was in imminent danger of coming down from his 'high estate,' to the infinite merriment of the audience. On this occasion, to use another significant phrase, a 'gag' was hit upon of a new character altogether. The play was printed, and each auditor was presented with a copy gratis, as he entered the house. Figure to yourself a thousand people in a theatre, each with a book of the play in hand-imagine the turning over a thousand leaves simultaneously, the buzz and fluttering it produced, and you will readily believe that the actors entirely forgot their parts, and even the equanimity of the elephant and camel were essentially disturbed.

My last appearance as a dramatic writer was in another national piece, called The Siege of Tripoli, which the managers persuaded me to bring out for my own benefit, being my first attempt to derive any profit from dramatic efforts. The piece was elegantly got up the house crowded with beauty and fashion— every thing went off in the happiest manner; when, a short time after the audience had retired, the Park theatre was discovered to be on fire, and in a short time was a heap of ruins. This conflagration burnt out all my dramatic fire and energy, since which I have been, as you well know, peaceably employed in settling the affairs of the nation, and mildly engaged in the political differences and disagreements which are so fruitful in our great state.

"I still, however, retain a warm interest for the success of the drama, and all who are entitled to success engaged in sustaining it, and to none greater than to

yourself, who have done more, in actual labour and successful efforts, than any man in America. That you may realize all you have promised yourself, and all that you are richly entitled to, is the sincere wish of

"Dear Sir,

"Your friend and servant,
"M. M. NOAH.

"Wm. Dunlap, Esq."

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Scraps-Mr. Cooke's Father-Miss Rock-Cooke and MatthewsKean-Cooke's Monument-Mr. and Miss Holman-Doctor Wilson's Letter to Doctor Hosack-Doctor Hosack's Introductory Letter borne by Mr. Holman to a friend in Philadelphia-Letter to Doctor Hosack on the Death of Mr. Holman.

We have fulfilled our engagement, by bringing up the history of the American theatre to the arrival of George Frederick Cooke, the greatest Richard, Sir Giles Overreach, Falstaff, Iago, Sir Pertinax, and Sir Archy, that the western world has seen. We have even gone a little beyond our limits; and as there is nothing so dear to man as liberty, we will, in this additional chapter, indulge ourselves in speaking of any thing, or any body, in any way connected with our subject, which, or who, may be presented to the ima gination of an author delighted at seeing that he has reached the goal proposed at starting in his race,--the last chapter.

And first, Cooke. We have represented him in our two volumes, published by Longworth in NewYork and Colburn in London, as the son of a captain in the 4th dragoons; but have no doubt that the

captain must be reduced to a sergeant, as we have had more accurate information on that subject from the widow of Mr. Rock, the tragedian's old and tried friend. In this we have misled Mr. Galt, who, in in his Lives of Players, has trusted us as we trusted Cooke. The mother of the tragedian was a lady by birth and education; and, his father dying when the boy was very young, he received his earliest impressions from, and under the eyes of, his widowed and probably too indulgent parent.

Mrs. Rock was in this country with her niece, Miss Rock, a very accomplished young lady, carefully educated for the profession she ornamented, and one of the best actresses we have seen on our boards in a certain line of playing. But Miss Rock, though pleasing, was deficient in the rare charms of superior personal beauty: she wanted height. She danced elegantly, not as a dancer, but as a lady; she was a musician, and sung well. With the figure and face of some we could name, her Letitia Hardy would have been the best in the world.

We have a little more to say of George Frederick Cooke, and it is connected with two of the most extraordinary characters of the drama that have dazzled the eyes of the good people of the western hemisphere, --Kean and Matthews. And first, the mimic and comedian. What I have to say of him shall be told in my autobiographical style, and is another correction of my aforesaid memoirs of George Frederick.

It was in the month of April, in the year 1823, that I embarked, with two hundred and fifty others,

in the steamboat Chancellor Livingston, for Albany. After the bustle of leave-taking, and the various ceremonies and multifarious acts of hurried business, which daily take place on the departure of one of these self-moving hotels from the city of New-York, I had leisure to look around me, with the intention of finding some acquaintance as a companion, or at least to satisfy my curiosity as to who were on board.

I had seen many faces known to me when I first entered the boat, but they had vanished: all appeared, at first, strange. I soon, however, observed James Fenimore Cooper, the justly-celebrated novelist, in conversation with Dr. Francis. The last mentioned gentleman I had long known, but with the first my acquaintance was of recent date. We had occasionally met at the bookstore of Wiley, his publisher; but it was not until after the circumstances I am now recording that an intimacy took place which has been to me a source of very great pleasure.

I soon after noted a man of extraordinary appearance, who moved rapidly about the deck, and occasionally joined the gentlemen above named. His age might be forty; his figure, tall, thin, and muscular; one leg was shorter than the other, which, although it occasioned a halt in his gait, did not impede his activity; his features were extremely irregular, yet his physiognomy was intelligent, and his eyes remarkably searching and expressive. I had never seen Matthews, either in private or public, nor do I recollect that I had at that time ever seen any representation of him, or heard his person described; but I