se, hope that it can be accomplished, or can they be surprised
that on the contrary, tragedy so often excites merriment when they
reflect upon the way dramatic poetry is often delivered upon the stage.
Let the first three men who pass by the playhouse door be called in, one
of them taken from the highest order of life, a second from the middle
order, and the third from the very lowest class--let them hear a tragedy
through, or even some parts of a comedy, and let them then give their
verdict as on oath, whether what they heard, resembled anything they had
ever heard before out of a playhouse, or perchance a madhouse, and they
must answer in the negative or perjure themselves.

This was one of the evils which Garrick had the glory of eradicating.
Just before him, actors spoke in the ti-tum-ti monotonous sing-song way
of the new school. Old Macklin some years ago, assured the writer of
this, that except in some few declamatory speeches, or in the ghost of
Hamlet, QUIN would not be endured at that time in tragedy: and what said
this Quin himself when he was prevailed upon to go to Goodman's Fields
to see Garrick for the first time? "I dont know what to say," he replied
to one who asked his opinion of the young actor, "but if he be right,
_we have all been wrong_." Quin's integrity would not let him deny a
truth which his judgment told him in the very teeth of his prejudices.

Absurd and _unnatural_ as this miserable mode of speech is, it is very
difficult to be got rid of, when it once becomes habitual to an actor; a
memorable instance of which was old MR. WIGNELL of Covent garden, the
father of our late manager. He was one of the Quin school, and if now
alive and able to act, would once more hitch in very handsomely with the
recitativers of the new academy of acting, for, says the author of the
Thespian dictionary, "_He possessed the singular talent of imparting
stateliness to comic dialogues, and merriment to tragic scenes._" Of
this gentleman many anecdotes are recorded, curious in themselves, and
well deserving the consideration of young actors.

Upon the revival of the tragedy of Cato in London (Cato by Sheridan) Mr.
Wignell was put forward in his old established part of Portius. In the
first scene he stepped forward in his accustomed strut and began

The dawn is overcast, the morning low'rs
And heavily with clouds brings on the day.

At this moment the audience began to vociferate "prologue, prologue,
pro