pit, the words '_Very well--very well indeed! this man seems to know what
he is about_.' These encomiums warmed me, but did not overset me. I knew
where I should have the pull, which was in the third act, and accordingly
at this period I threw out all my fire; and as the contrasted passions of
joy for the merchant's losses, and grief for the elopement of Jessica, open
a fine field for an actor's powers, I had the good fortune to please beyond
my most sanguine expectations. The whole house was in an uproar of
applause; and I was obliged to pause between the speeches to give it vent,
so as to be heard. The _trial scene_ wound up the fulness of my reputation.
Here I was well listened to, and here I made such a silent yet forcible
impression on my audience, that I retired from this great attempt most
perfectly satisfied. On my return to the green-room, after the play was
over, it was crowded with nobility and critics, who all complimented me in
the warmest and most unbounded manner; and the situation I felt myself in,
I must confess, was one of the most flattering and intoxicating of my whole
life. No money, no title, could purchase what I felt. By G--, sir, though I
was not worth fifty pounds in the world at that time, yet let me tell you,
I was _Charles the Great_ for that night."

The emphasis and enthusiasm with which Macklin spoke, pleased me--
enthusiastic people are always well pleased with enthusiasm. My curiosity
too was strongly excited to see him play Shylock. I returned home full of
the Jew of Venice; but, nevertheless, not forgetting my Spanish Jew.--At
last, my mother could no longer bear to see me perplex and vex myself in my
fruitless search for the letter, and confessed that while we were talking
the preceding day, finding that no arguments or persuasions of hers had had
any effect, she had determined on what she called a pious fraud: so, while
I was in the room--before my face--while I was walking up and down, holding
forth in praise of my Jewish friend whom I did know, and my Jewish friend
whom I did not know, she had taken up Mr. Israel Lyons' letter of