hingtonian"
version (be not shocked, O spirit of good Master Tobin!) the countryman
responded reprovingly: "Fie, my noble Duke! Have you no water from the
well?" An answer diametrically opposed to the tendencies of the
sack-guzzling, roistering, madcap playwrights of that early period!

On the whole the representation was well-balanced, with few weak spots
in the acting for fault finding, even from a more captious gathering.
In the costumes, it is true, the carping observer might have detected
some flaws; notably in Adonis, a composite fashion plate, who strutted
about in the large boots of the Low Countries, topped with English
trunk hose of 1550; his hand upon the long rapier of Charles II, while
a periwig and hat of William III crowned his empty pate!

Kate was Volante; not Tobin's Volante, but one fashioned out of her
own characteristics; supine, but shapely; heavy, but handsome; slow,
but specious. Susan, with hair escaping in roguish curls beneath her
little cap; her taper waist encompassed by a page's tunic; the trim
contour of her figure frankly revealed by her vestment, was truly a
lad "dressed up to cozen" any lover who preferred his friend and his
bottle to his mistress. Merry as a sand-boy she danced about in russet
boots that came to the knee; lithe and lissome in the full swing of
immunity from skirts, mantle and petticoats!

Conscious that his identity had been divined, and relishing, perhaps,
the effect of its discovery, the young patroon gazed languidly at the
players, until the entrance of Constance as Juliana, when he forgot
the pleasing sensations of self-thought, in contemplation of the
actress. He remarked a girlish form of much grace, attired in an
attractive gown of white satin and silver, as became a bride, with
train and low shimmering bodice, revealing the round arms and
shoulders which arose ivory-like in whiteness. Instead of the
customary feathers and other ornaments of the period, specified in the
text of the play, roses alone softened the effect of her dark hair.
Very different she appeared in this picturesque Spanish attire from
the lady of the lane, with the coquettish cap of muslin and its
"brides," or strings.

The light that burned within shone from her eyes, proud yet gay; it
lurked in the corners of her mouth, where gravity followed merriment,
as silence follows laughter when the brook sweeps from the purling
stones to the deeper pools. Her art was unconscious of itself and
sc