T h e theatre was crowded and money refused at the doors. Mrs. Coppin, Rogers, and Coppin, unmistakably foreshadowed the reputation they would win, and the many laurels they would gather in after years on the Melbourne stage in connection with the same comedy. T h e performance yvas thus noticed in a neyvspaper of the time :— " O n Thursday evening Mr. Coppin's corps dramatiqne performed to a crowded and highly respectable house; the piece selected for the occasion being Sheridan's comedy, the 'School for Scandal.' T h e principal characters in this were Sir Peter and Lady Teazle by Mr. and Mrs. Coppin, both of which were well sustained ; indeed, Coppin's personation of a fidgetty, doating old husband, and Mrs. Coppin's coquettish levity, kept the house in an uninterruptedfitof merriment. T h e characters of the brothers Charles and Joseph Surface, by Messrs Y o u n g and Thompson, were creditably supported; but there is one defect in the Launceston Company, namely, that, with the exception of Mesdames Coppin and Rogers, it is rather inefficient in actresses. In the laughable little piece of ' W h y Don't She Marry,' Coppin's mimic powers yvere agreeably brought into play, and the song, ' M y Beautiful Rhine' was sung with great eclat by Mrs. Rogers as Lisette; but it yvould appear that all the mirthful faculties of the audience yvere to be reserved for the concluding farce of 'Winning a Husband,' in yvhich Mrs Coppin's dramatic talent eminently told that it possessed no little powers of versatility—as she sustained eight different characters to admiration, metamorphosing herself from a pork butcher's widow to a ' Highland lassie,' and as quickly taking herself from the Land o' Cakes to the Kilkenny Flamers; and then from a boy of Kilkenny, a dark roving blade, to the impersonation of a Parisian paramour. All these characters she did in a very superior style, and received the enthusiastic greeting of the assemblage. Mr. Rogers as Sir Robert Strangeways yvas very good, as also Coppin himself as the m a n Davy. It gave us pleasure to see that upon this occasion the dress circle plainly showed that a taste for theatricals yvas not on the decline. In fact it was one ofthe best attended houses "yve have yet seen, and the most general satisfaction was rendered." T h e Melbourne C o m p a n y n o w mustered sufficient courage to procure a Shakespearian tragedy on the ioth July, and as this was the first representation of the piece on Melbourne boards, the cast will be conned over with a curious interest by the theatrical devotees of to-day. MACBETH. Duncan (King of Scotland) - Mr. Capper. Malcolm - Mrs. Mereton. Macbeth - Mr. Nesbitt. Banquo - Mr. Alexander. Macduff - Mr. Cameron. Lennox - Mr. Davies. Rosse - Mr. Jacobs. Fleance - Master Capper. Seyton - Mr. C. Boyd. Officer - Mr. Edwards. Physician - Mr. Andrews. First Witch - Mr. Lee. Second Witch - Mr. Mereton. Third Witch - Mr. Falchon. Lady Macbeth - Mrs. Cameron. Gentlewoman - Mrs. Avins.
The attendance yvas large, and the yvork yvas on the whole moderately yvell got through, Nesbitt and Falchon being exceptionally good. O n the 26th July Capper took a benefit, at yvhich the Launceston C o m p a n y appeared. It commenced with the comedy of " T h e Youthful Queen," yvith Mrs. Coppin as Christine, and yvas succeeded by a variety of overtures and entertainments, concluding yvith "The Spectre of the Nile," Coppin representing Pagnag, and his wife Orynthe. T h e last scene—the Earthquake, and Grand Fall of the Great Aqueduct at M e m p h i s — w a s something out of the c o m m o n . Mr. Richard Capper, though yvhat is techinally k n o w n in theatrical "biz." as a mechanist, yvas a reliable ally in small parts; and having shared in the fallen fortunes of the Pavilion yvas looked upon as a sort of veteran, so the people came to like him, and his " benefit " was a reality. Davies, an " artful dodger " in working out benefits for himself, a couple of weeks after induced Smith to let him have another turn, when, yvith his usual luck, he secured a capital house, chiefly through the instrumentality of the St. Patrick's Society, whose patronage he obtained. T h e members marched in procession to the theatre with insignia, band and banners, and the Irish music, and the unfurled Irish green drew along with them a crowd yvhich contributed materially to render the occasion a pecuniary success. Coppin by this time had " taken the measure " of the Melbourne community, and entered into an arrangement yvith Smith, thus adding to his o w n the cream of the Melbourne Company, viz.—Nesbitt, and
