Atlantic Monthly Vol. 1, no. 1, November, 1857

ion is nothing. Besides, Jerrold found the modern taste for spectacle forming thirty years ago. In his prefaces he complains bitterly of the preference of the public for the mechanical over the higher attractions of the art. And the satirical war he waged against actors and managers showed that he looked back with little pleasure to the days when his life was chiefly occupied with them and their affairs. It may be mentioned here, that he was very shabbily treated by several people who owed fame and fortune to his genius. I have heard a curious story about his connection with Davidge, manager of the Surrey,--the original, as I take it, of his Bajazet Gay. They say that he had used Douglas very ill,--that Douglas invoked this curse upon him,--"that he might live to keep his carriage, and yet not be able to ride in it,"--and that it was fulfilled, curiously, to the letter. The ancient gods, we know, took the comic poet under their protection and avenged him. Was this a case of the kind,--or but a flying false an