Cheats qf Scapin: and his judgment must have totally failed him when he made the remark, which, yet, has been frequently re-eehoed. The Alchemist continued to be represented with success till the theatres were shut up; it was one of the first plays revived at the Restoration, and, with the Fox and Silent Woman, as Downes informs us, constituted the delight of the town. Jonson gives the names of the principal actors, Burbadge, Lowin, Condel, Cooke, A rmiu, Hemings, Ostler, Underwood, Tooly, and Eglestone. Lowin, we are told by the sensible author of Historia Hisirionica, who seems to speak from personal knowledge, played Mammon, with mighty applause, Taylor, who probably succeeded to the parts of Burbadge, was celebrated in Face. How the other parts were distributed cannot be known ;but if the list of names, in the old copies, answers to that of persons, Robert A rmin, famous for his clowns, played Drugger. Cooke, who was the principal stage heroine at this time, probably took the part of Dol Common. The A lchemist. By this expression is meant, one who pretends to the knowledge of what is called the philosophers stone, which had the faculty of transmuting baser metals into gold. The professors of the art of chemistry, (as well as the critics) are not entirely agreed about the meaning and etymology of the word: Menage derives it from an A rabic term, signifying the occult science: and Julius Firinicus, who lived in the time of Constantine, is said to be the first writer who uses the word A lchymia. If the curious reader would be more fully informed of the origin and progress of chemistry, I refer him to the history of it, prefixed to Boerhaave s Chemistry, published by Dr. Shaw. But with regard to our poet, in the choice of his subject he was happy; for the age was then extremely addicted to the study of chemistry, and favourable to the professors of it. The f (Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don"t occur in the book.)