REMINISCENCES OF MICHAEL KELLY.

IN the year 1827 was published a bulky octavo volume, with this very descriptive title: "Reminiscences of Michael Kelly, of the King's Theatre and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane; Abroad and at Home."

Kelly was the son of a wine-merchant in Dublin. At the age of seven years he displayed such a taste for music, that his father procured him some of the best masters in Ireland, among whom was Michael Arne, the son of Dr. Arne. He was afterwards sent to the musical college at Naples, where he continued five years. He next was patronized by the celebrated Apprili, who, after three years' tuition, took him as a tenor singer to Palermo, and made the tour of Sicily with the Prince de Budera. He was next engaged at Florence and Venice as a singer. After having sung in the principal Italian cities, he went to Rome, and sung in St. Peter's during the Holy Week. He next visited Prague, Warsaw, and Berlin, and at length settled at Vienna, where he was much noticed by the emperor. He next embarked for England with Madame Storace, and first appeared at Drury Lane Theatre, in 1707. For many years he was acting manager at the Opera House, and next superintended the musical department at Drury Lane Theatre and at the Haymarket Theatre. first musical production was the Friend in Need, in 1797. Next year he adapted the music of Blue Beard from the French, as a spectacle, with a real elephant; but the elephant in perspective, over the mountains, was Edmund Kean! Kelly composed upwards of sixty pieces of music; he died in 1826, and next year appeared his Reminiscences, which were edited for him by Theodore Hook. Kelly was a clever composer, of great practice, and was employed under Sheridan and John Kemble, in whose society he was much liked for his wit and humour; and his Reminiscences were much repeated in the musical and theatrical history of the period. On this account our quotations are few.

His

It was during Kelly's management (June 15, 1805), that a

serious riot took place at the Opera, in consequence of the curtain falling before the ballet was concluded. The Bishop of London sent to inform the manager (Michael Kelly) that if the curtain did not drop before the twelfth hour on Saturday night, the licence should be cancelled, and the house shut up. Accordingly, on the above night, the curtain fell just as Dechazes and Parisot were dancing a popular pas-dedeux. A universal outcry was raised for the conclusion of the ballet, and explanations took place; but the rioters finding their mandate neglected, threw the chairs from the boxes into the pit, tore up the benches, broke the chandeliers, and smashed the orchestra instruments. Some of the ringleaders were, however, identified, and damages were recovered to the extent of many hundreds of pounds.

DR. O'LEARY AND CURRAN.

Michael Kelly had the pleasure to be introduced to his worthy countryman, the Reverend Father O'Leary, the wellknown Roman Catholic priest. He was a man of infinite wit, of instructive and amusing conversation. "I felt highly honoured by the notice of this pillar of the Romish Church; our tastes were congenial, for his reverence was mighty fond of whiskey and punch, and so was I; and many a jug of St. Patrick's eye-water, night after night, did this reverend and myself enjoy, chatting over that exhilarating and national beverage. He sometimes favoured me with his company at dinner; when he did, I always had a corned shoulder of mutton for him, for he, like some others of his countrymen, was ravenously fond of that dish.

"One day, the facetious John Philpot Curran, who was also very partial to the said corned mutton, did me the honour to meet him. They were great friends, and, as may easily be imagined, O'Leary versus Curran was no bad match. One day, after dinner, Curran said to him, Reverend Father, I wish you were St. Peter.' And why, counsellor, would you wish I were St. Peter?' asked O'Leary. 'Because, Reverend Father, in that case,' said Curran, 'you would have the keys of heaven, and you could let me in.' 'By my honour and conscience, counsellor,' replied the divine, it would be better for you that I had the keys of the other place, for then I could let you out.”

THE DUKE D'AGUILLON.

One morning, the duke called on Kelly, and said he had a favour to beg. Kelly requested him to command his service; he said: "My dear Kelly, I am under many obligations for your repeated acts of kindness and hospitality to me and my friends; but still, though under a cloud, and labouring under misfortune, I cannot forget that I am the Duke d'Aguillon, and cannot stoop to borrow or beg from mortals; but I confess I am nearly reduced to my last shilling, yet I still retain my health and spirits. Formerly, when I was a great amateur, I was particularly partial to copying music; it was then a source of amusement to me. Now, my good friend, the favour I am about to ask is, that, sub rosâ, you will get me music to copy for your theatres, upon the same terms as you would give to any common copyist who was a stranger to you. I am now used to privations, my wants are few; though accustomed to palaces, I can content myself with a single bedroom up two pair of stairs; and if you will grant my request, you will enable me to possess the high gratification of earning my morsel by the work of my hands."

Kelly says: "I was moved almost to tears by the application, and was at a loss what to answer, but thought of what Lear says

"Take physic, pomp,'

and to what man may be reduced. I told him I thought I could procure him as much copying as he could do, and he appeared quite delighted, and next day I procured plenty for him. He rose by daylight, accomplished his task-was at work all day—and was at night, full-dressed, in the pit of the Opera House. While there, he felt himself the Duke d'Aguillon, and no one ever suspected him to be a drudge in the morning, copying music for a shilling a sheet. Strange to say, his spirits never drooped; nine Englishmen out of ten, under such circumstances, would have destroyed themselves. But the transitory peace of mind he enjoyed was not of long duration. An order came from the Alien Office for him and his friends to leave England in two days; they took an affectionate leave of me. The duke went to Hamburg, and there was condemned to be shot. They told me that he died like a hero."

TALES OF THE INCOME-TAX.

Kelly gives a very diverting account of his pursuits and the emoluments which attended them, in a dialogue betwixt him and the commissioners of the income-tax, who, in 1806, were even more eminent for the interest they took in prying. into the concerns of other folks than the commissioners with whom we are at present afflicted. Mr. Kelly, in the pride of his heart, had reported his income as amounting to £500 yearly, but the unreasonable commissioners were not contented, and urged that his various employments must bring him twice or thrice that annual sum. The push and parry

are as well maintained as between Tilburnia and her father in the Critic:

"Sir,' said I, 'I am free to confess I have erred in my return; but vanity was the cause, and vanity is the badge of all my tribe. I have returned myself as having £500 per annum, when, in fact, I have not five hundred pence of certain income.'

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Pray, sir,' said the commissioner, are you not stagemanager of the Opera House?'

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Yes, sir,' said I, but there is not even a nominal salary attached to that office. I perform its duties to gratify my love of music.'

"Well, but, Mr. Kelly,' continued my examiner, 'you teach?'

"I do, sir,' answered I, 'but I have no pupils.'

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'I think,'observed another gentleman, who had not spoken before, that you are an oratorio and concert singer?'

"You are quite right,' said I to my new antagonist, but I have no engagement.'

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'Well, but at all events,' observed my first inquisitor, 'you have a very good salary at Drury Lane.'

"A very good one, indeed, sir,' answered I, but then it is never paid.'

"But you have always a fine benefit, sir,' said the other, who seemed to know something of theatricals.

"Always, sir,' was my reply; but the expenses attending it are very great; and whatever profit remains after defraying them, is mortgaged to liquidate debts incurred by building my saloon. The fact is, sir, I am at present very like St. George's Hospital, supported by voluntary contributions; and have even less certain income than I felt sufficiently vain to return.'"

MORELLI.

Lord Cowper, it appears, was the great patron of Morelli, who was in the early part of his life his lordship's volante, or running footman.

One night, when going to bed, his lordship's attention was attracted by some one singing an air from an opera then in vogue; the person was seated on the steps of a church, opposite to his lordship's palace; the prodigious quality of the voice, the fine ear and excellent taste displayed, astonished his lordship. He ordered his valet to inquire who the extraordinary performer could be. The valet replied that he knew very well; it was young Giovanni, one of his lordship's volantės. "His ear for music is so perfect," said the valet, "that whatever he hears he catches instantly: he often sings to the servants, and is the delight of us all." The following morning Giovanni was ushered into his lordship's breakfastroom, where he sang several songs, in a style and with execution to surprise him still more! His lordship ordered Signor Mansoli, Signor Verolli, and Camproni, Maestro di Capella to the Grand Duke, to hear him; they all declared it the finest voice they had ever heard, and that he only wanted instruction to become the very first bass singer in the world! "Then," said Lord Cowper, "that he shall not want long-from this moment I take him under my protection, and he shall have the best instruction Italy can afford."

He

His lordship kept his word; and for two years Morelli had the first masters that money could procure. At the end of that time he was engaged as primo buffo at Leghorn. then went the round of all the principal theatres with great éclat. At the Teatro de La Valle, in Rome, he was perfectly idolized, often singing at the Carnival. He was engaged at the Pergola theatre, and his success, on his return to Florence, was triumphant indeed! Kelly often heard him say, that the proudest day of his life was that on which his former master, Lord Cowper, invited him to dine with him.

MOZART AND KELLY,

Mozart was a remarkably small man, very thin and pale, with a profusion of fine fair hair, of which he was rather vain. "He gave me," says Kelly, "a cordial invitation to his house, of