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Mr McLeay,
single work
column
(p. 2)The Sydney Gazette takes the Australian to task over its motto 'Vox populi - vox dei'.
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A Benefit,
single work
column
(p. 2)A short report on Maria Taylor's benefit in which the plays presented by the Royal Victoria Theatre are briefly discussed. Maria Taylor (ca. 1813-1841) was an actress in nineteenth century Sydney. The author (William Kerr?) also alludes to Taylor's conduct '... on Tuesday evening last ... with the hope that we may never witness a repetition of such behaviour...'
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The Mechanics' School of Arts,
single work
column
(p. 2)A brief report on a lecture at the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts. The discussion being 'whether ... Tragedy or Comedy the more powerful influence on mankind. After an animated debate, in which Messrs. Cape, Windeyer, a'Beckett, Taylor and Dr. Nicholson took part, the question was decided, by a small majority, in favour of tragedy.'
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Royal Victoria Theatre : Spencer's Benefit,
single work
advertisement
(p. 3)
An advertisement for performance at the Royal Victoria Theatre, Sydney, as a benefit for the actor Albert Spencer, on 28 August 1838, to include 'Shakespeare's celebrated Tragedy, entitled King Lear'; 'After which (for the first time in this Colony) ... the celebrated popular Comic Song, entitled "Jim Crow"'; and '(for the first time at this Theatre) the 'grand Eastern Spectacle, entitled Timour the Tartar'.
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Royal Victoria Theatre : The Knights Templars; or, Ivanhoe and the Jew of York's Daugher &c.,
single work
advertisement
(p. 3)
An advertisement for performance at the Royal Victoria Theatre, Sydney, on 25 August 1838 to include the 'Romantic Drama, entitled The Knights Templars' and the 'Laughable Farce, called The Rival Pages'.
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Macpherson the Robber,
single work
prose
(p. 4)
The subject of this piece is James Macpherson (ca. 1675-1700) a Scottish 'thief and reputed musician', according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. The unknown author of the piece quotes from Robert Burns' poem about Macpherson, 'Macpherson's Farewell' (1788) as well as from a ballad by James Herd entitled 'MacPherson's Rant' (1769) .
AustLit has not yet established if this is work is by an Australian writer. The work may have been sourced from an international publication.
Source: Mary Anne Alburger, ‘MacPherson, James (c.1675–1700)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17727, accessed 28 May 2014]
