8 depicting the sun struggling through the clouds to enlighten the world, and underneath was this motto: “Thus dying clouds contend with growing light," a figurative representation of the fate and fortunes of the much-admired bard. In front of the amphitheatre were three wellexecuted allegorical paintings, after designs by the celebrated Sir Joshua Reynolds. In the centre, Time was leading Shakespeare to immortality; a figure of Tragedy graced him on one side, and Comedy on the other. His bust in the chancel had not been neglected, being adorned with festoons of laurel, bays, &c., and at the head of his gravestone some pious hand had placed a garland of flowers and evergreens. At night the masquerade at the amphitheatre was attended by nearly one thousand persons, of whom many were well-dressed, and sustained their parts with great propriety; but some who could not hire dresses, or did not choose to pay extravagantly for their use, were admitted with masks only; and there were many present even without masks, and some with their faces blackened or otherwise coloured. Amongst the company was James Boswell, in a Corsican "make up," armed with a gun and pistols and having "Paoli and Liberty " as a motto for his cap. On the 8th (Friday) the festival was continued with unabated spirit after the fashion of the preceding days; but as the weather continued unpropitious the pageant, which was expected to be one of the most effective out-door features of the jubilee, was abandoned. The race, however, upon Shottery Meadow, for the jubilee cup, value fifty guineas, was largely attended. Five colts ran. "Pratt the groom," who rode his own horse, won. Pratt declared he never would part with the prize, though, as he honestly avowed, "he knew very little about plays or Master Shakespeare." There was a grand ball in the evening, at which Mrs. Garrick distinguished herself by her inimitably graceful dancing, as may be readily believed, the lady having been a professor of the art prior to her marriage. The night of this third day was fine, and the fireworks went off with great success. Thus terminated the first of Shakespearian jubilees-a great undertaking-the design of which was creditable to the manager, who was in no way responsible for any disappointments which arose from a cause over which he had no control. In the following year an effort was made to get up a jubilee on a smaller scale, but it failed. In 1794 Mr. Malone contemplated a celebration of the poet's memory, but the unsettled state of our national affairs at that period. frustrated his intentions, and it was not till 1827 that any imitation of Garrick's great jubilee took place. THE SECOND CELEBRATION, 1827. Of the history of this jubilee the Times lately published the following admirable abridgment: In April, 1824, a Shakespearian Club was established, the members of which, nearly two hundred in number, comprised the most respectable inhabitants of the borough. These determined to hold a Triennial Commemoration Festival on St. George's Day, which is likewise the birthday of Shakespeare, and this intention was first carried into effect in April, 1827. The festival of 1827 lasted three days, on the first of which (the 23rd) a pageant such as Garrick had projected nearly sixty years before, but which weather did not permit, moved from the Guildhall to the poet's birth-place in Henley Street. The committee of the club, with Mr. John Mills, the Mayor, at their head, and carrying their banner, marched in front, and was followed by a procession in this order :-The Royal Standard of England; a Military Band; St. George, on horseback, bearing a sword of the time of Edward III.; St. George's Banner, carried by his Esquire; the Banner of the Borough; Melpomene, the Tragic Muse, in a car drawn by four fiends; Lear and Edgar; Richard III. and the Prince of Wales; Macbeth, Banquo, and the Three Witches; King John, the Cardinal, and Faulconbridge; Othello and Iago; Hamlet, the King, the Ghost, and the Gravediggers; Romeo, Juliet, and Friar Laurence. Thus was completed the tragic' series, which was followed by the Banner of Shakespeare's Arms. Now comes the turn of comedy. Thalia, the Comic Muse, in a car drawn by four satyrs, led the way, and was followed by Caliban, Trinculo, Ariel, and Prospero; Autolycus and the Shepherd; Touchstone and Audrey; Oberon, Titania (in a car drawn by Puck and fairies), and Bottom, with the ass's head; Shylock and Portia (as Doctor of Laws); Sir John Falstaff and the Two Merry Wives; Henry V., Bardolph, and Pistol; the Union Flag concluding the whole. On reaching the house in Henley Street the procession halted, and Melpomene and Thalia, descending from their cars, crowned with laurel a bust of Shakespeare that had been placed on a pedestal. An address in blank verse, written by Mr. Serle, then of Covent Garden, was delivered by Mr. Bond, one of the theatrical company engaged by Mr. Raymond, who hoped that a day was approaching in which Stratford would become an arena for the development of histrionic talent. Indeed, one of the objects of the festival was to lay the foundation-stone of a new theatre. To the site of this projected edifice the pageant now proceeded, and the stone was duly laid, a plate with the following inscription being inserted in the cavity : "Genio loci Hoc Theatrum, D. D. D. Consocintis Shakspeareana, Stratfordia idcirco jubilante." A vocal performance, the music from " 'Macbeth," followed the ceremony on the spot. At four o'clock a dinner, at which two hundred gentlemen sat down, was held in the large room of the Town Hall, a scroll, inscribed "We ne'er shall look upon his like again," being suspended over the painting of Shakespeare, and another, "He suited the action to the word," over the portrait of Garrick. Over the entrance was a transparency representing the head of Shakespeare surrounded with a radiant glory dissipating the previous darkness. The speeches on the occasion were numerous and long, the chief orator apparently being the Rev. Dr. Wade, vicar of St. Nicholas's, Warwick. A public breakfast at the White Lion Hotel, a large house in Henley Street, adjacent to the birthplace, and a masquerade held in a temporary amphitheatre, erected in Rother. Market, were the chief amusements of the second day, which terminated with a display of fireworks. Garrick's amphitheatre, it seems, had been erected close to the Avon, but the Rother Market, which looks like a large village green, long since destitute of verdure, was again selected for the pavilion of 1830. The wooden edifice of the present festival is in quite a different part of the town, the chief entrance being in a narrow street called Southern's Lane, situated near the church and river. A concert at the White Lion contributed the principal entertainment of the third day, the musicians being amateurs and members of Mr. Raymond's company. The festival of 1827 is still recollected with pleasure by the older inhabitants of the town, and the pageant seems to have been exceedingly well contrived. Mr. Raymond had already taken a lease of the projected theatre, and its opening was eagerly anticipated as likely to prove a lasting source of amusement. Those sanguine expectations were never realised, and, though the theatre was indeed completed, and now stands an unsightly edifice in Chapel Lane, not far from the Grammar School where Shakespeare is supposed to have learnt Latin, it is rarely used at present for dramatic purposes. THE THIRD CELEBRATION, 1830. In At the termination of the jubilee of 1827, it was publicly announced that a triennial celebration of the poet's birthday would take place at Stratford-upon-Avon. pursuance of this determination the Shakespearian Club began in the autumn of 1829 to make preparations for the celebration to take place in 1830. The applications from the Committee to many distinguished individuals having been favourably received, it was determined that Royalty itself should be solicited to patronise the celebration. A petition was accordingly drawn out and presented by the then Right Honourable Robert Peel to George IV., praying for the countenance and support of His Majesty in the undertaking. An immediate assent was conveyed in the most gracious terms to the anxious expectants. Thus honoured, the gala was invested with regal importance. The co-operation and contributions of the nobility and gentry throughout the country followed as a matter of course, and the preparations being at last completed the jubilee commenced on Friday, the 23rd of April-the day sacred to Shakespeare and St. George. A dull and unpropitious morning was ushered in by the customary firing of cannon from the Bancroft and the heights of Welcombe, the hoisting of flags and the ringing of bells. Rain fell copiously, but, despite that misfortune, by nine o'clock all the roads leading to the town were thronged with all sorts of people-pedestrians, equestrians, and carriage folk. The fine old English gentleman, "who F entertained the rich, and ne'er forgot the poor," was alive in the land. In Rother Street a pavilion had been erected, in which the business of the day commenced with a public breakfast. The characters for the Shakespearian procession (which formed a portion of the programme) were all ready about mid-day, but the weather continued so unpropitious that the Committee issued orders for a postponement until the following day, when the clouds suddenly dispersed, the sun shone forth, and the day continued fair for several hours. Exactly at two o'clock a royal salute from the cannon, the ringing of bells, and the shouts of the multitude announced to eager expectants that the procession had left the pavilion, from which it issued in the following order :Mr. Ashfield, on horseback, attired as a Chief Constable of the Elizabethan period; Mr. Palmer, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, Costumier, on horseback. The Royal Standard of England, borne by Messrs. Tomkins and William Morris; the Band of the Second Warwickshire Local Militia; a Banner, on which the arms of Shakespeare and the borough of Stratford were embroidered; the Committee of the Shakespearian Club, on horseback, headed by the Mayor (T. Ashwin, Esq.), each wearing the jubilee scarf and a medal suspended from the neck by the jubilee or rainbow tinted ribbon; St. George (the tutelar saint of England), seated on a grey horse, richly caparisoned: the hero was personated by Mr. Charles Kean (then about twenty years of age); St. George's Esquire (Mr. Goodwin, of Stratford), with his Banner; the Banner of the Borough, borne by F. Findon and J. Paine; Melpomene (Miss Harvey of Mr. Raymond's company), with dagger and chalice, seated on a dark-coloured car, surrounded by fiends; Lear and Cordelia, by Mr. W. Williams and Miss Churchill, of Stratford; Edgar (as mad Tom), by Mr. Timberley, of Warwick; Heralds bearing Eagles; Coriolanus, by Mr. Gardner, of Kingsthorpe, Northamptonshire; Cominus, by John Warner, of Charlecote; Titus Lartius, by Mr. Pittaway; twelve Lictors; a Banner; a Herald, carrying the Roman Eagle; Julius Cæsar, by Mr. Chas. Wright, of |
