Speaking_, queried in your 5th Number, were published by the well-known
dramatic critic, Charles Gildon, and form a portion of his _Life of
Betterton_. As this work is little known, I shall quote the title at
length:--"The Life of Mr. Thomas Betterton, the late eminent Tragedian,
wherein the Action and Utterance of the Stage, Bar, and Pulpit, are
distinctly considered; with the judgment of the late ingenious Monsieur
de St. Evremond, upon the Italian and French Music and Operas, in a
Letter to the Duke of Buckingham. To which is added, The Amorous Widow,
or the Wanton Wife, a Comedy, written by Mr. Betterton, now first
printed from the Original Copy. _London, Printed for Robert Gosling, at
the Miter, near the Inner Temple Gate in Fleet Street_, 1710. 8vo."
Gildon was intimately acquainted with Betterton, and he gives an
interesting account of a visit paid to that great actor, the year before
his death, at his country house at Reading. It was on this occasion that
Gildon came into the possession of Betterton's manuscripts. Thirty-one
years after the publication of Betterton's Life, Curll, the notorious
bookseller, put forth a mutilated copy of the _Instructions on Playing_,
in a work bearing the following title:--"The History of the English
Stage, from the Restauration to the Present Time, Including the Lives,
Character, and Amours, of the most Eminent Actors and Actresses; with
Instructions for Public Speaking, wherein the Action and Utterance of
the Bar, Stage, and Pulpit, are distinctly considered. By Thomas
Betterton. _London, Printed for E. Curll, at Pope's Head in Rose-Street,
Covent Garden_, 1741. 8vo." From this title it would appear (as indeed
Curll wished it) that Betterton was the author of the entire work; but
he is only accountable for the brief _Instructions for Public Speaking_,
which, as before stated, were pillaged from Gildon.

Reverting to Colley Cibber's _Lives_, I beg to point out a curious and
rare tract in connection with them, entitled, "A Brief Supplement to