It was our intention to confine our remarks on this occasion entirely to Master Payne. It seemed to us that the interest taken by the public in this native plant, the novelty of his appearance, and, indeed, his own merits, laid claim to a very particular discussion of his performances: but as we read over the play for that purpose, Mr. M‘Kenzie’s Old Norval forced itself so imperiously upon our remembrance, that we could not drop the subject without doing justice to that gentleman’s performance and our own feelings. It was a specimen of acting and speaking we little expected to meet with: masterly, chaste, and exquisitely affecting; no less gratifying to the critical ear than to the feeling heart. We particularly admired his attestation to heaven of his innocence:
As I hope
For mercy before the judgment seat of heaven
The tender lamb that never nipt the grass
Is not more innocent than I of murder.
And his pathetic supplication for mercy:
Oh, gentle lady! by your lord’s dear life,
Which these weak hands, I swear, did ne’er assail,
And by your children’s welfare spare my age!
Let not the iron tear my aged joints,