nts of Kilrush, to solicit their patronage.

"There was something to me of indescribable melancholy in that morning's
perambulation, for independent of the fact, that I was threatened by one
with the stocks, as a vagabond, another, set a policeman to dog me, as
a suspicious character, and a third, mistook me for, a rat-catcher; the
butcher, with whom I negotiated for the quarter of mutton, came gravely
up, and examined the texture of my raiment, calling in a jury of his
friends to decide, if he wasn't making a bad bargain.

"Night came, and I saw myself dressed for Petrucio, the character in
which I was to bring down thunders of applause, and fill the treasury to
overflowing. What a conflict of feelings was mine--now rating Catherine
in good round phrase, before the audience--now slipping behind the
flats to witness the progress of the 'cuisine,' for which I longed, with
the appetite of starvation,--how the potatoes split their jackets with
laughing, as they bubbled up and down, in the helmet of Coriolanus, for
such I grieve to say was the vessel used on the occasion; the roasting
mutton was presided over by 'a gentleman of Padua,' and Christopher
Sly was employed in concocting some punch, which, true to his name, he
tasted so frequently, it was impossible to awake him, towards the last
act.

"It was in the first scene of the fourth act, in which, with the
feelings of a famished wolf, I was obliged to assist at a mock supper on
the stage, with wooden beef, parchment fowls, wax pomegranates, and gilt
goblets, in which only the air prevented a vacuum. Just as I came to the
passage--

'Come, Kate, sit down--I know you have a stomach,
Will you give thanks, sweet Kate, or else shall I?
What is this--mutton?

"At that very moment, as I flung the 'pine-saddle,' from one end of
the stage to the other, a savoury odour reached my nose; the clatter of
knives, the crash of plates, the sounds of laughter and merriment, fell
upon my ears--the wretches were at supper! Even the 'first servant,' who
should have responded to my wrath, bolted from the stage like a shot,
leaving his place without a moment's warning; and 'Catherine, the
sweetest Kate in Christendom, my dainty Kate,' assured me with her mouth
full, 'the meat was well, if I were so contented.' Determined to satisfy
myself on the point--regardless of every thing but my hunger, I rushed
off the stage, and descended like a vulture, in the midst of the supper