it--a poor man named Smith, living in Sheep Street, Stratford.

* * * * *

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

* * * * *

The greater portion of the following Notes will, we are persuaded, be
new to all but the bibliomaniacs in theatrical lore. They occur in a
paper of 45 pages in the last Edinburgh Review, in which the writer
attributes the Decline of the Drama to a variety of causes--as
late hours, costly representations, high salaries, and excessive
taxation--some of which we have selected for extract. In our affection
for the Stage, we have paid some attention to its history, as well
as to its recent state, and readily do we subscribe to a few of the
Reviewer's opinions of the cause of its neglect. But to attribute this
falling off to "taxes innumerable" is rather too broad: perhaps the
highly-taxed wax lights around the box circles suggested this new
light. We need not go so far to detect the rottenness of the dramatic
state; still, as the question involves controversy at every point,
we had rather keep out of the fight, and leave our Reviewer without
further note or comment.

NOTES ON THE DRAMA.

(_FROM THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, NO. 98._)

_ORIGIN OF ADMISSION MONEY._

There were at Athens various funds, applicable to public purposes; one
of which, and among the most considerable, was appropriated for the
expensed of sacrifices, processions, festivals, spectacles, and of
the theatres. The citizens were admitted to the theatres for some time
gratis; but in consequence of the disturbances caused by multitudes
crowding to get seats, to introduce order, and as the phrase is,
to keep out improper persons, a small sum of money was afterwards
demanded for admission. That the poorer classes, however, might not
be deprived of their favourite gratification, they received from the
treasury, out of this fund, the price of a seat--and thus peace and
regularity were secured, and the fund still applied to its original
purpose. The money that was taken at the doors, having served as a
ticket, was expended, together with that which had not been used in
this manner, to maintain the edifice itself, and to pay the manifold
charges of the representation.

"_DRAMATIC REPRESENTATIONS NATURAL TO MAN._"

Travellers inform us, that savages, even in a very rude state, are
found to divert themselves by imitating some common event in life: but
it is not necessary to leave o