Paternal name and filial love, Assisted by “the powers above,” Have made C——s K——n an actor! “’Tis true,” his generous patrons say, “Of genius he ne’er had a ray; Yet, all his faults to smother, The youth inherits, from his sire, A name which all the world admire, And dearly loves his mother!” Stripp’d of his adventitious aid, He ne’er ten pounds a week had made; Yet every Thespian brother Is now kept down, or put to flight, While he gets fifty pounds a night, Because—he loves his mother! Though I’m, in heart and soul, a friend To genuine talent, Heaven forefend That I should raise a pother, Because the philanthropic folks Wink and applaud a pious hoax, For one who—loves his mother! No! Heaven prolong his parent’s life And grant that no untimely strife May wean them from each other! For soon he’d find the golden fleece Slip from his grasp, should he e’er cease To keep and—love his mother! A CON. BY COLONEL SIBTHORP. Why is a chesnut horse, going at a rapid pace up an inclined plane, like an individual in white trousers presenting a young lady in book muslin with an infantine specimen of the canine species?—Because he is giving a gallop up (a girl a pup). THE DRAMA. ASTLEY’S COMPANY AT THE OLYMPIC. The distresses of actors distress nobody but themselves. A tale of woe told off the stage by a broad comedian, begets little sympathy; and if he is in the “heavy line,” people say he is used to it, and is only acting—playing off upon you a melancholy joke, that he may judge how it will tell at night. Thus, when misfortune takes a benefit, charity seldom takes tickets; for she is always sceptical about the so-called miseries of the most giddy, volatile, jolly, careless, uncomplaining (where managers and bad parts are not concerned) vainest, and apparently, happiest possible members of the community, who are so completely associated with fiction, that they are hardly believed when telling the truth. Par exemple—nothing can be more true than that Astley’s Theatre was burnt down the other day; that the whole of that large establishment were suddenly thrown out of employ; that their wardrobes were burnt to rags, their properties reduced to a cinder, and their means of subsistence roasted in a too rapid fire. True also is it, that to keep the wolf from their own doors, those of the Olympic have been opened, where the really dismounted cavalry of Astley’s are continuing their campaign, having appealed to the public to support them. Judging from the night we were present, that support has been extended with a degree of lukewarmness which is exactly proportionate to the effect produced by the appeals of actors when misfortune overtakes them.