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skill, fails in making that impression of which the character is capable. In the parts of heroic vigour, more particularly in that in which the old King contends with the assassins of Cordelia, and, exhausted by the efforts which he makes in her defence, sinks into the arms of his attendants, Mr. Kemble presented a perfect image of Lear. In the parts of abrupt passion, when the mind of the aged monarch shifts between insanity and reason, Mr. Kemble was equally happy; but he was not successful in representing the decrepitude of Lear; he was any thing but an old man.-He stalked with all the firmness of juvenility, and when he assumed the feebleness of age, the art was too apparent to deceive.

To make the limbs totter, to bend the body, and dim the eyes, is more a trick of art than a requisite of natural talent; and as this is the only part of Lear in which Mr. Kemble does not succeed, his failure cannot be imputed to any want of judgment or skill.

ON THE

CONSTRUCTION OF THEATRES.

SIR,

SINCE the year 1792 there have been seven Theatres burnt down in this metropolis. The following observations on the construction of edifices of this description, tending in some measure to prevent a recurrence of similar accidents, may not perhaps be unacceptable to our readers.

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The naves of Lincoln, Ely, and Westminster Cathedrals, are vaulted with stone; the first is 39 feet wide, and S2 feet high; the secoud 35 fect wide, and 73 feet high; the third 33 feet wide, and 103 feet high: and these vanits are built of materials of which few architects of the present age would dare to erect a wine vault. The perpendicular supports to these vaults are comparatively slender columns, and the thrust of the vaulting is resisted by flying buttresses over the side aisles; and the naves of the Cathedrals are intersected by towers, against which their vaultings abut. Hence the form of a Theatre and a Cathedral bear a great resemblance; the part over the pit may be compared with the tower, the choir end of the nave to the stage, the other end to the retiring boxes, &c. and the aisles to the lobbies.

There is always sufficient distance behind the boxes and galleries in a Theatre to erect flying buttresses, the abutments to which will be concealed partly in the walls to the lobbies, and in the waiting rooms, or may project be yond the fronts; the widths of Theatres vary from 40 to 70 feet between the backs of the side boxes; the heights under the ceiling seldom exceed 70 feet. Hence it appears from precedent, that a vaulting to a Theatre is by no means impracticable.

The roof over the pit may be a dome, and over the other parts cylindrical vaulting intersecting the dome. If the vaults be erected with stone ribs, and the spandrels filled in with bricks, a few boards and scaffolding will be

ribs to erect them on; the dome in either case will not require a centre. The dome and vaults may be afterwards covered with lead or composition; no other roof will then be ne

cessary.

The church of Santa Sophia, at Constanti-sufficient without centering, except for the nople, is related to have been burnt down se veral times; and the Emperor Justinian is stated to have made the discovery, that if it were to be built of materials not combustible, a similar accident would not again occur. One would really imagine that there would be no need either of a ghost or Emperor to pointing can be preserved, only partial fires can inout this obvious truth; but experience shews that this is one of the lost secrets; therefore permit me to revive it in the mind of our Theatre-builders.

It is evident that while the roof of the build

jure the Theatre, and the injuries will be confined to what with propriety may be called the furniture of the building; and it is also evident, that upon this principle, in any times, this mode of construction, as it relates to the shell of the building, is considerably less expensive; but when the present high price of timber is recollected, it appears with still greater force. It may at first appear that there must be a great increase of thickness in the walls, and that from this circumstance

A Theatre is divided into two parts, the one appropriated to the actors and scenery, and the other to the audience; the latter is again divided into two parts, the one being the area, inclosed by the backs of the boxes, and the other, the retiring boxes in the middle of the Theatre; the plan is generally a circle, ellipsis, or mixed curve truncated, having parallelo-much space must be lost, and the expence of grams issuing from the section for the stage and the retiring boxes and galleries. Behind the part appropriated to the audience there are lobbies for communication.

walling must be enormous; but a recurrence to the principles upon which our Cathedrals are erected, will warrant a very different conclusion.

X.

OF

DR. GOLDSMITH.

THE TRAVELLER; OR, A PROSPECT OF SOCIETY.

INSCRIBED TO THE REV. MR. H. GOLDSMITH.

REMOTE, unfriended, melancholy, slow,
Or by the lazy Scheld, or wand'ring Po;

Or onward, where the rude Carinthian boor
Against the houseless stranger shuts the door:
Or where Campania's plain forsaken lies,
A weary waste expanding to the skies :
Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see,
My heart, untravell'd, fondly turns to thee;
Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain,
And drags, at each remove, a length'ning chain.
Eternal blessings crown my earliest friend,
And round his dwelling guardian saints attend;
Bless'd be that spot where cheerful guests retire
To pause from toil, and trim their evening fire;
Bless'd that abode where want and pain repair,
And ev'ry stranger finds a ready chair;
Bless'd be those feasts, with simple plenty
crown'd,

Where all the ruddy family around
Laugh at the jests or pranks that never fail,
Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale;
Or press the bashful stranger to his food,
And learn the luxury of doing good.

But me, not destin'd such delights to share,
My prime of life in wand'ring speut, and care;
Impell'd, with steps unceasing to pursue
Some fleeting good that mocks me with the

view;

Let school-taught pride dissemble all it can,
These little things are great to little man;
And wiser he, whose sympathetic mind
Exults in all the good of all mankind.
Ye glitt'ring towns, with wealth and splendour
crown'd;

Ye fields, where summer spreads profusion
round;

Ye lakes, whose vessels catch the busy gale;
Ye bending swains, that dress the flow'ry vale;
For me your tributary stores combine;
Creation's heir, the world, the world is mine!
As some lone miser visiting his store,
Bends at his treasure, counts, recounts it o'er;
Hoards after hoards his rising raptures fill,
Yet still he sighs, for hoards are wanting still:
Thus to my breast alternate passions rise,
Pleas'd with each good that Heaven to man

supplies;

Yet oft a sigh prevails, and sorrows fall,
To see the hoard of humau bliss so small;
And oft I wish, amidst the scene to find
Some spot to real happiness consign'd,
Where my worn soul, each wand'ring hope at
rest,

May gather bliss to see my fellows blest.

But where to find that happiest spot below, Who can direct, when all pretend to know;

That, like the circle bounding earth and skies, The shudd'ring tenant of the frigid zone

Allures from far, yet as I follow flies;
My fortune leads to traverse realms alone,
And find no spot of all the world my own.
E'en now, where Alpine solitudes ascend,
I sit me down a pensive hour to spend ;
And plac'd on high, above the storm's career,
Look downward where an hundred realms
appear;

Lakes, forests, cities, plains extending wide,
The pomp of kings, the shepherd's humbler
pride.
[bine,
When thus Creation's charms around com-
Amidst the store should thankless pride repine?
Say, should the philosophic mind disdaiu
That good which makes each humbler bosom
vain?

Continued from No. 42.]—No. XLIII.

Boldly proclaims that happiest spot his own;
Extols the treasures of his stormy seas,
And his long nights of revelry and ease:
The naked negro, panting at the line,
Boasts of his golden sands and palmy wine;
Basks in the glare, or stems the tepid wave,
And thanks his gods for all the good they gave.
Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam :
His first, best country, ever is at home.
And yet, perhaps, if countries we compare,
And estimate the blessings which they share,
Though patriots flatter, still shall wisdom find
| An equal portion dealt to all mankind;
As different good, by art or nature given,
To different nations, makes their blessings

M

even.

Nature, a mother kind alike to all, Still grants her bliss at labour's earnest call; With food as well the peasant is supplied On Idra's cliffs as Arno's shelvy side; And tho' the rocky-crested summits frown, These rocks by custom turn to beds of down. From art more various are the blessings sent; Wealth, commerce, honour, liberty, content. Yet these each other's power so strong contest, That either scems destructive of the rest. Where wealth and freedom reign, contentment fails; [vails. And honour sinks where commerce long preHence ev'ry state, to one lov'd blessing prone, Conforms and models life to that alone. Each to the fav'rite happiness attends, And spurns the plan that aims at other ends; Till carried to excess in each domain, This fav'rite good begets peculiar pain.

But let us try these truths with closer eyes, And trace them through the prospect as it lies: Here for a while, my proper cares resign'd, Here let mesit, in sorrow for mankind; Like you neglected shrub at random cast, That shades the steep, and sighs at ev'ry blast. Far to the right, where Appenine ascends, Bright as the summer, Italy extends ; Its uplands sloping deck the mountain's side, Woods over woods in gay theatric pride; While oft some temple's mould'ring tops between

With venerable grandeur mark the scene.

Could nature's bounty satisfy the breast,
The sons of Italy were surely blest.
Whatever fruits in different climes are found,
That proudly rise, or humbly court the ground;
Whatever blooms in torrid tracts appear,
Whose bright succession decks the varied year;
Whatever sweets salute the northern sky
With vernal lives, that blossom but to die:
These here disporting, own the kindred soil,
Nor ask luxuriance from the planter's toil;
While sea-born gales their gelid wings expand,
To winnow fragrance round the smiling land.
But small the bliss that sense alone bestows,
And sensual bliss is all the nation knows.
In florid beauty groves and fields appear,
Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.
Contrasted faults through all his manners
reign:

Tho' poor, luxurious; tho' submissive, vain ;
Tho' grave, yet trifling; zealous, yet untrue;
And e'en in penance planning sius anew.
All evils here contaminate the mind,
That opulence departed leaves behind;
For wealth was theirs, not far remov'd the
date,

When commerce proudly flourish'd through the state:

At her command the palace learn'd to rise, Again the long-fall'n column sought the skies: The canvas glow'd beyond e'en nature warm : The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form; Till more unsteady than the southern gale, Commerce on other shores display'd her sail; While nought remain'd of all that riches gave, But towns unmanned, and lords without a slave:

And late the nation found, with fruitless skill, Its former strength was but plethoric ill.

Yet still the loss of wealth is here supplied By arts, the splendid wrecks of former pride; From these the feeble heart and long-fall'n mind

An easy compensation seem to find.
Here may be seen, in bloodless pomp array'd,
The pasteboard triumph, and the cavalcade;
Processions form'd for piety and love,

A mistress or a saint in ev'ry grove.
By sports like these are all their cares beguil'd,
The sports of children satisfy the child:
Each nobler aim, repress'd by long controul,
Now sinks at last, or feebly mans the soul;
While low delights, succeeding fast behind,
In happier meanness occupy the mind:

As in those domes where Cæsars once bore

sway,

Defac'd by time, and tott'ring by decay,
There in the ruin, heedless of the dead,
The shelter-seeking peasant builds his shed;
And, wondering man could want the larger
pile,

Exults, and owns his cottage with a smile.

My soul, turn from them-turn we to survey Where rougher climes a nobler race display; Where the bleak Swiss their stormy mansion tread,

And force a churlish soil for scanty bread:
No product here the barren hills afford
But man and steel, the soldier and his sword.
No vernal blooms their torpid rocks array,
But winter ling'ring chills the lap of May;
No zephyr fondly sues the mountain's breast,
But meteors glare, and stormy glooms invest.
Yet still e'en here content can spread a

charm,

Redress the clime, and all its rage disarm. Tho' poor the peasant's hut, his feast tho small,

He sees his little lot the lot of all;
Sees no contiguous palace rear its head,
To shame the meanness of his humble shed;
No costly lord the sumptuous banquet deal;
To make him loath his vegetable meal;
But calm, and bred in ignorance and toil,
Each wish contracting, fits him to the soil.
Cheerful at morn he wakes from short repose,
Breathes the keen air, and carels as he goes;

With patient angle trolls the finny deep,
Or drives his vent'rous ploughshare to the

steep;

[way,

Or seeks the den where snow tracks mark the
And drags the struggling savage into day.
At night returning, ev'ry labour sped,
He sits him down the monarch of a shed;
Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys
His children's looks, that brighten at the
blaze;

While his lov'd partner, boastful of her hoard,
Displays her cleanly platter on the board:
And haply too some pilgrim, thither led,
With many a tale repays the nightly bed.
Thus ev'ry good his native wilds impart,
Imprints the patriot passion on his heart;

And e'en those hills that round his mansion
rise,

Enhance the bliss his scanty fund supplies.

Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms,

These far dispers'd. on timorous pinions fly,
To sport and flutter in a kinder sky.

To kinder skies, where gentler manners
reign,
[main.
Ituru,—and France displays her bright do-
Gay sprightly laud of mirth and social ease,
Pleas'd with thyself whom all the world can
please,

How often have I led thy sportive choir [Loire!
With tuneless pipe, beside the murm'ring
Where shading elms along the margin grew,
And freshen'd from the wave, the zephyr flew;
And haply, tho' my harsh touch falt'ring still,
But mock'd all tune, and marr'd the dancer's
skill,
[pow'r,

Yet would the village praise my wond'rous
And dance, forgetful of the noontide hour!
A like all ages: dames of ancient days
Have led their children thro' the mirthful
maze;

And dear that bill which lifts him to the And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore,

storms;

And as a child, when scaring sounds molest,
Clings close and closer to the mother's breast;
So the loud torrent, and the whirlwind's roar,
But bind him to his native mountains more.
Such are the charms to barren states assign'd:
Their wants but few, their wishes all coutin'd.
Yet let them only share the praises due ;
If few their wants, their pleasures are but few:
For ev'ry want that stimulates the breast,
Becomes a source of pleasure when redrest.
Whence from such lands cach pleasing science
flies,

That first excites desire, and then supplies;

Has frisk'd beneath the hurden of threescore.
So blest a life these thoughtless realms dis-
play,

Thus idly busy rolls their world away:
Theirs are those arts that mind to mind endear,
For honour forms the social temper here.
Honour, that praise which real merit gains,
Or e'en imaginary worth obtains,
Here passes current; paid from hand to hand
It shifts in splendid traffic round the land:
From courts to camps, to cottages, it strays,
And all are taught an avarice of praise:
They please, are pleas'd, they give to get
esteem;

[seem.

Unknown to them, when sensual pleasures cloy || Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they

To fill the languid pause, with finer joy;
Unknown those pow'rs that raise the soul to

flame,

Catch ev'ry nerve, and vibrate through the frame.

Their level life is but a mould'ring fire,
Unquench'd by want, unfann'd by strong
desire;

Unfit for raptures; or, if raptures cheer
On some high festival of once a year,
In wild excess the vulgar breast takes fire,
Till baried in debauch the bliss expire.

But not their joys alone thus coarsely flow;
Their morals, like their pleasures, are but low:
For, as refinement stops, from sire to son,
Unalter'd, unimprov'd, the manners ran;
And love's and friendship's finely pointed dart
Falls blunted from each indurated heart.
Some sterner virtues o'er the mountain's breast
May sit like falcons cow'ring on the nest;
But all the gentler morals, such as play
Thro' life's more cultur'd walks, and charm

the way;

But while this softer art their bliss supplies,
It gives their follies also room to rise;
For praise too dearly lov'd, or warmly sought,
Enfeebles all internal strength o: thought;
And the weak soul, within itself nublest,
Leans for all pleasure on another's breast,
Hence ostentation here, with tawdry art, [part:
Pants for the vulgar praise which fools im-
Here vanity assumes her pert grimace,
And trims her robes of frize with copper-lace;
Here beggar pride defrauds her daily cheer,
To boast one splendid banquet once a year;
The mind still turns where shifting fashion
draws,

Nor weighs the solid worth of self-applause.
To men of other minds my fancy flies,
Enbosom`d in the deep where Holland lies.
Methinks her patient sons before me stand,
Where the broad ocean leans against the land;
And, sedulous to stop the coming tide,
Lift the tall rampire's artificial pride.
Onward methinks, and diligently slow,
The firm conuccted bulwark seems to grow;

Spreads its long arms amidst the wat'ry roar,
Scoops out an empire, and usurps the shore;
While the pent ocean, rising o'er the pile,
Sees an amphibious world beneath him smile;
The slow canal, the yellow-blossom'd vale,
The willow-tufted bank, the gliding sail,
The crowded mart, the cultivated plain,
A new creation rescued from his reign.
Thus, while around the wave-subjected soil
Impels the native to repeated toil,
Industrious habits in each bosom reign,
And industry begets a love of gain.
Hence all the good from opulence that springs,
With all those ills surperfluous treasure brings,
Are here display'd. There much-lov'd wealth
imparts

Convenience, plenty, elegance, and arts;
But view them closer, craft and fraud appear;
E'en liberty itself is barter'd here!

At gold's superior charms all freedom flies;
The needy sell it, and the rich man buys;
A land of tyrants and a den of slaves,
Here wretches seek dishonourable graves.
And, calmly bent, to servitude conform,
Dull as their lakes that slumber in the storm.
Heavens! how unlike their Belgic sires of
old!

Rough, poor, content, ungovernably bold;
War in each breast, and freedom on each brow;
How much unlike the sons of Britain now!
Fir'd at the souud, my genius spreads her
wing
[spring;
And flies where Britain courts the western
Where lawns extend that scorn Arcadian
pride;
[glide:
And brighter streams than fam'd Hydaspes
There all around the gentlest breezes stray,
There gentle music melts on ev'ry spray ;
Creation's mildest charms are there combin'd;
Extremes are only in the master's mind!
Stern o'er each bosom reason holds her state,
With daring aims irregularly great :
Pride in their port, defiance in their eye,
I see the lords of human kind pass by;
Intent on high designs a thoughtful band,
By forms unfashion'd fresh from nature's band;
Fierce in their native hardiness of soul,
True to imagin'd right above controul:

The self-dependant lordlings stand alone;
All claims that bind and sweeten life unknown;
Here, be the bonds of nature feebly held,
Minds combat minds, repelling and repell'd.
Ferments arise, imprison'd factions roar,
Repress'd ambition struggles round her shore;
Till, over-wrought, the general system feels
Its motions stop, or phreusy fire the wheels.

Nor this the worst. As nature's ties decay, As duty, love, and honour fail to sway, Fictitious bonds, the bouds of wealth and Jaw,

Still gather strength, and force unwilling awe.
Hence all obedience bows to these alone,
And talent sinks, and merit weeps unknown;
Till time may come, when stripp'd of all her
charms,

The land of scholars and the nurse of arms,
Where noble stems transmit the patriot Alame,
Where kings have toir'd, and poets wrote for
fame,

One sink of level avarice shall lie,
And scholars, soldiers, kings, unhonour'd die.
Yet think not thus, when freedom's ills I

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And all that freedom's highest aims can reach, Is but to lay proportion'd loads on each. Hence, should one order disproportion'd grow, Its double weight must ruin all below.

O, then, how blind to all that truth requires, Who think it freedom when a part aspires, Calm in my soul, nor apt to rise in arms, Except when fast approaching danger warms : But when coutending chiefs blockade the throne,

While e'en the peasant boasts these rights to Contracting regal pow'r to stretch their own;

scan,

And learns to venerate himself as man.

Thine, freedom, thine the blessings pictur'd here,

Thine are those charms, that dazzle and en

dear;

Too blest indeed were such without alloy,
But foster'd e'en by freedom ills annoy.
That independance Britons prize too high,
Keeps mau from man, aud breaks the social tie;

When I behold a factious band agree To call it freedom when themselves are free; Each wanton judge new penal statutes draw, Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law; [roam,

The wealth of climes, where savage nations Pillag'd from slaves, to purchase slaves at

home;

Fear, pity, justice, indignation start,

Tear off reserve, and bare my swelling heart;

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