A FRIEND AT COURT.

At one of the public dinners at the Mansion House, during Wilkes's mayoralty, Boswell perceiving George Colman at a loss for a seat, having secured good room for himself, called to him, and gave him a place by his side; remarking at the same time, how important a matter it was to have a Scotchman for his friend at such a table. Shortly after this the two friends were helped to some dish by a waiter, to whom Boswell spoke in German; when Colman observed that he thought he had mistaken the place, adding, “I did think I was at the Mansion House, but I am certainly at St. James's, for here are none but Scots and Germans."

PRESSING TO SING.

A young person being hardly pressed to sing in a company where Colman formed one of the party, solemnly assured them that he could not sing; and at last said, rather hastily, "that they only wished to make a butt of him." "O, no," said Colman, "my good sir, we only want to get a stave out of you."

GEORGE COLMAN THE YOUNGER.

This ingenious dramatist was born at Florence, October 21, 1762, and brought to England when an infant. He was much noticed by Garrick, who delighted to play at nine-pins with the child in the garden at Hampton; and David talks of the boy singing the "Chimney-sweep" most exquisitely at the age of five years. Goldsmith used to take him on his knee while drinking his coffee; and Garrick practised upon him a thousand monkey tricks-he was Punch, Harlequin, a cat in the gutter, and then King Lear with a mad touch and lightning of the eye that were terrific. When in petticoats, little George acted a part in the playhouse on Richmond Green. At the age of eight, he was sent to Marylebone School,* then the stepping-stone to Westminster. He pleasantly gossips of Dr. Fountain and his bushwig, Dame Fountain and her rainbow-head, and their old

*This noted School was held in the Manor-house of Marylebone, the site of which is now occupied by Devonshire Mews, in the New Road.

maidish daughters. Colman was next sent to Westminster School, where, on St. David's Day, Sir Watkin Williams Wynn always begged a play for the Westminster boys-by kneeling beside the head-master during prayers. At his father's table, young Colman now sat down with Johnson, Foote, Gibbon, Edmund Burke, the two Wartons, Garrick, Lord Kellie, Topham Beauclerk, and Sir Joshua Reynolds. Next he tells us of meeting at Mulgrave, Mr. (afterwards Sir Joseph) Banks; and Omai, the Otaheitan. Dr. Johnson appears to have snubbed "little Colman ; but he was caressed by Gibbon. Foote treated him roughly. He is somewhat ungrateful to Garrick, whose career and retirement from the stage he handles with great acerbity. Sheridan he thought heavy in conversation; which was the elder Mathews's opinion of him. Of young Colman's share in the Haymarket management, the private theatricals at Wynnstay, (in which he and his father played together,) we have many agreeable reminiscences. In 1779, young Colman was entered at Christ Church, Oxford, where he fails not to enumerate his eminent contemporaries. But he longed for the vacation, and in the dog-days the rancid odour of the blazing lamps in his father's little theatre in the Haymarket, and even dreaded visits to his once-favoured Richmond. The incidents of his management and authorship, and his official duties as Examiner of Plays, occupy a considerable portion of Mr. Peake's Memoirs of the Colman Family, Colman died in 1841, and was buried in the vaults of Kensington church, where rest also his father and grandfather.

COLMAN'S PLAYS.

Colman the Younger wrote twenty dramas, the most suc cessful of which were the Mountaineers, the Iron Chest, the Heir-at-Law, Bluebeard, the Poor Gentleman, and John Bull-which are occasionally performed in our day.

The comedies of Colman abound in witty and ludicrous delineations of character, interspersed with bursts of tenderness and feeling, somewhat in the manner of Sterne, whom, indeed, he has closely copied in his Poor Gentleman. Sir Walter Scott has praised his John Bull as by far the best effort of our late comic drama. "The scenes of broad humour are executed in the best possible taste; and the whimsical, yet native characters, reflect the characters of real life. The

sentimental parts, although one of them includes a finely wrought-up scene of paternal distress, partake of the falsetto of German pathos. But the piece is both humorous and affecting; and we really excuse its obvious imperfections in consideration of its exciting our laughter and our tears." The whimsical character of Ollapod, in the Poor Gentleman, is one of Colman's most original and laughable conceptions; Dr. Pangloss, in The Heir-at-Law, is also an excellent satirical portrait of a pedant; and his Irishmen, Yorkshiremen, and country rustics, (all admirably performed at the time,) are highly entertaining though overcharged portraits.

Colman received considerable sums for his plays: for the Poor Gentleman and Who wants a Guinea? he was paid 5501. each, then the customary price for a five-act comedy: that is to say, 3007. on the first nine nights, 1007. on the twentieth night, and 1501. for the copyright.* For John Bull, (the most attractive comedy ever produced, having averaged 4707. per night, for 47 nights,) Mr. Harris paid 1000l. Colman afterwards received twice an additional 1007., making 12001.

LICENSER OF PLAYS.

As a manager, Colman got entangled in lawsuits, and was for some time compelled to reside in the King's Bench, and many of his letters are dated from Melina-place, Lambeth, within the Rules. George IV., with whom Colman was an especial favourite, to relieve him in his difficulties, gave him the office of Licenser and Examiner of Plays, (worth from 3007. to 400l. a year,) besides the Lieutenancy of the Yeomen of the Guard. Colman was very unpopular as Licenser and Examiner, and incurred the enmity of several dramatic authors by the rigour with which he scrutinized their productions: not an oath or double entendre was suffered to escape his expurgatorial pen, and he was particularly keenscented in detecting all political allusions. Yet, his own plays are far from being strictly correct or moral, through the very blemishes which he so vigilantly detected in those of others.

That is to say, 331. 6s. 8d. per night for the first nine nights1007. on the twentieth night-and 100%. on the fortieth night. This was the plan settled by Cumberland with Sheridan at Drury-lane, and Harris at Covent-garden, for remunerating authors, instead of their (generally losing) benefits. The copyright was a distinct bargain.

COLMAN'S PLAY OF "THE IRON CHEST."

The failure of this play was attributed to John Kemble literally walking through the part of Sir Edward Mortimer. Colman related to Arnold the circumstances which led to this neglect. He stated that he invited Kemble to dine with him in Piccadilly, in order to read to him the play, then in progress, and nearly completed; that Kemble had winced several times at descriptions which appeared personal, and that seeing a gloom come over him, he had more than once laid aside the manuscript, and passed the bottle, with a view to change the current of his thoughts; that they had sat together during the whole of that night and the following day, drinking; occasionally dozing and reviving, and, ultimately through the following night! That at about four o'clock of the following morning, they both woke up at one moment, and stared one another in the face, with a vacant and unmeaning glare; that he, Colman, under the influence of real nervous feeling, once cried out, "What do you stare at ? your eyes are on fire. By Heaven, Kemble, I believe you are the devil incarnate!" Kemble's answer was, "Pooh, George, you're a fool," and never spoke another word. A coach was ordered an hour or two after, and he returned home. To this strange circumstance Colman attributed Kemble's determination to sink his play.

Colman subsequently published a bitter attack upon Kemble, during his absence upon the Continent. Many months after, author and actor met, when Kemble said to Colman, with a smiling shake of the head, "Ah, George, you're a sad fellow!" They were good friends afterwards.

When the play was produced, Colman had not the civility to offer Godwin a box, or even to send him an order for admission, though the Iron Chest was dramatized from Caleb Williams of this Godwin spoke with great bitterness.

After the condemnation of the Iron Chest, Colman wrote: “Lest my father's memory may be injured by mistakes, and in the confusion of after time, the translator of Terence, and the author of the Jealous Wife, should be supposed guilty of the Iron Chest, I shall, were I to reach the patriarchal longevity of Methuselah, continue (in all my dramatic publications) to subscribe myself George Colman the Younger."

COLMAN'S WIT AND HUMOUR.

Colman's best jokes have been chronicled by Mr. Peake :* here are a few.

Colman and Bannister were dining one day with Lord Erskine, the ex-chancellor, who, in the course of conversation on rural affairs, boasted that he kept on his pasture-land nearly a thousand sheep, "I perceive, then," said Colman, "your Lordship has still an eye to the Woolsack."

Colman, himself no giant, delighted in quizzing persons of short stature. Liston and pretty little Mrs. Liston, were dining with him, and towards evening, when preparing to leave their host, Liston said, "Come, Mrs. L., let us be going." "Mrs. L. (ELL) indeed," exclaimed Colman, "Mrs. Inch, you mean.'

One day, speaking of authorship as a profession, Colman said, "It is a very good walking-stick, but very bad crutches." (This is usually attributed to Sir Walter Scott.)

A Mr. Faulkener, from the provinces, had been engaged at the Haymarket. Colman was disappointed with his new actor, who had to deliver the following line, which he spoke in a nasal tone:

"Ah! where is my honour now ?"

Colman, who was behind the scenes, took a hasty pinch of snuff, and muttered, "I wish your honour was back at Newcastle again with all my heart."

A debutant at the Haymarket appeared as Octavian, in the Mountaineers. It was soon discovered that he was incompetent; Colman was in the green-room, and growing fidgety, when the new performer came to the line,

"I shall weep soon, and then I shall be better."

"I'll be hung if you will," said Colman, "if you cry your

eyes out."

Colman was habitually late to take rest, and was consequently very late in bed during the daytime. On Mr. Theodore Hook calling one afternoon at his house, his name was immediately carried up to Coiman. What's the hour ?"

* Reprinted from Random Records, by George Colman the Younger, 2 vols. 1830. Dedicated, by permission, to George IV.