LA BELLE ASSEMBLÉE; For JANUARY, 1817. A New and Improved Series. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ILLUSTRIOUS AND DISTINGUISHED CHARACTFRS. The Ninety-third Number. MISS LYDIA ELLEN MERRY. THE early promise of superior vocal talent in the young lady whose Portrait embellishes our present Number, induced her to yield to the persuasions of those friends who were intent to mark, and knew how to appreciate her rising powers, to embrace a profession which was far from her first intentious. She began her musical studies under the instructions of Mr. Coulman, of Bath, and aided by the harmonic science, she was soon judged capable of executing those difficult airs of which she has since given ample proof, and she was, accordingly, articled to Mr. T. Welsh, in the year 1815; to whose instructions she does honour, both in the sweetuess and expression with which she performs the fine airs in Artaxerxes, The Beggars' Opera, &c. In the former she made her debut in Man dane, at the English Opera-house, to a crowded and delighted audience, on the evening of July 18th, 1816, where the mo desty of her demeanour served only to render her yet more interesting; but her dif- 》 fidence did not destroy the sweetness of her voice; and while the musical amateur listened delighted, the untaught part of the audienee declared her shake to be like the most mellifluous warblings of one of the feathered choir. Her second appearance at the above theatre was in Polly, in The Beggars' Opera. Miss Merry has now, we have been informed, made an engagement with the managers of Drury-Lane Theatre, in which, considering the great dearth of good female singers at this period, they have done wisely. We hope Miss Merry will not long stand alone, as we may say she does at that Theatre at present, as a singer of eminence. Her Mandane, which she performed on the 18th of November last, gave general satisfaction; and her singing in her next appearance as Rosetta, in Love in a Village, was entitled to every applause that was bestowed on it: the acting part certainly required a little more vivacity; but when Miss Merry becomes accustomed to the Stage, these trifling defects will, no doubt, soon wear off: her voice, too, which is harmonious, and full toned, will mellow and improve by scientific practice, ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. NEW SYSTEM OF MYTHOLOGY. GODS ELECT. WE have seen the history of the twelve chief deities inhabitants of Olympus, and that formed the council of Jupiter. The Romans called them the Great Gods, or the Gods of great nations, and considered them of a superior sphere to the rest. However, it was not long before they imagined that number was not sufficient for the multiplicity of affairs which the council of Olympus had the direction of, and accordingly from among the ancient and modern Gods selected eight, to whom, on their own private authority they assigned the privilege of sitting in the august assembly. They were surnamed Gods Elect, or Select Gods: the preference was given to Saturn, Janus, Genius, Tellus or Terra, Sol, Luna, and Pluto. Saturn most probably was re-admitted to Olympus in consequence of his stay in Italy, where he had introduced agriculture and civilization. But one must be surprised at seeing among these Gods Elect, Terra, Sol, and Luna, whilst Terra, under the name of Cybele, was already worshipped as mother of the Gods, and that Apollo and Diana ranked as superior Gods. This proceeded from a prevailing idea among the ancients, that the earth, sun, and other luminaries were animated beings that differed from the Gods which presided over them, notwithstanding the philosophers admitted of no difference between them. We have already given the history of Saturn; those of Tellus, Sol, and Luna would be a mere repetition of the articles Cybelle, Apolo, and Diana. We, therefore, have now to speak of Bacchus, Genius, Janus, and Piuto. BACCHUS. BACCHUS was son to Jupiter and Semele, the daughter of Cadmus. Juno wishing to destroy her rival, assumed the figure of old Beroe, the Princess's nurse, whom she persuaded to question the rank of her seducer. Semele accordingly determined to clear her doubts: on the first visit which the | God paid her, she exacted from him to swear by the Styx that he would grant her first request. Jupiter did so to please her, and the imprudent woman insisted upon his visiting her in all his majesty. In vain did Jupiter endeavour to stop her mouth before she had finished the sentence; the rash wish had been expressed, it was too late. Bound by his oath, the King of Olympus descended into the palace of Semele with his thunderbolts, in all his majesty, and the Princess perished in the conflagration that ensued. Vulcan rescued Bacchus from the flames; and Jupiter had recourse to a most extraordinary stratagem to preserve the child; he had his own thigh opened, and the babe sewed up in it by a man named Sebasius; and in due time Bacchus was brought into the world a second time. Bacchus, upon his second birth, was committed to the care of his aunt Ino; who, assisted by the Hyades, the Hours, and the Nymphs, brought him up till he was delivered into the hands of Silenus and of the Muses to be educated. Juno persecuted him with unrelenting fury. One day that he was flying to escape the implacable Goddess, being overwhelmed with fatigue he fell asleep; Juno sent against him a serpeut with two heads, but Bacchus awaking killed the reptile with a vine stalk. Not long after his enemy inspired him with such fits of rage that he became delirious; in which condition he wandered about committing all manner of rioting and buffoonery, till at last he got cured by being initiated into the mysteries of Cybele. Bacchus next proceeded to the conquest of India with Silenus, whom he appointed his Lieutenant, and followed by an host of men and women armed only with thyrsus' and drums: he also took with him the young Satyrs, leaving the old ones behind him in Greece, to cultivate the vines. He returned triumphant from his expedition, and visited Egypt, where he taught the inhabitants the art of cultivating the vine and of making wine. During the war of the Giants he transformed himself into a lion, and made a dreadful havock among constellations.-Bacchus had many temples, the enemies of Jupiter: the God encou- and was generally worshipped in Greece raged him by calling out evohé, which sig- || and Italy; feasts were also celebrated in nifies courage my son; a word that was his honour that were but too famous on retained and used in all the festivals in ho- account of the excesses that were commitnour of Bacchus. On account of the essen- ted; they were called Bacchanals, or tial services he had rendered on that occa- Orgies, or after two surnames of Bacchus sion, a reconciliation took place between | Liber and Dionysius, Liberals and Dionyhim and Juno; he was admitted to Olym-siacs. At first women alone were admitted pus, and worshipped as the God of wine. The divinity of Bacchus, however, was not acknowledged without some opposition, but the God punished severely those who opposed his worship: sometimes he would inspire them with similar fits of madness with those to which he had been subject himself, and whole nations suffered for their || incredulity. At other times he would have his enemies torn to pieces by the Bacchanalian women who celebrated his mysteries: the daughters of Mineas underwent a punishment of a particular kind. Mineas was a Theban, who had three daughters, Iris, Clymene, and Alcithoë. More attentive to their work than inclined to attend to the new worship, these young women refused to assist at the feasts that were celebrating in honour of Bacchus, maintaining that he was not the son of Jupiter, and continued to work. . On a sudden a confused noise, occasioned by the beating of drums and the 'sounding of trumpets and flutes, was heard in the house: dreadful roarings followed, a more dazzling light than that of the sun overspread the whole place; the affrighted daughters of Mineas sought a refuge in the most retired part of the building, where the God metamorphosed them into bats. Bacchus is said to have accompanied Ceres in her travels when she went in quest of Proserpina, because, most probably, the two deities naturally go together. Bacchus loved Erigone, the daughter of Icarius, and to please her transformed himself into a bunch of grapes; but the young Princess having been informed of the death of her father, hanged herself; and Jupiter placed her amongst the constellations, at which time she received the appellation of Virgo. Bacchus next comforted Ariadne, whom Theseus had forsaken in the island of Naxos. He married her, and made her a present of a gold crown, the masterpiece of Vulcan; which crown was also placed among the to celebrate those feasts in memory of the Orpheus was the son of agreas, King of Thrace, and of the Muse Calliope. Besides his being a divine, a philosopher, a musician, and a poet, he soon became a pontiff and a king: he was considered as the creator of polytheist divinity, and as the father of Greek poetry; he likewise on condition that he should not look bebrought into perfection the guitar, of which hind him so long as he continued in the Apollo had made him a present, and added || empire of the dead. Orpheus having just two strings to it. He devoted his talents reached the last part, turned round his head to the service of the Gods, and celebrated to see whether Eurydice did follow him ; their actions in hymns that were adopted | he saw her for the last time, and on a sudin the heathen liturgy. We have men- den her shade vanished from his view. tioned the effect which his music produced | This second loss renewed his former grief; on the Syrens; by which, perhaps, it was he avoided the society of men, wandered meant that our orisons addressed to the over the mountains unceasingly repeating Gods liberated us from under the disgrace to the echo the beloved name of Eurydice. ful yoke of the passions. That was not, In vain did the women of Thrace endeahowever, the only prodigy that he perform- vour to induce him to re-enter the marriage ed; it is said that the wild beasts, charmed state, the recollection of what he had lost with his music, would leave their dens, and rendered him insensible to all their allureforgetful, as it were, of their natural fero. ments: exasperated at his contempt, they city, would gather in crowds to listen to availed themselves of the festivals in hohim; the delighted birds would cease nour of Bacchus, and overrunning the warbling; nay, the very winds became mountains as Bacchanalians, they murdered silent, the rivers would stop flowing, and Orpheus and tore his body to pieces. the trees would bend their pliant branches to pay him homage. Bacchus is represented as a blooming beardless youth; his eyes are black like the Graces, and his locks fair like those of Apollo: sometimes he is seen crowned with wreaths of vine leaves or of ivy; sometimes be wears a diadem; 'he has also been represented with horns. In one hand he holds a thyrsus, in the other bunches of grapes or a cup, but more frequently a horu. He is often seated on a barrel, and sometimes in a car drawn by tigers, lions, or panthers. His garments vary, sometimes he wears a long robe, and sometimes only Orpheus had married Eurydice, one of the Dryads, who died of the sting of a serpeut a few days after her marriage. Disconso late at her loss, he determined to go to hell in search of her and to bring her back. The infernal deities were moved to pity by his melodious strains; the Furies even shed "tears, and the avenging rods dropped from their bloody hands, which gave to their unhappy victims a temporary respite. Pluto and Proserpina allowed Eurydice to return with her husband amongst the living, but || the skin of a leopard. ANECDOTES OF ILLUSTRIOUS FEMALES. THE COUNTESS DE ROYE. and figure of the Queen, turned to her IMMEDIATELY after the revocation of daughter and asked her if the Queen and the edict of Nantes, the Countess, who Madame Panache were not as much alike as was a foreigner and a Protestant, accom- two peas? Though she spoke low, and in panied her husband, who was of the same French, yet the Queen heard it, and her persuasion, into Denmark, where he was Majesty became curious to know who this made Grand Marshal, and commanded his Madame Panache could be. The Countess Danish Majesty's troops; and where both told her that she was a most charming he and his illustrious Lady were treated woman belonging to the French court; with the highest respect and consideration; but her Ladyship was in evident agitation, seven their daughter was paid homage and gave but a very awkward account of to, as if she had been one of the first ladies this French lady. The Queen perceived it "of the court, and with her mother had fre- but affected not to take any notice of it; quently the honour of dining at the King's yet feeling vexed at the comparison, she table. It happened one day at dinner that knew not why, she wrote to the Danish the Countess, struck with the strange dress | Envoy at Paris, desiring him to send her 1 an exact description of Madame Panache, that foreigners on whom he had conferred as far as related to her person, her age, her || ; such wealth and honours should make such a jest of his Queen; he therefore ordered the Count de Roye to quit his dominions and to all the prayers and supplications of his nobles he remained inexorable. The Count, with his family, repaired to England, where they lived eighteen years in obscurity; and where the Countess became a prey to a lingering disease, brought on by the reflection of her unguarded folly, in the year 1690, having long essayed the Bath waters in vain. CATHARINE COUNTESS OF STANHOPE AND CHESTERFIELD. THIS beautiful and celebrated female had been governess to Mary Princess of Orange, the daughter of Charles I. and having been peculiarly zealous in the King's service, she was, after the restoration, made Countess of Chesterfield. When the celebrated Vandyke was employed to paint her picture, he fell desperately in love with her: but the painter having always an eye to his profit, he was so ungallant as to dispute the price with her, which the Countess found exorbitant; he threatened, however, to sell the picture if she did not give him the sum he asked. Among her numerous lovers was Lord Cottingten, who would have married her; but she was in love with Carey Raleigh, Sir Walter's son. At length she married Poliander Kirkhoven, Lord of Helmfleet, in Holland; and died April 9, 1677. CHARACTERS OF CELEBRATED FRENCH WOMEN. MADEMOISELLE CLAIRON. In our last Number we gave a sketch of the biography of Mademoiselle Gautier, an actress and afterwards a Carmelite nun. Mademoiselle Clairon, whose character we are now about to develope, was reckoned the first actress of the age she lived in; whom Voltaire declared to be unequalled in the histrionic art, and who was alone judged worthy of placing, in a public theatre, a wreath of laurel on the brows of the philosopher. A severe phillipic having been published against this celebrated lady, by Freron, in the Annual Literary Journal, she waited on the gentlemen belonging to the Privy Chamber, and threatened to retire from the stage if the journalist was not punished for this offence. Fortunately for him he was at that time laid up with the gout, so that his friends had time to solicit his pardon; and Mademoiselle Clairon was informed that this pardon depended on her alone. So that to the shame of his chastisement the journalist found himself reduced to the humiliation of owing his forgiveness to the actress. "Sooner would I swing for it," said he. In the mean time the Queen having been informed of this commotion between the journalist and the |