In that case, as you're whips, for one stage, I'll agree;
But the d--l may drive it a second for me,"

MR. T. P. COOKE'S NAUTICAL ADVENTURES.

THIS SON of Thespis, when a boy of ten years old, in consequence of seeing a nautical spectacle at one of the Theatres, imbibed a predilection for the sea, which became very speedily gratified. In the year 1796, he embarked on board His Majesty's ship, "the Raven," and sailed immediately, viâ Gibraltar, for the blockade of Toulon. Being ordered to the Mediterranean, he was with the Earl St. Vincent, in the great and distinguished victory which gave the gallant admiral his title, and partook in many minor actions: the bravery he displayed in boarding an Algerine corsair, procured him the thanks of his captain, for his coolness and intrepidity. Accident alone prevented him from being present at the battle of Camperdown; for, having sprung her mainmast, in a violent gale," the Raven" bore away towards Cuxhaven, and, upon the coast adjacent, underwent the horrors of being wrecked in a season of peculiar inclemency.

For two days and nights the crew of this ill-fated vessel were subject to incredible misery; the cold

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was intense; and while clinging to the fragments of the shattered ship, many brave seamen, wasted with toil, dropped, in the chillness of death, to a dark and stormy grave. Mr. Cooke contrived, by dint of great exertion, to reach the shore alive; when, being carried to a barn adjacent, he was recovered, and soon after was sent home. The fatigue he underwent during the calamity, had impaired his health, and he became severely afflicted with a rheumatic fever; which, from its long duration, had nearly proved fatal: when recovered, he listened to the wishes of his friends, was invalided, and left the Royal Navy.

MRS. MATTOCKS.

MRS. Mattocks, the Actress, was as much celebrated for the taste and elegance of her dress, as for her histrionic talents. Before her marriage, when Miss Hallam, she appeared in the character of Bertha, in the "Royal Merchant." Bertha was the niece of the Governor of Bruges, and Miss Hallam, with great judgment, dressed exactly in the style of Ruben's wife, (Helena Forman,) as she appears in a celebrated picture by that artist.

The Flemish female costume, though common in England during the reign of the Stuarts, was, at this period, unknown to the English stage; and, therefore, the revival of the " Vandyke dress," as it is called by the ladies, who afterwards adopted it, came forth with all the attraction of novelty.

The metropolitan fashions did not, in the beginning of the late reign, take such rapid flight from the centre to the extremities of the island, as they have been accustomed to do in modern times; therefore, the various dresses of Mrs. Mattocks, after they had passed the ordeal of the female critics in the Theatre, and been there displayed to the admiration of the town, were frequently sent for by the principal ladies of Liverpool, and other towns in the country, who adopted and spread the fashion.

WESTON.

THIS Comedian, being in the continual dread of bailiffs, was frequently obliged to make the Theatre his place of residence. When living in the Haymarket Theatre, he was accustomed to shut the half-door of the lobby, which had spikes at the top, and to bring a table and chair that he might take the air, and smoke his pipe. To

this door a bailiff, whose face was unknown to Weston, and who carried clothes under his arm, covered with green baize, as if he were a tailor, came, and requested to speak with Mr. Foote. Weston unwarily opened the hatch, and the bailiff assumed his true character and exhibited his writ. Disguising his emotion, Weston desired the bailiff to follow him, that Mr. Foote might either pay the money, or give security. The man did as he desired; and thus the deceiver was deceived. He had not made a legal capture, by touching Weston; the passage behind the sideboxes was very dark, and the bailiff was obliged to grope slowly along. Weston knew the way; gained the door, which, also, had spikes; bolted it, crossed the stage, ran through the adjoining house of Mr. Foote, and escaped.

MELANCHOLY SITUATION OF BOISSY, THE FRENCH DRAMATIST.

BOISSY, the author of several dramatic pieces which were received with applause, met with the common fate of those who give themselves up to the Muses. He laboured and toiled incessantly; his works procured him fame, but not bread. He languished, with a wife and child, under the

Boissy

pressure of the most extreme poverty. became a prey to distress and despondency. The shortest way to rid himself, at once, from all his misery, seemed to him to be death. His wife, who was no less weary of life, listened with a sympathizing feeling when he declaimed of deliverance from this earthly prison, and of the smiling prospects of a futurity; and, at length, resolved to accompany him in death. But she could not bear to think of leaving her beloved son, of five years old, in a world of misery and sorrow; it was, therefore, agreed to take the child along with them in their passage into another and a better world.

When

They chose that of starving; and, according ly, they waited, in their solitary and deserted. apartment, for their deliverer, Death. Their resolution and fortitude were equally unshaken. They locked the door, and began to fast. any one came and knocked, they fled, trembling, into the corner, and were in perpetual dread lest their purpose should be discovered. Their little son, who had not yet learnt to silence the calls of hunger by artificial reasons, whimpering and crying, asked for bread, but they found means always to quiet him.