Excerpt from Personal Recollections of the Stage, Embracing Notices of Actors, Authors, and Auditors, During a Period of Forty Years, 1855 Some years since, at the moment when I believed myself on the point of relinquishing theatrical pursuits forever, I made a prom'se to a friend, since deceased, to prepare the ground-work of an authentic sketch of the progress of the Drama here since I became connected with it in 1798, to gether with such recollections as might prove of interest or amusement in that connection. The design of my friend was himself to present it to the public for me, in a finished and more literary form. Very opposite, certainly to my wishes, events, quite unexpected, have combined to retain me in the profession until within a recent time, and have deprived me of any good opportunity to fulfil this promise. The death of the friend to whom I have alluded, puts it out of my power now to employ for this record any hand but my own. My 76th year reminds me that the night cometh and this, with circumstances of weight with me, will excuse the fact that I now finally appear before the public as my own unpretending annalist. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.