"The breast of a mistress some boy may estrange; "Friendship shifts with the sun-beam, --thou never canst change. "Thou grow'st old-who does not? but on earth what appears, "Whose virtues, like thine, but increase with our years? "Yet if blest to the utmost that love can bestow, "Should a rival bow down to our idol below, "We are jealous-who's not? thou hast no such alloy, "For the more that enjoy thee, the more they enjoy. "When, the season of youth and its jollities past, “For refuge we fly to the goblet at last, "Then we find-who does not? in the flow of the soul, "That truth, as of yore, is confin'd to the bowl. "When the box of Pandora was opened on earth, "And Memory's triumph commenced over Mirth, 66 Hope was left-was she not? but the goblet we kiss, "And care not for hope, who are certain of bliss. 66 Long life to the grape! and when summer is flown, The age of our nectar shall gladden my own. "We must die-who does not? may our sins be forgiven! "And Hebe shall never be idle in Heaven." Dining with him another day, the subject of private theatricals was introduced. 66 66 66 66 66 "I am very fond of a private theatre," said he. "I remember myself and some friends at Cambridge getting up a play; and that reminds me of a thing which happened, that was very provoking in itself, but very humorous in its consequences. 66 "On the day of representation, one of the performers "took it into his head to make an excuse, and his part was 66 66 obliged to be read. Hobhouse came forward to apologize to the audience, and told them that a Mr. had "declined to perform his part, &c. The gentleman was 66 highly indignant at the 'a,' and had a great inclination to pick a quarrel with Scroope Davies, who replied, that he supposed Mr. wanted to be called the Mr. so and so. "He ever after went by the name of the 'Definite Article.' 66. "After this preface, to be less indefinite, suppose we "were to get up a play. My hall, which is the largest in Tuscany, would make a capital theatre; and we may send "to Florence for an audience, if we cannot fill it here. "And as to decorations, nothing is easier in any part of Italy than to get them: besides that, Williams will assist " us." It was accordingly agreed that we should commence with "Othello." Lord Byron was to be Iago. Orders were to be given for the fitting up of the stage, preparing the dresses, &c., and rehearsals of a few scenes took place. Perhaps Lord Byron would have made the finest actor in the world. His voice had a flexibility, a variety in its tones, a power and pathos beyond any I ever heard; and his countenance was capable of expressing the tenderest, as well as the strongest emotions. I shall never forget his reading Iago's part in the handkerchief scene. 66 Shakspeare was right," said he, after he had finished, "in making Othello's jealousy turn upon that circum"stance.* The handkerchief is the strongest proof of * Calderon says, in the Cisma de l'Inglaterra, (I have not the original,) "She gave me, too, a handkerchief,—a spell- "A flattering pledge, my hopes to animate- "That told too true what tears must weep these eyes!" "love, not only among the Moors, but all Eastern nations : "and yet they say that the plot of 'Marino Faliero' hangs All at once a difficulty arose about a Desdemona, and the Guiccioli put her Veto on our theatricals. The influence of the Countess over Lord Byron reminded me of a remark of Fletcher's, that Shelley once repeated to me as having overheard:-" That it was strange every woman should be able to manage his Lordship, but her Ladyship!" Discussing the different actors of the day, he said : "Dowton, who hated Kean, used to say that his Othello "reminded him of Obi, or Three-fingered Jack, - not “Othello. But, whatever his Othello might have been, 66 66 66 66 66 Garrick himself never surpassed him in Iago. I am told that Kean is not so great a favourite with the public since his return from America, and that party strengthened against him in his absence. I guess he could not have staid long enough to be spoiled; though I calculate no you reckon? 66 actor is improved by their stage. How do "Kean began by acting Richard the Third when quite a boy, and gave all the promise of what he afterwards "became. His Sir Giles Overreach was a wonderful per"formance. The actresses were afraid of him; and he 66 was afterwards so much exhausted himself, that he fell "into fits. This, I am told, was the case with Miss "O'Neil.* "Kemble did much towards the reform of our stage. "Classical costume was almost unknown before he under"took to revise the dresses. Garrick used to act Othello "in a red coat and epaulettes, and other characters had 66 prescriptive habits equally ridiculous. I can conceive "nothing equal to Kemble's Coriolanus; and he looked "the Roman so well, that even 'Cato,' cold and stiltish as "it is, had a run. That shews what an actor can do for a play! If he had acted 'Marino Faliero,' its fate would "have been very different. 66 "Kemble pronounced several words affectedly, which should be cautiously avoided on the stage. It is no * And he might have added Pasta. |