Events in the Life of an Octogenarian. By George Washington
Abbott. (Remington and Co.)—Mr. Abbott's title-page is misleading. The events he chronicles do not, except in a very few instances, concern himself at all ; they are events of a public nature, and reminiscences chiefly of the plays and the actors of his youthful days during the stirring years of the first quarter of the present century—topics on which we have often observed that very aged persons dwell with .pleasure and keen remembrance. Mr. Abbott is a cheery and healthy old gentle- man, and his "-views " are of the cheery and rose-coloured kind ; he has a good word to say of almost everybody, at a period when persons in high places were generally misconducting themselves, and when ill- words wore rife. The domestic quarrels of the Royal Family have seldom been so tenderly handled as by this old gentleman. The book is quite a harmless one, and if not particularly wise, or witty, or wanted, it has probably amused its writer, at a time of life when amuse- ment is equally desirable and hard to bo procured. Most of Mr. Abbott's anecdotes of favourite actors and the rival theatres have come under our
notice previously, but we do not remember this one, a propos of the tumultuous reception of John Kemblo, in the character of Coriolanus, at Covent Garden, after two years' absence :—" Before the warm and enthusiastic greetings had ceased, a complimentary circlet of laurel fell at the actor's feet ; it had been thrown from the upper boxes on the Prince's side. Such an incident before this had never been witnessed in this country, although it was a very usual way, both at Paris and on the Continent generally, of paying a mark of respect to a favourite actor or actress."
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