Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Review Of Literature—Fine Arts—Exhibitions—The Drama, &C.
pain is excited by the many additional claims that have been made upon the funds during the interval that has elapsed since last we met , and those claims require renewed exertions on your part . This fund may vie with the 2 'roudest in alleviating calamity , in a judicious administration of its resources , in the deserving character of its recipients , and
inthe generous sympathy it has awakened : The stage holds up the mirror to nature- ; reflects the virtues , the follies , and the vices of mankind . Virtue is its friend and patron ; Folly stands self-reproved , blushes at her own ridiculous figure , and reforms ; but Vice alone has no delight in its instructive impersonations , ancl is consequently its inveterate foe . Unless that you pronounce that the theatre is a vain amusement for the
frivolous , you cannot but feel an interest in the welfare of its professors ; and until the actor shall be raised above the common lot of humanity , this fund , which goes to mitigate the evils of poverty , can hardly require a more eloquent advocate than its own merits . It asks your support for those who have softened the asperities of life by their humour , and taught the unthinking how to feel by well counterfeited woe . To those
who were in extreme cases we have afforded temporary relief ; we could not turn a deaf ear antl a cold heart to the touching remonstrances with which we have been implored . Many have been rescued from pecuniary embarrassment , provided with an outfit , recommended to engagements , and restored , grateful and happy , to their families ancl profession . Familiar as many of us are with the tragic scene behind the curtain of
life ' s drama , truth may almost he said to transcend fiction . AVhile I deplore the loss . of my immediate 2 iredecessor , Edmund Kean , as master of this fund , let it be a subject of congratulation that the dramatic evergreen who preceded him in this honourable office lives in the full enjoyment of that which should accompany old
age' As honour , love obedience , hosts of friends , ' with only one enemy—an obstinate one—that has never left him in toto —the Autolicus and Touchstone of our youthful clays—the inimitable Jack Bannister . Pleasant is the recollection of the clays that are past . In that chair the Duke of Clarence called upon the rich and powerful to uphold the drama by a liberal support of its indigent members , and
seconded the appeal with his princely munificence ; the same condescension that shed a lustre on his charity accompanies the ' King ' s ' equal bounty this clay . I regret with your lordship that indisposition prevents the Duke of Sussex from presiding . May renewed health enable his Royal Highness to resume the situation at our next anniversary , which your lordship has ably filled this day . " The subscription exceeded £ 1200 .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Review Of Literature—Fine Arts—Exhibitions—The Drama, &C.
pain is excited by the many additional claims that have been made upon the funds during the interval that has elapsed since last we met , and those claims require renewed exertions on your part . This fund may vie with the 2 'roudest in alleviating calamity , in a judicious administration of its resources , in the deserving character of its recipients , and
inthe generous sympathy it has awakened : The stage holds up the mirror to nature- ; reflects the virtues , the follies , and the vices of mankind . Virtue is its friend and patron ; Folly stands self-reproved , blushes at her own ridiculous figure , and reforms ; but Vice alone has no delight in its instructive impersonations , ancl is consequently its inveterate foe . Unless that you pronounce that the theatre is a vain amusement for the
frivolous , you cannot but feel an interest in the welfare of its professors ; and until the actor shall be raised above the common lot of humanity , this fund , which goes to mitigate the evils of poverty , can hardly require a more eloquent advocate than its own merits . It asks your support for those who have softened the asperities of life by their humour , and taught the unthinking how to feel by well counterfeited woe . To those
who were in extreme cases we have afforded temporary relief ; we could not turn a deaf ear antl a cold heart to the touching remonstrances with which we have been implored . Many have been rescued from pecuniary embarrassment , provided with an outfit , recommended to engagements , and restored , grateful and happy , to their families ancl profession . Familiar as many of us are with the tragic scene behind the curtain of
life ' s drama , truth may almost he said to transcend fiction . AVhile I deplore the loss . of my immediate 2 iredecessor , Edmund Kean , as master of this fund , let it be a subject of congratulation that the dramatic evergreen who preceded him in this honourable office lives in the full enjoyment of that which should accompany old
age' As honour , love obedience , hosts of friends , ' with only one enemy—an obstinate one—that has never left him in toto —the Autolicus and Touchstone of our youthful clays—the inimitable Jack Bannister . Pleasant is the recollection of the clays that are past . In that chair the Duke of Clarence called upon the rich and powerful to uphold the drama by a liberal support of its indigent members , and
seconded the appeal with his princely munificence ; the same condescension that shed a lustre on his charity accompanies the ' King ' s ' equal bounty this clay . I regret with your lordship that indisposition prevents the Duke of Sussex from presiding . May renewed health enable his Royal Highness to resume the situation at our next anniversary , which your lordship has ably filled this day . " The subscription exceeded £ 1200 .