respecting the American stage which you are not already acquainted with. I came here from Dublin in October, 1809, with Mrs. Mason in company, likewise engaged. I opened in Harry Dornton, &c., all of which you know. My early life has not been eventful, and therefore not to your purpose. I was born in 1784, educated for a mercantile life, but had a soul above buttons;' so I ran away, and took to the stage; opened first at a little village called Towcester, in May, 1806, in the Baron in The Stranger, and Fainwould in Raising the Wind. The theatre was a decent barn salary, twenty shillings a week. My first interview with the manager was when he was mounted on a ladder, cleaning his lamp at the barn door. I stopped a very short time with him, and went to Buckingham, where we had the pleasure of playing in a larger stable,—I used to put my clothes in the manger while dressing. Now, having just started from home, and having a new blue coat and white breeches, I played all the walking gentlemen. I captivated the heart of a milliner in the town, who kept a very decent shop, and who offered to make me a sleeping partner; but it would not do. I then went to Dover, Margate, Brighton, and from thence to Dublin; from whence I arrived here, being engaged by Dr. Irving for Messrs. Price and Cooper. This is all that is material; I have had the usual difficulties of all country actors; but, unlike most of my brethren, I never wronged a man of a shilling, though I walked forty miles in one lamentable day without a shilling

in my pocket. I shall never forget the smell of some pork and cabbage at a cottage door by the way-side: I've loved pork and greens ever since.

"I must not forget to tell you that my first penchant for the stage was encouraged by my revered friend, Thomas Hilson, who introduced me behind the scenes of a private theatre."

It is to be lamented that a true and faithful account of this same revered friend does not fall within the limits of this our present History of the American Theatre.

Mr. Simpson's life, as an American, has not been one of the eventful kind; and, although he has doubtless experienced the miseries of management, no man has borne the weight with better grace, or stood the wear and tear with less injury to health and equanimity. He has invariably yielded his rank to give an opportunity for the display of new talent; and played second fiddle ofttimes when he was entitled to play first. He cannot be charged with the besetting sin of actor-managers, the seeking to thrust himself into every character that gave a chance of gaining applause or enhancing consequence. Happily for him, he has not had a Mrs. Simpson for whose caprice or ambition he would, perhaps, like other managers whose wives are heroines, been obliged to sacrifice justice and propriety; but, still happier for him, he has had good sense to direct him as a manager, an actor, and a man; and his reward is self-approbation and the esteem of his fellow-citizens.

Mr. Cooper, about this time, played De Montfort:

not equal to

far from Re

it did not succeed. Hodgkinson had failed in it. Cooper was better fitted for it, but it did not meet public expectation. Mrs. Twaits was Jane de Montfort. Mr. Young was as zenvelt as south from north-all failed. see Forrest in De Montfort, Wood in Rezenvelt?— but where is Jane? Mrs. Duff is remembered as being nearest to the great Jane de Montfort.

May we not

On the 26th of November, The Foundling of the Forest, by Dimond, was first played, and had a great Mrs. Mason had her share in its success. Venoni was played twice. Mr. Morrell, "a gentleman of this city," played twice.

run.

January 2d, 1810, The Africans had a run. O'Keefe's Fontainbleau was several times played with success. We remember a circumstance connected with this play, when first performed in London, which shows how "they manage these things" t'other side of the Atlantic. Taking up a paper the day after we had witnessed Edwin's performance of the Yorkshire Jockey, we read a eulogium on the same actor's performance on that night, and in that of a Welshman. The author had made the alteration, and had not given notice to the editor.

On the 21st of January, 1810, Mr. Trazetta brought forth in the "great room of the City Hotel" a musical farce, written and set to music by himself. He was manager, author, composer, and performer. It is to be presumed that it made some noise at the time.

The theatre having been closed for the benefit of the managers, was re-opened on the 22d of February,

with Gustavus Vasa, a play thought appropriate for the birthday of Washington, and frequently, as such, brought forward. The hero was played by Mr. Robinson.

Miss Jones, now Mrs. Simpson, performed the interesting child in the popular play of The Soldier's Daughter, made popular by the acting of the gentleman now her husband, and of Mrs. Mason, in addition to its own merits.

In March, Master Payne played four or five nights, beginning very injudiciously with Rolla. A child in Rolla, let his mind be ever so Herculean, must be far below the mark. It is something like a little girl playing Shylock, with some horsehair tied to her chin.

That well-known character, Mr. Oliff, appears frequently in the bills this season; he had before been on the stage-never heard-at least, never understood. He held the prompt-book at the P. S. entrance, and rung the bells for up and down curtain-up and down lamps-thunder, lightning, and fiddlers-gave the signals for the carpenters to storm with the crackling of tin sheets, or rolling of iron cannon-balls--and served for performers to storm at when they had neglected to be perfect in their parts: but for the purpose which gives name to the office, viz. prompting, -Mr. Oliff being prompter-for giving the word, the pillar behind which he was ensconced was just as efficient as Mr. Oliff. Mr. Cooper's maxim, in respect to a prompter (after he became a manager) was, that the more unintelligible he was in prompting, the

VOL. II.

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less the actors would rely on him, and the more on their own industry. Messrs. Hughes, Oliff, and M'Enery were perfect on Mr. Cooper's system; they succeeded each other in the office: Hughes couldn't see the word, and the two Hibernians couldn't speak it. But let us go on to a greater Hibernian.

Mr. Dwyer made his appearance on the stage of America, in New-York, the 14th day of March, 1810. He played, judiciously, his best character, Belcour, in The West Indian, and was much admired: it was repeated. He then played in succession, Gossamer, Charles Surface, Goldfinch, Ranger, Archer, Octavian, (a vile failure), Sir Charles Rackett, Captain Absolute, Rover, Vapid, Tangent, and Mercutio. Most of these he was well studied in, and had played them at Drury-lane; for Mr. Dwyer had been kept up at Drury-lane for three winters, as the successor of John Palmer.

Mr. Dwyer is an actor of too much notoriety to be passed over slightly. His biographer, in The Mirror of Taste, tells us that he is descended from the O'Dwyers of Tipperary, and that his father was the best fencer of the age; that our hero ran away, as most of our heroes do, to avoid study or work, and at seventeen commenced player in Dublin; that "with a degree of success never contemplated by himself, Mr. Dwyer played in many of the principal provincial theatres of England until the year 1802; when, on the first of May, in that year, he appeared in the character of Belcour (West Indian) at Drury-lane."

Of his success, for a time, we have spoken. He