페이지 이미지
PDF
ePub

"To make Cock-water for Consumptions. Take a Red Cock; pluck him alive; then slit him down the back, and take out his entrails; cut him in quarters, and bruise him in a mortar, with his head, legs, heart, liver, gizzard, &c. &c." p. 11.

"To make Snail Water. Take a peck of Snails, with the shells on their backs; have in readiness a good fire of charcoal well kindled, make a hole in the midst of the fire, and cast your snails into it, &c. &c." p. 17.

"For the Shingles. Take a Cat, and cut off her ears and her tail, and mix the blood thereof with a little new milk, and anoint the grieved place with it, morning and evening for three days." p. 47.

"To roast Lobsters. Take two fair lobsters alive; wash them clean, and stop the holes as you do to boil; then fasten them to a spit, the insides together; make a good fire, and strew salt on them, and that will kill them quickly, &c." p. 227.

These will be sufficient to shew that the lady's feelings were not particularly delicate; and the subjoined will as plainly evince that her cleanliness by no means abounded :

[ocr errors]

"For the Leprosie. Swallow every twelve hours a bullet of gold, and still as you void one, wash it in treaclewater, and at the hour swallow it again; continue doing this a long time, and it will cure.' p. 23.

For Morphew or Freckles. Take the blood of any fowl or beast, and wipe your face all over with it every night when you go to bed, for a fortnight together; and sometimes hold your face over the smoke of brimstone for a while." p. 66.

"To dry Tongues. Dry-salt them with bay-salt beaten small, till they are as hard as may be; then hang them in the chimney till they are very dry. When you would eat them, boil them with in the pot, as well as water, for that will make them look black, and eat tender, and look red within." p. 202.

receipt the next time they regale themselves with a slice of tongue, and feel inclined to admire its delightful redness. One extract more, and I have done; I only quote it for the sake of proposing the correction of an erratum which appears to have crept into it towards the conclusion: it strikes me that if the word AND were substituted for that of OR, it would materially improve the sense of the passage:

"To make Pudding of Plumb-Cake. Slice your Cake into some cream or milk, and boil it, and when it it is cold, put in eggs, sugar, a little salt, and some marrow; so butter a pan, and bake it, or fill guts with it." p. 146.

Thus end my extracts from Mrs. Hannah Woolley. Much other curious matter might be transcribed, but my patience is exhausted Should, however, any lady or gentleman feel desirous of perusing more of these notable receipts, I shall very willingly make them a present of the book from whence the above are taken, upon their siguifying their wish to me through the publisher of the "NICNAC."

K.

THEATRICAL LOVE-EPISTLE. DEAR MISS,-I am inclined to think you "Know Your Own Mind" when

you say, Marriage is "What We must All Come to;" yet I fear your proposal of a "Clandestine Marriage" may lead us into a "Comedy of Errors;" which might conclude with "All in the Wrong ;" and the "Dis covery" might serve some people for a Winter's Tale." This thought should be a "School for Lovers;" and your 66 Guardian" and "Bro

[ocr errors]

66

thers" would make "The Devil to Pay," as they always declared I should prove The Suspicions Husband." I confess I should not like "The Ta- ́ ming of the Shrew," if you proved the " Jealous Wife" yet I am the Conscious Lover," and ready to it be "As you Like it." Yet, after agree to "What you Will;" so let we are "Man and Wife," I should be

66

Let my readers think of this last sorry to have it said "The Deuce is

66

66

66

[ocr errors]

in Him;" for were you to have the 'Spirit of Contradiction," we should play at "Cross Purposes," and Three Weeks after Marriage" the world would say, here is "A Wife to be Let." You know, Miss, "The Way of the World:" "A Trip to Scotland" they would say was "Love's Last Shift; but ("A Word to the Wise") you may communicate this to. your. Duenna," who will inform you that " "The School for Wives" is better than "The School for Scandal." "The Double Dealer" is a very bad character, and it would be a Wonder" if I was not deemed an "Hyprocrite" and you a "Runaway" by this "Elopement;" to avoid which, I shall immediately quit "Love in a Village," and pursue "A Journey to London;" so I leave you to compose yourself at the "Boarding School," with "Much ado about Nothing hoping that you will consider All's Well that Ends Well," shun "The Road to Ruin," and learn "The Way to get Married." August, 1823,

[ocr errors]

QUERY.

ROMEO.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

It appears to have been chiefly used in those days for medical purposes. During Captain Wyndham's voyage to Guinea, there was brandy on board, for the use of the sick sailors. It is said to have been invented by Raymundus Lullius the famous alchymist, who died in the year 1315. Charles the Bad, King of Navarre, came to a most horrible end, says Mezerey, who, to restore his strength weakened by debauchery, was wrapped in sheets steeped in EAu de vie. His valet by accident set fire to them; and after the third day he died in the most dreadful tortures, thus it is to be hoped expiating the crimes of his most execrable life.*

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

Printed and Published by T. WALLIS, Camden Town; and Sold by Chappell & Son, Royal Exchange Fairburn, Broadway, Ludgate Hill; Harris, Bow Street, Covent Garden J. Duncombe, Little Queen Street Holborn Edmonds, Little Bell Alley, Coleman Street; I Jamieson, Dnke's Court, King, Chancery Lane, and may he had of all Booksellers and Newsmen in Town and Country,frice One l'enny.

VOL. I.

No. 42.

OR,

ORACLE OF KNOWLEDGE.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1823.1

[graphic]

DUKE'S THEATRE, DORSET GARDENS.

THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE, SECTION 12.-The causes which principally led to a junction of the King's and Duke's Companies, have already been described; but it is necessary that we should retrograde a little in our narrative, in order to mention a most disastrous event which befel the King's Company some time previous This was no less than the complete demolition of their

house by fire, in January, 1672, when
not only the theatre, but between
fifty and sixty adjoining buildings
were entirely destroyed. It is remark-
able that upon this occasion a BRIEF
was read throughout the kingdom for
the benefit of the sufferers. In the
register of Symondsbury, in the coun-
ty of Dorset, is the following entry:
"1673, April 27, Collected by brief,
for the Theatre Royal in London

being burnt, the sum of TWO SHILLINGS! John Way, Curate; James Morey and George Seal, Churchwardens."

Whither the company removed after this accident, is somewhat doubtful; but it seems very probable that the house in Bear Yard, Clare Market, which has been described in Sec. 10, was their place of refuge during the period which elapsed between the burning of the old theatre, and the erection of a new one.. This was un-dertaken by the proprietors with all convenient speed; and a mark of their taste and judgment was evinced in the selection of Sir Christopher Wren to form a design for their new house, and to superintend the execution of it. Sir Christopher consequently produced a plan, which, according to tradition, was admirably calculated for the advantage both of the actors and spectators; but this underwent so many injudicious alterations, as to defeat the intention of the architect, and spoil the building.

It was opened on the 26th March, 1674, when a prologue and epilogue, both written by Dryden, were spoken, the principal object of which appears to have been to apologize for the plainness and absence of ornament in the house, compared with the splendid edifice erected by the Duke's Company in Dorset Gardens. The apology, however, was ineffective, for sound and show carried' all before them; and spite of the attempts of the King's Company to ridicule the showy productions of their rivals, the Duke's continued to attract crowded audiences, whilst the King's pined in neglect; but, as we have before observed, the immense expenditure of the former exceeded even their great receipts; and for the preservation of both companies from utter ruin, it was found indispensible to bring about the junction mentioned in Sec. 11. This event appears to have been hastened on the part of the King's by the defection of two of their principal members, Hart and Kynaston, who had accepted engagements at the other house; and the

proceeding was also recommended by Royalty, which, under all circumstances, amounted to a command.

The sanguine expectations of advantage which this junction excited, appear to have ended in disappointment. Both the patentees and the performers found their profits scarcely, if at all, increased; the former therefore quickly relinquished their interest in the theatre to new adventurers; and, after passing through several hands, the principal part of the property, in the year 1690, fell into those of one Christopher Rich, a lawyer, whose name bears a distinguished station in the subsequent history of the stage. This man, who was by no means calculated for the management of a theatre, quickly disgusted the performers by his insolence and tyranny; and his wanton oppressions at length provoked the principal of them to aim at erecting themselves in a separate company. They accordingly found means to gain a licence from King William for this purpose; and having fitted up the house in Bear Yard, Clare Market, the seceders, at the head of whom were Betterton and Mrs. Bracegirdle, commenced their operations on the 30th of April, 165, with Congreve's "Love for Love, which met with extraordinary success, and was repeatedly performed during the whole season.

[ocr errors]

Some idea of the internal appearance of the theatres at this period may be formed from the accompanying wood-cut, copied from one of the scene-prints which decorate Elkanah Settle's. "Empress of Morocco," representing the stage of the Duke's Theatre, where this tragedy was performed. The figures on the stage are Muly Labas, son to the Emperor of Morocco, and Morena, his beloved. As copies of this famous play are scarce, and, with the plates, sell-for about a guinea and a half each, our readers may perhaps feel interested by a specimen of the high-sounding verse in which it is written give part of the dialogue which takes place between the two personages just mentioned

We

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

hide,

With you I fled my country, left a crown, Heir only now t'an unkind father's frown; And now, for refuge to Morocco come, We in your father's court receive this doom."

Five long acts of such stuff might be thought too much even for the strongest stomach. Yet this was acted at court by peers and peeresses; had prologues written for it by Lords Rochester and Mulgrave; excited the bitterest envy and animosity in Dryden, Shadwell, and Crowne; and was defended by the Duke of Buckingham and others. Such is the force of party and prejudice. Yet its very name would be now almost forgotten, were it not for the immortality con

ferred upon it by Johnson, who has introduced an account of it in his life of Dryden.-(Resumed at p. 353.)

[We have had several letters addressed to us this week, on the subject of a direct variation which occurs between our account of the Theatre in Bear-Yard, given at p. 265, and an article upou the same subject which appeared in the last number of the

Mirror." The fact is, that the editor of the latter work has been misled by a gross blunder of the "Londina Illustrata," from which he derived his materials, and has confounded the Theatre in Bear-Yard with that in Portugal Street (now Spode and Copeland's Staffordshire warehouse), a view of which will accompany our 13th Section. The publisher of the "Londina Illustrata," on detecting the error, cancelled the defective sheet and one of the plates, but a faulty copy having fallen into the hands of the editor of the "Mirror," has led him into the above mistake. We notice this, not from any fondness for exposing the lapses of our competitors, but merely to vindicate our own correctness. We must, however, remark that the "Mirror" falls into another ludicrous blunder, in styling the Theatre in BearYard the first built after the REFORMATION, having just before told us that there were seventeen play-houses erected between 1570 and 1629.-We presume the RESTORATION is meant.

ED.]

ANECDOTE OF A DOLPHIN. SEVERAL Curious stories are related of this fish, most of which are fabulous. That of Arion, whom a Dolphin, enchanted with the harmonious strains of his lyre, saved from drowning, is well known, but it is rather an instructing allegory, than a well-grounded fact. However, this fish has obtained the reputation of being particularly fond of man, from, the following interesting anecdote, related by Pliny the younger, who does not appear to have had any doubt of its being true: it is as follows:-"There is in Africa a town called Hippo, situated not far from the sea-coast; it stands upon a navigable

« 이전계속 »