SO

gance,' " with what infinite grace, did he amble about the scenic representation of the City, of which his real feelings and person were essentially a part and parcel! With what an easy slope would Captain Sightly drop in upon Miss La Blonde, the go-between milliner of Cheapside, and sidle into what Americans would call 66 the dry-grocery store" of young Mr. Walter Cockney, the gold-waistcoated East dandy of those times, in order to press the fair hand of his Jamaica heiress, which had previously been "larruping" her black slavey, little Quashibaw, worse than any nigger! How judiciously would Diggy, in a subsequent scene, act the part of bottle-holder to the delicate Miss Tomboy, during her pugilistic experiments upon her grocercousin!his warrior-head pomatumed and powdered, resembling a seedling cauliflower, and agreeing in shape, though not in colour, with his well-rounded face; his figure bedight in scarlet coat, with yellow facings; white dimity doublebreasted and lapelled waistcoat; red sash, pendant over his white kerseymeres, the ends dangling unequally above his well-mangled silk stockings of a bluish hue; with paste knee and shoe-buckles, low-quartered pumps, and eke a very large threecornered cocked-hat, gilt-buttoned and looped, with a towering red and white feather swagging over one shoulder,-presenting altogether" a combination and a form, indeed, where every (gallery) god did seem to set his seal to give assurance of "- —an officer and a gentleman! (Dignum was essentially that, or, less than that, he was nothing.) With what a gracious bend, upon his first entrance, would he approach the foot-lights, as he acknowledged the emphatic greeting of his two bones in the pit! - one

hand

stretched forward to his lady-love, and the other spread, in compliance with his unvarying custom, impressively across his bosom, indicating the seat of his heart. Who

shall forget the twinkle of his eye while he oozed forth his tender suit, which he warbled in song? How Pandaan were his notes, yet how efficiently impotent every effort to make himself heard in the twoshilling gallery! How would he, bird-like, "strain his little throat for an encore!-which he never got, let his bones rattle for it ever so lustily. How would he roar ye, like any sucking dove, the terrifying and reiterated anathema of "Blood and thunder!" while he expressively touched the hilt of his sword, which was to scare the little cowardly Watty from his pretensions to Miss Priscilla Tomboy's purse and person. Then Diggy's Crop-what a harvest was there! Who but will remember the original of the sleek and dusty miller of No Song no Supper? Who can forget him in the scene where his apple-dumpling visage was assailed by its appropriate adjunct, Suett, receiving thereon a pound of his own flour, his natal property, from the dexter hand of the sinister lawyer at his exit? Who shall describe Diggy's countenance as he wiped away the meal from his wellfed face and partially obscured features, so eloquently expressive of his previously declared conviction to his wife that she had "a cake in the house?" Who, when looking in his dimpled face, could doubt the fact, or affect to gainsay the assertion? What a rush of recollections come back upon the writer of this notice! Oh that we might now, as then, taste the flavour of Diggy's "Roast Beef" in the banquet-hall of the Haunted Tower!-so tender, yet so underdone! so fat and oozy! so redolent of all that appertains to Old England's boast! Hear we now again Michael Kelly's unctuous imitation in Lord William, and echo of Diggy's "Wondrous merry" in the supper scene! Methinks we yet see him (Diggy) as the exiled and disguised Count Harold, in Peeping Tom of Coventry, wandering about an outlaw in the populous streets of the

Mr. Suett, in Endless.

city, from which he is banished, and confiding to the stocks and stones, in vocal reliance, the vital secret of his love and his despair. See we next his Sir John Loverule (the singer's chefd'œuvre) in the Devil to Pay, in which character, apparelled in a huntingdress of stringent stage regulation, namely, a frock-coat of red serge, with large metal buttons, white vest, yellow tights and top boots, and jockey-cap over head elaborately frizzled and powdered, without a hair turned by his exercise, albeit well curled by his hair-dresser, with ridingwhip in hand, he stood over the footlights jerking out a song, every verse of which ended in a reiterated "Tantivy !", and an octave run from the top of his voice to the eighth note downwards, in professed praise of early rising, dewy fields, foxes, and five-barred gates,-all, if we except the first, being merely matters of history with Diggy, but of which he, nevertheless, sung most loyally. Who but can recall him in this his favourite character, as he stood confronting Mrs. Jordan, while, as the enamoured Nell-with a lagging stress of wonder and admiration on every word, as she summed up, in her hearty and glorious voice, his aggregate merit in one emphatic line,"There

-'s a husband for ye!"

But why dwell we upon Diggy's professional excellences? They are engraven upon the tablet of every playgoer's memory of his time, and must already be written on many a page for posterity's information. It is his private traits, for readers yet unborn to rejoice in, that the pen is eager to record.

We set out with saying that Mr. Dignum was one of those single-minded, straightforward persons, who never by any accident deviate or step out of the routine of their own particular idea (we avoid the plural); wherefore, he never meddled with any thing that did not concern himself, by which precaution he avoided a world of trouble. He and an elder brother had been bred tailors; but Charles Dignum-" Diggy "-hated the position he was placed in, and could never fit himself to his work, nor his work to his customers. So he cut the shopboard instead of his cloth, and dropped from it one night upon

the boards of a theatre; on which he remained ever after in measureless content, though as slipshod as when in his former workshop.

As we have said, Diggy was as harmless as a new-born babe, which he would have called a babby; and, like the aforesaid Betty and Babby, was totally incapable of a " wicked action"-ergo, would never set the Thames on fire! Nay, it might have been a question whether he would have been aware of the existence of such a river, had not his swan-hopping excursions with civic dignitaries taught him to consider that silent highway specifically placed in its bed for the purpose of bearing the City barge, with its illustrious freight, annually between its verdant banks. On which occasions Diggy dined on board, and off turtle; for which entertainment he, turtle-like, cooed forth his share of the fugue of Non nobis, Domine: which praisegiving anthem, had he been called upon to translate into his mother-tongue, he would infallibly (not to speak profanely) have thus rendered:

Not to us (singers) —not to us; but to thy name, Lord Mayor, be all the glory!"

Dignum, it may be inferred, was not the kind of person who would have invented gunpowder, he was too humane; but he was the sort of man that Julius Cæsar would have liked to have near him. He was of "such as sleep o' nights;" and, moreover, fat; and fat people are remarkable, as the aforesaid Cæsar knew, for sweet temper; and Diggy's good-humour was never more manifest than in his toleration of what men of an ordinary cast of mind are apt to call liberties when played off upon themselves; but which persons of liberal faculties term pleasantries, when practised against other people. Such the younger and more thoughtless portion of the green-room wags perpetually enacted with Diggy; who, though bearing no resemblance to Solomon, was, like Solomon's good man, "satisfied from himself," and, consequently, bullet-proof against the shots of sarcasm and " pokes of fun" with which he was continually assailed in the said green-room; when he would appear dressed for one of his favourite characters, his aspect and demeanour were those of a man

augh! why every fool knows that I dine at the Mansion House on Lord-mayor's day!"

Well," declared Mathews, " I didn't know it!"

"Augh, augh! No-'paw yer life? Aw, me dear Mathews, you must be joking! That's the worst of you, you're so fond of joking! Augh, augh! it's a bad habit you've got! No sensible men joke. Augh, augh! I've no time for joking. Augh, augh, my dear fellow! shouldn't joke on serious occasions! I think so don't know-ch? Do you?"

I

"Well, then, seriously, Dignum; you have refused me so often, that I hope for once that you'll send an excuse into the City, and eat your beef with me on Wednesday."

"Law love your soul, my dear fellow! What! send an excuse to my lord-mayor? Shews how little you know of this world! Augh, augh, it's impossible! Don't you know what a great man my lord-mayor is? Next to the king, you know! Augh, augh is king of the City! Iis majesty can't go though Temple Bar without asking his leave, you know! Augh, augh! must dine with my lord-mayor when he commands. Aw, my dear, dear Mathews!" (assuming an air and tone of solemnity), “you never go to public dinners. You've a great loss! Augh, augh! my dear fellow, you should go to those in the City; they're so intellectual! Augh, augh! I think so I don't know ch? Do you? Aw! (another smile), you're such a fellow for fun! Augh, augh! Aw! (persuasively), let me introduce you to his lordship! Augh, augh! you'll like him very much. He's quite affable, I assure you; and then he's such a good creature! So attentive-always sends me a piece of fat with my venison-can't disappoint him! Augh, augh!-treats one so like a gentleman-puts my name upon a plate, and pays me two guineas after dinner! Augh, augh!-lets me go away as soon as I've sung my treats me quite like a gentle

song

man!"

-

Well, then, Dignum, you won't oblige me with your company?" "Law love you, my dear Mathews! it's out of my power-must go to my

lord-mayor- -never forgive me, if I stay away should lose the oldest friend I have to my back!"

66

Why," urged Mathews, "you can't know much of him?”

him!

Augh, augh! not know much of Gaw bless you soul, not know my lord-mayor! Why, bless you, I've dined with his lordship every 9th of November these twenty years! I ought to know him, I think! Augh, augh! why he's the oldest friend I have on earth! I think so I don't know--ch? Do you?"

Let it not be erroneously supposed from the preceding account, that Dignum's experience was confined to only city nobles. By a happy chance he once found himself within the walls of a noble duke, who had on some occasion invited, or granted him permission when he travelled into Leicestershire, to stop at B-r Castle. The delicacy of the viands, the beauty of the duchess and urbanity of the duke, with the general splendour of the place, threw Diggy into ecstasics of admiration and delight, and his noble entertainer was probably not a little amused in his turn by the manner and phraseology in which the admirer's gratification was expressed. Amongst the paintings which called for Dignum's artistical notice, appeared the portrait of the illustrious Marquess of Granby, which Diggy at once recognised as a great likeness.

"Augh, augh! that's the Marquess of Granby! Aw, my lord duke, I've often seen his picture before!" His grace was curious to know where. "Gaw bless your soul, my lord duke! I've seen I don't know how many signs of him-very fine paintingsover the inn-doors: saw one hanging across the road as I rode along to-day. Augh, augh! Aw, I knew him again the moment I looked at his picture! Augh, augh! I suppose he's a relation of yours, my lord duke? Augh, augh! your family must be very proud of him! What a deal of gold lace he wore upon his coat! Augh, augh! I observe he was always painted with a bald head it's very remarkable! Augh, augh, I suppose he had a bald head-must have had! Augh, augh! I think so I don't know -eh? Do you?"