TO MISS KELLY, (of Drury Lane Theatre, and

The English Opera House,) BY C. LAMB.

You are not, Kelly, of the common strain,
That stoop their pride and female honour down
To please that many headed-beast, the town,
And send their lavish smiles and tricks, for gain.
By fortune thrown amid the actor's train,
You keep your native dignity of thought;
The plaudits that attend you, come unsought,
As tributes, due unto your natural vein.
Your tears have passion in them, and a grace
Of genuine freshness, which our hearts avow;
Your smiles are winds whose ways we cannot
trace,

That vanish and return, we know not how→→
And please the better, from a pensive face,
A thoughtful eye, and a reflecting brow.

PUPPET PLAYS OF FORMER TIMES.

WHEN a growing sense of propriety had driven the Mysteries and Moralities from the stage, the Vice and the Devil of those pieces, from whose grotesque extravagances the vulgar could not be suddenly weaned, took refuge in the puppet-shows, where they wantoned, with seri

ous subjects, even more indecently than before. But this was not all: it would seem that there

was scarcely a regular play, of which some imitation was not performed by puppets. "I have seen," says a personage in an old play, "all our Stories (i. e. historical dramas) acted by Mammets:" and Decker tells us that he saw Julius Cæsar and the Duke of Guise in a puppet-show; " villainous motions," he calls them; and, indeed, it is scarcely possible to name a popular event that was not taken up by these wooden competitors of the quality." A ready guess may be formed at the ignorance and absurdities of these drolleries, which are admirably exposed in the laugh able interlude with which Ben Jonson closes his Comedy of Bartholomew Fair; and in which, Master John Littlewit makes the Story of Hero and Leander, "only a little easy, and modern for the times, sir, that's all. As for the Hellespont, I imagine our Thames here; and then Leander I make a dyer's son, about Puddle-wharf; and Hero a wench o'the Bankside, who, going over one morning to Old Fish-street, Leander spies her land at Trig-stairs, and falls in love with her; nów do I introduce Cupid, having metamorphosed himself into a drawer, and he strikes Hero in love with a pint of sherry';

and other pretty passages there are of the friendship (of Damon and Pythias) that will delight you, sir, and please your judgment." The gross and vulgar language, the motley assemblage of characters, the ridiculous confusion of time and place, &c. in this "Ancient Modern History," are no doubt highly characteristic of the puppet-plays of the times.

THE DRAMA AT HAYTI.

A negress at Hayti, only sixteen years old, has written a Tragedy, entitled The Death of Christophe, which was to have been represented at the National Theatre of the Republic, by order of the President Boyer.

MACREADY, THE TRAGEDIAN,

THIS classic Tragedian performed at the Birmingham Theatre, in August, 1823. One night, he had left the house, after the tragedy of Hamlet, in which he had delineated, with his accustomed ability, the philosophic Prince, and was proceeding on foot to his lodgings, when he approached a small cottage in flames, surrounded by a concourse of people eager to look on, but loth to assist. A cry of distress was heard from within, he instantly threw off his coat and waist

coat, and with the agility of a harlequin sprung into the parlour window, from whence he brought an infant in his grasp, and was received by the speechless mother in an agony no words can describe. The hat, coat, and waistcoat, of the adventurous hero were gone, and he darted through the crowd, as he was, towards his lodgings: no one could tell the name of him who had so gallantly ventured his life, and pecuniary reward of considerable amount was offered to the unknown by a committee of gentlemen. A circumstance occurred, which brought him forward against himself: a poor fellow was apprehended selling a handsome coat, in the sleeve of which was written Mr. Macready's name; he was sent for by the police Magistrates, and identified the coat stolen from him at the fire. They now lauded his modesty more than his intrepidity, and the thunders of applause that greeted him on his re-appearance at the Theatre, must have been the most grateful tribute to a feeling heart. Mr. Macready's goodness did not stop here; his benefit took place shortly after, and it was a complete bumper. He received, in an anonymous letter, a bank note of ten pounds, as a tribute to his humanity and courage, in rescuing the cottager's daughter from the flames." Mr. Macready instantly called upon

the unfortunate couple who had lost their all in the fire, and presented them with that sum, saying, "he had been only the mean instrument in the hand of God, in procuring it for them :" he also promised to assist the infant as it advanced in years, and we have no doubt he will fulfil his word.

MADAME VIOLANTE.

IN 1715, Edinburgh was visited by an Italian woman of the name of Violante, on her way from Dublin to England. Her money being exhausted, she attempted to raise a supply, by exhibiting feats of strength and dexterity, as a tumbler, fencer, and rope dancer. Her success in this scheme was so much superior to her expectations, that she was induced to try her talents as an actress. With this view, she brought from the North of England a party of the lowest of comedians, and having fitted up an apartment, at the bottom of Carrubber's Close, as a Theatre, it was opened about the month of November, 1716, and for some time continued with considerable success. The wretchedness and obscurity of the company screened them from much notice, and they were allowed to exhibit their paltry representations, unopposed either by clergy or magistracy.