Sure no man here will ever dare to break. [Enter Fonfon's ghoft, who, by action, removes the speaker of the former part of the epilogue.] Hold, and give way, for I myself will speak; And add new faults ftill to the great offence Your ancestors fo rafhly did commit Against the mighty powers of art and wit, When they condemn'd thofe noble works of mine, Repent, or on your guilty heads fhall fall The three bold Beauchamps fhall revive again, Downs, in a lift of plays acted by the king's company at Drury-lane, has pla ced Every Man in his Humour. I, at first, fuppofed that it had been revived by the comedians of that houfe; but Medbourne being taken notice of in the epilogue, as the domeftic poet of the playhouse, who was was an actor in the duke's company, I am convinced that our stage-historian was in an error, or that this play was revived at both theatres, contrary to an established order of the court, which enjoined the two theatres to divide the old plays between them, and not meddle with one another's property. Matthew Medbourne, who, in this epilogue, is faid to have had no less than ten plays by him, was an excellent actor. He rendered himself acceptable, by his learning and accomplishments, to persons of fashion and taste, and was particularly distinguished by the earl of Dorfet, who, not only condescended to mention him in this epilogue, but wrote an epilogue to his tranflation of Moliere's Tartuffe. Medbourne lived at a time when the ftate divifions were at the height. He was a Roman Catholic, and warmly attached to the intereft of his royal patron the duke of York. Unhappily, perhaps, on account of fome imprudent expreffion, or for fome inadvertent beha viour, he was involved in the popish plot, and thrown into Newgate, where he was fuffered to perish. Such was the rage of party, that a man of fo little confequence as a player was made an object of popular refentment by the furious politics of Lord Shaftsbury and his colleagues. I was informed, many years fince, that Every Man in his humour was revived at the theatre in Lincoln's-inn-fields about the year 1720: how the parts were distri buted I could not learn. Towards the beginning of the year 1750, Mr. Garrick was induced, by his own judgement, or the advice of others, to revive this comedy, and to bring it on his stage. He expunged all fuch paffages in it as either retarded the progress of the plot, or, through length of time, were become obfolete or unintelligible; and these were not a few. Of all our old play-wrights, Jonfon was most apt to allude to local customs and temporary follies. Mr. Garrick likewise added a scene of his own. Notwithstanding Notwithstanding all the care he had beftowed in pruning and dreffing this dramatic tree, he was fearful it would not flourish when brought forth to public view. To prevent, therefore, any miscarriage in the acting of the play, he took an accurate furvey of his company, and confidered their distinct and peculiar faculties.. He gave to each comedian a part which he thought was in the compass of his power to hit off with skill. Kitely, the jealous husband, which requires great art in the performer, he took upon himself; to Woodward he affigned Bobadil, which has been thought, by many good judges, to have been his masterpiece in low comedy. Brainworm was played with all the archness and varied pleasantry that could be affumed by Yates: Welbred and Young Knowell by Ross and Palmer. Shuter entered most naturally into the follies of a young, ignorant, fellow, who thinks smoking tobacco fashionably, and swearing a strange kind of oath, the highest VOL. II. proofs E proofs of humour. and taste. Winstone, who was tolerated in other parts, in Downright was highly applauded. Old Knowell became the age and perfon of Berry. Mrs. Ward, a pretty woman, and an actress of confiderable talents, acted. dame Kitely. Mifs Minors, fince Mrs. Walker, was the Mrs. Bridget. I must not forget mafter Matthew, the town gull, which was given, with much propriety, to Harry Vaughan, a brother of Mrs. Pritchard, a man formed by nature for small parts of low humour and bufy impertinence; fuch as Tefter in the Sufpicious Hufband, Simple in the Merry Wives of Windfor, and Simon in the Apprentice. After all the attention of the acting manager to draw together fuch a groupe of original actors as were fcarce ever collected before, the antiquated phrase of old Ben appeared fo ftrange, and was so oppofite to the taste of the audience, that The found it no eafy matter to make them relish the play. However, by obftinate perfeverance, |