to the American stage
by Mr. Wignal, of the Philadelphia Theatre, who had gone abroad in 1796
to recruit his company and, if possible, to engage some first-rate
actors in London. Mrs. Merry arrived at New York in October, 1796, and
made her first appearance in the Western World in December in the
character of _Juliet_. She was the daughter of John Brunton, of the
Norwich Theatre, and the wife of "Della Crusca" Merry, the well-known
playwright and author.

_The Weekly Magazine of Original Essays, Fugitive Pieces and Interesting
Intelligence_, was begun February 3, 1798. It was conducted by James
Watters, of Willing's Alley, a young man who was the manager for
Dobson's American edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The first
article in the periodical introduces us to the first professional man of
letters in America. It is "The Man at Home," by Charles Brockden Brown.
Although unsigned, no one familiar with Brown's style could read a page
without discerning him in the short snap-shot sentences of the story. On
page 228 of the first volume three pages of the "Sky-Walk" are
"extracted from Brown's MSS." The singular title of this unfinished
story, which was afterward woven into the web of "Edgar Huntley," seems
to have been as puzzling to readers then as now, and it is explained in
a stray note on page 318 of the magazine as "a popular corruption of
Ski-Wakkee, or Big Spring, the name given by the Lenni Lennaffee (sic)
or Delaware Indians to the district where the principal scenes of this
novel are transacted." "The Man at Home" ran through thirteen numbers of
the first volume, which closed on April 28.

In the second volume (page 193) Brown commenced the publication of his
first important novel, "Arthur Mervyn, or Memoirs of the Year 1793," the
first chapter of which appeared June 16, 1798. It contained vivid
descriptions of the scenes during the pestilence of 1793-8. Brown's
genius naturally dealt with weird and sombre subjects and extraordinary
passions and experiences. While occupied with this romantic narrative of
the horrors of the plague, his intimate friend, Elihu Hubbard Smith, who
had introduced him to the "Friendly Club," in New York, died of the
fever, and his own life was for a time in danger by it.

The third volume of the magazine (August 4, 1798-April 6, 1799) was
printed by Ezekiel Forman, the young and gifted editor, James Watters,
having died of the fever. A commemorative note of the stricken editor