"Fair ladies, and kind friends, who deign to smile On our attempt an hour to beguile, I'm hither by the actors sent, to pray A gentle judgment on a first Essay. They bid me state, their novel situation Has set their hearts in such strange perturbation, They dare not raise the curtain till they've pleaded First, for the pardon will be so much needed. I'm shocked to say, it sounds so of the oddest, Our ladies want much practice to look modest; The rough, strong voice, ill suits with feelings tender, And 'tis such work to make their waists look slender! As for the men, the case is little better; Some, of the dialogue scarce know a letter: All unacquainted with each classic rule, We feel we've need enough to go to school; And trembling stand, afraid to come before ye, And of the Schoolfellows to tell the story. Yet need this be? I see no critic here; No surly newspaper have we to fear; Our scenery may be bad, but this is certain, Bright decorations are before the curtain, Under whose influence, you may well believe, We do not sigh for Stanfield, grieve for Grieve! Yet not too far to carry innovation, And to comply with settled regulation, Prompter we have, our memories to ease; But our best prompter is, the wish to please. Then kindly say, to stumblers in their part, What they have _got_, was surely got _by heart_; And each, surrounded by his friends, so stands, He will meet nought but kindness at their hands."
The Stanfield and Grieve, upon whose names the happy alliteration is made, are supposed to be celebrated English scene painters. But although the scenery meets with disparagement in the prologue, yet it was very superior; and the interior of the old schoolhouse, with the names of the boys cut into the oaken pannels of the door, and on which Jasper points out to Horace their initials intertwined, was a perfect picture.
Having gone thus far, I cannot omit a notice of Mr. Benjamin Sears' impersonation of the aged schoolmaster, Cedar. The dignity and simplicity of the character combined, was rendered by him in such a manner as almost to bring back those forgotten tears, drawn forth in olden times by that masterpiece of acting of Harry Placide's, in Grandfather Whitehead.