ferred to a few posts of dignity in the legitimate drama by Morris, at the Haymarket. After another triumphant season at the Adelphi she was dazzled by an alluring offer from the Bonds, to emulate Mrs. Nisbett at the Queen's, and essay a new range of characters. There she exhibited herself in the Mazourka, Cupid in London, and The Spirit of the Rhine, in all of which her talents for versatility were made conspicuous. Her voice improved by Lanza, tempered by sweetness, and divested of some crudities acquired from bad taste and tuition, now seldom failed to please the ear, or reach the hearts of her admirers, and her song of "My Beautiful Rhine," is still green in the memory of those who were wont to greet it with applauses. The lady now grown old in self-esteem, began to think engagements might be culled like blackberries; so breaking the Bonds of her covenant, intruding on the forbearance of the public, she subsequently visited the northern provinces-in the plenitude and fulness of her pride "gathered golden opinions,' basked in the sunshine of full houses and public favour, and crowned herself at last with laurels at the theatre in Dublin. During this period a melancholy incident occurred which somewhat alloyed "the sunshine of her heart." Her husband-from whom she had previously been parted, to gratify a liaison with another more congenial to the complexion of her nature-was accidentally drowned off Lambeth whilst out on a party of pleasure. The news of this disaster reached her at York, through the medium of the public journals, at a period, too, when she herself was on the couch of malady, and but little prepared for the announcement of her widowhood. The circumstance, as usually follows in such cases, awoke many painful reflections of her early days, and gave perhaps a passing blow to conscience, which at this hour her recording angel may register, if not overshadowed by heartlessness or cold indifference, whilst gazing at some relics he has left her. On her return to town a lucrative, and, in some respects, a most desirable engagement, awaited her signature at the treasury of the

Olympic Theatre. Here, however, she was destined to enjoy but an ephemeral tranquillity. The smooth course of her existence elicited "the jaundiced spirit" of her great contemporary, who felt herself only wanting in a parity of years to hurl her from her glittering eminence, when the smoother course of a retreat suggested itself to the former, whilst the muses of the Adelphi Theatre, owing to a recent extension of their license, stood again in open arms to receive her. This lady, as an actress, is, perhaps, one of the most pleasing, at the same time that she is one of the most undefinable in the gathering of the whole corps dramatique. Out of the ordinary way she possesses very little intellectual discernment of the purposes and bearing of an original character. An author to write for her would be lost in vain conclusions before he arrived at the end of the second act; and a fisherman might as well attempt to furnish an accurate plumbage of the Solway, as for a manager to fathom the true soundings and depth of her eccentric genius. She excels principally in extremely light comedy, and, if bordering upon the grotesque, it is the better for herself and all parties concerned in witnessing her performances. Of histrionic sentiment she does not possess an iota, neither is she to be parroted into the ideality of a part, for both Mrs. Glover and Benjamin Webster have failed in this experiment. Her powers of imitation, however, from personal observance, are singularly remarkable, and among those who are intimate with her, she has been known to embody the sounds and personations of several of the most eminent artistes of her profession with a degree of similitude almost indistinguishable from her prototypes. In person and proportion the figure of Mrs. Honey is anything but symmetrical; her feet are preposterous, but her eyes are extremely beautiful, imparting the true spirit of her nature, which is truly amiable. Costliness and extravagance appear to be her inheritance; at home she is usually to be found upon a sofa fenced with pillows of swans'-down and perfumed with redolent odours. Her table is strewed

with flowers, olios, scrap-books, amatory legends, and fashionable periodicals, the leaves of which are for the most part uncut; and milliner's bills, with lots of milliners in waiting, together with generally two ladies' maids and a tiger, are "thickly scattered to make up a show." In the hours and habits of dining she is like most of her fraternity, extremely irregular, but when she does dine, and, moreover, invites others to partake with her, she regales you in fair condition with every delicacy of the season, and heightens the repast with cheerful company, excellent wines, brilliant music, playful ballads, and playful ways; together with a hundred little blandishments, "that steal us from ourselves and from cur homes." In the courtesy of our vocation we must not trespass largely upon the private history of this lady; like many others of her sex she has been wisely fitted with the means and directed to the fulfilment of nature. We have already darkly hinted that her union with her deceased lord was anything but palatable to herself, or cemented according to the ordinary events of a union between souls, and it is the more to be regretted that this disparity of sentiment should combine so much as it did to the overthrow of the happiness of the one, and the lapse of virtue in the other.

"Take thou no scorn
To wear the horn."

This beautiful ballad she no doubt inculcated to her husband from the lessons she received at the Adelphi, and although we are not willing to cast the full reflection of the mirror upon the right quarter, we are perfectly cognisant that the active manager of this establishment once presented her with a cockatoo, and sundry other little notices of his regard, with a view, no doubt, to encourage her in the industrious pursuit of her profession. Her first public notoriety, however, in the amusements of the Parthian bower was at the suit of Dalton Kennedy, a young gentleman with

limited means but very large expectations, which hopes, notwithstanding, he subsequently blighted, by a precocious anticipation of their effects, and a sojournment of some months in the Fleet prison. The fruit of this intimacy is a lovely little daughter, and, under all the circumstances contingent upon her naturally errant disposition, we really believe the lady loved the youth, and that her devotion was similarly entertained, until a mother, whose passions, somewhat cooled, grew fervid upon theirs, and so forbad the banns of anything like chastity. Calumny has attributed to her a liaison with one of the Bonds, but we believe it to by calumny; her disposition is, however, exceedingly amatory and capricious, and so far from being marked with anything approximating to the mercenary, we believe she would lavish her favours upon her tiger, provided he approached the beau ideal of woman's excellency, in her estimation of the cardinal virtue. A fashionable Count, however, a Lord F., and a Lord C., have lit their torches at her shrine, and whiled away whole hours, like "love in idleness," only for the promise of the hive; still, like the bee, she roams from flower to flower, her world being "Wide before her where to choose her place of rest, and Providence her guide.'

Having initiated our readers in the mysteries of the Green-room, we shall now proceed, ad libitum, to detail the numerous anecdotes and adventures connected with its visitors, professionally and otherwise. Guided by truth, we will endeavour to point out evils to be avoided, and gratifications to be obtained, without the sacrifice of honour or integrity.

"Though acquaintance, wasting both to health and means, Prosers, may say, are scraped behind the scenes"

Yet few will repent an introduction to the children of Thespis, who take prudence for their guide, in

A PEEP BEHIND THE CURTAIN.

Glorious shade of Tony Lebrun! thou whose "long pipe,

and cocked up hat" will live, when Macready and the lesser Kean shall be forgotten, aid us in our endeavours to be what neither of the great last-named Muftis areamusing; and let us endeavour still to usher in our next Beauties by, if not a flourish of trumpets, at least a flourish of wit and humour, in a detail of the celebrated theatrical

WATERING PARTY.

Some few years since a theatrical company, amongst whom were several fair dames and stately gentlemen who now flourish on the boards of the metropolitan theatres, and we could, if we pleased, give their names, arrived late at night at the town of Scarborough. It was their first visit to the neighbourhood, and lodgings had not been provided. The races were on and every house teemed with denizens. The inns were crammed to suffocation; at one of which they, with extreme difficulty, obtained a resting place for the night; beds were out of the question. The gentlemen, eight in number, were consigned to a small apartment, where they right jovially resolved to drink and smoke the lazy hours of night away; but the female form requires repose, and the coffee-room was, after all the guests had departed, assigned as their resting place. A few mattrasses were placed for them, and as many blankets as could be spared, and the deficiency was made up by the cloaks and great coats of the male party.

All being hurry and bustle in the domicile, of course, the minutiæ of their comforts were sadly overlooked, and, we grieve to say, that when all had retired to rest, and most of the ladies ready to take their repose in the best way they could devise under such circumstances, a most indispensible article, or we should rather say some indispensible articles were found to be wanting. It was cold weather, and a blazing fire had been kept up for their comforts; So, though being in the situation so beautifully described in