In 1813 Miss Stevens made her _début_, and so did Kean, at Drury Lane on January 26, 1814, and by his acting Shylock took the town by storm. "For voice, eye, action, and expression, no actor has come out at all equal to him. The applause, from the first scene to the last, was general, loud, and uninterrupted." Next month he appeared as Richard III., and, if possible, his acting was more belauded. People, including Coutts the banker, sent him cheques, one for £50, and the Managers of Drury Lane increased his salary. The first mention I can find of Miss O'Neil, is March 24, 1812: "A Miss O'Neille, of whom report speaks very highly, at the Dublin Theatre, is engaged for Covent Garden Theatre the next season. She is said to be a good actress, a very great beauty, and a Roman Catholic, so there is something for all tastes." August 18, 1815: "Among the improvements making at Covent Garden Theatre, preparatory to opening for the ensuing season, backs are fixing to the seats in the pit, so that each person will sit at ease as in a chair." September 1, 1815: "The Managers of the Winter Theatres have already, it seems, received no less than _Ninety-seven_ Tragedies, Comedies, Operas, Farces, Melodramas, and Pantomimes, intended by the _Authors_, for representation, during the ensuing season." We sometimes see very realistic effects produced on the Stage, but we have not yet arrived at this pitch. August 30, 1815: "A strolling company of Comedians in the County of York, in performing the tragedy of 'George Barnwell,' advertised that 'Milwood would be hanged upon the Stage'; and, in consequence, the curtain dropped on a figure of Milwood suspended from a gibbet, to the great entertainment of the audience assembled." By the way, every theatre at these times, invariably played "George Barnwell" on Boxing Night, a practice which has not so very long been discontinued at some of the minor London Theatres. Charles Bannister, who had been before the public upwards of thirty years, took his leave of them, June 1, 1815. On February 17, 1816, the audience at Drury Lane were startled by a pistol shot. A farce called the "Merry Mourners" was being played, a young man in the third row of the pit produced a pistol, and deliberately shot at Miss Kelly--luckily without hurting her. He was, of course, at once captured and locked up. He had been pestering her with his addresses.