_Dec. 6th._--Douglas, _with the_ Shipwreck. Young Norval } _8th._--Mountaineers--Raising the Wind. Octavian } _9th._--Lover's Vows--Rosina. Frederick } _11th._--Mahomet--Spoiled Child. Zaphna } _BY_ _13th._--Hamlet--Weathercock. Hamlet } _15th._--Pizarro--The Ghost. Rolla } _MASTER_ _16th._--Douglas--Youth, Love and Folly. Young Norval } _18th._--Tancred and Sigismunda--Farmer. Tancred } _PAYNE._ _20th._--Barbarossa--Too Many Cooks. Selim } _22d._--Romeo and Juliet--Love laughs at } Locksmiths, for his own benefit. Romeo } All those plays are well known. From the peculiar circumstances attending their performance they call for a share of particular attention, which would otherwise be superfluous. Where there is something new, and much to be admired, it would be inexcusable to be niggard of our labour, even were the labour painful, which in this instance it is not. The performance of Master Payne pleased us so much that we have often since derived great enjoyment from the recollection of it; and to retrace upon paper the opinions with which it impressed us, we now sit down with feelings very different from those, which, at one time, we expected to accompany the task. Without the least hesitation we confess, that when we were assured it would become our duty to examine that young gentleman's pretensions, and compare his sterling value with the general estimate of it, as reported from other parts of the union, we felt greatly perplexed. On one hand strict critical justice with the pledge which is given in our motto, imperiously forbidding us to applaud him who does not deserve it, stared us in the face with a peremptory inhibition from sacrificing truth to ceremony, or prostrating our judgment before the feet of public prejudice: while, on the other we were aware that nothing is so obstinate as error--that fashionable idolatry is of all things the most incorrigible by argument, and the least susceptible of conviction--that while the dog-star of favouritism is vertical over a people, there is no reasoning with them to effect; and that all the efforts of common sense are but given to the wind, if employed to undeceive them, till the brain fever has spent itself, and the public mind has settled down to a state of rest. We had heard Master Payne's performances spoken of in a style which quite overset our faith. Not one with whom we conversed about him spoke within the bounds of reason: few indeed seemed to understand the subject, or, if they did, to view it with the sober eye of plain common rationality. The opinions of some carried their own condemnation in their obvious extravagance; and hyperbolical admiration fairly ran itself out of breath in speaking of the wonders of this cisatlantic young Roscius.