CHAPTER XXIX.

1803-Albany-New-York Company-John E. Harwood-Parallel between Harwood and Hodgkinson-John Bull-Harwood's Dennis Brulgruddery-Mr. Hogg's Job Thornberry-Buonaparte in England-Mr. Searson-The Theatre of New-York sold at Auction-Conceit can Kill, Conceit can Cure-Lewis of Monte Blanco, or the Transplanted Irishman-Harwood's Military Irishman-Mr. and Mrs. Darley-Mr. Huntington-Mr. Thomas A. Cooper returns from England-Bankruptcy of the Manager of the New-York Theatre.

DURING this summer, the performers of the NewYork theatre played at Mount Vernon Gardens for a short time, and afterwards at Albany, with

some success.

A letter was addressed to William Henderson, Esq., wishing a weekly sum to be fixed for rent of the theatre, until the chancery suit in which the property was involved should be settled. It is stated that Mrs. Wignell and Mr. Reinagle pay for the Philadelphia theatre and property 2500 dollars per year. Mr. Henderson, in answer, says,

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The chancellor as yet has made no decree," and advises to open the house on or before the middle of November.

The Philadelphia company for the winter of 1803-4 consisted of Messrs. Warren, Downie, Jefferson, Twaits, Blissett, Francis, Wood, Cain, Morris, Warrell, Durang, Mestayer, Melbourne, Fox, Hardinge, L'Estrange, and Usher; Mesdames Wignell, Oldmixon, Shaw, Francis, Wood

(late Miss Westray), Solomon, Snowden, Durang, Downie, Morris, and Miss Hunt. This was the first season in which Mr. Jefferson was enrolled as a member of the Philadelphia corps dramatique, and he continued a useful and extremely valuable member of that body unto the day of his death, in August, 1832. He died at Harrisburg, Penn

sylvania, aged fifty-eight.

The theatre of New-York was opened on the 14th of November, 1803, with the comedy of She Would and She Would Not, and the farce of Ways and Means-Trapanti and Sir David Dunder, Mr. John E. Harwood. The company now consisted of Messrs. Fennell, Hallam, Harwood, Tyler, Johnson, Harper, Martin, Hallam, junior, Hogg, Prigmore, Saunderson, M‘Donald, and Shapter; Mesdames Johnson, Melmoth, Hallam, Hogg, and Miss Hogg.

Mr. Harwood was received with well-merited applause, and soon became a favourite, although the remembrance of Mr. Hodgkinson in many parts made it impossible for any performer to follow him with perfect success. John E. Harwood has been mentioned in the catalogue of the splendid company brought out to this country in 1793 for Philadelphia. He was a man endowed by nature with brilliant talents, and had received in every respect the education of a gentleman. His Trapanti, Sir David Dunder, Lenitive, Dennis Brulgruddery, Canton, Gradus, Capt. Ironsides, and a long list of characters, were superior in our

opinion to those of any man yet seen in this country: he was more like John Bannister than any other actor of the English stage. His Falstaff was the best in this country, until Cooke played it, except, and it is a most formidable exception, that it was not sufficiently studied. In truth, self-indulgence was the ruin of Harwood, as of thousands off and on the stage. After his marriage, he had retired from the stage, and kept a bookstore and circulating library: this retirement from a profession in which he was qualified to shine was probably not his own choice. He read his books, and neglected his business. Booksellers should never read; if they do, they are lost. There are brilliant exceptions; but then they wrote also: they did not read merely for the gratification of reading, or to kill time, but to gain knowledge, and they exerted themselves to impart it. The venerable Matthew Carey is an instance in point. Harwood was a poet, and had in early life published a volume of verses. He was a man of wit, and the favourite of every company; never obtrusive, and always willing to take a joke or to give one. He was lazy, and became corpulent; the first disqualified him for all business, and rendered many of his new characters, after he returned to the stage, less perfect than they would have been; the second spoiled his appearance and action for high or genteel comedy, for a corpulent Michael Perez (and he played it well) should not be placed by the side of Cacofogo. John E. Harwood, off the stage,

would have shone as a man of fortune, and he had a wife equally fitted to be a man of fortune's wife; but as unfit for a poor man's wife as he was for a poor man. The consequence was the return to the stage, which brings him again before the reader.

Amusing parallels might be drawn, showing the similarity and dissimilarity between Hodgkinson and Harwood, both possessing great talents, and great physical powers; both addicted to indulgence; yet one lazy, and the other not only active, but restless; one refined, the other coarse; one retiring, the other forward: but enough has been said to enable the reader to form his own opinion of both. They were two very excellent actors, the one far surpassing the other in versatility and industry.

On the 25th of November, The Glory of Columbia her Yeomanry produced again a great receipt it had been played three times, at an average of near 900 dollars. The author, no doubt, was flattered; yet perhaps Burk's Bunker's Hill had been more attractive and applauded. The applause of the enlightened is gratifying, and ought to be so. Mr. Bulwer has made his Eugene Aram express the stirring of his ambition when he heard the plaudits bestowed on a play; but, when the same audience greeted a tumbler with still louder testimonies of their approbation, the ambition was quickly smothered.

The excellent comedy of John Bull, by Colman the younger, was brought out, and was a tempo

rary support to the theatre. Mr. Harper was certainly a very inadequate representative of Tom Shuffleton; but the part was new, and the audience were satisfied, because they had not seen a better. No fault could have been found with Mrs. Johnson's Mary Thornberry, unless that she was too tall and too elegant for the brazier's daughter-faults easily passed over-and the pathos of the part was perfect. Mrs. Hallam had the same advantage which attended Mr. Harper, with the semblance of youth and the remains of beauty to aid her. Mr. Hallam's Dan was the production of an artist, but without any prominent excellence. Mr. Johnson's Sir Simon Rochdale was truly characteristic, and played with great effect. Mr. John Hogg had now reached that point in his profession which ensured him favour generally; and in some parts, where a certain dry humour was required, he was "just the thing." Before he played Job Thornberry, he was unequal to the part: he could not have conceived or executed it: but, by having it read to him, and by instruction at the rehearsals, he acquired a just possession of the character, and the representation of the brazier stamped him an actor. Mr. Hogg had been gradually acquiring a deserved popularity, first in the line of old men of a secondary character, and then in that of humorists. Besides his Job Thornberry, we remember with peculiar pleasure his John Lump, Humphrey Dobbins, and other comic characters.

He was an uneducated