one. "How meek," said another; " going to a match at quarter-staff with Gog in Guildhall." 66 Where's your old lop-eared councellor Prynne?" cried another. "Sell yourself to the Devil, and cheat old Dun of his fees," bawled a fellow from a dust-cart. "Pull off your mourning, and put on your winding-sheet, you old murderess," screamed a fish-woman. And as soon as she had turned the corner of King-street, in view of Guildhall, there was a general cry of" Make room for the old dragon of St. Paul's." But, strange to relate, the old fanatic appeared totally regardless of these reproaches; she seemed rather to be wrapt in meditation, affecting the calmness and fortitude of a martyr, on her way to suffer for righteousness sake: when ascending the steps of the hallgate, she cried with a loud voice-““ I was not rebellious, neither turned away my back.""

"Out, you old extortioner, who riz the coals. and starved the poor," screamed a basketwoman from Honey-lane Market; a reproach not groundless, as it affected her and Master Wailer.

"I gave my back to the smiters, and my

cheek to them." " Here the yell was so loud and lasting she could not be heard; but, exalting her voice, she was at times audible. "Therefore I shall not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know I shall not be ashamed.""

"Hear her-hear her; hear old mother damnable. A flint! O you flinty-hearted

"Haud, haud your sinfu' tongue. Shame, shame o' you! obdurate daughter o' the evil one! Turn ye back, turn ye back, ye city youth. Depart ye hence, ye gude people, ye that fear the Lord," exclaimed the pious soldier ; "for never did the mouth of the wilfu' scorner so loudly profane the word, the like till this wofu' wicked woman.'

This procession was only one of the ten thousand extravagant farces of the times. The mob were determined to rush into the hall, and the constables appeared equally determined to prevent them by force. What mischief might have ensued, no one can tell, had not the announcement of another sort of dramatic exhibition, suddenly diverted the attention of the enraged populace, a confused noise of clarinets, huzzaing

and drums, was heard from Cheapside, when a simultaneous cry pronounced, "the king-the king is coming." Away they went, man, woman and child, gentle and simple, shouting "church and king," as though they were all suddenly bereft of their wits: it was the devil take the hindmost. Helter skelter, never was seen such a living torrent, bearing down all before it : upsetting stalls and benches, carpenters, and all the preparations for the morrow's sight. "There! there he is! look-look," down came part of the scaffold, and over went a long caravan filled with lamps for illuminating the front of Guild-hall: never was heard so tremendous a jingling and crash. This gave a new impulse to the general rush, and shrieks, oaths, and laughter, were mixed up with the shouts of church and king. "O! look at the flags and streamers," and "O hear the trumpets and drums!" Though as it will appear, the deuce a trumpeter was there. "Look, look-- there is the king in armour, huzza-huzza-a-a-a!” exclaimed a thousand voices, and the passing throng, forming the main stream of Cheapside, was turned like a whirlpool, by the confluence

VOL. I.

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of the rushing apprentices, pouring in from King-street; when lo! the cavalcade which excited this joyous hurly-burly, was composed of Sir William Davenant's* company of players,

* Sir William Davenant, to whose taste, perseverance and liberality, the stage owes the highest obligations, in common with his ingenious compeers, led a life chequered by various fortunes. He was the son of John Davenant, who kept the Crown Inn, at Oxford, celebrated as the halting place of Shakspeare, in his journies to and from London to Stratford. The great bard is said to have had a great esteem and personal regard for the host and hostess of the Crown, and was godfather to the son, and from him derived his christian name, William.

manager

Soon after the Restoration, Davenant was appointed of the Duke of York's company of Comedians, a compliment which he received for his loyalty, constancy, and bravery in the late king's army, for which he was knighted on the field. Davenant first introduced scenery, and other splendid decorations on the stage. He procured scene painters in France, and the first dramatic exhibition after the Restoration, was entitled The Siege of Rhodes, a sort of Opera, written by himself, which was performed at the theatre in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields.

some in a long car, decorated with stage finery, with Harry the Black Prince, in glittering play-house armour, and high ostrich plumes, mine ancient Pistol, and other distinguished characters of Shakspeare's drama, on their way to the Devil Tavern, preparatory to their exhibition on the balcony, on the day of the Restoration.

Old Mother Damnable became at once a dead letter. Any thing by way of novelty, but this was a "sight of sights." All the fun and frolic that had been so long bottled up by a puritanical law, seemed at once to be drawn by this dramatic cork-screw, or rather, it might be said to force the cork, and out it popped, with a merry explosion, which filled the streets of London with joy.

The crowd thickened, the horses were scared,

"The Siege of Rhodes," made a representation by the art of perspective in Scenes, and the story sung in recitative music. This had been performed four years before, either by stealth, or by the connivance of the ruling powers, at the back part of Rutland-house, at the upper end of Aldersgate-street.