talk aloud, as if I had been on the stage. As the d-- would have it, when the maid was coming up the stairs, which were dark and upright, with the dish of meat and plates in her hands, I was at the time composing a scene of hunting a bear; and being wholly intent upon my play, cried out, as loud as I could,

"Fly, fly the bloody bear! take heed, I say;
Alas! I'm kill'd, and you'll become its prey."

The poor wench, who was a silly Gallician, hearing me roar that I was killed, and she in danger of becoming a prey to the bear, thought it had been a real matter of fact, and that I called out, to save herself. Upon this conceit, she took to her heels, and treading on her coats in the confusion, tumbled down all the stairs. The soup was spilt, the earthen pots broken, and she ran out, roaring in the street, that a bear was killing a man !"

FOOTE AND MACKLIN.

FOOTE, who was ever in the two extremes of fortune, now, exalted to the top of the wheel, and, anon, prostrated at the bottom, happened to be in the latter situation, when he and Macklin once happened to meet. They were in the Bedford

Coffee-house, when Foote, perhaps, to keep up the appearance of prosperity, at least, was every now and then displaying a fine gold repeater, which he kept dangling in his hand, or putting to his ear. At last, he suddenly exclaimed, "Zounds! my watch is stopped !”—“ Pho! pho!" said Macklin, "never mind that, Sam; you may depend upon it, it will soon go."

ANACHRONISM.

DURING Young's engagement at Bath, in the winter of 1820-1, “Henry VIII." was revived, to exhibit him in the character of Cardinal Wolsey. The representative of one of the bishops, fancying that snuff-taking was a distinguishing characteristic of a churchman, indulged his nose freely throughout the play, forgetting that the scene was laid at a period of nearly fifty years before tobacco was brought into England.

TRUTH WILL OUT.

A MR. Herbert, a country comedian of some celebrity, when a child, and just able to speak sufficiently for the stage, represented the part of the juvenile Duke of York, in "Richard III." When he should have said-" !mother, mo

ther!" he made a pause-The daughter of Melpomene, who acted the Queen, gave him the sentence several times, to which he at last replied"Mother! you are not my mother-give me my leather breeches, and let me go home.”

PUFF DIRECT.

A FRENCH dramatist devised a singular method of alluring the public to the representation of his pieces. On the day on which any of them was announced, he set out in the morning, went through all the streets and squares of Paris, stopping at those places where the play-bills were usually posted; and when five or six persons had collected, he would cry at once, in a vehement tone-" Faith, the French will be treated with an excellent piece to-night, and I'll be there for one." This peregrination was then continued in the same manner, and its object became, in some measure, successful.

LETTER OF OLD YATES.

"To the Editor of the Public Advertiser.

"SIR,

THOUGH it is not my profession to write, but to retail the writings of others, yet, I find the spirit

move me to hazard some observations on a very good humoured, sprightly, elegant paragraph, in your paper of yesterday. The facetious gentleman is pleased to say, that "Yates, and his wife, have retired from the stage, with 36,0001. or 40,000l. and that they are remarkable for their comely appearance, though one is, from theatrical dates, 70; the other above 60 years of age." 'Tis wonderful so wise a man should be mistaken, but the facts are,

"They have not retired with 40,000l.

They have not retired at all."

"Theatrical dates do not prove them to be, the one 70, the other more than 60 years of age. "In respect to myself, that I am remarkable for my comely appearance; that I can, though not worth quite 40,0007. eat my mutton without an engagement, and yet owe no man any thing, are offences to which I am ready to plead guilty; if comeliness is a sin, heaven help me! I say; and as to owing no man any thing, in these days, when it is the genteelest thing in the world to pay no man any thing, I must e'en stand trial before a jury of honest tradesmen, who, I dare

say, will acquit me from the singularity of the

case.

"In respect to theatrical dates, I have, to be sure, told the chimes at midnight, some five and thirty years ago; which, as I find myself just as healthy and alert as in those delightful days, I do not think at all disqualifies me for my general cast of characters, in which I have pleased as good judges as your correspondent, nor is it absolutely necessary that the Miser, Fondlewife, Gomez, Don Manuel, Sir Wilful Witwould, &c. &c. should have the first down of a beard on their chins; but I will whisper something in the gentleman's ear, that whilst such writers, as he, are allowed to assassinate honest people in the dark, by abusive anonymous paragraphs, nobody that has mutton to eat will look out for theatrical engagements, but quietly let the stage fall into that happy state,

"When one Egyptian darkness covers all."

"So much for myself, and now for Mrs. Yates. "That she is a pretty enough actress, as times go, and by no means uncomely, I willingly allow; but that she is more than 60, or will be these dozen years, at least, may bear something of a doubt.