"FOR I AM NOTHING IF NOT CRITICAL."

Second Edition.

EDITED BY HIS SON.

LONDON:

GEO. ROUTLEDGE AND CO., FARRINGDON STREET.

1854.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

THE Stage is one great source of public amusement, not to say instruction. A good play, well acted, passes away a whole evening delightfully at a certain period of life, agreeably at all times; we read the account of it next morning with pleasure, and it generally furnishes one leading topic of conversation for the afternoon. The disputes on the merits or defects of the last new piece, or of a favourite performer, are as common, as frequently renewed, and carried on with as much eagerness and skill, as those on almost any other subject. Rochefoucalt, I believe it was, who said that the reason why lovers were so fond of one another's company was, that they were always talking about themselves. The same reason