of Beaumont and Fletcher. Beffus was given to Woodward; the manager defigned Arbaces for himself. They both appeared to be much pleafed with the prospect of giving the public diverfion, and gaining great applause in the representation of two characters new to the ftage. And, doubtlefs, the quick tranfitions, from fudden anger and violent rage to calm repentance and tame fubmiffion, in Arbaces, could not have been displayed with equal skill by any actor but Garrick; though a character, which is all paffion and all repentance, is like a picture without keeping: the light and fhade, though ftrong, receive no advantage from the perfpective: the distress of Arbaces is, from fituation, continually bordering upon the ridiculous. The abfurdity, bafenefs, and cowardice, of Beffus, could not have been better difpofed of, perhaps, than to Harry Woodward. The other parts were distributed to advantage; the play was curtailed of fuch fcenes as were fuppofed to be fuperfluous, and and in fome places altered and improved, But, however eager the manager was to bring out this play at first, it was observed, that, at every reading of it in the greenroom, his pleasure, instead of increasing, fuffered a vifible diminution. His ufual vivacity at laft forfook him; he looked grave and stroked his chin, which, to the courtiers amongst the players, who knew their monarch was his own minister, was a convincing fign of his being diffatisfied with the business that was going forward. At length he fairly gave up the defign of acting King and no King; the parts were withdrawn from the actors, and no more was heard of it. The cause of this fudden refolution was not known, though the conjectures concerning it were various. Some thought. the title carried an objection. The words, King and no King, they faid, would make an odd appearance in the bills, more especially as a young and beloved prince had juft afcended the throne of his ancestors. Others Others thought the impropriety of the ftory, on which the play was founded, was a great defect; but this objection could have fmall weight, as the plots of almost all our old dramatifts are built upon romances, or hiftories of very little credit. Two reasons, above all others, I believe, prevailed on the manager to drop this play. The King's ftrange and contradictory agitations of mind are no otherwife to be accounted for than from his ardent passion to a lady whom he supposes to be his fifter: this belief raises him fometimes to fits of frenzy. A play, founded upon inceft, or any thing repugnant to nature, even in fuppofition, can never please an English audience. Why is Dryden's Don Sebastian almost banished our theatres? The progrefs of the play, to a glorious fourth act, promises a noble catastrophe. In the fifth act, the two lovers, Sebaftian and Almeyda, are difcovered to be brother and fifter. After exchanging amorous glances and warm wifhes, approaching to lasciviousness, in the rich eloquence of Dryden's harmonious verfes, they are obliged to part for ever. The Unnatural Combat of Maflinger, one of his most finished pieces, is for ever excluded the theatre for a like reason. Smith's Phædra and Hippolitus was coldly entertained, at the first acting of it, with all the powers of Betterton and Booth, Barry and Oldfield, to fupport it; and could never win upon an audience in a revival. But another very powerful reason for not acting King and no King prevailed, I am perfuaded, with a man of Garrick's reflection. He did not choose to hazard the obtruding such a character on the public as Beffus, who, though a captain in the army, is not only a beaten and difgraced coward, but a voluntary pandar; a wretch who offers to procure a lady for the king his mafter, fuppofed, by him, to be his own fifter; and, not fatisfied with this degree of infamy, by way of fupererogation, he declares he would not fcruple to go on the fame fcandalous errand to the king's mo ther. ther. This fellow is a rare fecond to Jack Falstaff, for fo we are informed in the animated lines of Mr. Colman to Philaster : Beaumont and Fletcher, thofe twin ftars that run As cowardice, in the abstract, is a bad fubject of ridicule, fo is the wretch who is employed to raise the mirth of an audience by being often kicked. Can we laugh at him, who, when completely drubbed, fays, • That fufferance has made me wainscot.' Humanity must be fhocked at this as well as what follows: • There is not a rib in his body that has not been thrice broken with dry beating, and now his fides look like two wicker-targets, every way bended. King and no King. A& IV. This may be wit, but it is of the blunteft fort I ever met with; but, as if this was not fufficient, after the theatre has e choed with the mirth resulting from the two fevere drubbings of this fecond Fal staff, |