to go on. The sailors have a saying, Every man
cannot be a boatswain. If there must be a great actor to act Hamlet,
there must also be people to act Laertes, the King, Rosencrantz, and
Guildenstern, otherwise a drama cannot go on. If even Garrick himself
were to rise from the dead, he could not act Hamlet alone. There must
be generals, colonels, commanding-officers, subalterns. But what are the
private soldiers to do? Many have mistaken their own talents, and have
been driven in early youth to try the stage, to which they are not
competent. He would know what to say to the indifferent poet and to the
bad artist. He would say that it was foolish, and he would recommend to
the poet to become a scribe, and the artist to paint sign-posts. (Loud
laughter.) But you could not send the player adrift; for if he cannot
play Hamlet, he must play Guildenstern. Where there are many labourers,
wages must be low and no man in such a situation can decently support a
wife and family, and save something off his income for old age. What is
this man to do in later life? Are you to cast him off like an old hinge,
or a piece of useless machinery, which has done its work? To a person
who had contributed to our amusement, this would be unkind, ungrateful,
and unchristian. His wants are not of his own making, but arise from the
natural sources of sickness and old age. It cannot be denied that there
is one class of sufferers to whom no imprudence can be ascribed, except
on first entering on the profession. After putting his hand to the
dramatic plough, he cannot draw back, but must continue at it, and toil,
till death release him from want, or charity, by its milder influence,
steps in to render that want more tolerable. He had little more to say,
except that he sincerely hoped that the collection to-day, from
the number of respectable gentlemen present, would meet the views
entertained by the patrons. He hoped it would do so. They should not
be disheartened. Though they could not do a great deal, they might do
something. They had this consolation, that everything they parted with
from their superfluity would do some good. They would sleep the better
themselves when they had been the means of giving sleep to others. It
was ungrateful and unkind that those who had sacrificed their youth to
our amusement should not receive the reward due to them, but should be
reduced to hard fare in their old age. We cannot think of poor Falstaff
going to bed with