Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/247

Rh And in a footnote, adds, A number of the students and scholars performed the masque of Alfred by way of Oratorical Exercise, before the Earl of Loudon and the Governors of the Southern Colonies, in the beginning of the year 1757, with very much and just applause, and on any occasion a sufficient number of speakers may be selected to perform any good piece of this kind. To this he further adds in the edition of his Works, Philadelphia, 1803: The choice of this performance was owing to the great similarity of circumstances in the distress in England under the Danish invasion, and that of the colonies at this time under the ravages and incursions of the Indians. The whole was applied in an occasional prologue and epilogue, and at any time a sufficient number of Speakers may be found to perform any piece of the kind, in a manner that would not be disagreeable to persons of the best taste and judgment. Selections from this Masque, " originally written by the pious and philosophic Mr Thompson in conjunction with Mr Mallet, and in the year 1751, altered and greatly improved by the latter," which had " been several Times represented during the Christmas Holidays, in one of the Apartments of the College," were given a prominent place in numbers of the Pennsylvania Gazette m January and February, 1757, where we learn that young Jacob Duche took the part of Alfred, and Samuel Chew that of the Danish King. In this cotemporary account Mr Smith prefaces it with the Statement that ever since the first Foundation of the College and Academy in this city, the Improvement of the Youth in ORATORY and correct Speaking, has always been considered as an essential Branch of their Education. And though it be a Branch too much neglected in other Institutions of a like kind, yet its importance is manifest, and nothing could have been better devised in the Circumstances of this Province, where the true Pronunciation of the English Language might soon be lost without proper care to preserve it in the rising Generation, as we are a Mixture of People from almost all corners of the world; speaking a variety of Languages and Dialects.