JOHN HOWARD PAYNE:

"On the 3d of April, 1809, John Howard Payne, then only seventeen years of age, made his first appearance at the Boston Theatre in the part of Young Norval, and was justly considered a histrionic wonder. Though not a finished artist he possessed a vivid genius, and his readings united
classical correctness to truth of feeling. During his engagement he appeared as Romeo, Selim, Tancrede, Hamlet, etc., in all of which he was not only considered excellent, but the term included excellence as an actor, not as a mere boy. His first appearance attracted an audience of $745.62, and at his benefit when he played Hamlet, there was $987.37 in. He received for six nights $800.

"Master Payne was born in New York, on the 9th of June, 1792, and his parents removed to this city [Boston] when he was quite young. It was here that he acquired a taste for theatrical representation, and early in life at private theatricals was the star par eminence. When thirteen years of age, he was sent to New York and placed in a counting-house; but the dry details of business were unsuited to his temperament, which soon found an appropriate sphere of action in publishing a weekly paper, called the Thespian Mirror. It was a respectable, though crude attempt of the future author and actor. He made his first appearance at New York on the 26th of February, 1809, and after visiting Boston, made a tour of the northern and southern theatres with great success. He visited England, and on the 4th of June, 1813, made his debut at Drury Lane Theatre, London, and though styled the "American Roscius," was received with great applause. After visiting the English provincial theatres and Ireland, he retired from the stage for several years, and devoted his attention to literary pursuits. In 1826-7, Mr. Paine (sic) edited in London the Opera Glass. Mr. Payne, during his early theatrical career in this country, besides the characters already mentioned, appeared as Octavian, Rolla, Romeo, Zaphna, Frederick in "The Lovers' Vows," etc. Nature bestowed upon him a countenance of no common order, and though there was, when young, a roundness and fairness, which but faintly express strong turbulent emotions, or display the furious passions, these defects were supplied by an eye which glowed with animation and intelligence. A more extraordinary mixture of softness and intelligence were never associated in a human countenance, and his face was a true index of his heart. In general his action was elegant, his attitudes bold and striking, and his most prominent defects were those of pronunciation. Mr. Payne's contributions to the stage are "Brutus" which is still performed. He is also the author of "The Lancers," "Oswali of Athens," "Peter Smink, or Which is the Miller," "Proclamation," "Richelieu," "Therese," "'Twas I," "King Charles the Second, or the Merry Monarch," "Clari," and other pieces. Mr. Payne's name, however will ever be associated in the minds of all lovers of melody, with that simple yet soul trusting poem, "Home, Sweet Home," of which he is the author.

"Mr. Payne held the office of United States consul at Tunis, and died there on the 10th of April, 1852. We cannot do the reader a greater favor than by giving the following article upon Mr. Payne, which was contributed to the Evening Gazette in May 1, 1852, by one of his schoolmates. It was written by a gentleman of the finest literary attainments.

"There are many subscribers to the Gazette who are old enough, as well as myself, to rememver something of the brilliant boyhood and youth of Mr. John Howard Payne, whose death in Tunis, where he was consul for the United States, has just been chronicled in the newspapers..

"He was an example of precocious talent, the like of which I doubt whether the country has produced, and the object of an admiration such as I have never known to be bestowed on any other young person.

"My acquaintance with him dates so far back as the autumn of 1804, when I was put to the 'Berry Street ACademy,' as his father's boarding school in the street crossing from Atkinson to Federal Street was called. He belonged to a family of genius. A sister, who died in early womanhood in 1818, was especially admired for rare endowments and accomplish;ments. In the family, as pupils, were several young ladies who have since done great honor to their training Miss Sedgewick was won of them. Howard Payne, as he was called, was a boy then of twelve years of age, used to figure on training days as the captain of the 'Boston Federal Band,' a military company, completely uniformed and equipped, so as to be in its blue and white an exact miniature of Sargent's company, the 'Boston Light Infantry.' I recollect that on one occasion the 'Boston Federal Band' took station on the left of one of the regiments at a review on the common.

"Young payne was a perfect Cupid in his beauty, and his sweet voice, self-possessed yet modest manners, wit, vivacity, and premature wisdom, made him a most engaging prodigy. At this time he was publishing a little weekly paper, of four pages quarto, called 'The Fly.' His father had diligently cultivated his talent for elocution, and he was the star of the exhibitions which we used to have at the Berry Street Academy, where a mimic theatre was got up, with stage, curtain, and pit, and in all but dresses and properties we flattered ourselves that we rivalled the regular practitioners in the Federal Street Theatre across the way. I have not forgotten how he frightened me one night, when in my Sunday clothes I had been soliloquizing as Old Roque, Florintha's Follower, and at the proper time he rushed in and collared me, in the rags and tatters of Octavian, which, without concert with me, he had borrowed of Mr. Powell. I have faced fiercer onsets since, but none I think which more tempted me to turn myu back and disappear.

"About this time young Betty, as the Young Roscius, was making a great noise in England by his personations of Hamlet, Romeo, Tancred, Selim, Zaphna, Frederic, Norval, Octavian, and so on; and our book-seller's shop-windows were full of prints representing his attitudes in this or that dramatic exigency. This was thespark for which the tinder of young Payne's scenic ambition was all ready. Themistocles could not sleep for thinking of the trophies of Miltiades; waking, Payne thought, and sleeping, he dreamed of the laurels of Betty. He studied, recited, and attitudinized, and the vision of weeping boxes and shouting gallery and pit filleed his mind.

"Among his pieces of fugitive poetry at this time, some of your ancient readers may remember a 'New Year's Ode,' ;and an 'Elegy on the Irish starveling boy, poet Dermody.' As to the highest inspiration of poetry, that is another thing; but in respect to exact selection of words, to perfect taste and finish, and grace of versification, those pieces are not to be exceeded.

"Payne was placed in a counting-room in New York, I believe, in 1805. Presently there appeared, from week to week a sheet entitled the 'Thespian Mirror' containing criticisms on theatrical performances. They were so bright and judicious as to attract attention and curiosity. William Coleman, then editor of the Evening Post, took pains to trace out the author, and to his astonishment found him a boy of fifteen. He introduced him to his friends, and Payne became all the rage in the fashionable new York circles. Irving, Paulding, and Verplanck, (a trio then becoming famous by Salmagundi,) Fay, (father of the diplomatist of our day,) Blauvelt, and Brevoort, were among those whose flattering notice he attracted. Having gracefully borne his part, as not only the Cynthius of the minute, but of the season, he and his friends assented to the proposal of a New York gentleman, by the name of Seaman, to be at the expense of his education at college, and to Schenectady he went for that purpose.

"But to remand a young man from public celebrity into studious college retirement, is not much easier than to bring about the recent scheme of some of our Congressional Solons, of remanding California into a territorial State. Payne had tasted the cup of applause too young, and perhaps it was scarcely in nature not to crave more; the notice of the great, and the smiles of the fair, were not for a boy easy to turn his back upon. He had scarcely got to his place of work at Schenectady before the 'Pastime,' a weekly magazine of eight octavo pages, opened a new communication with the public. An old file which we have just looked up, shows the first number to have vbeen issued in February, 1807. In the seclusion of a then inland Calvinistic college the seductions of the drama still pursued him, and sock and buskin made their prints all along the pages of the 'Pastime.'

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