r Betty; by thus closely walking in the steps of whom,
Master Payne has, in our opinion, wronged himself. It is evident that in
choosing characters for the infant Roscius of England, his instructors
had it more in view to exhibit the boy as a prodigy, than the characters
well acted. The people were to be treated to an anomalous exhibition,
and the greater the anomaly the better the treat. What but a
determination to inflame public curiosity to the highest pitch by a
contrast as absurd as unnatural, could have induced them to put forward
a little boy of twelve years old in the formidable tyrant Richard? like
modern composers of music, their object was not to produce harmony or
natural sweetness, but to execute difficulties. As the actor was a boy
loitering on the verge of childhood, the plan, if not correct, was at
least politic. But the public do not look on Master Payne in that light,
and therefore, he ought to have selected parts more suitable to his time
of life and talents. Parts calculated to aid and not depress him. What
judicious actor is there now living who would not think it injurious to
him to be put forward by a manager in Selim or in Zaphna? The united
powers of Mossop in Barbarosa, and Garrick in Selim could barely keep
that play alive. We have seen Mossop play it to a house of not ten
pound, though aided by the first Zaphira in the world, Mrs. Fitzhenry.
From either of those characters Master Payne could not derive the least
aid. His Hamlet we put out of the question--we did not see it.

On his Tancred we can dwell with very different sensations. Considering
the materials he had to work upon, his delineation of the character was
highly creditable to his talents. For the love part, little more can be
done by a good actor, than by a good reader;--as poetry, it is soft, and
sweet, and flowing; as a practical representation of that passion it is
mawkish: yet, in the performance of Master Payne, it was not entirely
destitute of interest. In all the rest; in every scene with Siffredi,
particularly in his warm expostulations with the honest, but mistaken
old statesman; in his subsequent indignation and despair; in his lofty
bearing and menaces to Osmond, and thence onward to his death, he was
truly excellent, seemed perfect master of the scene, and in depicting
the tumult of passions which struggle in the bosom of the lordly
Tancred, evinced that he possesses the legitimate genius, and true
spirit that should inf