which Hamlet fometimes affumes, feems contradictory to the general tone of melancholy in the character. But that fort of melancholy, which is the moft genuine as well as the most amiable of any, arifing neither from fourness of temper, nor prompted by accidental chagrin, but the effect of delicate fenfibility, impreffed with a sense of forrow, will often be found indulging itself in a sportfulness of external behaviour, amidst the preffure of a fad, or even anguish of a broken heart.

The melancholy man feels in himself a fort of double perfon; one which looks not forth into the 'world, nor takes concern in vulgar objects or frivolous pursuits; another which he lends, as it were, to ordinary men, which can accommodate itself to their tempers and manners, without feeling any degradation from indulging in a fmile with the cheerful, and a laugh with the giddy.

This is unquestionably the key to the character of Hamlet, and fuch Mr Henderson exhibited it in a wonderfully correct manner. Perhaps he was fometimes too rapid, and, in one or two inftances, where pause and reflection were material, he hurried too much.

In many points he played the character in a new and an original manner, and fhowed that he had ftudied the part with great exactness. In the celebrated foliloquy, the advice to the players, and the grave diggers fcene, we will venture to fay he rivalled Garrick, to whom,

whom, in many parts, and in the tones of his voice, he bore a very striking refemblance.

He wanted fupport in the other characters of the play. The best actor cannot fingly support a play, and the manager fhould be at pains to procure good performers, and to caft the characters so as to give a decent fupport. But, as Hamlet fays,-" Oh there be players, that neither having the accent, nor the gait of Chriftian, Pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed, that I have thought fome of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well-they imitated humanity so abominably."

FOR THE EDINBURGH EVENING COURANT.

SIR,

Edinburgh, Feb. 1. 1786.

AT this feafon, when there is little to do in the country, I took my wife's advice to pass a few days in the town. The firft amufement I thought of was the Playhouse; and accordingly I directed my steps to it on Saturday, not without having almost broken my neck in your new improved street, as it is called. When I got feated in the back row of a box, I found the play was to be Sheridan's Duenna. The company were genteel, the house clean, neat, and well

lighted,

lighted, and the scenery very good.-Next as to the performers and conduct of the piece. I mean to fay nothing of the abfurdity of operas in general; custom has given them fanction, and we must see them. The performers were strangers to me; but I will tell you what ftruck me with regard to them. The lady who played the Duenna was most extravagantly dreffed, and through the whole part was outré, and exhibited the burlefque more fuited for St Bartholomew's Fair than for a genteel audience, and was altogether inconfiftent with the character. In her first dress, she looked more like a Squaw Indian who had escaped from the fcalping knife, than a Duenna of Spain.

*

Another lady played a double part, viz. that of Don Carlos, and Donna Clara; a violation of propriety which nothing but neceffity can excufe. This in fome measure might be the cafe, as in the part of Don Carlos there are three fine fongs, and I underftood from the gentleman who fat next to me that the lady was reckoned the principal finger on this ftage. Upon this information I bent all my attention to her. The appearance in Don Carlos, to be fure, was ludicrous enough-a little fhort figure in an old masquerade domino-with a bufhel of curls on the head which would not allow the hat to go on, so that it lay like a bottle bonnet on a bull's forehead. However, this I eafily got over, expecting to be amply rewarded by the fine finging. When Don Carlos came

* Mrs Iliff.

to

to fing "Had I a heart for falsehood fram'd," to the tune of Will you go to Flanders, I heard a hale, clear, powerful voice, but the tune no more like what it fhould have been than the variations of Duncan Gray are to Tweed Side. It is a general fault of great performers, to aim at astonishing the audience by the power of their execution, rather than to please by fimplicity. The whole scale of notes is tortured and rumbled about, with fudden ftarts, high fqueaks, long dying fhakes, and fudden falls, and all this to fhew their powers, without either taste or compofition. By this means they often get out of tune, lose fight of the subject, embarrass themselves, and diftrefs the audience. Had the lady kept to the fimple melody, with a few chafte graces, fhe would have performed well, for fhe has a fine voice, with great compafs and command. Her fecond fong, "For fure a pair was never feen," was well fung, by keeping fimply to the tune.-The lady who played Donna Louifa (Mrs Kemble, I think, was her name) was extremely pleafing in her part. She acted with elegance, fimplicity, and eafe. Her voice is fweet and melodious, though not powerful; and she fung with tafte. Upon the whole, I was very tolerably amused, and shall attend the theatre every evening I can during my stay in town.

I cannot conclude without obferving how much matters are changed fince I was a young fellow, and ufed to attend theatrical reprefentations. A parcel of beardless, witless boys, from what I faw last night, feem

feem to affume to themselves the privilege of being dictators of public tafte. They applauded by loud clapping of hands, where they ought to have been filent; and the galleries, always ready to join in an uproar, followed the example, while the company in the pit and boxes ftared with astonishment and pity. Young people at their age, in my time, were modest and diffident.-The impudence of fome of the schoolboys, with their lank hair over their fhoulders, to me, was marvellous indeed!-Several of them, with great effrontery, put on the broad cock of their hats before, and boldly marched up to the fide boxes, where the poor wretched creatures, the girls of the town (as I was told) were fitting, with a mother bawd at their head, like the mistress of a boarding-school. The young miffes below looking up to the young masters, their dancing-school companions, and gigling at the frolic.

Had one of my fons done fo, I would have whipped him severely, or sent him to the sea as a neverdo-well.

As my friends in the country read your paper, your inferting this will fave me a good deal of writing.

I

am, &c.

JOHN PEPPERCORN.