merous enemies; and under skilful and united officers will never want a gallant crew, that will enable her still to set all her foes at defiance. Till this refit takes place I shall have no peace; and as your paper is a favourite in every ship in our fleet, I wish, through so general a channel, to ease my breast of half its load, by im. parting to my messmates on board, the deep concern which I feel on the occasion. I beg leave to subscribe myself, Sir, Your dejected humble servant,

A MIDSHIPMAN. P.S. If you favour me with the insertion of this, you may, perhaps, hear from me again before I go on board.

THEATRICALS.

(From the Examiner, Oct. 8.] MR. EXAMINING EDITOR, OBSERVE with infinite surprise the prevalence of

gloomy speculation on the decay of public spirit, and of the extreme apathy with which events are re." garded, of the greatest importance in their nature and consequences. Convinced of the mischievous tendency of such dire prognostications, I am anxious, through your medium, to satisfy the world of the extreme carelessness and want of observation in the authors of such remarks; and to prove, by a few recent instances, that we retain all that philosophic spirit and calm good sense, by which, as a people, we have always been distinguished: in short, Sir, that we are spirited in the proper place, and resigned in the proper

season.

First, as to the public spirit.-You attend Covent Garden theatre, Mr. Examiner, and must observe the laudable and determined opposition to large receipt and overgrown emolument therein displayed. Even the 5

profuse

profuse expenditure and unreasonable efforts of the ! managers to engage superior talent, is canvassed with: a feeling of prudence and economy, perfectly charac, teristic. The nicety of our discriniination is here mas ; nifest, because no people can exhibit greater patience at similar extravagance on less important occasions. With what stoical serenity do we contemplate the expense of diverting continents and peninsulas! and, with what equanimity do we regard the sage managers, and brilliani performers, who have produced and ends acted in these inemorable interludes! No, Sir! We wisely reserve our personalities for individuals like: the Kembles. The success of a family who have no, pretensions but considerable natural capacity, much study, and prudent application, ought, I say ought to excite dissatisfaction in a strictly commercial country. Why, Sir, they have amassed fortunes equal to many button and buckle makers! The mushroom mechanic is a natural production of the laud; but to encourage mental fungi would be an evident departure from that shopkeeping system, by which we are so exalted in the opinion of sensible foreigners and ourselves. It must: be confessed, Mr. Examiner, there is an insolent pertinacity in talent, not at all congenial with the reigning taste for solid mediocrity. That fellow Kemble, for instance, assumes more than His Majesty's Ministers, and does not, like them, exhibit that oily complacent kind of duluess, which feels itself at home among the dust under the feet of its patrons. We are certainly the most generous people on earth; we only require the partakers of our bounty to crawl on their bellies all the days of their life, to repay insult with submission, and ennuity with abasement. In remunerating actors, too, we should establish the wise principle of a maximum, to distinguish them from the aforesaid Ministers, who, for their extreme pliancy and exquisite sympathy on the subject of Catholic ido

272

VETERES AVIÆ; OR, THE PHENIX.

Jatry, and the formidable old gentleman at Rome, should be unsparingly rewarded with sinecures, pensions, and reversions, altogether befitting their high and honourable characters.

In a word, Mr. Examiner, were I to enumerate all the instances of profound and accurate regard and disregard, inverse and direct, of the existing public, I should far exceed your limits; I shall therefore conclude by briefly informing you I am an optimist, and opine that every thing is going on in the best possible manner for a national consummation of all things, and, in accordance with the sentiment, subscribe ny. self

Your constant reader, Oct. 6, 1809.

PANGLOS.

VETERES AVIÆ; OR, THE PHONIX.

ANODE FOR MANAGERS,

[From the Times, Oct. 9) 'Twas said of old time,

In blest Araby's clime,

The phenix *, about to expire,
Cover'd up to the breast
In her ruinous nest,

Awaits a new birth from the fire.
Then renew'd all so pretty,
To Phoebus' gay city

Doom'd by fate her first journey to run,
She hies her away,
Nor halts night or day,

Till she pops on the shrine of the sun.
Her voyage effected,
On her asles collected,

From Olympus she summons the flame ;
Submiss to her nod,
Hastes the fiery god,

And she posts lighter back than she caine.

* Vid. Claudiani Idyll. de Phoenice.

Our

VETERES AVIÆ; OR, THE PH@NIX,

273

Our managers thus
Though with rather more fuss,

Proud so bright an example to follow;
When Fate seem's to lower,
Invok'd a new power,

And knelt at the shrine of Apollo :-
“ In the prospect of death,
Receive our last breath,

And grant us to flourish once more :
Though Christians and Jews
Thy orgies refuse,

Yet Incas and priests shall adore t.
66 Our house is thy home!
On the top of the dome I

Thy image colossal's survey'd :
By that we invoke,
Ob!
parry

the stroke
Which fain would thy temple invade."
The Godhead was mov'd,
For the people he lov'd,

Who still to his worship are true:
“I grant your petition ;
Fulll the condition,

And your credit, I swear to renew.
so Run the cash ne'er so low,
Your house shall o'erflow.”

Thus, when all was distress and vexation,
By wonderful trick
They were sav'd from Old Nick,

And replac'd on a solid foundation.

of Alluding to the “ the getting up, as we phrase it" (vide Mr. Kemble), of Pizarro, at.Drury Lane, by which the exhausted funds of the theatre were replenished ; and in the pageantry of which, the splendour of Peruvian idolatry in the worship of the sun is the promis nent feature; an incense, we conceive, not very grateful to any but the heathen deities.

On the propriety of this emblem, see Plumptre's Discourses on the Siage, lately published, page 123.

T' other

NS

274

EPIGRAM.
T other theatre soon
Implor'd the same boon;

And enfeebled by age and decay,
In mouldering dust
Disdaining to rust,

In flames melted sudden away $.
A new phoenix straight,
From the ashes of Fate,

To dazzle our wondering eyes,
More firm and tenacious,
More grand and capacious,

Exalts its proud head to the skies,
Great patron of physic,
Who curs'd gout and phthisic,

If thus potent thy healing devices;
With the manager's cries,
Hear the audience likewise,

And reduce the exorbitant Prices.

EPIGRAM.
[From the General Evening Post, Oct. 10.]
SAYS Dick Long to Jack Small,

“ Will you go to Guildhall,
To hear a long city debate ;

Where the orators bawl

About nothing at all,
Except about what they shall eat?"

S. E.

$ The late theatre royal, Covent Garden, was burnt to the ground on the night of September 20, 1809, after the representation of Pizarro.

TO