than " Puddingfield and Beefington," who
some way queerly suggest Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern, though there is no similarity in
the names; and there is Roderic, Count of
Saxe-Weimar, a " bloody tyrant with red hair."
There is one scene famous because introducing
the well-known lyric on the "University of
Gottingen," but which is no less remarkable as
scarcely an exaggeration of the "sensation"
school of sixty years since.

"Scene. A subterranean vault in the abbey of
Quedlingburgh, with coffins, scutcheons, death's-heads
and cross-bones. Toads and other loathsome
reptiles are seen crossing the obscured
parts of the stage. Rogero appears in chains
in a suit of rusty armour, with his beard grown,
and a cap of grotesque form upon his head.
Beside him is a crock, or pitcher, supposed to
contain, his daily allowance. A long silence,
during which the wind is heard to whistle
through the cavern. Rogero rises, and comes
slowly forward with his arms folded."

It is quite plain that this was aimed at
Monk Lewis, and his Castle Spectre soliloquy.
"Eleven years," says Rogero, moodily; " it is
now eleven years since I was first immured in
this living sepulchre, by the cruelty of a woman
and the perfidy of a monk." He complains that
he has been '" chained, coffined, and confined."
"Soft, what have we here. (Stumbles over a
bundle of sticks.) Oh, the register of my captivity.
(Takes them, up and turns them over
with a melancholy air, then stands silent for a
few minutes, as if absorbed in calculation.)
Eleven years and twenty-eight days! Hah!
the twenty-eight of August. Soft! What air
was that? It seemed a sound of more than
human warblings. Again! (Listens for some
minutes.) Only the wind! It is well, however;
it reminds me of that melancholy air which has
so often solaced the hours of my captivity. Let
me see whether the damps of this dungeon have
not yet injured my guitar. (Takes his guitar,
tunes it, and begins the following air with a full
accompaniment of violins from the orchestra:

Whene'er with haggard eyes I view
This dungeon that I'm rotting in,
I think of those companions true
Who studied with me at the U-
-niversity of Gottingen.
-niversity of Gottingen.

(Weeps, and pulls out a blue kerchief, with
which he wipes his eyes; gazing tenderly at it,
he proceeds.)"

At the end of the next verse he " clanks his
chains in cadence," and during the last stanza
"Rogero dashes his head repeatedly against the
wall of his prison, and finally so hard as to produce
a visible contusion. He then throws himself
on the floor in an agony, the music still
continuing to play."

Looking over a tremendous melodrama which
"ran" triumphantly for innumerable nights,
which attracted by its "new and startling
effects," and was talked of in drawing-rooms
and at dinner parties, and for which Doctor
Hook, father of a certain fellow of infinite jest,
called Theodore, wrote " appropriate" music, it
becomes a little difficult to determine where
Canning's burlesque ends, or " Tekeli" (for that
was the name of the successful drama) begins.
It was Hungarian, and " spectacular"- " Tekeli;
or, the siege of Montgatz!" in which figured the
persecuted hero, his faithful friend, Wolf, almost
canine, like all theatrical faithful friends, in his
attachments; "Conrade the Miller;" Alexina,
the heroine; a comic coward, called " Brasdefer;"
and a general chorus of useful people,
known as "peasants, millers, soldiers, &c."
Beside the inflated language of this piece,
modern efforts of the Victoria and Surrey muse
sound thin and feeble. When the scene opens,
which it does during " a storm" in the orchestra,
it discovers "night- a forest: on the right, a
large tree near the middle of the stage, and, on
the left, a thick cluster of small trees." And
the hero, Tekeli, is discovered lying on a branch
of the large tree, addressing his heart personally:
"Heart, heart, lie still! Calm thy tumultuous
beatings! For Providence, who guards
the sea boy through the tempest's blast, will
not forget the child of virtue in the hour of
grief." The faithful emblem of canine attachment
here enters, and tells the " child of virtue"
of certain dangers which are imminent; that he
had seen " a lambent flame among the briars,"
which it would appear are tokens of soldiers.
Then, as these latter come on the stage, " Wolf
beckons Tekeli. Music. Wolf and Tekeli
having got into the middle of the stage,
Edmund, in action, orders the men to make
ready and present. Tekeli and Wolf lie down
on their faces, so that the balls may pass over.
The instant they are down, and at the proper
place in the symphony, the soldiers fire.
Expressive music the whole time."

After this trying ordeal, which must have
made the heart "flutter," the faithful Wolf asks
the child of virtue, " How is my prince?" No
wonder that the other should reply, " O Wolf!
these repeated shocks, the damps of the night,
and the want of food, all are too much for
me."

This, though a good sensation in its way, is
tame as compared with what may be called" the
grand barrel scene. This exhibits an " Interior
view of the Mill of Reben — in front, a barn
filled with implements— beyond, a courtyard
bounded by a brick wall two feet high. A barrel,
&c." The hunted child of virtue succeeds in
reaching this friendly retreat with the " bloodhounds"
on his track (the bloodhounds wear the
uniform of a "hateful despot"), and is invited
by the friendly owner of the mill to conceal himself
in the prominent barrel. Naturally Tekeli
exhibits a pantomimic " unwillingness," but
ultimately enters his barrel and is cleverly
hidden away to agitated music. By-and-by come
in, drunken soldiers, who in their cups propose
the dangerous but exciting pastime of firing at
that special barrel— also to music. With difficulty
this unsoldierlike practice is averted, but a
prodigious sensation is produced during that