Page images
PDF
EPUB

for the morality? In the manners of Sir Charles Easy, Lord Foppington, Lady Graveairs, or Edging?

Of the four Tragedies of Rowe, which are published in this edition, only the "Fair Penitent," and "Jane Shore," can now be considered as in possession of the Theatre. Every one must agree with Mrs. Inchbald, that of the first, the Fair Penitent is a complete misnomer, for never was there a more determined profligate than Calista. The following assertion however seems a little problematical, that "now, enlightened by a degree of masculine study, women's taste and judgement being improved this best consequence of all ensues---men must improve to win them." Whether our fashionable coxcombs now turn chemists, politicians, and metaphysicians, to please the ladies, or the ladies adopt the same studies to please them, may admit of a doubt in the opinion of some enquirers. Perhaps there may be those who think, that, though some few ladies may not exactly conform to the habits of those men with whom they are particularly connected, the sex in general will adopt those habits which they think will render them most agreeable to ours, and that even those gentlemen who choose the costume and the pursuits of coachmen, will even now find as their counterparts, postillions in petticoats.

The concluding remark, that the seduction of unmarried women is not at this time so common as that of married women among persons of rank; and that therefore this play is not now an example to them, seem wonderful from the pen of a dramatic writer. The only question is whether the event is not probable enough for dramatic incident, and its consequences for tragic pathos. If every play is censurable that does not hold up a moral example to persons of rank, where is the playwright who shall escape?

[ocr errors]

The appellation of Fair Penitent might with much more propriety have been given to Jane Shore, than to Calista: the concluding remark on this play seems still more surprising

even than that on the last, when we consider it as coming from a person so intimately acquainted with the feelings of the human heart as Mrs. Inchbald has shewn herself to be, both in her dramatic and narrative writings.

The passage alluded to is this: Mrs. Inchbald, after having observed that "Alicia's calamities are far more heavy than that of the famished Shore," concludes thus:

"The parting scene between her and the condemned Hastings, "where he forgives her as the cause of his immediate execution, "has something more affecting than the last scene of the drama, "where Shore forgives his dying wife. The husband's pardon 66 comes after time has softened and penitence mitigated his 66 wrongs. The lover forgives a more fatal injury, and its conse66 quences that moment impending."

The Reviewer confesses he never could find any thing affecting in the parting scene between Hastings and Alicia. He is not a lover who forgives, but a dying sinner who repents. While Shore is a fond husband, reconciled to a penitent wife, of whose sincere and steady reformation he had been a witness, and whom he is on the point of losing; Alicia and Jane Shore are by no means equal in the eyes of the spectator. They both suffer in consequence of guilt; but the guilt of Jane Shore arose from female weakness, long before the opening of the drama, and sincerely repented of; the guilt of Alicia is that of a fiend, and acted in the face of the Theatre. Besides, as most of u derive our first knowledge of Jane Shore from the old ditty, we are apt, when we see Alicia, to think of her prototype Mrs. Blague, of which Rowe has very injudiciously reminded us by the circumstance of Jane Shore delivering the casket to her in the first act.

Mrs. Inchbald prefaces her remarks on Mrs. Centlivre's Comedies, with an apology for female dramatic writers: Surely no apology was necessary for a circumstance which has given to the British Theatre the humour of Mrs. Centlivre, and the pathos of Mrs. Inchbald. The first however must be acknowledged as the more extraordinary endowment in a female wri

ter, for the same reason that the latter, as being more consonant with the female character, is the more amiable one.

Of the Tragedies of Lillo, what Mrs. Inchbald says of the Fatal Curiosity, may in some degree be applied to George Barnwell, viz. "that for want of that robust constitution which implies "strength of mind as well as body, an audience shrinks from be"holding it performed." Those persons who possess such a constitutional firmness, as not to find the pathos of these privatelife tragedies carried to an excess that is painful, are better calculated for mathematical than poetical pursuits. We are told of a tragedy of Euripides, in which the apparatus was so dreadful as to throw children into fits, and make women miscarry ; but it is most probable that the subsequent performances were not much crowded by the Athenian ladies.

Of the "Orphan," the less that is said the better, for two such unprincipled rascals as Castalio and Polydore, can excite no feeling except that of disgust. The assertion of our Critic, that the mistake of one brother for another by Monimia, is "far the most natural of any of the self-same kind that has (6 yet been invented by Shakspeare, or any other dramatist," we do not understand: we do not recollect any mistake of the self-same kind in any other play. A minute investigation of the probability of this would hardly be consistent with strict decorum.

[ocr errors]

Mrs. Inchbald says of Venice Preserved, that it is "the favourite work of Otway, and is played repeatedly every year, except when an order from the Lord Chamber"lain forbids its representation, lest some of the speeches of "Pierre should be applied by the ignorant part of the audi"ence to certain men or assemblies in the English state."

It is an observation of Aristotle, that before an author is blamed for an immoral sentiment,the occasion of it and the character of the person who delivers it should be considered. The same reason is equally applicable to a popular sentiment. It surely can be no credit to any cause to applaud sentiments of

reform, from the mouth of a man whose avowed end is the ruin of his country, and the means fire and assassination.

Who, that has any sense of propriety of character, can read this passage with patience: "The high sounding vengeance of "Zanga charms every heart, while the malicious purposes of "Iago fill every bosom with abhorrence?" Iago's means of vengeance are consonant with his character, those of Zanga perfectly inconsistent with what the poct meant for his character; but shew the despicable villain that merited the blow he received. The ridiculous line intended as a parody, in

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

in point of absurdity and bombast, sinks to nothing before its archetype,

"Great Alexander 'midst his conquests mourn'd,
"Heroes and demigods have known their sorrows!
"Cæsars have wept, and I have had my blow. "

Of the "Mourning Bride," or the criticism on it, there is little to say. The first attempt at tragedy, by the first comic writer of the age, was naturally a subject of much curiosity, and consequently drew, as Mrs. Inchbald says, "all the wits and "critics to the representation ;" and she adds, "the great Dryden "was present, and is said to have been enraptured." We have heard from good authority, the mode in which he expressed his rapture. He went with a hope of seeing a formidable dramatic rival fail in this yet untried species of composition; but the moment he had heard the opening of the play, he jumped up and exclaimed, D--- this fellow, he will ruin

us all.'

Every dramatic critic will agree in the charge of insipidity brought against "Tancred and Sigismunda ;" but the observation of its revival to introduce young Betty, is not altogether so just. When Mrs. Inchbald says, "The taste which is irre

"gular, will combine irregularities; and why should not exqui"site verses be taken for a play, while an exquisite little boy "is received as an actor?" We cannot assent to her proposition. That young Betty was so young as to be on that account totally unfit for many of the parts he performed, is obvious; never was any exhibition more ridiculously absurd than his grappling with and overpowering the largest actor on the stage, Corry in Octavian. But the words little boy convey the idea of a child; and as for the exquisite verses, surely never was language more harsh and turgid than that of Tancred and Sigismunda.

Speaking of the Suspicious Husband, Mrs. Inchbald's usual discrimination surely forsook her, when she remarked that, "of all the jealous husbands on the stage, from the an"cient Kitely and Ford, down to the modern Sir John Restless, "Strickland is the most tame and unimportant." Strickland is not a jealous but a suspicious husband. Jealousy originates from the unreasonable and misguided effusions of violent love, but the suspicion of Strickland arises from an envious and morose temper, without the smallest spark of affection; "the Suspicious Wife," would have been a more appropriate appellation for Colman's excellent comedy than, "the Jealous Wife."

This criticism on the Tragedy of the Gamester is new, but strikes us as perfectly just :-"As the author meant his Game"ster to be an object of pity, not of detestation, (and in ge"neral his design has been fulfilled,) it appears that he has "pleaded an apology for the vice, rather than set all hearts against it. Ridicule had been the best means by which to

[ocr errors]

"have accomplished its extirpation.”

The Tragedy of Barbarossa (which by the way is exactly the story of Merope with different names) is no longer interesting, but as being the drama in which Master Betty made his first appearance on a London Stage. This is Mrs. Ineh

« PreviousContinue »