those ills which some of their brethren have to encounter, who have not taken the tide of fortune at its flood, or, perhaps, merited public confidence.

My friend Wood informed me, a few days since, that you desired a list of my dramatic productions for your History of the American Stage. I had almost resolved, in these utilitarian times, to forget that I had ever indulged in such fantasies; but in drawing the poor neglected things from their obscure retreats, just to see what they were made of, I could not but feel something like a return of fatherly affection for them; sufficient, at least, to induce me, if not to sketch their lives and characters, to record their names, that posterity may know, through your immortal pages, that such things were. As I write on Sunday, the work-day world cannot find fault, however deserve the censure of holy-day folks.

I may

Very early in life I began a play of three acts, with a marquis and banditti in it. Cervantes furnished the plot, and it was to be called the SPANISH ROThis was in the year 1804. The fate of the one act, which was completed, will be seen hereafter.

VER.

"In the next year, 1805, I wrote a mask, entitled AMERICA a brief, one act piece, consisting of poetic dialogue, and sung by the genius of America, Science, Liberty, and attendant spirits, after the manner of the mask in the Tempest. It was to close a drama I had projected on the adventures of Smith in Virginia, in the olden time. The drama, however, when completed, was found sufficiently long without it, and the