MOLLENHAUER. Two great actors, Mr. JEFFERSON and Mr. BOOTH, have at
different times appeared at this house, and in _Rip Van Winkle_ and
_Hamlet_ have given us the most perfect specimens of dramatic monologue.
Lately, there was an attempt made to present _Macbeth_ during the
intermissions in the performance of the orchestra. Had an actor been
engaged who was capable of playing _Macbeth_, and had a company been
engaged to support him, the tragedy would doubtless have been well
played. There was really little else wanting to make it a meritorious
Shakespearean revival.

To visit this theatre is held to be a solemn duty by a large class of
respectable and serious people. They don't go for amusement--they are
far too sensible for that--but they go to support the legitimate drama,
to testify their respect for SHAKESPEARE and for Mr. BOOTH'S classic
brow. The Worldly-Minded Persons who attended the representations of
_Macbeth_, found themselves assisting at a scene compared with which a
funeral would have been jovial, and a hanging, a wild dissipation.

This is the sort of thing that presents itself to our memory as we
recall the first night of _Macbeth_.

A large and elderly audience enters the portals with subdued and
mournful mien. The ushers, who, in imitation of Mr. BOOTH, do a little
of the classic brow and curl business themselves, chew tobacco with an
air of resigned melancholy, and spit upon the carpet, as though
renouncing the pleasures of the world and the decencies of civilization.

At the first intermission of the orchestra, the curtain rises upon the
three Weird Sisters. Mr. HIND is a Weird Sister, and he improves the
opportunity to howl with a weirdness that draws an involuntary laugh