The acting of children in adult characters is of very ancient date.
Labathiel Pavy, a boy who died in his thirteenth year, was so admirable
an actor of old men, that Ben Jonson, in his elegant epitaph on him,
says, the fates _thought him one_, and therefore cut the thread of life.
This boy acted in “Cynthia’s Revels” and “The Poetaster,” in 1600 and
1601, in which year he probably died. The poet speaks of him with
interest and affection.
Weep with me all you that read
This little story;
And know for whom a tear you shed
Death’s self is sorry.
’Twas a child that did so thrive
In grace and feature,
That heaven and nature seem’d to strive
Which own’d the creature.
Years he number’d, scarce thirteen
When fates turn’d cruel,
Yet three fill’d Zodiacs had he been
The stage’s jewel.
And did act, what now we moan,
Old men so duly,
As sooth, the Parcæ thought him one,
He played so truly.
_Jonson._
* * * * *
~A Dumb Peal of Grandsire Triples.~
In the just departed summer, (1827,) on my way from Keston, I stept into
“The Sun--R. Tape,” at Bromley, to make inquiry of the landlord
respecting a stage to London; and, over the parlour mantelpiece,
carefully glazed, in a gilt frame, beneath the flourishing surmounting
scroll, there appeared the following inscription “_in letters of
gold:_”--
[Illustration: RANG AT S^{T}. PETERS, BROMLEY.]
On the 15th of January 1817, by the Society of BROMLEY YOUTHS, A
complete Peal of _Grandsire Triples_, which is 5040 changes with the
_Bells Muffled_, in commemoration of WM. CHAPMAN deceased, being a
Ringer in the Parish of Bromley 43 years, and rang upwards of 60
peals. This Dumb Peal was completed in 3 Hours and 6 minutes.
THOS. GILES 1st.
RD. CHAPMAN 2nd.
WM. SANGER 3rd.
GE. STONE 4th.
WM. KING 5th.
JNO. ALLEN 6th.
WM. FULLER 7th.
JNO. GREEN 8th.
BEING _the first Dumb Peal of this kind ever rang in this Kingdom, and
conducted by_