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Preface.

THE following Memoirs, made up of anecdotes, scraps, and sketches, are in themselves a type of the Author's career. He has known no regularity ;---his journey has been, like the comet's-eccentric. To-day here-to-morrow there; hurrying from place to place, ever mingling in new society, and finding fresh faces, it may be expected that a great diversity of character and much interesting adventure, must have been presented to his observation. These the Author flatters himself he has not been slow to note "in the volume of his brain," although he did not trouble himself to commit them to diaries or memoranda. He must however, confess that in consequence of having neglected them at the moment of their occurrence, he has been compelled, in their arrangement, to neglect the order of time, and indeed, all order; for in looking back upon the panorama of his past life, he finds it difficult to distinguish distances and measure perspec. tive; nor will this seem wonderful when he searches

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his own memory, and reflects how much more fleetly some portions of his career seem to pass than others, and how differently certain things and persons are imprinted in his recollection. These two volumes contain the reminiscences of half a century, past in the most various of all existences, that of the stage. They record anecdotes of beings, once celebrated, now perhaps scarcely remembered but by the few of their day that still survive. If at times he has been trifling or prosaic-the Author trusts that the reader will forgive that which is the accompaniment of his years. It is the legacy of an old man who has grown grey in the service of the public, and if it can afford entertainment but for a single hour, he will be content. The task might certainly have been more ably performed, but he has striven to the best of his ability, and he trusts that the excellencies of others may not be deemed an unpardonable fault in him. This, in all human probability, will be his last address to a public whom he has so many times before addressed with tongue and pen; he hastens, therefore, ere the curtain falls before him, to return them his grateful thanks for the favor and applause with which they have so often, and so highly distinguished him.

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