Thin ghosts of Figurantes (never plump on earth) circle thee in endlessly, and still their song is _Fye on sinful Phantasy_. Magnificent were thy capriccios on this globe of earth, ROBERT WILLIAM ELLISTON! for as yet we know not thy new name in heaven. It irks me to think, that, stript of thy regalities, thou shouldst ferry over, a poor forked shade, in crazy Stygian wherry. Methinks I hear the old boatman, paddling by the weedy wharf, with raucid voice, bawling "SCULLS, SCULLS:" to which, with waving hand, and majestic action, thou deignest no reply, other than in two curt monosyllables, "No: OARS." But the laws of Pluto's kingdom know small difference between king, and cobbler; manager, and call-boy; and, if haply your dates of life were conterminant, you are quietly taking your passage, cheek by cheek (O ignoble levelling of Death) with the shade of some recently departed candle-snuffer. But mercy! what strippings, what tearing off of histrionic robes, and private vanities! what denudations to the bone, before the surly Ferryman will admit you to set a foot within his battered lighter! Crowns, sceptres; shield, sword, and truncheon; thy own coronation robes (for thou hast brought the whole property man's wardrobe with thee, enough to sink a navy); the judge's ermine; the coxcomb's wig; the snuff-box _à la Foppington_--all must overboard, he positively swears--and that ancient mariner brooks no denial; for, since the tiresome monodrame of the old Thracian Harper, Charon, it is to be believed, hath shown small taste for theatricals. Aye, now 'tis done. You are just boat weight; _pura et puta anima_. But bless me, how _little_ you look! So shall we all look--kings, and keysars--stript for the last voyage. But the murky rogue pushes off. Adieu, pleasant, and thrice pleasant shade! with my parting thanks for many a heavy hour of life lightened by thy harmless extravaganzas, public or domestic. Rhadamanthus, who tries the lighter causes below, leaving to his two brethren the heavy calendars--honest Rhadamanth, always partial to players, weighing their parti-coloured existence here upon earth,--making account of the few foibles, that may have shaded thy _real life_ as we call it, (though, substantially, scarcely less a vapour than thy idlest vagaries upon the boards of Drury,) as but of so many echoes, natural repercussions, and results to be expected from the assumed extravagancies of thy _secondary_ or _mock life_, nightly upon a stage--after a lenient castigation, with rods lighter than of those Medusean ringlets, but just enough to "whip the offending Adam out of thee"--shall courteously dismiss thee at the right hand gate--the O.P. side of Hades--that conducts to masques, and merry-makings, in the Theatre Royal of Proserpine. PLAUDITO, ET VALETO ELLISTONIANA My acquaintance with the pleasant creature, whose loss we all deplore, was but slight.