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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, by 
+Stephen Cullen Carpenter
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor
+       Volume I, Number 1
+
+Author: Stephen Cullen Carpenter
+
+Release Date: September 2, 2007 [EBook #22488]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF TASTE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Louise Hope, Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  [Transcriber's Note:
+
+  Typographical errors are listed at the end of the text. No attempt
+  was made to regularize the use of quotation marks.
+
+  The printed book contained the six Numbers of Volume I with their
+  appended plays. The Index originally appeared at the beginning of
+  the volume; it has been relocated to the end of the journal text,
+  before the play. Pages 1-108 refer to the present Number.]
+
+
+
+
+THE MIRROR OF TASTE,
+
+AND
+
+DRAMATIC CENSOR.
+
+
+  Neque mala vel bona quĉ vulgus putet. --_Tacitus._
+
+
+
+
+PROSPECTUS.
+
+
+The advantages of a correct judgment and refined taste in all matters
+connected with literature, are much greater than men in general imagine.
+The hateful passions have no greater enemies than a delicate taste and a
+discerning judgment, which give the possessor an interest in the virtues
+and perfections of others, and prompt him to admire, to cherish, and
+make them known to the world. Criticism, the parent of these qualities,
+therefore, mends the heart, while it improves the understanding. The
+influence of critical knowledge is felt in every department of social
+life, as it supplies elegant subjects for conversation, and enlarges the
+scope, and extends the duration of intellectual enjoyment. Without it,
+the pleasures we derive from the fine arts would be transient and
+imperfect; and poetry, painting, music, and that admirable epitome of
+life, the stage, would afford nothing more than a fugitive, useless,
+pastime, if not aided by the interposition of the judgment, and sent
+home, by the delightful process of criticism, to the memory, there to
+exercise the mind to the last of life, to be the amusement of our
+declining years, and, when all the other faculties for receiving
+pleasure are impaired by old age and infirmity, to cast the sunshine of
+delight over the last moments of our existence.
+
+In no age or country has the improvement of the intellectual powers of
+man made a larger share of the business of life than in these in which
+we live. In the promotion of this spirit the stage has been an
+instrument of considerable efficacy, and, as such, lays claim to a full
+share of critical examination; yet, owing to some cause, which it seems
+impossible to discover, that very important subject has been little
+attended to in this great commonwealth; and in Philadelphia, the
+principal city of the union, has been almost totally neglected. No
+apology, therefore, can be thought necessary for offering the present
+work to the public.
+
+The utility of miscellanies of this kind has been sometimes called in
+question; nor are those wanting who condemn the whole tribe of light
+periodical productions, as detrimental to the advancement of solid
+science and erudition: yet, in the most learned and enlightened nations
+of Europe, magazines and periodical compilations have, for more than a
+century, been circulated with vast success, and, within the last twenty
+years, increased in price as well as number, to an extent that shows how
+essentially the public opinion, in that quarter of the world differs
+from that of the persons who condemn them.
+
+Taking that decision as a decree without appeal, in favour of such
+works, the editors think themselves authorized in offering the present
+without any formal apology. If the perusal of such productions had a
+tendency to prevent the youth of the country from aspiring to deep and
+solid erudition, or to divert men of talents from the prosecution of
+more important studies, the editors would be among the last to make any
+addition to the stock already in circulation; but, convinced that, on
+the contrary, works of that kind promote the advancement of general
+knowledge, they have no scruple whatever in offering this to the
+American people; and so firm do they feel in the conviction of its
+utility, that they let it go into the world, unaided by any of those
+arts, or specious professions which are sometimes employed, in similar
+cases, to excite the attention, enlist the partialities, and seduce the
+judgment of the public.
+
+Of those who possess at once the talents, the leisure, and the
+inclination to hunt erudition into its deepest recesses, the number must
+ever be inconsiderable; and of that number the portion must be small
+indeed, who could be diverted from that pursuit by the casual perusal of
+light fugitive pieces. On the other hand, the great majority of mankind
+would be left without inducement to read, if they were not supplied, by
+publications of the kind proposed, with matter adapted to their
+circumstances, to their capacities, and their various turns of fancy;
+matter accessible to them by its conciseness and perspicuity, attractive
+by its variety and lightness, and useful by its easy adaptation to the
+familiar intercourse of life, and its fitness to enter into the
+conversation of rational society. Men whose time and labour are chiefly
+engrossed by the common occupations of life, have little leisure to
+read, none for what is called study. In books they do not search for
+deep learning, but for amusement accompanied with information on general
+topics, conveyed with brevity; happy if, in seeking relaxation from the
+drudgery of business, they can pick up some new particles of knowledge.
+For this most useful and numerous portion of society, some adequate
+intellectual provision ought to be made. Nor should it be imagined that,
+in supplying them, the general interests of literature are deserted. The
+frequent perusal of well collated miscellanies imparts to youth an
+appetite for diligent reading; by slow but certain gradation, stores the
+young mind with valuable ideas; accumulates in it a large stock of
+useful knowledge; and imperceptibly insinuates a correct and refined
+taste. Nor is this all. It may serve, as it often has, to rouse the
+indolent from the gratification of complexional sloth, and recall the
+unthinking and irregular from the haunts of dissipation and vice to the
+blessings of serious reflection.
+
+Few things have more tended to inflame the general passion for
+literature in Great Britain than the practice of uniting the plan of the
+reviews with that of the magazines, and making them jointly vehicles of
+dramatic criticism. Multitudes at this day know the character of books,
+and form a general conception of their subjects, who, but for the light
+periodical publications, would never have known that such books existed:
+many who would not otherwise have extended their reading beyond the
+columns of a newspaper, are led by the pleasures of a represented play,
+to read the critic's strictures upon it, and thence, by a natural
+transition, to peruse attentively the various other subjects which
+surround those strictures in the magazines. This is the reason why
+hundreds read the Monthly Mirror and similar productions of London, for
+one who reads the Rambler.
+
+For the passionate love of books, and the rapid advancement of
+literature which distinguish her from all young countries, America is
+greatly indebted to her periodical publications. Those, though small in
+number, and, unfortunately, too often shortlived, have been read in
+their respective times and circles with great avidity, and produced a
+correspondent effect. THE PORT FOLIO alone raised, long ago, a spirit in
+the country which malicious Dulness itself will never be able to lay.
+Yet the disproportion in number of those miscellanies which have
+succeeded in America, to those which enrich the republic of letters in
+England, is astonishing, considering the comparative population of the
+two countries. London boasts of several periodical publications founded
+on the DRAMA alone; and though the other magazines occasionally contain
+short strictures on that subject, those have the greatest circulation
+which are most exclusively devoted to the stage.
+
+IN AMERICA THERE HAS NOT YET BEEN ONE OF THAT DESCRIPTION.
+
+To supply this defect, and raise the United States one step higher in
+laudable emulation with Great Britain, the editors have planned the
+present work, of which, (though not to the total exclusion of other
+matter) the basis will be
+
+THE DRAMA.
+
+
+The first and by far the larger share will be allotted to the stage, and
+dramatic productions. The residue to miscellaneous articles, most of
+them connected with the fashionable amusements, and designed to correct
+the abuses, which intemperate ignorance, and Licentiousness, running
+riot for want of critical control, have introduced into the public
+diversions of this opulent and luxurious city.
+
+In the composition of the several parts of this work, care will be taken
+to furnish the public with new and interesting matter, and to select
+from the current productions of the British metropolis such topics as
+will best tend to promote the cultivation of an elegant taste for
+knowledge and letters, and, at the same time, repay the reader for the
+trouble of perusal, with amusement and delight. Abstracts from the most
+popular publications will be given, accompanied with short critical
+remarks upon them, and, whatever appears most interesting in the
+periodical productions of Great Britain will be transferred into this;
+pruned if they be prolix, and illustrated by explanatory notes, whenever
+they may be found obscured by local or personal allusion.
+
+As the leading object of the work is, not to infuse a passion, but to
+inculcate a just and sober taste for dramatic poetry and acting, the
+editors propose to give, _seriatim_, a history of the drama from its
+origin, with strictures on dramatic poesy, and portraits of the best
+dramatic poets of antiquity. To this will succeed the history of the
+British stage, with portraits of the most celebrated poets, authors, and
+actors who have flourished on it, and strictures on the professional
+talents of the latter, illustrated by parallels and comparisons with
+those who have been most noted for excellence on the American boards.
+
+From that history the reader will be able to deduce a proper conviction
+of the advantages of the stage, and the importance, if not the
+necessity, of putting the actors and the audience on a more proper
+footing with each other than that in which they now stand. Actors must
+lay their account with being told their faults. They owe their whole
+industry and attention to those who attend their performance; but the
+editors hold that critic to have forfeited his right to correct the
+stage, and to be much more deserving of reprehension than those he
+censures, who, in the discharge of his duty, forgets that the actor has
+his rights and privileges also; that he has the same rights which every
+other gentleman possesses, and of which his profession has not even the
+remotest tendency to deprive him, to be treated with politeness and
+respect; that he has the same right as every other man in society, as
+the merchant, the mechanic, or the farmer, to prosecute his business
+unmolested; shielded by the same laws which protect them from the
+attacks of malicious libellers out of the theatre, and the insults of
+capricious Ignorance or stupid Malevolence within. "Reproof," says Dr.
+Johnson, "should not exhaust its power upon petty failings;" and "the
+care of the critic should be to distinguish error from inability, faults
+of inexperience from defects of nature. On this principle the editors
+will unalterably act. And, since they have cited the great moralist's
+maxim as a direction for critics, they, even in this their first step
+into public view, beg leave to offer a few sentiments from the same high
+source, for the guidance of AUDITORS. "HE THAT APPLAUDS HIM WHO DOES NOT
+DESERVE PRAISE IS ENDEAVOURING TO DECEIVE THE PUBLIC; HE THAT HISSES IN
+MALICE OR IN SPORT IS AN OPPRESSOR AND A ROBBER.[1]"
+
+  [Footnote 1: Johnson's Idler, No. 25.]
+
+This work, therefore, will contain a regular journal of all, worthy of
+notice, that passes in the theatre of Philadelphia, and an account of
+each night's performances, accompanied with a critical analysis of the
+play and after-piece, and remarks upon the merits of the actors. Nor
+shall the management of the stage, in any particular, escape
+observation. Thus the public will know what they owe to the manager and
+to the leader of each department, and those again what they owe to the
+public. To make THE MIRROR OF TASTE AND DRAMATIC CENSOR, as far as
+possible a general national work, measures have been taken to obtain
+from the capital cities, of the other states, a regular account of their
+theatrical transactions. To this will be added a register of the other
+public exhibitions, and, in general, of all the fashionable amusements
+of this city, and, from time to time, the sporting intelligence of the
+new and old country.
+
+To the first part, which will be entitled "The Domestic Dramatic
+Censor," will succeed the "Foreign Dramatic Censor." This will contain a
+general account of all that passes in the theatres of Great Britain,
+likely to interest the fashionable world and _amateurs_ of America, viz.
+the new pieces, whether play, farce, or interlude, with their prologues
+and epilogues, together with their character and reception there, and
+critiques on the acting, collected from the various opinions of the best
+critics, together with the amusing occurrences, anecdotes, bon-mots, and
+greenroom chitchat, scattered through the various periodical
+publications of England, Ireland, and Scotland.
+
+The next head will be Stage Biography, under which the reader will find
+the lives and characters of the leading actors of both countries.
+
+These will be followed by a miscellany collated from the foreign
+productions, catalogues of the best books and best compositions in
+music, published or preparing for publication in Europe or America, with
+concise reviews of such as have already appeared.
+
+Poetry, of course, will be introduced; not, as usual, under one head,
+but scattered in detached pieces through the whole.
+
+
+
+
+TERMS.
+
+
+_The price of the Mirror will be eight dollars per annum, payable on the
+delivery of the sixth number._
+
+_A number will be issued every month, forming two volumes in the year._
+
+_To each number will be added, by way of appendix, an entire play or
+after-piece, printed in a small elegant type, and paged so as to be
+collected, at the end of each year, into a separate volume._
+
+_The work will be embellished with elegant engravings by the first
+artists._
+
+
+
+
+THE MIRROR OF TASTE,
+
+AND
+
+DRAMATIC CENSOR.
+
+
+Vol. I.  JANUARY 1810.  No. 1.
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE STAGE.
+
+
+  Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem
+  Quam quĉ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et quĉ
+  Ipse sibi tradit spectator.[2]  _Hor. de Arte Poetica._
+
+  [Footnote 2:
+                         What we _hear_
+    With weaker passion will affect the heart
+    Than when the faithful eye beholds the part. --_Francis._ ]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+OBJECTIONS TO THE STAGE CONSIDERED AND REFUTED.
+
+
+That amusement is necessary to man, the most superficial observation of
+his conduct and pursuits may convince us. The Creator never implanted in
+the hearts of all his intelligent creatures one common universal
+appetite without some corresponding necessity; and that he has given
+them an instinctive appetite for amusements as strong as any other which
+we labour to gratify, may be clearly perceived in the efforts of
+infancy, in the exertions of youth, in the pursuits of manhood, in the
+feeble endeavours of old age, and in the pastimes which human creatures,
+even the uninstructed savage nations themselves, have invented for their
+relaxation and delight. This appetite evinces a necessity for its
+gratification as much as hunger, thirst, and weariness, intimate the
+necessity of bodily refection by eating, drinking, and sleeping; and not
+to yield obedience to that necessity, would be to counteract the
+intentions of Providence, who would not have furnished us so bountifully
+as he has with faculties for the perception of pleasure, if he had not
+intended us to enjoy it. Had the Creator so willed it, the process
+necessary to the support of existence here below might have been carried
+on without the least enjoyment on our part: the daily waste of the body
+might be repaired without the sweet sensations which attend eating and
+drinking; we might have had the sense of hearing without the delight we
+derive from sweet sounds; and that of smelling without the capability of
+enjoying the fragrance of the rose: but He whose wisdom and beneficence
+are above all comprehension, has ordained in another and a better
+manner, and annexed the most lively sensations of pleasure to every
+operation he has made necessary to our support, thereby making the
+enjoyment of pleasure one of the conditions of our existence. This is an
+unanswerable refutation of one of the most abominable doctrines of the
+atheists--the overbalance of evil; and as such, that wise and amiable
+divine, doctor Paley, has made use of it in his Natural Theology. It is
+true, that yielding to the tendency of our frail, overweening nature to
+push enjoyment of every kind to its utmost verge, men too often
+overshoot the mark, and frustrate the object they have most at heart, by
+eagerness to accomplish it. For though to a reasonable extent and in
+certain circumstances, all enjoyments are harmless, they degenerate into
+crimes, when excessively indulged, and particularly when the imagination
+is overstrained to improve their zest, or to refine or exalt them beyond
+the limits which Nature and sobriety prescribe. But this can no more be
+alledged as a reason for renouncing the moderate use of the enjoyment,
+than the excesses of the drunkard or glutton for the rejection of food
+and drink.
+
+That man must have amusement of some kind, "Nature speaks aloud." He,
+therefore, who supplies society with entertainment unadulterated by
+vice, who contributes to the pleasure without impairing the innocence of
+his fellow-beings, and above all, who instructs while he delights, may
+justly be ranked among the benefactors of mankind, and lays claim to the
+gratitude and respect of the society he serves. To that gratitude and
+respect the dramatic poet, and those who contribute to give effect to
+his works, are richly entitled. Accordingly history informs us that in
+all recorded ages theatrical exhibitions have been not only held in high
+estimation by the most wise, learned, and virtuous men, but sedulously
+cultivated and encouraged by legislators as matters of high public
+importance, particularly in those nations that have been most renowned
+for freedom and science.
+
+In the multitude and diversity of conflicting opinions which divide
+mankind upon all, even the most manifest truths, we find some upon this
+subject. Many well-meaning, sincere christians have waged war against
+the enjoyment of pleasure, as if it were the will of God that we should
+go weeping and sorrowing through life. The learned bishop of Rochester,
+speaking of a religious sect which carries this principle as far as it
+will go, says: "their error is not heterodoxy, but excessive, overheated
+zeal." Thus we find that the stage has ever been with many well-meaning
+though mistaken men, a constant object of censure. Of those, a vast
+number express themselves with the sober, calm tenderness which comports
+with the character of christians, while others again have so far lost
+their temper as to discard in a great measure from their hearts the
+first of all christian attributes--charity. We hope, for the honour of
+christianity, that there are but few of the latter description. There
+are men however of a very different mould--men respectable for piety and
+for learning, who have suffered themselves to be betrayed into opinions
+hostile to the drama upon other grounds: these will even read plays, and
+profess to admire the poetry, the language, and the genius of the
+dramatic poet; but still make war upon scenic representations,
+considering them as stimulants to vice--as a kind of moral cantharides
+which serves to inflame the passions and break down the ramparts behind
+which religion and prudence entrench the human heart. Some there are
+again, who entertain scruples of a different kind, and turn from a play
+because it is a fiction; while there are others, and they are most
+worthy of argument, who think that theatres add more than their share to
+the aggregate mass of luxury, voluptuousness, and dissipation, which
+brings nations to vitious refinement, enervation and decay.
+
+In all reasoning of this kind, authority goes a great way, and therefore
+before we proceed any further, we will enrol under the banners of our
+argument a few high personages, whose names on such an occasion are of
+weight to stand against the world, and enumerate some great nations who
+reverenced and systematically encouraged the drama. If it can be shown
+that some of the most exalted men that ever lived--men eminent for
+virtue, high in power and distinction, and illustrious for talents, in
+different countries and at different times, have countenanced the stage
+and even written for it; nay, that some of that description have
+themselves been actors, further argument may well be thought
+superfluous: yet we will not rest the matter there, but taking those
+along with us as authorities, go on and probe the error to which we
+allude, even to the very bone.
+
+It might not be difficult to prove by inference from a multitude of
+facts scattered through the history of the world, that a passion for the
+dramatic art is inherent in the nature of man. How else should it happen
+that in every age and nation of the world, vestiges remain of something
+resembling theatrical amusements. It is asserted that the people of
+China full three thousand years ago had something of the kind and
+presented on a public stage, in spectacle, dialogue and action, living
+pictures of men and manners, for the suppression of vice, and the
+circulation of virtue and morality. Even the Gymnosophists, severe as
+they were, encouraged dramatic representation. The Bramins, whose
+austerity in religious and moral concerns almost surpasses belief, were
+in the constant habit of enforcing religious truths by dramatic fictions
+represented in public. The great and good PILPAY the fabulist, is said
+to have used that kind of exhibition as a medium for conveying political
+instruction to a despotic prince, his master, to whom he dared not to
+utter the dictates of truth, in any other garb. In the obscurity of
+those remote ages, the evidences of particular facts are too faintly
+discernible to be relied upon: All that can be assumed as certain,
+therefore, is that the elementary parts of the dramatic art had then
+been conceived and rudely practised. But the first _regular_ play was
+produced in Greece, where the great Eschylus, whose works are handed
+down to us, flourished not only as a dramatist, but as an illustrious
+statesman and warrior.
+
+Without dwelling on the many other examples afforded by Greece, we
+proceed to as high authority as can be found among men: we mean Roscius
+the Roman actor. That extraordinary man's name is immortalized by
+Cicero, who has in various parts of his works panegyrized him no less
+for his virtues than for his talents. Of him, that great orator,
+philosopher and moralist has recorded, that he was a being so perfect
+that any person who excelled in any art was usually called A
+ROSCIUS--that he knew better than any other man how to inculcate virtue,
+and that he was more pure in his private life than any man in Rome.
+
+In the Roman catholic countries the priesthood shut out as far as they
+could from the people the instruction of the stage. For ages the fire of
+the HOLY inquisition kept works of genius of every kind in suppression
+all over the south of Europe. In France the monarch supported the stage
+against its enemies; but though he was able to support the actors in
+life, he had not power or influence sufficient to obtain for them
+consolation in death; the rights of the church and christian burial
+being refused to them by the clergy.
+
+In England, where the clouds of religious intolerance were first broken
+and dispersed by the reformation, the stage has flourished, and
+exhibited a mass of excellence and a constellation of genius
+unparalleled in the annals of the world. There it has been encouraged
+and admired by men whose authority, as persons deeply versed in
+christian theology and learned as it is given to human creatures to be,
+we do not scruple to prefer to that of the persons who raise their
+voices against the stage. Milton, Pope, Addison, Johnson, Warburton,
+bishop of Gloucester, and many others have given their labours to the
+stage. In many of his elegant periodical papers Mr. ADDISON has left
+testimonies of his veneration for it, and of his personal respect for
+players; nay, he wrote several pieces for the stage, in comedy as well
+as tragedy; yet we believe it will not be doubted that he was an
+orthodox christian. The illustrious POPE, in a prologue which he wrote
+for one of Mr. Addison's plays--the tragedy of Cato--speaks his opinion
+of the stage in the following lines:
+
+  To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,
+  To raise the genius, and to mend the heart,
+  To make mankind in conscious virtue bold,
+  Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold:
+  For this the tragic Muse first trod the stage,
+  Commanding tears to stream through every age.
+  Tyrants no more their savage nature kept,
+  And foes to virtue wondered how they wept.
+
+Warburton, the friend of Pope, a divine of the highest rank, wrote notes
+to Shakspeare. And an infinite number of the christian clergy of as
+orthodox piety as any that ever lived, have admired and loved plays and
+players. If in religion doctor Johnson had a fault, it certainly was
+excessive zeal--and assuredly his morality cannot be called in question.
+What his idea of the stage was, may be inferred from his labours, and
+from his private friendships. His preface to Shakspeare--his
+illustrations and characters of the bard's plays--his tragedy of
+Irene, of which he diligently superintended the rehearsal and
+representation--his friendship for Garrick and for Murphy--his letters
+in the Idler and Rambler, from one of which we have taken our motto for
+the Dramatic Censor, and his constant attendance on the theatre, loudly
+proclaim his opinion of the stage. To him who would persist to think
+sinful that which the scrupulous Johnson constantly did, we can only say
+in the words of one of Shakspeare's clowns--"God comfort thy capacity."
+
+One example more. Whatever his political errors may have been, the
+present old king of England can never be suspected of coldness in
+matters of divinity, or of heterodoxy in religion. His fault in that way
+leans to the other side--for it is doubted by the most intelligent men
+in England whether his zeal does not border on excess. He has all his
+life too taken counsel from those he thought the best divines; yet he
+has done much to encourage the stage, and greatly delighted in scenic
+representations--particularly in comedy. But as a much stronger proof of
+his esteem for the drama, we will barely mention one fact: When his
+majesty first read Arthur Murphy's tragedy of the Orphan of China, he
+sent the poet a present of a thousand guineas.
+
+The notion that the theatre should be avoided as a stimulant to the
+passions deserves some respect on account of its antiquity; for it is as
+old as the great grand-mother of the oldest man living. In good times of
+yore, when ladies were not so squeamish as they are now about words,
+because they did not know their meaning, but were more cautious of
+facts, because the meaning of facts cannot be misunderstood, young men
+had a refuge from the temptations of the stage in the reserved
+deportment and full clothing of domestic society, we cannot wonder that
+the good old ladies who abhorred the slightest immodesty in dress
+little, if at all less than they abhorred actual vice, should urge to
+their sons the necessity of keeping aloof from the allurements of the
+theatre. If at that time the costume of the stage differed essentially
+from that of private life, and was the reverse of modest, or if the
+actresses indulged in meretricious airs which dared not be shown in
+domestic society, there was a very just pretence, or rather indeed there
+was the most cogent reason for preaching against the theatre. But at
+this day, no hypothesis of the kind can be allowed. That beautiful young
+women ornamented with every decoration which art can lend to enhance
+their charms will perhaps excite admiration and licentious desires, is
+true; but that those arts are more generally practised, or those
+incitements more strongly or frequently played off on the boards of the
+theatre than in respectable private life, our eyes forbid us to believe.
+He who looks from the ladies on the stage to those seated on the
+benches, and compares their dress and artificial allurements must have
+either very strong nerves or very bad sight, if he persist in saying
+that there is more danger to be apprehended from the former than the
+latter. He knows very little of modern manners and must be a very
+suckling in the ways of the world who imagines that a young man has any
+thing to fear from the actresses on the stage, who has gone through the
+ordeal of a common ball-room, or even walked of a fine day through our
+streets. The ladies of London, Dublin, New-York, Philadelphia and
+Baltimore, have thrown those of the stage quite into the back ground in
+the arts of the toilet. Nor is this qualification confined to those of
+the _haut-ton_, but has descended to tradesmen's wives and daughters; to
+chambermaids, laundresses, and wenches of the kitchen white, yellow, and
+black, coloured and uncoloured.
+
+Familiarity with impressive objects soon robs them of their influence;
+and if our natural disgust and anger at the shameful innovations in the
+female costume for which Great Britain and America stand indebted to the
+_virtues_ of France, be blunted by the constant obtrusion of them on our
+sight, it is to be hoped that the pernicious influence of them upon
+public morals will be diminished also. In those regions where a tropical
+sun renders clothing cumbersome, and the costume of the ladies of
+necessity exceeds a little that of ears in transparency and scantiness,
+familiarity renders it harmless; little or nothing is left for the
+imagination to feed upon; cheapened by their obviousness, the female
+charms are rejected by the fancy which loves to dwell on what it only
+guesses at, or has but rarely seen, and the youthful heart finds its
+ultimate safety in the apparent excess of its danger. Thus the stage, if
+it ever possessed, has lost its vitious allurements, as a bucket of
+water is lost in the ocean. To test this reasoning by matter of fact we
+appeal to the general feeling, and have no fear of being contradicted
+when we assert that, with reference to their comparative numbers, more
+mischievous throbs have been excited in every theatre in London,
+New-York, and Philadelphia for some years past before, than behind the
+curtain.
+
+We are aware that there are some who will object, as a thing taken for
+granted, the greater licentiousness of a player's life; but this, before
+it can be admitted in argument, must be proved, and the proof of it
+would be very difficult indeed. From a long and attentive consideration
+of the subject, founded upon a perfect knowledge of the private
+characters of the stage, and the general complexion of society off of
+it, we are persuaded that in point of intrinsic virtue the players stand
+exactly on a par with the general mass of society. That there are
+offenders against the laws of morality and religion among them is
+certain; but it must be remembered that they labour in this respect
+under great disadvantages, from the publicity of their situation. There,
+they stand exhibited to public view, every turn of their conduct,
+private and public, becomes a subject of general scrutiny. Ten thousand
+eyes are rivetted upon them, for one that is fixed upon individuals in
+private life. And though it often happens that some of them are
+suspected whose lives are perfectly pure, none who have deviated from
+the paths of virtue can long keep their fall concealed. Can the same be
+said of the other departments of life? No. Now and then indiscretion,
+accident, or a total abandonment of decency brings to light the
+misconduct of an individual; but in general the irregularities of
+private life either escape detection or are hushed up by pride.
+Sometimes indeed one vitious purpose occasions the detection of another,
+and family disgrace is revealed to pave the way to a divorce, with a
+view to another marriage, and perhaps to another divorce. Were the
+private conduct of individuals in other stations as well known as that
+of the people of the stage, the former would have no cause to exult at
+the superiority of their morals; and in truth if a candid review be
+taken individually of the actresses of the English stage, by which we
+mean every stage where the English language is spoken, it will appear
+that, with few exceptions, they stand highly respectable for private
+worth and pure moral character. In England, Scotland and still more in
+Ireland, an unblemished reputation is necessary to a lady's success on
+the stage. In some instances, the greatest favourites of the public have
+been driven for a time from the stage, for trespasses upon virtue, and
+when permitted to return were never after much more than endured. To
+these instances we shall have occasion to advert in the course of this
+work.
+
+While we assert, on the best grounds, that the theatre may be made, by
+proper established regulations, a school of virtue and manners, we do
+not wish to conceal our persuasion that there is nothing more potent to
+debase and corrupt the minds of a people than a licentious stage. But it
+may be averred with equal truth, that the abuses of every other
+institution are fraught with no less mischief to the public. At this
+very moment the abuse of the pulpit is the parent of more public
+mischief in Great Britain and America than the stage ever produced in
+its most prolific days of vice; and it is deplorable to reflect that the
+former is rapidly increasing, while the vitiation of the latter has been
+for a century on the decline. The licentiousness of the stage in the
+reign of Charles II was enormous: but it was a licentiousness which the
+theatre in common with the whole nation derived from the court, and from
+a most flagitious monarch whose example made vice fashionable. In
+servile compliance with the reigning taste, the greatest poets of the
+day abandoned true fame, and discarded much of their literary merit:
+Otway and Dryden sunk into the most mean and criminal slavery to it--the
+former with the greatest powers for the pathetic ever possessed by any
+man, Shakspeare excepted, has left behind him plays which in an almost
+equal degree excite our admiration and contempt, our indignation and our
+pity. It is charitable to suppose that "his poverty and not his will
+consented." But Dryden had no such excuse to plead for his base
+subserviency to pecuniary advantage, or for the detestable
+licentiousness of his comedies. He who will take the pains to turn to
+that admirable tragedy, Venice Preserved, by Otway, will find in the
+scenes between Aquileia and the old senator Antonio enough to disgust
+the taste of any one not callous to all sense of delicacy. But had
+Juvenal lived at that period, he would have scourged Dryden out of
+society. To those we might add Wycherly. Congreve and other cotemporary
+authors succeeded: but the offences committed by those men can no more
+be alleged as a ground of general condemnation of the stage, than the
+works of lord Rochester can be set up as a reason for condemning Milton,
+Pope, Thomson, Goldsmith, and all our other poets, or the innumerable
+murders committed by unprincipled quacks, be alleged as a cause for
+abolishing the whole practice of medicine.
+
+Exasperated by the outrages of the dramatic poets, on virtue and
+decency, Jeremy Collier, a non-juring clergyman, attacked the stage. His
+charge against the authors was unquestionably right; but his attack upon
+the stage itself, exhibited a disposition splenetic almost to
+misanthropy, and an austerity of principle urged to unsocial ferocity.
+In his fury he renounced the idea of reforming the stage; he was for
+abolishing it entirely. He attacked the poets with "unconquerable
+pertinacity, with wit in the highest degree keen and sarcastic, and with
+all those powers exalted and invigorated by just confidence in his
+cause."[3] Thus arose a controversy which lasted ten years, during which
+time authors found it necessary to become more discreet. "Comedy (says
+Dr. Johnson) grew more modest; and Collier lived to see the reformation
+of the stage." Colley Cibber, who was one of those whose plays Collier
+attacked, candidly says, "It must be granted that his calling our
+dramatic writers to this account had a very wholesome effect upon those
+who writ after his time. Indecencies were no longer wit; and by degrees
+the fair sex came again to fill the boxes on the first day of a new
+comedy, without fear or censure."
+
+  [Footnote 3: Dr. Johnson.]
+
+Such a licentious stage as is here described well deserved the severest
+attacks: but what is there to justify severity now? at this day not only
+the success of every new play so much depends upon its purity, but so
+scrupulously correct in that particular is the public taste, and so
+abstinent from every the slightest indelicacy are the authors of plays
+and even farces, that not a word is uttered upon the stage from which
+the most timid _real_ modesty would shrink. In conformity to this happy
+state of the general taste and morals, all the old plays that retain
+possession of the stage, have been cleared of their pollution, and all
+the offensive passages in them have been expunged; some have been
+entirely thrown out as incapable of amendment, and in truth, purity of
+sentiment, and delicacy of expression, have become so prevalent, that it
+is very much to be doubted whether if it were proposed to act one of
+Wycherly's, Dryden's, or Otway's offensive plays in its original state,
+a set of players could be found who would prostitute themselves so far
+as to perform it.
+
+From the offences of mankind arise despotic restrictions and penal laws
+of every kind. From the licentiousness of the stage in England, arose
+the licensing law which still continues to hold a heavy hand over all
+the dramatic productions that are acted; and which has too often been
+perverted to corrupt purposes.
+
+But if the abuses of the stage in the times alluded to, serve to show
+its power to do mischief, the general reformation in the public taste,
+which followed that of the dramatic writings, equally show its
+competency to effectuate good. Rousseau, who had little less dislike to
+plays and players than Jeremy Collier, says, in a letter to D'Alembert,
+"Let us not attribute to the stage the power of changing opinions or
+manners, when it has only that of following and heightening them. An
+author who offends the general taste may as well cease to write, for
+nobody will read his works. When Moliere reformed the stage he attacked
+modes and ridiculous customs, but he did not insult the public taste; he
+either followed or explained it." So far Rousseau was right. It is the
+public that gives the stage its bias--necessarily preceding it in taste
+and opinion, and pointing out the direction to its object. In return the
+stage gives the public a stronger impulse in morals and manners.
+Wherever the stage is found corrupted with bad morals, it may be taken
+for granted that the nation has been corrupted before it; when it
+labours under the evils of a bad taste, it may safely be concluded that
+that of the public has been previously vitiated. The truth is evident in
+the wretched state of dramatic taste in England at this moment, where,
+corrupted by the spectacles and mummery of the Italian opera, by the
+rage for preternatural agency acquired from the reading of ghost novels
+and romances, and by the introduction of German plays or translations,
+the people can relish nothing but melo-drame, show, extravagant
+incident, stage effect and situation--goblins, demons, fiddling,
+capering and pantomime, and the managers, in order to live, are
+compelled to gratify the deluded tasteless multitude at an incalculable
+expense.
+
+What the advantages are which could be derived from abolishing the stage
+can only be judged from a view of the moral state of those countries in
+which the drama has been for ages discouraged and held in disrepute,
+compared with that of countries where it has been supported and
+cultivated. Spain comes nearest to a total want of a regular drama of
+any Christian country in Europe; and if there be any person who prefers
+the moral state of that country to the moral state of Great Britain or
+America, we wish him joy of his opinion, and assure him that we admire
+neither his taste, his argument, nor his inference.
+
+We have thus far entered into a vindication of the stage, not with the
+slightest hope of changing the opinion of its enemies, nor with the
+least desire to increase the admiration of its friends; but to awaken
+public opinion to a sense of its vast importance, and of the advantages
+which society may derive from giving full and salutary effect to its
+agency, by generous encouragement, and vigilant control--by directing
+its operations into proper channels, and fostering it by approbation in
+every thing that has a tendency to promote virtue, to improve the
+intellectual powers, and to correct and refine the taste, and the
+manners of society. This desirable end can only be attained by making it
+respectable, and sheltering its professors from the insult and
+oppression of the ignorant, the base-minded, and the illiberal. None
+will profit by the precepts of those whom they contemn; and the youth of
+the country will be very unlikely to yield to the authority of the
+instructor whom they see subjected to the sneers and affronts of the
+very rabble they themselves despise. Besides, if actors were to be
+treated with injustice and contumely, young gentlemen of talents and
+virtue would be deterred from entering into the profession; and the
+stage would soon become as bad as it is falsely described to be by
+fanatics--a sink of vice and corruption: but the wisdom and liberality
+of the British nation, after the example of old Rome, having, on the
+contrary, given to the gentlemen of the stage their merited rank in
+society, and raised actors and actresses of irreproachable private
+character, to associate with the families of peers, statesmen,
+legislators, and men of the highest rank in the nation, the profession
+is filled with persons eminently respectable for talents, learning and
+morals, and estimable as those of other classes in social
+life--estimable as husbands, fathers, children, friends and companions.
+But in Great Britain, they have a twofold protection--that of the
+audience and that of the law--from the insults and injustice of
+capricious, saucy, or malignant individuals. There, the line that
+separates the rights of the actor from those of the auditor has been
+exactly defined by the highest judicial authority.[4] And if an
+individual assaults a performer by hissing[5] without carrying the
+audience, or a large majority of it, along with him, the performer has
+his action against his malicious assailant, and is adjudged damages as
+certainly as persons of any of the other professions or trades recover
+for an assault, a calumny, or a libel. Hence the stage is looked up to
+as a great school, and the eminent actors are universally looked to as
+the best instructors in action, elocution, orthoepy, and the component
+parts of oratory. By following the same liberal and wise system with
+respect to OUR stage, we may reasonably hope soon to bring it to a
+reputable state of competition with that of Great Britain, and in that
+as in most other parts of the elegancies of life, not very long hence,
+to place the new on a complete footing with the old country.
+
+  [Footnote 4: By Lord Mansfield in the King's Bench, in the case of
+  Macklin against Sparks, Miles, Reddish, and others.]
+
+  [Footnote 5: The audience, whenever an individual hisses against the
+  sense of the house, always silence the offender by crying, "there's
+  a goose in the pit (or wherever it is) turn him out," and if he
+  persists they expel him by force. It is to be hoped our audiences
+  would follow the example. It is frequently necessary.]
+
+
+
+
+BIOGRAPHY--FOR THE MIRROR.
+
+
+The passion for inquiring into the lives of conspicuous men is so
+universally felt, that we cannot help indulging it in cases where not
+only the person is unknown, but where his actions are so remote, that we
+can neither form a picture of the one, nor any possible way be affected
+by the other. The delight with which children themselves read the
+histories of remarkable characters, and the avidity with which, at every
+period of life, we read biography, are proofs that this passion has it
+source in nature, abstracted from any connexion imagined to exist
+between the object and our own heart. It is, however, more lively when
+the object lives in our time, and when his actions are the subject of
+daily conversation in our hearing, or when we have ourselves been
+witnesses of them; and still more so, when the person being still in
+existence has found means by the force of his talents to agitate a whole
+people, to rouse general curiosity and admiration, and to form, as it
+were, a landmark in any interesting department of civilized life.
+
+That mankind, in general, derive greater pleasure from biography than
+from most other kinds of writing is universally acknowledged. One of the
+greatest moral philosophers of Britain justly observes, that of all the
+various kinds of narrative writing, that which is read with the greatest
+eagerness, and may with the greatest facility and effect be applied to
+the purposes of life is biography; and the accomplished and sagacious
+Montaigne, speaking in raptures, upon the same subject, says "Plutarch
+is the writer after my own heart, and Suetonius is another, the like of
+whom we shall never see."
+
+As a master key to the study of the human heart, the biographical
+account of particular individuals is infinitely superior to history.
+History, in fact, is not a just picture of man and nature, but a
+registry of prominent actions which derive conspicuity from their name,
+place, and date, while the inward nature of the agent, the secret
+springs, the slow and silent causes of those actions, being left
+unnoticed and undistinguished, remain forever unknown. The man himself
+is seen only here and there, and now and then, and lies hidden from
+view, except in those points in which his conduct is connected with
+those actions. But biography follows him from his public exhibition into
+his private retreat, haunts him in his closet concealments, accompanies
+him through his house, where his desires, passions, irregularities,
+vices, virtues, foibles, and follies take their full swing--sits by his
+fireside--watches for his unsuspecting, unguarded moments,--catches and
+lays up all the ebullitions of his heart, when it is freed from all
+restraint by domestic confidence--scans all his expressions when he is
+mixing in free social converse with his friends and family, and thus
+penetrates into his heart--detects every secret emotion of the man's
+soul, even when he thinks himself most effectually concealed, and in
+every glance of his eye, every whisper, every unpremeditated act and
+expression, dives to the very bottom of his designs and brings up his
+real character.
+
+In the regulation of life, therefore, or the improvement of moral
+sentiment, little benefit is to be derived from a knowledge of the
+events of history, the subjects of which are so far removed from the
+ordinary business of the world, that they seldom address a salutary
+example to the heart or understanding--seldom present an action in any
+way applicable to the ordinary transactions of the world, or which men
+in general can hope or wish to imitate, and which are therefore read
+with comparative indifference, and passed by without improvement, while
+biography conveys the best instruction for the conduct of life, by a
+happy mixture of precept and example.
+
+Doctor Johnson has, in some of his writings, given it as his opinion
+that "a life has rarely passed, of which a judicious and faithful
+narrative would not be useful; for not only, says he, every man has, in
+the mighty mass of the world, great numbers in the same condition with
+himself, to whom his mistakes and miscarriages, escapes and expedients
+would be of immediate and apparent use; but there is such a uniformity
+in the state of man considered apart from adventitious and separable
+decoration and disguises, that there is scarce any possibility of good
+or ill but is common to human kind." How much more beneficial as a mass
+of precept and example, and how much more captivating as a narrative
+must be the biography of any person who has held a conspicuous place for
+any length of time in the eye of the world, particularly if, by the
+industrious exercise of vigorous or brilliant talents, he has
+contributed more than his share to the happiness, the improvement, or
+the innocent pleasure of society. In that case a mixed sentiment of
+admiration and gratitude insensibly fills the public mind, from which
+there arises a lively interest in all that concerns the person and an
+eager curiosity to learn his origin, his early education, private
+opinions and habits, the fortunes and incidents of his life, and, above
+all, the singularities of his temper, and the peculiarities of his
+manners and deportment. Few men in society stand so much in the public
+eye, or have such opportunities to engage popular interest and personal
+admiration as celebrated actors. In the general account current of life,
+casting up the debtor and creditor between individual and individual,
+the balance between the auditor and actor will be found largely in
+favour of the latter. There are few, we know, to whom this assertion
+will not appear paradoxical, because few have given themselves time to
+consider that there is no place where a person, having an hour or two to
+bestow on relaxation, can obtain so much delight and improvement with so
+little concurrence of his own efforts as at the theatre. "At all other
+assemblies," says Dr. Johnson, "he that comes to receive delight will be
+expected to give it; but in the theatre nothing is necessary to the
+amusement of two hours but to sit down and be willing to be pleased."
+Where the private deportment and moral character of a celebrated actor,
+therefore, are not at great variance with the general feelings, he
+becomes by the very nature of his profession and talents an object of
+general interest, and his life, character, and every circumstance
+belonging to him are inquired into with earnest curiosity and
+solicitude.
+
+He who fairly considers the requisites indispensable to a tolerable
+actor, will allow that the professors of that art must be persons of
+intellectual capacity and personal endowments much superior to the
+common herd of mankind. The vivid intelligence, the high animal spirits,
+the aspiring temper, and the resolute intrepidity, which impel them to
+the stage and support them under its difficulties, are generally
+associated with an eccentricity of character and a giddy disregard of
+prudential considerations, which generate adventure and chequer their
+lives with a greater variety of incidents and whimsical intercourse with
+the world than falls to the lot of men of other professions. Hence it
+follows that the stage presents the most ample field for the biographer;
+and that whether he writes for the instruction or the entertainment of
+his readers, he will not be able to find in any other department of
+society men whose lives comprise such an interesting variety as the
+actors.
+
+In selecting the persons with whose lives it is intended to enrich this
+work, the editors find it necessary in the very first instance to depart
+from the rule which their original purpose and strict justice, as well
+as a due regard to priority, had prescribed to them. The biography of
+the deceased Mr. Hallam, as the father of the American stage, no doubt
+lays claim to the first place. There were others too, whose priority to
+Mr. Cooper cannot be contested; but, as the materials were not to be
+immediately had they have been obliged to postpone them.
+
+
+
+
+LIFE OF MR. COOPER.
+
+
+Mr. Thomas Abthorpe Cooper is the descendant of a very respectable Irish
+family, though he was, himself, born in England. His father, doctor
+Cooper--a gentleman universally known, and not more known than beloved
+and respected by all who have had any intercourse with East Indian
+affairs, was a native of Ireland, and after having served his time to
+one of the most eminent surgeons in that kingdom, with the reputation of
+a young man of genius and great promise, went over to England, in order
+to acquire, in the London hospitals, more perfect practical skill in his
+business, and to avail himself of the lectures of the principal
+professors of surgery and medicine in that metropolis; intending to
+return to his native country again, and there practise for life. It
+happened with the doctor however, precisely as it does with the greater
+part of young Irish gentlemen, who have their fortunes to raise chiefly
+by their own efforts. London gradually unfolded to his view all her
+irresistible charms; the ligaments which tied him to his native home,
+grew every day more and more slender and weak: the dictates of common
+sense and prudence, in this one instance at least enforced by the
+attractions of pleasure, pointed out the vast superiority of England to
+the oppressed, impoverished country which he had left, as a field for
+genius and industry to work upon. Having a prepossessing face and
+person, and manners frank, conciliating and firm, he soon extended his
+acquaintance to a wide circle of friends, whose advice conspired with
+his own taste to bring him to a determination, in consequence of which
+he settled near the metropolis, and became a practitioner in surgery and
+physic. While he was successfully engaged in this career, he was
+introduced to some of the great men of Leadenhall-street, by whom he was
+appointed to the lucrative office of inspecting-surgeon of the recruits
+destined for the service of the East India Company. In the discharge of
+this duty it fell to his share to visit the ships preparing for a voyage
+to India, and of course to mingle with the company's servants of all
+ranks and conditions, by whom he was in no common degree beloved and
+respected--by the higher order for his agreeable and manly
+deportment--by the lower for his tenderness and humanity. Though he
+lived in England, he viewed his own country with a laudable fond
+partiality; and being constitutionally benevolent, and having a heart
+"open to melting Charity," and a hand prompt to indulge it, it may
+reasonably be conjectured that in his office of inspecting-surgeon he
+was exposed to many sharp attacks upon his feelings; the far greater
+part of the recruits who came under his inspection being unfortunate
+Irish youths who had thrown themselves upon a strange world, destitute
+of every thing but health, youth, and bodily vigor. By such objects, the
+sympathy of such a warm heart as that which beat in doctor Cooper's
+bosom, could not fail to be strongly excited, and it was pretty
+generally believed that his family had less reason than his unfortunate
+countrymen to exult at the goodness of his nature. Nor was his
+philanthropy confined to those wretched children of misfortune, the
+recruits; many young Irish gentlemen who were going to India as cadets,
+experienced his kindness also, but in another form. He had many friends,
+and considering his rank, very extraordinary interest with the high
+officers and commanders in the company's service. This he never failed
+to exert in favour of such of his young countrymen as he considered
+deserving of it: and in short strained his powers in every way to
+increase their comfort and accommodation during that trying ordeal,
+their passage to India, and to procure them friends when they got there.
+
+His son Thomas, the subject of this paper, was born in the year 1777,
+and received an early liberal education. As doctor Cooper's interest lay
+wholly with the East India company, his children were sent to that
+emporium of wealth, Bengal, as soon as their ages fitted them for
+admission into the world. Had he lived till our hero was of a suitable
+age the probability is that the American stage would at this day want
+one of its greatest ornaments; and that the hand which now wields the
+truncheon of Macbeth, Richard, and Coriolanus on the American boards,
+would be grasping a sword or driving a quill in the service of the East
+India company in Bengal, whither doctor Cooper at last went himself,
+being promoted to a respectable rank on the medical staff of that
+settlement, and where at length he died to the deep regret of all who
+knew him, and to the irretrievable loss of an amiable family. To the
+last will and testament of the generous man there is seldom any great
+trouble in administering--doctor Cooper made a great deal of money; but
+retained little of it. We do not mention this as a feature in that
+worthy man's character to be imitated. On the contrary we wish it, so
+far as it goes, to operate as a warning against the indulgence of a
+spirit, which, though it be a virtue of the highest order when kept
+under the control of discretion, does, like every other virtue,
+degenerate into a foible, when carried to excess. Fortunately for that
+member of doctor Cooper's family of whom we are writing, he found, when
+his youth wanted it, a sincere friend. Mr. Godwin, whose name is well
+known in the republic of letters, particularly as the author of a work
+the name of which we will not put upon the same page with this
+honourable instance of posthumous friendship to doctor Cooper, took the
+youth to his own care; adopted, educated, and, as some say, intended him
+for an author; a scheme too absurd in our opinion, to be meditated by a
+person of Mr. Godwin's sagacity, who would at least postpone such a
+project till the genius of the young man should unfold itself in full
+maturity. Such, however, is said to have been the plan, which, whether
+the story be true or false, there is cause to rejoice was frustrated. At
+this distance it would be hopeless, if indeed it were very desirable, to
+trace that strange report to its origin, but we think it not at all a
+forced conclusion that it arose from the nature of the education which
+Mr. Godwin bestowed upon the youth. Hence without knowing the amount of
+Mr. Cooper's literary attainments, we think it may be fairly inferred
+from the existence of such a report, that his education was a learned
+one, and that he was early grounded in the dead as well as the most
+useful modern languages. Mr. Godwin cannot be suspected of intending for
+an author by trade, a youth from whom he had withheld the Greek and
+Latin classics.
+
+It is not necessary to recur to the instructions of Mr. Godwin for the
+fervid partiality which Mr. Cooper early disclosed for the French
+revolution. In that feeling he partook in common with men who as
+radically, substantially, and essentially differed in principle from Mr.
+Godwin, as light from darkness, or heat from cold. Several high
+statesmen in England, who afterwards deplored it, at first viewed that
+extraordinary event with a favourable eye, as likely to better the
+condition of twenty millions of people. So, Mr. Dundas, now lord
+Melville, for himself and his colleague Pitt, openly avowed in
+parliament. And even Burke himself, whose penetrating eye discerned from
+the outset, and foretold all the mischiefs that lurked under that event,
+complimented a young Irish gentleman of reputable birth, upon his having
+fought as a volunteer with Dumourier, at the battle of Jamappe; adding,
+that he gloried in every instance in which he found his young countrymen
+disclosing an enthusiastic love of freedom. Nay, he did not scruple to
+declare very frequently that, considering the plausible appearance of
+the revolution, he should entertain but a very poor opinion of a youth
+who was not enamoured with it. With such an authority to warrant us, we
+feel no hesitation in stating it as an honourable trait in the character
+of Mr. Cooper, that he was delighted with the French revolution, and
+that in his enthusiastic admiration of that event, he resolved to
+abandon his literary pursuits to give his young arm (he being then not
+above seventeen years of age) to the defence of the new republic and, as
+he thought, the cause of liberty. He had scarcely taken this resolution,
+and made preparations to go to the continent and join the army of the
+French republic, when the war broke out between England and France, and
+totally overset his purpose and his hopes of military promotion,
+rendering that which before would have been lawful if not laudable, an
+act of treason to his country, of the bare contemplation of which, it is
+fair to believe, he was incapable.
+
+It was on occasion of this disappointment and check to his military
+ambition, that Mr. Cooper turned his thoughts to the stage. Young as he
+was, he made a full and accurate estimate of his situation. Too proud by
+nature to be dependant, his feelings suggested the necessity of
+immediately doing something for his own support and advancement. He
+boldly resolved to be the architect of his own fame and fortune, and it
+is probable had too much common sense to take the author's pen either as
+a material or an instrument in constructing the edifice. Having made up
+his mind to try his fortune on the stage, he imparted his intention to
+Mr. Godwin, who received the communication with deep regret, and
+encountered it with the most decided disapprobation, and with every
+argument and dissuasive which ingenuity and a perfect knowledge of the
+subject could lend to friendship. It was in vain every topic was urged
+which could serve to dissuade, to deter, or to disgust: Mr. Cooper
+firmly adhered to his purpose, and Mr. Godwin perceiving him immovable,
+yielded to what he could not overcome, and resolved, since he could not
+divert him from the stage, to do all he could to set him forward on it
+to the best advantage. To this end, Mr. Holcroft, the friend of Mr.
+Godwin, was called in; and he gave the young man some preparatory
+lessons, a task for which he was exceedingly well qualified uniting in
+himself the several talents of actor, author, and critic.
+
+To procure admission on the stage in England is not always an easy task.
+In the present instance it seemed to Mr. Holcroft and Mr. Godwin a
+matter of serious consideration to whom an application should be made
+for the purpose, and what theatre would be most likely to receive him
+with least disadvantage. At length application being made to Mr. Stephen
+Kemble he agreed, without seeing the young gentleman, to take him under
+his auspices; and to that end Mr. Cooper repaired to Edinburgh. Of his
+reception by Mr. Kemble the most ludicrous description has been given;
+a description, which, as biographers, we should not think of introducing
+on the present occasion, if it had not already appeared in public,
+accompanied with an assertion that it came from Mr. Cooper himself. "The
+writer of this sketch (says the publisher of that account) has heard
+Cooper himself describe with great pleasantry his first interview with
+the Scotch manager; he was at that time a raw country youth of
+seventeen. On his arrival in Edinburgh, little conscious of his
+appearance and incompetency, he waited on Mr. Kemble, made up in the
+extreme of rustic foppery, proud of his talents, and little doubting his
+success. When he mentioned his name and errand, Mr. Kemble's countenance
+changed from a polite smile to a stare of disappointment: Cooper had
+been prepared for young Norval; but he was obliged to exchange all his
+expected eclat for a few cold excuses from the manager, and the chagrin
+of seeing some nights after, his part filled by an old man and a bad
+player. During the remainder of the season he continued with Stephen
+Kemble, without at all appearing on the stage. From Edinburgh he went
+with the company to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, there he lived as dependent,
+inactive, and undistinguished as before, till, owing to the want of a
+person to fill the part of Malcolm in Macbeth, he was cast to that
+humble character. In so inferior a sphere did he begin to move who is
+now become one of the brightest luminaries of the theatrical hemisphere.
+His debut was even less flattering than his reception from the manager
+had been. Till the last scene he passed through tolerably well, but when
+he came to the lines which conclude the play--
+
+  "So thanks to all at once, and to each one,
+  Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone."
+
+After stretching out his hands and assuming the attitude and smile of
+thankfulness, a slight embarrassment checked him, and he paused, still
+keeping his posture and his look--the prompter made himself heard by
+every one but the bewildered Malcolm, who still continued mute, every
+instant of his silence naturally increasing ten-fold his
+perplexity--Macduff whispered the words in his ear--Macbeth who lay
+slaughtered at his feet, broke the bonds of death to assist his dumb
+successor, the prompter spoke almost to vociferation. Each thane dead or
+alive joined his voice--but this was only "confusion worse
+confounded"--if he could have spoken the amazed prince might with great
+justice have said, "So thanks to all at once"--but his utterance was
+gone "_vox faucibus hĉsit_"--a hiss presently broke out in the pit, the
+clamor soon became general, and the curtain went down, amid a universal
+condemnation."
+
+No part of biography is so interesting, or affecting as that which
+brings before us the struggles of unassisted vigour and genius with the
+obstructions which accident, or the ignorance or malice of vulgar souls
+throw in their way, and their ultimate triumph over adversity. Few men
+have enjoyed that triumph more than Mr. Cooper, for few have in their
+outset met with a more mortifying repulse, or more discouraging
+difficulties. There are not many whose resolution could have outlived
+such a cruel discomfiture as that at Edinburgh: but on him it seemed to
+have the happy effect of steeling his natural fortitude, and sending his
+spirit forward in its career with increased impetuosity.
+
+Disappointed and chagrined, but not humiliated, he returned back to
+London, more determinately than ever resolved to persevere till he had
+mastered fortune and established a footing on the stage--exhibiting a
+degree of confidence which generally inheres in genius, and which his
+ultimate success well justified. Far from being depressed or obscured by
+his Edinburgh adventure, his talents had so much unfolded themselves and
+been so visibly improved, that his friends Godwin and Holcroft felt
+convinced he had not mistaken or overrated his powers; but, on the
+contrary, possessed qualifications, which, if diligently and judiciously
+cultivated, would raise him to a rank with the most eminent actors then
+living. The great bar to his advancement was that diffidence which
+occasioned his discomfiture in Edinburgh: but his friends knew enough of
+the human heart and powers to be assured that that very diffidence is so
+universally the concomitant of sterling merit, that where it
+superabounds wise men give credit for much excellence, and bestow their
+partiality with a liberal hand; while the want of it is generally
+suspected of denoting a great deficiency in merit: and they were right;
+for the young person who wants modesty wants every thing. Fraught with
+these considerations, those discerning men and steady friends thought
+that they would best consult their _protegé's_ interest by putting him
+into training in some obscure company, and took measures to introduce
+him into a routine of acting in the country theatres, from which
+novitiate they expected he would soon emerge well practised in stage
+business, and fully qualified to give out the whole force of his natural
+powers on some of the stages of the metropolis.
+
+The country managers, however, seemed to think very differently from
+Messrs. Godwin and Holcroft of Mr. Cooper's capabilities. If they had
+not the genius, the discernment, or the "spirits learned in human
+dealings" of our hero's patrons, they had self-sufficiency and obstinacy
+in abundance, and what was more unfortunate, they had the power in their
+hands; a power which in such persons is rarely softened in its exercise
+by liberality or candor. These, notwithstanding the authority of Godwin
+and Holcroft's opinion, considered or affected to consider Mr. Cooper as
+a poor juvenile adventurer, who had no one requisite for the profession.
+"Their hands, they said, were already full--(of trash no doubt they
+were) every character even the lowest was engaged. To show their
+deference, however, to the high opinion of the young man's friends, they
+would endeavour to think of something for him to perform." In conformity
+to the dictates of this _generous_ spirit, they vouchsafed him some
+inferior parts: but every one knows, who knows any thing at all of
+theatrical affairs, that the coldness of a manager to a young performer,
+creates at least, distrust in the audience--that the young candidate who
+is set forward in humiliation, is forbidden to rise; as he who is thrust
+into characters far beyond the reach of his powers will, for a time, get
+credit for talents which he does not possess: for discerning and
+despotic as the multitude think themselves, they are still the dupes or
+the submissive slaves of dexterous leaders in every department of life.
+By the error, the ignorance, or the churlishness of the country
+managers, Mr. Cooper was excluded from any fair opportunity to redeem
+the credit he had lost in Edinburgh--they considered, or affected to
+consider him as wholly incompetent to any character of consequence:
+those which were vouchsafed him were of so inferior a rank that they
+denied scope to the exercise of his yet latent powers; for such a genius
+as that of Cooper could no more dilate in a meagre character, than
+Eclipse or Flying Childers could lay themselves out at full speed in a
+city building lot; and it is reasonable to suppose that, notwithstanding
+all his fortitude, the spirits of the youth were depressed, and his
+faculties chilled by such humiliating neglect, and such reiterated
+disappointments. Who is he that would not, under such circumstances,
+sink into languor? It cannot be doubted that dejection every day
+detracted from his powers, and that by a kind of irresistible
+gravitation, he descended like a falling body in the physical world,
+with accelerated velocity, till at last he reached the very bottom of
+the profession. Reader, behold--and refrain from regret if you
+can--behold COOPER, on whom crowded theatres have since gazed with
+astonishment and delight, reduced to the condition of a mere deliverer
+of letters and messages upon the stage of a low country theatre. The
+writer of this cannot help picturing to himself the feelings of a
+multitude of great and worthy personages in Great Britain and India, and
+particularly the feelings of a sister, the lovely inheritress of her
+family's virtues, if they had known at the time, that which our hero's
+manly pride concealed, that the son of doctor Cooper, whose goodness of
+heart had often been the refuge of the distressed, was for months
+languishing under the chill of public neglect, and dragging on existence
+upon a miserable pittance which scarcely afforded him physical support;
+or if they had seen him in his unaccommodated removal from that
+situation, walking on foot to the metropolis.
+
+The repulses of a mistaken and unworthy few, and the neglect of a world
+very little better, had no other effect upon Mr. Cooper's friends Godwin
+and Holcroft, than to quicken their sensibility and inflame their ardour
+to serve him. It is more than probable those mortifications tended to
+increase the conviction of the former that his _eleve_ had made a
+deplorable choice of profession, but did not at all shake the opinion
+which both, and particularly the latter, entertained that he had great
+capabilities for the profession. The youth had now waded in so far, that
+to go back might be worse than to go forward; Mr. Holcroft therefore
+again took him in hand; read Shakspeare with him, and accompanied their
+reading with practical commentaries upon the force of that author's
+meaning, marked out to him those parts where the character was to depend
+for its interest and impression, on the actor's exertions; heard him
+over and over again repeat the most difficult speeches, and instructed
+him how to adapt his action, looks, and utterance to the passion which
+the author designed to exhibit, so as to excite appropriate feelings in
+the auditor. Though Shakspeare is above all others the poet of Nature,
+his meaning frequently eludes the dim or vulgar mind, and to be
+intelligibly elicited from the stiffness and obscurity which sometimes
+injures his language, requires profound consideration. For the minute
+investigation requisite for this purpose few men were better qualified
+than Mr. Holcroft--few men much more equal to the task of bringing forth
+from the rich mine where they lay and purify of their dross the talents
+of Mr. Cooper. With an earnestness and indefatigable zeal proportioned
+to the object, and which nothing but the most generous friendship could
+impel him to employ, Mr. Holcroft gave those powers to the instruction
+of our hero, and with such speedy and felicitous effect, that the young
+gentleman was, in the course of a few months, considered by his two
+friends as perfectly qualified to appear before a London audience in
+some of Shakspeare's most important characters. Having been for some
+time a successful dramatic writer, Mr. H. enjoyed the ear and confidence
+of the managers, and arranged with those of Covent Garden for his
+pupil's appearance on that stage. And now the time arrived when his
+fortitude was to be rewarded, his sufferings compensated, and his
+talents to find their proper levels. His first appearance was in Hamlet,
+in which he received unbounded applause. In two or three nights after he
+performed the very arduous part of Macbeth to a house so very full as to
+occasion an overflow. It is but justice to the Edinburgh and other
+provincial managers to observe, that when Mr. Cooper appeared on the
+London boards he was greatly improved in his externals. His person had
+grown more into masculine bulk and manly shape; his face had become more
+marked and expressive, and his voice had swelled into a more full deep
+tenor.
+
+The friendship of Mr. Holcroft caused Mr. Cooper to be universally
+misjudged. The opposition prints represented him in the most extravagant
+terms of eulogy. The government prints ran into the opposite extreme,
+and he became at once the idol and the victim of party spirit. Yet such
+a reception, by a London audience, was a sufficient pledge of future
+success. He was still young, had much to learn in order to reach the
+first rank of that profession, and if a real, well-grounded, just fame
+had been his object, he ought to have felt that it could only be
+attained by perseverance, and by the customary natural gradations. The
+London managers offered him an engagement, which, though allowed to have
+been liberal, seems not to have come up to his own estimate of his
+deserts. Playing two or three or four characters well is a very
+different thing from sustaining a whole line of acting, to which long
+practice and great constitutional force are as necessary as any other
+requisite. In this view of the matter, as well as because managers
+neither desire nor will be permitted in England to supersede established
+favourite servants of the public, it will not appear surprising that the
+first rate rank of characters to which Mr. Cooper aspired, was refused
+to him by the managers, who thought that they better consulted the
+public feeling, their own interest, and even the young gentleman's fame
+and ultimate prosperity, by placing him in a secondary general line, in
+which he might improve himself by playing with and observing the best
+models, and in regular gradation make his way to the first, as Kemble,
+Cooke, and others had done before him. This however was too unpalatable
+for his ambition to swallow. The first he would be, or none. There is
+not a sentiment of Julius Cĉsar's that is thought so censurable and
+unworthy of his great mind as that which he uttered when, pointing to a
+small town, he said, "I would rather be the first man in that village
+than the second in Rome." This has been justly called perverted
+ambition, and Milton stamped it with terrible condemnation when he put
+into the mouth of his arch fiend the sentiment--"better to reign in hell
+than serve in heaven." The passions of youth extenuate those errors
+which in ripened manhood are criminal; and it is not improbable that Mr.
+Cooper's own opinion at this day concurs with ours when we say that his
+refusal of the manager's offer seems to us to have been very
+injudicious. From Plautus, with whom we dare say he had long before had
+an intimacy, he might have taken this profitable lesson,
+
+  Viam qui nescit quâ deveniat ad mare
+  Eum oportet amnem quĉrere comitem sibi.
+
+Had he not rejected that offer he would long ere this have had permanent
+possession of the rank to which he too prematurely aspired. His refusal
+was followed by a retreat into the country, where, with the perseverance
+of Demosthenes, he laboured in fitting himself for a more successful
+effort; resolved to force his way if possible to the high object of his
+ambition.
+
+During his retirement intimations of his success crossed the Atlantic.
+Mr. Tyler, some time since the manager of the New-York theatre, received
+the intelligence from a friend in England: "Prepare yourself for
+astonishment," said his correspondent, "that identical Mr. Cooper who,
+a few months ago, was playing the very underling characters at our
+theatre, and who appeared so extremely incompetent, is now performing
+Hamlet with applause in London." Sometime after this the agent of the
+Philadelphia manager in England made proposals to Mr. Cooper, who
+exulting in the thoughts of obtaining in America that rank which he was
+refused in London, closed with the offer, and soon after passed over to
+America. In Philadelphia, however, he found that his object was not
+altogether so attainable as he imagined. In no place does favouritism
+flourish with much more rank luxuriance than in that city--in no place
+do personal prepossessions more frequently operate to the overthrow of
+judgment, to the exclusion of merit, and to the fostering of incapacity.
+The multitude had their favourites whose merit touched the highest
+standard of their conceptions--any thing beyond that was hid in an
+intellectual mist. The taste of the many was formed upon the kind of
+merit which they so much admired in their favourites, and little did it
+relish that of Mr. Cooper. It is astonishing how constantly fond
+overweening prejudice deceives itself. The philosopher who told the
+powerful despot, his sovereign, that there was no royal way to
+mathematics, was believed, because the despot had common sense--but a
+headstrong multitude can never be persuaded that a person can be
+incompetent to any one thing, if they only _will_ him to be great in it:
+and thus it has happened not infrequently, in all cities as well as
+Philadelphia, that splendid talents have stood behind as lackeys, while
+doleful incapacity has feasted upon public favour.
+
+The abilities of Mr. Cooper gave great uneasiness, for they every day
+forced a passage for themselves to some share of approbation, in the
+very teeth of favouritism and prejudice. Some there were who could
+discern no merit at all in him; some who industriously employed
+themselves in depreciating and denying the little which others allowed
+him. At last his vigorous struggles made it necessary to call in a
+_corps de reserve_ which he little suspected; his private life was
+impeached, and the careless, irregular habits of youth--habits, by the
+by, in which no youth indulge more than our own, were arrayed against
+him. Unjust as this was, it produced the desired effect; for when his
+benefit was announced, very few seats were taken in the boxes. And here
+we have to record a feature in that gentleman's character which marks
+his honest pride and magnanimity in deep impression. The manager was
+bound by his contract to make up to a certain stated amount, the
+proceeds of Mr. C.'s benefit. To such an advantage Mr. C. disdained to
+have recourse. At the same time his pride shrunk from the thoughts of
+playing to empty boxes at his benefit. He resolved to have a full house,
+and hit upon an expedient which showed that, young as he was, he knew
+something of the human heart, and that, though a stranger, he had made a
+very shrewd estimate of the public taste, for which he had the skill to
+cater more appropriately and successfully than he could by merely
+dishing up a play of Shakspeare's in his own rough cookery. Fortunately
+for his purpose there had lately arrived in Philadelphia an actor of
+great weight and merit, a native of India, of whose immense and popular
+talents he resolved to avail himself; this was an elephant, which for
+the trifling _douceur_ of sixty dollars, that is, near twice as much as
+the best actor in the city now gets for one week's labour, he prevailed
+upon to _press the boards_ of the theatre for that one time only, and be
+the chief performer and great attraction of the night. This was what a
+seaman would call hitting the public between wind and water: Mr. Cooper
+therefore poured in a whole broadside of printed notices, which were put
+into every hand, and a huge playbill, which glared at the corner of
+every street in letters of elephantine size, informing the public that
+the distinguished performer already mentioned, had kindly consented to
+act a principal part in the entertainment of the evening. No sooner was
+this announced than the whole city was in one hubbub of curiosity--one
+twitter of delight; and Mr. Cooper had so many _friends_ who were all at
+once intent upon giving him their dollar at his benefit, that the house
+was crammed, and there was as great an overflow from every part of it as
+if the renowned master Betty himself were to have occupied the place of
+the elephant.
+
+Very different was Mr. Cooper's reception at New-York, whither he went
+when the theatre of Philadelphia closed for the season. On his very
+first appearance he established himself in the public opinion as a first
+rate actor. The New-York stage might about that time vie for actors in
+number and quality with the best provincial company that ever played in
+England. Hodgkinson, Cooper, Fennell, Jefferson, Harwood, Bernard, Mrs.
+Morris, and Mrs. Hodgkinson, besides two or three admirable comedians.
+Pierre is well adapted to Mr. Cooper's talents and style of acting, and
+he evinced his judgment in selecting it for his first appearance.
+Through the whole play the ball was well tossed to him by the other
+actors; the consequence was that the impression he made has never been
+erased. The opinion entertained of him was more substantially evinced
+than by mere applause. There was a unanimous desire that he should leave
+the Philadelphia theatre and engage at New-York; but to this it was
+objected, that he was bound by his contract with the manager of the
+former, to play for a certain time under a penalty of two thousand
+dollars; this objection, however, was soon superseded by a subscription
+raised among the gentlemen of New-York to pay off that sum if the
+manager should be able to enforce it. Thus honourably was Mr. Cooper
+planted in the city which he contrived to make his head-quarters till
+the beginning of the year 1803, when he passed over to England. During
+that period he paid a professional visit to Philadelphia, where he was
+so justly appreciated that he had no further occasion for the aid of the
+elephant.
+
+It happened that Mr. John Kemble the chief actor, and once the acting
+manager of Drury Lane theatre, had in the year 1802, a misunderstanding
+with the proprietors, in consequence of which he left it, and visited
+the continent, leaving the first line of character very inadequately
+filled. Intelligence of this secession having reached America in the
+latter end of 1802, Mr. Cooper, who was invited, as it is said, by the
+proprietors of Drury Lane, to take Mr. Kemble's place, if his reception
+by the town would warrant them in retaining him, crossed the Atlantic,
+and once more appeared in London. His success was by no means equal to
+the expectations of his New-York friends. Those however who were better
+acquainted with the general subject and the state of the stage in
+England, who were aware how much actors of the greatest talents profit
+by constantly playing with men of equal standing with themselves, and
+how much they lose by the want of great models either to emulate or
+follow, were far from being so sanguine in their expectations. By the
+London audience he was handsomely received, and greeted with the
+applause and kindness due to a stranger of respectable powers: but in
+efficient benefit to the house and to himself he failed; wherefore,
+passing on to Liverpool, he played a few nights in that town with great
+applause, then took shipping and returned to America, where he was
+received with open arms.
+
+After his departure the theatre of New-York fell into a state of decline
+for want of a proper manager and proper company. The deceased Hodgkinson
+having been joined in the management of the Charleston theatre, and
+brought along with him some of the best performers, it was resolved by
+the proprietors of the New-York theatre, to give it upon encouraging
+terms to a manager of sufficient qualifications to conduct the business
+of it successfully. Hodgkinson was elected to the management of it
+almost unanimously; but soon after died of the yellow fever. Mr. Cooper
+then undertook it--bought the theatre at a vast expense--improved and
+embellished the house, and was amply remunerated by the immense receipts
+of the first season; at the end of which he sold out his property in it
+to another gentleman, who we believe now owns and manages it.
+
+No actor ever made so much money in America as Mr. Cooper. By a skilful
+distribution of his time and exertions, he takes care never to stay so
+long in one place as to satiate the public appetite. Regardless of the
+fatigues of travelling, and always supplied with the best cattle, he
+flies from city to city over this extended union, like a comet; one day
+he is seen at New-York, the very next he performs in Philadelphia. A few
+days after, we have an account of his playing at Boston, and perhaps
+before a month elapses we again have intelligence of his acting at
+Charleston, (S.C.) in each of which places he receives an enormous
+salary, and always has a full benefit. Thus if he possesses the gift of
+retention as he does that of gaining, he must necessarily become very
+rich. There are modes of getting rid of money, however, to which gossip
+Fame, we regret to say it, whispers he is much addicted. That he may be
+more extravagant than he ought to be, we can suppose without injury to
+his moral character. Whether he be so or not is not our business to
+discuss--but it is our duty to relate those things which may be set down
+as a counterpoise to the blamable disregard of economy of which he is
+impeached by many who are perhaps little capable of estimating his means
+or his motives. He is one of the most dutiful and generous of sons to an
+amiable mother, whose old age he cheers with punctual bounty, and by the
+most constant and pious filial reverence and affection.
+
+Mr. Cooper has a sister, or at least had one, a lady of high personal
+endowments and great goodness. She was early married to Mr. Perreau of
+Calcutta, a gentleman who stands as high in the opinion of the world as
+any man in India.
+
+Of the merit of Mr. Cooper as an actor we shall have occasion to speak
+in another part of this work.
+
+
+
+
+LIFE OF ALLEYN, THE PLAYER.
+
+
+Mr. Edward Alleyn, who though an actor, is ranked among "the British
+Worthies," was born in London in 1566, and trained at an early period to
+the stage, for which he was naturally qualified by a stately port and
+aspect, corporal agility, flexible genius, lively temper, retentive
+memory, and fluent elocution. Before the year 1592 he seems to have
+acquired a very considerable degree of popularity in his profession; he
+was one of the original actors in the plays of Shakespeare, and a
+principal performer in some of those of Jonson; but it does not now
+appear what were the characters which he personated. They were probably
+the most dignified and majestic, for to these the portly and graceful
+figure of his person was well adapted. At length he became master of a
+company of players, and the proprietor of a playhouse called the
+Fortune, which he erected at his own expense, near Whitecross-street;
+and he was also joint proprietor and master of the Royal Bear-Garden, on
+the Bank side, in Southwark. By the profits accruing from these
+occupations, added to his paternal inheritance, and to the dowries of
+his two wives, by whom he had no children, he amassed a considerable
+property, which he bestowed in a manner that has redounded more to his
+honour than his professional merit. The wealth thus acquired enabled him
+to lay the foundation of a college, for the maintenance of aged people,
+and the education of children, at Dulwich in Surrey, which institution,
+called "The College of God's Gift," subsists at this time in an improved
+and prosperous state. The liberal founder, before he was forty-eight
+years of age, began this building after the design, and under the
+direction of Inigo Jones: and it is presumed that he expended eight or
+ten thousand pounds upon the college, chapel, &c. before the buildings
+and gardens were finished, which was about the year 1617.
+
+Alleyn had long been regarded by all the great and good people of
+England, including the sovereign Elizabeth, with admiration and respect.
+This charitable endowment presented him to the world in a new and
+grander attitude. But still as he was a player, the vulgar and
+superstitious were unable to account for this act which would have done
+honour to a king or a saint, by any other than diabolical influence. It
+was therefore reported, and by the ignorant multitude was believed, that
+Mr. Alleyn, "playing a demon with six others in one of Shakspeare's
+plays, was in the midst of the play surprised by the apparition of the
+devil, which so worked on his fancy, that he made a vow, which he
+performed at this place." This most laughable story is handed down
+seriously in a book written by a person of the name of Aubrey. Tradition
+says that it was from Alleyn's acting and conversation Shakspeare wrote
+his admirable instructions to players which he has put into the mouth of
+Hamlet.
+
+After the founder had built this college, he met with difficulties in
+obtaining a charter for settling his lands in mortmain, that he might
+endow it, as he proposed, with 800_l._ per annum, for the support and
+maintenance of one master, one warden, and four fellows, three of whom
+were to be ecclesiastics, and the other a skilful organist; also six
+poor children, as many women, and twelve poor boys, who were to be
+maintained and educated till the age of fourteen or sixteen years, and
+then put out to honest trades and callings. The master and warden were
+to be unmarried, and always to be of the name of Allen or Alleyn. At
+length the opposition of the lord chancellor Bacon was overcome, and
+Alleyn's benefaction obtained the royal license, and he had full power
+granted him to establish his foundation, by his majesty's letters patent
+under the great seal, bearing date June 21, 1619. When the college was
+finished, the founder and his wife resided in it and conformed in every
+respect to the regulations established for the government of his
+almoners. Having by his will liberally provided for his widow, and for
+founding twenty almshouses, ten in the parish of St. Botolp, without
+Bishopgate, in which he was born, and ten in St. Saviour's parish,
+Southwark, and bequeathed several small legacies to his relations and
+friends, he appropriated the residue of his property to the use of the
+college. He died in 1626, in the sixty-first year of his age, and was
+buried in the chapel of his own college. The chapel, master's
+apartments, &c. are in the front of this building, and the lodgings of
+the other inhabitants, &c. in the two wings, of which that on the east
+side was handsomely new built, in 1739, at the expense of the college.
+They have a small library of books and a gallery of pictures with that
+of the founder at full length. The inscription over the door concludes
+with these words: _abi tu et fac similiter_--go thou and do likewise.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+TO
+
+THE DRAMATIC CENSOR.
+
+I have always considered those combinations which are formed in the
+playhouse as acts of fraud or cruelty: He that applauds him who does not
+deserve praise, is endeavouring to deceive the public; He that hisses in
+malice or sport is an oppressor and a robber.
+
+  _Dr. Johnson's Idler, No. 25._
+
+
+The establishment of a regular and permanent work of dramatic criticism,
+and of censorship upon the public amusements of this city has often been
+attempted. The uniform failure of these efforts renders it natural to
+apprehend that the proposition now submitted to the public will incur
+the charge of presumption, and perhaps experience, for a time, the
+coldness and discouragement with which the majority of mankind are
+always inclined to treat even laudable exertions, if they in any degree
+militate against the dictates of common prudence, and are not
+recommended by a certainty of public approbation. Taking their auspices
+of the present undertaking from the fate of those hasty productions on
+the same subject, which have been brought forth and expired within the
+compass of their short season, there are too many, who, instead of
+applauding the hazardous boldness of the measure, and for the sake of
+its public utility standing forward in its encouragement and support,
+will endeavour to damp it by premature censure, ascribe the undertaking
+to vanity, or unworthiness, and if it should fail, be ready to aggravate
+the disappointment of the projectors with the galling imputation of
+temerity, impudence, or overweening self-conceit. The sympathy which
+mankind in general think it handsome to feel for unassuming merit,
+stumbling in its way through life by incautiously venturing upon ground
+untrodden before, will be gladly withheld from persons who are supposed
+wilfully to rush forward into error, with the warning monitions of
+example before their eyes--who obstinately persist in an unadvised and
+hopeless enterprise, in defiance of manifold and recent experience, and
+whom the imprudence and misfortunes of others have been incapable of
+rendering cautious or discreet.
+
+With encountering these, and many other objections (the offspring of
+indistinct conception and cold hearts) the projectors of the present
+work lay their account; yet, since nothing honourable or arduous would
+ever be accomplished, if hope were to be extinguished by partial defeat,
+and a generous enterprise were to be abandoned, because it had before
+been tried without success, the work now proposed is undertaken, with
+the most firm conviction of its utility and the most unequivocal
+confidence of success. Let their difficulties be what they may, however,
+the editors are prepared to meet them, not only without fear, but with
+satisfaction; since they know that nothing but impossibility will be
+refused to undismayed perseverance and unremitting industry, and that in
+the work they are entering upon, they labour for the promotion of a
+purpose which, whatever the amount of their pecuniary advantage may be,
+will entitle them to public respect and to the gratitude of the rising
+generation. Before such proud hopes, all the little obstructions they
+anticipate--the cavils of the scrupulous, the doubts of the sceptical,
+the reluctance of the timid, the resistance of the refractory and
+incorrigible, and the sneers, the censures, and the sarcasms of the
+curious and the malignant vanish, as the gloomy chills and shades of the
+night recede before the glorious luminary of the morning.
+
+That the drama is a most powerful moral agent in society has been
+admitted by men of learning and wisdom in all ages of its existence.
+Whether its effects be, on the whole, injurious or not, will long be a
+subject of contest; but be they what they may, it can have very little
+influence of any kind beyond that of harmless amusement, on the wise,
+the pious, the learned and the experienced. Were those alone to visit
+theatres and be exposed to its allurements, the task of the dramatic
+censor might without injury be dispensed with: but since it is the
+young, the idle, the thoughtless, and the ignorant, on whom the drama
+can be supposed to operate as a lesson for conduct, an aid to experience
+and a guide through life, and since such persons are generally
+unfurnished with ideas and undefended by principles, prompt to receive
+first impressions, and easily susceptible of false opinions and
+pernicious sentiments, it becomes a matter of great importance to the
+commonwealth that this very powerful engine, (acting as it does upon our
+youth through the delightful medium of amusement, and by the
+instrumentality of every circumstance that can lay hold of the fancy,
+and through the senses fascinate the heart) should be kept under the
+control of a systematic, a vigilant and a severe, but a just criticism.
+
+To the formation of that rare compound "a finished man" there belong,
+besides the higher requisites of moral character, an infinite number of
+minor accomplishments, which are materially affected either for the
+better or the worse, by a frequent and studious attendance on dramatic
+representations. MANNERS, which constitute so important a part of the
+character of every people, are considerably fashioned by a constant
+observation of the pictures of human life exhibited in the theatre: on
+the action, the utterance and the general deportment, the effects of the
+stage have ever been materially felt and are unequivocally acknowledged.
+The most eloquent men of antiquity, and the most eloquent men in
+England, have owned themselves indebted to actors for perfecting them in
+oratory. Roscius, the actor of Rome, is immortalized by Cicero, and
+Garrick by lord Chatham and Edmund Burke. If then the stage has been
+felt to produce such weighty effects in the more arduous part of human
+improvement, how ponderous in its operation must it not of necessity be,
+on the other hand, in the promotion of evil, if it exhibit to the
+growing generation corrupt examples and defective models, not only
+unrestrained and uncensured, but sanctioned with the applause of an
+uninstructed and misjudging multitude. Every plaudit which a vitious
+play, or a bad actor receives is a blow to the public morals, and the
+public taste. Man is an imitative animal, and insensibly conforms to the
+models and examples before him. Young men who excessively admire a
+favourite actor, will insensibly imitate him, without scanning the man's
+merits or defects; and without ever reflecting upon the ultimate
+influence which their partiality, if it should be misplaced, may have
+upon their lives, fortunes and characters, will adopt his manner, his
+action, his enunciation, nay, his worst defects, and in short every
+thing that is imitable about him.
+
+Those who dissent from us on other propositions, will agree with us at
+least in this, that the highest degree of attention ought to be paid to
+the morals, the manners, the address and the language of youth; and that
+nothing which has a tendency to mislead them, in any of those
+essentials, should be submitted to their eyes or ears; but that on the
+contrary, every thing should be done, as a great moral philosopher has
+instructed us, "to secure them from unjust prejudices, from perverse
+opinions, and from incongruous combinations of images." Let it be kept
+in mind that we are not now discussing the question whether the stage be
+beneficial to society or not. Though it be a fair subject of inquiry,
+and will hereafter engage a share of our attention, we have no use for
+it, at present; since be our opinions or those of our readers what they
+may, the stage exists, and will continue to exist and attract the
+regards of mankind. The true point of consideration, therefore, is, not
+how far it is beneficial or how far injurious; but in what way its
+benefits may be enhanced, and its mischiefs, if any, be abated. He who
+should demonstrate that it has a pernicious tendency, would but the more
+strongly enforce our propositions; since he would thereby show the
+expediency of diminishing that tendency and of mitigating that evil
+which the public will forbids to be entirely prevented.
+
+It is not merely on account of its effects upon the audience, but on
+that of the actors themselves, that the theatre calls loudly for a
+strict critical regimen. An actor resigned to his own opinion, and
+committed to the unrestrained licentious exercise of his own judgment,
+if he be not one in a million, sinks into negligence, becomes wilful,
+and if, as is nine times in ten the case, he should obtain the casual
+applause of a few stupid and injudicious spectators, becomes headstrong,
+refractory, and incorrigibly hardened in error. If by means of the
+oversight of critical judges, or the false adjudication of applause, an
+actor insensibly slides into popularity, he is erected into a standard
+of taste, by those who have not seen better; instead of being himself
+tested by sound principles of criticism and estimated by comparison,
+with the best models, he becomes gradually absolved from submission to
+all authority, is held up as a criterion for determining the merit of
+other actors, and dubbed the Roscius of his little theatre by a number
+of confident pretenders who know just as much about dramatic character
+and acting, and on the very same grounds too, as the poor islander of
+St. Kilda did of architecture, when he sagaciously concluded that the
+great church of Glasgow was excavated out of a rock, because he had
+never before seen an edifice made of hewn stone and mortar. Thus not
+only a false taste is circulated among the youth at large, but the very
+fountain of taste is itself polluted. This is an evil which nothing but
+a well-regulated body of competent critical authority can prevent. In
+the prosecution of the intended work, an occasion will occur of pointing
+out eras during which, even in the great metropolitan seat of the
+English drama, the public taste suffered years of vitiation from
+defective models being at the head of the stage. Till Garrick, led on by
+Nature herself, introduced her school, the theatre presented a stage on
+which scarce a vestige of the human character as it really existed, was
+to be seen. But pompous monotony of speech held the highest praise, and
+"DECLAMATION ROARED WHILE PASSION SLEPT."
+
+Hitherto the theatre of Philadelphia has been too much resigned to the
+licentiousness of bold, and blind opinion. Men of letters, with which
+the city abounds, and who in every society are the natural guardians of
+the public taste and morals, seem to have deserted this important trust.
+Applause which ought to be measured out with scrupulous justice,
+correctness and precision, has been by admiring ignorance, poured forth
+in a torrent roar of uncouth and obstreperous _glee_ on the buffoon,
+"the clown that says more than is set down for him," and on "the
+robustious perriwig-pated fellow, who tears a passion all to rags,"
+while chaste merit and propriety have often gone unrewarded by a smile.
+
+If critical judgment were a matter of physical force or numerical
+calculation, then indeed the roar of the multitude would be as
+conclusive in reason, as it too often is in practical effect; but
+criticism is a matter of intellectual estimate; and many acquirements go
+to the composition of a well-qualified dramatic critic, to any one of
+which, but a small number of the auditors of a play can, in the nature
+of things, have the smallest pretensions. If indeed any man under the
+assumption of the critic's name should attempt dogmatically to impose
+his _dictum_ as a law upon the public, he would deserve to be repelled
+with indignity and rebuke. All the genuine critic will attempt to do, is
+to hold out those lights, with which his own study, experience, and
+observation have supplied him, in order to enable the public to discern
+more clearly what in the play or the actor is worthy of censure or
+applause--of rejection or adoption. In the common operations of human
+life, every man is compelled by the necessity of his nature to take
+succedaneous aid from others. The mechanic in erecting the poorest
+building, or forming the most simple machine, is indebted for his means
+to the practical geometrician, and instrument maker, and the latter
+again, to the master of the science of mathematics. The practical
+surveyor or navigator finds it his interest to be governed by rules
+supplied by those whom study has furnished with the great elementary
+principles of science, and is contented to stand indebted to them for
+his means of determining, the area of his land, or the latitude and
+longitude at sea, without impugning the rights of those studious men who
+have given him the compendious rules and the tables by which he works.
+It is so with dramatic criticism. The legitimate source of judgment lies
+with those who have by deep study made themselves masters of the first
+principles of the science; and from them the people at large, who are
+too much otherwise and certainly better employed, to learn those
+principles, must be content to take the rules and laws by which they
+judge. The most infatuated self-devotee would be ashamed to contest this
+point, if he were at all apprised of the various acquirements requisite
+for forming an accurate judgment of the business of the theatre,
+interwoven, as the dramatic art is, with some of the highest departments
+of literature, and the multifarious operations of the human heart. The
+vainest being who cajoles himself into the notion that a man either
+unlettered or inexperienced can form a just judgment of a play and
+actors, must at once be convinced of his error by reflecting that "the
+drama is an exhibition of the real state of sublunary nature;" and that
+"to instruct life, and for that purpose to copy what passes in it, is
+the business of the stage."[6] To understand this well, demands not only
+some book-learning, but that experience which, though books improve,
+they cannot impart, and which never can be attained by seclusion or
+solitary study, but must be derived from intercourse with men in all
+their forms of conduct, from converse with society, and from an
+attentive and accurate examination of that complex miscellany, the
+living world. To know the drama we must know men; and "if we would know
+men (says Rousseau) it is necessary that we should see them act." It is
+equally necessary too that we should lift the veil which time has thrown
+over the past, and see how men have thought and acted through the lapse
+of ages upon the uniform principles of human passion, which ever have
+been and ever will be the same, and by that means distinguish that which
+is natural, innate and permanent in man, from that which is adventitious
+and acquired. He whose knowledge of the world is circumscribed within
+the narrow limits of one generation or one society can know man only as
+he appears in the superficial colouring and peculiar modification of
+personal habit, derived from the fashions, the modes, and the capricious
+changes of that time, and that society, while the great body of human
+nature remains buried from his sight. "The accidental compositions of
+heterogeneous modes (says the gigantic critic Johnson) are dissolved by
+the chance which combined them, but the uniform simplicity of primitive
+qualities neither admits increase nor suffers decay." And assuredly
+there was never an age in which man so masked his nature under modish
+innovations as he does in the present.
+
+  [Footnote 6: Dr. Johnson.]
+
+The works of the ancients, says a great writer, are the mines from which
+alone the treasures of true criticism are to be dug up--the pure sources
+of that penetration which enables us to distinguish legitimate
+excellence from spurious pretensions to it. He, therefore, who would get
+at the true principles of dramatic criticism ought to read the poetry
+and criticism of the two great ancient languages, and to have formed
+some acquaintance with those authors, whether ancient or modern, who
+have furnished the world with the great leading principles upon which
+dramatic poetry is constructed. Doctor Johnson has informed us that
+before the time of Dryden, the structure of dramatic poetry was not
+generally understood; and what was the consequence? "AUDIENCES,"
+continues the doctor, "APPLAUDED BY INSTINCT, AND POETS OFTEN PLEASED BY
+CHANCE."[7]
+
+  [Footnote 7: See Johnson's Life of Dryden.]
+
+Without calling in the aid of such high authority, no risk of
+contradiction can be incurred by asserting that he must be radically
+deficient in the requisites of a dramatic critic, who is not
+sufficiently versed in philological literature to discriminate between
+the various qualities of diction--to distinguish the language of the
+schools from that of the multitude--the polished diction of refinement
+from the coarse style of household colloquy--the splendid, figurative,
+and impressive combination of terms adapted to poetry, from those plain
+and familiar expressions suited to the sobriety of prose; and finally,
+to form a just estimate of a poet's pretensions to that delicacy in the
+selection of words which constitutes what is called beauty in style. Nor
+is this all, he should be perfectly competent to form a judgment of the
+fable and its contrivance, to determine according to the canons of
+criticism laid down by the greatest professors of the art, whether the
+scheme of a piece be obscured by unnatural complexity or rendered jejune
+and uninteresting by extreme simplicity, and familiarity of
+design--whether description be bloated, or overcharged, or imagery
+misplaced or extravagant; and lastly, whether the performance be on the
+whole deficient in, or replete with moral institution.
+
+The editors are free to confess that while they enumerate the requisites
+necessary to a critic, they tremble for their own incompetency. Labour
+however shall not be spared---and they cherish the most sanguine hopes
+of supplying their general deficiency by candour and integrity; being
+determined while they endeavour with encouragement and applause to
+foster the rising genius and growing merit of the stage, to rescue it
+from the encroachment of sturdy incapacity, and while they sit in
+judgment for the security of the public taste, to be as far as the
+canons of dramatic criticism will allow, the strenuous advocates of the
+valuable man and unassuming actor--still keeping in sight that
+impressive truth contained in the motto: "HE THAT APPLAUDS HIM WHO DOES
+NOT DESERVE PRAISE, IS ENDEAVOURING TO DECEIVE THE PUBLIC; HE THAT
+HISSES IN MALICE OR IN SPORT IS AN OPPRESSOR AND A ROBBER."
+
+The editors have said thus much merely to explain their motives, and to
+smooth their way to the discharge of a task, in the performance of which
+they will necessarily be exposed to many invidious remarks from the
+misconceptions of presumptuous ignorance. Having done so they fearlessly
+commit the subject to the public judgment, and proceed to the execution
+of their duty.
+
+
+
+
+DRAMATIC CENSOR.
+
+
+_The Philadelphia Theatre opened on Monday the 20th of November, with_
+
+"A CURE FOR THE HEART-ACH."
+
+It has been said by a great moral philosopher that fashion supplies the
+place of reason. On superficial consideration the assertion will appear
+paradoxical; but there is much truth in it, and much biting satire too,
+upon the absurdities of the world. Fashion could not supply the place of
+reason, if reason were not absent; and most irrational and unaccountable
+indeed are all her ladyship's ways. Her capriciousness is proverbial,
+and her agency is generally illustrated by comparison with the most
+unsteady elements of the physical world. We say "Fashion that
+_fluctuating_ lady," alluding to the ebbing and flowing of the tide--and
+"Fashion that weathercock," implying that she veers about with every
+puff of wind. There are some few cases, however, on the other hand, in
+which she may be compared to a rock, because she stands immovably fixt
+to her seat; supplying, according to the idea of the philosopher
+abovementioned, the place of reason, who stands self-exiled forever. It
+would seem as if fashion never could take repose but in supreme
+irrationality. There and there alone she is firm. Whoever will take the
+trouble (or rather the pleasure) to read "Browne's Vulgar Errors," will
+see how much deeper root absurd notions strike in "the brain of this
+foolish compounded clay man," than those that belong to sound sense and
+reason. The insignia of fashion, therefore, may be considered in
+relation to the human head, as the notification on the door of an empty
+house, signifying that the family has removed to another tenement. Hence
+no one of common sense expects any caprice of that lady to be accounted
+for on rational grounds. There is one of her freaks, however, which we
+have endeavoured to trace to its source in the wilds of luxuriant
+absurdity, and have never been able to succeed. Nay, we venture to
+affirm that if the most sagacious man in America were asked, why it was
+considered a violation of the laws of fashion for a lady to attend the
+theatre on the opening night of a season, he would be puzzled for any
+other reply than that it was permanently fashionable, because it was
+prodigiously absurd. On the opening of our theatre this season the house
+was full of MEN. The audience presented one dark tissue of drab and
+brown, and black and blue woolen drapery, with here and there a solitary
+exception of cheering female attire. Had there been a heavy fall of
+snow, the ladies would have been sleighing--had there been a public ball
+the darkness of the streets would have been broken by multitudes of
+attractive meteors in muslin, either "hanging on the cheek of night," or
+hurried along like gossamer through the air. But fashion has so ordained
+it: and a good play and after-piece were well represented to a house
+which, from the little intermixture of the lovely sex, somewhat
+resembled the auditory of a surgeon's dissecting theatre.
+
+Mr. Morton's comedy "A Cure for the Heart Ach," is by this time so well
+known that to relate the fable of it here, would be uselessly to
+encumber the work. Of the quality of this production it would be
+difficult for criticism to speak candidly, without adverting to the
+present miserable state of dramatic poetry in England, which from the
+days of Sam Foote has been gradually descending to its present
+deplorable condition. The body of dramatic writers of the last thirty
+years first corrupted the public taste, and now thrive by that
+corruption. By hasty sketches, not of Nature as she appears in all times
+and places, but of particular and eccentric manners and characters, the
+excressences of overloaded society, they have made a short cut to the
+favour of the public, and inundated the stage with a torrent of
+ephemeral productions, to the depravation of public taste, and in
+defiance of classical criticism: their highest praise that they do no
+moral mischief, and that if they possess not the bold outline and
+faithful colouring of nature which distinguished the productions of
+their mighty predecessors, they are no less exempt from the obscenity
+and immoral effects of those authors. As bad writing is infinitely
+easier than good, the pens of our living dramatic writers in general
+teem with an inconceivable fertility--and the purlieus of London are
+beat over in every direction to hunt up game suitable to the genius of
+their weak-winged muse; in short, to find out new modifications of
+character, attractive not by its consonance to man's general nature, but
+by its eccentricity and departure from the ordinary tracks of human
+conduct.
+
+Having thus insulated this class of comedies, and put them apart from
+the old stock, to which, with the exception of the Honey Moon, there is
+no modern production comparable, criticism may weigh the merits of each
+piece as compared with its class, and perhaps find something to praise.
+We consider some of the comedies of Mr. Morton, however, as raised high
+above the throng. The Cure for the Heart Ach has much in it to commend.
+The moral tendency of many parts of it is good, while the incidents are
+exceedingly laughable. _Old Rapid_ continually betraying his trade by
+stuffing his conversation with the technical terms of the taylor--his
+son's distress at it--the honest rusticity of _Frank Oatland_--the
+baseness, vanity and folly of _Vortex_ the nabob--the insolence and
+amorousness of _Miss Vortex_ his daughter, and the whimsical incidents
+arising from their various designs, mistakes, detections and
+disappointments, form altogether a _melange_ of pleasantry highly
+provocative of laughter, yet by no means so low as to reduce the piece
+to the rank of farce, which some austere critics in London have
+assigned it.
+
+Of the performance generally, we repeat that it was good. Young Rapid
+afforded criticism much satisfaction in the person of Mr. Wood, who in
+many parts persuaded us that he had seen Mr. Lewis in that character,
+and seen him with profit. Mr. Wood's walk is not unlike that of the
+great original in London--a nasal tone of voice too is common to both.
+These, if they did not create, certainly increased the resemblance
+between those two gentlemen, which, however remote, was yet discernible.
+In _Sir Hubert Stanley_, as in every other character in which we have
+seen him, Mr. M'Kenzie deserved warm applause--he was dignified,
+pathetic and interesting. Mr. Francis gave a strong colouring to Vortex;
+and to say that Frank Oatland was all that the author could wish, we
+need only to state that he fell to the share of Mr. Jefferson. After
+all, we are doubtful whether old Rapid was not as well off in the hands
+of Mr. Warren as any other character in the play.
+
+We were greatly interested and indeed delighted by Mrs. Wood in Jesse
+Oatland. Mrs. Francis was abundantly droll in Mrs. Vortex; and Mrs.
+Seymour was entitled to the marks of approbation she received.
+
+
+  _November 22._
+
+PIZARRO and the Review composed the bill of fare for this evening.
+Although in the attack and defence of Pizarro criticism has worn down
+the edges of its weapons to very dulness, we cannot forbear taking this
+opportunity of recording our opinions of that extraordinary production.
+
+No play that has appeared during the last century, possesses the power
+of agitating the passions, and interesting the feelings in an equal
+degree to Pizarro. From a child of the brain of Kotzebue, trained and
+corrected by Sheridan, much might be expected. And the piece before us
+is worthy of the talents of such men.
+
+In any contest between _oppressed_ and _oppressors_ the heart takes in
+an instant, a decided and a warm part. If the crime of _oppression_ is
+aggravated by other guilt in the _oppressor_, and the object of it is
+rendered more lovely and respectable by the most exalted virtues, pity
+for the one rises to respect and affection--indignation against the
+other becomes exasperated to hatred, to abhorrence, and disgust; without
+the intervention of the will, but merely from the spontaneous movements
+of the heart, we sympathise, we silently pray for the one--we recoil
+from, we execrate the other. We are pressed by our very nature into the
+service of virtue; our souls are up in arms against vice and improbity,
+and thus we receive lasting impressions, which, when our hearts are not
+very corrupt, must forever after have a favourable influence on our
+moral conduct.
+
+To elucidate and confirm our opinions on this subject, we beg leave to
+ask, what is that play in which there is such a mass of virtue and
+simplicity, and such a number of amiable personages, opposed to such a
+mass of villany, subtlety, fraudful avarice, and sensual vice, as in
+Pizarro? Not one. The lofty moral sentiments of Rolla, his exquisite
+feelings and exalted notions as the patriot, the friend, the lover, are
+unequalled. He exists out of himself, and lives but for others: for his
+country, his king, his friend, and the dearest object of his love, of
+whom being bereft by that very friend, he becomes their brother--their
+protector--devotes his life to death to save the man--escaping that,
+devotes it again to save their offspring. How much worse, if worse could
+be, than a satanic soul must that man have, who could be insensible to
+such a character! Who is there whose heart beats in harmony with heroic
+virtue and humanity, that would not accept such a death, to have lived
+such a life? Need we say more then of Pizarro than to contrast him with
+such a character. The only gleam of light that breaks in upon that black
+_Erebus_, his heart, is his conduct to Rolla when the latter throws
+aside his dagger; and this the poet (Sheridan) has artfully contrived
+for the purpose of heightening the lustre of such virtue, by showing
+that even that monster could not be insensible to it.
+
+Let us add that in the true liberal spirit of Christian piety, tolerance
+and humanity displayed by Las Casas, a popish Spanish priest; in the
+noble indignation, the inflexible fortitude, and the intrepid patriotism
+and virtue of Orozimbo; in the valour, the beneficent wisdom, and the,
+ardent connubial fidelity and affection of the young Alonzo, in the
+tenderness, the simplicity, the conjugal and maternal virtues of Cora,
+and in the artless display of vivid patriotism in the old blind man and
+his boy--there is, exclusive of Rolla's glorious qualities, a mass of
+excellence sufficient to make the character of any two plays, and put
+each out of the reach of competition with any other that we can
+immediately think of.
+
+Such as we have described are the emotions which are always produced by
+the play now under consideration, when it happens to be properly
+represented. Fortunately or unfortunately as it may happen, the play is
+so constructed that almost every part in it contributes largely,
+according to its kind, to the interest of the piece. Every person of the
+_oppressed_--the Peruvians, even down to the blind man and the little
+boy, are made by the poet to produce a large share of the general
+effect. For this reason it is a piece which taxes a manager highly,
+calling for a variety of excellent talents in the actors. It is not one
+of those plays which satisfy the mind and from which we come home
+contented, if two or three characters are well done. The play of Pizarro
+is a lifeless body when compared with what it ought to be, if _all_ the
+high Peruvians at least, are not well performed. In the movement of a
+watch every small wheel and every little rivet is as necessary to the
+general effect as the mainspring. So Las Casas, Orozimbo, the blind man,
+and the blind man's boy, are as necessary not perhaps to the mean
+progress of the fable (but to that effect, that necromantic influence
+upon the feelings, that penetrating moral which alone can render a play
+useful as well as delightful) as is the character of Rolla.
+
+It may appear a singular avowal, yet being truth we will not withhold
+it, that having witnessed the performance of this play many times in
+England and America, we have never yet seen it performed to our
+_perfect_ satisfaction. Kemble was great in Rolla, but the feebleness of
+his voice was severely felt by the audience in the celebrated speech of
+the Peruvian to his soldiers. That speech has been the stumbling block
+of most actors we have seen. Hodgkinson, who in other respects was
+unexceptionable, rather failed in it. Throughout the whole character,
+Mr. Wood preserved a very equable tenor of acting. He had neither the
+rich beauties nor the striking defects of others. He evinced
+considerable judgment, but at times powers were evidently wanting.
+
+Mr. M'Kenzie supported Pizarro well, and showed that he possesses
+abilities to support it better. It appears to us that this gentleman's
+physical powers are sometimes subdued by an over-scrupulous chasteness.
+In his answers to Elvira's solicitations on behalf of the unhappy
+Alonzo, he did not, we think, sufficiently mark all the feeling and
+emotions of the tyrant. Pizarro is stung with jealousy as well as rage;
+not so much the jealousy of love as of infernal pride; but both rage and
+jealousy are mastered by triumphant insolence and contempt. The
+utterance therefore of his laconic decisive sentence, "He dies," should
+be marked with a triumphant sneer as well as malice.
+
+Mr. Warren did ample justice to the venerable Las Casas.
+
+Mr. Cone who, though labouring under the disadvantages of a voice
+radically, and we fear, incurably monotonous, gives promise of being a
+useful actor, displayed considerable spirit in Alonzo. To the praise of
+diligence and attention to his business Mr. C. is entitled, and those
+rarely fail in any department to insure respectability and success. Mr.
+Cone's personal appearance is very much in his favour.
+
+The only part in the play on which we can justly bestow _unqualified_
+applause was Mr. Jefferson's Orozimbo. It is seldom that criticism has
+such a repast, a repast in which there was no fault but that of the poet
+in making it too short.
+
+Elvira is not one of the characters in which Mrs. Barret appears to
+advantage.
+
+Had Mrs. Wood the requisite talent of singing, we should have been much
+pleased with her Cora. Certainly so far as that lady was able to go, we
+know no person on this stage who could be substituted in her place with
+advantage to the character. But the omission of Cora's exquisitely
+beautiful, wild, and pathetic song, was a great drawback from the effect
+of the part.
+
+
+_December 21._--TOWN AND COUNTRY, by Morton--Village Lawyer. Some of the
+British critics rank Mr. Morton with the farce-writers of the day,
+others again pronounce his comedies to be the best which the age has
+produced, and say that they will be selected by posterity from the
+perishable trash of the day. We agree with neither, thinking it likely
+they may remain for a _few_ years among the stock of acting plays. To
+say that they will be admired by posterity is praise as hyperbolical and
+unjust, as ranking them in farce is calumnious and untrue.
+
+The comedy before us is a very pleasing production. The plot is well
+imagined, and the author has contrived to condense into it more bustle
+and incident than can readily be found in a piece of the same length.
+Reuben Gleuroy, the hero, is a noble character, possessed of the most
+exalted virtues, which are continually brought into active exercise for
+the good of his fellow beings. He preaches little and does a great deal,
+and displays a generosity and greatness of mind touching, as the world
+now goes, upon the chivalrous. But that which makes him more
+conspicuously amiable and interesting is that while he takes the most
+ardent and active concern in the happiness of mankind, he is himself
+reduced by the wickedness of others to a state of misery almost of
+distraction, which awakens the most poignant sympathy for his situation.
+Deserted, as he imagines, by the object of his dearest affections,
+Rosalie Summers, who is supposed to have eloped with a villain of high
+rank of the name of Plastic, he goes to London and finds his brother in
+the last stage of ruin and despair by gambling, and stops his hand just
+at the moment he is attempting suicide. In the end he reforms the
+brother, discovers his Rosalie, and finds that she is innocent and
+faithful; and by a series of those events, which whether likely or not,
+modern dramatists without scruple press into their service, is made
+perfectly happy. The colouring of this admirable portrait is not a
+little heightened in its effect by a tinge of eccentricity caught from a
+life of rural retirement in the romantic mountainous country of Wales.
+On this character and that of old Mr. Cosey, a philanthropic, wealthy,
+and munificent stock-broker, whose cash, always at the disposal of his
+friends, enables Reuben to accomplish his purposes, the author seems to
+have dwelt _con amore_. The comic dialogue of the piece arises chiefly
+from the contrasted feelings of Mr. Cosey and Mr. Trot. Cosey admires
+the city, and is miserable in Wales, while Trot, a wealthy
+cotton-spinner, rejoices at the loss of a large share of his property
+because it furnishes him with a pretext for returning to the country and
+leaving the _abominable_ city to which he was hurried away by the vanity
+of his wife.
+
+Mr. Wood displayed in Reuben, much ability, sound sense, and fine
+feeling. No person that we know on the stage discloses in his
+performances so little of the mere actor. That indefinable something,
+which though obvious to perception cannot be described, but is
+understood by the term "plain gentleman," tinctures all he says and does
+upon the stage. Whether this be detrimental to him as a general actor,
+we have not yet seen this gentleman often enough to determine: but this
+we will say, that while it stands a perpetual security against his being
+positively disagreeable in any character he may be obliged to act, it
+throws a charm over all those for which he is best fitted by nature.
+
+The amiable, the inimitable Cosey, never was, nor ever can be more
+perfectly at home than in the person of Mr. Jefferson. Were the author
+to see the performance and to observe the correspondence of the actor's
+physiognomy as well as action and utterance, with the sentiments of the
+character, he would from his heart exclaim in the words of Cosey
+himself, "NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL COMFORTABLE."
+
+It would be great injustice not to acknowledge the pleasure we received
+from Mr. Francis in the character of Trot, which he conceived and
+executed with great humour and spirit.
+
+A Mr. West from the southward made his appearance in the Yorkshire
+rustic Hawbuck. His face and person are well adapted to a certain class
+of low comedy; his voice still more so. If he will but avoid that bane
+of comedians, the effort to raise laughter by spurious humour and low
+trick, he will thrive in his department.
+
+In the drawing of the female parts there is nothing sufficiently
+striking to call forth the powers of an actress. What was to be done was
+sufficiently well done by Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Wilmot. But, were they well
+cast? or, should they not change sides?
+
+
+_FARCES FOR THE FIRST WEEK._
+
+_November 20._ OF AGE TOMORROW.
+
+Every character tolerably well played.
+
+
+_November 22._ WAGS OF WINDSOR.
+
+Hardinge, an old favourite of the town in Irish characters, appeared the
+first time for four years in Looney M'Twoulter. His return to this stage
+was hailed with thunders of applause; and all his songs were
+_encored_.--We have not seen Caleb Quotem better performed in England,
+nor so well by a great deal in America as this night by
+Jefferson.--Wilmot is a true child of nature and simplicity in all such
+characters as John Lump.
+
+
+_November 24._ VILLAGE LAWYER.
+
+We abhor this farce. Scout, from whom it takes its name, is too
+detestable a picture of human meanness and depravity to be fit for
+farce, the proper effects of which, however nonsensical it may be, ought
+to be to enliven and not create disgust. We cannot bear to see a
+respectable actor in it. Blisset, a favourite son of Momus, played the
+Sheepstealer. Mr. West, whom we have mentioned in Hawbuck, played Old
+Snarl with great humour, which his audience, and indeed himself, seemed
+heartily to enjoy. In characters of low humour, particularly crabbed old
+men, Mr. West would be very pleasing, if he would aim less at raising
+gallery laughter by spurious means. And all that could be done for Mrs.
+Scout was done by Mrs. Francis.
+
+
+_November 27._
+
+ELLA ROZENBERG.--WOOD DEMON.
+
+Ella Rozenberg, a melo-drame, by Mr. Kenny, was brought out for the
+first time at Drury Lane in 1807, and has ever since maintained its
+ground in the public opinion. It is extremely interesting, and though
+there is nothing new or singular in the plot or incidents is calculated
+to lay fast hold on the imagination and feelings. At the opening of the
+piece, the scene of which is laid near a Prussian camp, the heroine
+_Ella Rosenberg_ reduced by the disappearance of her husband to a state
+of poverty, is living under the protection of captain _Storm_,
+a crippled old officer of invalids, and the friend of her deceased
+father. Here she has concealed herself for two years, when she is
+discovered by colonel _Mountfort_, who having conceived a criminal
+passion for her, had in order to gratify that passion, purposely
+provoked her husband to draw his sword upon him, in consequence of which
+apprehending the severity of the military law, the latter had set off to
+the capital to appeal to the electoral prince, but was no more heard of.
+The colonel, who is a finished master of intrigue, enters Storm's house
+in disguise, and attempts with the help of a band of his soldiers to
+carry off Ella by force. In this he is opposed by the good and gallant
+old officer, who, sword in hand, beats off the soldiers, tears the
+colonel's sash from him, and in a rage tramples it under foot, in
+consequence of which Storm is made prisoner, and Ella left unprotected,
+is borne away by the soldiers. The elector, who has just returned
+victorious from the war, appears considering a petition from old Storm
+on behalf of Ella, which interests him so much, that he resolves to
+visit her incognito. Mountfort, who is a favourite of the elector's and
+has just arrived to congratulate him, is alarmed, endeavours to dissuade
+him from going to Ella, and in the meantime to secure himself from
+detection orders the immediate trial of Storm, who is found guilty and
+sentenced to die. Ella escapes and reaches Storm, her old protector,
+just as he is on his way to execution. He does all he can to keep his
+fate concealed from her; but it being betrayed, she is torn from him in
+a state of distraction and anguish, and being consigned by her generous
+protector to the care of a brother officer who commands the guard, is
+conducted to a solitary inn by a soldier. The elector appears at night
+passing in disguise to visit the cottage of Storm, and is encountered by
+Rosenberg, who appears in the most wretched state, flying from his
+pursuers, and supplicates him for the means to procure shelter. Without
+disclosing who he is, Rosenberg informs the elector that he (Rosenberg)
+has been secretly and violently imprisoned. The elector directs him to
+the house to which Ella is carried by the soldiers, and promises to meet
+him there in the morning and assist him. Rosenberg reaches the inn
+whither Ella too is brought in a state of insensibility, and placed in a
+separate apartment. Mountfort arrives alone, and not knowing Rosenberg
+engages him to guard Ella, while he goes to seek a conveyance for her.
+Rosenberg now finds the cause of his imprisonment--an interesting
+discovery takes place between him and Ella--but he is detected by one of
+his pursuers, and is again in the hands of his enemies, when the elector
+enters, and obtaining the most perfect conviction of the villany of
+Mountfort, disgraces him, restores the young couple to rank and
+happiness, and the brave and virtuous old Storm to life, liberty and
+joy.
+
+The plot of this melo-drame is wrought up with uncommon skill: the
+interest rising by a progressive climax which keeps the heart in a warm
+glow of feeling from the first scene to the last. Old Storm is worth a
+whole army of what are called heroes, and the elector is a model of
+justice and humanity for princes to imitate.
+
+According to the London casting Rosenberg would have fallen to the share
+of the first player in the house: but we had no reason to complain of
+Mr. Cone. Mr. Warren discharged the high office of elector with dignity;
+and Mr. M'Kenzie was an excellent representative of the old
+cut-and-thrust-colonel. Such characters as Ella are always interesting
+when played by Mrs. Wood.
+
+The tasteful amateur must have been roused and delighted by the music,
+particularly the overture.
+
+
+Ella Rosenberg was followed by one of the most monstrous productions,
+the mind of man ever groaned withal. Never did melancholy madman
+labouring under the horrors of an inflammation of the brain--never did a
+wretch fevered with gluttony and intemperance, and writhing under the
+pressure of the night-mare, dream of more horrible circumstances than
+those which Mr. Lewis has offered in this prodigious melo-drame, for the
+ENTERTAINMENT of the British nation. Where will the taste of England
+stop in its descent? Where will the impositions on it by bastard genius
+end? Yet since this monster has produced a powerful effect, and is
+managed with such perverted skill as to excite a strong interest, and
+since whole audiences condescend to club tastes with the scarecrow old
+women of the heath and the mountain, and to play "look at the bugabow,"
+with the nurselings of the lap, we should be sorry to be deficient in
+curtesy, or when so many good and wise people drivel not to drivel a
+little too; we bend therefore with stiff and painful obedience to our
+duty, and offer our readers a short summary of the fable.
+
+To clear the way then, be it in the first place known, that Mr. Matthew
+Lewis has found out a new kind of infernal agent--a demon who delights
+in human sacrifices, and lives in the woods. Perhaps it is because we
+are poorly versed in demonology that we do not recollect to have heard
+of this particular infernal before. Be that as it may, _Count
+Hardyknute_ of Holstein, having been sent into the world deformed in
+person and poor in circumstances, and being resolved to sell his soul to
+damnation for the bettering of his body, makes a contract with the
+demon, in condition of his being made handsome and powerful, to
+sacrifice to him a human victim on a particular day in each year; in
+failure of which he is to become the prey of the demon, who is very
+handsomely named _Sangrida_. The count has sacrificed nine victims
+before the opening of the piece, and is meditating with himself with
+what fat offering he shall next glut the maw of Sangrida, in anniversary
+punctuality. _Leolyn_, a dumb boy, the rightful heir of the estate and
+title which Hardyknute had usurped, has been secretly bred up by
+_Clotilda_ as her own, but Hardyknute discovers him by the mark of a
+bloody arrow on his wrist, and determines to help Sangrida to his little
+body. _Una_, a beautiful young lady, to whom the count pays his
+addresses, is selected by the guardian spirit of Holstein to be the
+preserver of the intended victim. The time approaches for the fulfilment
+of the agreement. By a process of the most horrible kind of enchantment
+Una is enabled to remove the boy so as to elude the count, and gets
+possession of the key of an enchanted place on which the boy is chained.
+She gets him down from it--the clock is seen just near the stroke of
+one--she resolves to push the hand forward--Hardyknute seizes and is
+about despatching her, when Leolyn with difficulty mounts to the clock,
+pushes forward the hand and it strikes one--the demon appears, seizes
+the count in his claws--the earth opens, and the demon carries him down,
+in the same manner that an alligator or shark carries down a puppy dog,
+to devour him in comfort.
+
+Such is the piece, and such the depravity of a nation's taste. It is no
+wonder that the tasteful, the learned and the judicious, should wage an
+open war of wit and satire upon such things. On this subject we refer
+our readers to a piece signed THEOBALDUS SECUNDUS, which will appear in
+our next number.
+
+
+SECOND WEEK.
+
+_November 29._ RECONCILIATION, OR FRATERNAL DISCORD, _with_ FALSE AND
+TRUE.
+
+It would be superfluous to say any thing of a play so well known and so
+justly admired.
+
+
+_December 1._ ABAELLINO, OR THE GREAT BANDIT, _with the_ LADY OF THE
+ROCK.
+
+The Great Bandit is one of those extraordinary productions which
+distinguish the present dramatic writers of Germany from those of all
+ages and all countries. There are but few topics connected with the
+stage which deserve more serious discussion than this of the German
+drama. A proper investigation of it would require more room than we can
+at present spare: but we shall not so far desert our duty as to decline
+it when we can devote to it the deliberation it deserves. A future, and
+not far distant number will contain such reflections as occur to us on
+the subject.
+
+
+_December 2._ ROAD TO RUIN--DON JUAN.
+
+Mr. Wood in _Harry Dornton_ was very successful. It is a line of acting
+for which he is well calculated. The character of _Goldfinch_ was better
+performed by Mr. Jefferson than it could be in any other person in this
+theatre. But we received less pleasure from it than from any other we
+have seen him play, _Scout_ excepted.
+
+
+_FARCES FOR THIS WEEK._
+
+The Wood Demon, though used as an after-piece, demanded observation of a
+more serious kind than is due to farce, and has therefore received it in
+pages 71 and 72.
+
+
+The farce of "False and True" is a wretched thing. To speak
+Johnsonically it is a congeries of inexplicable nonsense. An Irishman,
+who, after having committed the _very probable_ blunder of going to
+Naples instead of Dublin, mistakes Vesuvius for the hill of Hoath, is
+the most laughable character of the piece. What could be done for it
+Hardinge did. A song of his was spoiled by the neglect of the band,
+whose conduct deserved reprehension from the manager.
+
+
+The Lady of the Rock is the production of Holcroft. Had he not himself
+given it to the world as his own, we should have thought it a libel upon
+his understanding to ascribe it to his pen.
+
+
+No pantomime has ever made so deep and so universal an impression as Don
+Juan. The merit of the original belongs to the celebrated Moliere.
+Averse on principle to pantomime, we have often felt ourselves indebted
+to it for relief from the drowsiness induced by some modern plays; but
+that perhaps was more owing to the badness of the play than the value of
+the pantomime. Of all pantomimes Don Juan is the most blamable. It is
+good in its kind, but the kind _is bad_.
+
+
+THIRD WEEK.
+
+_Monday, Dec._ 4. SPEED THE PLOUGH--ELLA ROSENBERG.
+
+The comedy of Speed the Plough is deservedly reckoned among the best of
+the modern stock, and considered as reflecting great credit upon the
+muse of Mr. Morton. The plot is very skilfully mixed up, notwithstanding
+the difficulty that always must attend carrying on, in connection with
+each other, two interests of a totally distinct and opposite nature,
+connecting two contradictory agencies without either encroaching on the
+other, and conducting an alternation of serious and comic scenes to one
+end, without making them clash. This Mr. Morton has, to a considerable
+degree, successfully accomplished; making that which occasions the
+difficulty subservient to one of the most desirable but arduous ends in
+dramatic writing, that of concealing the final unravelling or
+denouement, as it is called, of the plot.
+
+A striking beauty in this play, and the more striking because seldom met
+with, is the fidelity with which some of the characters are drawn from
+life; not as it is found in a solitary individual, but as it appears in
+a whole numerous class. Such is farmer Ashfield--such is dame Ashfield.
+Yet the characters in general are not very impressive, and there are
+some inconsistencies in them as well as in the arrangement of the
+incidents. A young lady's suddenly, and at first sight, falling in love
+with a peasant boy, though it may have happened, is an occurrence too
+singular to be perfectly natural; and as a dramatic incident, it is a
+coarseness which cannot well be reconciled to the characteristic
+delicacy of such a young lady, even by the _ex post facto_ discovery
+that the object of her love was in reality a person of condition. We do
+not think that love at first sight, which is in reality nothing more
+than Forwardness indulging itself in the airs of Romance, and Prurience
+calling in Fate to sanction its indelicacy, ought to be clothed in such
+a respectable and captivating dress as our author has bestowed upon it
+in this play.
+
+Yet with these defects to counterbalance them, Speed the Plough is
+replete with beauties--the dialogue is neat, spirited, and forcible; and
+there are many delicate touches of the pathetic, and much excellent
+moral sentiment to recommend it.
+
+The best character, beyond all comparison, is that of Farmer Ashfield.
+It is a picture of real life, originals of which are found in multitudes
+in England--plain, honest, benevolent, and under a rustic garb,
+possessing a heart alive to the noblest feelings. No man that we know in
+this country possesses such happy requisites for exhibiting the farmer
+in the true colours of nature as Mr. Jefferson. In the rustic deportment
+and dialect--in the artless effusions of benignity and undisguised
+truth--and in those masterly strokes of pathos and simplicity with which
+the author has finished this inimitable picture Mr. Jefferson showed
+uniform excellence: and as in the humorous parts his comic powers
+produced their customary effect on our risibility, so in the serious
+overflowings of the farmer's honest nature the mellow, deep, impressive
+tone of the actor's voice vibrated to the heart, and excited the most
+exquisite sensations.
+
+Mr. Wood performed Bob Handy. He was given out in the bills for sir
+Philip Blandford; but was, by a casualty, obliged to take the part of
+Bob: a change which, on more accounts than one, the audience had no
+cause to regret. Nor in our opinion, had either Bob or sir Philip any
+cause to lament it. Mr. Wood is at home in light comedy, while Mr.
+M'Kenzie, whose merits seem not to be sufficiently appreciated, is well
+calculated for such characters as Philip Blandford.
+
+The judgment of Mr. Warren enables him to perform any character he
+undertakes with propriety--but there are some parts in comedy for which
+he seems admirably qualified by nature and knowledge of stage business.
+We could enumerate several; but this is not the place for doing so--his
+representation of sir Abel Handy was uncommonly humorous and
+appropriate.
+
+Mr. Cone's Henry was pleasing. This young actor promises well. Though,
+to adopt the cant of the turf, he will never be first, there is no fear
+of his being distanced, unless he carries too great weight.
+
+Dame Ashfield in the performance of Mrs. Francis would be admired by
+Mrs. Grundy herself; and to express our opinion of Mrs. Wood's Susan
+would be only to repeat what we have already said of her on more
+occasions than one.
+
+
+It gives us infinite regret to be compelled, just as we put our foot
+upon the threshold of the critic's office, to animadvert upon some
+errors and defects in pronunciation, of which we could not have imagined
+the persons concerned to be capable. Our purpose is to persuade the
+people to encourage the stage upon principles honourable to it; not as a
+place of mere barren pastime; but as a school of improvement. But how
+shall we be able to bring the public mind to that habitual respect for
+the stage without which it must lose all useful effect, if the actors
+show themselves unfit for conveying instruction. Were this to be the
+case, and were mere pastime the object of theatres, Astley's
+horse-riders, the tumblers and rope-dancers of Sadlers-Wells, nay, the
+PUNCH of a puppet-show, would be as useful and respectable as Garrick,
+Barry, Cooke, or Kemble, and the circus might successfully batter its
+head against the walls of that building in Chesnut-street which the
+sculptor has enriched with the wooden proxies of Melpomene and Thalia.
+But criticism will not allow this. For the sake of the stage it will
+exert all its might to support the actors--and for the sake of the stage
+it will hold them in admonition. If the established principles of
+literature be violated by the actors, the very ground upon which the
+critic would support them, is blown up by a mine of their own
+construction, and not only they must sink, but the critic must, for the
+maintenance of a just cause, put his hand to their heads and give them a
+lanch. The theatre is a school for elocution or it is nothing. In Great
+Britain it has time immemorial been attended to, not as authority for
+innovations, but as an organ of conveyance of the authorised
+pronunciation, to which the growing youth of the country were to look
+for accurate information of what was correct, as settled and considered
+by their superiors, that is, by high learned men and statesmen. If the
+actors, therefore, run counter to authority, and thereby endanger the
+cause which they are presumed to aid, the mischief is too general and
+extensive in its operation to be neglected or endured. There is nothing
+belonging to the stage which demands such strict discipline as its
+orthoepy, because there is none in which it can so immediately and
+powerfully affect the public. On this point therefore we are determined
+to sacrifice nothing to ceremony; being convinced that debasing the
+language is essentially as injurious, though legally not so punishable,
+as defacing the current coin of a country.
+
+Without pointing to individuals by name, we request the ladies and
+gentlemen of the green-room to consult all the acknowledged authorities
+for the pronunciation of the words: true, rude, brute, shrewd, rule, in
+which the u is by some of them sounded very improperly; _true_ so as to
+rhyme to _few_, _new_, &c. _rule_ as if it were to rhyme to _mule_, and
+so on; whereas true ought to be pronounced as if it were spelled _troo_,
+and rhymed to _do_; rule as if spelled _rool_, and so on; and thus they
+will find them in the dictionaries of acknowledged authority.
+
+Since we are on the subject we will now advert to some other words which
+are often most lamentably mispronounced, not only contrary to the
+pronunciation established by all learned men and orators in Great
+Britain, but exactly in that way in which skilful actors often pronounce
+them in Europe when they wish to mimic the most low and ignorant classes
+of society. Of this description is the pronunciation of the word
+"sacrifice." For these words we refer all whom it may concern to the
+dictionaries of the best orthoepists, by which they will be instructed
+that it is not pronounced say-crifice but sac-rifize. If the former be
+really the pronunciation, the old ladies who smoke short pipes in the
+chimney corners of English and Irish cottages, are right, and Burke,
+Fox, Pitt, Windham, Curran, Grattan, Sheridan, and in short every man
+who speaks in a public assembly in England or Ireland, are wrong. We are
+not sure whether Mr. Kemble, who, as an excellent critic has observed,
+is always seeking for novelty and always running into error, may not
+lately have added that patch to his motley garb of new readings; but his
+authority is disallowed. Even Garrick, whose claims were of a very
+superior kind, when he attempted to render the English language, already
+too unstable, more so, by his innovations, was repelled with helpless
+contempt.
+
+This is a point to which it is the manager's duty to attend, because it
+is not a matter of doubt, nor subject to discretionary opinion. What
+must that part of our youth who attend to these things from a laudable
+desire for improvement, think, when they hear the same word differently
+pronounced in the same scene by different actors. Upon one night
+particularly, Mr. M'Kenzie several times returned the mispronounced
+word, pronounced as it should be, with an emphasis which could not be
+misunderstood: yet the mispronunciation was persisted in.
+
+Before we drop this subject we must observe that the pronunciation of
+the last syllable of the word sacrifice is sometimes as erroneously
+pronounced as the first, indeed worse, as the sound given to it
+approximates to one which conveys an offensive idea. Properly pronounced
+it rhymes to the verbs _advise_, _rise_, and not to mice, spice, &c.
+
+
+Having brought our critical journal up to the appearance of that
+phenomenon of the stage of this new world, Master Payne, we find
+ourselves constrained, by the limits of this number, to postpone our
+observations upon the plays in which that extraordinary boy, for so many
+nights, astonished and delighted crowded houses, and far beyond our
+expectations, made good his title to the partiality of every city in
+which he has performed.
+
+
+
+
+CRITICISM.
+
+THE FOUNDLING OF THE FOREST--A PLAY.
+
+
+This production which we have annexed to our first number, not on
+account of its superior merit, but because it was the most recently
+published of any that has yet come to our hands, will, on the most
+superficial reading, be discerned to be of the true German cast. The old
+trick of grouping the characters at the end of a scene, and dropping the
+curtain upon them, by way of leaving it to the general conception of the
+audience to guess the rest, as is done in the Stranger, and all others
+of that breed, is here twice put in practice. Those who like such drugs
+mixed up with a _quantum sufficit_ of horror, and all the tenterhook
+interest, hair-breadth escapes, and incident so forced as to stagger
+belief, which make up the hotchpotch romances whether narrative or
+dramatic of the present day, will like this. Mr. Dimond has in this
+piece certainly shown great skill in working up that kind of materials
+to the production of stage effect; since to those who can be interested
+or affected by the marvellous and mysterious, and who love to step for
+amusement out of the precincts of nature, and the conduct of "the folks
+of the world" the Foundling of the Forest will be interesting and
+affecting. Viewing it with a strict critical eye, not only the plot is
+faulty, but the composition is in many places extremely bad. If the
+production of original character was the author's design, he has
+succeeded to his heart's content in that of Florian, which we believe
+has never had a prototype in this world. In this _hero_ who is sometimes
+as bombastical as ancient Pistol, and sometimes as ridiculous as a
+buffoon, the author attempts to be droll, and
+
+  Aims at wit--but levell'd in the dark,
+  The random arrow never hits the mark.
+
+A London critic remarking with just severity upon the strange way in
+which the divinity is addressed in this piece, says, "This blot defaces
+almost all the modern things called dramas or plays. In the farcical
+comedies we have low vulgar swearing unworthy even the refuse of
+society; while in the _comedies larmoyantes_ (_weeping comedies_) and
+tragedies, we have eternal imprecations of the deity, indicative only of
+madness in literature." To this observation as well as that which
+follows from the same critic we heartily subscribe. "It is interspersed
+with songs, to one of which we direct[8] the reader, to remind the
+author of what Pope says:
+
+  Want of decency shows want of sense.
+
+  [Footnote 8: _See the Duett between Rosabelle and L'Eclair, Act.
+  III, scene I, page 16._]
+
+"Among _soi-disant_ jolly fellows revelling in senseless ribaldry and
+inebriety (continues the reviewer) this song might be deemed very fine;
+but we shrewdly suspect that if the lines had been spoken at the theatre
+instead of being sung, the audience would have resented the insult."
+
+It would be injustice not to add that the concluding speech of count
+Valmont, and many other parts scattered through the piece, must be
+admired as specimens of very fine composition.
+
+
+
+
+MUSIC.
+
+
+The lovers of poetry and music have lately been highly gratified by the
+publication of "A Selection of Irish Melodies, with Symphonies and
+Accompaniments, by Sir JOHN STEVENSON, Doctor of Music, and
+Characteristic Words, by THOMAS MOORE, Esq. the first number of which
+was published in London and Dublin in the month of February of the last
+year, the reviewers spoke with decided approbation. To the second
+number, published in April, they are no less favourable. These melodies
+have been for some time anxiously expected--it being pretty generally
+understood that that fascinating poet, Moore, was employed in the
+pursuit of them. He had promised them for sometime. "It is intended,
+says the editor, to form a collection of the best Irish melodies, with
+characteristic symphonies and accompaniments, and with words containing
+as frequently as possible, allusions to the manners and history of the
+country;" and in a letter of Mr. Moore's which appears in the
+publication, he says, "I feel very anxious that a work of this kind
+should be undertaken. We have too long neglected the only talent for
+which our English neighbours ever deign to allow us any credit. While
+the composers of the continent have enriched their operas and sonatas
+with melodies borrowed from Ireland, very often without even the honesty
+of acknowledgment, we have left these treasures in a great degree
+unclaimed and fugitive. Thus our airs, like too many of our countrymen,
+for want of protection at home, have passed into the service of
+foreigners. But we are come I hope to a better period both of politics
+and music: and how much they are connected, in Ireland at least, appears
+too plainly in the tone of sorrow and depression which characterizes
+most of our early songs. The task which you propose to me of adapting
+words to these airs, is by no means easy. The poet who would follow the
+various sentiments which they express, must feel and understand that
+rapid fluctuation of spirits, that unaccountable mixture of gloom and
+levity which composes the character of my countrymen, and has deeply
+tinged their music. Even in their liveliest strains we find some
+melancholy note inhere, some minor third or flat seventh which throws
+its shade as it passes, and makes even mirth interesting. If BURNS had
+been an Irishman (and I would willingly give up all our claims upon
+Ossian for him) his heart would have been proud of such music, and his
+genius would have made it immortal."
+
+A London reviewer speaking of the first number, says, "the idea is
+excellent, and the twelve vocal airs which this first number of the work
+contains, are tastefully arrayed by sir John Stevenson, and happily
+provided with language by Mr. Moore.
+
+"We are happy (continues the reviewer) to find that even where Mr.
+Moore's subject is amatory, his poetry is very little in the style of
+those baneful effusions which are undergoing so rigorous an examination.
+His verse is here fanciful and gentlemanly, full of his subject, and, as
+far as our English souls can judge, faithfully expressing it. Nothing
+can be more pathetic than "Oh! breathe not his name;" nothing more
+brilliant than "Fly not yet, 'tis just the hour;" and nothing more
+poetical than "As a beam o'er the face of the waters may glow." We must
+be indulged in quoting one of those effusions of Mr. Moore's genius; and
+we can find none more elegant or natural than the following:
+
+_SONG._
+
+  Oh! think not my spirits are always as light,
+    And as free from a pang as they seem to you now,
+  Nor expect that the heart-beaming smile of tonight,
+    Will return with tomorrow to brighten my brow.
+
+  No, Life is a waste of wearisome flowers,
+    Which seldom the rose of enjoyment adorns;
+  And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers,
+    Is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns.
+
+  But send round the bowl, and be happy awhile;
+    May we never meet worse in our pilgrimage here
+  Than the tear that Enjoyment can gild with a smile,
+    And the smile that Compassion can turn to a tear.
+
+  The thread of our life would be dark, heaven knows!
+    If it were not with friendship and love intertwined;
+  And I care not how soon I may sink to repose,
+    When these blessings shall cease to be dear to my mind!
+
+  But they who have lov'd the fondest, the purest,
+    Too often have wept o'er the dream they've believed;
+  And the heart that has slumber'd in friendship securest,
+    Is happy indeed if 'twas never deceiv'd.
+
+  But send round the bowl; while a relic of truth
+    Is in man or in woman, this pray'r shall be mine,
+  That the sunshine of love may illumine our youth,
+    And the moonlight of friendship console our decline.
+
+"The airs of the first number are excessively beautiful in
+themselves--particularly those of the well known "Gramachree," "Plausty
+Kelly," and the "Summer is Coming," and the duets of "The Maid of the
+Valley," and the "Brown Maid," are very delightful. "The latter (says
+the London reviewer) is a perfect specimen of the genius of duet, each
+part taking up the other alternately. The publication of these Irish
+airs fully discovers the source of Mr. Moore's musical compositions."
+
+Speaking of the second number, the reviewer says it is by no means
+inferior to the first either in music or in poetry. The air "Oh! weep
+for the hour" ("The Pretty Girl of Derby O!") is harmonized in a style
+of great elegance; and that, and "The Red Fox," "The Black Joke," and
+"My Lodging is on the Cold Ground," have particularly pleased us in
+their arrangement. The song which Mr. Moore has written to "The Black
+Joke," is both poetical and political, and though the affairs of Spain
+have now rendered it, as to that country, an _old newspaper_, yet it is
+still good in the cause of Ireland."
+
+
+
+
+SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.
+
+
+The coterie of old ladies in the British parliament, the _chairwoman_ of
+which was the late sir Richard Hill, have failed in all their attempts
+to tie up the hands of the people from their old sports. They have
+declaimed in parliament, and they have declaimed in print, against all
+the gymnastic exercises which time immemorial have been the pride and
+the pastime of the hardy natives of the British islands. Never did
+Robespierre weep such unfeigned tears over "sweet bleeding humanity," as
+those good souls have shed over the broken heads, and black eyes, and
+bloody noses of the Bull family, who, obstinate dogs, will still go on
+and laugh at their ladyships. Indeed Bonaparte himself, whose interest
+it really is, could not more anxiously desire the abolition of those
+gymnastic exercises.
+
+The sports of England are horse-racing; fox, hare, and stag-hunting;
+coursing with greyhounds; shooting, fishing, bull-baiting, wrestling,
+single stick, pugilism, pedestrianism, cricket, &c. These are practised
+by all ranks and on national accounts, are encouraged by all the wise
+and patriotic men of the country; some few, and those mostly fanaticks,
+excepted. To those games they add, in Ireland, the noble sport of
+hurling, in which that vigorous race exhibit such prodigies of strength
+and activity as induced the celebrated Arthur Young to speak to this
+effect in his Tour through Ireland: "In their hurlings, which I would
+call the cricket of savages, they perform feats of agility that would
+not do discredit to Sadler's Wells."
+
+The gymnastic games have been long carried on so systematically that
+they make as regular a part of the public intelligence as any that finds
+its way into the public papers, and have, like the theatre, their
+appropriated periodical publications.[9] On this subject we would say
+much more, as we mean to present our readers with such things as appear
+curious or extraordinary in those publications; but by way of a
+beginning, and to pave the road for the reception of this part of our
+work by the public, we beg leave to offer, not to their hasty perusal,
+but their profound consideration, the following defence of pugilism,
+written, it is said, by that profound statesman, patriot, and scholar,
+William Windham, whose eloquence and wit caused sir R. Hill's
+bull-baiting bill to be laughed out of the House of Commons.
+
+  [Footnote 9: The Sporting Magazine for one.]
+
+"I lay it down as a principle, that in every state of society, men,
+particularly those of the lower ranks, will ever require some means of
+venting their passions and redressing personal affronts, independently
+of those which the laws of their country might afford them; and that it
+is of more benefit to the community that these personal contests should
+be under such regulations as place bounds to resentment, than that they
+should be left to the unrestrained indulgence of revenge and ferocity.
+In most countries on the northern continent of Europe, bodily strength
+exclusively decides the contest; hands, feet, teeth, and nails are all
+employed, and the strongest gratifies his resentment by biting, kicking,
+and trampling upon his prostrate adversary.[10] In the south the appeal
+is usually to the stiletto, and a _colpo dicoltello_ is so common at
+Naples, that there is hardly a lazarone who has not the marks of it on
+some parts of his body; not a year passes in which there are not
+hundreds of assassinations in this city. Now, observe the different
+effects of a different principle: A sailor, some time since, at
+Nottingham, lent an aeronaut his assistance in preparing the ascent of
+his balloon; when receiving a blow from one of the by-standers while he
+held a knife in his hand--"You scoundrel," exclaims the tar, "you have
+taken the advantage by striking me because you knew that, as I held a
+knife I could not strike you again." Under similar circumstances, what
+would have been the conduct of a Genoese or a Neapolitan?
+
+  [Footnote 10: He might have added gouging, as practised in the
+  southern States of this Union.]
+
+Boxing, as it is conducted in this country, is a remnant of the ancient
+tilt and tournament, conducted on the principles of honour and equity;
+a contest of courage, strength, and dexterity, where every thing like an
+unfair and ungenerous advantage, is proscribed and abhorred. It is a
+custom peculiarly our own, and to which probably we are not only
+indebted for the infrequency of murder and assassination, but also for
+the victories of Maida, and Trafalgar.
+
+Some persons are willing to allow these effects, provided the practice
+was confined to casual contests, and not extended to public combats and
+stage fights. These, they say, induce the laborious men to quit their
+occupations, and serve as a rendezvous for the disorderly and the
+profligate; but is not the same objection to be made to all amusements
+in which the lower orders are peculiarly interested, and where else
+would men of this description practically learn, that the gratification
+of their personal resentments must be limited by the laws of honour and
+forbearance? Had Crib struck Gregson after the decision of the contest
+in his favour, what would have been the indignant feelings of the
+surrounding multitude, and what would he not have experienced from their
+resentment? And are these feelings not worth inculcating? will they not
+characterise a nation, and are they not the genuine sources of
+generosity and honour? If it be admitted, which I think cannot be
+denied, that any advantage be derived to society from individuals in
+these combats being restrained from giving full scope to ferocity and
+revenge, these advantages must be exclusively ascribed to the custom of
+public exhibitions. It is from these that all regulations and
+restrictions originate--it is from these they are propagated, and with
+these they will be extinguished.
+
+"I am not without apprehension, that from abhorrence of what some call
+brutal and vulgar pursuits, the noble science of attack and defence
+should be in future proscribed at the seminaries of Eton, Winchester,
+and Westminster, and that little master should be enjoined by his mama,
+in case of an affront, to resort to his master for redress and
+protection. To the custom, indeed, as it now prevails, the English youth
+are, in a great measure indebted for their nobleness and manliness of
+character. Two boys quarrel, they agree to box it out--they begin and
+they end by shaking hands; the enmity terminates with the contest--And
+what is this but a lesson of courage, magnanimity, and forgiveness? the
+principles of which are thus indelibly impressed on the mind of the boy,
+and must ever after influence the character of the man.
+
+"Away then with this effeminate cant about maintaining order and
+decorum, by the suppression of the public exhibitions of manly
+exercises. To them the individual Englishman owes his superiority to the
+individual of every other country, in courage, strength, and agility:
+and as a country is composed of individuals, to what other causes can
+England more reasonably impute her proud preeminence among nations which
+she now enjoys, and which she will ever maintain till this spirit is
+tamed into servility, under the pretence of applying salutary
+restrictions to the licentiousness of the people."
+
+
+After the foregoing essay, a parallel drawn between English men and
+English mastiffs by the celebrated cardinal Ximenes comes not
+unappropriately in this place.
+
+The cardinal, who was minister to one of the French monarchs, observed
+that the English, like their native mastiffs, lived in a state of
+internal hostility. "The cause," said he, "which creates a canine
+uproar, every one knows, is a bone; whence among the English, every
+statistical elevation, as well as other causes of contest, is called A
+BONE OF CONTENTION. During the time of profound peace, these island dogs
+are always growling, snapping at, and tearing each other; but the moment
+the barking of foreign dogs is heard, the contention about bones ceases,
+the whole species become friends, and with one heart and mind they join
+their teeth to defend their kennels against foreign enemies."
+
+The following extraordinary circumstances are selected from the British
+sporting intelligence of the last year.
+
+
+"A herdsman lately met a fox in the morning, on a mountain in the
+neighbourhood of Ballycastle (Ireland). On his approach, the animal did
+not offer to avoid him, but allowed him to come close up, when he struck
+it with a stick and killed it. On examination the fox was found to be
+completely destitute of teeth, and is supposed to have been blind with
+age.
+
+
+"A fox lately turned out at Fisherwick-park, the hunting seat of the
+marquis of Donnegal, being hard pressed, forced his way into the window
+of a farm house, and took shelter under the bed of the farmer's wife who
+had not an hour before lain in. The feelings of all parties may easier
+be imagined than described. The good woman, however, suffered no
+material injury by Reynard's unexpected visit, who was taken and
+reserved for the sport of another day.
+
+
+"On Wednesday last, about six o'clock, a covey of partridges were seen
+to pitch in the middle of the CIRCUS, Bath, supposed to have taken
+refuge there, after having escaped from the aim of some distant gunner.
+Under the effects of fright and fatigue six were easily caught by three
+servants, and strange as it may appear the three servants of three
+eminent physicians who reside in that elegant pile. Doctor F.'s man
+secured three; doctor P.'s two, and doctor G.'s the other bird.
+A _consultation_ afterwards took place respecting the fate of these poor
+tremblers, when it was humanely determined that they should be taken in
+a basket to some distance, and liberated, which was accordingly done.
+A keen sportsman would not approve of this forbearance; but perhaps none
+of the doctors had taken out a license to kill--GAME.
+
+
+"A male and female hare were put together by lord Ribblesdale for one
+year, when the offspring amounted to sixty-eight. A pair of rabbits
+inclosed for the same time produced above three hundred. The value of
+rabbits' wool used annually in the manufacture of hats in England is two
+hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
+
+
+"A few days ago a hare was observed lying before a door in
+Manchester-street, London. The poor animal was immediately pursued, and
+in less than a minute the street was crowded: she succeeded in making
+her way down through Duke-street, followed by an immense mob. The
+novelty of a hunt in such a place caused every person in the surrounding
+streets to join in the chase. Notwithstanding her numerous pursuers she
+made her way down Oxford-street and into Stratford-place, where she got
+into the corner next to the duke of St. Alban's house, and remained
+quietly until she was taken alive by the duke's porter in the presence
+of an immense concourse of spectators.
+
+
+"On the twenty-ninth of October last, in the afternoon, a fox was seen
+crossing the fields of Camptown in Bedfordshire, followed by a
+shepherd's dog. The fox first made his way into the grounds of the
+reverend Mr. Davies's boarding-school, at Campton, where the boys were
+at play. Reynard was no sooner in the midst of this juvenile assembly
+than a tumultuous uproar assailed him, from which he fled with all speed
+through a border plantation into the road, and crossing to the house of
+the reverend Mr. Williamson the minister of the parish, he bolted
+through the glass into the library. Here a female servant was cleaning
+the room, who by the sudden and unexpected appearance of this new
+visitor was thrown into fits. The family running into the apartment
+found the fox skulking in a corner, and the poor girl lying extended on
+the floor. With some difficulty she was recovered, and master Reynard
+was bagged for a future chase. Nobody can tell where the chase
+commenced, but the dog is known to belong to a shepherd at Meppershall,
+the adjoining parish to Campton.
+
+
+"The Cranborne chase pack had one of the finest runs ever known in the
+western part of the kingdom. They unkennelled at Punpernwood, four miles
+east of Blandford. The fox went off immediately for "the chase," and
+having taken a round in the West-walk, broke off over Iwern hills, and
+entered the vale of Blackmore, leaving the parish of Shooten to the
+left, making his play towards Duncliffwood near Shaston; but having been
+headed, he bent his course to the river Stow, which he boldly crossed in
+defiance of the flood, and after running the vale many miles passed
+through Piddleswood towards Okeford, Fitzpaine, but the hounds pressing
+him hard he was obliged to return to the cover, where having taken a
+turn or two he broke on the opposite side near the town of Shirminster,
+and crossed the commons to Mr. Brunes's seat at Plumber, where he
+entered a summer-house, passed through the chimney flue, and entered a
+drain, whence being bolted, he was run into and killed at Fifehide
+Neville, fourteen miles straight from the place where he was found,
+after a chase of two hours and ten minutes.
+
+
+BACKGAMMON.
+
+"It appears from the glossary to the Welch Laws that the game of
+backgammon was invented in Wales, sometime before the reign of Canute
+the Great, and that it derived its name from _Back_, which in the welch
+language meant _little_, and _Cammon_, which in the same language
+signified _Bottle_.
+
+
+"A blacksmith of Winchester in Hampshire, undertook, for a wager, to
+shoe six horses, and make the shoes and nails himself complete in _seven
+hours_. He accomplished it in twenty-five minutes less than the time.
+
+
+"Mr. Brewer of the Crown inn, Nothingham, undertook for a wager of forty
+guineas to go with a mare belonging to him in a cart, to Newark and back
+again, being a distance of _forty miles, in four hours_. He performed it
+in twelve minutes less than the given time. Considerable bets were laid
+against the performance. The mare is under fourteen hands high.
+
+
+DICK THE HUNTER.
+
+"A poor fellow, half an ideot, has by his singularity got himself so
+noticed by the sporting gentlemen at Newmarket, that his picture has
+been painted by Mr. Chalon, and engravings from it have been published.
+He was intended for a blacksmith, but being untractable, was allowed to
+follow his own inclination. Being always fond of hunting he soon
+attracted the attention of the gentlemen of the chase, and never failed
+joining the hounds whenever they made their appearance. Dick is such an
+amazing swift runner that he keeps in with the hounds for many miles
+together, to the surprise of all the gentlemen, who confess him to be a
+very useful man among them, as he instantly discovers the track of a
+fox, and is very clever at finding a hare sitting, and who therefore
+support him. He never goes out without carrying a knife, a fork, a spoon
+and a spur, which are all of his own making, a performance that shows
+him not to be destitute of ingenuity, as they are not separately made,
+but contained in one, and with these he is at once equipped either for
+sporting or eating. The spur he uses for pricking himself, which he
+fancies enables him to keep up with the hounds. He frequently uses it to
+the no small amusement of the spectators. His dress is quite as singular
+as his mode of life, for he always wears a long surtout coat,
+a hunting-cap, a boot on one leg and a shoe on the foot of the
+other--and thus equipped he runs with the speed of a hunting-horse,
+clearing with ease all the ditches and fences the riders do.
+
+
+"One of the best packs of hounds in England was most completely beat
+lately by a fox. The latter was turned out before them near Wold Newton,
+in Yorkshire, and after running rings for sometime, went off for
+Scarborough, near which place the hounds were so completely knocked up
+that he beat them in view, for the huntsman could not get them a yard
+further--a number of riders lost their horses in the cars, and were seen
+wading up to their necks to catch them again. The fox ran upwards of
+twenty miles.
+
+
+"In the discussions which have arisen in and out of parliament in
+England about the abolition of the Briton's old favourite sports, it was
+conceded by all but a few, that from the custom of boxing, singlestick
+and backsword playing, wrestling, &c. arose the good temper which
+distinguishes that people--Englishmen being less subject to violent fits
+of anger than the people of any other nation in the world. In the
+compass of eighteen pages of a work now before us we have details of no
+less than two grand matches of singlestick, one Wiltshire against
+Somersetshire, and the other Somersetshire against all England, for
+large purses. In both cases the champions of Somerset county beat; and
+what must astonish those who hear it, the victors (though men in the
+lowest classes of life in one case) shared the prize with the
+vanquished. In the former, Somerset gave nine broken heads and received
+seven--in the latter, gave eight and received six. The Wiltshire men
+went to Trowbridge in Somersetshire, the appointed place of meeting,
+attended by some of the leading gentry of Wiltshire, and the gentleman
+who was appointed by them to preside, bore public testimony to the
+liberal and kind treatment his countrymen experienced.
+
+"Any person who has seen the farce of Hob in the Well, performed, will
+remember to have seen a specimen of this kind of prize fighting, for
+which as well as wrestling, the people of Somersetshire have for ages
+been renowned. In Scotland they excel at the backsword--the Irish too
+are admirable hands--but neither have the temper of the English;
+"Oppression makes a wise man mad;" what should it do then with a poor
+peasantry? The tempers of the English have not had that to irritate
+them. We will close this subject with a letter from an intelligent
+Londoner, who was travelling through Hampshire.
+
+
+"Passing, sometime since, through Rapley Dean, Hants, my attention being
+attracted by a crowd of rustics on a little green near the road I turned
+my horse thither, and arrived in the time when a lame elderly man, who I
+afterwards found was the knight marshal of the field, from the middle of
+a ring made by ropes, proclaimed, that "a hat worth one guinea was to be
+played for at backsword; the breaker of most heads to bear away the hat
+and honour," and inviting the youth there to contend for it. A little
+after, a young fellow threw his hat into the ring and followed, when the
+lame umpire called out "a challenge," and proceeded to equip the
+challenger for the game. His coat and waiscoat were taken off, his left
+hand tied by a handkerchief to his left thigh, and a stick, with basket
+hilt, put into his hand; he then walked round the ring till a second hat
+was thrown in, and the umpire called out, "the challenge is answered."
+
+"As soon as prepared, the knights met, measured weapons, shook hands,
+walked once round, turned and began the contest. In about a minute, the
+umpire called out "About," when they dropped the points of their weapons
+and walked round, and this calling I observed, was repeated as often as
+the umpire judged either distressed. After some twenty minutes play,
+some blood trickled down the challenger's head; the umpire called
+"Blood;" and declared the other to have won a head.
+
+"When both left the ring another hat was thrown in, and the challenge
+again accepted, and played off in the like manner, till the umpire
+announced there were four winners of heads, and proceeded to call the
+ties, that is, he called on the winners of the first two heads to play
+together, and afterwards on the winners of the third and fourth heads;
+after which the winners of two heads each played for the hat, and the
+proud victor (Morgan) thus to earn it, broke three heads. I was much
+struck with the amazing temper with which the game was played: not a
+particle of ill-will was shown, two young fellows, who played together
+forty-five minutes, and in the course of it gave each other many severe
+blows, one alone of which would have satisfied the most unconscionable
+taylor or man-milliner breathing, drank frequently together between the
+bouts, shaking hands as often as the weight of the blows given seemed to
+require it of their good-nature. Indeed it appeared to be a rule with
+each pair that played, to drink together after the contest, and a
+general spirit of harmony seemed to prevail. This game is certainly of
+great antiquity, and the only relick (with the exception of wrestling)
+of the ancient tournament. The knight defied with throwing down his hat
+or gauntlet--the rustic gamester does the same, and is equally courteous
+with the knight towards his opponent: nor were there in this instance
+village dames or damsels wanting, to animate the prowess of the youth.
+
+"It has been asserted, that these exhibitions engender a ferocious
+spirit; but were I to judge from what I saw, and from the inquiries I
+made into the characters of the players at Ropley Dean, from the farmers
+on my right and left, I should pronounce quite the contrary; and think
+that as long as the sword is used by our cavalry and navy, and as long
+as we wish to entertain in the nation a fearless, generous, martial
+spirit, we should encourage the like pastimes at our fairs and revels."
+
+
+
+
+MISCELLANY.
+
+
+A general sense seems to pervade all the most intelligent men of Great
+Britain that a reformation is wanting in almost every department of life
+in that country. The corruption of public taste in dramatic literature
+and acting, and in most of the fashionable amusements of the high flyers
+cries aloud, no less than that of the state, for a heavy-handed scourge
+and receives it. Among other things, the _musico-mania_ is attacked as
+having reached the highest acmé of absurdity. The Covent Garden
+proprietors are very roughly handled, but not more roughly than they
+deserve, for hiring Madam Catalani at the enormous salary of four
+thousand pounds sterling and a free benefit for the season, with a
+provision annexed, which is thought insolent, degrading, and unjust; no
+less than that of her French husband putting what fiddlers he pleases
+into the orchestra. The public prints are filled with remonstrances to
+the people, whose attention is directed to the storm which was raised on
+a similar occasion in 1755 and 1756, and which burst with such
+tremendous mischief on the head of Garrick. One writer thus vehemently
+expresses himself: "Shall a judge of the land be required to exercise
+the faculties of his vigorous mind, which have been cultivated and
+matured by an expensive education and the most laborious study; shall he
+be continually employed in discriminating between right and wrong, in
+the adjustment of individual differences, and in protecting the persons
+and properties of the honest and peaceable part of his majesty's
+subjects from the assaults of violence and the stratagems of fraud;
+shall his sensibility be wounded, and his heart pierced by the painful
+necessity to which he is frequently reduced of passing on his fellow-man
+those awful sentences which the nature of their crimes, and the voice of
+Justice imperiously demand; shall he, in short, be compelled to
+discharge the duties of an office which necessarily renders his nights
+anxious and restless, and subjects him in the day to the most irksome
+fatigue--and shall he, for all this fatigue of body and unremitting
+solicitude of mind, receive a salary scarcely exceeding _half_ the sum
+given to an ITALIAN CANTATRICE for the display of her vocal powers for a
+few nights?"
+
+The fact is that the robust and vigorous appetite of the English has
+been worn down by the intemperate use of German dramas, and is so
+vitiated and enfeebled that it can swallow nothing but hot spiced trash,
+or water gruel spoon-meat. Are the French wrong in calling John Bull
+_stupide barbare_ when they see him pouring thousands into the laps of
+foreign singers--and for what?--why, to sing such songs as this:
+
+  Tom Gobble was a grocer's son,
+      Heigho! says Gobble;
+  He gave a ven'son dinner for _fun_,
+  And he had a belly as big as a _tun_,
+    _With his handy dandy, bacon and gravy_,
+      Ah, hah, says alderman Gobble.
+
+  The servants ushered the company in,
+      Heigho! says Gobble;
+  The dinner is ready, quoth Tom, with a grin,
+  So he tucked a napkin under his chin,
+    With his handy dandy, bacon and gravy,
+      Ah, hah, says alderman Gobble,
+
+  Then Betty the cook-maid she gave a squall,
+      Heigho! says Gobble;
+  Poor John the footman has had a fall,
+  And down stairs tumbled, ven'son and all,
+    With his handy dandy, bacon and gravy,
+      Alas! says alderman Gobble.
+
+  So down the alderman ran in a fright,
+      Heigho! says Gobble;
+  And there sat John in a terrible plight
+  Astride on the ven'son _bolt upright_,
+    With his handy dandy, bacon and gravy,
+      Dear me! says alderman Gobble.
+
+  Was ever man so cruelly put on,
+      Heigho! says Gobble;
+  Get off the meat you rascally glutton,
+  You've made my ven'son a saddle of mutton,
+    With your handy dandy, bacon and gravy,
+      Good lack, says alderman Gobble.
+
+  Lord, sir, says Betty, what a _splash_,
+      Heigho! says Gobble;
+  'Tis a monstrous bad _rumbistical_ crash,
+  But tomorrow I'll tickle it up in a hash,
+    With your handy dandy, bacon and gravy,
+      Ay, do! says alderman Gobble.
+
+This vile, low, degrading farrago is taken from an opera called the
+Russian Impostor, or Siege of Sloremskho.
+
+After such trash it will be delightful to turn to some lines, written by
+lord Byron on this general subject of complaint. They are extracted from
+an excellent poem entitled "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,
+a Satire," with notes by the author.
+
+  Now to the DRAMA turn--oh, motley sight!
+  What precious scenes the wondering eyes invite!
+  Puns, and a prince within a _barrel_ pent,[11]
+  And Dibdin's nonsense yield complete content.
+  Though now, thank heaven! the _Roscio mania's_ o'er,
+  And full-grown actors are endured once more;
+  Yet, what avails their vain attempts to please,
+  While British critics suffer scenes like these;
+  While Reynolds vents his '_dammes_, _poohs_' and '_zounds_'[12]
+  And common place, and common sense confounds?
+  While Kenny's World just suffered to proceed,
+  Proclaims the audience very kind indeed?
+  And Beaumont's pilfer'd Caratach affords
+  A tragedy complete in all but words?[13]
+  Who but must mourn while these are all the rage,
+  The degradation of our vaunted stage?
+  Heavens! is all sense of shame and talent gone?
+  Have we no living bard of merit?--none?
+  Awake, George Colman! --Cumberland, awake!
+  Ring the alarum bell, let Folly quake!
+  Oh, Sheridan! if aught can move thy pen,
+  Let Comedy resume her throne again,
+  Abjure the mummery of German schools,
+  Leave new Pizarros to translating fools;
+  Give, as thy last memorial to the age,
+  One classic drama, and reform the stage.
+  Gods! o'er those boards shall Folly rear her head,
+  Where Garrick trod, and Kemble lives to tread?
+  On those shall Farce display Buffoonery's mask,
+  And Hook conceal his heroes in a _cask_?
+  Shall sapient managers new scenes produce
+  From Cherry, Skeffington, and Mother Goose?
+  While Shakspeare, Otway, Massinger, forgot,
+  On stalls must moulder, or in closets rot?
+  Lo! with what pomp the daily prints proclaim,
+  The rival candidates for attic fame!
+  In grim array though Lewis'[14] spectres rise,
+  Still Skeffington and Goose divide the prize.
+  And sure _great_ Skeffington must claim our praise,
+  For skirtless coats and skeletons of plays
+  Renowned alike; whose Genius ne'er confines
+  Her flight to garnish Greenwood's gay designs;[15]
+  Nor sleeps with 'Sleeping Beauties,' but anon
+  In five facetious acts comes thundering on,[16]
+  While poor John Bull, bewildered with the scene,
+  Keeps wondering what the devil it can mean;
+  But as some hands applaud, a venal few!
+  Rather than sleep, why John applauds it too.
+    Such are we now, ah! wherefore should we turn
+  To what our fathers were, unless to mourn?
+  Degenerate Britons! are ye dead to shame,
+  Or, kind to dulness, do you fear to blame?
+  Well may the Nobles of our present race
+  Watch each distortion of a Naldi's face;
+  Well may they smile on Italy's buffoons,
+  And worship Catalani's pantaloons,[17]
+  Since their own drama yields no fairer trace
+  Of wit than puns, of humour than grimace.
+    Then let Ausonia, skill'd in ev'ry art
+  To soften manners, but corrupt the heart,
+  Pour her exotic follies o'er the town,
+  To sanction Vice and hunt Decorum down:
+  Let wedded strumpets languish o'er Deshayes,
+  And bless the promise which his form displays;
+  While Gayton bounds before the enraptured looks
+  Of hoary marquises and stripling dukes:
+  Let high-born lechers eye the lively Presle
+  Twirl her light limbs that spurn the needless veil;
+  Let Angiolini bare her breast of snow,
+  Wave the white arm and point the pliant toe;
+  Collini trill her love-inspiring song,
+  Strain her fair neck and charm the listening throng!
+
+  [Footnote 11: In the melo-drama of Tekeli, that heroic prince is
+  clapt into a barrel on the stage: a new asylum for distressed
+  heroes!]
+
+  [Footnote 12: All these are favourite expressions of Mr. R. and
+  prominent in his comedies, living and defunct.]
+
+  [Footnote 13: Mr. T. Sheridan, the new manager of Drury Lane
+  Theatre, stripped the tragedy of Bonduca of the Dialogue, and
+  exhibited the scenes as the spectacle of Caractacus. Was this worthy
+  of his sire, or of himself?]
+
+  [Footnote 14:
+    Oh, wonder-working Lewis! monk, or bard,
+    Who fain would make Parnassus a church-yard!
+    Lo! wreaths of yew, not laurel, bind thy brow,
+    Thy Muse a sprite, Apollo's sexton thou!
+    Whether on ancient tombs thou tak'st thy stand,
+    By gibbering spectres hail'd, thy kindred band;
+    Or tracest chaste descriptions on thy page,
+    To please the females of our modest age.
+    All hail, M.P.![a] from whose infernal brain
+    Thin sheeted phantoms glide, a grisly train;
+    At whose command, "grim women" throng in crowds,
+    And kings of fire, of water, and of clouds,
+    With "small gray men," "wild yagers," and what not,
+    To crown with honour thee and Walter Scott:
+    Again, all hail! if tales like thine may please,
+    [b]St. Luke's alone can vanquish the disease;
+    Even Satan's self with thee might dread to dwell,
+    And in thy skull discern a deeper hell.
+
+    [Footnote 14a: See a poem to Mr. Lewis, in the Statesman, supposed
+    to be written by Mr. Jekyll.]
+
+    [Footnote 14b: St. Luke's is an hospital for lunatics in London.
+    _Editor of the Mirror._] ]
+
+  [Footnote 15: Mr. Greenwood is, we believe, scene-painter to Drury
+  Lane Theatre--as such, Mr. S. is much indebted to him.]
+
+  [Footnote 16: Mr. S. is the illustrious author of the "Sleeping
+  Beauty" and some Comedies, particularly "Maids and Bachelors."
+  _Baculaurii Baculo magis quam lauro digni._]
+
+  [Footnote 17: Naldi and Catalani require little notice--for the
+  visage of the one and the salary of the other, will enable us long
+  to recollect these amusing vagabonds; besides, we are still black
+  and blue from the squeeze on the first night of the lady's
+  appearance in trowsers.]
+
+A London critic adds the following pertinent observations: "Thus far our
+author concerning the stage, to which we add an observation or two of
+our own. We certainly think the _barrel_ a curious asylum for a
+distressed prince; but when we reflect on what kind of princes and
+heroes the modern stage and modern authors exhibit, (the seige of St.
+Quintin for instance, by the same author, Mr. Hook) we cannot help
+exclaiming (no plagiarism, we hope)
+
+  We with the sentence are indeed content,
+  To see _such_ princes in _such_ barrels pent.
+
+And as a barrel is described by our best lexicographers to be "any thing
+hollow," what vehicle more appropriate could be found? The ingenious
+author, was surely a favourite of the barrel, and well acquainted with
+the virtues of a _cask_; although according to sir Walter Raleigh, "some
+are so ill-seasoned and conditioned that a great part of the contents is
+ever lost and cast away."
+
+Respecting Mr. Reynolds's indulgence of himself, in perpetual repetition
+of his vocables,[18] we should be glad to have it in our power to affirm
+that the _beef and mutton_[19] author was the only one who disgraced
+himself by such contemptible degradation; but, alas! the pages of our
+work have too often exhibited similar complaints against the majority of
+our great playwrights--many of these _gentlemen_ being reduced to
+silence, without their auxiliary _dammes_!
+
+  [Footnote 18: Damme, pooh, zounds, &c.]
+
+  [Footnote 19: "Authors have lived and still live who write for
+  what they call _fame_! --For my part I write for more substantial
+  food--_beef_ and _mutton_ are the objects of my ambition."
+    --_Reynold's Preface to Begone Dull Care._]
+
+We differ widely from our author respecting Mr. T. Sheridan's
+_stripping_ of Bonduca--for we really think it worthy the son of that
+poet, who, neglecting his own genius and the duties of a regular
+practitioner, condescends to turn quack, and bedizen that high German
+doctor Pizarro, in an English dress!!
+
+Apropos of awaking George Colman! --We beg the noble lord's pardon; but
+we are not in such a violent hurry to disturb this gentleman; for if,
+when awake, he should not acquit himself better than in his last
+production of the Africans, we think the sounder he sleeps the more
+solid will be his reputation. Therefore,
+
+  Sleep on, George Colman! prithee, don't awake!
+  Nor let the alarum bell thy slumbers shake!
+  Lest jokes like _Mugg's_[20] should make our senses quake!
+
+  [Footnote 20: One of Mr. Colman's witty characters in the
+  _Africans_.]
+
+Why our author has coupled John Kemble's name with that of Garrick we
+cannot conceive; but that there appears more rhyme than reason in it, we
+can safely aver. We have somewhere heard that "a live ass is better than
+a dead lion," which we quote, not as individually applicable, but as a
+general adage; for we disclaim personalities, and well know that J. K.
+is an eminent actor, and one whom we have not niggardly praised. Yet we
+will not disparage departed excellence for any person existing; and
+therefore cannot avoid wishing our young author had seen Garrick, and
+bearing in his "mind's eye" his natural acting of Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth,
+Richard, &c.--he might then go and witness the performances of Mr.
+Kemble--and judge!
+
+
+
+
+CORRESPONDENCE.
+
+
+The conductors of the Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, have already
+to make acknowledgments to correspondents. Scarcely had their intention
+been promulgated when they were favoured with a letter, which, in less
+than a week afterwards was followed by two more, all of them upon the
+same subject, though evidently written by different persons. It had
+before been the intention of the conductors to call the public attention
+very soon to that very point to which these letters are intended to
+direct them; and conceiving that a fairer occasion for doing so can
+hardly occur than these letters afford them, they hasten to lay the
+contents of them before the public.
+
+"_To the Conductors of the Dramatic Work to be published by Messrs.
+Bradford and Inskeep._
+
+_November 27._
+
+"Sirs,
+
+"From what I can learn about your intended publication I like the idea,
+and have no doubt it may be of great use. I have often said that such a
+thing was much wanting, for I look upon a playhouse to be a very good
+thing, often keeping young men from worse places, and young women from
+worse employment. But if our playhouse goes on as it does, it will soon
+be a worse place to go to than any I allude to. Last evening I brought
+my family to see the play, and I assure you, I often wished we were all
+away again, the scandalous talk in the gallery was so bad. The noise was
+so great that there was no hearing any thing else. The players' voices
+were ten or a dozen times interrupted so that they could not be heard,
+and two or three fellows in the gallery were particularly scandalous.
+Above all the rest there was one, a finished vagabond, who spoke smut
+and roared it out loud, directing it to the ladies in the boxes. If any
+of you was there, gentlemen, you must have noticed it; if not, I can't
+write such filthy words as was spoken the whole evening. My wife begged
+me to come away on our little girl's account who was with us. It is not
+the players you ought to criticise, they behave themselves--but it is
+those vagabonds that think they have a right to disturb the house
+because they pay their half dollar a piece. I think it your duty to take
+notice of this, and I beg you will.
+
+A CITIZEN."
+
+N.B. They in the pit were bad enough, and so was some in the boxes.
+
+
+_To the Editors of the Mirror, &c._
+
+"Gentlemen,
+
+"As your intended publication is to come out monthly, I am doubtful
+whether I should trouble you on the present occasion; more particularly
+as you may probably think of the matter yourselves without a hint
+from me. Besides, I am not sure whether it is not the duty of the
+editors of the daily papers rather than yours. For my part, I think it
+is the duty of all people who regard the credit of the city, or tender
+the peaceableness and comfort of society. Our theatre, gentlemen, has
+sunk to the worst state imaginable of licentiousness and savage riot.
+Don't mistake me--I don't mean behind the curtain; but before it. While
+we hold ourselves so proudly to the world, what must those foreigners
+think of us who visit our theatre. From a place of rational recreation,
+and improvement, it has become a mere bear-garden. The play is
+interrupted, and all enjoyment, save that of riot and brawling, killed
+in various ways. The very boxes themselves are no sanctuary from
+ruffianish incivility; while the ears are stunned, and the cheek of
+Decency crimsoned with the profaneness, obscenity, and senseless brawl
+of barbarians in the gallery, the sight is intercepted, and all comfort
+destroyed by the unmannerly and unjust conduct of intruders in the boxes
+and pit, who think they have a right to push in and even stand up before
+another who has been previously seated, provided they have bodily
+strength to make good their violence. I say, gentlemen, this ought to be
+stopped. The spirit of the manager at New-York, backed by the laws, has
+put an end to it there, so far, that no theatre in Europe precedes it in
+order and decency. The same power exists here and ought to be exercised.
+These things disgrace the city as well as annoy our audiences, and I
+think our daily editors on both sides would evince their regard for the
+public by giving a few lines every day to the reform of this evil till
+it shall be abated. The proprietors and manager ought to call a meeting,
+invoke the aid of the magistrates and the people, and come to some
+decisive resolutions on the subject.
+
+Forensis."
+
+
+
+COMMUNICATION.
+
+_For the Mirror, &c._
+
+"The manager, or the magistrates, or somebody is greatly to blame about
+the playhouse. I brought my family to the pit to see that great actor,
+Cooper, play Zanga. We sat in the pit the whole time the blackguards
+were throwing down various kinds of things upon our heads. Scraps of
+apples, nutshells in handfulls, and what is worse something I can't well
+name--some about me said that brandy or strong grog was thrown down--it
+might be so once;--but it was not exactly that which fell on me and my
+family. Since then, I went to see him in Macbeth, and left my wife and
+daughter at home for fear; and the fellows above were as bad as
+before--and had not I luckily kept my hat on I should once have got my
+head broke with a hard heavy hiccory-nut that was thrown with all the
+force and spitefulness as if the person wanted to hurt somebody very
+severely."
+
+
+We agree with our correspondents that some prompt and effectual remedy
+ought to be applied to the evils of which they complain: and we are
+surprised it has not yet been done, because every person with whom any
+of us converses, makes pretty nearly the same complaint, and expresses
+the very same wish.
+
+In every country there exist multitudes as well disposed as those now
+alluded to, to disturb the playhouse, and bring brutal riot within its
+walls--but they will not be allowed. Any one who reads Colquhoun's
+account of London and its rabble, will perceive that there are people
+enough there ready to do offensive offices for the pure sake of offence
+and savageness; but not only the magistrates, but the audience
+themselves will not put up with it. The latter generally abate the
+nuisance in a summary way--they turn out the offender; and the law
+warrants, and if necessary aids them. If our audience suffer these
+encroachments what will be the fair conclusion, but that they concur
+with the offenders.
+
+It was but a few nights ago, a company (of perhaps ten,) converted the
+boxes into a grog shop--brought jug and bottle, and glass, and tumbler
+into the front seats, and there caroused, laughing, talking aloud, and
+swearing aloud, even during the performance. On the night the Revenge
+was performed, even while Mr. Cooper was engaged in a most interesting
+scene, a boy, not in mean clothes either, stood up at the front corner
+of the gallery, roaring out and speaking as loud as he could to some one
+on the opposite side. Yet this, were it not for the time it happened,
+was to the surrounding tumult, as a dying sigh to the roar of a
+northwester.
+
+It cannot be doubted that in a civilized society like this, some legal
+means must exist to put an end to these grievances. There are other
+grievances, however, that cannot be so _immediately_ made the subject of
+redress by the magistrate, but which, nevertheless, require correction,
+and would never occur if every one who can afford to wear such a coat as
+gentlemen wear, could imitate the manners of gentlemen as well as they
+can ape their dress. By a number of _well-coated_ persons of this kind,
+the time immemorial privileges of the theatre are violated, and its
+customary rights denied. Provided they think themselves able to scuffle
+it out by bodily strength they will indulge themselves at the expense of
+others--one of those will sit before a lady and refuse to take off his
+hat--another coming late will force his way contrary to all right and
+usage, before a person who has an hour before taken his seat--and if
+spoken to, utter surly defiance. Against every such unmannered intruder,
+the whole audience ought, for the establishment of the general right and
+the good old custom, to make common cause, and thrust him out by force.
+No doubt there are drawcansirs enough to push this offence as far as it
+will go. Let them know that there have been and still are drawcansirs in
+England, Ireland and Scotland--that Dublin particularly was once full of
+them; but that they were soon brought to manners by the just resentment
+of the audience--the gripe of the constable, and the contempt of every
+body.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+  A
+  Actors, animadversion on
+    WOOD,
+      in Rapid, 62
+      Rolla, 65
+      Reuben Glenroy, 67
+      Harry Dornton, 73
+      Bob Handy, 76
+      Alonzo, 229, 337
+      Jaffier, 337
+      Copper Captain, 339
+      Prince of Wales, 339
+    CONE,
+      Alonzo, 65
+      Henry, 76
+    WARREN,
+      Las Casas, 65
+      Abel Handy, 76
+      Falstaff, 344
+      Cacafogo, 344
+    JEFFERSON,
+      Frank Oatland, 62
+      Orozimbo, 65
+      Cosey, 67
+      Goldfinch, 73
+      Farmer Ashfield, 75
+    M'KENZIE,
+      Sir Hubert Stanley, 62
+      Pizarro, 65
+      Old Norval, 155
+    FRANCIS,
+      Vortex, 62
+      Trot, 68
+    Mrs. WOOD,
+      Jessy Oatland, 62
+      Cora, 66
+    Mrs. FRANCIS,
+      Mrs. Vortex, 62
+      Dame Ashfield, 76
+    Mrs. SEYMOUR, 62
+    PAYNE,
+      in Douglas, 145
+      Octavian, 220
+      Frederick, 221
+      Zaphna and Selim, 222
+      Tancred, 222
+      Romeo, 223
+    COOPER,
+      Othello, 225
+      Zanga, 227
+      Richard, 230
+      Pierre, 230
+      Hamlet, 231
+      Macbeth, 231
+      Hotspur, 234
+      Michael Ducas, 234
+      Alexander, 422
+      Antony, Jul. Cĉs. 420
+    WEST, 68, bis
+    DWYER,
+      Belcour, 425
+      Tangent, 427
+      Ranger, 427
+      Vapid, 427
+      Liar, 427
+      Rapid, 427
+      Sir Charles Racket, 427
+  Advice to conductors of magazines, 402
+  Ĉschylus, 114, 189
+  Alleyn, the player, account of, 45
+  Anecdotes and good things
+    Dick the Hunter, 92
+    Dr. Young, 181
+    Othello burlesqued, 181
+    Voltaire, 184
+    Louis XIV. 184
+    Mara and Florio, 185
+    Macklin, 247, 248, 397, 408, 409
+    Mozart, the composer, 257
+    Old Wignell, 343
+    Macklin and Foote, 397
+    Impertinent _Petit Maitre_, 406
+    Curious Slip Slop, 406
+    Specific for blindness, 407
+    Kemble and a stage tyro, 407
+    Kemble's bon mot on Sydney playhouse, 407
+    Irish forgery, 407
+    Woman and country magistrate, 408
+    French dramatic, 481
+    Bacon and cabbage, 485
+  Apparition, sable or mysterious bell-rope, 325
+  Aristophanes, 269
+  Authors' benefits
+    see Southern, 502
+
+  B
+  Barry, the great player, account of, 298
+  Bedford, duke of, monument, 317
+  Betterton, the great actor, 133, 213
+  Biography, 24, 118, 202, 357
+  Bull, a dramatic one, 505
+
+  C
+  Carlisle, countess of, opinion of drama, 398
+  Catalani, madam, 96
+  Cibber, Colley, his merit, 506
+  Coffee and Chocolate, account of, 311
+  Cone, see actors
+  Cooper, life of, 28
+  Cooper, see actors
+  Cooper, account of his acting, 223
+  Correspondence
+    on abuses of the Theatre, 103, 104
+  ----, from Baltimore on Theatricals, 157
+  ----, from New-York, ditto, 414
+
+  D
+  Dramatic Censor, 49, 141, 220, 337, 414
+  Drama, Grecian, 109, 189, 269, 350
+  ----, lady Carlisle's opinion on, 398
+  Dwyer, actor, 235
+  ----, see actors.
+  Dramaticus, 251, 328, 502
+  Dungannon, famous horse, 500
+
+  E
+  Edenhall, luck of, old ballad, 487
+  Edward and Eleonora, remarks on, 502
+  English, parallel between English men and English mastiffs,
+      by cardinal Ximenes, 88
+  Epilogues, humorous ones after tragedies censured, 400
+  Euripides, 195
+
+  F
+  Francis, see actors
+  ----, Mrs., ibid.
+  Fullerton, actor, driven to suicide, 504
+
+  G
+  German Theatre, vindication of, by Dramaticus, 251
+  Gifford, Wm. life of, 357, 447
+  Greek drama, 109, 189, 269, 350
+
+  H
+  History of the stage, 9, 109, 189, 269, 350, 431
+  High Life below Stairs, account of, 506
+  Hodgkinson, biography of, 202, 283, 368, 457
+
+  I
+  Irish bulls, specimen of, 455
+  Jefferson, see actors
+
+  L
+  Lear, essay on the alterations of it, 391
+  Le Kain, the French actor, account of, 438
+  Lewis, his retirement from the stage, 185
+  Literary World, what is it? 406
+  Longevity, instance of, 496
+  Lover general, a rhapsody, 399
+
+  M
+  Macklin checked practice of hissing, 504
+  Man and Wife, a comedy, 188
+  Menander, 350
+  Metayer Henry, anecdote of with Theobald, 503
+  M'Kenzie, see actors
+  Milton and Shakspeare, comparison between, 248
+  Miscellany, 96, 173, 241, 307, 384, 467
+  Music, 81, 257
+  ----, Oh think not my spirits are always as light,
+      a song by Anacreon Moore, 83
+  ----, Irish, 161
+  Musical performance, expectation of a grand one, 428
+
+  N
+  New-York reviewers impeached, 505
+  Nokes, comedian, 381
+
+  O
+  O'Kelly's horse Dungannon, 500
+  Originality in writing, Voltaire's idea of, 184
+  Otway, observations on, 502
+
+  P
+  Payne, American young Roscius, criticised on, 141, 220, 241
+  ----, see actors
+  Pedestrianism, humorous essay on, 262
+  Players celebrated compared with celebrated painters, 387
+  Plays, names of, attached to each No.
+    Foundling of the Forest, No. I
+    Man and Wife, No. II
+    Venoni, No. III
+    New Way to pay Old Debts, No. IV
+    Alfonso, king of Castile, No. V
+    The Free Knights, No. VI
+  Plays criticised in the Censor
+    Cure for the Heart-ach, 59
+    Pizarro, 62
+    Town and Country, 66
+    Ella Rosenberg, 69
+    Wood Demon, 71
+    Abaellino, 73
+    Road to Ruin, 73
+    Speed the Plough, 74
+    Man and Wife, 188
+    Foundling of the Forest, 80, 345
+    Africans, 418
+  Poetry
+    Tom Gobble, 97
+    English bards and Scotch reviewers, extract from, 98
+    Occasional prologue on the first appearance of Miss Brunton,
+      afterwards Merry and Warren, at Bath, 121
+    Latin verses on do. and translation, 124
+    Prologue on first appearance, of the same lady in London,
+      by A. Murphy, 126
+    Duck shooting, 172
+    A true story, 183
+    Lewis's address on taking leave of Ireland, 187
+    On the death of Mrs. Warren, 246
+    Descent into Elisium, 253
+    Gracy Nugent, by Carolan, 261
+    O never let us marry, 324
+    Epilogue by Sheridan, censuring humourous ones after tragedies, 401
+    Logical poem on chesnut horse and horse chesnut, 404
+    Quin, an anecdote in verse, 409
+    Luck of Edenhall, 487
+    The parson and the nose, 495
+    Solitude, advantages of for study, 495
+    Soldier to his horse, 499
+  Prospectus, 1
+
+  R
+  Reviews of New-York impeached, 505
+
+  S
+  Seymour, Mrs. see actors
+  She would and she would not, merit of, 506
+  Southern, 502
+  Socrates, death of, 280
+  Sophocles, 189
+  SPORTING, 85, 164, 262, 410, 499
+  Spain, divertissements in, 495
+  Strolling Player, a week's journal of, 396
+  Stage, history of, 8, 9, 109, 189, 269, 350
+
+  T
+  Taylor, Billy, critique on ballad, 467
+  Thespis, account of, 113
+  Theobaldus Secundus, 173, 241, 307, 384
+  Theatre, misbehaviour there, 267
+  Theobald, his theft from Metayer, 503
+  Theatrical contest, Barry and Garrick, in Romeo, 507
+  Thornton, Col. his removal from York to Wilts, 164
+
+  V
+  Voltaire, his idea of originality in writing, 184
+
+  W
+  Warren, Mrs. life of, 118
+  Warren, actor, see actors
+  West, see actors
+  Wit, pedigree of, by Addison, 406
+  Wife, essay on the choice of, 477
+  Wood, actor, see actors
+  ----, Mrs., ibid.
+
+  Y
+  Young, celebrated actor, 236
+
+  Z
+  Zengis, so unintelligible audience not understand it, 507
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+           *       *       *       *
+
+Errors and Inconsistencies: The Mirror of Taste
+
+  Spellings were changed only when there was an unambiguous error,
+  or the word occurred elsewhere with the expected spelling.
+
+_Unchanged:_
+  But this can no more be alledged
+  Congreve and other cotemporary authors
+  melo-drame  [most common spelling for this publication]
+  the excressences of overloaded society
+  Ella Rozenberg
+    [this spelling is used in the header and first citation; later
+    references use "Rosenberg"]
+  put his hand to their heads and give them a lanch
+  A poor fellow, half an ideot
+  His coat and waiscoat were taken off
+
+_Corrected:_
+  From Edinburgh he went with the company  [Edinburg]
+  notwithstanding the difficulty  [dfficulty]
+  the reviewers spoke with decided approbation  [appprobation]
+  Is happy indeed if 'twas never deceiv'd
+  in the adjustment of individual differences  [idividual]
+  While Reynolds vents his '_dammes_, _poohs_' and '_zounds_'[12]
+    [word "and" italicized]
+
+_Index_:
+  Missing or inconsistent punctuation has been silently regularized.
+
+  _Poetry_
+    Soldier to his horse, 499  [tohis]
+  Zengis, so unintelligible audience not understand it
+    [word missing in original]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+           *       *       *       *
+
+
+  THE
+  FOUNDLING OF THE FOREST:
+
+  A PLAY.
+
+
+  By WILLIAM DIMOND, Esq.
+
+  Author of "Adrian and Orrila," "Hero of the North,"
+  "Hunter of the Alps," &c. &c.
+
+
+  "And yet poor Edwin was no vulgar boy." _Beattie._
+
+
+  Published by Bradford and Inskeep, Philadelphia;
+  Inskeep and Bradford, New-York; and William
+  M'ilhennny, Boston.
+
+  Smith and Maxwell, Printers.
+
+  1810.
+
+
+
+
+THE FOUNDLING OF THE FOREST.
+
+
+
+
+DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
+
+  Count De Valmont.
+  Baron Longueville.
+  Florian, _a foundling adopted by De Valmont_.
+  Bertrand, _valet to Longueville_.
+  L'Eclair, _valet to Florian_.
+  Gaspard, _an old domestic_.
+  Sanguine, } _bravoes in the pay of Longueville_.
+  Lenoire,  }
+
+  Geraldine, _niece to De Valmont_.
+  Rosabelle, _her woman_.
+  Monica, _an old woman_.
+  Unknown Female.
+  _Domestics, Peasants, Dancers, &c. &c._
+
+
+  SCENE--_The Chateau de Valmont and its environs, situate in the
+  upper Alsace, near the River Rhine._
+
+
+
+
+ACT I.
+
+
+  SCENE I.--_A hall in the Chateau de Valmont._
+
+    Enter _Bertrand_, in agitation, followed by _Longueville_.
+
+_Ber._ Forbear, my lord! to urge me further.--Would you tempt me to
+insure perdition?--my soul is heavy enough with weight of crimes
+already.
+
+_Long._ Hypocrite! You, whom I have known in childhood--a villain, even
+from the cradle--committing crimes as pastimes--has your hand been
+exercised thus long in blood, to shake with conscience, and desert me
+now?
+
+_Ber._ I have, indeed, deserved reproaches, but not from your lips,
+my lord! Remember, for you it was this hand was first defiled with
+blood--remember, too--
+
+_Long._ Yes, villain! I do remember, that my misplaced bounty once gave
+you back a forfeit life. Twenty years past, when, as a deserter, you
+were sentenced, by the regiment under my command, to death, your fate
+was inevitable, had not I vouchsafed a pardon. Traitor! you, too, had
+best remember a solemn oath at that same period passed your lips, which
+bound you, soul and body, to my service ever--unscrupling to perform my
+pleasures, whether good or ill, and still to hold my secrets fast from
+earthly ears, though unabsolving priests renounced you on the death-bed.
+
+_Ber._ (_shuddering_) Ay! ay! it was an oath of horror, and if you
+command, it must be kept. Well, then--the young, the brave, the good,
+kindhearted Florian--yes--he dies!
+
+_Long._ Then only may your master be esteemed to live.
+
+_Ber._ But whence this hatred to an unoffending youth?--one, whose form
+delights all eyes, and whose virtues are the theme of every tongue?
+
+_Long._ Fool! that person and those virtues of which you vaunt, are
+with me his worst offences--they have undone my love and marred my
+fortunes--the easy heart of Geraldine is captivated by the stripling's
+specious outside, while his talents and achievements secure him with the
+uncle undivided favour.
+
+_Bert._ Can nothing but his blood appease your enmity?
+
+_Long._ Nothing--for now my worst suspicions stand confirmed. I have
+declared to De Valmont my passion for his niece, and the sullen
+visionary has denied my suit--nay, insolently told me "Geraldine's
+affections are another's right." --Curses on that minion's head!--'tis
+for Florian De Valmont's heiress is reserved--and shall I suffer this
+vile foundling, this child of charity, to lord it over those estates,
+for which my impatient soul has paid a dreadful earnest! No, by heavens!
+never!
+
+_Bert._ Fatal avarice! already have we bartered for those curst estates
+our everlasting peace!--for those did midnight flames surprise the sleep
+of innocence--for those did the sacrificed Eugenia with her shrieking
+babe--
+
+_Long._ Wretch! dare not repeat those names! Now, mark me: this night
+Florian returns a triumpher from his campaign--two of my trusty
+blood-hounds watch the road to give me timely note of his approach. One
+only follower attends the youth. In the thick woods 'twixt the chateau
+and Huningen, an ambush safely laid, may end my rival and my fears
+forever. In the west avenue, at sunset, I command your presence. Mark
+me! I command you by your oath.  [_Exit._
+
+_Bert._ Miserable man! I am indeed a slave, soul and body--both are in
+the thrall! I know the fiend I serve. If I attempt to fly, his vengeful
+agency pursues me to the world's limit. No--my doom is fixed--I must
+remain the very wretch I am for life--and after life--Oh! let me not
+think of that!
+
+    Enter _Rosabelle_ behind, who taps his shoulder.
+
+_Ros._ Talking to yourself, Mr. Bertrand? that's not polite in a lady's
+company.
+
+_Bert._ (_starting_) Ah! Rosabelle--good lass!--how art, Rosabelle?
+
+_Ros._ Why, Mr. Bertrand, how pale you look, and your limbs quite
+tremble--I fear me you are ill.
+
+_Bert._ Oh, no--I am well--quite well--never better.
+
+_Ros._ Then you are out of spirits.
+
+_Bert._ You mistake--I am all happiness--ha! ha!--all joy!
+
+_Ros._ What! because the wars are over, and chevalier Florian returns to
+us?--'tis a blest hearing, truly--after all the hardships and dangers he
+has passed to see him once again in safety--
+
+_Bert._ (_involuntarily_) Ah! would to heaven we might!
+
+_Ros._ Can there be any doubt? He reaches the chateau this night--will
+he not be in safety then?
+
+_Bert._ Yes, yes, with this night every danger certainly will cease.
+
+_Ros._ Bertrand! why do you rub your hand before your eyes?--surely you
+are weeping.
+
+_Bert._ No, 'tis a momentary pain that--but 'twill leave me soon. At
+night, Rosabelle, you shall see me jovial--joyous!--we'll dance
+together, wench--ay, and sing--then--ha! ha! ha!--then who so mirthful,
+who so mad, as Bertrand.  [_Exit._
+
+_Ros._ What new spleen has bewitched the man? he is ever in some sullen
+mood, with scowling brows, or else in a cross-arm'd fit of melancholy;
+but I never marked such wildness in his looks and words before.
+
+    [_Geraldine_ speaks without.
+
+_Ger._ Rosabelle.
+
+_Ros._ Here, my lady, in the hall.
+
+    Enter _Geraldine_.
+
+_Ger._ Girl! I have cause to chide you; my toilette must be changed--you
+have dressed me vilely--here! remove these knots--I hate their fashion.
+
+_Ros._ Yet they are the same your ladyship commended yesterday.
+
+_Ger._ Then 'tis the colour of my robe offends me--these ornaments are a
+false match to it--either all the mirrors in the house have warped since
+yesterday, or never did I look so ill before.
+
+_Ros._ Now, in my poor judgment, you rarely have looked better.
+
+_Ger._ Out! fool; you have no judgment.
+
+_Ros._ Well, fool or not, there's one upon the road who holds faith with
+me, or I'm a heretic. Your charms will shine bright enough, lady, to
+dazzle a soldier's eye.
+
+_Ger._ Ah! no, Rosabelle--you would deceive your mistress. Florian
+returns not as he left us; his travelled eyes have gazed on beauties of
+the polished court--and now he will despise the wild untutored
+Geraldine.
+
+_Ros._ Will he? Let him beware he shows not his contempt before me.
+What! my own beautiful and high-born mistress; the greatest heiress in
+all Alsace; to be despised by a foundling, picked up in a forest, and
+reared upon her uncle's charity?
+
+_Ger._ Hush!--the mystery of my Florian's birth is his misfortune, but
+cannot be his reproach. Our countrymen may dispute his title to command,
+but our enemies have confessed his power to conquer; and trust me, girl,
+the brave man's laurel blooms with as fresh an honour in the poor
+peasant's cap as when it circles princely brows; nay, Justice deems it
+of a nobler growth, for Flattery often twines the laurel round a
+coronet, but Truth alone bestows it on the unknown head.
+
+_Ros._ I confess the Chevalier is a proper gallant for any woman. Ay,
+and so is the Chevalier's man. I warrant me, that knave, L'Eclair, when
+he returns, will follow me about, wheedling and whining, to recollect
+certain promises. Well, well, let but the soldiers return with whole
+hearts from the war, and your ladyship and myself know how to reward
+fidelity. In sooth, the chateau has been but a doleful residence in
+their absence; the count never suffered his dwelling to be a merry one;
+but of late his strange humours have so increased, that the household
+might as well have lodged in purgatory.
+
+_Ger._ Hold! I must not hear my uncle's name pronounced with levity. An
+angel at his birth, mingled the divine spirit with less than human
+frailty; but fiends have since defaced the noble work with more than
+human trials. That fatal night, when the fierce Huguenots fired his
+castle, and buried both his wife and infant in the blazing ruin; that
+night of horrors has to his shocked and shrinking fancy still been ever
+present; there still it broods--settled, perpetual and alone! Ah!
+Rosabelle! the petulancies of misfortune claim our pity, not resentment.
+My dear uncle is a recluse, but not a misanthrope; he rejects the
+society of mankind, yet is he solicitous for their happiness; and while
+his own heart breaks in silence under a weight of undivided sorrows,
+does he not seek incessantly to alleviate the burthen of his complaining
+brethren?
+
+_Ros._ I know the count has an excellent heart; but surely his temper
+has its flaws.
+
+_Ger._ And shall we deem the sun that cheers the season less gracious in
+its course, because a cloud at intervals may hide or chill its beams?
+(_A bell rings_). Hark! 'tis the bell of his chamber. Perhaps he will
+admit me now; for four days past I have applied at the door in vain. Ah
+me!--these constant growing maladies sometimes make me tremble for his
+life. Girl! if from the turret-top at distance you espy the hastening
+travellers, turn, swift as thought, and call me to partake your watch!
+  [_Exit._
+
+_Ros._ If they arrive before sun-set, I'm sure I shall know L'Eclair a
+mile off by the saucy toss of his head: before that rogue went on the
+campaign, he certainly extorted some awkward kind of promises from me.
+As a woman of honour, I'm afraid it must be kept; I don't want a
+husband--oh! no, positively--to be sure, winter is coming on, my chamber
+faces the north, and when the nights are long, and dark, and cold, when
+the wind blusters, and the hail patters at the casement, then a solitary
+woman is apt to have strange fancies, and sometimes to wish that--well,
+well, my promise must be kept at all events.
+
+SONG.--_Rosabelle._
+
+  Oh! come away! my soldier boy,
+    From war to peace incline thee;
+  Thy laurel, Time shall ne'er destroy.
+    But Love with roses twine thee.
+        Come, come away,
+        Love chides thy stay,
+  Oh! prithee come my soldier!
+
+  Let fife and drum preserve their place,
+    While softer sounds delight thee;
+  The fiddle shall our wedding grace,
+    But _horns_ shall never fright thee.
+        Come, come away,
+        Love chides thy stay,
+  Oh! prithee come my soldier!
+
+    [Exit.
+
+
+  SCENE II.--_A saloon: a large window is open and discovers the
+  gardens: the noise of song and dance is heard immediately below the
+  window._
+
+CHORUS.
+
+  Sing farewell labour,
+  Blow pipe and beat tabor,
+    Fly care far away;
+  In light band advancing,
+  Let music and dancing
+    Proclaim holyday.
+
+    _De Valmont_ opens the door of an inner chamber, and crosses the
+    stage with a quick petulant step, to ring a bell in the saloon:
+    no answer is immediately given, and he repeats the ring with
+    increased fretfulness.
+
+    Enter _Gaspard_.
+
+_De Val._ So! am I heard! old man! to what strange dwelling have I been
+borne while sleeping? and who is your new master?
+
+_Gas._ Alack! your lordship is in your own fair castle, nor other master
+than yourself do I, or any of my fellows serve--a kind and noble master.
+
+_De Val._ You tell me wonders; I thought the master in his house had
+borne command among his people, but here it seems, each groom is more
+absolute in his humours than the lord; how is't? do I clothe and feed a
+pampered herd, but to increase my torments? when I would muse in
+privacy, must I be baited still, and stunned with crowds and clamours?
+knave! drive the rabble from my gate, and rid my ears of discord.
+
+_Gas._ Well-a-day! who could have foreseen this anger? my good lord 'tis
+but your tenantry rejoicing: this morning, I distributed your lordship's
+bounty among them to celebrate chevalier Florian's return; and now the
+honest grateful souls would fain thank their benefactor by the song that
+tells him they are happy.
+
+_De Val._ Their thanks are hateful to me; ungenerous wretches! is it not
+enough that they are happy whilst I am miserable, but they must mock my
+anguish by a saucy pageant of their joys, and force my shrinking senses
+more keenly to remark the contrast of our fates? (_Tabors, &c.
+without._) Quick! quick! begone and drive them from my gate (_stamps
+imperatively_).
+
+_Gas._ (_frighted_) I am gone, my lord! --I am gone.
+
+_De Val._ Hold! another word--perhaps the unthinking creatures might
+design this torture kindly, and I would not punish the mistakes of
+ignorance. Do not dismiss them harshly--I would have them indulge their
+gayety, but I cannot bear to be a witness of it. Gaspard, this house is
+Melancholy's chosen home; and its devoted master's heart, like a
+night-bird that abhors the animating sun, has been so long familiarized
+to misery, it sickens and recoils at the approach of mirth.
+
+_Gas._ (_pressing his hand_) My kind, unfortunate, my beloved master!
+
+_De Val._ (_snatching it from him_) Pshaw! I loathe pity-- (_shouts_)
+--hark! again! go, go, send them from the gate, but not harshly.
+
+  [Exit _Gaspard_.
+
+_De Val._ All hearts rejoicing; mine only miserable! every peasant
+yielding to delight, their lord alone devoted to despair; a subtle, slow
+despair that, drop by drop, congeals the blood of life, yet will not bid
+the creeping current quite forbear to flow; that has borne its victim
+just to the sepulchre 's tempting edge, but holds him there to envy, not
+partake its slumbers. Well, well, your own appointed hour, just
+heavens!--if it be the infirmity of man to repine here, it is the
+Christian's hope to rejoice hereafter.
+
+    Re-enter _Gaspard_.
+
+_Gas._ I've sent them hence; they'll not be heard again; but since they
+may not thank, they are gone to pray for you--Mass! I had nigh
+forgotten--young Madam Geraldine is in the anti-room, and waits to see
+your lordship.
+
+_De Val._ Admit her! (_Exit_ Gaspard) My gentle one! my desolate, orphan
+maid, if any softening drop were yet permitted in my cup of bitters,
+I think the affectionate hand of Geraldine would mingle and prepare it
+for my lip.
+
+    Enter _Geraldine_.
+
+_Ger._ (_Tenderly embracing him_) Ah! my dear, dear uncle! how am I
+rejoiced by a permission to visit you again; for four long days you have
+secluded yourself, and indeed I have been so distressed--but I will not
+speak of past anxieties now; war restores its hero to our vows; Florian
+returns to us--are not you quite happy, uncle?
+
+_De Val._ Happy? I? my good child--do not mock me.
+
+_Ger._ Nay, could I intend--
+
+_De Val._ Well! let it pass; you it seems, my Geraldine, are really
+happy; your lips confess much, but your eyes still betray more--niece,
+you love my adopted Florian.
+
+_Ger._ Love! fy, uncle--Oh yes, yes, I do certainly love him like a
+brother.
+
+_De Val._ Something better.--Suppose I should offer this Florian to you
+as a husband
+
+_Ger._ (_looking down demurely._) I never presume to dispute my dear
+uncle's commands.
+
+_De Val._ Little equivocator! answer me strictly: do you not wish to
+become his wife?
+
+_Ger._ Indeed, I never yet have asked my heart that question.
+
+_De Val._ But if Florian married any other woman, would you not hate the
+object of his preference?
+
+_Ger._ (_throwing herself upon his neck._) Ah! uncle, you have my
+secret: no, I would not hate my fortunate rival--I would pray for her
+happiness, but my heart would break while it breathed that prayer!
+
+_De Val._ My excellent ingenuous child, indulge the virtuous emotions of
+your heart without disguise--Florian and Geraldine are destined for each
+other.
+
+_Ger._ Generous benefactor! what delightful dazzling visions your words
+conjure up to my imagination; the universe will concentrate within the
+fairy circle of our hearth; a waking consciousness of bliss will ever
+freshly dress our day in flowers, and at nights, fancy will gild our
+pillow with the dream that merrily anticipates the future.
+
+_De Val._ Enthusiast! you contemplate the ocean in a calm, nor dream how
+frightfully a tempest may reverse the picture.
+
+_Ger._ Ambitious pride may tremble at the storm, but true love, uncle,
+never can be wrecked; its constancy is strengthened, not impaired by
+trials, and when adversity divorces us from common friendships, the
+chosen partners of each other's hearts a second time are married, and
+with dearer rites.
+
+_De Val._ (_averting his face with a look of anguish_) Girl!
+
+_Ger._ (_unnoticing his emotion_) Then if they have children, how
+surpassing is the bliss, while their own gay prime is mellowly subsiding
+into age, to trace the features and the virtues they adored in youth,
+renewed before their eyes, and feel themselves the proud and grateful
+authors of each other's joy--Ah! trust me, uncle! such a destiny is
+beyond the reach of fortune's malice; 'tis the anti-type of heaven.
+
+_De Val._ (_Grasping her hand suddenly, convulsed with agitation._) 'Tis
+the distracting mockery of hell that cheats us with an hour's ecstatic
+dream to torture us eternally: girl! girl! wouldst thou find happiness,
+die! seek it in the grave, only in the grave--a watchful fiend destroys
+it upon earth! Prat'st thou of love? Connubial and parental love? Ah!
+dear-lov'd objects of my soul! what are ye now--ashes, ashes, darkly
+scattering to the midnight winds. God! the flames yet blaze--here,
+here--my brain's on fire!  [_Rushes out._
+
+_Ger._ Uncle! listen to your Geraldine! --Ah! ingrate that I am! the
+vulture that gnaws his generous heart, had slumbered for a moment, and I
+have waked it to renew its cruelty! my fault was unawares, yet I could
+chide it like a crime; my mounting spirits fall from their giddy height
+at once. Oh! uncle! noble, suffering uncle! would that my tears could
+wash away the recollection of my words.  [_Weeps._
+
+    _De Valmont_ suddenly returns and embraces _Geraldine_.
+
+_De Val._ Geraldine! dear child, forgive me! my violence has terrified
+your gentle nature. I would not pain you, love, for worlds; but I am not
+always master of myself, and my passions will sometimes break forth
+rebellious to my reason; pity and forgive the infirmities of grief.
+
+_Ger._ Ah! Sir. (_Attempts to kneel._)
+
+_De Val._ (_Preventing her, and kissing her forehead._) Bless you, my
+good and innocent child; nay, do not speak to me, my happiness is lost
+forever, but I can pray for yours. Bless you, my child! bless you ever.
+[_Breaks from her, and exit.
+
+_Ger._ My happiness! ah! if the exalted virtues of a soul like yours, my
+uncle, despair of the capricious boon, how shall the undeserving
+Geraldine presume to hope?
+
+    Enter _Rosabelle_.
+
+_Ros._ Oh! my lady, such news, he's arrived, he's in the hall.
+
+_Ger._ My Florian?
+
+_Ros._ No, lady, not your Florian, but my L'Eclair, not quite so great a
+hero as his master to be sure, but yet a real, proper, mettlesome
+soldier every inch; he looks about him among the men so fierce and so
+warlike; then with the women, he's so impudent, and so audacious;--oh!
+he's a special fellow.
+
+    _L'Eclair_ speaks without.
+
+_L'Ec._ Here's a set of rascals! no discipline? no subordination in the
+house! eh! look to the baggage, curry down my charger! hem! ha!
+
+    Enter _L'Eclair_.
+
+Your ladyship's devoted servant, ever in the foremost rank! never did a
+nine-pounder traverse the enemy's line with more promptitude than I,
+Phillippe L'Eclair, unworthy private of the fifth hussars, now fly to
+cast my poor person at your ladyship's gracious feet.
+
+_Ger._ You are very welcome from the wars, L'Eclair, Fame has spoken of
+you in your absence.
+
+_L'Ec._ Fy! my lady, you disorder me at the first charge,--a pestilence
+now upon that wicked, impertinent gossip, Fame,--will not her
+everlasting tongue suffer even so poor a fellow as L'Eclair, to escape?
+'tis insufferable; may I presume to inquire then, what rumours have
+reached your ladyship's ear?
+
+_Ger._ To a soldier's credit, trust me.--But your master, L'Eclair,
+where is he?
+
+_L'Ec._ Ah! poor gentleman, he's in the rearguard, I left him four
+leagues off, at the fortress of Huningen, unexpectedly confined by----
+
+_Ger._ Confined! heavens! by what complaint?
+
+_L'Ec._ Only the complaint of old age; the general commissioned my
+master upon his route to deliver some instructions to the superannuated
+commandant of the fortress; now the old gentleman proving somewhat dull
+of apprehension, my master though dying of impatience, was constrained
+to a delay of some extra hours, despatching me, his humble ambassador,
+forward, to prevent alarms, and promise his arrival at the chateau
+before midnight.
+
+_Ger._ Midnight! so late?--four leagues to travel--alone--his road
+through an intricate forest, and the sky already seeming to predict a
+tempest.
+
+_L'Ec._ Why, as your ladyship remarks, the clouds seem making a sort of
+forced march over our heads; but a storm is the mere trifling of nature
+in a soldier's estimation; my master and his humble servant have faced a
+cannon-ball too frequently, to be disconcerted by a hail-stone.
+
+_Ger._ Then you have often been employed upon dangerous service,
+L'Eclair?
+
+_L'Ec._ Hay, I protest, your ladyship must excuse me there; a man has so
+much the appearance of boasting, when he becomes the reporter of his own
+achievements; I beg leave to refer your ladyship to the gazettes, though
+I confess the gazettes do but afford a soup-maigre, whip-syllabub sort
+of narrative, accurate enough, perhaps in the main, but plaguily
+incommunicative of particulars: for instance, in the recent affair at
+Nordlingen, I can defy you to find any mention in the gazette, that the
+chevalier Florian charged through a whole regiment of the enemy's
+grenadiers, drawn up in a hollow square, that Phillipe L'Eclair, singly
+followed the chevalier, and rode over all those his master had not time
+to decapitate, how a masked battery suddenly opened with twelve pieces
+of heavy ordnance, firing red-hot balls; how the chevalier's horse
+reared; how L'Eclair's neighed; but how both officer and private,
+neither a whit discouraged at this dilemma, galloped their chargers
+gracefully up to the flaming mouth of the danger; cleared a chevaux de
+frise of fifteen feet at a flying leap; then dismounting; carried the
+battery by a coup de main; spiked the guns; muzzled the gunners with
+their own linstocks; and, finally compelled the principal engineer to
+turn cook, and grill a calf's head at his own furnace, for the dinner of
+his conquerors! Now this affair which had no small influence in
+determining the fortune of the day, with many parallel traits, our
+gazetteers have unaccountably neglected to publish. My memory, perhaps,
+might remedy their deficiencies to any curious ear, but alas! an
+insurmountable modesty renders the task so painful, that I cast myself
+upon your ladyship's compassion, and beseech you to forbear from further
+inquiry.
+
+_Ger._ Ha! ha! your sensitive delicacy shall be respected L'Eclair;
+Rosabelle, be it your care to make the defender of his country
+welcome--at midnight then.--Oh! hasten on your flight, dark-wing'd
+hours! through your close shadows once disclose my Florian, then if ye
+list, be motionless, and still retard the day.  [_Exit._
+
+_L'Ec._ There, you hear young woman!--you are to make the defender of
+his country welcome.
+
+_Ros._ I'll do my best towards your pleasure,--what service can I lend
+you first.
+
+_L'Ec._ Dress my wounds.
+
+_Ros._ Wounds! gramercy! I never should have guessed you had any.
+
+_L'Ec._ Deep, dangerous, desperate,--here! (_affectedly pressing his
+heart_) here, Rosabelle! here's the malady; 'tis an old hurt, I took it
+'ere I went on my campaign; time and absence had clapped an awkward sort
+of plaster on't; but now--oh! those eyes!--the wound breaks out
+afresh;--must I expire?--Rosabelle! prithee, be my surgeon.
+
+_Ros._ I have not the skill to prescribe, but I could administer a
+remedy by directions; what salve will you try first.
+
+_L'Ec._ Lip-salve, you gipsy! (_Kisses her furiously._)
+
+_Ros._ Now, shame upon your manners, master soldier, was this a trick
+taught you by the wars?
+
+_L'Ec._ Yes, faith! saluting is one of the first lessons in a soldier's
+trade, so my dear, tempting, provoking. (_Catches her round._)
+
+_Ros._ Hay, keep your hands off, you have taught me enough of the manual
+exercise already; but say now, were you indeed so great a hero in the
+battle as you told my lady?
+
+_L'Ec._ Pshaw! I did'nt tell her half, my modesty forbade, but for thee,
+my pretty Rosabelle--
+
+_Ros._ Ay, with me, I'm certain your modesty will be no obstacle.
+
+_L'Ec._ None, for while I gaze upon the face of an angel, the devil
+himself can't put me out of countenance.
+
+DUETTO.--_Rosabelle and L'Eclair._
+
+  _Ros._ Tell, soldier, tell! and mark you tell me truly,
+  How oft in battle have you slain a foe?
+
+  _L'Ec._ Go, count the leaves when winds are heard unruly,
+  In autumn that from mighty forests blow.
+
+  _Ros._ Did e'er a captain, worth a costly ransom,
+  Own you his conqueror in the deadly broil?
+
+  _L'Ec._ I've twigg'd field-marshals, pickings snug and handsome,
+  Twelve waggons now are loaded with my spoil.
+
+  _Both._ Oh! loudly, proudly, sound the soldier's fame!
+  Oh! flashy, dashy, flaunt the soldier's dame!
+
+  _Ros._ Tell, soldier, tell! and mark, you tell me truly,
+  Did foreign maids ne'er win your roving vow?
+
+  _L'Ec._ O! blood and fire! --I swear I can't speak coolly,
+  By Mars! to you, and only you, I bow.
+
+  _Ros._ Say, shall love's chain of blossoms hold for ever?
+  Nor time, nor absence, bid its bloom depart?
+
+  _L'Ec._ Not sword, or gun, such magic links can sever,
+  Or rend from Rosabelle her hero's heart.
+
+  _Both._ O! loudly, proudly, &c.
+
+
+  SCENE III.--_A front wood, stage very dark, thunder and lightning._
+
+    Enter _Longueville_ and _Bertrand_, the latter disguised and
+    masqued.
+
+_Long._ Come, sir, to your post! what! a coward even to the last? you
+tremble.
+
+_Bert._ I do indeed, the storm is terrible, it seems as if heaven's own
+voice were clamoring to forbid the deed.  [_Thunder._
+
+_Long._ This tumult of the night assists our enterprise; its thunders
+will drown your victim's dying groan. Where have you placed the bravoes?
+
+_Bert._ Hard by--just where the horse-road sinks into a hollow dell, and
+over-spreading branches almost choke the pass, there we may rush upon
+the wretched youth securely, and there our poniards--
+
+_Long._ Hush!--a footstep!--who passes there?
+
+    Enter _1st Bravo_.
+
+_1st Br._ Sanguine!
+
+_Long._ Wherefore are you here, and parted from your fellow?
+
+_1st Br._ I left him lurking in the hollow, while I sought you out to
+ask advice. Just now, a horse without a rider, burst furiously through
+the thicket where we lay; the lightning flashed brightly at the time,
+and I plainly marked the steed to be the very same young Florian rode,
+when we dogged him from the last inn, at sunset.
+
+_Bert._ (_involuntarily_) merciful God! then thou hast preserved him.
+
+_Long._ Villain! you may find your transports premature; perchance he
+has dismounted to seek on foot some shelter from the increasing fury of
+the storm; but 'tis impossible he should escape; one only path conducts
+to the chateau. Quick! bestow yourselves on either side, and your
+victim's fate is certain. I must return to avoid suspicion.
+
+_Bert._ (_catching his arm._) Yet, my lord, once more reflect.
+
+_Long._ (_throwing him off._) Recollect your oath.
+
+_Bert._ (_desperately._) Yes, yes, it must be written on my memory in
+characters of blood. [_Exeunt separately._
+
+
+  SCENE IV.--_Another part of the forest more entangled and intricate,
+  the tempest becomes violent, and the stage appears alternately
+  illumined by the lightning, and enveloped in utter darkness. Florian
+  is seen advancing cautiously through the thickets from a distance._
+
+_Flor._ A plague upon all dark nights, foul ways, and runaway horses!
+a mettlesome madcap, to start at the lightning and plunge with me head
+over heels in the brushwood; in scrambling out of that thicket,
+I certainly turned wrong, and have missed my road--how to regain it?
+'sdeath! I could as soon compose an almanac as and a clue to this
+puzzle. Well, I was found in a wood when a baby, and have just lived to
+years of discretion to be lost in a wood again! Fortune! Fortune! thou
+spiteful gipsy! was this an honest trick to pass upon a faithful
+servant, who has worn thy livery from his cradle, and taken off thy
+hands a thousand knocks and buffetings without a murmur? Just at this
+moment too, when hope and fancy were dancing merrily, and had made the
+prettiest ball-room of my heart--just too when the image of my
+Geraldine-- (_rain, storm increases_) but a truce with meditation, this
+pelting shower rather advises action-- (_turns to an opening_) --No;
+that can't be the path; which ever way I turn I may only get farther
+entangled; then there are pit-falls, wolves, bears--yes! I've the
+prospect of a delectable night before me; what if I exercise my lungs
+and call for help? oh! there's scarcely a chance of being heard; well,
+'tis my forlorn hope and shall e'en have a trial. Holloa! Holloa!
+Holloa! [_a whistle answers from the right_] Huzza! somebody whistles
+from the right! kind lady Fortune! never will I call thee names again.
+[_another whistle from the opposite side._] Ha! answered from the left
+too! --Lucky fellow!--where are you my dear boys--where are you?
+
+    _Florian_ runs toward the right--a very vivid flash of lightning
+    at that instant gleams upon the path before him, and displays the
+    figure of a masqued bravo, _Sanguine_, with an unsheathed poniard
+    advancing between the trees, _Florian_ recoils.
+
+_Flor._ Ha! a man armed and masqued!--perhaps some ruffian!--'sdeath!
+I am defenceless, my pistols were left in the saddle!
+
+_Sanguine._ (_advancing_) Who called?
+
+_Flor._ If I return no answer in the darkness I may retreat unseen.
+
+    [He creeps silently to the left as the bravo advances.
+
+_San._ Speak! where are you?
+
+    [2d bravo emerges from the gloom and directly crosses the path by
+    which _Florian_ is about to escape.
+
+_Len._ Here!  [_Thunder._
+
+    [_Florian_ at the second voice discovers himself to be exactly
+    between the ruffians, and stops.
+
+_Flor._ God!
+
+    [He recedes a single step, and strikes his hand against a tree
+    immediately behind him, the trunk of which is hollowed by time,
+    and open towards the audience.
+
+Ha! a tree!
+
+    [By his touch he discovers the aperture, and glides into the
+    hollow, at the very instant the two bravoes stepping forward
+    quickly from either side of the tree, encounter each other's
+    extended hands in front.
+
+_San._ (_raising his poniard_) Die!
+
+_Len._ Hold! 'tis I--your comrade!
+
+_San._ Why did you not answer before, I took you for--hark?
+
+    [_Bertrand_ comes through the trees from the top of the stage.]
+
+_Bert._ Hist! Sanguine?--Lenoire?
+
+_San._ Here!--both of us.
+
+_Bert._ (_coming forward_) Why did you whistle?
+
+_San._ In answer to your call--you hallooed to us.
+
+_Bert._ When?
+
+_San._ But now--a minute back.
+
+_Bert._ I never spoke.
+
+_San._ I'll swear I heard a voice--no doubt then but 'twas he that--
+
+_Bert._ From what quarter did the cry proceed?
+
+_San._ I thought it sounded hereabouts, but the storm kept such a
+confounded patter at the time--
+
+_Bert._ Well--let us take the left-hand path; and if we hear the call
+repeated--
+
+_San._ Ay!--our daggers meet all questions with a keen reply.
+
+    [Exeunt to the left.
+
+_Flor._ (_extricating himself cautiously from the tree._) Eternal
+Providence, what have I heard! Murderers then are upon the watch for me!
+no, no--not for _me_. _I_ cannot be the destined victim. I never yet
+offended a human being, and fiends themselves would not destroy without
+a cause for hatred. Heaven guard the threatened one, whoe'er he be!
+Well, Prudence at least admonishes me to avoid the left-hand path; faith
+any turn but that must prove the right for _me_. Ha! unless my eyes are
+cheated by a Will-o'-th'-Wisp, a friendly light now peeps out through
+yonder coppice. (_looking out_) Perhaps some woodman's hut, with a fresh
+faggot just crackling on the hearth. Oh, for a seat in such a chimney
+corner. (_Whistle again at a distance_) I hear you, gentlemen,
+a pleasant ramble to you. Adieu, Messieurs! space be between us! yours
+is a left-handed destiny; I'll seek mine to the right. [_Exit._
+
+
+  SCENE V.--_The outside of a cottage in the wood; a light burning in
+  a casement._
+
+    Enter _Monica_, supporting herself on a crutch, and carrying a
+    basket of flax.
+
+_Mon._ Praise to the virgin! my old limbs have reached their resting
+place at last: what a tempest! my new cardinal is quite drenched. Well,
+I've kept the flax dry, however, that's some comfort, (_strikes against
+the door._) Ho, there, within--open quickly.
+
+    [The door opens, and a female wildly dressed, appears; she catches
+    Monica's hand with affection, and kisses it.]
+
+_Mon._ Ah, my poor Silence! thou hast watched and fretted for me
+preciously, I'll warrant: but the road from Brisac is long, and this
+rough night half crippled me.
+
+    [The female feels her damp garments, and seems with quick
+    tenderness to invite her into the house.]
+
+Well, well, never fright thyself, if I shiver now, a cup of warm Rhenish
+will soon make me glow again: 'faith I am weary though; wilt lend an arm
+to an old woman?
+
+    [The female embraces and supports her.]
+
+Ah, there's my kind Silence.
+
+    [Exeunt into the cottage.
+
+    Enter _Florian_ running and out of breath, from the left hand.
+
+_Flor._ I'm right, by all the household gods! 'Twas no goblin of the fen
+that twinkled to deceive, but a real substantial weatherproof tenement
+shining with invitation to benighted travellers. Oh, blessings on its
+hospitable threshold; my heart luxuriates already by anticipation, and
+pants for a fireside, a supper, and a bed. Hold though--just now I was
+on the point of shaking hands with a cutthroat; who knows but here I may
+introduce myself upon visiting terms with his family? 'faith I'll
+reconnoitre the position before I establish my quarters. This casement
+is commodiously low. (_Steps to the casement on tiptoe._) I protest,
+a vastly neat, creditable sort of mansion! Yes--it will do! on one side
+blazes an excellent fire; in the middle stands a table ready covered;
+that's for supper: then just opposite is a door left ajar; ay, that must
+lead to a bed. Ha! now the door opens; who comes forward? by all my
+hopes a woman! Enough; here will I pitch my tent. Whenever doubts and
+fears perplex a man, the form of woman strikes upon his troubled spirit
+like the rainbow stealing out of clouds--the type of beauty and the sign
+of hope! (_he knocks_) Now Venus send her with a kindly smile!--she
+comes--she comes.
+
+    [The female opens the door, but on seeing _Florian_ recoils with
+    trepidation--he catches her hand, and forcibly detains her.]
+
+_Flor._ My dear madam! no alarm, for Heaven's sake. You have thieves in
+your neighbourhood, but, upon my soul, I don't belong to their
+fraternity. No, madam, I'm an unlucky fellow, but with the best morals
+in the world: the fact is, I have lost myself in the forest; the storm
+rages--and as I am no knight-errant to court unnecessary hardships,
+respectfully I entreat the hospitality of this roof for the remainder of
+the night.
+
+    [The female surveys his figure with suspicion and timidity.]
+
+_Flor._ I fear 'tis my misfortune to be disbelieved; nay then, let my
+dress declare my character! (_he releases her hand to throw open his
+riding-cloak, and discovers the regimental under it._) Behold! I am a
+soldier.
+
+    [The female shrieks violently; for an instant she covers her eyes
+    with both hands shudderingly, and then with the look and action
+    of sudden insanity, darts away into the thicket of the wood.]
+
+_Flor._ (_calling after her._) Madam! my dear madam! only hear me,
+madam! she's gone! absolutely vanished! I wish I had a looking-glass;
+certainly I must have changed my face when I lost my road--no scare-crow
+could have terrified the poor woman more. What's to be done? If I follow
+her, I shall but increase her terrors and my own difficulties. Shall I
+enter the cottage and wait her return? the door stands most invitingly
+open, and to a wet and weary wanderer, that fire sparkles so
+provokingly--'faith, I can't resist the temptation--Adventure seems the
+goddess of the night, and I'll e'en worship the divinity at a blazing
+shrine!  [_Exit into the house._
+
+
+  SCENE VI.--_The interior of the cottage--the entrance, door, and
+  casements are on one side--opposite is the fireplace--and a
+  staircase in the back scene conducts to an upper chamber--a table
+  with a lamp burning, and a frugal supper stands in the middle of the
+  stage.--Florian is discovered when the scene draws, kneeling at the
+  hearth and chaffing his hands before the fire._
+
+_Flor._ Eternal praise to the architect who first invented
+chimney-corners? the man who built the pyramids was a dunce by
+comparison. [_rises and looks round him._] All solitary and silent:
+faith, my situation here is somewhat whimsical. Well, I am left in
+undisturbed possession, and that's a title in law, if not in equity.
+[_he takes off his cloak and hangs it on a chair_] Yes, this shall be my
+barrack for the night. What an unsocial spirit must the fair mistress of
+this cottage possess. Egad, she seemed to think it necessary, like the
+man and woman in the weather-house, that one sex should turn forth into
+the storm, so soon as the other sought a shelter from its peltings:
+a plague on such punctilio.
+
+    [_Monica_ enters down the staircase from her chamber.]
+
+_Mon._ [_speaking as she descends._] There, my garments are changed, and
+we may now enjoy our supper.
+
+_Flor._ Ha! another woman! but old, by the mother of the Graces!
+
+_Mon._ A stranger!
+
+_Flor._ Not an impertinent one, I trust. One, who in the darkness of the
+storm has missed his road, despairs of regaining it till morning, and
+craves of your benevolence a shelter for the night. You shall be soon
+convinced I am no dangerous guest.
+
+_Mon._ [_with a voluble civility._] Nay, young gentleman, never trouble
+yourself to inform me of your rank; you have told me your necessity, and
+that's a sufficient claim to every comfort my little cabin can afford;
+pray, sir, take a seat: I am much honoured by your presence: we have a
+little supper toward; you must partake it, sir: here! my good Silence!
+come hither. Ah! I do not see--[_looking anxiously round the cottage._]
+
+_Flor._ I am afraid, my good madam, you miss one of your family.
+
+_Mon._ I do, indeed, sir; and--
+
+_Flo._ It was my misfortune to drive a female out of your house at the
+moment I entered it.
+
+_Mon._ Sir!
+
+_Flor._ But not intentionally, I protest. The fact is, though I have
+always esteemed myself as a well-manufactured person, yet something in
+my appearance so terrified the lady that--
+
+_Mon._ Ah, I comprehend; you wear the habit of a soldier, sir, and my
+poor Silence never can abide to look upon that dress.
+
+_Flor._ Indeed! that's rather a singular antipathy for a female. May I
+inquire--is she a daughter of yours?
+
+_Mon._ Not by blood, sir; but she is the child of misfortune, and as
+such may claim a parent in every heart that has itself experienced
+sorrow; but come, sir, take a seat, I beseech you; my alarm ceases now I
+know the cause of her absence. She is accustomed to wander in the woods
+by night when any thing disturbs her mind. She'll return to me anon calm
+and passive as before: I have known it with her often thus. You look
+fatigued, sir; let me recommend this flask of Rhenish: pray drink, sir;
+it will do you good; it always does me good.
+
+_Flor._ Madam, since you are so pressing, my best services to you--a
+very companionable sort of old gentlewoman this (_aside_); I protest,
+madam, I feel myself interested for this unfortunate under your
+protection; there was a wild and melancholy sweetness in her eye that
+touched me at our first exchange of looks with awe and pity; is her
+history a secret?
+
+_Mon._ Oh, no--not a secret, but quite a mystery, you know nearly as
+much of it as I do; but since we are on the subject--another draught of
+wine, sir!
+
+_Flor._ Madam, you will pledge me. And now for the mystery.
+
+_Mon._ Well, sir, about sixteen years ago when I lived in Languedoc, for
+you must know I am but newly settled _here_, a stranger in Alsace, ay!
+about sixteen or seventeen years ago, there came a rumour to our
+village, of a _wild woman_, that had been caught by some peasants in the
+woods near _Albi_, following quite a savage and unchristian life;
+gathering fruits and berries for her food by day, and sleeping in the
+mossy hollows of a rock at night. She was brought round the country as a
+show. All the world in our parts went to look upon the prodigy, and you
+may be sure _I_ made one among the crowd. Well, sir, this wild woman was
+the very creature you beheld but now. At that time she was in truth a
+piteous object; her form was meagre and wasted, and her wretched garment
+hung over it in filthy tatters; her fine hair fell in matted heaps, and
+the sun and the wind together had changed her skin like an Indian's. Yet
+even in the midst of all this misery, there was a something so noble and
+so gentle in her air, that the moment I looked upon her, my curiosity
+was lost at once in pity and respect. The people by whom she was
+surrounded, were stunning her with coarse and vulgar questions, but
+never an answer did she deign to give, though some wheedled and some
+threatened; still 'twas to all alike: so most persons concluded she was
+dumb.
+
+_Flor._ And a very natural conclusion it was, when a female remained
+silent, who had so excellent an opportunity of exercising her tongue.
+
+_Mon._ Well, Sir, presently _my_ turn came to approach her, when somehow
+my heart swelled quite painfully, to see the gracious image of our Maker
+degraded, and one's own fellow creature treated like the brutes of the
+field, so, that when I touched her, my tears started unawares and fell
+upon her trembling hand. Would you believe it, sir? the poor desolate
+statue felt the trickling drops, and reason was rekindled by the warmth
+of pity. Suddenly her eyes, so lately dull and vacant, flashed with
+recovered brightness. She cast herself at my feet--clasped my knees--and
+cried out, in tones that might have moved a heart of rock--"Angel of
+compassion! save me from disgrace?" All present started as if a miracle
+were worked. "Will you preserve me?" cried the suppliant. I was a
+widowed and a childless woman; in an instant I raised the forlorn one to
+my arms, as a companion, as an adopted daughter. Her keepers were
+ignorant men, but not cruel; their hearts were softened by the scene,
+and they yielded their claims to my entreaties. I led the unfortune to
+my dwelling; from that moment, she has shared my mat and partaken of my
+morsel. I love her with the affection of a real parent, and were I now
+to lose her, I think my heart would break upon the grave that robbed it
+of its darling.
+
+_Flor._ By heavens, I reverence your feelings! in truth 'tis a
+melancholy story.
+
+_Mon._ Yes, sir; and melancholy stories make people dry, so let me
+recommend another cup of wine.
+
+_Flor._ Madam, I can't refuse the challenge-- (_aside_) the old lady
+certainly designs to send me under the table. But pray, madam, have you
+never discovered the cause of that distress, from which you first
+relieved this suffering woman?
+
+_Mon._ Never. On the subject of her early adventures she remains
+inflexibly silent. I have often tried to win the secret from her, but
+though she is mild and rational enough upon all other themes, yet, let
+but a hint remind her of her former wretchedness, her wits directly
+start into disorder, and for whole hours, nay, sometimes days together,
+she remains a lunatic. I do not even know her name, but call her
+Silence, because her voice is heard so very rarely. I think her
+dejection has increased since we quitted Languedoc, for about two months
+since, a kinsman of mine died, and bequeathed me this cottage with some
+land here in Alsace; 'tis a lone house, and the thick woods about I fear
+remind my poor Silence too much of her former way of life, sometimes she
+wanders in them half the night.
+
+_Flo._ Are you not fearful of her safety? these woods are full of
+danger; within this half hour, I myself have encountered three ruffians
+lurking for their prey.
+
+_Mon._ Ruffians! young gentleman. Blessed Mary save us!--'tis true, I am
+a stranger in these parts, but never did I hear of such neighbours.
+Well, well, I fear not for my child, she has no wealth to tempt a
+plunderer. Poverty is the mother of ills, but her offspring generally
+respect each other. Come, sir, finish the flask; and now let me prepare
+your chamber for the night. (_rises._)
+
+_Flor._ Kind hostess! I am bounden to you ever. (_rises and fills his
+glass_) Here's woman! beauteous, generous woman! _admired_ when we are
+happy, but in our adversity _adored_! (_drinks._)
+
+_Mon._ (_curtseying_) Sweet sir, down to the very ground I return your
+gallantry.
+
+_Flor._ Hist!--don't I hear footsteps in the wood?
+
+_Mon._ (_listening_) Ah, yes, perhaps my child returns to us.
+
+    [The casement is thrust open, and _Bertrand_ with the two bravoes
+    look into the cottage.]
+
+_Mon._ Ah! men in masks!
+
+_Bert._'Tis he! (_they disappear from the casement._)
+
+_Flor._ Swift! help me swift to bar the door!
+
+_Mon._ Ah! 'tis forced already! (_noise at door._)
+
+    [The door is burst, the two bravoes instantly spring upon
+    _Florian_ and grapple with him. _Bertrand_ seizes the woman.]
+
+_Mon._ Murder! murder!
+
+_Bert._ Silence, or you die!
+
+    [_Florian_ struggles towards the centre of the stage in front, and
+    is there forced down upon one knee.]
+
+_Flo._ Is it plunder that you seek? what is your purpose with me? speak!
+
+_San._ Learn it by this! (_raises his dagger._)
+
+_Bert._ Hold! not _here_, drag him into the wood, despatch him _there_!
+
+_Flo._ Inhuman villains! by your soul's best hope--I charge you--I
+implore you--
+
+_Bert._ (_stamping furiously, and casting Monica from him_) Toward the
+wood! --Follow me!
+
+    [_Bertrand_ turns to the door, and the bravoes struggle to force
+    _Florian_ after him, at that instant, the unknown female enters
+    from the wood, and pauses in the door-way exactly opposite to
+    _Bertrand_, his advanced arm falls back nerveless by his side, his
+    limbs shake with strong convulsion, and he reels backwards.]
+
+_Bert._ Support me, ah! save me, or I die!
+
+    [The bravoes release _Florian_ to fly towards _Bertrand_, who
+    sinks in their arms. The female, with a light and rapid step
+    crosses in front of the group to the middle of the stage where
+    _Florian_ remains kneeling, she spreads her wild drapery before
+    the victim, and places herself between him and the ruffians in
+    the attitude of protection.]
+
+_Bert._ (_pursuing her with his eye deliriously_) Look! look! she rises
+from the grave! she blasts me with her frown! away! away! heaven itself
+forbids the deed!
+
+    [The ruffians rush forth into the wood again. _Florian_ and
+    _Monica_ catch the hands of the unknown to their lips in
+    transport, and the curtain falls suddenly upon the scene.]
+
+
+    End of act I.
+
+
+
+
+ACT II.
+
+
+  SCENE I.--_A gallery in the chateau._
+
+    Enter _Longueville_ and _Bertrand_.
+
+_Long._ Traitor! infamous, unblushing traitor! Florian has arrived,
+arrived in safety: every way I have been betrayed; and now to screen
+your perfidy from punishment, you dare insult my ear with forgeries too
+monstrous and too gross for patience.
+
+_Bert._ Hear me, my lord! as I have life, as I have a soul, so have I
+spoken truly, the grave yawned asunder to forbid the blow, it was no
+vision of my cowardice--I saw--distinctly saw-it was _Eugenia_! as in
+her days of nature, entire and undecayed, the spectre-form stood
+terribly before me, it moved--it gazed--it frowned me into madness!
+
+_Long._ Villain! still would you deceive me!
+
+_Bert._ Ah, my lord, you would deceive yourself. I swear it was Eugenia,
+her shadowy arms were stretched between the lifted dagger and the
+prostrate youth; while her swift dark eye flashed on mine with
+brightness insupportable: such was her dreadful look, when, with her
+bleeding infant clinging to her breast, she sprang into the flames,
+and--
+
+_Long._ Hush! [_the doors of an inner chamber open, and De Valmont
+appears conversing with Florian and Geraldine._] We are interrupted;
+quick! change those ruffled features into smiles, quick! mark me,
+wretch!
+
+_De Val._ (_coming forward_) My boy, your preservation was indeed a
+miracle. Ascribe not to the vague results of chance, that which belongs
+to Providence alone. Ah, here is my kinsman--one, whose anxious fears on
+your account, have held him a sleepless watcher through the night.
+
+_Long._ (_with affected fervency_) Florian! a thousand welcomes: the
+return of friends at all times is a joy, but when they come through
+dangers to our arms, there's transport in the meeting. Tell me--what
+strange tale is this I catch imperfectly from every lip? can it be
+possible you were assailed last night by ruffians in the wood?
+
+_Flor._ Yes, my dear baron, yes! but morning has chased away night, and
+I am out of the wood now; therefore let us banish gloomy retrospections,
+and yield the present hour to bliss without alloy.
+
+_De Val._ Not so: in this your friends must claim an interest dearer
+than your own: these men of blood shall be pursued to justice, if Alsace
+yet hold them.
+
+_Long._ Be that my task. (_to Flor._) Should you recognize their
+persons?
+
+_Flo._ Positively no--their disguises were impenetrable.
+
+_Ger._ But their voices, Florian, you heard them speak?
+
+_Flo._ True, sweet Geraldine, a few broken sentences; but their accents
+were not framed like thine, to touch the ear but once, yet vibrate on
+the memory forever.
+
+_Long._ Indulge my curiosity, how were you preserved?
+
+_Flo._ Well, baron, since you will force me to act the hero in my own
+drama, thus runs my story: I was defenceless, helpless, hopeless: two
+sturdy knaves had mastered my struggling arms, and the dagger of a third
+gleamed against my throat, when suddenly a female form appeared before
+us; in an instant, as if by magic, the murderers relaxed their hold,
+shuddered, recoiled, uttered cries, and fled the spot, the female mute
+and motionless remained.
+
+_Bert._ (_aside to Longueville._) You mark.
+
+_Long._ (_repulsing him._) Silence!
+
+_Flo._ Cowardice is ever found the mate of Cruelty: this stranger was
+doubtless regarded by the villains as a preternatural agent, she proved
+however, a mere mortal, frail and palpable as ourselves.
+
+_Bert._ (_listening with tremulous attention._) God! living!
+
+_Long._ (_not regarding Bertrand, who has drawn behind._) Whence came
+this woman? What was she?
+
+_Flo._ Alas! the most pitiable object in nature--an unhappy maniac; she
+resides at the same cottage where I found shelter from the storm.
+
+_Bert._ (_as if electrified by a sudden thought._) Direct me, heaven!
+
+    [He glides silently out of the gallery unobserved by all.]
+
+_Long._ Were not any other circumstances linked with this adventure?
+
+_Flo._ None of consequence: but I suspect one of the ruffians was known
+to this wretched woman; her incoherent words implied that she recognized
+in him an ancient enemy; but her frail remains of intellect, were, for a
+time, quite unsettled by the terror of the scene; she fled from me to
+her chamber in dismay, and at daybreak I left the cottage without a
+second interview.
+
+_Long._ Florian! it is necessary this woman should be interrogated
+further-- (_with much emotion_) not a moment must be lost--dear count,
+excuse me for an hour, my anxiety admits not of delay. I will myself
+visit this cottage instantly. [_Exit._
+
+_Ger._ (_half aside to De Valmont_) Uncle, if the baron tarries beyond
+the hour, we must not wait for his return, recollect it is to be at noon
+exactly.
+
+_Flo._ (_overhearing._) And what at noon, dear Geraldine?
+
+_De Val._ (_smiling_) Florian, you are destined to be our hero in peace
+as well as war--my niece has planned a little fête in compliment to the
+conquerors of Nordlingen.
+
+_Ger._ Fy, uncle, Florian was not to have known of it till the moment,
+you have betrayed my secret, now as a due punishment for the treason,
+I impose upon you to appear at our fête in person.
+
+_De Val._ What a demand! --I, who never--
+
+_Ger._ Nay, if it be only for a minute, positively you must come among
+us--nay, I will not be denied.
+
+_De Val._ Well, you reign a fairy sovereign for the day, and if it be
+your will to play the despot, your subjects, though they murmur, must
+obey.
+
+_Ger._ (_embracing him_) There's my kindest uncle! thanks! Florian I
+warn you not to stir towards the terrace till I summon you, beware of
+disobedience, I have the power to punish.
+
+_Flor._ And to reward also.
+
+_Ger._ Ah! at least I have the inclination, it will be your own fault if
+ever my actions and my wishes dissociate, or Geraldine refuse a boon
+when Florian is the suitor.  [_Exit._
+
+_Flor._ (_looking after her_) Geraldine! too kind, too lovely Geraldine,
+ah! sir, is she not admirable?
+
+_De Val._ She has been accounted so by many in your absence. I cannot
+estimate her beauty, but I know her virtue; and the last fond wish left
+clinging to this heart is Geraldine's felicity. I shall endeavour to
+secure it, by uniting her in marriage with a worthy object.
+
+_Flor._ Sir!--marriage did you say? Gracious heaven! Marriage!
+
+_De Val._ What is it that surprizes you? I can assure you, Geraldine
+already has been addressed by lovers.
+
+_Flor._ To doubt it were a blasphemy against perfection. Oh! Sir, it is
+not that--oh! no.
+
+_De Val._ Wherefore, my dear Florian, so much emotion? Does the idea of
+Geraldine's marriage afflict you?
+
+_Flor._ I am not such an ingrate--her happiness is the prayer of my soul
+to heaven, and I would perish to insure it.
+
+_De Val._ (_after a pause, during which he regards the agitated Florian
+with tender earnestness._) Young man, I have long since determined to
+address you with a brief recital of circumstances necessary to your
+future decisions in life. Every word of that recital must draw with it a
+life-drop from my heart, for I shall speak to you of the past, and
+recollection to me is agony. The trial we once have considered as
+inevitable, it is fruitless to defer. Draw yourself a seat, and afford
+me for a few minutes your fixt attention.
+
+    (_Florian_ presents a chair to the _Count_, and then seats
+    himself.)
+
+_De Val._ Florian, you now behold me, such as I have seemed, even from
+your infancy--a suffering, querulous, cheerless, hopeless,
+broken-hearted man--one who has buried all the energies of his nature,
+and only preserves a few of its charities tremblingly alive. It was not
+with me always thus--I once possessed a mind and a body vigorously
+moulded, a heart for enterprize, and an arm for achievement. Grief, not
+time, has palsied those endowments. Born to exalted rank, and
+luxuriously bread, like the new-fledged eaglet rushing from his nest at
+once against the sun, eager, elate, and confident, I entered upon life.
+
+_Flor._ Ah! that malignant clouds should obscure so bright a dawn!
+
+_De Val._ My spirit panted for a career of arms--civil war then
+desolated France, and, at the age of twenty, I embraced the cause of my
+religion and my king. Fortune, prodigal of her flatteries, twined my
+brow with clustering laurels, and at the close of my first campaign, my
+sovereign's favor and the people's love already hailed me by a hero's
+title. Fatigued with glory--then--ah! Florian! then it was I welcom'd
+love!--a first, a last, an only and eternal passion! (_Pauses with
+emotion._)
+
+_Flor._ Nay, sir, desist--these recollections shake your mind too
+strongly.
+
+_De Val._ No, no--let me proceed. I can command myself--Florian! I wooed
+and won an angel for my bride--my expression is not a lover's
+rhapsody--at this distant period, seriously I pronounce it--Eugenia
+approached as closely to perfection as the Creator has permitted to his
+creature! Such as she was, to say I loved her were imperfect phrase! my
+passion was enthusiasm--was idolatry! Our marriage-bed was early blessed
+with increase--and as my lip greeted with a father's kiss the infant, my
+heart bounded with a new transport towards its mother.--My felicity
+seemed perfect! Now, Florian, mark! My country a second time called me
+to her battles; I left my kinsman, Longueville, to guard the dear-ones
+of my soul at home, then sped to join our army in a distant province.
+I was wounded and made prisoner by the enemy. When I recovered health
+and liberty, I found a rumour of my death had in the interval prevailed
+through France. I trembled lest Eugenia should receive the tale, and
+flew in person to prevent her terrors. It was evening when I reached the
+hills of Languedoc, and looked impatiently towards my cheerful home
+beneath. I looked--the last sunbeam glared redly upon smoking ruins! Oh!
+oh! the blood now chills and curdles round my heart--the wolves of war
+had rushed by night upon my slumbering fold--fire and sword had
+desolated all. I called upon my wife and my infant. I trembled on their
+ashes while I called! (_he sinks back exhausted in his chair._)
+
+_Flo._ Tremendous hour! so dire a shock might well have paralized a
+Roman firmness.
+
+_De Val._ (_resuming faintly._) Florian, there is a grief that never
+found its image yet in words. I prayed for death--nay, madness! but
+heaven, for its own best purposes, denied me either boon. I was ordained
+still to live, and still be conscious of my misery. For many weeks I
+wandered through the country, silent, sullen, stupified! My people
+watched, but dared not comfort me. Abjuring social life, I plunged into
+the deepest solitudes, to shun all commerce with my kind. 'Twas at the
+close of a sultry day, the last of August, that I entered a forest at
+the foot of the Cevennes, and worn with long fatigue and misery,
+stretched myself upon the moss for momentary rest. On the sudden,
+a faint and feeble moan pierced my ear; instinctively I moved the
+branches at my side, and at the foot of a rude stone-cross beheld a
+desolate infant, unnaturally left to perish in the wilderness! It was
+famishing--expiring. I raised it to my breast, and its little arms
+twined feebly round my neck Florian! thou wert heaven's gracious
+instrument to reclaim a truant to his duties! Welcome! I cried to thee,
+young brother in adversity!--"thou art deserted by thy mortal parents,
+and my heavenly father has forsaken me!" From that moment I felt I had a
+motive left to cherish life, since my existence could be useful to a
+fellow-being--my wanderings finished, and I settled in Alsace. Eighteen
+years have followed that event; but I shall not comment on their course.
+
+_Flor._ (_with energy._) Yet, sir, those years must not, shall not pass
+forgotten. Deeds of generous charity have made them sacred, and an
+orphan's blessing wafts their eulogy to heaven--_he casts himself at De
+Valmont's feet_). Friend! protector! more than parent! the beings who
+had called me into life denied my claim, and you performed the duties
+nature had renounced. Ah! sir, I am thoughtless, volatile, my manners
+wild--but, from my inmost soul, I love, I reverence, I bless my
+benefactor!
+
+_De Val._ Rise young man! your virtues have repaid my cares. Here let us
+dismiss the past, and advert to the future. Geraldine is my heiress; my
+niece and my vassals must receive the same master: both are objects of
+my care, and I would confide them only to a man of honor. Florian! let
+Geraldine become your wife--be you hereafter the protector of my people.
+
+_Flor._ Merciful powers! what is it that I hear? I?--the child of
+accident and mystery: a wretched foundling: I?
+
+_De Val._ Young man, your sentiments and your actions have proved
+themselves the legitimate offspring of honor, and I require no pedigree
+for limbs and features. Fortune forbade you to inherit a name, but she
+has granted you a prouder boast: you have founded one. Common men vaunt
+of the actions of their forefathers, but the superior spirit declares
+his own! Nay, no reply--I never form or break a resolution lightly.
+I know your heart: I am acquainted with Geraldine's; they beat
+responsive to each other--your passion has my consent: your marriage
+shall receive my blessing. Farewell. [_He exits suddenly, and prevents
+Florian by his action from any reply._]
+
+_Flor._ Heard I aright? Yes, he pronounced it--"Geraldine is thine."
+Earth's gross substantial touch is felt no more: I mount in air, and
+rest on sunbeams! Oh! if I dream now--royal Mab! abuse me ever with thy
+dear deceits; for in serious wakeful hours, truth ne'er can touch my
+senses with a joy so bright. O! I could sing, dance, laugh, shout; and
+yet methinks, had I a woman's privilege, I'd rather weep; for tears are
+pleasure's oracles as well as grief's.
+
+    Enter _L'Eclair_.
+
+_L'Ec._ So, Captain! you are well encountered. I have sad forebodings
+that our shining course of arms is threatened with eclipse. If I may use
+the boldness to advise, we shall strike our tents, and file off in quick
+march without beat of drum. Our laurels are in more danger here than in
+the midst of the enemy's lines.
+
+_Flor._ How now! my doughty 'squire: what may be our present jeopardy?
+
+_L'Ec._ Ah! captain, the sex--the dear seductive sex; this house is the
+modern Capua, and we are the Hannibals of France, toying away our severe
+virtues amid its voluptuousness. One damsel throws forward the prettiest
+ancle in anatomy, and cries, "Mr. L'Eclair, I'm your's for a Waltz":
+a second languishes upon me from large blue melting eyes, and whispers,
+"Mr. L'Eclair, will you take a stroll by moonlight in the grove?" while
+a third, in all the ripe round plumpness of uneasy health, calls the
+modest blood to my fingers' ends, by requesting me "to adjust some error
+in the pinning of her 'kerchief." O! captain, captain, heros are but
+men, men but flesh, and flesh is but weakness; therefore, let us briefly
+put on a Parthian valor, and strive to conquer by a flight!
+
+_Flor._ Knave! prate of deserting these dear precious scenes again, and
+I'll finish your career myself by a coup-de-main. No, no; change
+churlish dreams and braving trumpets to mellifluous flutes. I am to be
+married. Varlet, wish me joy.
+
+_L'Ec._ Certainly, captain, I _do_ wish you joy; when a man has once
+determined upon matrimony he acts wisely to collect the congratulations
+of his friends beforehand, for heaven only knows, whether there may be
+any opportunity for them afterwards. May I take the freedom to inquire
+the lady?
+
+_Flor._ 'Tis _she_--L'Eclair, 'tis _she_, the only she, the peerless,
+priceless Geraldine.
+
+_L'Ec._ "_Peerless_" I grant the lady, but as to her being
+"_priceless_," I should think for my own poor particular, that when I
+bartered my liberty for a comely bedfellow, I was paying full value for
+my goods, besides a swinging overcharge for the fashion of the make.
+
+_Flor._ Tush! man, 'tis not by form or feature I compute my prize.
+Geraldine's _mind_, not her beauty, is the magnet of my love. The
+_graces_ are the fugitive handmaids of youth, and dress their charge
+with flowers as fleeting as they are fair; but the _virtues_ faithfully
+o'erwatch the couch of age, and when the flaunting rose has wither'd,
+twine the cheerful evergreen, crowning true lovers freshly to the last!
+  [_Exit._
+
+_L'Ec._ "True lovers!" well, now I love Love, myself, particularly when
+'tis mix'd with brandy! like the loves of the landlady of Lisle, and the
+bandy-legg'd captain.[*]
+
+SONG.
+
+  A landlady of France, she loved an officer, 'tis said,
+    And this officer he dearly loved her brandy, oh!
+  Sigh'd she, "I love this officer, although his nose is red,
+    And his legs are what his regiment call bandy, oh!"
+
+  2
+
+  But when the bandy officer was order'd to the coast;
+    How she tore her lovely locks that look'd so sandy, oh!
+  "Adieu my soul!" said she, "if you write, pray pay the post,
+    But before we part, let's take a drop of brandy, oh!"
+
+  3
+
+  She fill'd him out a bumper, just before he left the town,
+    And another for herself, so neat and handy, oh!
+  So they kept their spirits up, by their pouring spirits down,
+    For love is, like the cholic, cured with brandy, oh!
+
+  4
+
+  "Take a bottle on't," said she, "for you're going into camp;
+    In your tent, you know, my love, 'twill be the dandy, oh!"
+  "You're right," says he, "my life! for a tent is very damp;
+    And 'tis better, with my tent, to take some brandy, oh!"
+
+    [Footnote: For this speech, and the song that follows, the author
+    is indebted to the pen of George Colman, Esq.]
+
+
+  SCENE II.--_The Cottage._
+
+    Enter _Monica_ and _Bertrand_.
+
+_Mon._ In truth, sir, I have told you every circumstance I know
+concerning my poor lodger. But wherefore so particular in your
+inquiries?
+
+_Bert._ Trust me, I have important motives for my curiosity. Seventeen
+years ago, I think you said: and in the woods near _Albi_?
+
+_Mon._ Ay, ay, I was accurate both in time and place.
+
+_Bert._ Every incident concurs. Gracious heaven! should it prove--my
+good woman, I suspect this unfortunate person is known to me; bring me
+directly to the sight of her!
+
+_Mon._ Hold! sir, I must know you better first. I fear me, this poor
+creature has been hardly dealt with; who knows, but you may be her
+enemy?
+
+_Bert._ No, no, her friend; her firm and faithful friend: suspence
+distracts me: lead me to her presence instantly!
+
+_Mon._ Well, well, truly, sir! you look and speak like an honest
+gentleman; but tho' I consent, I doubt whether my lodger will receive
+you; her mind is ill at ease for visitors. All last night I overheard
+her pacing up and down her chamber, moaning piteously and talking to
+herself; towards day-break, all became quiet, then I peeped thro' the
+crevice of her door and saw that she was writing. I never knew her write
+before, I knocked for admittance, but she prayed me not to interrupt her
+for another hour.
+
+_Bert._ Does she still keep her chamber?
+
+_Mon._ She has not quitted it this morning--hark! I think I hear her
+stir, (_goes to the stair-foot and looks up_) ay! her door now stands
+open, place yourself just here, and you may view her plainly without
+being seen yourself; her face is turned towards us, but her eyes are
+fixed upon a writing in her hands.
+
+    [_Bertrand_ looks for a moment to satisfy his doubts, then rushes
+    forward and casts himself upon his knee transportedly.]
+
+_Bert._ She lives! Eternal mercy! thanks! thanks!
+
+_Mon._ Holy St. Dennis! the sight of her has strangely moved you:
+collect yourself, I pray, she comes towards us.
+
+_Bert._ Oh! let me cast myself before her feet!
+
+_Mon._ (_restraining him_) Hold, sir! whatever be your business,
+I beseech you to refrain a little, I must prepare her for your
+appearance, her spirits cannot brook surprise, back! back!
+
+    [_Bertrand_ withdraws, and _Eugenia_ descends the stair with a
+    folded paper in her hand--she appears to struggle with emotion,
+    and running towards _Monica_, casts her arms passionately around
+    her.]
+
+_Eug._ My kind mother! this is perhaps our last embrace; we must part.
+
+_Mon._ Part! my child! what mean you?
+
+_Eug._ Ah! it is my fate, my cruel unrelenting fate that drives me from
+you, from the last shelter and the only friend I yet retain on earth.
+
+_Mon._ Explain yourself; I cannot comprehend.
+
+_Eug._ Mother! I have an enemy, a dreadful one. Seventeen years have
+veil'd me from his hate in vain: those years have wasted the victim's
+form, but the persecutor's heart remains unchanged: my retreat is
+discovered: the wretches who were here last night too surely recognized
+me; soon they may return, and force me; oh! thought of horror. No, no,
+here I dare not stay.
+
+_Mon._ My poor innocent! whither would you go?
+
+_Eug._ To the woods and caves from which you rescued me. Mother, the
+wilderness must be my home again. I fly to wolves and vultures to escape
+from man! Receive this paper, 'tis the written memoir of my wretched
+life; read it when I am gone: my head burned and my hand trembled while
+I traced those characters: yet 'tis a faithful history. Mother! I dare
+not thank your charity, but heaven will remember it hereafter: bestow
+upon me one embrace, and then let me depart in silence.
+
+    (_Monica_ gives a sign to _Bertrand_ to advance.)
+
+_Mon._ Yet hold some moments; a stranger has been inquiring here this
+morning who describes himself your friend.
+
+_Eug._ Ah! no, no: the tomb long since has covered all my friends; 'tis
+some wily agent of my foe! Ah! forbid him mother; let him not
+approach me.
+
+_Mon._ 'Tis too late; he is already in the house.
+
+_Eug._ Where?
+
+    (_Monica_ points, and _Eugenia's_ eyes following her direction,
+    rest upon the prostrate figure of _Bertrand_, who has placed
+    himself in a posture of supplication, and concealed his face with
+    his hands.)
+
+_Eug._ (_gazing intensely with apprehension._) Speak! you kneel and
+still are silent. Ah! what would you require of me?
+
+_Bert._ (_uncovering his face without raising his eyes_) Pardon! pardon!
+
+_Eug._ (_shrieking and flying_) Ah! Bertrand.
+
+_Bert._ (_catching her mantle_) Stay! angel of mercy, stay and hear me.
+He that was your scourge now yields himself your slave: a wretched
+penitent despairing man lies humbled in the dust before you, and
+implores for pardon.
+
+_Eug._ (_pauses--presses her crucifix to her lips, and then replies with
+fervor._) Yes! charity and peace to all! Nay, heaven forgive thee,
+sinful man, I never will accuse thee at its bar.
+
+_Bert._ Angel! my actions better than my prayers may plead with heaven
+for mercy: the cruel wrongs that I have offered, yet in part may be
+atoned--lady, I come to serve and save you.
+
+_Eug._ Ah! to what fresh terrors am I yet devoted?
+
+_Bert._ Might we converse without a witness? in your ear only dare I
+breathe my purpose.
+
+_Mon._ Nay, I will not be an eaves-dropper: my child you do not fear
+this person now? I'll leave you with him--nay, 'tis best--perchance he
+comes indeed with service. My blessings go with you, stranger, if you
+mean her fairly, but if you wrong or play her false, a widow's curse
+fall heavy on your death-bed.  [_Exit up the staircase._
+
+    (A pause of mutual agitation.)
+
+_Eug._ Speak! man of terrors--say what has the persecuted and undone
+Eugenia yet to dread?
+
+_Bert._ The baron Longueville--
+
+_Eug._ That fiend!
+
+_Bert._ He now is in the neighbourhood; as yet he dreams not that you
+live: but accident this very hour might betray you to his knowledge.
+Lady! I possess the means. O blessed chance! to shield you from his
+malice.
+
+_Eug._ And wilt thou; O! wilt thou, Bertrand, at last extend a pitying
+arm to raise the wretch, thy former hate had stricken to the ground?
+I have been despoiled of fortune, fame, and health: my brain has been
+distracted by thy cruelty: yet now preserve me from this worst extreme
+of fate: let me not die the slave of Longueville, all my injuries, all
+my sufferings are forgotten, and this one gracious act shall win thy
+pardon for a thousand sins.
+
+_Bert._ Lady! my o'er weighed conscience heaves impatiently to cast its
+load. (_sinks on his knee_) Lo! at your injured feet I kneel, and
+solemnly pronounce a vow, the tyrant Longueville shall mar your peace no
+more.
+
+    [The cottage-door silently opens, and _Sanguine_ looks in--he
+    makes a sign to _Longueville_ who follows, and they glide to the
+    further end of the cottage unperceived; where they remain in
+    anxious observation of the characters in front.]
+
+_Eug._ Rise! your penitence wears nature's stamp, and I believe it
+honest.
+
+_Bert._ Oh! lady, your words redeem me from despair: but say, to ease a
+heart that aches with wonder: say, by what prodigy you 'scaped the
+flames of that tremendous night, when all believed you perished?
+
+_Eug._ (_shuddering._) Ah! what hast thou said? my dream of confidence
+dissolves, and now I turn from thee again with horror! Again I view thy
+murderous poniard reared to strike! Again my wounded infant shrieks upon
+my bosom, and the fiery gulf yawns redly at my feet! begone? begone! for
+now I hate thee!
+
+_Bert._ Ah, not to me--to Longueville ascribe the horrors of that night.
+(_Aside_) What shall I say? I dare not own to her that De Valmont lives.
+Hear me, lady; scarce was your lord's untimely fall reported, when the
+cruel Longueville in secret plotted to remove his infant heir, the only
+bar that held him from a rich succession; by hellish means he won me to
+his cause: _his_ hand it was that oped the castle gates at midnight to
+the foe, and when the fierce Huguenots rushed shouting through the
+halls, still _his_ hand it was that fired the chamber where you slept in
+peace: to save your child you rushed distracted to the rampart's edge;
+just as I followed to complete my prey, a falling turret crossed my
+path, and presently the general fabric sank in ruin.
+
+_Eug._ A wayward destiny that night was mine; at once both saved and
+lost! a hidden passage dug beneath the rampart, twining through many a
+cavern'd maze, at distance opened to the woods. I reached the secret
+entrance of that pass, just as the turret fell and screened me from
+pursuit. Concealing darkness wrapt my flying steps: the roar of death
+sank far behind, and ere the dawn, in safety with my child, I gained the
+forest.
+
+_Bert._ Your child! eternal powers! the infant then escaped my blow.
+
+_Eug._ Thy dagger's point twice scarred his innocent hand, but failed
+to reach the life. (_Bertrand gesticulates his transport_) A sanguine
+cross indelibly remained; but nature and his mother's tears assuaged the
+pain. Charitable foresters, ignorant of our rank, relieved our wants and
+changed our robes for rustic weeds; thus disguised, my infant in my
+arms, on foot I travelled far and long, seeking ever by the loneliest
+paths, to reach my sovereign's court, and at the throne of power implore
+for justice.
+
+_Bert._ O! does the infant yet survive? Speak, lady! bless me with those
+words--he lives.
+
+_Eug._ No, Bertrand, no; fortune but mocked me with a moment's hope to
+curse me deeper still through ages of despair. In vain I snatched my
+darling boy from poniard and from flame: when way-lost in the
+wilderness, but for a moment did I quit my treasure, the mazes of the
+wood ensnared my step: the fever of my body rushed upon my brain:
+I wandered, never to return; while my forsaken infant--he perished,
+Bertrand. Ah! my brain begins to burn afresh! mark me, he perished
+terribly: inquire not further.
+
+_Bert._ (_deeply affected._) Thou suffering excellence! be witness
+heaven! the monster that I was, no longer has a life; thy tears have
+drowned it quite, and now it strangely melts in pity and remorse. Come,
+lady, let me bestow thee in a safe retreat: the hoarded wages of my
+sinful youth, I'll use as offerings to redeem thy peace: far hence in
+foreign lands a certain refuge waits our flight, and there secure from
+Longueville--
+
+    [The _Baron_ suddenly stands before them in the centre: _Eugenia_
+    shrieks and _Bertrand_ stands aghast and trembles.]
+
+_Bert._ Undone forever?
+
+_Long._ (_furiously to Sanguine_) Guard well the door--let not a
+creature enter or depart.
+
+    [_Sanguine_ advances by his direction. _Eugenia_ flies by the
+    stairs to the upper chamber. _Longueville_, after a short pause of
+    indecisive passion, draws a poniard and seizes upon _Bertrand_.]
+
+_Long._ Wretch!
+
+_Bert._ Strike! yes, deep in this guilty bosom, strike at once, and rid
+me of despair.
+
+_Long._ Thou double traitor! thy perjuries now meet their just reward.
+Tremble at impending death.
+
+_Bert._ No; I have not feared to live in vice, and will not shrink at
+least to die for virtue.
+
+_Long._ (_throwing him off._) No; I will not take the wretched forfeit:
+thou'rt spared from hate, not pity; I gave thee back thy life, but I
+will study punishments, to make the boon a curse unutterable.
+
+_Bert._ Tyrant, I defy thy vengeance to increase my torments; the
+innocent, I pledged myself to save, already stands devoted to
+destruction, and the measure of my anguish and despair is full.
+
+_Long._ (_to Sanguine_) Sanguine, ascend the stair, and force that
+wretched woman to my presence.
+
+_Bert._ Hold, hold, my lord! recal those threatning words. O God! what
+damning crime is in your thoughts? pause--yet for a moment, pause, ere
+you barter to the fiend your soul for ages. Omnipotence hath interposed
+with miracles and still preserved you from the guilt you sought, your
+conscience yet is undefiled with blood.
+
+_Long._ Away! my purpose is resolved.
+
+_Bert._ Will you then reject the mercy Heaven extends? (_kneels and
+catching his cloak._) Hear me, my lord; nay, for your own eternal being,
+hear me; as you now deal with this afflicted innocent, even so,
+hereafter, shall the God of judgment deal with you.
+
+_Long._ I brave the peril, (_call aloud_) hasten, Sanguine, produce my
+victim.
+
+_Bert._ (_Desperately._) Cover me mountains! hide me from the sun! (_He
+casts himself upon the ground._)
+
+    (_Sanguine_ returns precipitately from above.)
+
+_Sang._ My lord, one fatal moment has undone your scheme, the female has
+escaped.
+
+_Long._ Villain! escaped.
+
+_Bert._ (_raising himself in frantic joy._) Ha!
+
+_Sang._ I found the casement of the upper chamber open, some twisted
+linen fastened to the bar, nearly reached to the ground without, and
+proved the method of her flight; a beldame who must have aided her
+escape, remains alone above, (_turning towards the window_,) ha! I catch
+a female figure darting through the trees at a distance; she runs with
+lightning speed,--now--she turns towards the castle.
+
+_Long._ Distraction! if she gains the castle, I am lost forever; pursue!
+pursue!
+
+    [_Longueville_ and _Sanguine_ rush out.
+
+_Bert._ (_Vehemently._) Guardians of innocence, direct her steps!
+  [_He follows them._
+
+
+  SCENE III.--_A Gallery in the Chateau._
+
+    Enter _Rosabelle_ followed by _Gaspard_.
+
+_Gasp._ Ha! young mistress Rosabelle, whither so fast I pray? 'faith,
+damsel, you are fleet of foot.
+
+_Ros._ Yet my steps are heavier than my heart, for that's all feather,
+ready for any flight in fancy's hemisphere; give thought but breath, and
+'twere blown in a second to the moon or the antipodes, wilt along with
+me, Gaspard?
+
+_Gasp._ What, to the moon or the antipodes? Alack! damsel, I should
+prove but a sorry travelling companion upon either road; no, no, youth
+is for night; but age for falls.
+
+_Ros._ Wilt turn a waltz anon, and be my partner in the dance?
+
+_Gasp._ Hey! madcap, have we dances toward?
+
+_Ros._ Ay! upon the terrace presently, all the world will assemble
+there; the lady Geraldine and myself for beauty; and then for rank, we
+shall have the count himself, and the baron, and the chevalier, and--
+
+_Gasp._ Out upon you, magpie; would you delude the old man with fables?
+his lordship, the count, among revellers! truly a pleasant jest; I have
+been his watchful servant these twenty years, and never knew him to
+abide the sight or sound of pleasures.
+
+_Ros._ Then I can acquaint you, he proposes on this day to regale both
+his eyes and his ears with a novelty; I heard him promise lady Geraldine
+to join the pastimes on the terrace.
+
+_Gasp._ Oh! the blest tidings: damsel, thy tongue has made a boy of me
+again.
+
+_Ros._ Now charity forefend, for so should I bring thee to thy second
+childhood.
+
+_Gasp._ Ah! would you fleer me! his lordship among revellers! oh! the
+blest prodigy! well, well, I give no promise, mark; but should a certain
+damsel lack a partner, adod. I know not--sixty-live shows with an
+ill-grace in a rigadoon, but for a minuet: well, well, St. Vitus
+strengthen me, and I accept thy challenge.  [_Exit._
+
+_Ros._ Go thy ways, thou antique gallantry; thy pledge shall never be
+endangered by my claim; I'm for a brisker partner in every dance through
+life, I promise thee.
+
+AIR.--_Rosabelle._
+
+  On the banks of the Rhine, at the sun-setting hour,
+    Oh! meet me, and greet me, my true love, I pray!
+  Or feasting, or sleeping, in hall, or in bower,
+    To the Rhine-bank, oh! true love, rise up and away!
+
+  On that bank, an old willow dejectedly grieves
+    And drops from each leaf, for love's falsehoods, a tear;
+  Go! rivals, and gather the willow's pale leaves,
+  For falsehood ne'er cross'd between me and my dear.
+
+    [_Exit._
+
+
+  SCENE IV.--_The Castle Gardens decorated for a Fête, and crowded
+  with Dancers and Musicians: a lofty Terrace crosses the extremity of
+  the Stage, from which Village-Girls advance, scattering flowers
+  before Geraldine, who is led by Florian to an open Temple between
+  the Side-scenes, containing three Seats._
+
+_Ger._ (_Pointing to the centre seat_) There is our hero's seat of
+triumph: nay, my commands are absolute, and you have no appeal,
+I reserve this for my uncle, he will join us presently.
+
+    (They seat themselves--a ballet immediately commences--boys,
+    habited as warriors, pay homage before _Florian_, and hang military
+    trophies round his seat. Girls enter, as wood-nymphs, &c. who
+    surprise and disarm the warriors, then remove the trophies, and
+    replace them with garlands. The warriors and nymphs join in a
+    general dance--Suddenly a piercing shriek is heard: the action of
+    the scene abruptly stops, and _Eugenia_, entering from the top of
+    the stage, rushes distractedly between the groups of dancers, and
+    casts herself at the feet of _Geraldine_.)
+
+_Eug._ Save me! save me!
+
+_Ger._ Ah! what wretched supplicant is this?
+
+_Flor._ By heavens! the very woman who yesternight preserved my life.
+
+    _Longueville_ enters in pursuit.
+
+_Long._ (_Advancing rapidly, with instant self-command_) Dear friends!
+Heaven has this hour appointed me the agent of its grace. I have
+discovered in this wretched woman, the long-lost wife of an ancient
+friend, at Baden; lend your assistance to secure her person 'till I can
+apprise the husband of this unexpected meeting.
+
+_Eug._ No, no, I have no husband--they have murdered him; he would
+betray--destroy me. (_catching Geraldine's robe_) Oh! you, whose looks
+are heavenly-soft, to _you_ I plead: protect me from this fiend.
+
+_Ger._ How earnestly she grasps my hand, indeed--indeed her agony seems
+genuine.
+
+_Long._ You are deceived, she utters nought but madness, her mind has
+been for years incurably diseased; come, away! away!
+
+    (He seizes violently upon _Eugenia_ to force her with him, she
+    clings to _Geraldine_ in anguish.)
+
+_Eug._ Forsake me not! I have no protector to invoke but you.
+
+_Ger._ Forbear, my lord, I cannot find that wildness you proclaim;
+forbear, and recollect the rights of hospitality never yet were violated
+at my uncle's gate. Lady, dismiss your fears, here sorrow ever meets a
+ready shelter, for here resides the Count De Valmont.
+
+_Eug._ Who?
+
+_Ger._ The excellent, the suffering Count De Valmont.
+
+_Eug._ (_starting up with recurring insanity._) Ha! ha! ha! come to the
+altar,--my love waits for me, weave me a bridal crown!
+
+_Long._ (_triumphantly._) Behold! can you doubt me now?
+
+_Ger._ Too painfully I am convinced; miserable being! Ah! remove her
+hence, before my uncle joins us; so terrible an object would
+inexpressibly afflict him.
+
+_Flor._ Yes, yes; remove her hence! but O! I charge you treat her with
+the tenderest care.
+
+_Long._ (_eagerly to his people._) Advance! bear her to my pavilion!
+mark! to _my_ pavilion on the river-bank!
+
+    (The men seize upon _Eugenia_--the _Count_ appears at the same
+    moment advancing from the extremity of the Terrace.)
+
+_De Val._ My friends! I come to join your pleasures.
+
+_Eug._ (_struggling violently._) Hark! he calls me to his arms--unhand
+me! nay, then oh! cruel, cruel, cruel.
+
+    (Overcome by her exertions, she sinks into a swoon and falls in
+    the arms of the two men. _Longueville_ rapidly draw her veil
+    across to conceal her features from the _Count_ as he advances.)
+
+_Long._ Away with her this instant!
+
+    [He turns quickly toward the Terrace and catches De Valmont's arm
+    as he descends to prevent his approach--then turns imperatively to
+    the men.]
+
+_Long._ Quick! Quick! away!
+
+    _De Valmont_ pauses in surprize: _Longueville_ maintains his
+    restraining attitude. _Florian_ and _Geraldine_ join to arrest his
+    steps: the bravos withdraw the insensible and unresisting _Eugenia_
+    upon the opposite side: The various characters dispose themselves
+    into a picture, and the curtain falls upon the Scene.
+
+
+    End of act II.
+
+
+
+
+ACT III.
+
+
+  SCENE I.--_The Steward's Room, _Gaspard_ and _L'Eclair_ discovered
+  drinking, the latter half-intoxicated._
+
+_Gas._ Adod! a very masterpiece of the military art? Why this Turenne
+must be a famous captain. I'll drink his health, (_drinks_) Odso! where
+did we leave the enemy? Oh! the Bavarians were just driven across the
+Neckar, and had destroyed the bridge. Well, and then what did our
+troops?
+
+_L'Ecl._ They clashed after them thro' the river like a pack of otters.
+
+_Gasp._ Hold; you said just now the river wasn't fordable.
+
+_L'Ecl._ Did I? Pshaw, I only meant, it wasn't fordable to the enemy:
+no, poor devils! they couldn't ford it certainly; but as to our hussars:
+whew! such fellows as they would _get_ thro' any thing, were it ever so
+deep to the bottom. (_takes the flask from Gaspard and drinks_).
+
+_Gasp._ O! the rare hussars! Now this is a conversation just to my
+heart's content. I dearly love to hear of battles and sieges. The
+household are all retired to rest, and my room is private; so here we
+may sit peaceably, and talk about war for the remainder of the night.
+
+_L'Ec._ Bravo! agreed: we'll make a night of it; but harkye, is not this
+room of yours built in a queer sort of a circular shape?
+
+_Gasp._ No; a most perfect square.
+
+_L'Ec._ Well, I never studied mathematics; but, for a perfect square,
+methinks it has the oddest trick of turning round with its company I
+ever witnessed.
+
+    Enter _Rosabelle_.
+
+_Ros._ Here's a display of profligacy! So, gentlemen, are these your
+morals? Methinks you place a special example before the household;
+drinking and carousing thus after midnight, when all decent persons
+ought to be at rest within their beds.
+
+_Gasp._ Marry now, my malapert lady! How comes it you are found abroad
+at these wild hours?
+
+_Ros._ I have always important motives for my conduct. A strange female
+waits at the castle-gate, who clamors for admittance; she seems in deep
+distress, refuses to accept denial or excuse, and demands to speak with
+the person of first consequence in the family. Now, Mr. Gaspard, as you
+happen to be steward--
+
+_Gasp._ (_rises pompously_) I am of course the personage required. You
+say a female?
+
+_Ros._ Yes; she waits for you in heavy trouble at the gate.
+
+_Gasp._ I fly. Gallantry invites, and I obey the call. Good Mr.
+L'Eclair, I cast myself upon your courtesy for this abrupt departure:
+
+  'Tis woman tempts from friendship, war, and wine--
+  My fault is human--my excuse divine! [_Exit._
+
+_Ros._ In sooth, the old gentleman has not forgotten his manners in his
+cups; but as to you, sir, (_to L'Eclair_) how stupidly you sit--have you
+nothing to say for yourself?
+
+_L'Ec._ (_rising and reeling towards her_). Much, very much--
+love--midnight--all snug and private.
+
+_Ros._ Mercy O me! the wretch is certainly intoxicated; how wickedly his
+eyes begin to twinkle. Why, Scapegrace, I'm sure you're not sober.
+
+_L'Ec._ Don't say so, pray don't, you wound my delicacy. O! Rosabelle!
+beautiful but misjudging Rosabelle! I am unfortunate, but not criminal.
+This morning I beheld only one Rosabelle, and yet I was undone; now I
+seem to behold two Rosabelles; ergo, I either see double, or am doubly
+undone. There's logic for you. Now, could a man who wasn't sober, talk
+logic? only answer me that.
+
+_Ros._ What shall I do with him? If I leave him here, he'll drink
+himself into a fever. I must e'en coax him. L'Eclair, come, come, my
+dear L'Eclair, let me prevail upon you to go to bed; I'm going to bed
+myself.
+
+_L'Ec._ O! fy, that's too broad; I blush for you; would you delude my
+innocence?
+
+_Ros._ The profligate monster! I delude!
+
+_L'Ec._ Well, I yield to fate: stars! veil your chaste heads, and thou.
+O! little candle, hide thy wick! behold the lamb submitting to the
+sacrifice. (_Reels to embrace her._)
+
+_Ros._ Why, you heathen monster! how dare you talk to me about lambs and
+sacrifices? ah! if you stir another step, I'll alarm the family! I can
+scream, sir!
+
+_L'Ec._ I know you can; but pray, don't, somebody might hear you, and
+that would be very disappointing, recollect I have a character to lose.
+
+_Ros._ And have not I a character too, Sir?
+
+_L'Ec._ Hush! hush! Let's drops the subject.
+
+_Ros._ How now, sirrah! have you any thing to say against my character?
+
+_L'Ec._ Oh! no, I never speak ill of the dead.
+
+_Ros._ Why, you vile insinuating, but I shall preserve my temper though
+you have lost your manners: well, assuredly of all objects in creation,
+the most pitiable is a man in liquor.
+
+_L'Ec._ There's an exception--a man in love.
+
+DUETT.--_Rosabelle and L'Eclair._
+
+  _Ros._ The precept of Bacchus to man proves a curse,
+  The head it confounds, and the heart it bewitches.
+
+  _L'Ec._ I'm sure, the example of Cupid is worse,
+  For he walks abroad without shirt, drawers, or breeches.
+
+  _Ros._ Pshaw! Cupid, you dolt, has rich garments enough.
+
+  _L'Ec._ Nay, his wardrobe's confin'd to a plain suit of buff.
+
+  _Ros._ 'Twas Bacchus taught men to drown reason in cans.
+
+  _L'Ec._ 'Twas Cupid taught ladies the first use of fans.
+
+  _Ros._ How diff'rent the garland, their votaries twine,--
+  How genteel is the myrtle--how vulgar the vine!
+
+  _L'Ec._ Of myrtle or vine I pretend not to know,
+  But a fig-leaf I think would be most apropos:  [_Exeunt._
+
+
+  SCENE II.--_The Count's Chamber--De Valmont is discovered gazing in
+  profound meditation upon a miniature picture._
+
+  _De Val._ Eugenia!
+  Now of the angel race, and hous'd in Heaven!
+  Forgive, dear saint! these blameful eyes that flow
+  With human love, and mourn thy blessedness.
+  O! ye strange powers! with what excelling truth
+  Has Art's small hand here mimic'd mightiest Nature!
+  What cheeks are these! could Death e'er crop such roses?
+  Eyes! star-bright twins! fair glasses to fair thoughts,
+  Where, as by truest oracles confest,
+  The godlike soul reveals itself in glory.
+  Your glances thrill me! amber-twinkling threads!
+  Half bound by grace, half loos'd by winds, how strays
+  This shining ringlet o'er this clear white breast!
+  Like the pale sunshine streaking wintry snows!
+  These lips have life--yea! very breath; a sweet
+  Warm spirit stirs thru' the cleft ruby now!
+  They move--they smile--they speak. Soft! soft! sweet heavens!
+  I'll gaze no more; there's witchcraft in this skill,
+  And my abus'd weak brain may madden soon!
+
+    (conceals the picture in his bosom)
+
+  The spell is hidden, still th' illusion works:
+  O! in my heart Eugenia art thou trac'd--
+  There--there--thou livest--speakest--yet art mortal.
+  Strong memory triumphs over death and time,
+  In all my circling blood--each vein--each pulse
+  Wherever life is, ever there art thou.
+
+    (Gaspard speaks without.)
+
+_Gasp._ Go, go; his lordship may not be disturb'd.
+
+_Mon._ (_without_) Away! I have a cause that must be heard.
+
+_De Val._ How now! voices in the anti-room! Ho!
+
+    Enter _Gaspard_.
+
+_Gasp._ Alack! that folk will be so troublesome: my good lord! here's a
+strange woman; truly a most obstinate spirit, who craves vehemently to
+be heard, on matters (so she reports) of much importance to your
+lordship.
+
+_De Val._ Nay, in the morning be it; not at this hour.
+
+_Gasp._ I told her so; my very words; but truly, her grief seems to have
+craz'd her reason.
+
+_De Val._ How! is she unhappy then? her sorrows be her passport here;
+admit her instantly: where should the afflicted heart prefer a prayer,
+if kindred wretchedness deny its sympathy?
+
+    (_Gaspard_ introduces _Monica_.)
+
+_Mon._ So! you are seen at last, my lord! men say your heart is good;
+grant Heaven! I find it so; but ah! perhaps it is too late. Yes, yes;
+I fear it: the dove is in the vulture's grip already.
+
+_De Val._ Woman! what strange distraction's this? Give me a knowledge of
+your griefs with method.
+
+_Mon._ I will, I will, but anguish stifles me; O! my lord, my lord, this
+is your castle, and here she fled for shelter, yet cruel hearts refused
+her prayer. I have been told by your people that the baron's pavilion on
+the river-bank is made her prison; she will be murdered there: oh! my
+lord, gracious lord, save her, save her!
+
+    (She throws herself passionately at his feet.)
+
+_De Val._ Rise; attempt composure, your words are riddles to me.
+
+_Gasp._ My lord! 'tis of the poor lunatic she speaks; she whom the baron
+has confined: this woman claims her as her charge.
+
+_De Val._I saw the person not, but heard in brief her story from the
+baron; rest, good woman, rest; my kinsman is her friend.
+
+_Mon._ No, no, he is a monster thirsting for her blood: here, here,
+I have read his character.
+
+    (Producing Eugenia's MSS.)
+
+_De Val._ Beware! you offend me; grief yields no privilege to slander.
+
+_Mon._ I am not a slanderer, indeed, _indeed_, I am not; here are
+proofs: your lordship, I find, is called the Count De Valmont; had you
+not once a relation of the same title, who fell in battle with the
+Huguenots eighteen years ago!
+
+_De Val._ Never.
+
+_Mon._ Yet 'twas the same title: ay, here 'tis written: "in forcing the
+passage of the Durance."
+
+_De Val._ How! 'tis of myself assuredly you read; I was reported falsely
+in that very action to have fallen; and for a time my death was credited
+through France.
+
+_Mon._ Ah! my lord! my lord! O! it rushes on my heart--nay, give but a
+moment; speak; were you once wedded to a lady named Eugenia?
+
+_De Val._ Woman! ah, name beloved!--wherefore that torturing question?
+
+_Mon._ Yes, yes; it is--it must be so--I cannot, here--read--this!--
+(_giving the scroll_).
+
+_De Val._ Eternal Powers! Eugenia's well-known character! when and
+whence did you procure this writing?
+
+_Mon._ This very morning, from her own hand, my lord, Eugenia lives to
+bless and to be blessed again.
+
+    (_De Valmont_ starts as if stricken to the center, for a moment
+    his features express amazement, then incredulity, and lastly
+    indignation.)
+
+_De Val._ Begone! thou wretched woman, lest I forget thy sex, and kill
+thee for thy cruelty.
+
+_Mon._ Nay, let me die, but not be doubted: read, read, and let your
+eyes assure your soul of joy!
+
+    (The _Count_ faintly staggers back into a seat, and then fastens
+    his eyes upon the scroll with a frenzied earnestness.)
+
+_Gasp._ Woman! if you have spoken falsely, my noble master's heart will
+break at once.
+
+_Mon._ By the great issue, let my words be judged!
+
+_De Val._ (_reading_) "The chamber burst in flames, I snatched my infant
+from its slumber, I heard the voice of Longueville direct our murder,
+ruffians rushed towards us to perform his bidding." (_starting forward
+with uncontrolable fury_) Oh! God of wrath and vengeance! hear thou a
+husband's and a father's prayer! strike the pale villain! oh! with thy
+hottest lightning blast him dead! a curse, a tenfold curse o'erwhelm his
+death-bed! Traitor! thou shalt not 'scape, this hand shall rend thy
+heart-strings, I'll smite thee home.
+
+    (In the delirium of his passion he draws his sword, and strikes
+    with it as at an ideal combatant, his bodily powers forsake him in
+    the effort, he reels, and falls convulsed into Gaspard's arms.)
+
+_Gasp._ Help! help! death is on him, help there swiftly!
+
+    (_Geraldine_ rushes in, followed by domestics.)
+
+_Ger._ Whence these cries? ah Heavens! what killing sight is this?
+uncle, uncle, speak to me, 'tis Geraldine that calls.
+
+    Enter _Florian_ from the opposite side.
+
+_Flor._ My patron! ha! convulsed! dying. Eternal Mercy spare his sacred
+life!
+
+_Ger._ Nay, bend him forward, his eyes unclose again--he sees--he
+knows us.
+
+    (The _Count_ in silence draws a hand from _Geraldine_ and _Florian_
+    within his own, and presses them together to his heart.)
+
+_Flor._ How fares it, sir? bless us with your voice.
+
+_De Val._ Ah! Ah! (_he grasps the scroll and points to it emphatically,
+but cannot articulate._)
+
+_Flor._ O! for a knowledge of your gracious pleasure, speak sir,
+pronounce one word.
+
+_De Val._ (_very faintly and with effort._) Longueville: ah fly,
+preserve-- (_again his accents fail him, he seems to collect all his
+remaining strength for one short effort, and a second time just
+articulates_) --Longueville! (_he relapses into insensibility._)
+
+_Flor._ Enough! I comprehend your will; nay, bear him gently in, I'll to
+the river-bank and seek the Baron!
+
+    (_Geraldine, &c. bear the count off on one side, Florian rushes
+    away by the opposite._)
+
+
+  SCENE III.--_A rugged Cliff that overhangs the River._
+
+    Enter _Longueville_ and _Sanguine_.
+
+_Long._ Tardy, neglectful slave! still does he loiter?
+
+_Sang._ Nay, return to the pavilion; the signal soon must greet us: you
+bade Lenoire to sound his bugle when he reached the bank.
+
+_Long._ Ay, thrice the blast should be repeated; still must I listen for
+those notes of destiny in vain? hark! here you nothing now?
+
+_Sang._ Only the rising tide that murmurs hoarsly as it frets and chafes
+against the bank below us.
+
+_Long._ Is midnight passed?
+
+_Sang._ Long since: just as we crossed the glen the monastery chime
+swang heavy with the knell of yesterday.
+
+_Long._ A guiltless end that flighted yesterday hath reached. O! that
+the morrow found as clear a tomb! When the next midnight tolls, Eugenia,
+thou wilt rest in blessedness, whilst thy murderer-- Ah! what charmed
+couch shall bring the sweet forgetful slumber at that hour to me?
+Midnight, the welcome sabbath of unstained souls, O, to the murderer
+thou art terrible--silence and darkness that with the innocent make
+blessed time, to him bring curses, for then through sealed ears and
+close-veiled eyes, strange sounds and sights will steal their way, that
+in the hum and glare of day-light dare not stir: then o'er the wretch's
+forehead ooze cold beads of dew--in feverish, brain-sick dreams, with
+starts and groans: on beds of seeming down he feels the griding rack,
+and finds himself a hell more fierce, than fiends can show hereafter.
+
+_Sang._ How now, my lord? unmanned by conscience? Nay, then, let Eugenia
+live.
+
+_Long._ Not for an angel's birthright! think'st thou I would deign to
+breathe on wretched sufferance? No, no; her death is necessary to my
+honor and my peace. Come on! my hand may falter, but my heart's
+resolved; 'tis sworn, inexorably sworn: Eugenia dies.  [_Exeunt._
+
+
+  SCENE IV.--_The river-bank--the Rhine flows across the stage at
+  distance--on one side a pavilion extends obliquely, through the
+  lower windows of which lights appear--nearly opposite is a small
+  bower of lattice-work.--The moon at full, has just risen above the
+  German bank, and pours its radiance upon the water. _Bertrand_ is
+  discovered watching the pavilion._
+
+_Bert._ I watch in vain; all means of access to the prisoner are
+debarred: her chamber now is dark and silent: still tapers glare and
+voices murmur from the hall beneath: the baron and Sanguine are there:
+'tis against life these midnight plotters stir. Oh! that this heart
+might bleed to its last guilty drop in ransom for Eugenia! Soft! does
+not the dashing of a distant oar disturb the silence of the tide? Yes;
+just where the moonlight gleams a boat now crosses rapidly; it rows
+towards this bank; it pauses now in stillness--what may this mean? the
+hour so late, the spot so unfrequented and remote. (_A bugle is sounded
+three times_) Ha! a bugle sounded thrice! too sure the omen of some
+fatal deed. I will not quit this spot--no, Eugenia, I will preserve or
+perish with thee! Soft, the pavilion opens. Bower, receive me to thy
+friendly shades! watch with me blessed spirits.
+
+    (He retires into the bower fronting the pavilion. _Longueville_
+    advances cautiously from the pavilion.)
+
+_Long._ 'Twas the signal! the boat has reached the bank, Ho! Lenoire!
+advance: no eye observes thy step.
+
+    Enter _Lenoire_ along the bank by an entrance between the bower
+    and the river.
+
+_Len._ All is prepared: your orders are fulfiled.
+
+_Long._ Laggard! too many precious moments have been wasted in their
+execution: the moon has risen high, and casts a brightness round scarce
+feebler than the day: your course may be observed.
+
+_Len._ Dismiss that fear: nothing that lives hath voice or motion: now,
+not e'en the solitary fisher spreads his nets upon the stream.
+
+_Long._ Where have you left the boat?
+
+_Len._ Under the bank in shade, fastened to the roots of yon tall
+willow.
+
+_Long._ Sanguine shall accompany you; then when you reach the middle of
+the current--
+
+_Len._ Ay, where it flows deep and strong; Eugenia's funeral rites are
+few and brief.
+
+_Long._ To-morrow, I shall report she has been conveyed in safety to her
+friends upon the German bank--thus all inquiry stands forever barred.
+
+    [_Bertrand_, who watches from the bower, clasps his hands in
+    despair and groans aloud.]
+
+_Long._ Ha! what sound was that?
+
+_Len._ (_looking cautiously round._) Some tree moaning to the blast--no
+more.
+
+_Long._ Now then! yet hold! wherefore come you not masked? some of the
+peasantry may chance to stir ere you return, and I should wish your
+persons were unmarked by any.
+
+_Len._ I left a mask within the boat; this flowing mantle will conceal
+my dress--trust me both form and feature shall effectually be hid.
+
+    (_Bertrand_ makes a gesticulation of hope towards the pavilion,
+    then glides silently round the angle of the bower, and starts
+    along the bank.)
+
+_Long._ 'Tis well! (_to the pavilion._) Ho! Sanguine! lead forth your
+charge: despatch, Lenoire! return to the boat, and row it swiftly
+hither! Away!
+
+  [Exit _Lenoire_.
+
+She comes! Ill-starred Eugenia! fate chides the lingering echo of thy
+step, yet but a moment and 'tis hushed forever.
+
+    _Sanguine_ leads _Eugenia_ from the pavilion._
+
+_Eug._ Ah! whither do you lead me? Speak, in pity--nay, nay, I prithee
+force me not; this is a savage hour, and I must fear your purpose,
+speak, whither would you hurry me? Ah! Longueville! now then I read my
+answer--'tis to death--to murder!
+
+_Long._ Lady, you misjudge my purpose--true, that once I proved myself
+your foe, perhaps a kindless one; time and pity have extinguished hate.
+Across the Rhine, upon the German bank, a safe asylum is provided, where
+peace shall gild the evening of your life, and cure the memory of its
+early woes; 'tis necessary you should cross the river before dawn;
+a boat is now in readiness to bear you over.
+
+_Eug._ No, no, I find a language in your eye more certain than your
+lip--murder--midnight murder is its direful theme. Thou wretched man!
+rather for thee than for myself I kneel. Pause, Longueville! raise but
+thine eye to yon clear world, thick-sown with shining wonders--think,
+that throughout the boundless beauteous space, an omnipresent, and
+all-conscious spirit is; think, that within his awful eye-beam, now thy
+actions pass, and presently before his throne must wait for judgment;
+think, that whene'er he touched the veriest worm, that crawls on this
+base sphere, with life, mighty his will encompassed it with safety!
+then, tremble, creature as thou art, to spurn his law by whom thou wert
+created, nor quench with impious hand, that gifted spark Omnipotence
+hath once ordained to glow.
+
+_Long._ Lady, already I have said, your auguries wrong me (_the noise of
+a combat sounds from the bank._) Ha! the crash of swords! Sanguine! fly
+to the spot. Lenoire, I fear me, is in danger.
+
+  [Exit _Sanguine_.
+
+Confusion to my hopes! what ill-beamed planet rules the hour? Eugenia,
+return to the pavilion.
+
+_Eug._ Not, while succour seems so nigh, help! help!
+
+_Long._ Dare but repeat that cry, by heavens! this very moment is your
+last. (_draws a dagger._) Nay, nay, you strive in vain,--away!
+
+    [_Longueville_ forces _Eugenia_ into the pavilion, then drags a bar
+    across the door.
+
+What cursed step has wandered on these banks to thwart my ripe design?
+Perdition to the meddling slave! his life shall pay the forfeit of his
+rashness.
+
+    Re-enter _Sanguine_.
+
+_Sang._ My lord, the combatants, whoe'er they were, had vanished ere I
+reached the spot; close to the water's edge the turf was stained with
+blood, and already to a distance from the bank, Lenoire had rowed away
+the boat; I called aloud, but he increased his speed, and gave no
+answer.
+
+_Lon._ 'Sdeath! some prying hind has stolen on our plans; doubtless
+Lenoire has been assailed and for a while avoids the bank, fearful of
+further ambush; follow me to search yon winding path; if the villian
+have received a wound, traces of blood will guide us to his
+haunt,--vengeance direct our steps!  [_Exit, with Sanguine._
+
+    [_Eugenia_ appears at the lower windows through a grating.]
+
+_Eug._ Fond, trusting heart! art thou again deceived? does the great
+thunder sleep, and are the heavens still patient of a murderer's crimes;
+yes, yes, the sounds have ceased, and now a dreadful stillness sits upon
+the night; the tomb seems imaged in the hour. Hope in the breathless
+pause forsakes my breast forever.
+
+    Enter _Florian_.
+
+_Flor._ Ha! lights still burning--fortunately then he has not retired to
+rest,--baron! baron!  [_Runs to the door._
+
+_Eug._ (_Shrieks._) Ah! the voice of succour--turn, turn in pity--snatch
+me from despair--preserve me from the grave.
+
+_Flor._ Heavens!
+
+    [Involuntarily he withdraws the bar, and _Eugenia_ darting forth,
+    clings wildly round him.]
+
+_Flor._ Unhappy woman! whence these transports?
+
+_Eug._ Swear to preserve me, swear not to yield me to the murderer's
+dagger; no, no, you have a human heart; am I not safe with you?
+
+_Flor._ My honor and my manhood both are pledges for your safety: but
+who is the enemy you dread!
+
+_Eug._ Longueville; he seeks my life: nay, nay, I am not mad, indeed I
+am not; turn not from me: look with compassion on a desolate, devoted
+creature, whom man conspires to wrong, and Heaven forgets to aid.
+
+_Flor._ Appease these agonies; by my eternal hope, I swear, whatever the
+danger, or the foe that threatens, I will defend you with my life from
+injury.
+
+_Eug._ A wretch's blessing crown thee for the generous vow! oh! let my
+soul dissolve and gush in tears upon this gracious hand!
+
+    [_Eugenia_ enthusiastically clasps Florian's hand, and covers it
+    with tears and caresses; suddenly a new impulse appears to direct
+    her actions: she rubs the back of the hand she has seized with
+    strange earnestness, and a tremor pervades her entire frame.]
+
+_Flor._ Why do you fasten thus your looks upon my hand: what moves your
+wonder?
+
+_Eug._ (_tremblingly._) This scar, this deep, _deep_ scar, that with a
+crimson cross o'erseams your hand; speak, how gained you first this
+dreadful mark?
+
+_Flor._ From infancy I recollect the stamp, its cause remains unknown.
+
+_Eug._ Who were your parents?
+
+_Flor._ Alas! that knowledge never blessed my heart. I am a foundling:
+eighteen years since, in a forest at the foot of the Cevennes--
+
+_Eug._ Ah! did watchful angels then--yes, yes, twice the dagger struck!
+'tis nature's holy proof!
+
+_Flor._ Merciful heavens! you then possess the secret of my birth:
+woman! woman! pronounce my parents' name, and I will worship you.
+
+_Eug._ Your parents! ah! they were, ah! ah!
+
+    [She attempts to enfold him with her arms, but faints as he
+    receives the embrace.]
+
+_Flor._ Speak! I conjure you, speak! breathe but their sacred name! she
+hears me not, and nature struggles at my heart in vain!
+
+    Enter _Longueville_ and _Sanguine_ at distance.
+
+_Long._ The lurking knave, whate'er his aim, has fled beyond our search,
+and all is now secure. Has Lenoire return'd your signal to approach the
+bank?
+
+_Sang._ He rows towards us now--nay, look--the boat draws close.
+
+_Long._ Then to our last decisive deed!
+
+    [Passing to the pavilion he beholds the characters in front, and
+    starts.]
+
+Ha! confusion and despair! Eugenia rescued, and in Florian's arms!
+
+_Flor._ Help, baron!--swiftly help!--aid me to preserve a dying woman!
+
+_Long._ Florian! by what wild chance at such unwonted hour I find you on
+this spot, admits not of inquiry now--but for this fair impostor, resign
+her to my care--with me her safety is at once assured.
+
+_Flor._ Pardon me, Longueville; whate'er the laws of courtesy demand,
+I yield--but to this female's fate my soul is newly bound by ties so
+strange and strong, that even your displeasure must not part us.
+
+    [The alarum-bell tolls from the castle.]
+
+_Long._ Ha! the castle is alarmed--look out, Sanguine:--what means this
+tumult?
+
+_Sang._ My lord! the glare of numerous torches wavers through the
+grove--this way the crowd directs its course.
+
+_Long._ Distraction! --Florian, beware my just resentment, and instantly
+resign this woman! (_Attempting to force her from him._)
+
+_Flor._ Never!--my word stands pledged for her protection, and only with
+my life will I desert my honor.
+
+_Long._ Hell!--ho! Lenoire! --Lenoire!
+
+    [He rushes furiously to the bank, and motions to the boat.]
+
+_Eug._ (_just recovering._) Stay, blessed vision!-- (_recognizing
+Florian_) ah! 'twas real--I fold him to my heart, and am blessed at
+last.
+
+    [The boat, rowed by a man enveloped in a mantle and a masque, at
+    that instant gains the bank.]
+
+_Long._ (_triumphantly_) Ha! the boat arrives!--now then presumptuous
+boy! receive the chastisement you dare provoke.
+
+    [He draws and rushes upon _Florian_, who disengages himself from
+    _Eugenia_ and stands upon the defence.]
+
+_Flor._ In the just cause I would not shrink before a giant's arm!
+(_they engage._)
+
+_Eug._ (_frantic_) Inhuman Longueville!--forbear! forbear!
+
+    [While _Florian_ encounters _Longueville_, _Sanguine_ suddenly
+    darts upon _Eugenia_, who is too enfeebled to resist; by the
+    action of a moment he transports her from her protector's side to
+    the Baron's. Florian's position is next to the audience, so that
+    Longueville's sword now equally intercepts him from _Eugenia_ and
+    from the river.]
+
+_Long._ (_Perceiving his advantage_) Away!--drag--her to the boat--be
+mine the task to curb her champion's valor.
+
+_Flor._ Hold! dastard--unless thou art dead to every sense of
+manhood--hold!
+
+_Long._ Boy! I triumph, and deride thy baffled spleen.
+
+    [_Sanguine_ lifts _Eugenia_ into the boat, and the masque receives
+    her.]
+
+_Eug._ (_from the boat_) Great nature! speed my dying words! --Thou
+dear-lov'd youth! thy mother blesses thee--long-lost--late-found--
+behold! she struggles _now_ to bless her child--and _now_ she dies
+content!
+
+_Flor._ Eternal Providence! what words were those? --Longueville!
+--Barbarian! --Fiend!
+
+    [He rushes madly upon the _Baron_, who parries the assault; then
+    in an agony casts himself before his feet.]
+
+Oh! if thou art human, hold! --I kneel--I fall thy slave--spurn
+me--trample on my neck--take my life--but O! respect and spare my
+parent!
+
+_Sang._ (_from the boat_) Decide, my lord; the crowd approach, already
+they o'erlook the bank.
+
+_Long._ 'Twere vain to pause--I founder upon either course--nay then,
+revenge shall brighten ruin; swift! plunge your poniards in Eugenia's
+bosom! let me behold my victim perish, and then commit me to my fate!
+
+_Flor._ (_starting up in desperation_) Monster!
+
+_Long._ They come--obey me, slaves!
+
+    [_Sanguine_ draws _Eugenia_ back, and the _Masque_ lifts a dagger
+    over her.]
+
+_Sang._ We are prepared.
+
+_Long._ Now.
+
+_Sang._ Comrade! strike!
+
+_Masque._ Ay! to the heart!
+
+    [The _Masque_ rapidly darts his arm across Eugenia's figure and
+    plunges the dagger into _Sanguine_, who reels beneath the blow and
+    falls into the stream.
+
+(_triumphantly_) Eugenia is preserved!
+
+    [With one arm he supports the lady, and with the other snatches
+    away the masque and discovers the features of _Bertrand_.
+
+_Long._ Bertrand--perfidious slave! eternal palsies strike thy arm!
+
+    [_Gaspard_, _Monica_, _Domestics_, &c. with torches, enter at the
+    moment and surround the baron, whose surprise bereaves him of
+    power to resist.]
+
+_Flor._ Secure the villain, yet forbear his life--Mother! Mysterious
+blessing--ah! yield her to my arms--my heart!
+
+    [_Bertrand_ resigns _Eugenia_ to Florian's embrace.]
+
+_Eug._ My boy, my only one--Bertrand! life is thy gift, and now indeed I
+bless thee for the boon.
+
+_Bert._ I swore to save you, I have kept my oath, unseen I watched,
+unknown I ventured in your cause--your forgiveness half relieves my
+soul, and now I dare to pray for heaven's!
+
+    Enter _De Valmont_, supported by _Geraldine_ and _Domestics_.
+
+_De Val._ Ah! 'tis she, dear worshipp'd form; she lives--she lives.
+
+_Eug._ Ah! shield me--Florian, yon phantom shape--death surely hovers
+near--
+
+_De Val._ Nay, fly me not, Eugenia! tis thy lord, thy living lord, thy
+once beloved De Valmont calls: thou dear divorced-one bless these
+outstretch'd arms--I kneel and woo thee for my bride again!
+
+    [_Florian_ leads _Eugenia_ trembling and uncertain to the _Count_,
+    he catches her irresolute hand.]
+
+_Eug._ Indeed, my wedded lord! --I wept for a dear warrior once; and did
+the sword forbear so just a heart?--ah! chide not love, joy kills as
+well as grief--
+
+    [She sinks gradually into his embrace, and he supports her on his
+    breast in speechless tenderness.]
+
+_Long._ Detested sight! well, well, curses are weak revenge, and I'll
+disdain their use.
+
+_Flor._ Remove the monster to some sure confinement. The Count hereafter
+shall pronounce his punishment.
+
+_Long._ Already I endure my heaviest curse. I view the objects of my
+hatred crown'd with joy. Come! to a dungeon!--darkness is welcome, since
+it hides me from exulting foes!  [_Exit._
+
+_Ger._ (_advancing with tenderness._) Florian!--friend--ah! yet a dearer
+name--you rob me of a birth-right, still I must greet my new-found
+kinsman.
+
+_Flor._ Geraldine! what means my love?
+
+_De Val._ Florian! Heaven mysteriously o'er-watch'd thy hour of peril,
+and led a father through the desert, unconsciously to succour and redeem
+his child.
+
+_Flor._ Ha! De Valmont's glorious blood then circles in these veins!
+--My parent, my preserver! Ha! twice has existence been my father's
+gift.
+
+_De Val._ My pride thus long in humbleness!--my forest-prize! my
+foundling boy!--thou had'st my blessing ere I knew thy claim. Eugenia,
+greet our mutual image. Ah! wilt thou weep, sweet love. Thou bendest
+o'er his forehead e'en as a lily, brimming with clear dews, that stoops
+in beauteous sorrow to embathe its neighbouring bud. Thro' many a storm
+of perilous and marring cares o'erborne, our long-benighted loves at
+last encounter on a sun-bright course, and reach the haven of domestic
+peace.
+
+  Thus Judah's pilgrim--one whose steps in vain
+  Climb sky-crown'd rocks--o'erpace the burning plain,
+  Just when his soul despairs--his spirits faint,
+  Achieves the threshold of his long-sought Saint:
+  The desert's danger--storms and ruffian-bands--
+  All sink forgotten as the shrine expands--
+  Feet cure their toil that touch the hallow'd floors--
+  He rests his staff--kneels, trembles, and adores!
+
+    [Exeunt Omnes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+           *       *       *       *
+
+Errors and Inconsistencies: The Foundling
+
+  Spellings were changed only when there was an unambiguous error,
+  or the word occurred elsewhere with the expected spelling.
+  Variation between "Flo." and "Flor." is as in the original.
+  Names in stage directions were inconsistently italicized; they have
+  been silently regularized. Missing or invisible periods have been
+  silently supplied.
+
+_Unchanged:_
+  anti-room  [both occurrences use this spelling]
+  did'nt  [both occurrences are in this form]
+  I could as soon compose an almanac as and a clue
+    [error for "find a clue"?]
+  For falsehood ne'er cross'd between me and my dear.
+    [inconsistent indendation in original]
+  I led the unfortune to my dwelling
+    [error for "unfortunate"?]
+
+_Corrections:_
+  to be disconcerted by a hail-stone  [to de disconcerted]
+  _Bert._ (_pursuing her with his eye deliriously_)  [Bart.]
+  _Mon._ She has not quitted it this morning  [Lon.]
+  and solemnly pronounce a vow  [solemny]
+  SCENE III.--_A Gallery in the Chateau._  [Scene III.]
+  presses her crucifix to her lips  [pressess]
+  she clings to Geraldine in anguish.  [he clings]
+  catches De Valmont's arm as he descends  [decends]
+  a most obstinate spirit  [obsinate]
+  the dove is in the vulture's grip already  [gripe]
+  _Len._ All is prepared: your orders are fulfilled.  [fulfiled]
+  [Exit _Lenoire_.  [Lenoir]
+
+_Punctuation:_
+  I don't want a husband  [dont]
+  wouldst thou find happiness  [woulds't]
+  _1st Br._ Sanguine!  [printed "1st. _Br._"]
+  vibrate on the memory forever.  [, for .]
+  SCENE II.--_The Cottage._  [invisible dash]
+  How she tore her lovely locks that look'd so sandy, oh!  [? for !]
+  you said just now the river wasn't fordable  [was'nt]
+  amazement, then incredulity, and lastly indignation._)
+    [period after close parenthesis]
+  instantly resign this woman!  [? for !]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic
+Censor, by Stephen Cullen Carpenter
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF TASTE ***
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+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, by 
+Stephen Cullen Carpenter
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor
+       Volume I, Number 1
+
+Author: Stephen Cullen Carpenter
+
+Release Date: September 2, 2007 [EBook #22488]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF TASTE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Louise Hope, Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class = "mynote">
+
+<p>Typographical errors are marked with <ins class = "correction" title
+= "like this">mouse-hover popups</ins>. Spellings were changed only when
+there was an unambiguous error, or the word occurred elsewhere with the
+expected spelling. No attempt was made to regularize the use of
+quotation marks. The form “melo-drame” is standard in the text.
+A&nbsp;few missing or incorrect punctuation marks in the Index and the
+<i>Foundling</i> were silently regularized.</p>
+
+<p><a href = "#index">Index to Volume I</a><br>
+<a href = "#foundling">The Foundling of the Forest</a>
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- Index moved from beginning to after text, with play following -->
+
+<span class = "pagenum">1</span>
+<a name = "page1" id = "page1"> </a>
+<h1>THE MIRROR OF TASTE,</h1>
+
+<h6>AND</h6>
+
+<h2>DRAMATIC CENSOR.</h2>
+
+<p> </p>
+
+<hr class = "mid close">
+
+<h6>Neque mala vel bona qu�Ĥ vulgus putet.&mdash;<i>Tacitus.</i></h6>
+
+<hr class = "mid close">
+
+
+<div class = "mirror">
+
+<h4><a name = "prospectus" id = "prospectus">
+PROSPECTUS.</a></h4>
+
+
+<p><span class = "firstword">
+<span class = "firstletter">T</span>he</span> advantages of a correct
+judgment and refined taste in all matters connected with literature, are
+much greater than men in general imagine. The hateful passions have no
+greater enemies than a delicate taste and a discerning judgment, which
+give the possessor an interest in the virtues and perfections of others,
+and prompt him to admire, to cherish, and make them known to the world.
+Criticism, the parent of these qualities, therefore, mends the heart,
+while it improves the understanding. The influence of critical knowledge
+is felt in every department of social life, as it supplies elegant
+subjects for conversation, and enlarges the scope, and extends the
+duration of intellectual enjoyment. Without it, the pleasures we derive
+from the fine arts would be transient and imperfect; and poetry,
+painting, music, and that admirable epitome of life, the stage, would
+afford nothing more than a fugitive, useless, pastime, if not aided by
+the interposition of the judgment, and sent home, by the delightful
+process of criticism, to the memory, there to exercise
+<span class = "pagenum">2</span>
+<a name = "page2" id = "page2"> </a>
+the mind to the last of life, to be the amusement of our declining
+years, and, when all the other faculties for receiving pleasure are
+impaired by old age and infirmity, to cast the sunshine of delight over
+the last moments of our existence.</p>
+
+<p>In no age or country has the improvement of the intellectual powers
+of man made a larger share of the business of life than in these in
+which we live. In the promotion of this spirit the stage has been an
+instrument of considerable efficacy, and, as such, lays claim to a full
+share of critical examination; yet, owing to some cause, which it seems
+impossible to discover, that very important subject has been little
+attended to in this great commonwealth; and in Philadelphia, the
+principal city of the union, has been almost totally neglected. No
+apology, therefore, can be thought necessary for offering the present
+work to the public.</p>
+
+<p>The utility of miscellanies of this kind has been sometimes called in
+question; nor are those wanting who condemn the whole tribe of light
+periodical productions, as detrimental to the advancement of solid
+science and erudition: yet, in the most learned and enlightened nations
+of Europe, magazines and periodical compilations have, for more than a
+century, been circulated with vast success, and, within the last twenty
+years, increased in price as well as number, to an extent that shows how
+essentially the public opinion, in that quarter of the world differs
+from that of the persons who condemn them.</p>
+
+<p>Taking that decision as a decree without appeal, in favour of such
+works, the editors think themselves authorized in offering the present
+without any formal apology. If the perusal of such productions had a
+tendency to prevent the youth of the country from aspiring to deep and
+solid erudition, or to divert men of talents from the prosecution of
+more important studies, the editors would be among the last to make any
+addition to the stock already in circulation; but, convinced that, on
+the contrary, works of that kind promote the advancement of general
+knowledge, they have no
+<span class = "pagenum">3</span>
+<a name = "page3" id = "page3"> </a>
+scruple whatever in offering this to the American people; and so firm do
+they feel in the conviction of its utility, that they let it go into the
+world, unaided by any of those arts, or specious professions which are
+sometimes employed, in similar cases, to excite the attention, enlist
+the partialities, and seduce the judgment of the public.</p>
+
+<p>Of those who possess at once the talents, the leisure, and the
+inclination to hunt erudition into its deepest recesses, the number must
+ever be inconsiderable; and of that number the portion must be small
+indeed, who could be diverted from that pursuit by the casual perusal of
+light fugitive pieces. On the other hand, the great majority of mankind
+would be left without inducement to read, if they were not supplied, by
+publications of the kind proposed, with matter adapted to their
+circumstances, to their capacities, and their various turns of fancy;
+matter accessible to them by its conciseness and perspicuity, attractive
+by its variety and lightness, and useful by its easy adaptation to the
+familiar intercourse of life, and its fitness to enter into the
+conversation of rational society. Men whose time and labour are chiefly
+engrossed by the common occupations of life, have little leisure to
+read, none for what is called study. In books they do not search for
+deep learning, but for amusement accompanied with information on general
+topics, conveyed with brevity; happy if, in seeking relaxation from the
+drudgery of business, they can pick up some new particles of knowledge.
+For this most useful and numerous portion of society, some adequate
+intellectual provision ought to be made. Nor should it be imagined that,
+in supplying them, the general interests of literature are deserted. The
+frequent perusal of well collated miscellanies imparts to youth an
+appetite for diligent reading; by slow but certain gradation, stores the
+young mind with valuable ideas; accumulates in it a large stock of
+useful knowledge; and imperceptibly insinuates a correct and refined
+taste. Nor is this all. It may serve, as it often has, to rouse the
+indolent from the gratification of complexional sloth, and
+<span class = "pagenum">4</span>
+<a name = "page4" id = "page4"> </a>
+recall the unthinking and irregular from the haunts of dissipation and
+vice to the blessings of serious reflection.</p>
+
+<p>Few things have more tended to inflame the general passion for
+literature in Great Britain than the practice of uniting the plan of the
+reviews with that of the magazines, and making them jointly vehicles of
+dramatic criticism. Multitudes at this day know the character of books,
+and form a general conception of their subjects, who, but for the light
+periodical publications, would never have known that such books existed:
+many who would not otherwise have extended their reading beyond the
+columns of a newspaper, are led by the pleasures of a represented play,
+to read the critic’s strictures upon it, and thence, by a natural
+transition, to peruse attentively the various other subjects which
+surround those strictures in the magazines. This is the reason why
+hundreds read the Monthly Mirror and similar productions of London, for
+one who reads the Rambler.</p>
+
+<p>For the passionate love of books, and the rapid advancement of
+literature which distinguish her from all young countries, America is
+greatly indebted to her periodical publications. Those, though small in
+number, and, unfortunately, too often shortlived, have been read in
+their respective times and circles with great avidity, and produced a
+correspondent effect. <span class = "smallcaps">The Port Folio</span>
+alone raised, long ago, a&nbsp;spirit in the country which malicious
+Dulness itself will never be able to lay. Yet the disproportion in
+number of those miscellanies which have succeeded in America, to those
+which enrich the republic of letters in England, is astonishing,
+considering the comparative population of the two countries. London
+boasts of several periodical publications founded on the <span class =
+"smallroman">DRAMA</span> alone; and though the other magazines
+occasionally contain short strictures on that subject, those have the
+greatest circulation which are most exclusively devoted to the
+stage.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">5</span>
+<a name = "page5" id = "page5"> </a>
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">In America there has not yet been one of
+that description.</span></p>
+
+<p>To supply this defect, and raise the United States one step higher in
+laudable emulation with Great Britain, the editors have planned the
+present work, of which, (though not to the total exclusion of other
+matter) the basis will be</p>
+
+<h4><a name = "drama" id = "drama">THE DRAMA.</a></h4>
+
+<p>The first and by far the larger share will be allotted to the stage,
+and dramatic productions. The residue to miscellaneous articles, most of
+them connected with the fashionable amusements, and designed to correct
+the abuses, which intemperate ignorance, and Licentiousness, running
+riot for want of critical control, have introduced into the public
+diversions of this opulent and luxurious city.</p>
+
+<p>In the composition of the several parts of this work, care will be
+taken to furnish the public with new and interesting matter, and to
+select from the current productions of the British metropolis such
+topics as will best tend to promote the cultivation of an elegant taste
+for knowledge and letters, and, at the same time, repay the reader for
+the trouble of perusal, with amusement and delight. Abstracts from the
+most popular publications will be given, accompanied with short critical
+remarks upon them, and, whatever appears most interesting in the
+periodical productions of Great Britain will be transferred into this;
+pruned if they be prolix, and illustrated by explanatory notes, whenever
+they may be found obscured by local or personal allusion.</p>
+
+<p>As the leading object of the work is, not to infuse a passion, but to
+inculcate a just and sober taste for dramatic poetry and acting, the
+editors propose to give, <i>seriatim</i>, a&nbsp;history of the drama
+from its origin, with strictures on dramatic poesy, and portraits of the
+best dramatic poets of antiquity. To this will succeed the history of
+the British stage, with portraits of the most celebrated poets, authors,
+and actors who have flourished on it, and strictures on the professional
+<span class = "pagenum">6</span>
+<a name = "page6" id = "page6"> </a>
+talents of the latter, illustrated by parallels and comparisons with
+those who have been most noted for excellence on the American
+boards.</p>
+
+<p>From that history the reader will be able to deduce a proper
+conviction of the advantages of the stage, and the importance, if not
+the necessity, of putting the actors and the audience on a more proper
+footing with each other than that in which they now stand. Actors must
+lay their account with being told their faults. They owe their whole
+industry and attention to those who attend their performance; but the
+editors hold that critic to have forfeited his right to correct the
+stage, and to be much more deserving of reprehension than those he
+censures, who, in the discharge of his duty, forgets that the actor has
+his rights and privileges also; that he has the same rights which every
+other gentleman possesses, and of which his profession has not even the
+remotest tendency to deprive him, to be treated with politeness and
+respect; that he has the same right as every other man in society, as
+the merchant, the mechanic, or the farmer, to prosecute his business
+unmolested; shielded by the same laws which protect them from the
+attacks of malicious libellers out of the theatre, and the insults of
+capricious Ignorance or stupid Malevolence within. “Reproof,” says Dr.
+Johnson, “should not exhaust its power upon petty failings;” and “the
+care of the critic should be to distinguish error from inability, faults
+of inexperience from defects of nature. On this principle the editors
+will unalterably act. And, since they have cited the great moralist’s
+maxim as a direction for critics, they, even in this their first step
+into public view, beg leave to offer a few sentiments from the same high
+source, for the guidance of <span class = "smallroman">AUDITORS</span>.
+“<span class = "smallcaps">He that applauds him who does not deserve
+praise is endeavouring to deceive the public; he that hisses in malice
+or in sport is an oppressor and a robber</span>.<a class = "tag" name =
+"tag1" id = "tag1" href = "#note1">1</a>”</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">7</span>
+<a name = "page7" id = "page7"> </a>
+<p>This work, therefore, will contain a regular journal of all, worthy
+of notice, that passes in the theatre of Philadelphia, and an account of
+each night’s performances, accompanied with a critical analysis of the
+play and after-piece, and remarks upon the merits of the actors. Nor
+shall the management of the stage, in any particular, escape
+observation. Thus the public will know what they owe to the manager and
+to the leader of each department, and those again what they owe to the
+public. To make <span class = "smallcaps">The Mirror of Taste and
+Dramatic Censor</span>, as far as possible a general national work,
+measures have been taken to obtain from the capital cities, of the other
+states, a&nbsp;regular account of their theatrical transactions. To this
+will be added a register of the other public exhibitions, and, in
+general, of all the fashionable amusements of this city, and, from time
+to time, the sporting intelligence of the new and old country.</p>
+
+<p>To the first part, which will be entitled “The Domestic Dramatic
+Censor,” will succeed the “Foreign Dramatic Censor.” This will contain a
+general account of all that passes in the theatres of Great Britain,
+likely to interest the fashionable world and <i>amateurs</i> of America,
+viz. the new pieces, whether play, farce, or interlude, with their
+prologues and epilogues, together with their character and reception
+there, and critiques on the acting, collected from the various opinions
+of the best critics, together with the amusing occurrences, anecdotes,
+bon-mots, and greenroom chitchat, scattered through the various
+periodical publications of England, Ireland, and Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>The next head will be Stage Biography, under which the reader will
+find the lives and characters of the leading actors of both
+countries.</p>
+
+<p>These will be followed by a miscellany collated from the foreign
+productions, catalogues of the best books and best compositions in
+music, published or preparing for publication in Europe or America, with
+concise reviews of such as have already appeared.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">8</span>
+<a name = "page8" id = "page8"> </a>
+<p>Poetry, of course, will be introduced; not, as usual, under one head,
+but scattered in detached pieces through the whole.</p>
+
+
+<p class = "lines">&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<h4><a name = "terms" id = "terms">TERMS.</a></h4>
+
+
+<p><i>The price of the Mirror will be eight dollars per annum, payable
+on the delivery of the sixth number.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>A number will be issued every month, forming two volumes in the
+year.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>To each number will be added, by way of appendix, an entire play
+or after-piece, printed in a small elegant type, and paged so as to be
+collected, at the end of each year, into a separate volume.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>The work will be embellished with elegant engravings by the first
+artists.</i></p>
+
+</div> <!-- close and re-open div mirror -->
+
+<hr class = "mid">
+
+<div class = "mirror">
+
+<span class = "pagenum">9</span>
+<a name = "page9" id = "page9"> </a>
+<h1>THE MIRROR OF TASTE,</h1>
+
+<h6>AND</h6>
+
+<h2>DRAMATIC CENSOR.</h2>
+
+
+<table class = "title" summary = "title strip">
+<tr>
+<td>
+Vol. I.</td>
+<td class = "center">JANUARY 1810.</td>
+<td class = "right">No. 1.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<h4><a name = "history" id = "history">HISTORY OF THE STAGE.</a></h4>
+
+<div class = "center">
+<table class = "center" summary = "centered verse">
+<tr><td>
+<p>Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem</p>
+<p>Quam qu�Ĥ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et qu�Ĥ</p>
+<p>Ipse sibi tradit spectator.<a class = "tag" name = "tag2" id = "tag2"
+href = "#note2">2</a> &nbsp; <i>Hor. de Arte Poetica.</i></p>
+</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<h5 class = "section"><a name = "objections" id = "objections">
+CHAPTER I.</a></h5>
+
+<h6>OBJECTIONS TO THE STAGE CONSIDERED AND REFUTED.</h6>
+
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">That</span> amusement is necessary to man,
+the most superficial observation of his conduct and pursuits may
+convince us. The Creator never implanted in the hearts of all his
+intelligent creatures one common universal appetite without some
+corresponding necessity; and that he has given them an instinctive
+appetite for amusements as strong as any other which we labour to
+gratify, may be clearly perceived in the efforts of infancy, in the
+exertions of youth, in the pursuits of manhood, in the feeble endeavours
+of old age, and in the pastimes which human creatures, even the
+uninstructed savage nations themselves, have invented for their
+relaxation and delight. This appetite evinces a necessity for its
+gratification as much as hunger, thirst, and weariness, intimate the
+necessity of bodily refection by eating, drinking, and
+<span class = "pagenum">10</span>
+<a name = "page10" id = "page10"> </a>
+sleeping; and not to yield obedience to that necessity, would be to
+counteract the intentions of Providence, who would not have furnished us
+so bountifully as he has with faculties for the perception of pleasure,
+if he had not intended us to enjoy it. Had the Creator so willed it, the
+process necessary to the support of existence here below might have been
+carried on without the least enjoyment on our part: the daily waste of
+the body might be repaired without the sweet sensations which attend
+eating and drinking; we might have had the sense of hearing without the
+delight we derive from sweet sounds; and that of smelling without the
+capability of enjoying the fragrance of the rose: but He whose wisdom
+and beneficence are above all comprehension, has ordained in another and
+a better manner, and annexed the most lively sensations of pleasure to
+every operation he has made necessary to our support, thereby making the
+enjoyment of pleasure one of the conditions of our existence. This is an
+unanswerable refutation of one of the most abominable doctrines of the
+atheists&mdash;the overbalance of evil; and as such, that wise and
+amiable divine, doctor Paley, has made use of it in his Natural
+Theology. It is true, that yielding to the tendency of our frail,
+overweening nature to push enjoyment of every kind to its utmost verge,
+men too often overshoot the mark, and frustrate the object they have
+most at heart, by eagerness to accomplish it. For though to a reasonable
+extent and in certain circumstances, all enjoyments are harmless, they
+degenerate into crimes, when excessively indulged, and particularly when
+the imagination is overstrained to improve their zest, or to refine or
+exalt them beyond the limits which Nature and sobriety prescribe. But
+this can no more be <ins class = "correction" title =
+"spelling unchanged">alledged</ins> as a reason for renouncing the moderate use of
+the enjoyment, than the excesses of the drunkard or glutton for the
+rejection of food and drink.</p>
+
+<p>That man must have amusement of some kind, “Nature speaks aloud.” He,
+therefore, who supplies society with entertainment unadulterated by
+vice, who contributes to the
+<span class = "pagenum">11</span>
+<a name = "page11" id = "page11"> </a>
+pleasure without impairing the innocence of his fellow-beings, and above
+all, who instructs while he delights, may justly be ranked among the
+benefactors of mankind, and lays claim to the gratitude and respect of
+the society he serves. To that gratitude and respect the dramatic poet,
+and those who contribute to give effect to his works, are richly
+entitled. Accordingly history informs us that in all recorded ages
+theatrical exhibitions have been not only held in high estimation by the
+most wise, learned, and virtuous men, but sedulously cultivated and
+encouraged by legislators as matters of high public importance,
+particularly in those nations that have been most renowned for freedom
+and science.</p>
+
+<p>In the multitude and diversity of conflicting opinions which divide
+mankind upon all, even the most manifest truths, we find some upon this
+subject. Many well-meaning, sincere christians have waged war against
+the enjoyment of pleasure, as if it were the will of God that we should
+go weeping and sorrowing through life. The learned bishop of Rochester,
+speaking of a religious sect which carries this principle as far as it
+will go, says: “their error is not heterodoxy, but excessive, overheated
+zeal.” Thus we find that the stage has ever been with many well-meaning
+though mistaken men, a&nbsp;constant object of censure. Of those,
+a&nbsp;vast number express themselves with the sober, calm tenderness
+which comports with the character of christians, while others again have
+so far lost their temper as to discard in a great measure from their
+hearts the first of all christian attributes&mdash;charity. We hope, for
+the honour of christianity, that there are but few of the latter
+description. There are men however of a very different mould&mdash;men
+respectable for piety and for learning, who have suffered themselves to
+be betrayed into opinions hostile to the drama upon other grounds: these
+will even read plays, and profess to admire the poetry, the language,
+and the genius of the dramatic poet; but still make war upon scenic
+representations, considering them as stimulants to vice&mdash;as a kind
+of moral cantharides which
+<span class = "pagenum">12</span>
+<a name = "page12" id = "page12"> </a>
+serves to inflame the passions and break down the ramparts behind which
+religion and prudence entrench the human heart. Some there are again,
+who entertain scruples of a different kind, and turn from a play because
+it is a fiction; while there are others, and they are most worthy of
+argument, who think that theatres add more than their share to the
+aggregate mass of luxury, voluptuousness, and dissipation, which brings
+nations to vitious refinement, enervation and decay.</p>
+
+<p>In all reasoning of this kind, authority goes a great way, and
+therefore before we proceed any further, we will enrol under the banners
+of our argument a few high personages, whose names on such an occasion
+are of weight to stand against the world, and enumerate some great
+nations who reverenced and systematically encouraged the drama. If it
+can be shown that some of the most exalted men that ever lived&mdash;men
+eminent for virtue, high in power and distinction, and illustrious for
+talents, in different countries and at different times, have
+countenanced the stage and even written for it; nay, that some of that
+description have themselves been actors, further argument may well be
+thought superfluous: yet we will not rest the matter there, but taking
+those along with us as authorities, go on and probe the error to which
+we allude, even to the very bone.</p>
+
+<p>It might not be difficult to prove by inference from a multitude of
+facts scattered through the history of the world, that a passion for the
+dramatic art is inherent in the nature of man. How else should it happen
+that in every age and nation of the world, vestiges remain of something
+resembling theatrical amusements. It is asserted that the people of
+China full three thousand years ago had something of the kind and
+presented on a public stage, in spectacle, dialogue and action, living
+pictures of men and manners, for the suppression of vice, and the
+circulation of virtue and morality. Even the Gymnosophists, severe as
+they were, encouraged dramatic representation. The Bramins, whose
+austerity in religious
+<span class = "pagenum">13</span>
+<a name = "page13" id = "page13"> </a>
+and moral concerns almost surpasses belief, were in the constant habit
+of enforcing religious truths by dramatic fictions represented in
+public. The great and good <span class = "smallcaps">Pilpay</span> the
+fabulist, is said to have used that kind of exhibition as a medium for
+conveying political instruction to a despotic prince, his master, to
+whom he dared not to utter the dictates of truth, in any other garb. In
+the obscurity of those remote ages, the evidences of particular facts
+are too faintly discernible to be relied upon: All that can be assumed
+as certain, therefore, is that the elementary parts of the dramatic art
+had then been conceived and rudely practised. But the first
+<i>regular</i> play was produced in Greece, where the great Eschylus,
+whose works are handed down to us, flourished not only as a dramatist,
+but as an illustrious statesman and warrior.</p>
+
+<p>Without dwelling on the many other examples afforded by Greece, we
+proceed to as high authority as can be found among men: we mean Roscius
+the Roman actor. That extraordinary man’s name is immortalized by
+Cicero, who has in various parts of his works panegyrized him no less
+for his virtues than for his talents. Of him, that great orator,
+philosopher and moralist has recorded, that he was a being so perfect
+that any person who excelled in any art was usually called <span class =
+"smallcaps">a Roscius</span>&mdash;that he knew better than any other
+man how to inculcate virtue, and that he was more pure in his private
+life than any man in Rome.</p>
+
+<p>In the Roman catholic countries the priesthood shut out as far as
+they could from the people the instruction of the stage. For ages the
+fire of the <span class = "smallroman">HOLY</span> inquisition kept
+works of genius of every kind in suppression all over the south of
+Europe. In France the monarch supported the stage against its enemies;
+but though he was able to support the actors in life, he had not power
+or influence sufficient to obtain for them consolation in death; the
+rights of the church and christian burial being refused to them by the
+clergy.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">14</span>
+<a name = "page14" id = "page14"> </a>
+<p>In England, where the clouds of religious intolerance were first
+broken and dispersed by the reformation, the stage has flourished, and
+exhibited a mass of excellence and a constellation of genius
+unparalleled in the annals of the world. There it has been encouraged
+and admired by men whose authority, as persons deeply versed in
+christian theology and learned as it is given to human creatures to be,
+we do not scruple to prefer to that of the persons who raise their
+voices against the stage. Milton, Pope, Addison, Johnson, Warburton,
+bishop of Gloucester, and many others have given their labours to the
+stage. In many of his elegant periodical papers Mr. <span class =
+"smallcaps">Addison</span> has left testimonies of his veneration for
+it, and of his personal respect for players; nay, he wrote several
+pieces for the stage, in comedy as well as tragedy; yet we believe it
+will not be doubted that he was an orthodox christian. The illustrious
+<span class = "smallcaps">Pope</span>, in a prologue which he wrote for
+one of Mr. Addison’s plays&mdash;the tragedy of Cato&mdash;speaks his
+opinion of the stage in the following lines:</p>
+
+<div class = "poem small">
+<p>To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,</p>
+<p>To raise the genius, and to mend the heart,</p>
+<p>To make mankind in conscious virtue bold,</p>
+<p>Live o’er each scene, and be what they behold:</p>
+<p>For this the tragic Muse first trod the stage,</p>
+<p>Commanding tears to stream through every age.</p>
+<p>Tyrants no more their savage nature kept,</p>
+<p>And foes to virtue wondered how they wept.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Warburton, the friend of Pope, a divine of the highest rank, wrote
+notes to Shakspeare. And an infinite number of the christian clergy of
+as orthodox piety as any that ever lived, have admired and loved plays
+and players. If in religion doctor Johnson had a fault, it certainly was
+excessive zeal&mdash;and assuredly his morality cannot be called in
+question. What his idea of the stage was, may be inferred from his
+labours, and from his private friendships. His preface to
+Shakspeare&mdash;his illustrations and characters of the bard’s
+plays&mdash;his tragedy of Irene, of which he diligently superintended
+<span class = "pagenum">15</span>
+<a name = "page15" id = "page15"> </a>
+the rehearsal and representation&mdash;his friendship for Garrick and
+for Murphy&mdash;his letters in the Idler and Rambler, from one of which
+we have taken our motto for the Dramatic Censor, and his constant
+attendance on the theatre, loudly proclaim his opinion of the stage. To
+him who would persist to think sinful that which the scrupulous Johnson
+constantly did, we can only say in the words of one of Shakspeare’s
+clowns&mdash;“God comfort thy capacity.”</p>
+
+<p>One example more. Whatever his political errors may have been, the
+present old king of England can never be suspected of coldness in
+matters of divinity, or of heterodoxy in religion. His fault in that way
+leans to the other side&mdash;for it is doubted by the most intelligent
+men in England whether his zeal does not border on excess. He has all
+his life too taken counsel from those he thought the best divines; yet
+he has done much to encourage the stage, and greatly delighted in scenic
+representations&mdash;particularly in comedy. But as a much stronger
+proof of his esteem for the drama, we will barely mention one fact: When
+his majesty first read Arthur Murphy’s tragedy of the Orphan of China,
+he sent the poet a present of a thousand guineas.</p>
+
+<p>The notion that the theatre should be avoided as a stimulant to the
+passions deserves some respect on account of its antiquity; for it is as
+old as the great grand-mother of the oldest man living. In good times of
+yore, when ladies were not so squeamish as they are now about words,
+because they did not know their meaning, but were more cautious of
+facts, because the meaning of facts cannot be misunderstood, young men
+had a refuge from the temptations of the stage in the reserved
+deportment and full clothing of domestic society, we cannot wonder that
+the good old ladies who abhorred the slightest immodesty in dress
+little, if at all less than they abhorred actual vice, should urge to
+their sons the necessity of keeping aloof from the allurements of the
+theatre. If at that time the costume of the stage differed essentially
+from that of private life, and was the reverse of modest, or if the
+actresses indulged in meretricious airs
+<span class = "pagenum">16</span>
+<a name = "page16" id = "page16"> </a>
+which dared not be shown in domestic society, there was a very just
+pretence, or rather indeed there was the most cogent reason for
+preaching against the theatre. But at this day, no hypothesis of the
+kind can be allowed. That beautiful young women ornamented with every
+decoration which art can lend to enhance their charms will perhaps
+excite admiration and licentious desires, is true; but that those arts
+are more generally practised, or those incitements more strongly or
+frequently played off on the boards of the theatre than in respectable
+private life, our eyes forbid us to believe. He who looks from the
+ladies on the stage to those seated on the benches, and compares their
+dress and artificial allurements must have either very strong nerves or
+very bad sight, if he persist in saying that there is more danger to be
+apprehended from the former than the latter. He knows very little of
+modern manners and must be a very suckling in the ways of the world who
+imagines that a young man has any thing to fear from the actresses on
+the stage, who has gone through the ordeal of a common ball-room, or
+even walked of a fine day through our streets. The ladies of London,
+Dublin, New-York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, have thrown those of the
+stage quite into the back ground in the arts of the toilet. Nor is this
+qualification confined to those of the <i>haut-ton</i>, but has
+descended to tradesmen’s wives and daughters; to chambermaids,
+laundresses, and wenches of the kitchen white, yellow, and black,
+coloured and uncoloured.</p>
+
+<p>Familiarity with impressive objects soon robs them of their
+influence; and if our natural disgust and anger at the shameful
+innovations in the female costume for which Great Britain and America
+stand indebted to the <i>virtues</i> of France, be blunted by the
+constant obtrusion of them on our sight, it is to be hoped that the
+pernicious influence of them upon public morals will be diminished also.
+In those regions where a tropical sun renders clothing cumbersome, and
+the costume of the ladies of necessity exceeds a little that of ears in
+transparency and scantiness, familiarity renders it
+<span class = "pagenum">17</span>
+<a name = "page17" id = "page17"> </a>
+harmless; little or nothing is left for the imagination to feed upon;
+cheapened by their obviousness, the female charms are rejected by the
+fancy which loves to dwell on what it only guesses at, or has but rarely
+seen, and the youthful heart finds its ultimate safety in the apparent
+excess of its danger. Thus the stage, if it ever possessed, has lost its
+vitious allurements, as a bucket of water is lost in the ocean. To test
+this reasoning by matter of fact we appeal to the general feeling, and
+have no fear of being contradicted when we assert that, with reference
+to their comparative numbers, more mischievous throbs have been excited
+in every theatre in London, New-York, and Philadelphia for some years
+past before, than behind the curtain.</p>
+
+<p>We are aware that there are some who will object, as a thing taken
+for granted, the greater licentiousness of a player’s life; but this,
+before it can be admitted in argument, must be proved, and the proof of
+it would be very difficult indeed. From a long and attentive
+consideration of the subject, founded upon a perfect knowledge of the
+private characters of the stage, and the general complexion of society
+off of it, we are persuaded that in point of intrinsic virtue the
+players stand exactly on a par with the general mass of society. That
+there are offenders against the laws of morality and religion among them
+is certain; but it must be remembered that they labour in this respect
+under great disadvantages, from the publicity of their situation. There,
+they stand exhibited to public view, every turn of their conduct,
+private and public, becomes a subject of general scrutiny. Ten thousand
+eyes are rivetted upon them, for one that is fixed upon individuals in
+private life. And though it often happens that some of them are
+suspected whose lives are perfectly pure, none who have deviated from
+the paths of virtue can long keep their fall concealed. Can the same be
+said of the other departments of life? No. Now and then indiscretion,
+accident, or a total abandonment of decency brings to light the
+misconduct of an individual; but in general
+<span class = "pagenum">18</span>
+<a name = "page18" id = "page18"> </a>
+the irregularities of private life either escape detection or are hushed
+up by pride. Sometimes indeed one vitious purpose occasions the
+detection of another, and family disgrace is revealed to pave the way to
+a divorce, with a view to another marriage, and perhaps to another
+divorce. Were the private conduct of individuals in other stations as
+well known as that of the people of the stage, the former would have no
+cause to exult at the superiority of their morals; and in truth if a
+candid review be taken individually of the actresses of the English
+stage, by which we mean every stage where the English language is
+spoken, it will appear that, with few exceptions, they stand highly
+respectable for private worth and pure moral character. In England,
+Scotland and still more in Ireland, an unblemished reputation is
+necessary to a lady’s success on the stage. In some instances, the
+greatest favourites of the public have been driven for a time from the
+stage, for trespasses upon virtue, and when permitted to return were
+never after much more than endured. To these instances we shall have
+occasion to advert in the course of this work.</p>
+
+<p>While we assert, on the best grounds, that the theatre may be made,
+by proper established regulations, a&nbsp;school of virtue and manners,
+we do not wish to conceal our persuasion that there is nothing more
+potent to debase and corrupt the minds of a people than a licentious
+stage. But it may be averred with equal truth, that the abuses of every
+other institution are fraught with no less mischief to the public. At
+this very moment the abuse of the pulpit is the parent of more public
+mischief in Great Britain and America than the stage ever produced in
+its most prolific days of vice; and it is deplorable to reflect that the
+former is rapidly increasing, while the vitiation of the latter has been
+for a century on the decline. The licentiousness of the stage in the
+reign of Charles II was enormous: but it was a licentiousness which the
+theatre in common with the whole nation derived from the court, and from
+a most flagitious monarch
+<span class = "pagenum">19</span>
+<a name = "page19" id = "page19"> </a>
+whose example made vice fashionable. In servile compliance with the
+reigning taste, the greatest poets of the day abandoned true fame, and
+discarded much of their literary merit: Otway and Dryden sunk into the
+most mean and criminal slavery to it&mdash;the former with the greatest
+powers for the pathetic ever possessed by any man, Shakspeare excepted,
+has left behind him plays which in an almost equal degree excite our
+admiration and contempt, our indignation and our pity. It is charitable
+to suppose that “his poverty and not his will consented.” But Dryden had
+no such excuse to plead for his base subserviency to pecuniary
+advantage, or for the detestable licentiousness of his comedies. He who
+will take the pains to turn to that admirable tragedy, Venice Preserved,
+by Otway, will find in the scenes between Aquileia and the old senator
+Antonio enough to disgust the taste of any one not callous to all sense
+of delicacy. But had Juvenal lived at that period, he would have
+scourged Dryden out of society. To those we might add Wycherly. Congreve
+and other <ins class = "correction" title =
+"spelling unchanged">cotemporary</ins> authors succeeded: but the offences
+committed by those men can no more be alleged as a ground of general
+condemnation of the stage, than the works of lord Rochester can be set
+up as a reason for condemning Milton, Pope, Thomson, Goldsmith, and all
+our other poets, or the innumerable murders committed by unprincipled
+quacks, be alleged as a cause for abolishing the whole practice of
+medicine.</p>
+
+<p>Exasperated by the outrages of the dramatic poets, on virtue and
+decency, Jeremy Collier, a&nbsp;non-juring clergyman, attacked the
+stage. His charge against the authors was unquestionably right; but his
+attack upon the stage itself, exhibited a disposition splenetic almost
+to misanthropy, and an austerity of principle urged to unsocial
+ferocity. In his fury he renounced the idea of reforming the stage; he
+was for abolishing it entirely. He attacked the poets with
+“unconquerable pertinacity, with wit in the highest degree keen and
+sarcastic, and with all those powers exalted and invigorated
+<span class = "pagenum">20</span>
+<a name = "page20" id = "page20"> </a>
+by just confidence in his cause.”<a class = "tag" name = "tag3" id =
+"tag3" href = "#note3">3</a> Thus arose a controversy which lasted ten
+years, during which time authors found it necessary to become more
+discreet. “Comedy (says Dr. Johnson) grew more modest; and Collier lived
+to see the reformation of the stage.” Colley Cibber, who was one of
+those whose plays Collier attacked, candidly says, “It must be granted
+that his calling our dramatic writers to this account had a very
+wholesome effect upon those who writ after his time. Indecencies were no
+longer wit; and by degrees the fair sex came again to fill the boxes on
+the first day of a new comedy, without fear or censure.”</p>
+
+<p>Such a licentious stage as is here described well deserved the
+severest attacks: but what is there to justify severity now? at this day
+not only the success of every new play so much depends upon its purity,
+but so scrupulously correct in that particular is the public taste, and
+so abstinent from every the slightest indelicacy are the authors of
+plays and even farces, that not a word is uttered upon the stage from
+which the most timid <i>real</i> modesty would shrink. In conformity to
+this happy state of the general taste and morals, all the old plays that
+retain possession of the stage, have been cleared of their pollution,
+and all the offensive passages in them have been expunged; some have
+been entirely thrown out as incapable of amendment, and in truth, purity
+of sentiment, and delicacy of expression, have become so prevalent, that
+it is very much to be doubted whether if it were proposed to act one of
+Wycherly’s, Dryden’s, or Otway’s offensive plays in its original state,
+a&nbsp;set of players could be found who would prostitute themselves so
+far as to perform&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>From the offences of mankind arise despotic restrictions and penal
+laws of every kind. From the licentiousness of the stage in England,
+arose the licensing law which still continues to hold a heavy hand over
+all the dramatic productions that are acted; and which has too often
+been perverted to corrupt purposes.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">21</span>
+<a name = "page21" id = "page21"> </a>
+<p>But if the abuses of the stage in the times alluded to, serve to show
+its power to do mischief, the general reformation in the public taste,
+which followed that of the dramatic writings, equally show its
+competency to effectuate good. Rousseau, who had little less dislike to
+plays and players than Jeremy Collier, says, in a letter to D’Alembert,
+“Let us not attribute to the stage the power of changing opinions or
+manners, when it has only that of following and heightening them. An
+author who offends the general taste may as well cease to write, for
+nobody will read his works. When Moliere reformed the stage he attacked
+modes and ridiculous customs, but he did not insult the public taste; he
+either followed or explained it.” So far Rousseau was right. It is the
+public that gives the stage its bias&mdash;necessarily preceding it in
+taste and opinion, and pointing out the direction to its object. In
+return the stage gives the public a stronger impulse in morals and
+manners. Wherever the stage is found corrupted with bad morals, it may
+be taken for granted that the nation has been corrupted before it; when
+it labours under the evils of a bad taste, it may safely be concluded
+that that of the public has been previously vitiated. The truth is
+evident in the wretched state of dramatic taste in England at this
+moment, where, corrupted by the spectacles and mummery of the Italian
+opera, by the rage for preternatural agency acquired from the reading of
+ghost novels and romances, and by the introduction of German plays or
+translations, the people can relish nothing but melo-drame, show,
+extravagant incident, stage effect and situation&mdash;goblins, demons,
+fiddling, capering and pantomime, and the managers, in order to live,
+are compelled to gratify the deluded tasteless multitude at an
+incalculable expense.</p>
+
+<p>What the advantages are which could be derived from abolishing the
+stage can only be judged from a view of the moral state of those
+countries in which the drama has been for ages discouraged and held in
+disrepute, compared with that of countries where it has been supported
+and cultivated.
+<span class = "pagenum">22</span>
+<a name = "page22" id = "page22"> </a>
+Spain comes nearest to a total want of a regular drama of any Christian
+country in Europe; and if there be any person who prefers the moral
+state of that country to the moral state of Great Britain or America, we
+wish him joy of his opinion, and assure him that we admire neither his
+taste, his argument, nor his inference.</p>
+
+<p>We have thus far entered into a vindication of the stage, not with
+the slightest hope of changing the opinion of its enemies, nor with the
+least desire to increase the admiration of its friends; but to awaken
+public opinion to a sense of its vast importance, and of the advantages
+which society may derive from giving full and salutary effect to its
+agency, by generous encouragement, and vigilant control&mdash;by
+directing its operations into proper channels, and fostering it by
+approbation in every thing that has a tendency to promote virtue, to
+improve the intellectual powers, and to correct and refine the taste,
+and the manners of society. This desirable end can only be attained by
+making it respectable, and sheltering its professors from the insult and
+oppression of the ignorant, the base-minded, and the illiberal. None
+will profit by the precepts of those whom they contemn; and the youth of
+the country will be very unlikely to yield to the authority of the
+instructor whom they see subjected to the sneers and affronts of the
+very rabble they themselves despise. Besides, if actors were to be
+treated with injustice and contumely, young gentlemen of talents and
+virtue would be deterred from entering into the profession; and the
+stage would soon become as bad as it is falsely described to be by
+fanatics&mdash;a sink of vice and corruption: but the wisdom and
+liberality of the British nation, after the example of old Rome, having,
+on the contrary, given to the gentlemen of the stage their merited rank
+in society, and raised actors and actresses of irreproachable private
+character, to associate with the families of peers, statesmen,
+legislators, and men of the highest rank in the nation, the profession
+is filled with persons eminently respectable for talents, learning and
+morals, and estimable as
+<span class = "pagenum">23</span>
+<a name = "page23" id = "page23"> </a>
+those of other classes in social life&mdash;estimable as husbands,
+fathers, children, friends and companions. But in Great Britain, they
+have a twofold protection&mdash;that of the audience and that of the
+law&mdash;from the insults and injustice of capricious, saucy, or
+malignant individuals. There, the line that separates the rights of the
+actor from those of the auditor has been exactly defined by the highest
+judicial authority.<a class = "tag" name = "tag4" id = "tag4" href =
+"#note4">4</a> And if an individual assaults a performer by hissing<a
+class = "tag" name = "tag5" id = "tag5" href = "#note5">5</a> without
+carrying the audience, or a large majority of it, along with him, the
+performer has his action against his malicious assailant, and is
+adjudged damages as certainly as persons of any of the other professions
+or trades recover for an assault, a&nbsp;calumny, or a libel. Hence the
+stage is looked up to as a great school, and the eminent actors are
+universally looked to as the best instructors in action, elocution,
+orthoepy, and the component parts of oratory. By following the same
+liberal and wise system with respect to <span class =
+"smallroman">OUR</span> stage, we may reasonably hope soon to bring it
+to a reputable state of competition with that of Great Britain, and in
+that as in most other parts of the elegancies of life, not very long
+hence, to place the new on a complete footing with the old country.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">24</span>
+<a name = "page24" id = "page24"> </a>
+<h6><a name = "biography" id = "biography">
+BIOGRAPHY&mdash;FOR THE MIRROR.</a></h6>
+
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">The</span> passion for inquiring into the
+lives of conspicuous men is so universally felt, that we cannot help
+indulging it in cases where not only the person is unknown, but where
+his actions are so remote, that we can neither form a picture of the
+one, nor any possible way be affected by the other. The delight with
+which children themselves read the histories of remarkable characters,
+and the avidity with which, at every period of life, we read biography,
+are proofs that this passion has it source in nature, abstracted from
+any connexion imagined to exist between the object and our own heart. It
+is, however, more lively when the object lives in our time, and when his
+actions are the subject of daily conversation in our hearing, or when we
+have ourselves been witnesses of them; and still more so, when the
+person being still in existence has found means by the force of his
+talents to agitate a whole people, to rouse general curiosity and
+admiration, and to form, as it were, a&nbsp;landmark in any interesting
+department of civilized life.</p>
+
+<p>That mankind, in general, derive greater pleasure from biography than
+from most other kinds of writing is universally acknowledged. One of the
+greatest moral philosophers of Britain justly observes, that of all the
+various kinds of narrative writing, that which is read with the greatest
+eagerness, and may with the greatest facility and effect be applied to
+the purposes of life is biography; and the accomplished and sagacious
+Montaigne, speaking in raptures, upon the same subject, says “Plutarch
+is the writer after my own heart, and Suetonius is another, the like of
+whom we shall never see.”</p>
+
+<p>As a master key to the study of the human heart, the biographical
+account of particular individuals is infinitely superior to history.
+History, in fact, is not a just picture of man and nature, but a
+registry of prominent actions which derive conspicuity from their name,
+place, and date, while the inward nature of the agent, the secret
+springs, the slow
+<span class = "pagenum">25</span>
+<a name = "page25" id = "page25"> </a>
+and silent causes of those actions, being left unnoticed and
+undistinguished, remain forever unknown. The man himself is seen only
+here and there, and now and then, and lies hidden from view, except in
+those points in which his conduct is connected with those actions. But
+biography follows him from his public exhibition into his private
+retreat, haunts him in his closet concealments, accompanies him through
+his house, where his desires, passions, irregularities, vices, virtues,
+foibles, and follies take their full swing&mdash;sits by his
+fireside&mdash;watches for his unsuspecting, unguarded
+moments,&mdash;catches and lays up all the ebullitions of his heart,
+when it is freed from all restraint by domestic confidence&mdash;scans
+all his expressions when he is mixing in free social converse with his
+friends and family, and thus penetrates into his heart&mdash;detects
+every secret emotion of the man’s soul, even when he thinks himself most
+effectually concealed, and in every glance of his eye, every whisper,
+every unpremeditated act and expression, dives to the very bottom of his
+designs and brings up his real character.</p>
+
+<p>In the regulation of life, therefore, or the improvement of moral
+sentiment, little benefit is to be derived from a knowledge of the
+events of history, the subjects of which are so far removed from the
+ordinary business of the world, that they seldom address a salutary
+example to the heart or understanding&mdash;seldom present an action in
+any way applicable to the ordinary transactions of the world, or which
+men in general can hope or wish to imitate, and which are therefore read
+with comparative indifference, and passed by without improvement, while
+biography conveys the best instruction for the conduct of life, by a
+happy mixture of precept and example.</p>
+
+<p>Doctor Johnson has, in some of his writings, given it as his opinion
+that “a life has rarely passed, of which a judicious and faithful
+narrative would not be useful; for not only, says he, every man has, in
+the mighty mass of the world, great numbers in the same condition with
+himself, to whom his mistakes and miscarriages, escapes and expedients
+would be of immediate and apparent use; but there is such a uniformity
+<span class = "pagenum">26</span>
+<a name = "page26" id = "page26"> </a>
+in the state of man considered apart from adventitious and separable
+decoration and disguises, that there is scarce any possibility of good
+or ill but is common to human kind.” How much more beneficial as a mass
+of precept and example, and how much more captivating as a narrative
+must be the biography of any person who has held a conspicuous place for
+any length of time in the eye of the world, particularly if, by the
+industrious exercise of vigorous or brilliant talents, he has
+contributed more than his share to the happiness, the improvement, or
+the innocent pleasure of society. In that case a mixed sentiment of
+admiration and gratitude insensibly fills the public mind, from which
+there arises a lively interest in all that concerns the person and an
+eager curiosity to learn his origin, his early education, private
+opinions and habits, the fortunes and incidents of his life, and, above
+all, the singularities of his temper, and the peculiarities of his
+manners and deportment. Few men in society stand so much in the public
+eye, or have such opportunities to engage popular interest and personal
+admiration as celebrated actors. In the general account current of life,
+casting up the debtor and creditor between individual and individual,
+the balance between the auditor and actor will be found largely in
+favour of the latter. There are few, we know, to whom this assertion
+will not appear paradoxical, because few have given themselves time to
+consider that there is no place where a person, having an hour or two to
+bestow on relaxation, can obtain so much delight and improvement with so
+little concurrence of his own efforts as at the theatre. “At all other
+assemblies,” says Dr. Johnson, “he that comes to receive delight will be
+expected to give it; but in the theatre nothing is necessary to the
+amusement of two hours but to sit down and be willing to be pleased.”
+Where the private deportment and moral character of a celebrated actor,
+therefore, are not at great variance with the general feelings, he
+becomes by the very nature of his profession and talents an object of
+general interest, and his life, character, and every circumstance
+belonging
+<span class = "pagenum">27</span>
+<a name = "page27" id = "page27"> </a>
+to him are inquired into with earnest curiosity and solicitude.</p>
+
+<p>He who fairly considers the requisites indispensable to a tolerable
+actor, will allow that the professors of that art must be persons of
+intellectual capacity and personal endowments much superior to the
+common herd of mankind. The vivid intelligence, the high animal spirits,
+the aspiring temper, and the resolute intrepidity, which impel them to
+the stage and support them under its difficulties, are generally
+associated with an eccentricity of character and a giddy disregard of
+prudential considerations, which generate adventure and chequer their
+lives with a greater variety of incidents and whimsical intercourse with
+the world than falls to the lot of men of other professions. Hence it
+follows that the stage presents the most ample field for the biographer;
+and that whether he writes for the instruction or the entertainment of
+his readers, he will not be able to find in any other department of
+society men whose lives comprise such an interesting variety as the
+actors.</p>
+
+<p>In selecting the persons with whose lives it is intended to enrich
+this work, the editors find it necessary in the very first instance to
+depart from the rule which their original purpose and strict justice, as
+well as a due regard to priority, had prescribed to them. The biography
+of the deceased Mr. Hallam, as the father of the American stage, no
+doubt lays claim to the first place. There were others too, whose
+priority to Mr. Cooper cannot be contested; but, as the materials were
+not to be immediately had they have been obliged to postpone them.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">28</span>
+<a name = "page28" id = "page28"> </a>
+
+<h6><a name = "cooper" id = "cooper">
+LIFE OF MR. COOPER.</a></h6>
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">Mr. Thomas Abthorpe Cooper</span> is the
+descendant of a very respectable Irish family, though he was, himself,
+born in England. His father, doctor Cooper&mdash;a gentleman universally
+known, and not more known than beloved and respected by all who have had
+any intercourse with East Indian affairs, was a native of Ireland, and
+after having served his time to one of the most eminent surgeons in that
+kingdom, with the reputation of a young man of genius and great promise,
+went over to England, in order to acquire, in the London hospitals, more
+perfect practical skill in his business, and to avail himself of the
+lectures of the principal professors of surgery and medicine in that
+metropolis; intending to return to his native country again, and there
+practise for life. It happened with the doctor however, precisely as it
+does with the greater part of young Irish gentlemen, who have their
+fortunes to raise chiefly by their own efforts. London gradually
+unfolded to his view all her irresistible charms; the ligaments which
+tied him to his native home, grew every day more and more slender and
+weak: the dictates of common sense and prudence, in this one instance at
+least enforced by the attractions of pleasure, pointed out the vast
+superiority of England to the oppressed, impoverished country which he
+had left, as a field for genius and industry to work upon. Having a
+prepossessing face and person, and manners frank, conciliating and firm,
+he soon extended his acquaintance to a wide circle of friends, whose
+advice conspired with his own taste to bring him to a determination, in
+consequence of which he settled near the metropolis, and became a
+practitioner in surgery and physic. While he was successfully engaged in
+this career, he was introduced to some of the great men of
+Leadenhall-street, by whom he was appointed to the lucrative office of
+inspecting-surgeon of the recruits destined for the service of the East
+India Company. In the discharge of this duty it fell to his share to
+visit the ships preparing for
+<span class = "pagenum">29</span>
+<a name = "page29" id = "page29"> </a>
+a voyage to India, and of course to mingle with the company’s servants
+of all ranks and conditions, by whom he was in no common degree beloved
+and respected&mdash;by the higher order for his agreeable and manly
+deportment&mdash;by the lower for his tenderness and humanity. Though he
+lived in England, he viewed his own country with a laudable fond
+partiality; and being constitutionally benevolent, and having a heart
+“open to melting Charity,” and a hand prompt to indulge it, it may
+reasonably be conjectured that in his office of inspecting-surgeon he
+was exposed to many sharp attacks upon his feelings; the far greater
+part of the recruits who came under his inspection being unfortunate
+Irish youths who had thrown themselves upon a strange world, destitute
+of every thing but health, youth, and bodily vigor. By such objects, the
+sympathy of such a warm heart as that which beat in doctor Cooper’s
+bosom, could not fail to be strongly excited, and it was pretty
+generally believed that his family had less reason than his unfortunate
+countrymen to exult at the goodness of his nature. Nor was his
+philanthropy confined to those wretched children of misfortune, the
+recruits; many young Irish gentlemen who were going to India as cadets,
+experienced his kindness also, but in another form. He had many friends,
+and considering his rank, very extraordinary interest with the high
+officers and commanders in the company’s service. This he never failed
+to exert in favour of such of his young countrymen as he considered
+deserving of it: and in short strained his powers in every way to
+increase their comfort and accommodation during that trying ordeal,
+their passage to India, and to procure them friends when they got
+there.</p>
+
+<p>His son Thomas, the subject of this paper, was born in the year 1777,
+and received an early liberal education. As doctor Cooper’s interest lay
+wholly with the East India company, his children were sent to that
+emporium of wealth, Bengal, as soon as their ages fitted them for
+admission into the world. Had he lived till our hero was of a suitable
+age the probability is that the American stage would at this day want
+one of its
+<span class = "pagenum">30</span>
+<a name = "page30" id = "page30"> </a>
+greatest ornaments; and that the hand which now wields the truncheon of
+Macbeth, Richard, and Coriolanus on the American boards, would be
+grasping a sword or driving a quill in the service of the East India
+company in Bengal, whither doctor Cooper at last went himself, being
+promoted to a respectable rank on the medical staff of that settlement,
+and where at length he died to the deep regret of all who knew him, and
+to the irretrievable loss of an amiable family. To the last will and
+testament of the generous man there is seldom any great trouble in
+administering&mdash;doctor Cooper made a great deal of money; but
+retained little of it. We do not mention this as a feature in that
+worthy man’s character to be imitated. On the contrary we wish it, so
+far as it goes, to operate as a warning against the indulgence of a
+spirit, which, though it be a virtue of the highest order when kept
+under the control of discretion, does, like every other virtue,
+degenerate into a foible, when carried to excess. Fortunately for that
+member of doctor Cooper’s family of whom we are writing, he found, when
+his youth wanted it, a&nbsp;sincere friend. Mr. Godwin, whose name is
+well known in the republic of letters, particularly as the author of a
+work the name of which we will not put upon the same page with this
+honourable instance of posthumous friendship to doctor Cooper, took the
+youth to his own care; adopted, educated, and, as some say, intended him
+for an author; a&nbsp;scheme too absurd in our opinion, to be meditated
+by a person of Mr. Godwin’s sagacity, who would at least postpone such a
+project till the genius of the young man should unfold itself in full
+maturity. Such, however, is said to have been the plan, which, whether
+the story be true or false, there is cause to rejoice was frustrated. At
+this distance it would be hopeless, if indeed it were very desirable, to
+trace that strange report to its origin, but we think it not at all a
+forced conclusion that it arose from the nature of the education which
+Mr. Godwin bestowed upon the youth. Hence without knowing the amount of
+Mr. Cooper’s literary attainments, we think it may be fairly inferred
+from the existence
+<span class = "pagenum">31</span>
+<a name = "page31" id = "page31"> </a>
+of such a report, that his education was a learned one, and that he was
+early grounded in the dead as well as the most useful modern languages.
+Mr. Godwin cannot be suspected of intending for an author by trade,
+a&nbsp;youth from whom he had withheld the Greek and Latin classics.</p>
+
+<p>It is not necessary to recur to the instructions of Mr. Godwin for
+the fervid partiality which Mr. Cooper early disclosed for the French
+revolution. In that feeling he partook in common with men who as
+radically, substantially, and essentially differed in principle from Mr.
+Godwin, as light from darkness, or heat from cold. Several high
+statesmen in England, who afterwards deplored it, at first viewed that
+extraordinary event with a favourable eye, as likely to better the
+condition of twenty millions of people. So, Mr. Dundas, now lord
+Melville, for himself and his colleague Pitt, openly avowed in
+parliament. And even Burke himself, whose penetrating eye discerned from
+the outset, and foretold all the mischiefs that lurked under that event,
+complimented a young Irish gentleman of reputable birth, upon his having
+fought as a volunteer with Dumourier, at the battle of Jamappe; adding,
+that he gloried in every instance in which he found his young countrymen
+disclosing an enthusiastic love of freedom. Nay, he did not scruple to
+declare very frequently that, considering the plausible appearance of
+the revolution, he should entertain but a very poor opinion of a youth
+who was not enamoured with it. With such an authority to warrant us, we
+feel no hesitation in stating it as an honourable trait in the character
+of Mr. Cooper, that he was delighted with the French revolution, and
+that in his enthusiastic admiration of that event, he resolved to
+abandon his literary pursuits to give his young arm (he being then not
+above seventeen years of age) to the defence of the new republic and, as
+he thought, the cause of liberty. He had scarcely taken this resolution,
+and made preparations to go to the continent and join the army of the
+French republic, when the war broke out between England
+<span class = "pagenum">32</span>
+<a name = "page32" id = "page32"> </a>
+and France, and totally overset his purpose and his hopes of military
+promotion, rendering that which before would have been lawful if not
+laudable, an act of treason to his country, of the bare contemplation of
+which, it is fair to believe, he was incapable.</p>
+
+<p>It was on occasion of this disappointment and check to his military
+ambition, that Mr. Cooper turned his thoughts to the stage. Young as he
+was, he made a full and accurate estimate of his situation. Too proud by
+nature to be dependant, his feelings suggested the necessity of
+immediately doing something for his own support and advancement. He
+boldly resolved to be the architect of his own fame and fortune, and it
+is probable had too much common sense to take the author’s pen either as
+a material or an instrument in constructing the edifice. Having made up
+his mind to try his fortune on the stage, he imparted his intention to
+Mr. Godwin, who received the communication with deep regret, and
+encountered it with the most decided disapprobation, and with every
+argument and dissuasive which ingenuity and a perfect knowledge of the
+subject could lend to friendship. It was in vain every topic was urged
+which could serve to dissuade, to deter, or to disgust: Mr. Cooper
+firmly adhered to his purpose, and Mr. Godwin perceiving him immovable,
+yielded to what he could not overcome, and resolved, since he could not
+divert him from the stage, to do all he could to set him forward on it
+to the best advantage. To this end, Mr. Holcroft, the friend of Mr.
+Godwin, was called in; and he gave the young man some preparatory
+lessons, a&nbsp;task for which he was exceedingly well qualified uniting
+in himself the several talents of actor, author, and critic.</p>
+
+<p>To procure admission on the stage in England is not always an easy
+task. In the present instance it seemed to Mr. Holcroft and Mr. Godwin a
+matter of serious consideration to whom an application should be made
+for the purpose, and what theatre would be most likely to receive him
+with least disadvantage. At length application being made
+<span class = "pagenum">33</span>
+<a name = "page33" id = "page33"> </a>
+to Mr. Stephen Kemble he agreed, without seeing the young gentleman, to
+take him under his auspices; and to that end Mr. Cooper repaired to
+Edinburgh. Of his reception by Mr. Kemble the most ludicrous description
+has been given; a&nbsp;description, which, as biographers, we should not
+think of introducing on the present occasion, if it had not already
+appeared in public, accompanied with an assertion that it came from Mr.
+Cooper himself. “The writer of this sketch (says the publisher of that
+account) has heard Cooper himself describe with great pleasantry his
+first interview with the Scotch manager; he was at that time a raw
+country youth of seventeen. On his arrival in Edinburgh, little
+conscious of his appearance and incompetency, he waited on Mr. Kemble,
+made up in the extreme of rustic foppery, proud of his talents, and
+little doubting his success. When he mentioned his name and errand, Mr.
+Kemble’s countenance changed from a polite smile to a stare of
+disappointment: Cooper had been prepared for young Norval; but he was
+obliged to exchange all his expected eclat for a few cold excuses from
+the manager, and the chagrin of seeing some nights after, his part
+filled by an old man and a bad player. During the remainder of the
+season he continued with Stephen Kemble, without at all appearing on the
+stage. From <ins class = "correction" title =
+"text reads ‘Edinburg’">Edinburgh</ins> he went with the company to
+Newcastle-upon-Tyne, there he lived as dependent, inactive, and
+undistinguished as before, till, owing to the want of a person to fill
+the part of Malcolm in Macbeth, he was cast to that humble character. In
+so inferior a sphere did he begin to move who is now become one of the
+brightest luminaries of the theatrical hemisphere. His debut was even
+less flattering than his reception from the manager had been. Till the
+last scene he passed through tolerably well, but when he came to the
+lines which conclude the play&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class = "poem small">
+<p>“So thanks to all at once, and to each one,</p>
+<p>Whom we invite to see us crown’d at Scone.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">34</span>
+<a name = "page34" id = "page34"> </a>
+<p>After stretching out his hands and assuming the attitude and smile of
+thankfulness, a&nbsp;slight embarrassment checked him, and he paused,
+still keeping his posture and his look&mdash;the prompter made himself
+heard by every one but the bewildered Malcolm, who still continued mute,
+every instant of his silence naturally increasing ten-fold his
+perplexity&mdash;Macduff whispered the words in his ear&mdash;Macbeth
+who lay slaughtered at his feet, broke the bonds of death to assist his
+dumb successor, the prompter spoke almost to vociferation. Each thane
+dead or alive joined his voice&mdash;but this was only “confusion worse
+confounded”&mdash;if he could have spoken the amazed prince might with
+great justice have said, “So thanks to all at once”&mdash;but his
+utterance was gone “<i>vox faucibus h�Ĥsit</i>”&mdash;a hiss presently
+broke out in the pit, the clamor soon became general, and the curtain
+went down, amid a universal condemnation.”</p>
+
+<p>No part of biography is so interesting, or affecting as that which
+brings before us the struggles of unassisted vigour and genius with the
+obstructions which accident, or the ignorance or malice of vulgar souls
+throw in their way, and their ultimate triumph over adversity. Few men
+have enjoyed that triumph more than Mr. Cooper, for few have in their
+outset met with a more mortifying repulse, or more discouraging
+difficulties. There are not many whose resolution could have outlived
+such a cruel discomfiture as that at Edinburgh: but on him it seemed to
+have the happy effect of steeling his natural fortitude, and sending his
+spirit forward in its career with increased impetuosity.</p>
+
+<p>Disappointed and chagrined, but not humiliated, he returned back to
+London, more determinately than ever resolved to persevere till he had
+mastered fortune and established a footing on the stage&mdash;exhibiting
+a degree of confidence which generally inheres in genius, and which his
+ultimate success well justified. Far from being depressed or obscured by
+his Edinburgh adventure, his talents had so much unfolded themselves and
+been so visibly improved, that his friends Godwin and Holcroft felt
+convinced he had
+<span class = "pagenum">35</span>
+<a name = "page35" id = "page35"> </a>
+not mistaken or overrated his powers; but, on the contrary, possessed
+qualifications, which, if diligently and judiciously cultivated, would
+raise him to a rank with the most eminent actors then living. The great
+bar to his advancement was that diffidence which occasioned his
+discomfiture in Edinburgh: but his friends knew enough of the human
+heart and powers to be assured that that very diffidence is so
+universally the concomitant of sterling merit, that where it
+superabounds wise men give credit for much excellence, and bestow their
+partiality with a liberal hand; while the want of it is generally
+suspected of denoting a great deficiency in merit: and they were right;
+for the young person who wants modesty wants every thing. Fraught with
+these considerations, those discerning men and steady friends thought
+that they would best consult their <i>proteg�ݒs</i> interest by putting
+him into training in some obscure company, and took measures to
+introduce him into a routine of acting in the country theatres, from
+which novitiate they expected he would soon emerge well practised in
+stage business, and fully qualified to give out the whole force of his
+natural powers on some of the stages of the metropolis.</p>
+
+<p>The country managers, however, seemed to think very differently from
+Messrs. Godwin and Holcroft of Mr. Cooper’s capabilities. If they had
+not the genius, the discernment, or the “spirits learned in human
+dealings” of our hero’s patrons, they had self-sufficiency and obstinacy
+in abundance, and what was more unfortunate, they had the power in their
+hands; a&nbsp;power which in such persons is rarely softened in its
+exercise by liberality or candor. These, notwithstanding the authority
+of Godwin and Holcroft’s opinion, considered or affected to consider Mr.
+Cooper as a poor juvenile adventurer, who had no one requisite for the
+profession. “Their hands, they said, were already full&mdash;(of trash
+no doubt they were) every character even the lowest was engaged. To show
+their deference, however, to the high opinion of the young man’s
+friends, they would endeavour to think of something for him to perform.”
+<span class = "pagenum">36</span>
+<a name = "page36" id = "page36"> </a>
+In conformity to the dictates of this <i>generous</i> spirit, they
+vouchsafed him some inferior parts: but every one knows, who knows any
+thing at all of theatrical affairs, that the coldness of a manager to a
+young performer, creates at least, distrust in the audience&mdash;that
+the young candidate who is set forward in humiliation, is forbidden to
+rise; as he who is thrust into characters far beyond the reach of his
+powers will, for a time, get credit for talents which he does not
+possess: for discerning and despotic as the multitude think themselves,
+they are still the dupes or the submissive slaves of dexterous leaders
+in every department of life. By the error, the ignorance, or the
+churlishness of the country managers, Mr. Cooper was excluded from any
+fair opportunity to redeem the credit he had lost in
+Edinburgh&mdash;they considered, or affected to consider him as wholly
+incompetent to any character of consequence: those which were vouchsafed
+him were of so inferior a rank that they denied scope to the exercise of
+his yet latent powers; for such a genius as that of Cooper could no more
+dilate in a meagre character, than Eclipse or Flying Childers could lay
+themselves out at full speed in a city building lot; and it is
+reasonable to suppose that, notwithstanding all his fortitude, the
+spirits of the youth were depressed, and his faculties chilled by such
+humiliating neglect, and such reiterated disappointments. Who is he that
+would not, under such circumstances, sink into languor? It cannot be
+doubted that dejection every day detracted from his powers, and that by
+a kind of irresistible gravitation, he descended like a falling body in
+the physical world, with accelerated velocity, till at last he reached
+the very bottom of the profession. Reader, behold&mdash;and refrain from
+regret if you can&mdash;behold <span class = "smallcaps">Cooper</span>,
+on whom crowded theatres have since gazed with astonishment and delight,
+reduced to the condition of a mere deliverer of letters and messages
+upon the stage of a low country theatre. The writer of this cannot help
+picturing to himself the feelings of a multitude of great and worthy
+personages in Great Britain and India, and particularly the feelings of
+<span class = "pagenum">37</span>
+<a name = "page37" id = "page37"> </a>
+a sister, the lovely inheritress of her family’s virtues, if they had
+known at the time, that which our hero’s manly pride concealed, that the
+son of doctor Cooper, whose goodness of heart had often been the refuge
+of the distressed, was for months languishing under the chill of public
+neglect, and dragging on existence upon a miserable pittance which
+scarcely afforded him physical support; or if they had seen him in his
+unaccommodated removal from that situation, walking on foot to the
+metropolis.</p>
+
+<p>The repulses of a mistaken and unworthy few, and the neglect of a
+world very little better, had no other effect upon Mr. Cooper’s friends
+Godwin and Holcroft, than to quicken their sensibility and inflame their
+ardour to serve him. It is more than probable those mortifications
+tended to increase the conviction of the former that his <i>eleve</i>
+had made a deplorable choice of profession, but did not at all shake the
+opinion which both, and particularly the latter, entertained that he had
+great capabilities for the profession. The youth had now waded in so
+far, that to go back might be worse than to go forward; Mr. Holcroft
+therefore again took him in hand; read Shakspeare with him, and
+accompanied their reading with practical commentaries upon the force of
+that author’s meaning, marked out to him those parts where the character
+was to depend for its interest and impression, on the actor’s exertions;
+heard him over and over again repeat the most difficult speeches, and
+instructed him how to adapt his action, looks, and utterance to the
+passion which the author designed to exhibit, so as to excite
+appropriate feelings in the auditor. Though Shakspeare is above all
+others the poet of Nature, his meaning frequently eludes the dim or
+vulgar mind, and to be intelligibly elicited from the stiffness and
+obscurity which sometimes injures his language, requires profound
+consideration. For the minute investigation requisite for this purpose
+few men were better qualified than Mr. Holcroft&mdash;few men much more
+equal to the task of bringing forth from the rich mine where they lay
+and purify of their dross the talents of Mr. Cooper. With an earnestness
+and indefatigable zeal proportioned to
+<span class = "pagenum">38</span>
+<a name = "page38" id = "page38"> </a>
+the object, and which nothing but the most generous friendship could
+impel him to employ, Mr. Holcroft gave those powers to the instruction
+of our hero, and with such speedy and felicitous effect, that the young
+gentleman was, in the course of a few months, considered by his two
+friends as perfectly qualified to appear before a London audience in
+some of Shakspeare’s most important characters. Having been for some
+time a successful dramatic writer, Mr.&nbsp;H. enjoyed the ear and
+confidence of the managers, and arranged with those of Covent Garden for
+his pupil’s appearance on that stage. And now the time arrived when his
+fortitude was to be rewarded, his sufferings compensated, and his
+talents to find their proper levels. His first appearance was in Hamlet,
+in which he received unbounded applause. In two or three nights after he
+performed the very arduous part of Macbeth to a house so very full as to
+occasion an overflow. It is but justice to the Edinburgh and other
+provincial managers to observe, that when Mr. Cooper appeared on the
+London boards he was greatly improved in his externals. His person had
+grown more into masculine bulk and manly shape; his face had become more
+marked and expressive, and his voice had swelled into a more full deep
+tenor.</p>
+
+<p>The friendship of Mr. Holcroft caused Mr. Cooper to be universally
+misjudged. The opposition prints represented him in the most extravagant
+terms of eulogy. The government prints ran into the opposite extreme,
+and he became at once the idol and the victim of party spirit. Yet such
+a reception, by a London audience, was a sufficient pledge of future
+success. He was still young, had much to learn in order to reach the
+first rank of that profession, and if a real, well-grounded, just fame
+had been his object, he ought to have felt that it could only be
+attained by perseverance, and by the customary natural gradations. The
+London managers offered him an engagement, which, though allowed to have
+been liberal, seems not to have come up to his own estimate of his
+deserts. Playing two or three
+<span class = "pagenum">39</span>
+<a name = "page39" id = "page39"> </a>
+or four characters well is a very different thing from sustaining a
+whole line of acting, to which long practice and great constitutional
+force are as necessary as any other requisite. In this view of the
+matter, as well as because managers neither desire nor will be permitted
+in England to supersede established favourite servants of the public, it
+will not appear surprising that the first rate rank of characters to
+which Mr. Cooper aspired, was refused to him by the managers, who
+thought that they better consulted the public feeling, their own
+interest, and even the young gentleman’s fame and ultimate prosperity,
+by placing him in a secondary general line, in which he might improve
+himself by playing with and observing the best models, and in regular
+gradation make his way to the first, as Kemble, Cooke, and others had
+done before him. This however was too unpalatable for his ambition to
+swallow. The first he would be, or none. There is not a sentiment of
+Julius C�Ĥsar’s that is thought so censurable and unworthy of his great
+mind as that which he uttered when, pointing to a small town, he said,
+“I would rather be the first man in that village than the second in
+Rome.” This has been justly called perverted ambition, and Milton
+stamped it with terrible condemnation when he put into the mouth of his
+arch fiend the sentiment&mdash;“better to reign in hell than serve in
+heaven.” The passions of youth extenuate those errors which in ripened
+manhood are criminal; and it is not improbable that Mr. Cooper’s own
+opinion at this day concurs with ours when we say that his refusal of
+the manager’s offer seems to us to have been very injudicious. From
+Plautus, with whom we dare say he had long before had an intimacy, he
+might have taken this profitable lesson,</p>
+
+<div class = "poem small">
+<p>Viam qui nescit qu�˘ deveniat ad mare</p>
+<p>Eum oportet amnem qu�Ĥrere comitem sibi.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Had he not rejected that offer he would long ere this have had
+permanent possession of the rank to which he too prematurely aspired.
+His refusal was followed by a retreat into the country, where, with the
+perseverance of Demosthenes, he laboured
+<span class = "pagenum">40</span>
+<a name = "page40" id = "page40"> </a>
+in fitting himself for a more successful effort; resolved to force his
+way if possible to the high object of his ambition.</p>
+
+<p>During his retirement intimations of his success crossed the
+Atlantic. Mr. Tyler, some time since the manager of the New-York
+theatre, received the intelligence from a friend in England: “Prepare
+yourself for astonishment,” said his correspondent, “that identical Mr.
+Cooper who, a&nbsp;few months ago, was playing the very underling
+characters at our theatre, and who appeared so extremely incompetent, is
+now performing Hamlet with applause in London.” Sometime after this the
+agent of the Philadelphia manager in England made proposals to Mr.
+Cooper, who exulting in the thoughts of obtaining in America that rank
+which he was refused in London, closed with the offer, and soon after
+passed over to America. In Philadelphia, however, he found that his
+object was not altogether so attainable as he imagined. In no place does
+favouritism flourish with much more rank luxuriance than in that
+city&mdash;in no place do personal prepossessions more frequently
+operate to the overthrow of judgment, to the exclusion of merit, and to
+the fostering of incapacity. The multitude had their favourites whose
+merit touched the highest standard of their conceptions&mdash;any thing
+beyond that was hid in an intellectual mist. The taste of the many was
+formed upon the kind of merit which they so much admired in their
+favourites, and little did it relish that of Mr. Cooper. It is
+astonishing how constantly fond overweening prejudice deceives itself.
+The philosopher who told the powerful despot, his sovereign, that there
+was no royal way to mathematics, was believed, because the despot had
+common sense&mdash;but a headstrong multitude can never be persuaded
+that a person can be incompetent to any one thing, if they only
+<i>will</i> him to be great in it: and thus it has happened not
+infrequently, in all cities as well as Philadelphia, that splendid
+talents have stood behind as lackeys, while doleful incapacity has
+feasted upon public favour.</p>
+
+<p>The abilities of Mr. Cooper gave great uneasiness, for they every day
+forced a passage for themselves to some share of approbation,
+<span class = "pagenum">41</span>
+<a name = "page41" id = "page41"> </a>
+in the very teeth of favouritism and prejudice. Some there were who
+could discern no merit at all in him; some who industriously employed
+themselves in depreciating and denying the little which others allowed
+him. At last his vigorous struggles made it necessary to call in a
+<i>corps de reserve</i> which he little suspected; his private life was
+impeached, and the careless, irregular habits of youth&mdash;habits, by
+the by, in which no youth indulge more than our own, were arrayed
+against him. Unjust as this was, it produced the desired effect; for
+when his benefit was announced, very few seats were taken in the boxes.
+And here we have to record a feature in that gentleman’s character which
+marks his honest pride and magnanimity in deep impression. The manager
+was bound by his contract to make up to a certain stated amount, the
+proceeds of Mr.&nbsp;C.’s benefit. To such an advantage Mr.&nbsp;C.
+disdained to have recourse. At the same time his pride shrunk from the
+thoughts of playing to empty boxes at his benefit. He resolved to have a
+full house, and hit upon an expedient which showed that, young as he
+was, he knew something of the human heart, and that, though a stranger,
+he had made a very shrewd estimate of the public taste, for which he had
+the skill to cater more appropriately and successfully than he could by
+merely dishing up a play of Shakspeare’s in his own rough cookery.
+Fortunately for his purpose there had lately arrived in Philadelphia an
+actor of great weight and merit, a&nbsp;native of India, of whose
+immense and popular talents he resolved to avail himself; this was an
+elephant, which for the trifling <i>douceur</i> of sixty dollars, that
+is, near twice as much as the best actor in the city now gets for one
+week’s labour, he prevailed upon to <i>press the boards</i> of the
+theatre for that one time only, and be the chief performer and great
+attraction of the night. This was what a seaman would call hitting the
+public between wind and water: Mr. Cooper therefore poured in a whole
+broadside of printed notices, which were put into every hand, and a huge
+playbill, which glared at the corner of every street in letters of
+elephantine size, informing the public that the distinguished
+<span class = "pagenum">42</span>
+<a name = "page42" id = "page42"> </a>
+performer already mentioned, had kindly consented to act a principal
+part in the entertainment of the evening. No sooner was this announced
+than the whole city was in one hubbub of curiosity&mdash;one twitter of
+delight; and Mr. Cooper had so many <i>friends</i> who were all at once
+intent upon giving him their dollar at his benefit, that the house was
+crammed, and there was as great an overflow from every part of it as if
+the renowned master Betty himself were to have occupied the place of the
+elephant.</p>
+
+<p>Very different was Mr. Cooper’s reception at New-York, whither he
+went when the theatre of Philadelphia closed for the season. On his very
+first appearance he established himself in the public opinion as a first
+rate actor. The New-York stage might about that time vie for actors in
+number and quality with the best provincial company that ever played in
+England. Hodgkinson, Cooper, Fennell, Jefferson, Harwood, Bernard, Mrs.
+Morris, and Mrs. Hodgkinson, besides two or three admirable comedians.
+Pierre is well adapted to Mr. Cooper’s talents and style of acting, and
+he evinced his judgment in selecting it for his first appearance.
+Through the whole play the ball was well tossed to him by the other
+actors; the consequence was that the impression he made has never been
+erased. The opinion entertained of him was more substantially evinced
+than by mere applause. There was a unanimous desire that he should leave
+the Philadelphia theatre and engage at New-York; but to this it was
+objected, that he was bound by his contract with the manager of the
+former, to play for a certain time under a penalty of two thousand
+dollars; this objection, however, was soon superseded by a subscription
+raised among the gentlemen of New-York to pay off that sum if the
+manager should be able to enforce it. Thus honourably was Mr. Cooper
+planted in the city which he contrived to make his head-quarters till
+the beginning of the year 1803, when he passed over to England. During
+that period he paid a professional visit to Philadelphia, where he was
+so justly appreciated that he had no further occasion for the aid of the
+elephant.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">43</span>
+<a name = "page43" id = "page43"> </a>
+<p>It happened that Mr. John Kemble the chief actor, and once the acting
+manager of Drury Lane theatre, had in the year 1802,
+a&nbsp;misunderstanding with the proprietors, in consequence of which he
+left it, and visited the continent, leaving the first line of character
+very inadequately filled. Intelligence of this secession having reached
+America in the latter end of 1802, Mr. Cooper, who was invited, as it is
+said, by the proprietors of Drury Lane, to take Mr. Kemble’s place, if
+his reception by the town would warrant them in retaining him, crossed
+the Atlantic, and once more appeared in London. His success was by no
+means equal to the expectations of his New-York friends. Those however
+who were better acquainted with the general subject and the state of the
+stage in England, who were aware how much actors of the greatest talents
+profit by constantly playing with men of equal standing with themselves,
+and how much they lose by the want of great models either to emulate or
+follow, were far from being so sanguine in their expectations. By the
+London audience he was handsomely received, and greeted with the
+applause and kindness due to a stranger of respectable powers: but in
+efficient benefit to the house and to himself he failed; wherefore,
+passing on to Liverpool, he played a few nights in that town with great
+applause, then took shipping and returned to America, where he was
+received with open arms.</p>
+
+<p>After his departure the theatre of New-York fell into a state of
+decline for want of a proper manager and proper company. The deceased
+Hodgkinson having been joined in the management of the Charleston
+theatre, and brought along with him some of the best performers, it was
+resolved by the proprietors of the New-York theatre, to give it upon
+encouraging terms to a manager of sufficient qualifications to conduct
+the business of it successfully. Hodgkinson was elected to the
+management of it almost unanimously; but soon after died of the yellow
+fever. Mr. Cooper then undertook it&mdash;bought the theatre at a vast
+expense&mdash;improved and embellished the house, and was amply
+remunerated by
+<span class = "pagenum">44</span>
+<a name = "page44" id = "page44"> </a>
+the immense receipts of the first season; at the end of which he sold
+out his property in it to another gentleman, who we believe now owns and
+manages&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>No actor ever made so much money in America as Mr. Cooper. By a
+skilful distribution of his time and exertions, he takes care never to
+stay so long in one place as to satiate the public appetite. Regardless
+of the fatigues of travelling, and always supplied with the best cattle,
+he flies from city to city over this extended union, like a comet; one
+day he is seen at New-York, the very next he performs in Philadelphia.
+A&nbsp;few days after, we have an account of his playing at Boston, and
+perhaps before a month elapses we again have intelligence of his acting
+at Charleston, (S.C.) in each of which places he receives an enormous
+salary, and always has a full benefit. Thus if he possesses the gift of
+retention as he does that of gaining, he must necessarily become very
+rich. There are modes of getting rid of money, however, to which gossip
+Fame, we regret to say it, whispers he is much addicted. That he may be
+more extravagant than he ought to be, we can suppose without injury to
+his moral character. Whether he be so or not is not our business to
+discuss&mdash;but it is our duty to relate those things which may be set
+down as a counterpoise to the blamable disregard of economy of which he
+is impeached by many who are perhaps little capable of estimating his
+means or his motives. He is one of the most dutiful and generous of sons
+to an amiable mother, whose old age he cheers with punctual bounty, and
+by the most constant and pious filial reverence and affection.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Cooper has a sister, or at least had one, a&nbsp;lady of high
+personal endowments and great goodness. She was early married to Mr.
+Perreau of Calcutta, a&nbsp;gentleman who stands as high in the opinion
+of the world as any man in India.</p>
+
+<p>Of the merit of Mr. Cooper as an actor we shall have occasion to
+speak in another part of this work.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">45</span>
+<a name = "page45" id = "page45"> </a>
+<h6><a name = "alleyn" id = "alleyn">
+LIFE OF ALLEYN, THE PLAYER.</a></h6>
+
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">Mr. Edward Alleyn</span>, who though an
+actor, is ranked among “the British Worthies,” was born in London in
+1566, and trained at an early period to the stage, for which he was
+naturally qualified by a stately port and aspect, corporal agility,
+flexible genius, lively temper, retentive memory, and fluent elocution.
+Before the year 1592 he seems to have acquired a very considerable
+degree of popularity in his profession; he was one of the original
+actors in the plays of Shakespeare, and a principal performer in some of
+those of Jonson; but it does not now appear what were the characters
+which he personated. They were probably the most dignified and majestic,
+for to these the portly and graceful figure of his person was well
+adapted. At length he became master of a company of players, and the
+proprietor of a playhouse called the Fortune, which he erected at his
+own expense, near Whitecross-street; and he was also joint proprietor
+and master of the Royal Bear-Garden, on the Bank side, in Southwark. By
+the profits accruing from these occupations, added to his paternal
+inheritance, and to the dowries of his two wives, by whom he had no
+children, he amassed a considerable property, which he bestowed in a
+manner that has redounded more to his honour than his professional
+merit. The wealth thus acquired enabled him to lay the foundation of a
+college, for the maintenance of aged people, and the education of
+children, at Dulwich in Surrey, which institution, called “The College
+of God’s Gift,” subsists at this time in an improved and prosperous
+state. The liberal founder, before he was forty-eight years of age,
+began this building after the design, and under the direction of Inigo
+Jones: and it is presumed that he expended eight or ten thousand pounds
+upon the college, chapel, &amp;c. before the buildings and gardens were
+finished, which was about the year 1617.</p>
+
+<p>Alleyn had long been regarded by all the great and good people of
+England, including the sovereign Elizabeth, with admiration and respect.
+This charitable endowment presented
+<span class = "pagenum">46</span>
+<a name = "page46" id = "page46"> </a>
+him to the world in a new and grander attitude. But still as he was a
+player, the vulgar and superstitious were unable to account for this act
+which would have done honour to a king or a saint, by any other than
+diabolical influence. It was therefore reported, and by the ignorant
+multitude was believed, that Mr. Alleyn, “playing a demon with six
+others in one of Shakspeare’s plays, was in the midst of the play
+surprised by the apparition of the devil, which so worked on his fancy,
+that he made a vow, which he performed at this place.” This most
+laughable story is handed down seriously in a book written by a person
+of the name of Aubrey. Tradition says that it was from Alleyn’s acting
+and conversation Shakspeare wrote his admirable instructions to players
+which he has put into the mouth of Hamlet.</p>
+
+<p>After the founder had built this college, he met with difficulties in
+obtaining a charter for settling his lands in mortmain, that he might
+endow it, as he proposed, with 800<i>l.</i> per annum, for the support
+and maintenance of one master, one warden, and four fellows, three of
+whom were to be ecclesiastics, and the other a skilful organist; also
+six poor children, as many women, and twelve poor boys, who were to be
+maintained and educated till the age of fourteen or sixteen years, and
+then put out to honest trades and callings. The master and warden were
+to be unmarried, and always to be of the name of Allen or Alleyn. At
+length the opposition of the lord chancellor Bacon was overcome, and
+Alleyn’s benefaction obtained the royal license, and he had full power
+granted him to establish his foundation, by his majesty’s letters patent
+under the great seal, bearing date June 21, 1619. When the college was
+finished, the founder and his wife resided in it and conformed in every
+respect to the regulations established for the government of his
+almoners. Having by his will liberally provided for his widow, and for
+founding twenty almshouses, ten in the parish of St. Botolp, without
+Bishopgate, in which he was born, and ten in St. Saviour’s parish,
+Southwark, and bequeathed several small legacies to his relations and
+friends, he appropriated the residue
+<span class = "pagenum">47</span>
+<a name = "page47" id = "page47"> </a>
+of his property to the use of the college. He died in 1626, in the
+sixty-first year of his age, and was buried in the chapel of his own
+college. The chapel, master’s apartments, &amp;c. are in the front of
+this building, and the lodgings of the other inhabitants, &amp;c. in the
+two wings, of which that on the east side was handsomely new built, in
+1739, at the expense of the college. They have a small library of books
+and a gallery of pictures with that of the founder at full length. The
+inscription over the door concludes with these words: <i>abi tu et fac
+similiter</i>&mdash;go thou and do likewise.</p>
+
+<a name = "page48" id = "page48"> </a>
+
+</div> <!-- close and open div mirror -->
+
+<div class = "mirror">
+
+<span class = "pagenum">49</span>
+<a name = "page49" id = "page49"> </a>
+<h2><a name = "intro" id = "intro">INTRODUCTION</a></h2>
+
+<h6>TO</h6>
+
+<h1>THE DRAMATIC CENSOR.</h1>
+
+<p class = "smaller">
+I have always considered those combinations which are formed in the
+playhouse as acts of fraud or cruelty: He that applauds him who does not
+deserve praise, is endeavouring to deceive the public; He that hisses in
+malice or sport is an oppressor and a robber.</p>
+
+<p class = "right smaller">
+<i>Dr. Johnson’s Idler, No. 25.</i></p>
+
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">The</span> establishment of a regular and
+permanent work of dramatic criticism, and of censorship upon the public
+amusements of this city has often been attempted. The uniform failure of
+these efforts renders it natural to apprehend that the proposition now
+submitted to the public will incur the charge of presumption, and
+perhaps experience, for a time, the coldness and discouragement with
+which the majority of mankind are always inclined to treat even laudable
+exertions, if they in any degree militate against the dictates of common
+prudence, and are not recommended by a certainty of public approbation.
+Taking their auspices of the present undertaking from the fate of those
+hasty productions on the same subject, which have been brought forth and
+expired within the compass of their short season, there are too many,
+who, instead of applauding the hazardous boldness of the measure, and
+for the sake of its public utility standing forward in its encouragement
+and support, will endeavour to damp it by premature censure, ascribe the
+undertaking to vanity, or unworthiness, and if it should fail, be ready
+to
+<span class = "pagenum">50</span>
+<a name = "page50" id = "page50"> </a>
+aggravate the disappointment of the projectors with the galling
+imputation of temerity, impudence, or overweening self-conceit. The
+sympathy which mankind in general think it handsome to feel for
+unassuming merit, stumbling in its way through life by incautiously
+venturing upon ground untrodden before, will be gladly withheld from
+persons who are supposed wilfully to rush forward into error, with the
+warning monitions of example before their eyes&mdash;who obstinately
+persist in an unadvised and hopeless enterprise, in defiance of manifold
+and recent experience, and whom the imprudence and misfortunes of others
+have been incapable of rendering cautious or discreet.</p>
+
+<p>With encountering these, and many other objections (the offspring of
+indistinct conception and cold hearts) the projectors of the present
+work lay their account; yet, since nothing honourable or arduous would
+ever be accomplished, if hope were to be extinguished by partial defeat,
+and a generous enterprise were to be abandoned, because it had before
+been tried without success, the work now proposed is undertaken, with
+the most firm conviction of its utility and the most unequivocal
+confidence of success. Let their difficulties be what they may, however,
+the editors are prepared to meet them, not only without fear, but with
+satisfaction; since they know that nothing but impossibility will be
+refused to undismayed perseverance and unremitting industry, and that in
+the work they are entering upon, they labour for the promotion of a
+purpose which, whatever the amount of their pecuniary advantage may be,
+will entitle them to public respect and to the gratitude of the rising
+generation. Before such proud hopes, all the little obstructions they
+anticipate&mdash;the cavils of the scrupulous, the doubts of the
+sceptical, the reluctance of the timid, the resistance of the refractory
+and incorrigible, and the sneers, the censures, and the sarcasms of the
+curious and the malignant vanish, as the gloomy chills and shades of the
+night recede before the glorious luminary of the morning.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">51</span>
+<a name = "page51" id = "page51"> </a>
+<p>That the drama is a most powerful moral agent in society has been
+admitted by men of learning and wisdom in all ages of its existence.
+Whether its effects be, on the whole, injurious or not, will long be a
+subject of contest; but be they what they may, it can have very little
+influence of any kind beyond that of harmless amusement, on the wise,
+the pious, the learned and the experienced. Were those alone to visit
+theatres and be exposed to its allurements, the task of the dramatic
+censor might without injury be dispensed with: but since it is the
+young, the idle, the thoughtless, and the ignorant, on whom the drama
+can be supposed to operate as a lesson for conduct, an aid to experience
+and a guide through life, and since such persons are generally
+unfurnished with ideas and undefended by principles, prompt to receive
+first impressions, and easily susceptible of false opinions and
+pernicious sentiments, it becomes a matter of great importance to the
+commonwealth that this very powerful engine, (acting as it does upon our
+youth through the delightful medium of amusement, and by the
+instrumentality of every circumstance that can lay hold of the fancy,
+and through the senses fascinate the heart) should be kept under the
+control of a systematic, a&nbsp;vigilant and a severe, but a just
+criticism.</p>
+
+<p>To the formation of that rare compound “a finished man” there belong,
+besides the higher requisites of moral character, an infinite number of
+minor accomplishments, which are materially affected either for the
+better or the worse, by a frequent and studious attendance on dramatic
+representations. <span class = "smallcaps">Manners</span>, which
+constitute so important a part of the character of every people, are
+considerably fashioned by a constant observation of the pictures of
+human life exhibited in the theatre: on the action, the utterance and
+the general deportment, the effects of the stage have ever been
+materially felt and are unequivocally acknowledged. The most eloquent
+men of antiquity, and the most eloquent men in England, have owned
+themselves indebted to actors for perfecting them in oratory. Roscius,
+<span class = "pagenum">52</span>
+<a name = "page52" id = "page52"> </a>
+the actor of Rome, is immortalized by Cicero, and Garrick by lord
+Chatham and Edmund Burke. If then the stage has been felt to produce
+such weighty effects in the more arduous part of human improvement, how
+ponderous in its operation must it not of necessity be, on the other
+hand, in the promotion of evil, if it exhibit to the growing generation
+corrupt examples and defective models, not only unrestrained and
+uncensured, but sanctioned with the applause of an uninstructed and
+misjudging multitude. Every plaudit which a vitious play, or a bad actor
+receives is a blow to the public morals, and the public taste. Man is an
+imitative animal, and insensibly conforms to the models and examples
+before him. Young men who excessively admire a favourite actor, will
+insensibly imitate him, without scanning the man’s merits or defects;
+and without ever reflecting upon the ultimate influence which their
+partiality, if it should be misplaced, may have upon their lives,
+fortunes and characters, will adopt his manner, his action, his
+enunciation, nay, his worst defects, and in short every thing that is
+imitable about him.</p>
+
+<p>Those who dissent from us on other propositions, will agree with us
+at least in this, that the highest degree of attention ought to be paid
+to the morals, the manners, the address and the language of youth; and
+that nothing which has a tendency to mislead them, in any of those
+essentials, should be submitted to their eyes or ears; but that on the
+contrary, every thing should be done, as a great moral philosopher has
+instructed us, “to secure them from unjust prejudices, from perverse
+opinions, and from incongruous combinations of images.” Let it be kept
+in mind that we are not now discussing the question whether the stage be
+beneficial to society or not. Though it be a fair subject of inquiry,
+and will hereafter engage a share of our attention, we have no use for
+it, at present; since be our opinions or those of our readers what they
+may, the stage exists, and will continue to exist and attract the
+regards of mankind. The true point of consideration, therefore, is, not
+how far it is beneficial
+<span class = "pagenum">53</span>
+<a name = "page53" id = "page53"> </a>
+or how far injurious; but in what way its benefits may be enhanced, and
+its mischiefs, if any, be abated. He who should demonstrate that it has
+a pernicious tendency, would but the more strongly enforce our
+propositions; since he would thereby show the expediency of diminishing
+that tendency and of mitigating that evil which the public will forbids
+to be entirely prevented.</p>
+
+<p>It is not merely on account of its effects upon the audience, but on
+that of the actors themselves, that the theatre calls loudly for a
+strict critical regimen. An actor resigned to his own opinion, and
+committed to the unrestrained licentious exercise of his own judgment,
+if he be not one in a million, sinks into negligence, becomes wilful,
+and if, as is nine times in ten the case, he should obtain the casual
+applause of a few stupid and injudicious spectators, becomes headstrong,
+refractory, and incorrigibly hardened in error. If by means of the
+oversight of critical judges, or the false adjudication of applause, an
+actor insensibly slides into popularity, he is erected into a standard
+of taste, by those who have not seen better; instead of being himself
+tested by sound principles of criticism and estimated by comparison,
+with the best models, he becomes gradually absolved from submission to
+all authority, is held up as a criterion for determining the merit of
+other actors, and dubbed the Roscius of his little theatre by a number
+of confident pretenders who know just as much about dramatic character
+and acting, and on the very same grounds too, as the poor islander of
+St. Kilda did of architecture, when he sagaciously concluded that the
+great church of Glasgow was excavated out of a rock, because he had
+never before seen an edifice made of hewn stone and mortar. Thus not
+only a false taste is circulated among the youth at large, but the very
+fountain of taste is itself polluted. This is an evil which nothing but
+a well-regulated body of competent critical authority can prevent. In
+the prosecution of the intended work, an occasion will occur of pointing
+out eras during which, even in the great metropolitan seat of the
+English
+<span class = "pagenum">54</span>
+<a name = "page54" id = "page54"> </a>
+drama, the public taste suffered years of vitiation from defective
+models being at the head of the stage. Till Garrick, led on by Nature
+herself, introduced her school, the theatre presented a stage on which
+scarce a vestige of the human character as it really existed, was to be
+seen. But pompous monotony of speech held the highest praise, and “<span
+class = "smallcaps">Declamation roared while Passion slept</span>.”</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto the theatre of Philadelphia has been too much resigned to
+the licentiousness of bold, and blind opinion. Men of letters, with
+which the city abounds, and who in every society are the natural
+guardians of the public taste and morals, seem to have deserted this
+important trust. Applause which ought to be measured out with scrupulous
+justice, correctness and precision, has been by admiring ignorance,
+poured forth in a torrent roar of uncouth and obstreperous <i>glee</i>
+on the buffoon, “the clown that says more than is set down for him,” and
+on “the robustious perriwig-pated fellow, who tears a passion all to
+rags,” while chaste merit and propriety have often gone unrewarded by a
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>If critical judgment were a matter of physical force or numerical
+calculation, then indeed the roar of the multitude would be as
+conclusive in reason, as it too often is in practical effect; but
+criticism is a matter of intellectual estimate; and many acquirements go
+to the composition of a well-qualified dramatic critic, to any one of
+which, but a small number of the auditors of a play can, in the nature
+of things, have the smallest pretensions. If indeed any man under the
+assumption of the critic’s name should attempt dogmatically to impose
+his <i>dictum</i> as a law upon the public, he would deserve to be
+repelled with indignity and rebuke. All the genuine critic will attempt
+to do, is to hold out those lights, with which his own study,
+experience, and observation have supplied him, in order to enable the
+public to discern more clearly what in the play or the actor is worthy
+of censure or applause&mdash;of rejection or adoption. In the common
+operations of human life, every man is compelled by the necessity of his
+nature to take succedaneous aid from others.
+<span class = "pagenum">55</span>
+<a name = "page55" id = "page55"> </a>
+The mechanic in erecting the poorest building, or forming the most
+simple machine, is indebted for his means to the practical geometrician,
+and instrument maker, and the latter again, to the master of the science
+of mathematics. The practical surveyor or navigator finds it his
+interest to be governed by rules supplied by those whom study has
+furnished with the great elementary principles of science, and is
+contented to stand indebted to them for his means of determining, the
+area of his land, or the latitude and longitude at sea, without
+impugning the rights of those studious men who have given him the
+compendious rules and the tables by which he works. It is so with
+dramatic criticism. The legitimate source of judgment lies with those
+who have by deep study made themselves masters of the first principles
+of the science; and from them the people at large, who are too much
+otherwise and certainly better employed, to learn those principles, must
+be content to take the rules and laws by which they judge. The most
+infatuated self-devotee would be ashamed to contest this point, if he
+were at all apprised of the various acquirements requisite for forming
+an accurate judgment of the business of the theatre, interwoven, as the
+dramatic art is, with some of the highest departments of literature, and
+the multifarious operations of the human heart. The vainest being who
+cajoles himself into the notion that a man either unlettered or
+inexperienced can form a just judgment of a play and actors, must at
+once be convinced of his error by reflecting that “the drama is an
+exhibition of the real state of sublunary nature;” and that “to instruct
+life, and for that purpose to copy what passes in it, is the business of
+the stage.”<a class = "tag" name = "tag6" id = "tag6" href =
+"#note6">6</a> To understand this well, demands not only some
+book-learning, but that experience which, though books improve, they
+cannot impart, and which never can be attained by seclusion or solitary
+study, but must be derived from intercourse with
+<span class = "pagenum">56</span>
+<a name = "page56" id = "page56"> </a>
+men in all their forms of conduct, from converse with society, and from
+an attentive and accurate examination of that complex miscellany, the
+living world. To know the drama we must know men; and “if we would know
+men (says Rousseau) it is necessary that we should see them act.” It is
+equally necessary too that we should lift the veil which time has thrown
+over the past, and see how men have thought and acted through the lapse
+of ages upon the uniform principles of human passion, which ever have
+been and ever will be the same, and by that means distinguish that which
+is natural, innate and permanent in man, from that which is adventitious
+and acquired. He whose knowledge of the world is circumscribed within
+the narrow limits of one generation or one society can know man only as
+he appears in the superficial colouring and peculiar modification of
+personal habit, derived from the fashions, the modes, and the capricious
+changes of that time, and that society, while the great body of human
+nature remains buried from his sight. “The accidental compositions of
+heterogeneous modes (says the gigantic critic Johnson) are dissolved by
+the chance which combined them, but the uniform simplicity of primitive
+qualities neither admits increase nor suffers decay.” And assuredly
+there was never an age in which man so masked his nature under modish
+innovations as he does in the present.</p>
+
+<p>The works of the ancients, says a great writer, are the mines from
+which alone the treasures of true criticism are to be dug up&mdash;the
+pure sources of that penetration which enables us to distinguish
+legitimate excellence from spurious pretensions to it. He, therefore,
+who would get at the true principles of dramatic criticism ought to read
+the poetry and criticism of the two great ancient languages, and to have
+formed some acquaintance with those authors, whether ancient or modern,
+who have furnished the world with the great leading principles upon
+which dramatic poetry is constructed. Doctor Johnson has informed us
+that before the time of Dryden, the structure of dramatic poetry
+<span class = "pagenum">57</span>
+<a name = "page57" id = "page57"> </a>
+was not generally understood; and what was the consequence? “<span class
+= "smallroman">AUDIENCES</span>,” continues the doctor, “<span class =
+"smallroman">APPLAUDED BY INSTINCT, AND POETS OFTEN PLEASED BY
+CHANCE</span>.”<a class = "tag" name = "tag7" id = "tag7" href =
+"#note7">7</a></p>
+
+<p>Without calling in the aid of such high authority, no risk of
+contradiction can be incurred by asserting that he must be radically
+deficient in the requisites of a dramatic critic, who is not
+sufficiently versed in philological literature to discriminate between
+the various qualities of diction&mdash;to distinguish the language of
+the schools from that of the multitude&mdash;the polished diction of
+refinement from the coarse style of household colloquy&mdash;the
+splendid, figurative, and impressive combination of terms adapted to
+poetry, from those plain and familiar expressions suited to the sobriety
+of prose; and finally, to form a just estimate of a poet’s pretensions
+to that delicacy in the selection of words which constitutes what is
+called beauty in style. Nor is this all, he should be perfectly
+competent to form a judgment of the fable and its contrivance, to
+determine according to the canons of criticism laid down by the greatest
+professors of the art, whether the scheme of a piece be obscured by
+unnatural complexity or rendered jejune and uninteresting by extreme
+simplicity, and familiarity of design&mdash;whether description be
+bloated, or overcharged, or imagery misplaced or extravagant; and
+lastly, whether the performance be on the whole deficient in, or replete
+with moral institution.</p>
+
+<p>The editors are free to confess that while they enumerate the
+requisites necessary to a critic, they tremble for their own
+incompetency. Labour however shall not be spared&mdash;-and they cherish
+the most sanguine hopes of supplying their general deficiency by candour
+and integrity; being determined while they endeavour with encouragement
+and applause to foster the rising genius and growing merit of the stage,
+to rescue it from the encroachment of sturdy incapacity, and while they
+sit in judgment for the security of the public taste, to be as far as
+the canons of dramatic criticism will
+<span class = "pagenum">58</span>
+<a name = "page58" id = "page58"> </a>
+allow, the strenuous advocates of the valuable man and unassuming
+actor&mdash;still keeping in sight that impressive truth contained in
+the motto: “<span class = "smallcaps">He that applauds him who does not
+deserve praise, is endeavouring to deceive the public; he that hisses in
+malice or in sport is an oppressor and a robber</span>.”</p>
+
+<p>The editors have said thus much merely to explain their motives, and
+to smooth their way to the discharge of a task, in the performance of
+which they will necessarily be exposed to many invidious remarks from
+the misconceptions of presumptuous ignorance. Having done so they
+fearlessly commit the subject to the public judgment, and proceed to the
+execution of their duty.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">59</span>
+<a name = "page59" id = "page59"> </a>
+
+<h2><a name = "censor" id = "censor">
+DRAMATIC CENSOR.</a></h2>
+
+
+<p class = "lines">&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<p><i>The Philadelphia Theatre opened on Monday the 20th of November,
+with</i></p>
+
+<h6>“A CURE FOR THE HEART-ACH.”</h6>
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">It</span> has been said by a great moral
+philosopher that fashion supplies the place of reason. On superficial
+consideration the assertion will appear paradoxical; but there is much
+truth in it, and much biting satire too, upon the absurdities of the
+world. Fashion could not supply the place of reason, if reason were not
+absent; and most irrational and unaccountable indeed are all her
+ladyship’s ways. Her capriciousness is proverbial, and her agency is
+generally illustrated by comparison with the most unsteady elements of
+the physical world. We say “Fashion that <i>fluctuating</i> lady,”
+alluding to the ebbing and flowing of the tide&mdash;and “Fashion that
+weathercock,” implying that she veers about with every puff of wind.
+There are some few cases, however, on the other hand, in which she may
+be compared to a rock, because she stands immovably fixt to her seat;
+supplying, according to the idea of the philosopher abovementioned, the
+place of reason, who stands self-exiled forever. It would seem as if
+fashion never could take repose but in supreme irrationality. There and
+there alone she is firm. Whoever will take the trouble (or rather the
+pleasure) to read “Browne’s Vulgar Errors,” will see how much deeper
+<span class = "pagenum">60</span>
+<a name = "page60" id = "page60"> </a>
+root absurd notions strike in “the brain of this foolish compounded clay
+man,” than those that belong to sound sense and reason. The insignia of
+fashion, therefore, may be considered in relation to the human head, as
+the notification on the door of an empty house, signifying that the
+family has removed to another tenement. Hence no one of common sense
+expects any caprice of that lady to be accounted for on rational
+grounds. There is one of her freaks, however, which we have endeavoured
+to trace to its source in the wilds of luxuriant absurdity, and have
+never been able to succeed. Nay, we venture to affirm that if the most
+sagacious man in America were asked, why it was considered a violation
+of the laws of fashion for a lady to attend the theatre on the opening
+night of a season, he would be puzzled for any other reply than that it
+was permanently fashionable, because it was prodigiously absurd. On the
+opening of our theatre this season the house was full of <span class =
+"smallroman">MEN</span>. The audience presented one dark tissue of drab
+and brown, and black and blue woolen drapery, with here and there a
+solitary exception of cheering female attire. Had there been a heavy
+fall of snow, the ladies would have been sleighing&mdash;had there been
+a public ball the darkness of the streets would have been broken by
+multitudes of attractive meteors in muslin, either “hanging on the cheek
+of night,” or hurried along like gossamer through the air. But fashion
+has so ordained it: and a good play and after-piece were well
+represented to a house which, from the little intermixture of the lovely
+sex, somewhat resembled the auditory of a surgeon’s dissecting
+theatre.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Morton’s comedy “A Cure for the Heart Ach,” is by this time so
+well known that to relate the fable of it here, would be uselessly to
+encumber the work. Of the quality of this production it would be
+difficult for criticism to speak candidly, without adverting to the
+present miserable state of dramatic poetry in England, which from the
+days of Sam Foote has been gradually descending to its present
+deplorable condition. The body of dramatic writers of the
+<span class = "pagenum">61</span>
+<a name = "page61" id = "page61"> </a>
+last thirty years first corrupted the public taste, and now thrive by
+that corruption. By hasty sketches, not of Nature as she appears in all
+times and places, but of particular and eccentric manners and
+characters, the <ins class = "correction" title =
+"spelling unchanged">excressences</ins> of overloaded society, they have made a
+short cut to the favour of the public, and inundated the stage with a
+torrent of ephemeral productions, to the depravation of public taste,
+and in defiance of classical criticism: their highest praise that they
+do no moral mischief, and that if they possess not the bold outline and
+faithful colouring of nature which distinguished the productions of
+their mighty predecessors, they are no less exempt from the obscenity
+and immoral effects of those authors. As bad writing is infinitely
+easier than good, the pens of our living dramatic writers in general
+teem with an inconceivable fertility&mdash;and the purlieus of London
+are beat over in every direction to hunt up game suitable to the genius
+of their weak-winged muse; in short, to find out new modifications of
+character, attractive not by its consonance to man’s general nature, but
+by its eccentricity and departure from the ordinary tracks of human
+conduct.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus insulated this class of comedies, and put them apart from
+the old stock, to which, with the exception of the Honey Moon, there is
+no modern production comparable, criticism may weigh the merits of each
+piece as compared with its class, and perhaps find something to praise.
+We consider some of the comedies of Mr. Morton, however, as raised high
+above the throng. The Cure for the Heart Ach has much in it to commend.
+The moral tendency of many parts of it is good, while the incidents are
+exceedingly laughable. <i>Old Rapid</i> continually betraying his trade
+by stuffing his conversation with the technical terms of the
+taylor&mdash;his son’s distress at it&mdash;the honest rusticity of
+<i>Frank Oatland</i>&mdash;the baseness, vanity and folly of
+<i>Vortex</i> the nabob&mdash;the insolence and amorousness of <i>Miss
+Vortex</i> his daughter, and the whimsical incidents arising from their
+various designs, mistakes, detections and disappointments, form
+altogether a <i>melange</i> of pleasantry
+<span class = "pagenum">62</span>
+<a name = "page62" id = "page62"> </a>
+highly provocative of laughter, yet by no means so low as to reduce the
+piece to the rank of farce, which some austere critics in London have
+assigned&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>Of the performance generally, we repeat that it was good. Young Rapid
+afforded criticism much satisfaction in the person of Mr. Wood, who in
+many parts persuaded us that he had seen Mr. Lewis in that character,
+and seen him with profit. Mr. Wood’s walk is not unlike that of the
+great original in London&mdash;a nasal tone of voice too is common to
+both. These, if they did not create, certainly increased the resemblance
+between those two gentlemen, which, however remote, was yet discernible.
+In <i>Sir Hubert Stanley</i>, as in every other character in which we
+have seen him, Mr. M‘Kenzie deserved warm applause&mdash;he was
+dignified, pathetic and interesting. Mr. Francis gave a strong colouring
+to Vortex; and to say that Frank Oatland was all that the author could
+wish, we need only to state that he fell to the share of Mr. Jefferson.
+After all, we are doubtful whether old Rapid was not as well off in the
+hands of Mr. Warren as any other character in the play.</p>
+
+<p>We were greatly interested and indeed delighted by Mrs. Wood in Jesse
+Oatland. Mrs. Francis was abundantly droll in Mrs. Vortex; and Mrs.
+Seymour was entitled to the marks of approbation she received.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p class = "date">
+November 22.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">Pizarro</span> and the Review composed the
+bill of fare for this evening. Although in the attack and defence of
+Pizarro criticism has worn down the edges of its weapons to very
+dulness, we cannot forbear taking this opportunity of recording our
+opinions of that extraordinary production.</p>
+
+<p>No play that has appeared during the last century, possesses the
+power of agitating the passions, and interesting the feelings in an
+equal degree to Pizarro. From a child of the brain of Kotzebue, trained
+and corrected by Sheridan,
+<span class = "pagenum">63</span>
+<a name = "page63" id = "page63"> </a>
+much might be expected. And the piece before us is worthy of the talents
+of such men.</p>
+
+<p>In any contest between <i>oppressed</i> and <i>oppressors</i> the
+heart takes in an instant, a&nbsp;decided and a warm part. If the crime
+of <i>oppression</i> is aggravated by other guilt in the
+<i>oppressor</i>, and the object of it is rendered more lovely and
+respectable by the most exalted virtues, pity for the one rises to
+respect and affection&mdash;indignation against the other becomes
+exasperated to hatred, to abhorrence, and disgust; without the
+intervention of the will, but merely from the spontaneous movements of
+the heart, we sympathise, we silently pray for the one&mdash;we recoil
+from, we execrate the other. We are pressed by our very nature into the
+service of virtue; our souls are up in arms against vice and improbity,
+and thus we receive lasting impressions, which, when our hearts are not
+very corrupt, must forever after have a favourable influence on our
+moral conduct.</p>
+
+<p>To elucidate and confirm our opinions on this subject, we beg leave
+to ask, what is that play in which there is such a mass of virtue and
+simplicity, and such a number of amiable personages, opposed to such a
+mass of villany, subtlety, fraudful avarice, and sensual vice, as in
+Pizarro? Not one. The lofty moral sentiments of Rolla, his exquisite
+feelings and exalted notions as the patriot, the friend, the lover, are
+unequalled. He exists out of himself, and lives but for others: for his
+country, his king, his friend, and the dearest object of his love, of
+whom being bereft by that very friend, he becomes their
+brother&mdash;their protector&mdash;devotes his life to death to save
+the man&mdash;escaping that, devotes it again to save their offspring.
+How much worse, if worse could be, than a satanic soul must that man
+have, who could be insensible to such a character! Who is there whose
+heart beats in harmony with heroic virtue and humanity, that would not
+accept such a death, to have lived such a life? Need we say more then of
+Pizarro than to contrast him with such a character. The only gleam of
+light that breaks in upon that black <i>Erebus</i>, his heart, is his
+conduct
+<span class = "pagenum">64</span>
+<a name = "page64" id = "page64"> </a>
+to Rolla when the latter throws aside his dagger; and this the poet
+(Sheridan) has artfully contrived for the purpose of heightening the
+lustre of such virtue, by showing that even that monster could not be
+insensible to&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>Let us add that in the true liberal spirit of Christian piety,
+tolerance and humanity displayed by Las Casas, a&nbsp;popish Spanish
+priest; in the noble indignation, the inflexible fortitude, and the
+intrepid patriotism and virtue of Orozimbo; in the valour, the
+beneficent wisdom, and the, ardent connubial fidelity and affection of
+the young Alonzo, in the tenderness, the simplicity, the conjugal and
+maternal virtues of Cora, and in the artless display of vivid patriotism
+in the old blind man and his boy&mdash;there is, exclusive of Rolla’s
+glorious qualities, a&nbsp;mass of excellence sufficient to make the
+character of any two plays, and put each out of the reach of competition
+with any other that we can immediately think&nbsp;of.</p>
+
+<p>Such as we have described are the emotions which are always produced
+by the play now under consideration, when it happens to be properly
+represented. Fortunately or unfortunately as it may happen, the play is
+so constructed that almost every part in it contributes largely,
+according to its kind, to the interest of the piece. Every person of the
+<i>oppressed</i>&mdash;the Peruvians, even down to the blind man and the
+little boy, are made by the poet to produce a large share of the general
+effect. For this reason it is a piece which taxes a manager highly,
+calling for a variety of excellent talents in the actors. It is not one
+of those plays which satisfy the mind and from which we come home
+contented, if two or three characters are well done. The play of Pizarro
+is a lifeless body when compared with what it ought to be, if <i>all</i>
+the high Peruvians at least, are not well performed. In the movement of
+a watch every small wheel and every little rivet is as necessary to the
+general effect as the mainspring. So Las Casas, Orozimbo, the blind man,
+and the blind man’s boy, are as necessary not perhaps to the mean
+progress of the fable (but to that effect, that necromantic influence
+upon the feelings, that penetrating moral which alone
+<span class = "pagenum">65</span>
+<a name = "page65" id = "page65"> </a>
+can render a play useful as well as delightful) as is the character of
+Rolla.</p>
+
+<p>It may appear a singular avowal, yet being truth we will not withhold
+it, that having witnessed the performance of this play many times in
+England and America, we have never yet seen it performed to our
+<i>perfect</i> satisfaction. Kemble was great in Rolla, but the
+feebleness of his voice was severely felt by the audience in the
+celebrated speech of the Peruvian to his soldiers. That speech has been
+the stumbling block of most actors we have seen. Hodgkinson, who in
+other respects was unexceptionable, rather failed in it. Throughout the
+whole character, Mr. Wood preserved a very equable tenor of acting. He
+had neither the rich beauties nor the striking defects of others. He
+evinced considerable judgment, but at times powers were evidently
+wanting.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. M‘Kenzie supported Pizarro well, and showed that he possesses
+abilities to support it better. It appears to us that this gentleman’s
+physical powers are sometimes subdued by an over-scrupulous chasteness.
+In his answers to Elvira’s solicitations on behalf of the unhappy
+Alonzo, he did not, we think, sufficiently mark all the feeling and
+emotions of the tyrant. Pizarro is stung with jealousy as well as rage;
+not so much the jealousy of love as of infernal pride; but both rage and
+jealousy are mastered by triumphant insolence and contempt. The
+utterance therefore of his laconic decisive sentence, “He dies,” should
+be marked with a triumphant sneer as well as malice.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Warren did ample justice to the venerable Las Casas.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Cone who, though labouring under the disadvantages of a voice
+radically, and we fear, incurably monotonous, gives promise of being a
+useful actor, displayed considerable spirit in Alonzo. To the praise of
+diligence and attention to his business Mr.&nbsp;C. is entitled, and
+those rarely fail in any department to insure respectability and
+success. Mr. Cone’s personal appearance is very much in his favour.</p>
+
+<p>The only part in the play on which we can justly bestow
+<i>unqualified</i> applause was Mr. Jefferson’s Orozimbo. It is
+<span class = "pagenum">66</span>
+<a name = "page66" id = "page66"> </a>
+seldom that criticism has such a repast, a&nbsp;repast in which there
+was no fault but that of the poet in making it too short.</p>
+
+<p>Elvira is not one of the characters in which Mrs. Barret appears to
+advantage.</p>
+
+<p>Had Mrs. Wood the requisite talent of singing, we should have been
+much pleased with her Cora. Certainly so far as that lady was able to
+go, we know no person on this stage who could be substituted in her
+place with advantage to the character. But the omission of Cora’s
+exquisitely beautiful, wild, and pathetic song, was a great drawback
+from the effect of the part.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p><i>December 21.</i>&mdash;<span class = "smallcaps">Town and
+Country</span>, by Morton&mdash;Village Lawyer. Some of the British
+critics rank Mr. Morton with the farce-writers of the day, others again
+pronounce his comedies to be the best which the age has produced, and
+say that they will be selected by posterity from the perishable trash of
+the day. We agree with neither, thinking it likely they may remain for a
+<i>few</i> years among the stock of acting plays. To say that they will
+be admired by posterity is praise as hyperbolical and unjust, as ranking
+them in farce is calumnious and untrue.</p>
+
+<p>The comedy before us is a very pleasing production. The plot is well
+imagined, and the author has contrived to condense into it more bustle
+and incident than can readily be found in a piece of the same length.
+Reuben Gleuroy, the hero, is a noble character, possessed of the most
+exalted virtues, which are continually brought into active exercise for
+the good of his fellow beings. He preaches little and does a great deal,
+and displays a generosity and greatness of mind touching, as the world
+now goes, upon the chivalrous. But that which makes him more
+conspicuously amiable and interesting is that while he takes the most
+ardent and active concern in the happiness of mankind, he is himself
+reduced by the wickedness of others to a state of misery almost of
+distraction, which awakens the most poignant sympathy for his situation.
+Deserted, as he imagines, by the object of his dearest affections,
+Rosalie Summers, who is supposed to have
+<span class = "pagenum">67</span>
+<a name = "page67" id = "page67"> </a>
+eloped with a villain of high rank of the name of Plastic, he goes to
+London and finds his brother in the last stage of ruin and despair by
+gambling, and stops his hand just at the moment he is attempting
+suicide. In the end he reforms the brother, discovers his Rosalie, and
+finds that she is innocent and faithful; and by a series of those
+events, which whether likely or not, modern dramatists without scruple
+press into their service, is made perfectly happy. The colouring of this
+admirable portrait is not a little heightened in its effect by a tinge
+of eccentricity caught from a life of rural retirement in the romantic
+mountainous country of Wales. On this character and that of old Mr.
+Cosey, a&nbsp;philanthropic, wealthy, and munificent stock-broker, whose
+cash, always at the disposal of his friends, enables Reuben to
+accomplish his purposes, the author seems to have dwelt <i>con
+amore</i>. The comic dialogue of the piece arises chiefly from the
+contrasted feelings of Mr. Cosey and Mr. Trot. Cosey admires the city,
+and is miserable in Wales, while Trot, a&nbsp;wealthy cotton-spinner,
+rejoices at the loss of a large share of his property because it
+furnishes him with a pretext for returning to the country and leaving
+the <i>abominable</i> city to which he was hurried away by the vanity of
+his wife.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wood displayed in Reuben, much ability, sound sense, and fine
+feeling. No person that we know on the stage discloses in his
+performances so little of the mere actor. That indefinable something,
+which though obvious to perception cannot be described, but is
+understood by the term “plain gentleman,” tinctures all he says and does
+upon the stage. Whether this be detrimental to him as a general actor,
+we have not yet seen this gentleman often enough to determine: but this
+we will say, that while it stands a perpetual security against his being
+positively disagreeable in any character he may be obliged to act, it
+throws a charm over all those for which he is best fitted by nature.</p>
+
+<p>The amiable, the inimitable Cosey, never was, nor ever can be more
+perfectly at home than in the person of Mr. Jefferson. Were the author
+to see the performance and to observe the correspondence of the actor’s
+physiognomy as
+<span class = "pagenum">68</span>
+<a name = "page68" id = "page68"> </a>
+well as action and utterance, with the sentiments of the character, he
+would from his heart exclaim in the words of Cosey himself, “<span class
+= "smallroman">NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL COMFORTABLE</span>.”</p>
+
+<p>It would be great injustice not to acknowledge the pleasure we
+received from Mr. Francis in the character of Trot, which he conceived
+and executed with great humour and spirit.</p>
+
+<p>A Mr. West from the southward made his appearance in the Yorkshire
+rustic Hawbuck. His face and person are well adapted to a certain class
+of low comedy; his voice still more so. If he will but avoid that bane
+of comedians, the effort to raise laughter by spurious humour and low
+trick, he will thrive in his department.</p>
+
+<p>In the drawing of the female parts there is nothing sufficiently
+striking to call forth the powers of an actress. What was to be done was
+sufficiently well done by Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Wilmot. But, were they well
+cast? or, should they not change sides?</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<h6><a name = "firstweek" id = "firstweek">
+<i>FARCES FOR THE FIRST WEEK.</i></a></h6>
+
+<p class = "heading">
+November 20. <span class = "smallcaps">Of age tomorrow.</span></p>
+
+<p>Every character tolerably well played.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p class = "heading">
+November 22. <span class = "smallcaps">Wags of Windsor.</span></p>
+
+<p>Hardinge, an old favourite of the town in Irish characters, appeared
+the first time for four years in Looney M‘Twoulter. His return to this
+stage was hailed with thunders of applause; and all his songs were
+<i>encored</i>.&mdash;We have not seen Caleb Quotem better performed in
+England, nor so well by a great deal in America as this night by
+Jefferson.&mdash;Wilmot is a true child of nature and simplicity in all
+such characters as John Lump.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p class = "heading">
+November 24. <span class = "smallcaps">Village Lawyer.</span></p>
+
+<p>We abhor this farce. Scout, from whom it takes its name, is too
+detestable a picture of human meanness and depravity
+<span class = "pagenum">69</span>
+<a name = "page69" id = "page69"> </a>
+to be fit for farce, the proper effects of which, however nonsensical it
+may be, ought to be to enliven and not create disgust. We cannot bear to
+see a respectable actor in it. Blisset, a&nbsp;favourite son of Momus,
+played the Sheepstealer. Mr. West, whom we have mentioned in Hawbuck,
+played Old Snarl with great humour, which his audience, and indeed
+himself, seemed heartily to enjoy. In characters of low humour,
+particularly crabbed old men, Mr. West would be very pleasing, if he
+would aim less at raising gallery laughter by spurious means. And all
+that could be done for Mrs. Scout was done by Mrs. Francis.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p class = "center">
+<a name = "ella" id = "ella"><i>November 27.</i></a></p>
+
+<h6>ELLA <ins class = "correction" title =
+"later spelled ‘Rosenberg’">ROZENBERG</ins>.&mdash;WOOD DEMON.</h6>
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">Ella Rozenberg</span>, a melo-drame, by Mr.
+Kenny, was brought out for the first time at Drury Lane in 1807, and has
+ever since maintained its ground in the public opinion. It is extremely
+interesting, and though there is nothing new or singular in the plot or
+incidents is calculated to lay fast hold on the imagination and
+feelings. At the opening of the piece, the scene of which is laid near a
+Prussian camp, the heroine <i>Ella Rosenberg</i> reduced by the
+disappearance of her husband to a state of poverty, is living under the
+protection of captain <i>Storm</i>, a&nbsp;crippled old officer of
+invalids, and the friend of her deceased father. Here she has concealed
+herself for two years, when she is discovered by colonel
+<i>Mountfort</i>, who having conceived a criminal passion for her, had
+in order to gratify that passion, purposely provoked her husband to draw
+his sword upon him, in consequence of which apprehending the severity of
+the military law, the latter had set off to the capital to appeal to the
+electoral prince, but was no more heard of. The colonel, who is a
+finished master of intrigue, enters Storm’s house in disguise, and
+attempts with the help of a band of his soldiers to carry off Ella by
+force. In this he is opposed by the good and gallant old officer, who,
+sword in hand, beats
+<span class = "pagenum">70</span>
+<a name = "page70" id = "page70"> </a>
+off the soldiers, tears the colonel’s sash from him, and in a rage
+tramples it under foot, in consequence of which Storm is made prisoner,
+and Ella left unprotected, is borne away by the soldiers. The elector,
+who has just returned victorious from the war, appears considering a
+petition from old Storm on behalf of Ella, which interests him so much,
+that he resolves to visit her incognito. Mountfort, who is a favourite
+of the elector’s and has just arrived to congratulate him, is alarmed,
+endeavours to dissuade him from going to Ella, and in the meantime to
+secure himself from detection orders the immediate trial of Storm, who
+is found guilty and sentenced to die. Ella escapes and reaches Storm,
+her old protector, just as he is on his way to execution. He does all he
+can to keep his fate concealed from her; but it being betrayed, she is
+torn from him in a state of distraction and anguish, and being consigned
+by her generous protector to the care of a brother officer who commands
+the guard, is conducted to a solitary inn by a soldier. The elector
+appears at night passing in disguise to visit the cottage of Storm, and
+is encountered by Rosenberg, who appears in the most wretched state,
+flying from his pursuers, and supplicates him for the means to procure
+shelter. Without disclosing who he is, Rosenberg informs the elector
+that he (Rosenberg) has been secretly and violently imprisoned. The
+elector directs him to the house to which Ella is carried by the
+soldiers, and promises to meet him there in the morning and assist him.
+Rosenberg reaches the inn whither Ella too is brought in a state of
+insensibility, and placed in a separate apartment. Mountfort arrives
+alone, and not knowing Rosenberg engages him to guard Ella, while he
+goes to seek a conveyance for her. Rosenberg now finds the cause of his
+imprisonment&mdash;an interesting discovery takes place between him and
+Ella&mdash;but he is detected by one of his pursuers, and is again in
+the hands of his enemies, when the elector enters, and obtaining the
+most perfect conviction of the villany of Mountfort, disgraces him,
+restores
+<span class = "pagenum">71</span>
+<a name = "page71" id = "page71"> </a>
+the young couple to rank and happiness, and the brave and virtuous old
+Storm to life, liberty and joy.</p>
+
+<p>The plot of this melo-drame is wrought up with uncommon skill: the
+interest rising by a progressive climax which keeps the heart in a warm
+glow of feeling from the first scene to the last. Old Storm is worth a
+whole army of what are called heroes, and the elector is a model of
+justice and humanity for princes to imitate.</p>
+
+<p>According to the London casting Rosenberg would have fallen to the
+share of the first player in the house: but we had no reason to complain
+of Mr. Cone. Mr. Warren discharged the high office of elector with
+dignity; and Mr. M‘Kenzie was an excellent representative of the old
+cut-and-thrust-colonel. Such characters as Ella are always interesting
+when played by Mrs. Wood.</p>
+
+<p>The tasteful amateur must have been roused and delighted by the
+music, particularly the overture.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p>Ella Rosenberg was followed by one of the most monstrous productions,
+the mind of man ever groaned withal. Never did melancholy madman
+labouring under the horrors of an inflammation of the brain&mdash;never
+did a wretch fevered with gluttony and intemperance, and writhing under
+the pressure of the night-mare, dream of more horrible circumstances
+than those which Mr. Lewis has offered in this prodigious melo-drame,
+for the <span class = "smallroman">ENTERTAINMENT</span> of the British
+nation. Where will the taste of England stop in its descent? Where will
+the impositions on it by bastard genius end? Yet since this monster has
+produced a powerful effect, and is managed with such perverted skill as
+to excite a strong interest, and since whole audiences condescend to
+club tastes with the scarecrow old women of the heath and the mountain,
+and to play “look at the bugabow,” with the nurselings of the lap, we
+should be sorry to be deficient in curtesy, or when so many good and
+wise people drivel not to drivel a little too; we bend therefore with
+stiff and
+<span class = "pagenum">72</span>
+<a name = "page72" id = "page72"> </a>
+painful obedience to our duty, and offer our readers a short summary of
+the fable.</p>
+
+<p>To clear the way then, be it in the first place known, that Mr.
+Matthew Lewis has found out a new kind of infernal agent&mdash;a demon
+who delights in human sacrifices, and lives in the woods. Perhaps it is
+because we are poorly versed in demonology that we do not recollect to
+have heard of this particular infernal before. Be that as it may,
+<i>Count Hardyknute</i> of Holstein, having been sent into the world
+deformed in person and poor in circumstances, and being resolved to sell
+his soul to damnation for the bettering of his body, makes a contract
+with the demon, in condition of his being made handsome and powerful, to
+sacrifice to him a human victim on a particular day in each year; in
+failure of which he is to become the prey of the demon, who is very
+handsomely named <i>Sangrida</i>. The count has sacrificed nine victims
+before the opening of the piece, and is meditating with himself with
+what fat offering he shall next glut the maw of Sangrida, in anniversary
+punctuality. <i>Leolyn</i>, a&nbsp;dumb boy, the rightful heir of the
+estate and title which Hardyknute had usurped, has been secretly bred up
+by <i>Clotilda</i> as her own, but Hardyknute discovers him by the mark
+of a bloody arrow on his wrist, and determines to help Sangrida to his
+little body. <i>Una</i>, a&nbsp;beautiful young lady, to whom the count
+pays his addresses, is selected by the guardian spirit of Holstein to be
+the preserver of the intended victim. The time approaches for the
+fulfilment of the agreement. By a process of the most horrible kind of
+enchantment Una is enabled to remove the boy so as to elude the count,
+and gets possession of the key of an enchanted place on which the boy is
+chained. She gets him down from it&mdash;the clock is seen just near the
+stroke of one&mdash;she resolves to push the hand
+forward&mdash;Hardyknute seizes and is about despatching her, when
+Leolyn with difficulty mounts to the clock, pushes forward the hand and
+it strikes one&mdash;the demon appears, seizes the count in his
+claws&mdash;the earth opens, and the demon carries him down, in the same
+manner
+<span class = "pagenum">73</span>
+<a name = "page73" id = "page73"> </a>
+that an alligator or shark carries down a puppy dog, to devour him in
+comfort.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the piece, and such the depravity of a nation’s taste. It is
+no wonder that the tasteful, the learned and the judicious, should wage
+an open war of wit and satire upon such things. On this subject we refer
+our readers to a piece signed <span class = "smallcaps">Theobaldus
+Secundus</span>, which will appear in our next number.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<h6><a name = "secondweek" id = "secondweek">
+SECOND WEEK.</a></h6>
+
+<p class = "heading">
+November 29. <span class = "smallcaps">Reconciliation, or Fraternal
+Discord</span>, with <span class = "smallcaps">False and
+True</span>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">It</span> would be superfluous to say any
+thing of a play so well known and so justly admired.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p class = "heading">
+December 1. <span class = "smallcaps">Abaellino, or the Great
+Bandit</span>, with the <span class = "smallcaps">Lady of the
+Rock</span>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">The</span> Great Bandit is one of those
+extraordinary productions which distinguish the present dramatic writers
+of Germany from those of all ages and all countries. There are but few
+topics connected with the stage which deserve more serious discussion
+than this of the German drama. A&nbsp;proper investigation of it would
+require more room than we can at present spare: but we shall not so far
+desert our duty as to decline it when we can devote to it the
+deliberation it deserves. A&nbsp;future, and not far distant number will
+contain such reflections as occur to us on the subject.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p class = "heading">
+December 2. <span class = "smallcaps">Road to Ruin&mdash;Don
+Juan</span>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">Mr. Wood</span> in <i>Harry Dornton</i> was
+very successful. It is a line of acting for which he is well calculated.
+The character of <i>Goldfinch</i> was better performed by Mr. Jefferson
+than it could be in any other person in this theatre. But we received
+less pleasure from it than from any other we have seen him play,
+<i>Scout</i> excepted.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">74</span>
+<a name = "page74" id = "page74"> </a>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<h6><a name = "thisweek" id = "thisweek">
+<i>FARCES FOR THIS WEEK.</i></a></h6>
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">The</span> Wood Demon, though used as an
+after-piece, demanded observation of a more serious kind than is due to
+farce, and has therefore received it in pages 71 and&nbsp;72.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">The</span> farce of “False and True” is a
+wretched thing. To speak Johnsonically it is a congeries of inexplicable
+nonsense. An Irishman, who, after having committed the <i>very
+probable</i> blunder of going to Naples instead of Dublin, mistakes
+Vesuvius for the hill of Hoath, is the most laughable character of the
+piece. What could be done for it Hardinge did. A&nbsp;song of his was
+spoiled by the neglect of the band, whose conduct deserved reprehension
+from the manager.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">The</span> Lady of the Rock is the
+production of Holcroft. Had he not himself given it to the world as his
+own, we should have thought it a libel upon his understanding to ascribe
+it to his pen.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">No</span> pantomime has ever made so deep
+and so universal an impression as Don Juan. The merit of the original
+belongs to the celebrated Moliere. Averse on principle to pantomime, we
+have often felt ourselves indebted to it for relief from the drowsiness
+induced by some modern plays; but that perhaps was more owing to the
+badness of the play than the value of the pantomime. Of all pantomimes
+Don Juan is the most blamable. It is good in its kind, but the kind
+<i>is bad</i>.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<h6><a name = "thirdweek" id = "thirdweek">
+THIRD WEEK.</a></h6>
+
+<p class = "heading">
+Monday, Dec. 4. <span class = "smallroman">SPEED THE PLOUGH&mdash;ELLA
+ROSENBERG</span>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">The</span> comedy of Speed the Plough is
+deservedly reckoned among the best of the modern stock, and considered
+as reflecting great credit upon the muse of Mr. Morton. The plot is very
+skilfully mixed up, notwithstanding the <ins class = "correction" title
+= "text reads ‘dfficulty’">difficulty</ins> that always must attend
+carrying on, in connection with each other,
+<span class = "pagenum">75</span>
+<a name = "page75" id = "page75"> </a>
+two interests of a totally distinct and opposite nature, connecting two
+contradictory agencies without either encroaching on the other, and
+conducting an alternation of serious and comic scenes to one end,
+without making them clash. This Mr. Morton has, to a considerable
+degree, successfully accomplished; making that which occasions the
+difficulty subservient to one of the most desirable but arduous ends in
+dramatic writing, that of concealing the final unravelling or
+denouement, as it is called, of the plot.</p>
+
+<p>A striking beauty in this play, and the more striking because seldom
+met with, is the fidelity with which some of the characters are drawn
+from life; not as it is found in a solitary individual, but as it
+appears in a whole numerous class. Such is farmer Ashfield&mdash;such is
+dame Ashfield. Yet the characters in general are not very impressive,
+and there are some inconsistencies in them as well as in the arrangement
+of the incidents. A&nbsp;young lady’s suddenly, and at first sight,
+falling in love with a peasant boy, though it may have happened, is an
+occurrence too singular to be perfectly natural; and as a dramatic
+incident, it is a coarseness which cannot well be reconciled to the
+characteristic delicacy of such a young lady, even by the <i>ex post
+facto</i> discovery that the object of her love was in reality a person
+of condition. We do not think that love at first sight, which is in
+reality nothing more than Forwardness indulging itself in the airs of
+Romance, and Prurience calling in Fate to sanction its indelicacy, ought
+to be clothed in such a respectable and captivating dress as our author
+has bestowed upon it in this play.</p>
+
+<p>Yet with these defects to counterbalance them, Speed the Plough is
+replete with beauties&mdash;the dialogue is neat, spirited, and
+forcible; and there are many delicate touches of the pathetic, and much
+excellent moral sentiment to recommend&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p>The best character, beyond all comparison, is that of Farmer
+Ashfield. It is a picture of real life, originals of which are found in
+multitudes in England&mdash;plain, honest, benevolent, and under a
+rustic garb, possessing a heart alive to the noblest feelings. No man
+that we know in this country
+<span class = "pagenum">76</span>
+<a name = "page76" id = "page76"> </a>
+possesses such happy requisites for exhibiting the farmer in the true
+colours of nature as Mr. Jefferson. In the rustic deportment and
+dialect&mdash;in the artless effusions of benignity and undisguised
+truth&mdash;and in those masterly strokes of pathos and simplicity with
+which the author has finished this inimitable picture Mr. Jefferson
+showed uniform excellence: and as in the humorous parts his comic powers
+produced their customary effect on our risibility, so in the serious
+overflowings of the farmer’s honest nature the mellow, deep, impressive
+tone of the actor’s voice vibrated to the heart, and excited the most
+exquisite sensations.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wood performed Bob Handy. He was given out in the bills for sir
+Philip Blandford; but was, by a casualty, obliged to take the part of
+Bob: a&nbsp;change which, on more accounts than one, the audience had no
+cause to regret. Nor in our opinion, had either Bob or sir Philip any
+cause to lament it. Mr. Wood is at home in light comedy, while Mr.
+M‘Kenzie, whose merits seem not to be sufficiently appreciated, is well
+calculated for such characters as Philip Blandford.</p>
+
+<p>The judgment of Mr. Warren enables him to perform any character he
+undertakes with propriety&mdash;but there are some parts in comedy for
+which he seems admirably qualified by nature and knowledge of stage
+business. We could enumerate several; but this is not the place for
+doing so&mdash;his representation of sir Abel Handy was uncommonly
+humorous and appropriate.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Cone’s Henry was pleasing. This young actor promises well.
+Though, to adopt the cant of the turf, he will never be first, there is
+no fear of his being distanced, unless he carries too great weight.</p>
+
+<p>Dame Ashfield in the performance of Mrs. Francis would be admired by
+Mrs. Grundy herself; and to express our opinion of Mrs. Wood’s Susan
+would be only to repeat what we have already said of her on more
+occasions than one.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p>It gives us infinite regret to be compelled, just as we put our foot
+upon the threshold of the critic’s office, to animadvert
+<span class = "pagenum">77</span>
+<a name = "page77" id = "page77"> </a>
+upon some errors and defects in pronunciation, of which we could not
+have imagined the persons concerned to be capable. Our purpose is to
+persuade the people to encourage the stage upon principles honourable to
+it; not as a place of mere barren pastime; but as a school of
+improvement. But how shall we be able to bring the public mind to that
+habitual respect for the stage without which it must lose all useful
+effect, if the actors show themselves unfit for conveying instruction.
+Were this to be the case, and were mere pastime the object of theatres,
+Astley’s horse-riders, the tumblers and rope-dancers of Sadlers-Wells,
+nay, the <span class = "smallcaps">Punch</span> of a puppet-show, would
+be as useful and respectable as Garrick, Barry, Cooke, or Kemble, and
+the circus might successfully batter its head against the walls of that
+building in Chesnut-street which the sculptor has enriched with the
+wooden proxies of Melpomene and Thalia. But criticism will not allow
+this. For the sake of the stage it will exert all its might to support
+the actors&mdash;and for the sake of the stage it will hold them in
+admonition. If the established principles of literature be violated by
+the actors, the very ground upon which the critic would support them, is
+blown up by a mine of their own construction, and not only they must
+sink, but the critic must, for the maintenance of a just cause, put his
+hand to their heads and give them a <ins class = "correction" title =
+"spelling unchanged">lanch</ins>. The theatre is a school for elocution
+or it is nothing. In Great Britain it has time immemorial been attended
+to, not as authority for innovations, but as an organ of conveyance of
+the authorised pronunciation, to which the growing youth of the country
+were to look for accurate information of what was correct, as settled
+and considered by their superiors, that is, by high learned men and
+statesmen. If the actors, therefore, run counter to authority, and
+thereby endanger the cause which they are presumed to aid, the mischief
+is too general and extensive in its operation to be neglected or
+endured. There is nothing belonging to the stage which demands such
+strict discipline as its orthoepy, because there is
+<span class = "pagenum">78</span>
+<a name = "page78" id = "page78"> </a>
+none in which it can so immediately and powerfully affect the public. On
+this point therefore we are determined to sacrifice nothing to ceremony;
+being convinced that debasing the language is essentially as injurious,
+though legally not so punishable, as defacing the current coin of a
+country.</p>
+
+<p>Without pointing to individuals by name, we request the ladies and
+gentlemen of the green-room to consult all the acknowledged authorities
+for the pronunciation of the words: true, rude, brute, shrewd, rule, in
+which the u is by some of them sounded very improperly; <i>true</i> so
+as to rhyme to <i>few</i>, <i>new</i>, &amp;c. <i>rule</i> as if it were
+to rhyme to <i>mule</i>, and so on; whereas true ought to be pronounced
+as if it were spelled <i>troo</i>, and rhymed to <i>do</i>; rule as if
+spelled <i>rool</i>, and so on; and thus they will find them in the
+dictionaries of acknowledged authority.</p>
+
+<p>Since we are on the subject we will now advert to some other words
+which are often most lamentably mispronounced, not only contrary to the
+pronunciation established by all learned men and orators in Great
+Britain, but exactly in that way in which skilful actors often pronounce
+them in Europe when they wish to mimic the most low and ignorant classes
+of society. Of this description is the pronunciation of the word
+“sacrifice.” For these words we refer all whom it may concern to the
+dictionaries of the best orthoepists, by which they will be instructed
+that it is not pronounced say-crifice but sac-rifize. If the former be
+really the pronunciation, the old ladies who smoke short pipes in the
+chimney corners of English and Irish cottages, are right, and Burke,
+Fox, Pitt, Windham, Curran, Grattan, Sheridan, and in short every man
+who speaks in a public assembly in England or Ireland, are wrong. We are
+not sure whether Mr. Kemble, who, as an excellent critic has observed,
+is always seeking for novelty and always running into error, may not
+lately have added that patch to his motley garb of new readings; but his
+authority is disallowed. Even Garrick, whose claims were of a very
+superior kind, when he attempted to render the English language, already
+too unstable,
+<span class = "pagenum">79</span>
+<a name = "page79" id = "page79"> </a>
+more so, by his innovations, was repelled with helpless contempt.</p>
+
+<p>This is a point to which it is the manager’s duty to attend, because
+it is not a matter of doubt, nor subject to discretionary opinion. What
+must that part of our youth who attend to these things from a laudable
+desire for improvement, think, when they hear the same word differently
+pronounced in the same scene by different actors. Upon one night
+particularly, Mr. M‘Kenzie several times returned the mispronounced
+word, pronounced as it should be, with an emphasis which could not be
+misunderstood: yet the mispronunciation was persisted&nbsp;in.</p>
+
+<p>Before we drop this subject we must observe that the pronunciation of
+the last syllable of the word sacrifice is sometimes as erroneously
+pronounced as the first, indeed worse, as the sound given to it
+approximates to one which conveys an offensive idea. Properly pronounced
+it rhymes to the verbs <i>advise</i>, <i>rise</i>, and not to mice,
+spice, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p>Having brought our critical journal up to the appearance of that
+phenomenon of the stage of this new world, Master Payne, we find
+ourselves constrained, by the limits of this number, to postpone our
+observations upon the plays in which that extraordinary boy, for so many
+nights, astonished and delighted crowded houses, and far beyond our
+expectations, made good his title to the partiality of every city in
+which he has performed.</p>
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">80</span>
+<a name = "page80" id = "page80"> </a>
+<h5 class = "section"><a name = "criticism" id = "criticism">
+CRITICISM.</a></h5>
+
+<h6>THE FOUNDLING OF THE FOREST&mdash;A PLAY.</h6>
+
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">This</span> production which we have
+annexed to our first number, not on account of its superior merit, but
+because it was the most recently published of any that has yet come to
+our hands, will, on the most superficial reading, be discerned to be of
+the true German cast. The old trick of grouping the characters at the
+end of a scene, and dropping the curtain upon them, by way of leaving it
+to the general conception of the audience to guess the rest, as is done
+in the Stranger, and all others of that breed, is here twice put in
+practice. Those who like such drugs mixed up with a <i>quantum
+sufficit</i> of horror, and all the tenterhook interest, hair-breadth
+escapes, and incident so forced as to stagger belief, which make up the
+hotchpotch romances whether narrative or dramatic of the present day,
+will like this. Mr. Dimond has in this piece certainly shown great skill
+in working up that kind of materials to the production of stage effect;
+since to those who can be interested or affected by the marvellous and
+mysterious, and who love to step for amusement out of the precincts of
+nature, and the conduct of “the folks of the world” the Foundling of the
+Forest will be interesting and affecting. Viewing it with a strict
+critical eye, not only the plot is faulty, but the composition is in
+many places extremely bad. If the production of original character was
+the author’s design, he has succeeded to his heart’s content in that of
+Florian, which we believe has never had a prototype in this world. In
+this <i>hero</i> who is sometimes as bombastical as ancient Pistol, and
+sometimes as ridiculous as a buffoon, the author attempts to be droll,
+and</p>
+
+<div class = "poem small">
+<p>Aims at wit&mdash;but levell’d in the dark,</p>
+<p>The random arrow never hits the mark.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A London critic remarking with just severity upon the strange way in
+which the divinity is addressed in this piece,
+<span class = "pagenum">81</span>
+<a name = "page81" id = "page81"> </a>
+says, “This blot defaces almost all the modern things called dramas or
+plays. In the farcical comedies we have low vulgar swearing unworthy
+even the refuse of society; while in the <i>comedies larmoyantes</i>
+(<i>weeping comedies</i>) and tragedies, we have eternal imprecations of
+the deity, indicative only of madness in literature.” To this
+observation as well as that which follows from the same critic we
+heartily subscribe. “It is interspersed with songs, to one of which we
+direct<a class = "tag" name = "tag8" id = "tag8" href = "#note8">8</a>
+the reader, to remind the author of what Pope says:</p>
+
+<div class = "poem small">
+<p>Want of decency shows want of sense.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>“Among <i>soi-disant</i> jolly fellows revelling in senseless
+ribaldry and inebriety (continues the reviewer) this song might be
+deemed very fine; but we shrewdly suspect that if the lines had been
+spoken at the theatre instead of being sung, the audience would have
+resented the insult.”</p>
+
+<p>It would be injustice not to add that the concluding speech of count
+Valmont, and many other parts scattered through the piece, must be
+admired as specimens of very fine composition.</p>
+
+<p class = "lines">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "music" id = "music">MUSIC.</a></h6>
+
+<p>The lovers of poetry and music have lately been highly gratified by
+the publication of “A Selection of Irish Melodies, with Symphonies and
+Accompaniments, by Sir <span class = "smallcaps">John Stevenson</span>,
+Doctor of Music, and Characteristic Words, by <span class =
+"smallcaps">Thomas Moore</span>, Esq. the first number of which was
+published in London and Dublin in the month of February of
+<span class = "pagenum">82</span>
+<a name = "page82" id = "page82"> </a>
+the last year, the reviewers spoke with decided <ins class =
+"correction" title = "text reads ‘appprobation’">approbation</ins>. To
+the second number, published in April, they are no less favourable.
+These melodies have been for some time anxiously expected&mdash;it being
+pretty generally understood that that fascinating poet, Moore, was
+employed in the pursuit of them. He had promised them for sometime. “It
+is intended, says the editor, to form a collection of the best Irish
+melodies, with characteristic symphonies and accompaniments, and with
+words containing as frequently as possible, allusions to the manners and
+history of the country;” and in a letter of Mr. Moore’s which appears in
+the publication, he says, “I feel very anxious that a work of this kind
+should be undertaken. We have too long neglected the only talent for
+which our English neighbours ever deign to allow us any credit. While
+the composers of the continent have enriched their operas and sonatas
+with melodies borrowed from Ireland, very often without even the honesty
+of acknowledgment, we have left these treasures in a great degree
+unclaimed and fugitive. Thus our airs, like too many of our countrymen,
+for want of protection at home, have passed into the service of
+foreigners. But we are come I hope to a better period both of politics
+and music: and how much they are connected, in Ireland at least, appears
+too plainly in the tone of sorrow and depression which characterizes
+most of our early songs. The task which you propose to me of adapting
+words to these airs, is by no means easy. The poet who would follow the
+various sentiments which they express, must feel and understand that
+rapid fluctuation of spirits, that unaccountable mixture of gloom and
+levity which composes the character of my countrymen, and has deeply
+tinged their music. Even in their liveliest strains we find some
+melancholy note inhere, some minor third or flat seventh which throws
+its shade as it passes, and makes even mirth interesting. If <span class
+= "smallcaps">Burns</span> had been an Irishman (and I would willingly
+give up all our claims upon Ossian for him) his heart would have been
+proud of such music, and his genius would have made it immortal.”</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">83</span>
+<a name = "page83" id = "page83"> </a>
+<p>A London reviewer speaking of the first number, says, “the idea is
+excellent, and the twelve vocal airs which this first number of the work
+contains, are tastefully arrayed by sir John Stevenson, and happily
+provided with language by Mr. Moore.</p>
+
+<p>“We are happy (continues the reviewer) to find that even where Mr.
+Moore’s subject is amatory, his poetry is very little in the style of
+those baneful effusions which are undergoing so rigorous an examination.
+His verse is here fanciful and gentlemanly, full of his subject, and, as
+far as our English souls can judge, faithfully expressing it. Nothing
+can be more pathetic than “Oh! breathe not his name;” nothing more
+brilliant than “Fly not yet, ’tis just the hour;” and nothing more
+poetical than “As a beam o’er the face of the waters may glow.” We must
+be indulged in quoting one of those effusions of Mr. Moore’s genius; and
+we can find none more elegant or natural than the following:</p>
+
+<div class = "poem">
+<h6><i>SONG.</i></h6>
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">Oh</span>!
+think not my spirits are always as light,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+And as free from a pang as they seem to you now,</p>
+<p>Nor expect that the heart-beaming smile of tonight,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Will return with tomorrow to brighten my brow.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+No, Life is a waste of wearisome flowers,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Which seldom the rose of enjoyment adorns;</p>
+<p>And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Is always the first to be touch’d by the thorns.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+But send round the bowl, and be happy awhile;</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+May we never meet worse in our pilgrimage here</p>
+<p>Than the tear that Enjoyment can gild with a smile,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+And the smile that Compassion can turn to a tear.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+The thread of our life would be dark, heaven knows!</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+If it were not with friendship and love intertwined;</p>
+<p>And I care not how soon I may sink to repose,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+When these blessings shall cease to be dear to my mind!</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">84</span>
+<a name = "page84" id = "page84"> </a>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+But they who have lov’d the fondest, the purest,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Too often have wept o’er the dream they’ve believed;</p>
+<p>And the heart that has slumber’d in friendship securest,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Is happy indeed if <ins class = "correction" title =
+"text reads ‘t’was’">’twas</ins> never deceiv’d.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+But send round the bowl; while a relic of truth</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Is in man or in woman, this pray’r shall be mine,</p>
+<p>That the sunshine of love may illumine our youth,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+And the moonlight of friendship console our decline.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>“The airs of the first number are excessively beautiful in
+themselves&mdash;particularly those of the well known “Gramachree,”
+“Plausty Kelly,” and the “Summer is Coming,” and the duets of “The Maid
+of the Valley,” and the “Brown Maid,” are very delightful. “The latter
+(says the London reviewer) is a perfect specimen of the genius of duet,
+each part taking up the other alternately. The publication of these
+Irish airs fully discovers the source of Mr. Moore’s musical
+compositions.”</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of the second number, the reviewer says it is by no means
+inferior to the first either in music or in poetry. The air “Oh! weep
+for the hour” (“The Pretty Girl of Derby&nbsp;O!”) is harmonized in a
+style of great elegance; and that, and “The Red Fox,” “The Black Joke,”
+and “My Lodging is on the Cold Ground,” have particularly pleased us in
+their arrangement. The song which Mr. Moore has written to “The Black
+Joke,” is both poetical and political, and though the affairs of Spain
+have now rendered it, as to that country, an <i>old newspaper</i>, yet
+it is still good in the cause of Ireland.”</p>
+
+<p class = "lines">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">85</span>
+<a name = "page85" id = "page85"> </a>
+
+<h6><a name = "sport" id = "sport">
+SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.</a></h6>
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">The</span> coterie of old ladies in the
+British parliament, the <i>chairwoman</i> of which was the late sir
+Richard Hill, have failed in all their attempts to tie up the hands of
+the people from their old sports. They have declaimed in parliament, and
+they have declaimed in print, against all the gymnastic exercises which
+time immemorial have been the pride and the pastime of the hardy natives
+of the British islands. Never did Robespierre weep such unfeigned tears
+over “sweet bleeding humanity,” as those good souls have shed over the
+broken heads, and black eyes, and bloody noses of the Bull family, who,
+obstinate dogs, will still go on and laugh at their ladyships. Indeed
+Bonaparte himself, whose interest it really is, could not more anxiously
+desire the abolition of those gymnastic exercises.</p>
+
+<p>The sports of England are horse-racing; fox, hare, and stag-hunting;
+coursing with greyhounds; shooting, fishing, bull-baiting, wrestling,
+single stick, pugilism, pedestrianism, cricket, &amp;c. These are
+practised by all ranks and on national accounts, are encouraged by all
+the wise and patriotic men of the country; some few, and those mostly
+fanaticks, excepted. To those games they add, in Ireland, the noble
+sport of hurling, in which that vigorous race exhibit such prodigies of
+strength and activity as induced the celebrated Arthur Young to speak to
+this effect in his Tour through Ireland: “In their hurlings, which I
+would call the cricket of savages, they perform feats of agility that
+would not do discredit to Sadler’s Wells.”</p>
+
+<p>The gymnastic games have been long carried on so systematically that
+they make as regular a part of the public intelligence as any that finds
+its way into the public papers, and have, like the theatre, their
+appropriated periodical publications.<a class = "tag" name = "tag9" id =
+"tag9" href = "#note9">9</a> On this subject we would say much more, as
+we mean to present our readers with such things as appear curious or
+extraordinary in those publications; but by way of a
+<span class = "pagenum">86</span>
+<a name = "page86" id = "page86"> </a>
+beginning, and to pave the road for the reception of this part of our
+work by the public, we beg leave to offer, not to their hasty perusal,
+but their profound consideration, the following defence of pugilism,
+written, it is said, by that profound statesman, patriot, and scholar,
+William Windham, whose eloquence and wit caused sir R.&nbsp;Hill’s
+bull-baiting bill to be laughed out of the House of Commons.</p>
+
+<p>“I lay it down as a principle, that in every state of society, men,
+particularly those of the lower ranks, will ever require some means of
+venting their passions and redressing personal affronts, independently
+of those which the laws of their country might afford them; and that it
+is of more benefit to the community that these personal contests should
+be under such regulations as place bounds to resentment, than that they
+should be left to the unrestrained indulgence of revenge and ferocity.
+In most countries on the northern continent of Europe, bodily strength
+exclusively decides the contest; hands, feet, teeth, and nails are all
+employed, and the strongest gratifies his resentment by biting, kicking,
+and trampling upon his prostrate adversary.<a class = "tag" name =
+"tag10" id = "tag10" href = "#note10">10</a> In the south the appeal is
+usually to the stiletto, and a <i>colpo dicoltello</i> is so common at
+Naples, that there is hardly a lazarone who has not the marks of it on
+some parts of his body; not a year passes in which there are not
+hundreds of assassinations in this city. Now, observe the different
+effects of a different principle: A&nbsp;sailor, some time since, at
+Nottingham, lent an aeronaut his assistance in preparing the ascent of
+his balloon; when receiving a blow from one of the by-standers while he
+held a knife in his hand&mdash;“You scoundrel,” exclaims the tar, “you
+have taken the advantage by striking me because you knew that, as I held
+a knife I could not strike you again.” Under similar circumstances, what
+would have been the conduct of a Genoese or a Neapolitan?</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">87</span>
+<a name = "page87" id = "page87"> </a>
+<p>Boxing, as it is conducted in this country, is a remnant of the
+ancient tilt and tournament, conducted on the principles of honour and
+equity; a&nbsp;contest of courage, strength, and dexterity, where every
+thing like an unfair and ungenerous advantage, is proscribed and
+abhorred. It is a custom peculiarly our own, and to which probably we
+are not only indebted for the infrequency of murder and assassination,
+but also for the victories of Maida, and Trafalgar.</p>
+
+<p>Some persons are willing to allow these effects, provided the
+practice was confined to casual contests, and not extended to public
+combats and stage fights. These, they say, induce the laborious men to
+quit their occupations, and serve as a rendezvous for the disorderly and
+the profligate; but is not the same objection to be made to all
+amusements in which the lower orders are peculiarly interested, and
+where else would men of this description practically learn, that the
+gratification of their personal resentments must be limited by the laws
+of honour and forbearance? Had Crib struck Gregson after the decision of
+the contest in his favour, what would have been the indignant feelings
+of the surrounding multitude, and what would he not have experienced
+from their resentment? And are these feelings not worth inculcating?
+will they not characterise a nation, and are they not the genuine
+sources of generosity and honour? If it be admitted, which I think
+cannot be denied, that any advantage be derived to society from
+individuals in these combats being restrained from giving full scope to
+ferocity and revenge, these advantages must be exclusively ascribed to
+the custom of public exhibitions. It is from these that all regulations
+and restrictions originate&mdash;it is from these they are propagated,
+and with these they will be extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>“I am not without apprehension, that from abhorrence of what some
+call brutal and vulgar pursuits, the noble science of attack and defence
+should be in future proscribed at the seminaries of Eton, Winchester,
+and Westminster, and that little master should be enjoined by his mama,
+in case of an affront, to resort to his master for redress and
+protection.
+<span class = "pagenum">88</span>
+<a name = "page88" id = "page88"> </a>
+To the custom, indeed, as it now prevails, the English youth are, in a
+great measure indebted for their nobleness and manliness of character.
+Two boys quarrel, they agree to box it out&mdash;they begin and they end
+by shaking hands; the enmity terminates with the contest&mdash;And what
+is this but a lesson of courage, magnanimity, and forgiveness? the
+principles of which are thus indelibly impressed on the mind of the boy,
+and must ever after influence the character of the man.</p>
+
+<p>“Away then with this effeminate cant about maintaining order and
+decorum, by the suppression of the public exhibitions of manly
+exercises. To them the individual Englishman owes his superiority to the
+individual of every other country, in courage, strength, and agility:
+and as a country is composed of individuals, to what other causes can
+England more reasonably impute her proud preeminence among nations which
+she now enjoys, and which she will ever maintain till this spirit is
+tamed into servility, under the pretence of applying salutary
+restrictions to the licentiousness of the people.”</p>
+
+<p class = "space">
+After the foregoing essay, a parallel drawn between English men and
+English mastiffs by the celebrated cardinal Ximenes comes not
+unappropriately in this place.</p>
+
+<p>The cardinal, who was minister to one of the French monarchs,
+observed that the English, like their native mastiffs, lived in a state
+of internal hostility. “The cause,” said he, “which creates a canine
+uproar, every one knows, is a bone; whence among the English, every
+statistical elevation, as well as other causes of contest, is called
+<span class = "smallroman">A BONE OF CONTENTION</span>. During the time
+of profound peace, these island dogs are always growling, snapping at,
+and tearing each other; but the moment the barking of foreign dogs is
+heard, the contention about bones ceases, the whole species become
+friends, and with one heart and mind they join their teeth to defend
+their kennels against foreign enemies.”</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">89</span>
+<a name = "page89" id = "page89"> </a>
+<p>The following extraordinary circumstances are selected from the
+British sporting intelligence of the last year.</p>
+
+
+<p class = "space">
+“<span class = "smallcaps">A herdsman</span> lately met a fox in the
+morning, on a mountain in the neighbourhood of Ballycastle (Ireland). On
+his approach, the animal did not offer to avoid him, but allowed him to
+come close up, when he struck it with a stick and killed it. On
+examination the fox was found to be completely destitute of teeth, and
+is supposed to have been blind with age.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p>“<span class = "smallcaps">A fox</span> lately turned out at
+Fisherwick-park, the hunting seat of the marquis of Donnegal, being hard
+pressed, forced his way into the window of a farm house, and took
+shelter under the bed of the farmer’s wife who had not an hour before
+lain in. The feelings of all parties may easier be imagined than
+described. The good woman, however, suffered no material injury by
+Reynard’s unexpected visit, who was taken and reserved for the sport of
+another day.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p>“<span class = "smallcaps">On</span> Wednesday last, about six
+o’clock, a&nbsp;covey of partridges were seen to pitch in the middle of
+the <span class = "smallroman">CIRCUS</span>, Bath, supposed to have
+taken refuge there, after having escaped from the aim of some distant
+gunner. Under the effects of fright and fatigue six were easily caught
+by three servants, and strange as it may appear the three servants of
+three eminent physicians who reside in that elegant pile. Doctor F.’s
+man secured three; doctor P.’s two, and doctor G.’s the other bird.
+A&nbsp;<i>consultation</i> afterwards took place respecting the fate of
+these poor tremblers, when it was humanely determined that they should
+be taken in a basket to some distance, and liberated, which was
+accordingly done. A&nbsp;keen sportsman would not approve of this
+forbearance; but perhaps none of the doctors had taken out a license to
+kill&mdash;<span class = "smallroman">GAME</span>.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<span class = "pagenum">90</span>
+<a name = "page90" id = "page90"> </a>
+<p>“<span class = "smallcaps">A male</span> and female hare were put
+together by lord Ribblesdale for one year, when the offspring amounted
+to sixty-eight. A&nbsp;pair of rabbits inclosed for the same time
+produced above three hundred. The value of rabbits’ wool used annually
+in the manufacture of hats in England is two hundred and fifty thousand
+pounds.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p>“<span class = "smallcaps">A few</span> days ago a hare was observed
+lying before a door in Manchester-street, London. The poor animal was
+immediately pursued, and in less than a minute the street was crowded:
+she succeeded in making her way down through Duke-street, followed by an
+immense mob. The novelty of a hunt in such a place caused every person
+in the surrounding streets to join in the chase. Notwithstanding her
+numerous pursuers she made her way down Oxford-street and into
+Stratford-place, where she got into the corner next to the duke of St.
+Alban’s house, and remained quietly until she was taken alive by the
+duke’s porter in the presence of an immense concourse of spectators.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p>“<span class = "smallcaps">On</span> the twenty-ninth of October
+last, in the afternoon, a&nbsp;fox was seen crossing the fields of
+Camptown in Bedfordshire, followed by a shepherd’s dog. The fox first
+made his way into the grounds of the reverend Mr. Davies’s
+boarding-school, at Campton, where the boys were at play. Reynard was no
+sooner in the midst of this juvenile assembly than a tumultuous uproar
+assailed him, from which he fled with all speed through a border
+plantation into the road, and crossing to the house of the reverend Mr.
+Williamson the minister of the parish, he bolted through the glass into
+the library. Here a female servant was cleaning the room, who by the
+sudden and unexpected appearance of this new visitor was thrown into
+fits. The family running into the apartment found the fox skulking in a
+corner, and the poor girl lying extended on the floor. With some
+difficulty she was recovered, and master Reynard was bagged for a future
+chase. Nobody can tell where the chase commenced, but
+<span class = "pagenum">91</span>
+<a name = "page91" id = "page91"> </a>
+the dog is known to belong to a shepherd at Meppershall, the adjoining
+parish to Campton.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p>“<span class = "smallcaps">The</span> Cranborne chase pack had one of
+the finest runs ever known in the western part of the kingdom. They
+unkennelled at Punpernwood, four miles east of Blandford. The fox went
+off immediately for “the chase,” and having taken a round in the
+West-walk, broke off over Iwern hills, and entered the vale of
+Blackmore, leaving the parish of Shooten to the left, making his play
+towards Duncliffwood near Shaston; but having been headed, he bent his
+course to the river Stow, which he boldly crossed in defiance of the
+flood, and after running the vale many miles passed through Piddleswood
+towards Okeford, Fitzpaine, but the hounds pressing him hard he was
+obliged to return to the cover, where having taken a turn or two he
+broke on the opposite side near the town of Shirminster, and crossed the
+commons to Mr. Brunes’s seat at Plumber, where he entered a
+summer-house, passed through the chimney flue, and entered a drain,
+whence being bolted, he was run into and killed at Fifehide Neville,
+fourteen miles straight from the place where he was found, after a chase
+of two hours and ten minutes.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<h6><a name = "backgammon" id = "backgammon">
+BACKGAMMON.</a></h6>
+
+<p>“<span class = "smallcaps">It</span> appears from the glossary to the
+Welch Laws that the game of backgammon was invented in Wales, sometime
+before the reign of Canute the Great, and that it derived its name from
+<i>Back</i>, which in the welch language meant <i>little</i>, and
+<i>Cammon</i>, which in the same language signified <i>Bottle</i>.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p>“<span class = "smallcaps">A blacksmith</span> of Winchester in
+Hampshire, undertook, for a wager, to shoe six horses, and make the
+shoes and nails himself complete in <i>seven hours</i>. He accomplished
+it in twenty-five minutes less than the time.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p>“<span class = "smallcaps">Mr. Brewer</span> of the Crown inn,
+Nothingham, undertook for a wager of forty guineas to go with a mare
+belonging
+<span class = "pagenum">92</span>
+<a name = "page92" id = "page92"> </a>
+to him in a cart, to Newark and back again, being a distance of <i>forty
+miles, in four hours</i>. He performed it in twelve minutes less than
+the given time. Considerable bets were laid against the performance. The
+mare is under fourteen hands high.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<h6>DICK THE HUNTER.</h6>
+
+<p>“<span class = "smallcaps">A poor</span> fellow, half an <ins class =
+"correction" title = "spelling unchanged">ideot</ins>, has by his
+singularity got himself so noticed by the sporting gentlemen at
+Newmarket, that his picture has been painted by Mr. Chalon, and
+engravings from it have been published. He was intended for a
+blacksmith, but being untractable, was allowed to follow his own
+inclination. Being always fond of hunting he soon attracted the
+attention of the gentlemen of the chase, and never failed joining the
+hounds whenever they made their appearance. Dick is such an amazing
+swift runner that he keeps in with the hounds for many miles together,
+to the surprise of all the gentlemen, who confess him to be a very
+useful man among them, as he instantly discovers the track of a fox, and
+is very clever at finding a hare sitting, and who therefore support him.
+He never goes out without carrying a knife, a&nbsp;fork, a&nbsp;spoon
+and a spur, which are all of his own making, a&nbsp;performance that
+shows him not to be destitute of ingenuity, as they are not separately
+made, but contained in one, and with these he is at once equipped either
+for sporting or eating. The spur he uses for pricking himself, which he
+fancies enables him to keep up with the hounds. He frequently uses it to
+the no small amusement of the spectators. His dress is quite as singular
+as his mode of life, for he always wears a long surtout coat,
+a&nbsp;hunting-cap, a&nbsp;boot on one leg and a shoe on the foot of the
+other&mdash;and thus equipped he runs with the speed of a hunting-horse,
+clearing with ease all the ditches and fences the riders&nbsp;do.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p>“<span class = "smallcaps">One</span> of the best packs of hounds in
+England was most completely beat lately by a fox. The latter was turned
+out before them near Wold Newton, in Yorkshire, and after
+<span class = "pagenum">93</span>
+<a name = "page93" id = "page93"> </a>
+running rings for sometime, went off for Scarborough, near which place
+the hounds were so completely knocked up that he beat them in view, for
+the huntsman could not get them a yard further&mdash;a number of riders
+lost their horses in the cars, and were seen wading up to their necks to
+catch them again. The fox ran upwards of twenty miles.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p>“<span class = "smallcaps">In</span> the discussions which have
+arisen in and out of parliament in England about the abolition of the
+Briton’s old favourite sports, it was conceded by all but a few, that
+from the custom of boxing, singlestick and backsword playing, wrestling,
+&amp;c. arose the good temper which distinguishes that
+people&mdash;Englishmen being less subject to violent fits of anger than
+the people of any other nation in the world. In the compass of eighteen
+pages of a work now before us we have details of no less than two grand
+matches of singlestick, one Wiltshire against Somersetshire, and the
+other Somersetshire against all England, for large purses. In both cases
+the champions of Somerset county beat; and what must astonish those who
+hear it, the victors (though men in the lowest classes of life in one
+case) shared the prize with the vanquished. In the former, Somerset gave
+nine broken heads and received seven&mdash;in the latter, gave eight and
+received six. The Wiltshire men went to Trowbridge in Somersetshire, the
+appointed place of meeting, attended by some of the leading gentry of
+Wiltshire, and the gentleman who was appointed by them to preside, bore
+public testimony to the liberal and kind treatment his countrymen
+experienced.</p>
+
+<p>“Any person who has seen the farce of Hob in the Well, performed,
+will remember to have seen a specimen of this kind of prize fighting,
+for which as well as wrestling, the people of Somersetshire have for
+ages been renowned. In Scotland they excel at the backsword&mdash;the
+Irish too are admirable hands&mdash;but neither have the temper of the
+English; “Oppression makes a wise man mad;” what should it do then with
+a poor peasantry? The tempers of the English have not had that to
+irritate them. We will close this subject
+<span class = "pagenum">94</span>
+<a name = "page94" id = "page94"> </a>
+with a letter from an intelligent Londoner, who was travelling through
+Hampshire.</p>
+
+
+<p class = "space">
+“<span class = "smallcaps">Passing</span>, sometime since, through
+Rapley Dean, Hants, my attention being attracted by a crowd of rustics
+on a little green near the road I turned my horse thither, and arrived
+in the time when a lame elderly man, who I afterwards found was the
+knight marshal of the field, from the middle of a ring made by ropes,
+proclaimed, that “a hat worth one guinea was to be played for at
+backsword; the breaker of most heads to bear away the hat and honour,”
+and inviting the youth there to contend for it. A&nbsp;little after,
+a&nbsp;young fellow threw his hat into the ring and followed, when the
+lame umpire called out “a challenge,” and proceeded to equip the
+challenger for the game. His coat and <ins class = "correction" title =
+"spelling unchanged">waiscoat</ins> were taken off, his left hand tied
+by a handkerchief to his left thigh, and a stick, with basket hilt, put
+into his hand; he then walked round the ring till a second hat was
+thrown in, and the umpire called out, “the challenge is answered.”</p>
+
+<p>“As soon as prepared, the knights met, measured weapons, shook hands,
+walked once round, turned and began the contest. In about a minute, the
+umpire called out “About,” when they dropped the points of their weapons
+and walked round, and this calling I observed, was repeated as often as
+the umpire judged either distressed. After some twenty minutes play,
+some blood trickled down the challenger’s head; the umpire called
+“Blood;” and declared the other to have won a head.</p>
+
+<p>“When both left the ring another hat was thrown in, and the challenge
+again accepted, and played off in the like manner, till the umpire
+announced there were four winners of heads, and proceeded to call the
+ties, that is, he called on the winners of the first two heads to play
+together, and afterwards on the winners of the third and fourth heads;
+after which the winners of two heads each played for the hat, and the
+proud victor (Morgan) thus to earn it, broke three heads. I&nbsp;was
+much struck with the amazing temper
+<span class = "pagenum">95</span>
+<a name = "page95" id = "page95"> </a>
+with which the game was played: not a particle of ill-will was shown,
+two young fellows, who played together forty-five minutes, and in the
+course of it gave each other many severe blows, one alone of which would
+have satisfied the most unconscionable taylor or man-milliner breathing,
+drank frequently together between the bouts, shaking hands as often as
+the weight of the blows given seemed to require it of their good-nature.
+Indeed it appeared to be a rule with each pair that played, to drink
+together after the contest, and a general spirit of harmony seemed to
+prevail. This game is certainly of great antiquity, and the only relick
+(with the exception of wrestling) of the ancient tournament. The knight
+defied with throwing down his hat or gauntlet&mdash;the rustic gamester
+does the same, and is equally courteous with the knight towards his
+opponent: nor were there in this instance village dames or damsels
+wanting, to animate the prowess of the youth.</p>
+
+<p>“It has been asserted, that these exhibitions engender a ferocious
+spirit; but were I to judge from what I saw, and from the inquiries I
+made into the characters of the players at Ropley Dean, from the farmers
+on my right and left, I&nbsp;should pronounce quite the contrary; and
+think that as long as the sword is used by our cavalry and navy, and as
+long as we wish to entertain in the nation a fearless, generous, martial
+spirit, we should encourage the like pastimes at our fairs and
+revels.”</p>
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">96</span>
+<a name = "page96" id = "page96"> </a>
+<h6><a name = "misc" id = "misc">
+MISCELLANY.</a></h6>
+
+<p>A general sense seems to pervade all the most intelligent men of
+Great Britain that a reformation is wanting in almost every department
+of life in that country. The corruption of public taste in dramatic
+literature and acting, and in most of the fashionable amusements of the
+high flyers cries aloud, no less than that of the state, for a
+heavy-handed scourge and receives it. Among other things, the
+<i>musico-mania</i> is attacked as having reached the highest acm�İ of
+absurdity. The Covent Garden proprietors are very roughly handled, but
+not more roughly than they deserve, for hiring Madam Catalani at the
+enormous salary of four thousand pounds sterling and a free benefit for
+the season, with a provision annexed, which is thought insolent,
+degrading, and unjust; no less than that of her French husband putting
+what fiddlers he pleases into the orchestra. The public prints are
+filled with remonstrances to the people, whose attention is directed to
+the storm which was raised on a similar occasion in 1755 and 1756, and
+which burst with such tremendous mischief on the head of Garrick. One
+writer thus vehemently expresses himself: “Shall a judge of the land be
+required to exercise the faculties of his vigorous mind, which have been
+cultivated and matured by an expensive education and the most laborious
+study; shall he be continually employed in discriminating between right
+and wrong, in the adjustment of <ins class = "correction" title =
+"text reads ‘idividual’">individual</ins> differences, and in protecting the
+persons and properties of the honest and peaceable part of his majesty’s
+subjects from the assaults of violence and the stratagems of fraud;
+shall his sensibility be wounded, and his heart pierced by the painful
+necessity to which he is frequently reduced of passing on his fellow-man
+those awful sentences which the nature of their crimes, and the voice of
+Justice imperiously demand; shall he, in short, be compelled to
+discharge the duties of an office which necessarily renders his nights
+anxious and restless, and subjects him in the day to the most irksome
+fatigue&mdash;and shall he, for all this fatigue of body and unremitting
+solicitude of mind, receive a salary
+<span class = "pagenum">97</span>
+<a name = "page97" id = "page97"> </a>
+scarcely exceeding <i>half</i> the sum given to an <span class =
+"smallcaps">Italian cantatrice</span> for the display of her vocal
+powers for a few nights?”</p>
+
+<p>The fact is that the robust and vigorous appetite of the English has
+been worn down by the intemperate use of German dramas, and is so
+vitiated and enfeebled that it can swallow nothing but hot spiced trash,
+or water gruel spoon-meat. Are the French wrong in calling John Bull
+<i>stupide barbare</i> when they see him pouring thousands into the laps
+of foreign singers&mdash;and for what?&mdash;why, to sing such songs as
+this:</p>
+
+<div class = "poem small">
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+Tom Gobble was a grocer’s son,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Heigho! says Gobble;</p>
+<p>He gave a ven’son dinner for <i>fun</i>,</p>
+<p>And he had a belly as big as a <i>tun</i>,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+<i>With his handy dandy, bacon and gravy</i>,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Ah, hah, says alderman Gobble.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+The servants ushered the company in,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Heigho! says Gobble;</p>
+<p>The dinner is ready, quoth Tom, with a grin,</p>
+<p>So he tucked a napkin under his chin,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+With his handy dandy, bacon and gravy,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Ah, hah, says alderman Gobble,</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+Then Betty the cook-maid she gave a squall,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Heigho! says Gobble;</p>
+<p>Poor John the footman has had a fall,</p>
+<p>And down stairs tumbled, ven’son and all,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+With his handy dandy, bacon and gravy,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Alas! says alderman Gobble.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+So down the alderman ran in a fright,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Heigho! says Gobble;</p>
+<p>And there sat John in a terrible plight</p>
+<p>Astride on the ven’son <i>bolt upright</i>,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+With his handy dandy, bacon and gravy,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Dear me! says alderman Gobble.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+Was ever man so cruelly put on,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Heigho! says Gobble;</p>
+<p>Get off the meat you rascally glutton,</p>
+<p>You’ve made my ven’son a saddle of mutton,</p>
+<span class = "pagenum">98</span>
+<a name = "page98" id = "page98"> </a>
+<p class = "indent">
+With your handy dandy, bacon and gravy,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Good lack, says alderman Gobble.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+Lord, sir, says Betty, what a <i>splash</i>,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Heigho! says Gobble;</p>
+<p>’Tis a monstrous bad <i>rumbistical</i> crash,</p>
+<p>But tomorrow I’ll tickle it up in a hash,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+With your handy dandy, bacon and gravy,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Ay, do! says alderman Gobble.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This vile, low, degrading farrago is taken from an opera called the
+Russian Impostor, or Siege of Sloremskho.</p>
+
+<p>After such trash it will be delightful to turn to some lines, written
+by lord Byron on this general subject of complaint. They are extracted
+from an excellent poem entitled “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,
+a&nbsp;Satire,” with notes by the author.</p>
+
+<div class = "poem small">
+<p>Now to the <span class = "smallcaps">Drama</span> turn&mdash;oh,
+motley sight!</p>
+<p>What precious scenes the wondering eyes invite!</p>
+<p>Puns, and a prince within a <i>barrel</i> pent,<a class = "tag" name
+= "tag11" id = "tag11" href = "#note11">11</a></p>
+<p>And Dibdin’s nonsense yield complete content.</p>
+<p>Though now, thank heaven! the <i>Roscio mania’s</i> o’er,</p>
+<p>And full-grown actors are endured once more;</p>
+<p>Yet, what avails their vain attempts to please,</p>
+<p>While British critics suffer scenes like these;</p>
+<p>While Reynolds vents his ‘<i>dammes</i>, <i>poohs</i>’ <ins class =
+"correction" title = "printed in italics">and</ins> ‘<i>zounds</i>’<a
+class = "tag" name = "tag12" id = "tag12" href = "#note12">12</a></p>
+<p>And common place, and common sense confounds?</p>
+<p>While Kenny’s World just suffered to proceed,</p>
+<p>Proclaims the audience very kind indeed?</p>
+<p>And Beaumont’s pilfer’d Caratach affords</p>
+<p>A tragedy complete in all but words?<a class = "tag" name = "tag13"
+id = "tag13" href = "#note13">13</a></p>
+<p>Who but must mourn while these are all the rage,</p>
+<p>The degradation of our vaunted stage?</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">99</span>
+<a name = "page99" id = "page99"> </a>
+
+<p>Heavens! is all sense of shame and talent gone?</p>
+<p>Have we no living bard of merit?&mdash;none?</p>
+<p>Awake, George Colman!&mdash;Cumberland, awake!</p>
+<p>Ring the alarum bell, let Folly quake!</p>
+<p>Oh, Sheridan! if aught can move thy pen,</p>
+<p>Let Comedy resume her throne again,</p>
+<p>Abjure the mummery of German schools,</p>
+<p>Leave new Pizarros to translating fools;</p>
+<p>Give, as thy last memorial to the age,</p>
+<p>One classic drama, and reform the stage.</p>
+<p>Gods! o’er those boards shall Folly rear her head,</p>
+<p>Where Garrick trod, and Kemble lives to tread?</p>
+<p>On those shall Farce display Buffoonery’s mask,</p>
+<p>And Hook conceal his heroes in a <i>cask</i>?</p>
+<p>Shall sapient managers new scenes produce</p>
+<p>From Cherry, Skeffington, and Mother Goose?</p>
+<p>While Shakspeare, Otway, Massinger, forgot,</p>
+<p>On stalls must moulder, or in closets rot?</p>
+<p>Lo! with what pomp the daily prints proclaim,</p>
+<p>The rival candidates for attic fame!</p>
+<p>In grim array though Lewis’<a class = "tag" name = "tag14" id =
+"tag14" href = "#note14">14</a> spectres rise,</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">100</span>
+<a name = "page100" id = "page100"> </a>
+
+<p>Still Skeffington and Goose divide the prize.</p>
+<p>And sure <i>great</i> Skeffington must claim our praise,</p>
+<p>For skirtless coats and skeletons of plays</p>
+<p>Renowned alike; whose Genius ne’er confines</p>
+<p>Her flight to garnish Greenwood’s gay designs;<a class = "tag" name =
+"tag15" id = "tag15" href = "#note15">15</a></p>
+<p>Nor sleeps with ‘Sleeping Beauties,’ but anon</p>
+<p>In five facetious acts comes thundering on,<a class = "tag" name =
+"tag16" id = "tag16" href = "#note16">16</a></p>
+<p>While poor John Bull, bewildered with the scene,</p>
+<p>Keeps wondering what the devil it can mean;</p>
+<p>But as some hands applaud, a venal few!</p>
+<p>Rather than sleep, why John applauds it too.</p>
+
+<p class = "indent">
+Such are we now, ah! wherefore should we turn</p>
+<p>To what our fathers were, unless to mourn?</p>
+<p>Degenerate Britons! are ye dead to shame,</p>
+<p>Or, kind to dulness, do you fear to blame?</p>
+<p>Well may the Nobles of our present race</p>
+<p>Watch each distortion of a Naldi’s face;</p>
+<p>Well may they smile on Italy’s buffoons,</p>
+<p>And worship Catalani’s pantaloons,<a class = "tag" name = "tag17" id
+= "tag17" href = "#note17">17</a></p>
+<p>Since their own drama yields no fairer trace</p>
+<p>Of wit than puns, of humour than grimace.</p>
+
+<p class = "indent">
+Then let Ausonia, skill’d in ev’ry art</p>
+<p>To soften manners, but corrupt the heart,</p>
+<p>Pour her exotic follies o’er the town,</p>
+<p>To sanction Vice and hunt Decorum down:</p>
+<p>Let wedded strumpets languish o’er Deshayes,</p>
+<p>And bless the promise which his form displays;</p>
+<p>While Gayton bounds before the enraptured looks</p>
+<p>Of hoary marquises and stripling dukes:</p>
+<p>Let high-born lechers eye the lively Presle</p>
+<p>Twirl her light limbs that spurn the needless veil;</p>
+<p>Let Angiolini bare her breast of snow,</p>
+<p>Wave the white arm and point the pliant toe;</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">101</span>
+<a name = "page101" id = "page101"> </a>
+
+<p>Collini trill her love-inspiring song,</p>
+<p>Strain her fair neck and charm the listening throng!</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A London critic adds the following pertinent observations: “Thus far
+our author concerning the stage, to which we add an observation or two
+of our own. We certainly think the <i>barrel</i> a curious asylum for a
+distressed prince; but when we reflect on what kind of princes and
+heroes the modern stage and modern authors exhibit, (the seige of St.
+Quintin for instance, by the same author, Mr. Hook) we cannot help
+exclaiming (no plagiarism, we hope)</p>
+
+<div class = "poem small">
+<p>We with the sentence are indeed content,</p>
+<p>To see <i>such</i> princes in <i>such</i> barrels pent.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And as a barrel is described by our best lexicographers to be “any
+thing hollow,” what vehicle more appropriate could be found? The
+ingenious author, was surely a favourite of the barrel, and well
+acquainted with the virtues of a <i>cask</i>; although according to sir
+Walter Raleigh, “some are so ill-seasoned and conditioned that a great
+part of the contents is ever lost and cast away.”</p>
+
+<p>Respecting Mr. Reynolds’s indulgence of himself, in perpetual
+repetition of his vocables,<a class = "tag" name = "tag18" id = "tag18"
+href = "#note18">18</a> we should be glad to have it in our power to
+affirm that the <i>beef and mutton</i><a class = "tag" name = "tag19" id
+= "tag19" href = "#note19">19</a> author was the only one who disgraced
+himself by such contemptible degradation; but, alas! the pages of our
+work have too often exhibited similar complaints against the majority of
+our great playwrights&mdash;many of these <i>gentlemen</i> being reduced
+to silence, without their auxiliary <i>dammes</i>!</p>
+
+<p>We differ widely from our author respecting Mr. T. Sheridan’s
+<i>stripping</i> of Bonduca&mdash;for we really think it worthy the son
+of that poet, who, neglecting his own genius and
+<span class = "pagenum">102</span>
+<a name = "page102" id = "page102"> </a>
+the duties of a regular practitioner, condescends to turn quack, and
+bedizen that high German doctor Pizarro, in an English dress!!</p>
+
+<p>Apropos of awaking George Colman!&mdash;We beg the noble lord’s
+pardon; but we are not in such a violent hurry to disturb this
+gentleman; for if, when awake, he should not acquit himself better than
+in his last production of the Africans, we think the sounder he sleeps
+the more solid will be his reputation. Therefore,</p>
+
+<div class = "poem small">
+<p>Sleep on, George Colman! prithee, don’t awake!</p>
+<p>Nor let the alarum bell thy slumbers shake!</p>
+<p>Lest jokes like <i>Mugg’s</i><a class = "tag" name = "tag20" id =
+"tag20" href = "#note20">20</a> should make our senses quake!</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Why our author has coupled John Kemble’s name with that of Garrick we
+cannot conceive; but that there appears more rhyme than reason in it, we
+can safely aver. We have somewhere heard that “a live ass is better than
+a dead lion,” which we quote, not as individually applicable, but as a
+general adage; for we disclaim personalities, and well know that
+J.&nbsp;K. is an eminent actor, and one whom we have not niggardly
+praised. Yet we will not disparage departed excellence for any person
+existing; and therefore cannot avoid wishing our young author had seen
+Garrick, and bearing in his “mind’s eye” his natural acting of Lear,
+Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard, &amp;c.&mdash;he might then go and witness the
+performances of Mr. Kemble&mdash;and judge!</p>
+
+<p class = "lines">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h6>CORRESPONDENCE.</h6>
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">The</span> conductors of the Mirror of
+Taste, and Dramatic Censor, have already to make acknowledgments to
+correspondents. Scarcely had their intention been promulgated
+<span class = "pagenum">103</span>
+<a name = "page103" id = "page103"> </a>
+when they were favoured with a letter, which, in less than a week
+afterwards was followed by two more, all of them upon the same subject,
+though evidently written by different persons. It had before been the
+intention of the conductors to call the public attention very soon to
+that very point to which these letters are intended to direct them; and
+conceiving that a fairer occasion for doing so can hardly occur than
+these letters afford them, they hasten to lay the contents of them
+before the public.</p>
+
+<p class = "heading">
+“To the Conductors of the Dramatic Work to be published by Messrs.
+Bradford and Inskeep.</p>
+
+<p class = "date">November 27.</p>
+
+<p>“<span class = "smallcaps">Sirs</span>,</p>
+
+<p>“<span class = "smallcaps">From</span> what I can learn about your
+intended publication I like the idea, and have no doubt it may be of
+great use. I&nbsp;have often said that such a thing was much wanting,
+for I look upon a playhouse to be a very good thing, often keeping young
+men from worse places, and young women from worse employment. But if our
+playhouse goes on as it does, it will soon be a worse place to go to
+than any I allude&nbsp;to. Last evening I brought my family to see the
+play, and I assure you, I&nbsp;often wished we were all away again, the
+scandalous talk in the gallery was so bad. The noise was so great that
+there was no hearing any thing else. The players’ voices were ten or a
+dozen times interrupted so that they could not be heard, and two or
+three fellows in the gallery were particularly scandalous. Above all the
+rest there was one, a&nbsp;finished vagabond, who spoke smut and roared
+it out loud, directing it to the ladies in the boxes. If any of you was
+there, gentlemen, you must have noticed it; if not, I&nbsp;can’t write
+such filthy words as was spoken the whole evening. My wife begged me to
+come away on our little girl’s account who was with&nbsp;us. It is not
+the players you ought to criticise, they behave themselves&mdash;but it
+is those vagabonds that think they have a right to disturb the house
+because they
+<span class = "pagenum">104</span>
+<a name = "page104" id = "page104"> </a>
+pay their half dollar a piece. I&nbsp;think it your duty to take notice
+of this, and I beg you will.</p>
+
+<p class = "right smallroman">A CITIZEN.”</p>
+
+<p>N.B. They in the pit were bad enough, and so was some in the
+boxes.</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p class = "heading">To the Editors of the Mirror, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p class = "smallcaps">“Gentlemen,</p>
+
+<p>“<span class = "smallcaps">As</span> your intended publication is to
+come out monthly, I&nbsp;am doubtful whether I should trouble you on the
+present occasion; more particularly as you may probably think of the
+matter yourselves without a hint from&nbsp;me. Besides, I&nbsp;am not
+sure whether it is not the duty of the editors of the daily papers
+rather than yours. For my part, I&nbsp;think it is the duty of all
+people who regard the credit of the city, or tender the peaceableness
+and comfort of society. Our theatre, gentlemen, has sunk to the worst
+state imaginable of licentiousness and savage riot. Don’t mistake
+me&mdash;I don’t mean behind the curtain; but before it. While we hold
+ourselves so proudly to the world, what must those foreigners think of
+us who visit our theatre. From a place of rational recreation, and
+improvement, it has become a mere bear-garden. The play is interrupted,
+and all enjoyment, save that of riot and brawling, killed in various
+ways. The very boxes themselves are no sanctuary from ruffianish
+incivility; while the ears are stunned, and the cheek of Decency
+crimsoned with the profaneness, obscenity, and senseless brawl of
+barbarians in the gallery, the sight is intercepted, and all comfort
+destroyed by the unmannerly and unjust conduct of intruders in the boxes
+and pit, who think they have a right to push in and even stand up before
+another who has been previously seated, provided they have bodily
+strength to make good their violence. I&nbsp;say, gentlemen, this ought
+to be stopped. The spirit of the manager at New-York, backed by the
+laws, has put an end
+<span class = "pagenum">105</span>
+<a name = "page105" id = "page105"> </a>
+to it there, so far, that no theatre in Europe precedes it in order and
+decency. The same power exists here and ought to be exercised. These
+things disgrace the city as well as annoy our audiences, and I think our
+daily editors on both sides would evince their regard for the public by
+giving a few lines every day to the reform of this evil till it shall be
+abated. The proprietors and manager ought to call a meeting, invoke the
+aid of the magistrates and the people, and come to some decisive
+resolutions on the subject.</p>
+
+<p class = "right smallcaps">Forensis.”</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<h6>COMMUNICATION.</h6>
+
+<p class = "heading">For the Mirror, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>“<span class = "smallcaps">The</span> manager, or the magistrates, or
+somebody is greatly to blame about the playhouse. I&nbsp;brought my
+family to the pit to see that great actor, Cooper, play Zanga. We sat in
+the pit the whole time the blackguards were throwing down various kinds
+of things upon our heads. Scraps of apples, nutshells in handfulls, and
+what is worse something I can’t well name&mdash;some about me said that
+brandy or strong grog was thrown down&mdash;it might be so
+once;&mdash;but it was not exactly that which fell on me and my family.
+Since then, I&nbsp;went to see him in Macbeth, and left my wife and
+daughter at home for fear; and the fellows above were as bad as
+before&mdash;and had not I luckily kept my hat on I should once have got
+my head broke with a hard heavy hiccory-nut that was thrown with all the
+force and spitefulness as if the person wanted to hurt somebody very
+severely.”</p>
+
+<hr class = "micro">
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">We</span> agree with our correspondents
+that some prompt and effectual remedy ought to be applied to the evils
+of which they complain: and we are surprised it has not yet been done,
+because every person with whom any of us converses, makes pretty nearly
+the same complaint, and expresses the very same wish.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">106</span>
+<a name = "page106" id = "page106"> </a>
+<p>In every country there exist multitudes as well disposed as those now
+alluded to, to disturb the playhouse, and bring brutal riot within its
+walls&mdash;but they will not be allowed. Any one who reads Colquhoun’s
+account of London and its rabble, will perceive that there are people
+enough there ready to do offensive offices for the pure sake of offence
+and savageness; but not only the magistrates, but the audience
+themselves will not put up with it. The latter generally abate the
+nuisance in a summary way&mdash;they turn out the offender; and the law
+warrants, and if necessary aids them. If our audience suffer these
+encroachments what will be the fair conclusion, but that they concur
+with the offenders.</p>
+
+<p>It was but a few nights ago, a company (of perhaps ten,) converted
+the boxes into a grog shop&mdash;brought jug and bottle, and glass, and
+tumbler into the front seats, and there caroused, laughing, talking
+aloud, and swearing aloud, even during the performance. On the night the
+Revenge was performed, even while Mr. Cooper was engaged in a most
+interesting scene, a&nbsp;boy, not in mean clothes either, stood up at
+the front corner of the gallery, roaring out and speaking as loud as he
+could to some one on the opposite side. Yet this, were it not for the
+time it happened, was to the surrounding tumult, as a dying sigh to the
+roar of a northwester.</p>
+
+<p>It cannot be doubted that in a civilized society like this, some
+legal means must exist to put an end to these grievances. There are
+other grievances, however, that cannot be so <i>immediately</i> made the
+subject of redress by the magistrate, but which, nevertheless, require
+correction, and would never occur if every one who can afford to wear
+such a coat as gentlemen wear, could imitate the manners of gentlemen as
+well as they can ape their dress. By a number of <i>well-coated</i>
+persons of this kind, the time immemorial privileges of the theatre are
+violated, and its customary rights denied. Provided they think
+themselves able to scuffle it out by bodily strength they will indulge
+themselves at the expense of
+<span class = "pagenum">107</span>
+<a name = "page107" id = "page107"> </a>
+others&mdash;one of those will sit before a lady and refuse to take off
+his hat&mdash;another coming late will force his way contrary to all
+right and usage, before a person who has an hour before taken his
+seat&mdash;and if spoken to, utter surly defiance. Against every such
+unmannered intruder, the whole audience ought, for the establishment of
+the general right and the good old custom, to make common cause, and
+thrust him out by force. No doubt there are drawcansirs enough to push
+this offence as far as it will go. Let them know that there have been
+and still are drawcansirs in England, Ireland and Scotland&mdash;that
+Dublin particularly was once full of them; but that they were soon
+brought to manners by the just resentment of the audience&mdash;the
+gripe of the constable, and the contempt of every body.</p>
+
+</div> <!-- end div mirror -->
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">108</span>
+<a name = "page108" id = "page108"> </a>
+
+<h4><a name = "footnotes" id = "footnotes">Footnotes</a></h4>
+
+<div class = "footnote">
+
+<p><a name = "note1" id = "note1" href = "#tag1">1.</a>
+Johnson’s Idler, No. 25.</p>
+
+<p class = "floatleft">
+<a name = "note2" id = "note2" href = "#tag2">2.</a></p>
+
+<div class = "poem small">
+<p><span class = "gap">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span>What we
+<i>hear</i></p>
+<p>With weaker passion will affect the heart</p>
+<p>Than when the faithful eye beholds the part.
+&mdash;<i>Francis.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name = "note3" id = "note3" href = "#tag3">3.</a>
+Dr. Johnson.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "note4" id = "note4" href = "#tag4">4.</a>
+By Lord Mansfield in the King’s Bench, in the case of Macklin against
+Sparks, Miles, Reddish, and others.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "note5" id = "note5" href = "#tag5">5.</a>
+The audience, whenever an individual hisses against the sense of the
+house, always silence the offender by crying, “there’s a goose in the
+pit (or wherever it is) turn him out,” and if he persists they expel him
+by force. It is to be hoped our audiences would follow the example. It
+is frequently necessary.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "note6" id = "note6" href = "#tag6">6.</a>
+Dr. Johnson.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "note7" id = "note7" href = "#tag7">7.</a>
+See Johnson’s Life of Dryden.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "note8" id = "note8" href = "#tag8">8.</a>
+<i>See the <a href = "#duet_III_i">Duett between Rosabelle and
+L’Eclair</a>, Act. III, scene I, page 16.</i></p>
+
+<p><a name = "note9" id = "note9" href = "#tag9">9.</a>
+The Sporting Magazine for one.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "note10" id = "note10" href = "#tag10">10.</a>
+He might have added gouging, as practised in the southern States of this
+Union.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "note11" id = "note11" href = "#tag11">11.</a>
+In the melo-drama of Tekeli, that heroic prince is clapt into a barrel
+on the stage: a&nbsp;new asylum for distressed heroes!</p>
+
+<p><a name = "note12" id = "note12" href = "#tag12">12.</a>
+All these are favourite expressions of Mr. R. and prominent in his
+comedies, living and defunct.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "note13" id = "note13" href = "#tag13">13.</a>
+Mr. T. Sheridan, the new manager of Drury Lane Theatre, stripped the
+tragedy of Bonduca of the Dialogue, and exhibited the scenes as the
+spectacle of Caractacus. Was this worthy of his sire, or of himself?</p>
+
+<p class = "floatleft">
+<a name = "note14" id = "note14" href = "#tag14">14.</a></p>
+
+<div class = "poem small">
+<p>Oh, wonder-working Lewis! monk, or bard,</p>
+<p>Who fain would make Parnassus a church-yard!</p>
+<p>Lo! wreaths of yew, not laurel, bind thy brow,</p>
+<p>Thy Muse a sprite, Apollo’s sexton thou!</p>
+<p>Whether on ancient tombs thou tak’st thy stand,</p>
+<p>By gibbering spectres hail’d, thy kindred band;</p>
+<p>Or tracest chaste descriptions on thy page,</p>
+<p>To please the females of our modest age.</p>
+<p>All hail, M. P.!<a class = "tag" name = "tag14a" id = "tag14a" href =
+"#note14a">A</a> from whose infernal brain</p>
+<p>Thin sheeted phantoms glide, a grisly train;</p>
+<p>At whose command, “grim women” throng in crowds,</p>
+<p>And kings of fire, of water, and of clouds,</p>
+<p>With “small gray men,” “wild yagers,” and what not,</p>
+<p>To crown with honour thee and Walter Scott:</p>
+<p>Again, all hail! if tales like thine may please,</p>
+<p><a class = "tag" name = "tag14b" id = "tag14b" href =
+"#note14b">B</a>St. Luke’s alone can vanquish the disease;</p>
+<p>Even Satan’s self with thee might dread to dwell,</p>
+<p>And in thy skull discern a deeper hell.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class = "footnote"> <!-- nested -->
+
+<p><a name = "note14a" id = "note14a" href = "#tag14a">A.</a>
+See a poem to Mr. Lewis, in the Statesman, supposed to be written by Mr.
+Jekyll.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "note14b" id = "note14b" href = "#tag14b">B.</a>
+St. Luke’s is an hospital for lunatics in London. <i>Editor of the
+Mirror.</i></p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><a name = "note15" id = "note15" href = "#tag15">15.</a>
+Mr. Greenwood is, we believe, scene-painter to Drury Lane
+Theatre&mdash;as such, Mr.&nbsp;S. is much indebted to him.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "note16" id = "note16" href = "#tag16">16.</a>
+Mr. S. is the illustrious author of the “Sleeping Beauty” and some
+Comedies, particularly “Maids and Bachelors.” <i>Baculaurii Baculo magis
+quam lauro digni.</i></p>
+
+<p><a name = "note17" id = "note17" href = "#tag17">17.</a>
+Naldi and Catalani require little notice&mdash;for the visage of the one
+and the salary of the other, will enable us long to recollect these
+amusing vagabonds; besides, we are still black and blue from the squeeze
+on the first night of the lady’s appearance in trowsers.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "note18" id = "note18" href = "#tag18">18.</a>
+Damme, pooh, zounds, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "note19" id = "note19" href = "#tag19">19.</a>
+“Authors have lived and still live who write for what they call
+<i>fame</i>!&mdash;For my part I write for more substantial
+food&mdash;<i>beef</i> and <i>mutton</i> are the objects of my
+ambition.”&mdash;<i>Reynold’s Preface to Begone Dull Care.</i></p>
+
+<p><a name = "note20" id = "note20" href = "#tag20">20.</a>
+One of Mr. Colman’s witty characters in the <i>Africans</i>.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<div class = "index">
+
+<div class = "mynote">
+
+<p>The printed book contained the six Numbers of Volume I with their
+appended plays. The Index (unpaginated) originally appeared at the
+beginning of the volume. Pages 1-108 refer to the present Number; index
+references are linked to the appropriate page. Other Numbers (in
+preparation as of September 2007) cover the remaining pages:</p>
+
+<p class = "inset">
+Volume I, Number 2: pp. 109-188<br>
+I.3: pp. 189-268<br>
+I.4: pp. 269-348<br>
+I.5: pp. 349-430<br>
+I.6: pp. 431-510</p>
+
+<p>The six plays were printed as a group and are not included in this
+pagination.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">||</span>
+
+<h4><a name = "index" id = "index">INDEX.</a></h4>
+
+<table class = "index" summary = "index in two columns">
+<tr>
+<td width = "50%">
+
+<p class = "letterhead">A</p>
+
+<p>Actors, animadversion on</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Wood</span>,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+in Rapid, <a href = "#page62">62</a>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Rolla, <a href = "#page65">65</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Reuben Glenroy, <a href = "#page67">67</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Harry Dornton, <a href = "#page73">73</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Bob Handy, <a href = "#page76">76</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Alonzo, 229, 337</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Jaffier, 337</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Copper Captain, 339</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Prince of Wales, 339.</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Cone</span>,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Alonzo, <a href = "#page65">65</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Henry, <a href = "#page76">76</a>.</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Warren</span>,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Las Casas, <a href = "#page65">65</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Abel Handy, <a href = "#page76">76</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Falstaff, 344</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Cacafogo, 344.</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Jefferson</span>,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Frank Oatland, <a href = "#page62">62</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Orozimbo, <a href = "#page65">65</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Cosey, <a href = "#page67">67</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Goldfinch, <a href = "#page73">73</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Farmer Ashfield, <a href = "#page75">75</a>.</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+<span class = "smallcaps">M‘Kenzie</span>,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Sir Hubert Stanley, <a href = "#page62">62</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Pizarro, <a href = "#page65">65</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Old Norval, 155.</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Francis</span>,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Vortex, <a href = "#page62">62</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Trot, <a href = "#page68">68</a>.</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Mrs. <span class = "smallcaps">Wood</span>,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Jessy Oatland, <a href = "#page62">62</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Cora, <a href = "#page66">66</a>.</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Mrs. <span class = "smallcaps">Francis</span>,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Mrs. Vortex, <a href = "#page62">62</a></p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Dame Ashfield, <a href = "#page76">76</a>.</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Mrs. <span class = "smallcaps">Seymour</span>, <a href =
+"#page62">62</a>.</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Payne</span>,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+in Douglas, 145</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Octavian, 220</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Frederick, 221</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Zaphna and Selim, 222</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Tancred, 222</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Romeo, 223.</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Cooper</span>,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Othello, 225</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Zanga, 227</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Richard, 230</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Pierre, 230</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Hamlet, 231</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Macbeth, 231</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Hotspur, 234</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Michael Ducas, 234</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Alexander, 422</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Antony, Jul. C�Ĥs. 420.</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+<span class = "smallcaps">West</span>, <a href = "#page68">68</a>,
+bis.</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Dwyer</span>,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Belcour, 425</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Tangent, 427</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Ranger, 427</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Vapid, 427</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Liar, 427</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Rapid, 427</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+Sir Charles Racket, 427.</p>
+<p>Advice to conductors of magazines, 402</p>
+<p>�†schylus, 114, 189</p>
+<p>Alleyn, the player, account of, <a href = "#page45">45</a></p>
+<p>Anecdotes and good things</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Dick the Hunter, <a href = "#page92">92</a></p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Dr. Young, 181</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Othello burlesqued, 181</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Voltaire, 184</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Louis XIV. 184</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Mara and Florio, 185</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Macklin, 247, 248, 397, 408, 409</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Mozart, the composer, 257</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Old Wignell, 343</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Macklin and Foote, 397</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Impertinent <i>Petit Maitre</i>, 406</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Curious Slip Slop, 406</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Specific for blindness, 407</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Kemble and a stage tyro, 407</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Kemble’s bon mot on Sydney playhouse, 407</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Irish forgery, 407</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Woman and country magistrate, 408</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+French dramatic, 481</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Bacon and cabbage, 485.</p>
+<p>Apparition, sable or mysterious bell-rope, 325</p>
+<p>Aristophanes, 269</p>
+<p>Authors’ benefits</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+see Southern, 502</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">B</p>
+
+<p>Barry, the great player, account of, 298</p>
+<p>Bedford, duke of, monument, 317</p>
+<p>Betterton, the great actor, 133, 213</p>
+<p>Biography, <a href = "#page24">24</a>, 118, 202, 357</p>
+<p>Bull, a dramatic one, 505</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">C</p>
+
+<p>Carlisle, countess of, opinion of drama, 398</p>
+<p>Catalani, madam, <a href = "#page96">96</a></p>
+<p>Cibber, Colley, his merit, 506</p>
+<p>Coffee and Chocolate, account of, 311</p>
+<p>Cone, see actors</p>
+<p>Cooper, life of, <a href = "#page28">28</a></p>
+<p>Cooper, see actors</p>
+<p>Cooper, account of his acting, 223</p>
+<p>Correspondence</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+on abuses of the Theatre, <a href = "#page103">103</a>, <a href =
+"#page104">104</a></p>
+<p>&mdash;&mdash;, from Baltimore on Theatricals, 157</p>
+<p>&mdash;&mdash;, from New-York, ditto, 414</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">D</p>
+
+<p>Dramatic Censor, <a href = "#page49">49</a>, 141, 220, 337, 414</p>
+<p>Drama, Grecian, 109, 189, 269, 350</p>
+<p>&mdash;&mdash;, lady Carlisle’s opinion on, 398</p>
+<p>Dwyer, actor, 235</p>
+<p>&mdash;&mdash;, see actors.</p>
+<p>Dramaticus, 251, 328, 502</p>
+<p>Dungannon, famous horse, 500</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">E</p>
+
+<p>Edenhall, luck of, old ballad, 487</p>
+<p>Edward and Eleonora, remarks on, 502</p>
+<p>English, parallel between English men and English mastiffs, by
+cardinal Ximenes, <a href = "#page88">88</a></p>
+<p>Epilogues, humorous ones after tragedies censured, 400</p>
+<p>Euripides, 195</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">F</p>
+
+<p>Francis, see actors</p>
+<p>&mdash;&mdash;, Mrs., ibid.</p>
+<p>Fullerton, actor, driven to suicide, 504</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">G</p>
+
+<p>German Theatre, vindication of, by Dramaticus, 251</p>
+<p>Gifford, Wm. life of, 357, 447</p>
+<p>Greek drama, 109, 189, 269, 350</p>
+
+</td>
+<td>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">H</p>
+
+<p>History of the stage, <a href = "#page9">9</a>, 109, 189, 269, 350,
+431</p>
+<p>High Life below Stairs, account of, 506</p>
+<p>Hodgkinson, biography of, 202, 283, 368, 457</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">I</p>
+
+<p>Irish bulls, specimen of, 455</p>
+<p>Jefferson, see actors</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">L</p>
+
+<p>Lear, essay on the alterations of it, 391</p>
+<p>Le Kain, the French actor, account of, 438</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">||</span>
+
+<p>Lewis, his retirement from the stage, 185</p>
+<p>Literary World, what is it? 406</p>
+<p>Longevity, instance of, 496</p>
+<p>Lover general, a rhapsody, 399</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">M</p>
+
+<p>Macklin checked practice of hissing, 504</p>
+<p>Man and Wife, a comedy, 188</p>
+<p>Menander, 350</p>
+<p>Metayer Henry, anecdote of with Theobald, 503</p>
+<p>M‘Kenzie, see actors</p>
+<p>Milton and Shakspeare, comparison between, 248</p>
+<p>Miscellany, <a href = "#page96">96</a>, 173, 241, 307, 384, 467</p>
+<p>Music, <a href = "#page81">81</a>, 257</p>
+<p>&mdash;&mdash;, Oh think not my spirits are always as light,
+a&nbsp;song by Anacreon Moore, <a href = "#page83">83</a></p>
+<p>&mdash;&mdash;, Irish, 161</p>
+<p>Musical performance, expectation of a grand one, 428</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">N</p>
+
+<p>New-York reviewers impeached, 505</p>
+<p>Nokes, comedian, 381</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">O</p>
+
+<p>O’Kelly’s horse Dungannon, 500</p>
+<p>Originality in writing, Voltaire’s idea of, 184</p>
+<p>Otway, observations on, 502</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">P</p>
+
+<p>Payne, American young Roscius, criticised on, 141, 220, 241</p>
+<p>&mdash;&mdash;, see actors</p>
+<p>Pedestrianism, humorous essay on, 262</p>
+<p>Players celebrated compared with celebrated painters, 387</p>
+<p>Plays, names of, attached to each No.</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+<a href = "#foundling">Foundling of the Forest</a>, No. I</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Man and Wife, No. II</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Venoni, No. III</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+New Way to pay Old Debts, No. IV</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Alfonso, king of Castile, No. V</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+The Free Knights, No. VI.</p>
+<p>Plays criticised in the Censor</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Cure for the Heart-ach, <a href = "#page59">59</a></p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Pizarro, <a href = "#page62">62</a></p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Town and Country, <a href = "#page66">66</a></p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Ella Rosenberg, <a href = "#page69">69</a></p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Wood Demon, <a href = "#page71">71</a></p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Abaellino, <a href = "#page73">73</a></p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Road to Ruin, <a href = "#page73">73</a></p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Speed the Plough, <a href = "#page74">74</a></p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Man and Wife, 188</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Foundling of the Forest, <a href = "#page80">80</a>, 345</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Africans, 418.</p>
+<p>Poetry</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Tom Gobble, <a href = "#page97">97</a></p>
+<p class = "indent">
+English bards and Scotch reviewers, extract from, <a href =
+"#page98">98</a></p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Occasional prologue on the first appearance of Miss Brunton, afterwards
+Merry and Warren, at Bath, 121</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Latin verses on do. and translation, 124</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Prologue on first appearance, of the same lady in London, by
+A.&nbsp;Murphy, 126</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Duck shooting, 172</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+A true story, 183</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Lewis’s address on taking leave of Ireland, 187</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+On the death of Mrs. Warren, 246</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Descent into Elisium, 253</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Gracy Nugent, by Carolan, 261</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+O never let us marry, 324</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Epilogue by Sheridan, censuring humourous ones after tragedies, 401</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Logical poem on chesnut horse and horse chesnut, 404</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Quin, an anecdote in verse, 409</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Luck of Edenhall, 487</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+The parson and the nose, 495</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Solitude, advantages of for study, 495</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Soldier <ins class = "correction" title = "text reads ‘tohis’">to
+his</ins> horse, 499.</p>
+<p>Prospectus, <a href = "#page1">1</a></p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">R</p>
+
+<p>Reviews of New-York impeached, 505</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">S</p>
+
+<p>Seymour, Mrs. see actors</p>
+<p>She would and she would not, merit of, 506</p>
+<p>Southern, 502</p>
+<p>Socrates, death of, 280</p>
+<p>Sophocles, 189</p>
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">Sporting</span>, <a href =
+"#page85">85</a>, 164, 262, 410, 499</p>
+<p>Spain, divertissements in, 495</p>
+<p>Strolling Player, a week’s journal of, 396</p>
+<p>Stage, history of, <a href = "#page8">8</a>, <a href =
+"#page9">9</a>, 109, 189, 269, 350</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">T</p>
+
+<p>Taylor, Billy, critique on ballad, 467</p>
+<p>Thespis, account of, 113</p>
+<p>Theobaldus Secundus, 173, 241, 307, 384</p>
+<p>Theatre, misbehaviour there, 267</p>
+<p>Theobald, his theft from Metayer, 503</p>
+<p>Theatrical contest, Barry and Garrick, in Romeo, 507</p>
+<p>Thornton, Col. his removal from York to Wilts, 164</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">V</p>
+
+<p>Voltaire, his idea of originality in writing, 184</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">W</p>
+
+<p>Warren, Mrs. life of, 118</p>
+<p>Warren, actor, see actors</p>
+<p>West, see actors</p>
+<p>Wit, pedigree of, by Addison, 406</p>
+<p>Wife, essay on the choice of, 477</p>
+<p>Wood, actor, see actors</p>
+<p>&mdash;&mdash;, Mrs., ibid.</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">Y</p>
+
+<p>Young, celebrated actor, 236</p>
+
+<p class = "letterhead">Z</p>
+
+<p>Zengis, so unintelligible <ins class = "correction" title =
+"word missing in original">audience not</ins> understand it, 507</p>
+
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr>
+
+<div class = "foundling">
+
+<span class = "pagenum full">1</span>
+<a name = "page_f1" id = "page_f1"> </a>
+
+<a name = "foundling" id = "foundling">&nbsp;</a>
+<h3>THE</h3>
+
+<h1>FOUNDLING OF THE FOREST:</h1>
+
+<h2>A PLAY.</h2>
+
+
+<h5>BY WILLIAM DIMOND, ESQ.</h5>
+
+<h6>AUTHOR OF “ADRIAN AND ORRILA,” “HERO OF THE NORTH,”<br>
+“HUNTER OF THE ALPS,” &amp;c. &amp;c.</h6>
+
+<p class = "lines">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h6>“And yet poor Edwin was no vulgar boy.” <i>Beattie.</i></h6>
+
+<p class = "lines">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h6>PUBLISHED BY BRADFORD AND INSKEEP, PHILADELPHIA;<br>
+INSKEEP AND BRADFORD, NEW-YORK; AND WILLIAM<br>
+M‘ILHENNNY, BOSTON.</h6>
+
+<h6>SMITH AND MAXWELL, PRINTERS.</h6>
+
+<h6>1810.</h6>
+
+
+<a name = "page_f2" id = "page_f2"> </a>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">3</span>
+<a name = "page_f3" id = "page_f3"> </a>
+
+<h4>THE FOUNDLING OF THE FOREST.</h4>
+
+
+<h6>DRAMATIS PERSONAE.</h6>
+
+<table class = "cast" summary = "cast of characters in two columns">
+<tr>
+<td colspan = "2">
+<p><em>Count De Valmont</em>.</p>
+<p><em>Baron Longueville</em>.</p>
+<p><em>Florian</em>, a foundling adopted by De Valmont.</p>
+<p><em>Bertrand</em>, valet to Longueville.</p>
+<p><em>L’Eclair</em>, valet to Florian.</p>
+<p><em>Gaspard</em>, an old domestic.</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<p><em>Geraldine</em>, niece to De Valmont.</p>
+<p><em>Rosabelle</em>, her woman.</p>
+<p><em>Monica</em>, an old woman.</p>
+<p><em>Unknown Female</em>.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>
+<em>
+Sanguine,<br>
+Lenoire,</em>
+</td>
+<td class = "bracket">
+<p>bravoes in the pay of Longueville.</p>
+</td>
+<td>
+<p>Domestics, Peasants, Dancers, &amp;c. &amp;c.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>SCENE&mdash;<i>The Chateau de Valmont and its environs, situate in
+the upper Alsace, near the River Rhine.</i></p>
+
+
+<h4 class = "act"><a name = "act_I" id = "act_I">ACT I.</a></h4>
+
+<h5 class = "scene"><a name = "act_I_i" id = "act_I_i">SCENE
+I.</a>&mdash;<i>A hall in the Chateau de Valmont.</i></h5>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Bertrand</em>, in agitation, followed by
+<em>Longueville</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ber.</span>
+Forbear, my lord! to urge me further.&mdash;Would you tempt me to insure
+perdition?&mdash;my soul is heavy enough with weight of crimes
+already.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Hypocrite! You, whom I have known in childhood&mdash;a villain, even
+from the cradle&mdash;committing crimes as pastimes&mdash;has your hand
+been exercised thus long in blood, to shake with conscience, and desert
+me now?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ber.</span>
+I have, indeed, deserved reproaches, but not from your lips, my lord!
+Remember, for you it was this hand was first defiled with
+blood&mdash;remember, too&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Yes, villain! I do remember, that my misplaced bounty once gave you back
+a forfeit life. Twenty years past, when, as a deserter, you were
+sentenced, by the regiment under my command, to death, your fate was
+inevitable, had not I vouchsafed a pardon. Traitor! you, too, had best
+remember a solemn oath at that same period passed your lips, which bound
+you, soul and body, to my service ever&mdash;unscrupling to perform my
+pleasures, whether good or ill, and still to hold my secrets fast from
+earthly ears, though unabsolving priests renounced you on the
+death-bed.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ber.</span>
+(<i>shuddering</i>) Ay! ay! it was an oath of horror, and if you
+command, it must be kept. Well, then&mdash;the young, the brave, the
+good, kindhearted Florian&mdash;yes&mdash;he dies!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Then only may your master be esteemed to live.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ber.</span>
+But whence this hatred to an unoffending youth?&mdash;one, whose form
+delights all eyes, and whose virtues are the theme of every tongue?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Fool! that person and those virtues of which you vaunt, are with me his
+worst offences&mdash;they have undone my love and marred my
+fortunes&mdash;the easy heart of Geraldine is captivated by the
+stripling’s specious outside, while his talents and achievements secure
+him with the uncle undivided favour.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Can nothing but his blood appease your enmity?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Nothing&mdash;for now my worst suspicions stand confirmed. I&nbsp;have
+declared to De Valmont my passion for his niece, and the sullen
+visionary has denied my suit&mdash;nay, insolently told me “Geraldine’s
+affections are another’s right.”&mdash;Curses on that minion’s
+head!&mdash;’tis for Florian De Valmont’s heiress is reserved&mdash;and
+shall I suffer this vile foundling, this child of charity, to lord it
+over those estates, for which my impatient soul
+<span class = "pagenum half">3</span>
+has paid a dreadful earnest! No, by heavens! never!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Fatal avarice! already have we bartered for those curst estates our
+everlasting peace!&mdash;for those did midnight flames surprise the
+sleep of innocence&mdash;for those did the sacrificed Eugenia with her
+shrieking babe&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Wretch! dare not repeat those names! Now, mark me: this night Florian
+returns a triumpher from his campaign&mdash;two of my trusty
+blood-hounds watch the road to give me timely note of his approach. One
+only follower attends the youth. In the thick woods ’twixt the chateau
+and Huningen, an ambush safely laid, may end my rival and my fears
+forever. In the west avenue, at sunset, I&nbsp;command your presence.
+Mark me! I&nbsp;command you by your oath.
+<span class = "stagedir">Exit.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Miserable man! I am indeed a slave, soul and body&mdash;both are in the
+thrall! I&nbsp;know the fiend I serve. If I attempt to fly, his vengeful
+agency pursues me to the world’s limit. No&mdash;my doom is
+fixed&mdash;I must remain the very wretch I am for life&mdash;and after
+life&mdash;Oh! let me not think of that!</p>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Rosabelle</em> behind, who taps his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Talking to yourself, Mr. Bertrand? that’s not polite in a lady’s
+company.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+(<i>starting</i>) Ah! Rosabelle&mdash;good lass!&mdash;how art,
+Rosabelle?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Why, Mr. Bertrand, how pale you look, and your limbs quite
+tremble&mdash;I fear me you are ill.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Oh, no&mdash;I am well&mdash;quite well&mdash;never better.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Then you are out of spirits.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+You mistake&mdash;I am all happiness&mdash;ha! ha!&mdash;all joy!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+What! because the wars are over, and chevalier Florian returns to
+us?&mdash;’tis a blest hearing, truly&mdash;after all the hardships and
+dangers he has passed to see him once again in safety&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+(<i>involuntarily</i>) Ah! would to heaven we might!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Can there be any doubt? He reaches the chateau this night&mdash;will he
+not be in safety then?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Yes, yes, with this night every danger certainly will cease.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Bertrand! why do you rub your hand before your eyes?&mdash;surely you
+are weeping.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+No, ’tis a momentary pain that&mdash;but ’twill leave me soon. At night,
+Rosabelle, you shall see me jovial&mdash;joyous!&mdash;we’ll dance
+together, wench&mdash;ay, and sing&mdash;then&mdash;ha! ha!
+ha!&mdash;then who so mirthful, who so mad, as Bertrand.
+<span class = "stagedir">Exit.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+What new spleen has bewitched the man? he is ever in some sullen mood,
+with scowling
+<span class = "pagenum">4</span>
+<a name = "page_f4" id = "page_f4"> </a>
+brows, or else in a cross-arm’d fit of melancholy; but I never marked
+such wildness in his looks and words before.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+<em>Geraldine</em> speaks without.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Rosabelle.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Here, my lady, in the hall.</p>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Geraldine</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Girl! I have cause to chide you; my toilette must be changed&mdash;you
+have dressed me vilely&mdash;here! remove these knots&mdash;I hate their
+fashion.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Yet they are the same your ladyship commended yesterday.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Then ’tis the colour of my robe offends me&mdash;these ornaments are a
+false match to it&mdash;either all the mirrors in the house have warped
+since yesterday, or never did I look so ill before.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Now, in my poor judgment, you rarely have looked better.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Out! fool; you have no judgment.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Well, fool or not, there’s one upon the road who holds faith with me, or
+I’m a heretic. Your charms will shine bright enough, lady, to dazzle a
+soldier’s eye.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Ah! no, Rosabelle&mdash;you would deceive your mistress. Florian returns
+not as he left us; his travelled eyes have gazed on beauties of the
+polished court&mdash;and now he will despise the wild untutored
+Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Will he? Let him beware he shows not his contempt before me. What! my
+own beautiful and high-born mistress; the greatest heiress in all
+Alsace; to be despised by a foundling, picked up in a forest, and reared
+upon her uncle’s charity?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Hush!&mdash;the mystery of my Florian’s birth is his misfortune, but
+cannot be his reproach. Our countrymen may dispute his title to command,
+but our enemies have confessed his power to conquer; and trust me, girl,
+the brave man’s laurel blooms with as fresh an honour in the poor
+peasant’s cap as when it circles princely brows; nay, Justice deems it
+of a nobler growth, for Flattery often twines the laurel round a
+coronet, but Truth alone bestows it on the unknown head.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+I confess the Chevalier is a proper gallant for any woman. Ay, and so is
+the Chevalier’s man. I&nbsp;warrant me, that knave, L’Eclair, when he
+returns, will follow me about, wheedling and whining, to recollect
+certain promises. Well, well, let but the soldiers return with whole
+hearts from the war, and your ladyship and myself know how to reward
+fidelity. In sooth, the chateau has been but a doleful residence in
+their absence; the count never suffered his dwelling to be a merry one;
+but of late his strange humours have so increased, that the household
+might as well have lodged in purgatory.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Hold! I must not hear my uncle’s name pronounced with levity. An angel
+at his birth, mingled the divine spirit with less than human frailty;
+but fiends have since defaced the noble work with more than human
+trials. That fatal night, when the fierce Huguenots fired his castle,
+and buried both his wife and infant in the blazing ruin; that night of
+horrors has to his shocked and shrinking fancy still been ever present;
+there still it broods&mdash;settled, perpetual and alone! Ah! Rosabelle!
+the petulancies of misfortune claim our pity, not resentment. My dear
+uncle is a recluse, but not a misanthrope; he rejects the society of
+mankind, yet is he solicitous for their happiness; and while his own
+heart breaks in silence under a weight of undivided sorrows, does he not
+seek incessantly to alleviate the burthen of his complaining
+brethren?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+I know the count has an excellent heart; but surely his temper has its
+flaws.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+And shall we deem the sun that cheers
+<span class = "pagenum half">4</span>
+the season less gracious in its course, because a cloud at intervals may
+hide or chill its beams? (<i>A bell rings</i>). Hark! ’tis the bell of
+his chamber. Perhaps he will admit me now; for four days past I have
+applied at the door in vain. Ah me!&mdash;these constant growing
+maladies sometimes make me tremble for his life. Girl! if from the
+turret-top at distance you espy the hastening travellers, turn, swift as
+thought, and call me to partake your watch!
+<span class = "stagedir">Exit.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+If they arrive before sun-set, I’m sure I shall know L’Eclair a mile off
+by the saucy toss of his head: before that rogue went on the campaign,
+he certainly extorted some awkward kind of promises from me. As a woman
+of honour, I’m afraid it must be kept; I&nbsp;<ins class = "correction"
+title = "text reads ‘dont’">don’t</ins> want a husband&mdash;oh! no,
+positively&mdash;to be sure, winter is coming on, my chamber faces the
+north, and when the nights are long, and dark, and cold, when the wind
+blusters, and the hail patters at the casement, then a solitary woman is
+apt to have strange fancies, and sometimes to wish that&mdash;well,
+well, my promise must be kept at all events.</p>
+
+<div class = "poem">
+
+<h5>SONG.&mdash;<i>Rosabelle.</i></h5>
+
+<p>Oh! come away! my soldier boy,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+From war to peace incline thee;</p>
+<p>Thy laurel, Time shall ne’er destroy.</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+But Love with roses twine thee.</p>
+<p class = "indent3">
+Come, come away,</p>
+<p class = "indent3">
+Love chides thy stay,</p>
+<p>Oh! prithee come my soldier!</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+Let fife and drum preserve their place,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+While softer sounds delight thee;</p>
+<p>The fiddle shall our wedding grace,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+But <i>horns</i> shall never fright thee.</p>
+<p class = "indent3">
+Come, come away,</p>
+<p class = "indent3">
+Love chides thy stay,</p>
+<p>Oh! prithee come my soldier!</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+Exit.</p>
+
+
+<h5 class = "scene">
+<a name = "act_I_ii" id = "act_I_ii">SCENE II.</a>&mdash;<i>A saloon: a
+large window is open and discovers the gardens: the noise of song and
+dance is heard immediately below the window.</i></h5>
+
+<div class = "poem">
+
+<h5>CHORUS.</h5>
+
+<p>Sing farewell labour,</p>
+<p>Blow pipe and beat tabor,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Fly care far away;</p>
+<p>In light band advancing,</p>
+<p>Let music and dancing</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Proclaim holyday.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+<em>De Valmont</em> opens the door of an inner chamber, and crosses the
+stage with a quick petulant step, to ring a bell in the saloon: no
+answer is immediately given, and he repeats the ring with increased
+fretfulness.</p>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Gaspard</em>.</p>
+
+<p><i>De Val.</i> So! am I heard! old man! to what strange dwelling have
+I been borne while sleeping? and who is your new master?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gas.</span>
+Alack! your lordship is in your own fair castle, nor other master than
+yourself do&nbsp;I, or any of my fellows serve&mdash;a kind and noble
+master.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+You tell me wonders; I thought the master in his house had borne command
+among his people, but here it seems, each groom is more absolute in his
+humours than the lord; how is’t? do I clothe and feed a pampered herd,
+but to increase my torments? when I would muse in privacy, must I be
+baited still, and stunned with crowds and clamours? knave! drive the
+rabble from my gate, and rid my ears of discord.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gas.</span>
+Well-a-day! who could have foreseen this anger? my good lord ’tis but
+your tenantry rejoicing: this morning, I&nbsp;distributed your
+lordship’s bounty among them to celebrate chevalier Florian’s return;
+and now the honest grateful
+<span class = "pagenum">5</span>
+<a name = "page_f5" id = "page_f5"> </a>
+souls would fain thank their benefactor by the song that tells him they
+are happy.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Their thanks are hateful to me; ungenerous wretches! is it not enough
+that they are happy whilst I am miserable, but they must mock my anguish
+by a saucy pageant of their joys, and force my shrinking senses more
+keenly to remark the contrast of our fates? (<i>Tabors, &amp;c.
+without.</i>) Quick! quick! begone and drive them from my gate
+(<i>stamps imperatively</i>).</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gas.</span>
+(<i>frighted</i>) I am gone, my lord!&mdash;I am gone.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Hold! another word&mdash;perhaps the unthinking creatures might design
+this torture kindly, and I would not punish the mistakes of ignorance.
+Do not dismiss them harshly&mdash;I would have them indulge their
+gayety, but I cannot bear to be a witness of it. Gaspard, this house is
+Melancholy’s chosen home; and its devoted master’s heart, like a
+night-bird that abhors the animating sun, has been so long familiarized
+to misery, it sickens and recoils at the approach of mirth.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gas.</span>
+(<i>pressing his hand</i>) My kind, unfortunate, my beloved master!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+(<i>snatching it from him</i>) Pshaw! I&nbsp;loathe
+pity&mdash;(<i>shouts</i>)&mdash;hark! again! go, go, send them from the
+gate, but not harshly.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">Exit <em>Gaspard</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+All hearts rejoicing; mine only miserable! every peasant yielding to
+delight, their lord alone devoted to despair; a&nbsp;subtle, slow
+despair that, drop by drop, congeals the blood of life, yet will not bid
+the creeping current quite forbear to flow; that has borne its victim
+just to the sepulchre ’s tempting edge, but holds him there to envy, not
+partake its slumbers. Well, well, your own appointed hour, just
+heavens!&mdash;if it be the infirmity of man to repine here, it is the
+Christian’s hope to rejoice hereafter.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+Re-enter <em>Gaspard</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gas.</span>
+I’ve sent them hence; they’ll not be heard again; but since they may not
+thank, they are gone to pray for you&mdash;Mass! I&nbsp;had nigh
+forgotten&mdash;young Madam Geraldine is in the <ins class =
+"correction" title = "spelling unchanged">anti-room</ins>, and waits to
+see your lordship.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Admit her! (<i>Exit</i> Gaspard) My gentle one! my desolate, orphan
+maid, if any softening drop were yet permitted in my cup of bitters,
+I&nbsp;think the affectionate hand of Geraldine would mingle and prepare
+it for my lip.</p>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Geraldine</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+(<i>Tenderly embracing him</i>) Ah! my dear, dear uncle! how am I
+rejoiced by a permission to visit you again; for four long days you have
+secluded yourself, and indeed I have been so distressed&mdash;but I will
+not speak of past anxieties now; war restores its hero to our vows;
+Florian returns to us&mdash;are not you quite happy, uncle?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Happy? I? my good child&mdash;do not mock&nbsp;me.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Nay, could I intend&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Well! let it pass; you it seems, my Geraldine, are really happy; your
+lips confess much, but your eyes still betray more&mdash;niece, you love
+my adopted Florian.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Love! fy, uncle&mdash;Oh yes, yes, I&nbsp;do certainly love him like a
+brother.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Something better.&mdash;Suppose I should offer this Florian to you as a
+husband</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+(<i>looking down demurely.</i>) I never presume to dispute my dear
+uncle’s commands.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Little equivocator! answer me strictly: do you not wish to become his
+wife?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Indeed, I never yet have asked my heart that question.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+But if Florian married any other woman, would you not hate the object of
+his preference?</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum half">5</span>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+(<i>throwing herself upon his neck.</i>) Ah! uncle, you have my secret:
+no, I&nbsp;would not hate my fortunate rival&mdash;I would pray for her
+happiness, but my heart would break while it breathed that prayer!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+My excellent ingenuous child, indulge the virtuous emotions of your
+heart without disguise&mdash;Florian and Geraldine are destined for each
+other.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Generous benefactor! what delightful dazzling visions your words conjure
+up to my imagination; the universe will concentrate within the fairy
+circle of our hearth; a&nbsp;waking consciousness of bliss will ever
+freshly dress our day in flowers, and at nights, fancy will gild our
+pillow with the dream that merrily anticipates the future.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Enthusiast! you contemplate the ocean in a calm, nor dream how
+frightfully a tempest may reverse the picture.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Ambitious pride may tremble at the storm, but true love, uncle, never
+can be wrecked; its constancy is strengthened, not impaired by trials,
+and when adversity divorces us from common friendships, the chosen
+partners of each other’s hearts a second time are married, and with
+dearer rites.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+(<i>averting his face with a look of anguish</i>) Girl!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+(<i>unnoticing his emotion</i>) Then if they have children, how
+surpassing is the bliss, while their own gay prime is mellowly subsiding
+into age, to trace the features and the virtues they adored in youth,
+renewed before their eyes, and feel themselves the proud and grateful
+authors of each other’s joy&mdash;Ah! trust me, uncle! such a destiny is
+beyond the reach of fortune’s malice; ’tis the anti-type of heaven.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+(<i>Grasping her hand suddenly, convulsed with agitation.</i>) ’Tis the
+distracting mockery of hell that cheats us with an hour’s ecstatic dream
+to torture us eternally: girl! girl! <ins class = "correction" title =
+"text reads ‘woulds’t’">wouldst</ins> thou find happiness, die! seek it
+in the grave, only in the grave&mdash;a watchful fiend destroys it upon
+earth! Prat’st thou of love? Connubial and parental love? Ah! dear-lov’d
+objects of my soul! what are ye now&mdash;ashes, ashes, darkly
+scattering to the midnight winds. God! the flames yet blaze&mdash;here,
+here&mdash;my brain’s on fire!
+<span class = "stagedir">Rushes out.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Uncle! listen to your Geraldine!&mdash;Ah! ingrate that I am! the
+vulture that gnaws his generous heart, had slumbered for a moment, and I
+have waked it to renew its cruelty! my fault was unawares, yet I could
+chide it like a crime; my mounting spirits fall from their giddy height
+at once. Oh! uncle! noble, suffering uncle! would that my tears could
+wash away the recollection of my words.
+<span class = "stagedir">Weeps.</span></p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+<em>De Valmont</em> suddenly returns and embraces
+<em>Geraldine</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Geraldine! dear child, forgive me! my violence has terrified your gentle
+nature. I&nbsp;would not pain you, love, for worlds; but I am not always
+master of myself, and my passions will sometimes break forth rebellious
+to my reason; pity and forgive the infirmities of grief.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Ah! Sir. (<i>Attempts to kneel.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+(<i>Preventing her, and kissing her forehead.</i>) Bless you, my good
+and innocent child; nay, do not speak to me, my happiness is lost
+forever, but I can pray for yours. Bless you, my child! bless you ever.
+<span class = "stagedir">Breaks from her, and exit.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+My happiness! ah! if the exalted virtues of a soul like yours, my uncle,
+despair of the capricious boon, how shall the undeserving Geraldine
+presume to hope?</p>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Rosabelle</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Oh! my lady, such news, he’s arrived, he’s in the hall.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">6</span>
+<a name = "page_f6" id = "page_f6"> </a>
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+My Florian?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+No, lady, not your Florian, but my L’Eclair, not quite so great a hero
+as his master to be sure, but yet a real, proper, mettlesome soldier
+every inch; he looks about him among the men so fierce and so warlike;
+then with the women, he’s so impudent, and so audacious;&mdash;oh! he’s
+a special fellow.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+<em>L’Eclair</em> speaks without.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Here’s a set of rascals! no discipline? no subordination in the house!
+eh! look to the baggage, curry down my charger! hem!&nbsp;ha!</p>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>L’Eclair</em>.</p>
+
+<p>Your ladyship’s devoted servant, ever in the foremost rank! never did
+a nine-pounder traverse the enemy’s line with more promptitude
+than&nbsp;I, Phillippe L’Eclair, unworthy private of the fifth hussars,
+now fly to cast my poor person at your ladyship’s gracious feet.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+You are very welcome from the wars, L’Eclair, Fame has spoken of you in
+your absence.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Fy! my lady, you disorder me at the first charge,&mdash;a pestilence now
+upon that wicked, impertinent gossip, Fame,&mdash;will not her
+everlasting tongue suffer even so poor a fellow as L’Eclair, to escape?
+’tis insufferable; may I presume to inquire then, what rumours have
+reached your ladyship’s ear?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+To a soldier’s credit, trust me.&mdash;But your master, L’Eclair, where
+is&nbsp;he?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Ah! poor gentleman, he’s in the rearguard, I&nbsp;left him four leagues
+off, at the fortress of Huningen, unexpectedly
+confined&nbsp;by&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Confined! heavens! by what complaint?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Only the complaint of old age; the general commissioned my master upon
+his route to deliver some instructions to the superannuated commandant
+of the fortress; now the old gentleman proving somewhat dull of
+apprehension, my master though dying of impatience, was constrained to a
+delay of some extra hours, despatching me, his humble ambassador,
+forward, to prevent alarms, and promise his arrival at the chateau
+before midnight.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Midnight! so late?&mdash;four leagues to travel&mdash;alone&mdash;his
+road through an intricate forest, and the sky already seeming to predict
+a tempest.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Why, as your ladyship remarks, the clouds seem making a sort of forced
+march over our heads; but a storm is the mere trifling of nature in a
+soldier’s estimation; my master and his humble servant have faced a
+cannon-ball too frequently, to <ins class = "correction" title =
+"text reads ‘de’">be</ins> disconcerted by a hail-stone.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Then you have often been employed upon dangerous service, L’Eclair?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Hay, I protest, your ladyship must excuse me there; a&nbsp;man has so
+much the appearance of boasting, when he becomes the reporter of his own
+achievements; I&nbsp;beg leave to refer your ladyship to the gazettes,
+though I confess the gazettes do but afford a soup-maigre, whip-syllabub
+sort of narrative, accurate enough, perhaps in the main, but plaguily
+incommunicative of particulars: for instance, in the recent affair at
+Nordlingen, I&nbsp;can defy you to find any mention in the gazette, that
+the chevalier Florian charged through a whole regiment of the enemy’s
+grenadiers, drawn up in a hollow square, that Phillipe L’Eclair, singly
+followed the chevalier, and rode over all those his master had not time
+to decapitate, how a masked battery suddenly opened with twelve pieces
+of heavy ordnance, firing red-hot balls; how the chevalier’s horse
+reared; how L’Eclair’s neighed; but how both officer and private,
+neither a whit discouraged at this dilemma, galloped their chargers
+gracefully up to the flaming mouth of the danger; cleared a chevaux de
+frise of fifteen feet
+<span class = "pagenum half">6</span>
+at a flying leap; then dismounting; carried the battery by a coup de
+main; spiked the guns; muzzled the gunners with their own linstocks;
+and, finally compelled the principal engineer to turn cook, and grill a
+calf’s head at his own furnace, for the dinner of his conquerors! Now
+this affair which had no small influence in determining the fortune of
+the day, with many parallel traits, our gazetteers have unaccountably
+neglected to publish. My memory, perhaps, might remedy their
+deficiencies to any curious ear, but alas! an insurmountable modesty
+renders the task so painful, that I cast myself upon your ladyship’s
+compassion, and beseech you to forbear from further inquiry.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Ha! ha! your sensitive delicacy shall be respected L’Eclair; Rosabelle,
+be it your care to make the defender of his country welcome&mdash;at
+midnight then.&mdash;Oh! hasten on your flight, dark-wing’d hours!
+through your close shadows once disclose my Florian, then if ye list, be
+motionless, and still retard the day.
+<span class = "stagedir">Exit.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+There, you hear young woman!&mdash;you are to make the defender of his
+country welcome.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+I’ll do my best towards your pleasure,&mdash;what service can I lend you
+first.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Dress my wounds.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Wounds! gramercy! I never should have guessed you had any.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Deep, dangerous, desperate,&mdash;here! (<i>affectedly pressing his
+heart</i>) here, Rosabelle! here’s the malady; ’tis an old hurt,
+I&nbsp;took it ’ere I went on my campaign; time and absence had clapped
+an awkward sort of plaster on’t; but now&mdash;oh! those eyes!&mdash;the
+wound breaks out afresh;&mdash;must I expire?&mdash;Rosabelle! prithee,
+be my surgeon.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+I have not the skill to prescribe, but I could administer a remedy by
+directions; what salve will you try first.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Lip-salve, you gipsy! (<i>Kisses her furiously.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Now, shame upon your manners, master soldier, was this a trick taught
+you by the wars?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Yes, faith! saluting is one of the first lessons in a soldier’s trade,
+so my dear, tempting, provoking. (<i>Catches her round.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Hay, keep your hands off, you have taught me enough of the manual
+exercise already; but say now, were you indeed so great a hero in the
+battle as you told my lady?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Pshaw! I <ins class = "correction" title =
+"text reads ‘did’nt’">didn’t</ins> tell her half, my modesty forbade,
+but for thee, my pretty Rosabelle&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Ay, with me, I’m certain your modesty will be no obstacle.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+None, for while I gaze upon the face of an angel, the devil himself
+can’t put me out of countenance.</p>
+
+<div class = "poem">
+<h5>DUETTO.&mdash;<i>Rosabelle and L’Eclair.</i></h5>
+
+<p><i>Ros.</i> Tell, soldier, tell! and mark you tell me truly,</p>
+<p class = "indent3">
+How oft in battle have you slain a foe?</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+<span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Go, count the leaves when winds are heard unruly,</p>
+<p class = "indent3">
+In autumn that from mighty forests blow.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+<span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Did e’er a captain, worth a costly ransom,</p>
+<p class = "indent3">
+Own you his conqueror in the deadly broil?</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+<span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+I’ve twigg’d field-marshals, pickings snug and handsome,</p>
+<p class = "indent3">
+Twelve waggons now are loaded with my spoil.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+<span class = "speaker">Both.</span>
+Oh! loudly, proudly, sound the soldier’s fame!</p>
+<p class = "indent3">
+Oh! flashy, dashy, flaunt the soldier’s dame!</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+<span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Tell, soldier, tell! and mark, you tell me truly,</p>
+<span class = "pagenum">7</span>
+<a name = "page_f7" id = "page_f7"> </a>
+<p class = "indent3">
+Did foreign maids ne’er win your roving vow?</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+<span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+O! blood and fire!&mdash;I swear I can’t speak coolly,</p>
+<p class = "indent3">
+By Mars! to you, and only you, I bow.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+<span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Say, shall love’s chain of blossoms hold for ever?</p>
+<p class = "indent3">
+Nor time, nor absence, bid its bloom depart?</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+<span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Not sword, or gun, such magic links can sever,</p>
+<p class = "indent3">
+Or rend from Rosabelle her hero’s heart.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+<span class = "speaker">Both.</span>
+O! loudly, proudly, &amp;c.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<h5 class = "scene">
+<a name = "act_I_iii" id = "act_I_iii">SCENE III.</a>&mdash;<i>A front
+wood, stage very dark, thunder and lightning.</i></h5>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Longueville</em> and <em>Bertrand</em>, the latter disguised
+and masqued.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Come, sir, to your post! what! a&nbsp;coward even to the last? you
+tremble.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+I do indeed, the storm is terrible, it seems as if heaven’s own voice
+were clamoring to forbid the deed.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">Thunder.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+This tumult of the night assists our enterprise; its thunders will drown
+your victim’s dying groan. Where have you placed the bravoes?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Hard by&mdash;just where the horse-road sinks into a hollow dell, and
+over-spreading branches almost choke the pass, there we may rush upon
+the wretched youth securely, and there our poniards&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Hush!&mdash;a footstep!&mdash;who passes there?</p>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>1st Bravo</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker"><ins class = "correction" title =
+"not italicized">1st.</ins> Br.</span>
+Sanguine!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Wherefore are you here, and parted from your fellow?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">1st. Br.</span>
+I left him lurking in the hollow, while I sought you out to ask advice.
+Just now, a&nbsp;horse without a rider, burst furiously through the
+thicket where we lay; the lightning flashed brightly at the time, and I
+plainly marked the steed to be the very same young Florian rode, when we
+dogged him from the last inn, at sunset.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+(<i>involuntarily</i>) merciful God! then thou hast preserved him.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Villain! you may find your transports premature; perchance he has
+dismounted to seek on foot some shelter from the increasing fury of the
+storm; but ’tis impossible he should escape; one only path conducts to
+the chateau. Quick! bestow yourselves on either side, and your victim’s
+fate is certain. I&nbsp;must return to avoid suspicion.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+(<i>catching his arm.</i>) Yet, my lord, once more reflect.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+(<i>throwing him off.</i>) Recollect your oath.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+(<i>desperately.</i>) Yes, yes, it must be written on my memory in
+characters of blood.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">Exeunt separately.</p>
+
+
+<h5 class = "scene"><a name = "act_I_iv" id = "act_I_iv">
+SCENE IV.</a>&mdash;<i>Another part of the forest more entangled and
+intricate, the tempest becomes violent, and the stage appears
+alternately illumined by the lightning, and enveloped in utter darkness.
+Florian is seen advancing cautiously through the thickets from a
+distance.</i></h5>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+A plague upon all dark nights, foul ways, and runaway horses!
+a&nbsp;mettlesome madcap, to start at the lightning and plunge with me
+head over heels in the brushwood; in scrambling out of that thicket,
+I&nbsp;certainly turned wrong, and have missed my road&mdash;how to
+regain it? ’sdeath! I&nbsp;could as soon compose an almanac as <ins
+class = "correction" title = "error for ‘find’?">and</ins> a clue to
+this puzzle. Well, I&nbsp;was found in a wood when a baby, and have just
+lived to years
+<span class = "pagenum half">7</span>
+of discretion to be lost in a wood again! Fortune! Fortune! thou
+spiteful gipsy! was this an honest trick to pass upon a faithful
+servant, who has worn thy livery from his cradle, and taken off thy
+hands a thousand knocks and buffetings without a murmur? Just at this
+moment too, when hope and fancy were dancing merrily, and had made the
+prettiest ball-room of my heart&mdash;just too when the image of my
+Geraldine&mdash;(<i>rain, storm increases</i>) but a truce with
+meditation, this pelting shower rather advises action&mdash;(<i>turns to
+an opening</i>)&mdash;No; that can’t be the path; which ever way I turn
+I may only get farther entangled; then there are pit-falls, wolves,
+bears&mdash;yes! I’ve the prospect of a delectable night before me; what
+if I exercise my lungs and call for help? oh! there’s scarcely a chance
+of being heard; well, ’tis my forlorn hope and shall e’en have a trial.
+Holloa! Holloa! Holloa!
+<span class = "stagedir both">a whistle answers from the right</span>
+Huzza! somebody whistles from the right! kind lady Fortune! never will I
+call thee names again.
+<span class = "stagedir both">another whistle from the opposite
+side.</span>
+Ha! answered from the left too!&mdash;Lucky fellow!&mdash;where are you
+my dear boys&mdash;where are you?</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+Florian runs toward the right&mdash;a very vivid flash of lightning at
+that instant gleams upon the path before him, and displays the figure of
+a masqued bravo, <em>Sanguine</em>, with an unsheathed poniard advancing
+between the trees, <em>Florian</em> recoils.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Ha! a man armed and masqued!&mdash;perhaps some ruffian!&mdash;’sdeath!
+I&nbsp;am defenceless, my pistols were left in the saddle!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Sanguine.</span>
+(<i>advancing</i>) Who called?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+If I return no answer in the darkness I may retreat unseen.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+He creeps silently to the left as the bravo advances.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">San.</span>
+Speak! where are you?</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+2d bravo emerges from the gloom and directly crosses the path by which
+<em>Florian</em> is about to escape.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Len.</span>
+Here!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">Thunder.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+<em>Florian</em> at the second voice discovers himself to be exactly
+between the ruffians, and stops.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+God!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+He recedes a single step, and strikes his hand against a tree
+immediately behind him, the trunk of which is hollowed by time, and open
+towards the audience.</p>
+
+<p>Ha! a tree!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+By his touch he discovers the aperture, and glides into the hollow, at
+the very instant the two bravoes stepping forward quickly from either
+side of the tree, encounter each other’s extended hands in front.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">San.</span>
+(<i>raising his poniard</i>) Die!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Len.</span>
+Hold! ’tis I&mdash;your comrade!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">San.</span>
+Why did you not answer before, I&nbsp;took you for&mdash;hark?</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Bertrand</em> comes through the trees from the top of the stage.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Hist! Sanguine?&mdash;Lenoire?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">San.</span>
+Here!&mdash;both of us.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+(<i>coming forward</i>) Why did you whistle?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">San.</span>
+In answer to your call&mdash;you hallooed to&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+When?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">San.</span>
+But now&mdash;a minute back.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+I never spoke.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">San.</span>
+I’ll swear I heard a voice&mdash;no doubt then but ’twas he
+that&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+From what quarter did the cry proceed?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">San.</span>
+I thought it sounded hereabouts, but the storm kept such a confounded
+patter at the time&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Well&mdash;let us take the left-hand path; and if we hear the call
+repeated&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">San.</span>
+Ay!&mdash;our daggers meet all questions with a keen reply.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">Exeunt to the left.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">8</span>
+<a name = "page_f8" id = "page_f8"> </a>
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+(<i>extricating himself cautiously from the tree.</i>) Eternal
+Providence, what have I heard! Murderers then are upon the watch for me!
+no, no&mdash;not for <i>me</i>. <i>I</i> cannot be the destined victim.
+I&nbsp;never yet offended a human being, and fiends themselves would not
+destroy without a cause for hatred. Heaven guard the threatened one,
+whoe’er he be! Well, Prudence at least admonishes me to avoid the
+left-hand path; faith any turn but that must prove the right for
+<i>me</i>. Ha! unless my eyes are cheated by a Will-o’-th’-Wisp,
+a&nbsp;friendly light now peeps out through yonder coppice. (<i>looking
+out</i>) Perhaps some woodman’s hut, with a fresh faggot just crackling
+on the hearth. Oh, for a seat in such a chimney corner. (<i>Whistle
+again at a distance</i>) I&nbsp;hear you, gentlemen, a&nbsp;pleasant
+ramble to you. Adieu, Messieurs! space be between us! yours is a
+left-handed destiny; I’ll seek mine to the right.
+<span class = "stagedir">Exit.</span></p>
+
+
+<h5 class = "scene"><a name = "act_I_v" id = "act_I_v">
+SCENE V.</a>&mdash;<i>The outside of a cottage in the wood; a&nbsp;light
+burning in a casement.</i></h5>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Monica</em>, supporting herself on a crutch, and carrying a
+basket of flax.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Praise to the virgin! my old limbs have reached their resting place at
+last: what a tempest! my new cardinal is quite drenched. Well, I’ve kept
+the flax dry, however, that’s some comfort, (<i>strikes against the
+door.</i>) Ho, there, within&mdash;open quickly.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+The door opens, and a female wildly dressed, appears; she catches
+Monica’s hand with affection, and kisses it.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Ah, my poor Silence! thou hast watched and fretted for me preciously,
+I’ll warrant: but the road from Brisac is long, and this rough night
+half crippled&nbsp;me.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+The female feels her damp garments, and seems with quick tenderness to
+invite her into the house.</p>
+
+<p>Well, well, never fright thyself, if I shiver now, a&nbsp;cup of warm
+Rhenish will soon make me glow again: ’faith I am weary though; wilt
+lend an arm to an old woman?</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+The female embraces and supports her.</p>
+
+<p>Ah, there’s my kind Silence.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+Exeunt into the cottage.</p>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Florian</em> running and out of breath, from the left
+hand.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+I’m right, by all the household gods! ’Twas no goblin of the fen that
+twinkled to deceive, but a real substantial weatherproof tenement
+shining with invitation to benighted travellers. Oh, blessings on its
+hospitable threshold; my heart luxuriates already by anticipation, and
+pants for a fireside, a&nbsp;supper, and a bed. Hold though&mdash;just
+now I was on the point of shaking hands with a cutthroat; who knows but
+here I may introduce myself upon visiting terms with his family? ’faith
+I’ll reconnoitre the position before I establish my quarters. This
+casement is commodiously low. (<i>Steps to the casement on tiptoe.</i>)
+I&nbsp;protest, a&nbsp;vastly neat, creditable sort of mansion!
+Yes&mdash;it will do! on one side blazes an excellent fire; in the
+middle stands a table ready covered; that’s for supper: then just
+opposite is a door left ajar; ay, that must lead to a bed. Ha! now the
+door opens; who comes forward? by all my hopes a woman! Enough; here
+will I pitch my tent. Whenever doubts and fears perplex a man, the form
+of woman strikes upon his troubled spirit like the rainbow stealing out
+of clouds&mdash;the type of beauty and the sign of hope! (<i>he
+knocks</i>) Now Venus send her with a kindly smile!&mdash;she
+comes&mdash;she comes.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+The female opens the door, but on seeing <em>Florian</em> recoils with
+trepidation&mdash;he catches her hand, and forcibly detains her.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+My dear madam! no alarm, for Heaven’s sake. You have thieves in your
+neighbourhood,
+<span class = "pagenum half">8</span>
+but, upon my soul, I&nbsp;don’t belong to their fraternity. No, madam,
+I’m an unlucky fellow, but with the best morals in the world: the fact
+is, I&nbsp;have lost myself in the forest; the storm rages&mdash;and as
+I am no knight-errant to court unnecessary hardships, respectfully I
+entreat the hospitality of this roof for the remainder of the night.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+The female surveys his figure with suspicion and timidity.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+I fear ’tis my misfortune to be disbelieved; nay then, let my dress
+declare my character! (<i>he releases her hand to throw open his
+riding-cloak, and discovers the regimental under it.</i>) Behold!
+I&nbsp;am a soldier.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+The female shrieks violently; for an instant she covers her eyes with
+both hands shudderingly, and then with the look and action of sudden
+insanity, darts away into the thicket of the wood.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+(<i>calling after her.</i>) Madam! my dear madam! only hear me, madam!
+she’s gone! absolutely vanished! I&nbsp;wish I had a looking-glass;
+certainly I must have changed my face when I lost my road&mdash;no
+scare-crow could have terrified the poor woman more. What’s to be done?
+If I follow her, I&nbsp;shall but increase her terrors and my own
+difficulties. Shall I enter the cottage and wait her return? the door
+stands most invitingly open, and to a wet and weary wanderer, that fire
+sparkles so provokingly&mdash;’faith, I&nbsp;can’t resist the
+temptation&mdash;Adventure seems the goddess of the night, and I’ll e’en
+worship the divinity at a blazing shrine!
+<span class = "stagedir">Exit into the house.</span></p>
+
+
+<h5 class = "scene"><a name = "act_I_vi" id = "act_I_vi">
+SCENE VI.</a>&mdash;<i>The interior of the cottage&mdash;the entrance,
+door, and casements are on one side&mdash;opposite is the
+fireplace&mdash;and a staircase in the back scene conducts to an upper
+chamber&mdash;a table with a lamp burning, and a frugal supper stands in
+the middle of the stage.&mdash;Florian is discovered when the scene
+draws, kneeling at the hearth and chaffing his hands before the
+fire.</i></h5>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Eternal praise to the architect who first invented chimney-corners? the
+man who built the pyramids was a dunce by comparison.
+<span class = "stagedir both">rises and looks round him.</span>
+All solitary and silent: faith, my situation here is somewhat whimsical.
+Well, I&nbsp;am left in undisturbed possession, and that’s a title in
+law, if not in equity.
+<span class = "stagedir both">he takes off his cloak and hangs it on a
+chair</span>
+Yes, this shall be my barrack for the night. What an unsocial spirit
+must the fair mistress of this cottage possess. Egad, she seemed to
+think it necessary, like the man and woman in the weather-house, that
+one sex should turn forth into the storm, so soon as the other sought a
+shelter from its peltings: a&nbsp;plague on such punctilio.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Monica</em> enters down the staircase from her chamber.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+<span class = "stagedir both">speaking as she descends.</span>
+There, my garments are changed, and we may now enjoy our supper.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Ha! another woman! but old, by the mother of the Graces!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+A stranger!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Not an impertinent one, I trust. One, who in the darkness of the storm
+has missed his road, despairs of regaining it till morning, and craves
+of your benevolence a shelter for the night. You shall be soon convinced
+I am no dangerous guest.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+<span class = "stagedir both">with a voluble civility.</span>
+Nay, young gentleman, never trouble yourself to inform me of your rank;
+you have told me your necessity, and that’s a sufficient claim to every
+comfort my little cabin can afford; pray, sir, take a seat: I&nbsp;am
+much honoured by your presence: we have a little supper toward; you must
+partake it, sir: here! my good Silence! come hither. Ah! I&nbsp;do not
+see&mdash;
+<span class = "stagedir both">looking anxiously round the
+cottage.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+I am afraid, my good madam, you miss
+<span class = "pagenum">9</span>
+<a name = "page_f9" id = "page_f9"> </a>
+one of your family.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+I do, indeed, sir; and&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flo.</span>
+It was my misfortune to drive a female out of your house at the moment I
+entered&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Sir!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+But not intentionally, I protest. The fact is, though I have always
+esteemed myself as a well-manufactured person, yet something in my
+appearance so terrified the lady that&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Ah, I comprehend; you wear the habit of a soldier, sir, and my poor
+Silence never can abide to look upon that dress.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Indeed! that’s rather a singular antipathy for a female. May I
+inquire&mdash;is she a daughter of yours?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Not by blood, sir; but she is the child of misfortune, and as such may
+claim a parent in every heart that has itself experienced sorrow; but
+come, sir, take a seat, I&nbsp;beseech you; my alarm ceases now I know
+the cause of her absence. She is accustomed to wander in the woods by
+night when any thing disturbs her mind. She’ll return to me anon calm
+and passive as before: I&nbsp;have known it with her often thus. You
+look fatigued, sir; let me recommend this flask of Rhenish: pray drink,
+sir; it will do you good; it always does me good.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Madam, since you are so pressing, my best services to you&mdash;a very
+companionable sort of old gentlewoman this (<i>aside</i>);
+I&nbsp;protest, madam, I&nbsp;feel myself interested for this
+unfortunate under your protection; there was a wild and melancholy
+sweetness in her eye that touched me at our first exchange of looks with
+awe and pity; is her history a secret?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Oh, no&mdash;not a secret, but quite a mystery, you know nearly as much
+of it as I do; but since we are on the subject&mdash;another draught of
+wine, sir!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Madam, you will pledge me. And now for the mystery.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Well, sir, about sixteen years ago when I lived in Languedoc, for you
+must know I am but newly settled <i>here</i>, a&nbsp;stranger in Alsace,
+ay! about sixteen or seventeen years ago, there came a rumour to our
+village, of a <i>wild woman</i>, that had been caught by some peasants
+in the woods near <i>Albi</i>, following quite a savage and unchristian
+life; gathering fruits and berries for her food by day, and sleeping in
+the mossy hollows of a rock at night. She was brought round the country
+as a show. All the world in our parts went to look upon the prodigy, and
+you may be sure <i>I</i> made one among the crowd. Well, sir, this wild
+woman was the very creature you beheld but now. At that time she was in
+truth a piteous object; her form was meagre and wasted, and her wretched
+garment hung over it in filthy tatters; her fine hair fell in matted
+heaps, and the sun and the wind together had changed her skin like an
+Indian’s. Yet even in the midst of all this misery, there was a
+something so noble and so gentle in her air, that the moment I looked
+upon her, my curiosity was lost at once in pity and respect. The people
+by whom she was surrounded, were stunning her with coarse and vulgar
+questions, but never an answer did she deign to give, though some
+wheedled and some threatened; still ’twas to all alike: so most persons
+concluded she was dumb.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+And a very natural conclusion it was, when a female remained silent, who
+had so excellent an opportunity of exercising her tongue.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Well, Sir, presently <i>my</i> turn came to approach her, when somehow
+my heart swelled quite painfully, to see the gracious image of our Maker
+degraded, and one’s own fellow creature treated like the brutes of the
+field, so, that when I touched her, my tears started unawares and fell
+upon her trembling hand. Would you believe it, sir? the poor desolate
+statue felt the trickling drops, and reason was rekindled by the warmth
+of pity. Suddenly her eyes, so lately dull and vacant, flashed with
+recovered brightness. She cast herself at my feet&mdash;clasped my
+knees&mdash;and cried out, in tones that might have moved a heart of
+rock&mdash;“Angel of compassion! save me from disgrace?” All present
+started as if a miracle were worked. “Will you preserve me?” cried the
+suppliant. I&nbsp;was a widowed and a childless woman; in an instant I
+raised the forlorn one to my arms, as a companion, as an adopted
+daughter. Her keepers were ignorant men, but not cruel; their hearts
+were softened by the scene, and they yielded their claims to my
+entreaties. I&nbsp;led the <ins class = "correction" title =
+"error for ‘unfortunate’?">unfortune</ins> to my dwelling; from that moment, she
+has shared my mat and partaken of my morsel. I&nbsp;love her with the
+affection of a real parent, and were I now to lose her, I&nbsp;think my
+heart would break upon the grave that robbed it of its darling.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+By heavens, I reverence your feelings! in truth ’tis a melancholy
+story.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Yes, sir; and melancholy stories make people dry, so let me recommend
+another cup of wine.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Madam, I can’t refuse the challenge&mdash;(<i>aside</i>) the old lady
+certainly designs to send me under the table. But pray, madam, have you
+never discovered the cause of that distress, from which you first
+relieved this suffering woman?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Never. On the subject of her early adventures she remains inflexibly
+silent. I&nbsp;have often tried to win the secret from her, but though
+she is mild and rational enough upon all other themes, yet, let but a
+hint remind her of her former wretchedness, her wits directly start into
+disorder, and for whole hours, nay, sometimes days together, she remains
+a lunatic. I&nbsp;do not even know her name, but call her Silence,
+because her voice is heard so very rarely. I&nbsp;think her dejection
+has increased since we quitted Languedoc, for about two months since,
+a&nbsp;kinsman of mine died, and bequeathed me this cottage with some
+land here in Alsace; ’tis a lone house, and the thick woods about I fear
+remind my poor Silence too much of her former way of life, sometimes she
+wanders in them half the night.</p>
+
+<p><i>Flo.</i> Are you not fearful of her safety? these woods are full
+of danger; within this half hour, I&nbsp;myself have encountered three
+ruffians lurking for their prey.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Ruffians! young gentleman. Blessed Mary save us!&mdash;’tis true,
+I&nbsp;am a stranger in these parts, but never did I hear of such
+neighbours. Well, well, I&nbsp;fear not for my child, she has no wealth
+to tempt a plunderer. Poverty is the mother of ills, but her offspring
+generally respect each other. Come, sir, finish the flask; and now let
+me prepare your chamber for the night. (<i>rises.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Kind hostess! I am bounden to you ever. (<i>rises and fills his
+glass</i>) Here’s woman! beauteous, generous woman! <i>admired</i> when
+we are happy, but in our adversity <i>adored</i>! (<i>drinks.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+(<i>curtseying</i>) Sweet sir, down to the very ground I return your
+gallantry.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Hist!&mdash;don’t I hear footsteps in the wood?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+(<i>listening</i>) Ah, yes, perhaps my child returns to&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+The casement is thrust open, and <em>Bertrand</em> with the two bravoes
+look into the cottage.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Ah! men in masks!</p>
+
+<p><i>Bert.</i>’Tis he! (<i>they disappear from the casement.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Swift! help me swift to bar the door!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Ah! ’tis forced already! (<i>noise at door.</i>)</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+The door is burst, the two bravoes instantly spring upon
+<em>Florian</em> and grapple with him. <em>Bertrand</em> seizes the
+woman.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Murder! murder!</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">10</span>
+<a name = "page_f10" id = "page_f10"> </a>
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Silence, or you die!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Florian</em> struggles towards the centre of the stage in front, and
+is there forced down upon one knee.</p>
+
+<p><i>Flo.</i> Is it plunder that you seek? what is your purpose with
+me? speak!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">San.</span>
+Learn it by this! (<i>raises his dagger.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Hold! not <i>here</i>, drag him into the wood, despatch him
+<i>there</i>!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flo.</span>
+Inhuman villains! by your soul’s best hope&mdash;I charge you&mdash;I
+implore you&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+(<i>stamping furiously, and casting <em>Monica</em> from him</i>) Toward
+the wood!&mdash;Follow&nbsp;me!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+<em>Bertrand</em> turns to the door, and the bravoes struggle to force
+<em>Florian</em> after him, at that instant, the unknown female enters
+from the wood, and pauses in the door-way exactly opposite to
+<em>Bertrand</em>, his advanced arm falls back nerveless by his side,
+his limbs shake with strong convulsion, and he reels backwards.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Support me, ah! save me, or I die!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+The bravoes release <em>Florian</em> to fly towards <em>Bertrand</em>,
+who sinks in their arms. The female, with a light and rapid step crosses
+in front of the group to the middle of the stage where <em>Florian</em>
+remains kneeling, she spreads her wild drapery before the victim, and
+places herself between him and the ruffians in the attitude of
+protection.</p>
+
+<p><ins class = "correction" title =
+"text reads ‘Bart.’"><i>Bert.</i></ins> (<i>pursuing her with his eye
+deliriously</i>) Look! look! she rises from the grave! she blasts me
+with her frown! away! away! heaven itself forbids the deed!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+The ruffians rush forth into the wood again. <em>Florian</em> and
+<em>Monica</em> catch the hands of the unknown to their lips in
+transport, and the curtain falls suddenly upon the scene.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+End of act I.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h4 class = "act"><a name = "act_II" id = "act_II">
+ACT II.</a></h4>
+
+
+<h5 class = "scene"><a name= "act_II_i" id = "act_II_i">
+SCENE I.</a>&mdash;<i>A gallery in the chateau.</i></h5>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Longueville</em> and <em>Bertrand</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Traitor! infamous, unblushing traitor! Florian has arrived, arrived in
+safety: every way I have been betrayed; and now to screen your perfidy
+from punishment, you dare insult my ear with forgeries too monstrous and
+too gross for patience.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Hear me, my lord! as I have life, as I have a soul, so have I spoken
+truly, the grave yawned asunder to forbid the blow, it was no vision of
+my cowardice&mdash;I saw&mdash;distinctly saw-it was <i>Eugenia</i>! as
+in her days of nature, entire and undecayed, the spectre-form stood
+terribly before me, it moved&mdash;it gazed&mdash;it frowned me into
+madness!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Villain! still would you deceive&nbsp;me!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Ah, my lord, you would deceive yourself. I&nbsp;swear it was Eugenia,
+her shadowy arms were stretched between the lifted dagger and the
+prostrate youth; while her swift dark eye flashed on mine with
+brightness insupportable: such was her dreadful look, when, with her
+bleeding infant clinging to her breast, she sprang into the flames,
+and&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Hush!
+<span class = "stagedir both">the doors of an inner chamber open, and De
+Valmont appears conversing with <em>Florian</em> and
+<em>Geraldine</em>.</span>
+We are interrupted; quick! change those ruffled features into smiles,
+quick! mark me, wretch!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+(<i>coming forward</i>) My boy, your preservation was indeed a miracle.
+Ascribe not to the vague results of chance, that which belongs to
+Providence alone. Ah, here is my kinsman&mdash;one, whose anxious fears
+on your account, have held him a sleepless watcher through the
+night.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+(<i>with affected fervency</i>) Florian! a&nbsp;thousand welcomes: the
+return of friends at all times is a joy, but when they come through
+dangers to our arms, there’s transport in the meeting. Tell
+me&mdash;what strange tale is this I catch imperfectly from every lip?
+can it be possible you were assailed last night by ruffians in the
+wood?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Yes, my dear baron, yes! but morning has chased away night, and I am out
+of the wood now; therefore let us banish gloomy retrospections, and
+yield the present hour to bliss without alloy.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Not so: in this your friends must claim an interest dearer than your
+own: these men of blood shall be pursued to justice, if Alsace yet hold
+them.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Be that my task. (<i>to Flor.</i>) Should you recognize their
+persons?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flo.</span>
+Positively no&mdash;their disguises were impenetrable.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+But their voices, Florian, you heard them speak?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flo.</span>
+True, sweet Geraldine, a few broken sentences; but their accents were
+not framed like thine, to touch the ear but once, yet vibrate on the
+memory forever.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Indulge my curiosity, how were you preserved?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flo.</span>
+Well, baron, since you will force me to act the hero in my own drama,
+thus runs my story: I&nbsp;was defenceless, helpless, hopeless: two
+sturdy knaves had mastered my struggling arms, and the dagger of a third
+gleamed against my throat, when suddenly a female form appeared before
+us; in an instant, as if by magic, the murderers relaxed their hold,
+shuddered, recoiled, uttered cries, and fled the spot, the female mute
+and motionless remained.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+(<i>aside to <em>Longueville</em>.</i>) You mark.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+(<i>repulsing him.</i>) Silence!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flo.</span>
+Cowardice is ever found the mate of Cruelty: this stranger was doubtless
+regarded by the villains as a preternatural agent, she proved however,
+a&nbsp;mere mortal, frail and palpable as ourselves.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+(<i>listening with tremulous attention.</i>) God! living!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+(<i>not regarding <em>Bertrand</em>, who has drawn behind.</i>) Whence
+came this woman? What was she?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flo.</span>
+Alas! the most pitiable object in nature&mdash;an unhappy maniac; she
+resides at the same cottage where I found shelter from the storm.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+(<i>as if electrified by a sudden thought.</i>) Direct me, heaven!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+He glides silently out of the gallery unobserved by all.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Were not any other circumstances linked with this adventure?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flo.</span>
+None of consequence: but I suspect one of the ruffians was known to this
+wretched woman; her incoherent words implied that she recognized in him
+an ancient enemy; but her frail remains of intellect, were, for a time,
+quite unsettled by the terror of the scene; she fled from me to her
+chamber in dismay, and at daybreak I left the cottage without a second
+interview.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Florian! it is necessary this woman should be interrogated
+further&mdash;(<i>with much emotion</i>) not a moment must be
+lost&mdash;dear count, excuse me for an hour, my anxiety admits not of
+delay. I&nbsp;will myself visit this cottage instantly.
+<span class = "stagedir">Exit.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+(<i>half aside to De Valmont</i>) Uncle, if the baron tarries beyond the
+hour, we must not wait for his return, recollect it is to be at noon
+exactly.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flo.</span>
+(<i>overhearing.</i>) And what at noon, dear Geraldine?</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">11</span>
+<a name = "page_f11" id = "page_f11"> </a>
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+(<i>smiling</i>) Florian, you are destined to be our hero in peace as
+well as war&mdash;my niece has planned a little f�Şte in compliment to
+the conquerors of Nordlingen.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Fy, uncle, Florian was not to have known of it till the moment, you have
+betrayed my secret, now as a due punishment for the treason,
+I&nbsp;impose upon you to appear at our f�Şte in person.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+What a demand!&mdash;I, who never&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Nay, if it be only for a minute, positively you must come among
+us&mdash;nay, I&nbsp;will not be denied.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Well, you reign a fairy sovereign for the day, and if it be your will to
+play the despot, your subjects, though they murmur, must obey.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+(<i>embracing him</i>) There’s my kindest uncle! thanks! Florian I warn
+you not to stir towards the terrace till I summon you, beware of
+disobedience, I&nbsp;have the power to punish.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+And to reward also.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Ah! at least I have the inclination, it will be your own fault if ever
+my actions and my wishes dissociate, or Geraldine refuse a boon when
+Florian is the suitor.
+<span class = "stagedir">Exit.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+(<i>looking after her</i>) Geraldine! too kind, too lovely Geraldine,
+ah! sir, is she not admirable?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+She has been accounted so by many in your absence. I&nbsp;cannot
+estimate her beauty, but I know her virtue; and the last fond wish left
+clinging to this heart is Geraldine’s felicity. I&nbsp;shall endeavour
+to secure it, by uniting her in marriage with a worthy object.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Sir!&mdash;marriage did you say? Gracious heaven! Marriage!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+What is it that surprizes you? I&nbsp;can assure you, Geraldine already
+has been addressed by lovers.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+To doubt it were a blasphemy against perfection. Oh! Sir, it is not
+that&mdash;oh!&nbsp;no.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Wherefore, my dear Florian, so much emotion? Does the idea of
+Geraldine’s marriage afflict you?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+I am not such an ingrate&mdash;her happiness is the prayer of my soul to
+heaven, and I would perish to insure&nbsp;it.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+(<i>after a pause, during which he regards the agitated <em>Florian</em>
+with tender earnestness.</i>) Young man, I&nbsp;have long since
+determined to address you with a brief recital of circumstances
+necessary to your future decisions in life. Every word of that recital
+must draw with it a life-drop from my heart, for I shall speak to you of
+the past, and recollection to me is agony. The trial we once have
+considered as inevitable, it is fruitless to defer. Draw yourself a
+seat, and afford me for a few minutes your fixt attention.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+<em>Florian</em> presents a chair to the Count, and then seats
+himself.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Florian, you now behold me, such as I have seemed, even from your
+infancy&mdash;a suffering, querulous, cheerless, hopeless,
+broken-hearted man&mdash;one who has buried all the energies of his
+nature, and only preserves a few of its charities tremblingly alive. It
+was not with me always thus&mdash;I once possessed a mind and a body
+vigorously moulded, a&nbsp;heart for enterprize, and an arm for
+achievement. Grief, not time, has palsied those endowments. Born to
+exalted rank, and luxuriously bread, like the new-fledged eaglet rushing
+from his nest at once against the sun, eager, elate, and confident,
+I&nbsp;entered upon life.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Ah! that malignant clouds should obscure so bright a dawn!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+My spirit panted for a career of arms&mdash;civil war then desolated
+France, and, at the age of twenty, I&nbsp;embraced the cause of my
+religion and my king. Fortune, prodigal of her flatteries, twined my
+brow with clustering laurels, and at the close of my first campaign, my
+sovereign’s favor and the people’s love already hailed me by a hero’s
+title. Fatigued with glory&mdash;then&mdash;ah! Florian! then it was I
+welcom’d love!&mdash;a first, a&nbsp;last, an only and eternal passion!
+(<i>Pauses with emotion.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Nay, sir, desist&mdash;these recollections shake your mind too
+strongly.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+No, no&mdash;let me proceed. I can command myself&mdash;Florian!
+I&nbsp;wooed and won an angel for my bride&mdash;my expression is not a
+lover’s rhapsody&mdash;at this distant period, seriously I pronounce
+it&mdash;Eugenia approached as closely to perfection as the Creator has
+permitted to his creature! Such as she was, to say I loved her were
+imperfect phrase! my passion was enthusiasm&mdash;was idolatry! Our
+marriage-bed was early blessed with increase&mdash;and as my lip greeted
+with a father’s kiss the infant, my heart bounded with a new transport
+towards its mother.&mdash;My felicity seemed perfect! Now, Florian,
+mark! My country a second time called me to her battles; I&nbsp;left my
+kinsman, Longueville, to guard the dear-ones of my soul at home, then
+sped to join our army in a distant province. I&nbsp;was wounded and made
+prisoner by the enemy. When I recovered health and liberty, I&nbsp;found
+a rumour of my death had in the interval prevailed through France.
+I&nbsp;trembled lest Eugenia should receive the tale, and flew in person
+to prevent her terrors. It was evening when I reached the hills of
+Languedoc, and looked impatiently towards my cheerful home beneath.
+I&nbsp;looked&mdash;the last sunbeam glared redly upon smoking ruins!
+Oh! oh! the blood now chills and curdles round my heart&mdash;the wolves
+of war had rushed by night upon my slumbering fold&mdash;fire and sword
+had desolated all. I&nbsp;called upon my wife and my infant.
+I&nbsp;trembled on their ashes while I called! (<i>he sinks back
+exhausted in his chair.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flo.</span>
+Tremendous hour! so dire a shock might well have paralized a Roman
+firmness.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+(<i>resuming faintly.</i>) Florian, there is a grief that never found
+its image yet in words. I&nbsp;prayed for death&mdash;nay, madness! but
+heaven, for its own best purposes, denied me either boon. I&nbsp;was
+ordained still to live, and still be conscious of my misery. For many
+weeks I wandered through the country, silent, sullen, stupified! My
+people watched, but dared not comfort me. Abjuring social life,
+I&nbsp;plunged into the deepest solitudes, to shun all commerce with my
+kind. ’Twas at the close of a sultry day, the last of August, that I
+entered a forest at the foot of the Cevennes, and worn with long fatigue
+and misery, stretched myself upon the moss for momentary rest. On the
+sudden, a&nbsp;faint and feeble moan pierced my ear; instinctively I
+moved the branches at my side, and at the foot of a rude stone-cross
+beheld a desolate infant, unnaturally left to perish in the wilderness!
+It was famishing&mdash;expiring. I&nbsp;raised it to my breast, and its
+little arms twined feebly round my neck Florian! thou wert heaven’s
+gracious instrument to reclaim a truant to his duties! Welcome!
+I&nbsp;cried to thee, young brother in adversity!&mdash;“thou art
+deserted by thy mortal parents, and my heavenly father has forsaken me!”
+From that moment I felt I had a motive left to cherish life, since my
+existence could be useful to a fellow-being&mdash;my wanderings
+finished, and I settled in Alsace. Eighteen years have followed that
+event; but I shall not comment on their course.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+(<i>with energy.</i>) Yet, sir, those years must not, shall not pass
+forgotten. Deeds of generous charity have made them sacred, and an
+orphan’s blessing wafts their eulogy to heaven&mdash;<i>he casts himself
+at De Valmont’s feet</i>). Friend! protector! more than parent! the
+beings who had called me into life denied my claim, and you performed
+<span class = "pagenum">12</span>
+<a name = "page_f12" id = "page_f12"> </a>
+the duties nature had renounced. Ah! sir, I&nbsp;am thoughtless,
+volatile, my manners wild&mdash;but, from my inmost soul, I&nbsp;love,
+I&nbsp;reverence, I&nbsp;bless my benefactor!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Rise young man! your virtues have repaid my cares. Here let us dismiss
+the past, and advert to the future. Geraldine is my heiress; my niece
+and my vassals must receive the same master: both are objects of my
+care, and I would confide them only to a man of honor. Florian! let
+Geraldine become your wife&mdash;be you hereafter the protector of my
+people.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Merciful powers! what is it that I hear? I?&mdash;the child of accident
+and mystery: a&nbsp;wretched foundling:&nbsp;I?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Young man, your sentiments and your actions have proved themselves the
+legitimate offspring of honor, and I require no pedigree for limbs and
+features. Fortune forbade you to inherit a name, but she has granted you
+a prouder boast: you have founded one. Common men vaunt of the actions
+of their forefathers, but the superior spirit declares his own! Nay, no
+reply&mdash;I never form or break a resolution lightly. I&nbsp;know your
+heart: I&nbsp;am acquainted with Geraldine’s; they beat responsive to
+each other&mdash;your passion has my consent: your marriage shall
+receive my blessing. Farewell.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+He exits suddenly, and prevents <em>Florian</em> by his action from any
+reply.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Heard I aright? Yes, he pronounced it&mdash;“Geraldine is thine.”
+Earth’s gross substantial touch is felt no more: I&nbsp;mount in air,
+and rest on sunbeams! Oh! if I dream now&mdash;royal Mab! abuse me ever
+with thy dear deceits; for in serious wakeful hours, truth ne’er can
+touch my senses with a joy so bright. O! I&nbsp;could sing, dance,
+laugh, shout; and yet methinks, had I a woman’s privilege, I’d rather
+weep; for tears are pleasure’s oracles as well as grief’s.</p>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>L’Eclair</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+So, Captain! you are well encountered. I&nbsp;have sad forebodings that
+our shining course of arms is threatened with eclipse. If I may use the
+boldness to advise, we shall strike our tents, and file off in quick
+march without beat of drum. Our laurels are in more danger here than in
+the midst of the enemy’s lines.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+How now! my doughty ’squire: what may be our present jeopardy?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Ah! captain, the sex&mdash;the dear seductive sex; this house is the
+modern Capua, and we are the Hannibals of France, toying away our severe
+virtues amid its voluptuousness. One damsel throws forward the prettiest
+ancle in anatomy, and cries, “Mr. L’Eclair, I’m your’s for a Waltz”:
+a&nbsp;second languishes upon me from large blue melting eyes, and
+whispers, “Mr. L’Eclair, will you take a stroll by moonlight in the
+grove?” while a third, in all the ripe round plumpness of uneasy health,
+calls the modest blood to my fingers’ ends, by requesting me “to adjust
+some error in the pinning of her ’kerchief.” O! captain, captain, heros
+are but men, men but flesh, and flesh is but weakness; therefore, let us
+briefly put on a Parthian valor, and strive to conquer by a flight!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Knave! prate of deserting these dear precious scenes again, and I’ll
+finish your career myself by a coup-de-main. No, no; change churlish
+dreams and braving trumpets to mellifluous flutes. I&nbsp;am to be
+married. Varlet, wish me joy.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Certainly, captain, I <i>do</i> wish you joy; when a man has once
+determined upon matrimony he acts wisely to collect the congratulations
+of his friends beforehand, for heaven only knows, whether there may be
+any opportunity for them afterwards. May I take the freedom to inquire
+the lady?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+’Tis <i>she</i>&mdash;L’Eclair, ’tis <i>she</i>, the only she, the
+peerless, priceless Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+“<i>Peerless</i>” I grant the lady, but as to her being
+“<i>priceless</i>,” I&nbsp;should think for my own poor particular, that
+when I bartered my liberty for a comely bedfellow, I&nbsp;was paying
+full value for my goods, besides a swinging overcharge for the fashion
+of the make.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Tush! man, ’tis not by form or feature I compute my prize. Geraldine’s
+<i>mind</i>, not her beauty, is the magnet of my love. The <i>graces</i>
+are the fugitive handmaids of youth, and dress their charge with flowers
+as fleeting as they are fair; but the <i>virtues</i> faithfully
+o’erwatch the couch of age, and when the flaunting rose has wither’d,
+twine the cheerful evergreen, crowning true lovers freshly to the last!
+<span class = "stagedir">Exit.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+“True lovers!” well, now I love Love, myself, particularly when ’tis
+mix’d with brandy! like the loves of the landlady of Lisle, and the
+bandy-legg’d captain.<a class = "tag" name = "tag21" id = "tag21" href =
+"#note21">*</a></p>
+
+<div class = "poem">
+<h5>SONG.</h5>
+
+<p>A landlady of France, she loved an officer, ’tis said,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+And this officer he dearly loved her brandy,&nbsp;oh!</p>
+<p>Sigh’d she, “I love this officer, although his nose is red,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+And his legs are what his regiment call bandy,&nbsp;oh!”</p>
+
+<h6>2</h6>
+
+<p>But when the bandy officer was order’d to the coast;</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+How she tore her lovely locks that look’d so sandy,<ins class =
+"correction" title = "text has question mark">&nbsp;oh!</ins></p>
+<p>“Adieu my soul!” said she, “if you write, pray pay the post,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+But before we part, let’s take a drop of brandy,&nbsp;oh!”</p>
+
+<h6>3</h6>
+
+<p>She fill’d him out a bumper, just before he left the town,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+And another for herself, so neat and handy,&nbsp;oh!</p>
+<p>So they kept their spirits up, by their pouring spirits down,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+For love is, like the cholic, cured with brandy,&nbsp;oh!</p>
+
+<h6>4</h6>
+
+<p>“Take a bottle on’t,” said she, “for you’re going into camp;</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+In your tent, you know, my love, ’twill be the dandy,&nbsp;oh!”</p>
+<p>“You’re right,” says he, “my life! for a tent is very damp;</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+And ’tis better, with my tent, to take some brandy,&nbsp;oh!”</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class = "mid">
+
+<p class = "footnote">
+<a name = "note21" id = "note21" href = "#tag21">*</a>
+For this speech, and the song that follows, the author is indebted to
+the pen of George Colman, Esq.</p>
+
+
+<h5 class = "scene"><a name= "act_II_ii" id = "act_II_ii">
+SCENE II.</a><ins class = "correction" title =
+"missing dash;">&mdash;</ins><i>The Cottage.</i></h5>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Monica</em> and <em>Bertrand</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+In truth, sir, I have told you every circumstance I know concerning my
+poor lodger. But wherefore so particular in your inquiries?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Trust me, I have important motives for my curiosity. Seventeen years
+ago, I&nbsp;think you said: and in the woods near <i>Albi</i>?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Ay, ay, I was accurate both in time and place.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Every incident concurs. Gracious heaven! should it prove&mdash;my good
+woman, I&nbsp;suspect this unfortunate person is known to me; bring me
+directly to the sight of her!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Hold! sir, I must know you better first. I&nbsp;fear me, this poor
+creature has been hardly dealt with; who knows, but you may be her
+enemy?</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">13</span>
+<a name = "page_f13" id = "page_f13"> </a>
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+No, no, her friend; her firm and faithful friend: suspence distracts me:
+lead me to her presence instantly!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Well, well, truly, sir! you look and speak like an honest gentleman; but
+tho’ I&nbsp;consent, I&nbsp;doubt whether my lodger will receive you;
+her mind is ill at ease for visitors. All last night I overheard her
+pacing up and down her chamber, moaning piteously and talking to
+herself; towards day-break, all became quiet, then I peeped thro’ the
+crevice of her door and saw that she was writing. I&nbsp;never knew her
+write before, I&nbsp;knocked for admittance, but she prayed me not to
+interrupt her for another hour.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Does she still keep her chamber?</p>
+
+<p><ins class= "correction" title = "text reads ‘Lon.’"><span class =
+"speaker">Mon.</span></ins> She has not quitted it this
+morning&mdash;hark! I&nbsp;think I hear her stir, (<i>goes to the
+stair-foot and looks up</i>) ay! her door now stands open, place
+yourself just here, and you may view her plainly without being seen
+yourself; her face is turned towards us, but her eyes are fixed upon a
+writing in her hands.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Bertrand</em> looks for a moment to satisfy his doubts, then rushes
+forward and casts himself upon his knee transportedly.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+She lives! Eternal mercy! thanks! thanks!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Holy St. Dennis! the sight of her has strangely moved you: collect
+yourself, I&nbsp;pray, she comes towards&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Oh! let me cast myself before her feet!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+(<i>restraining him</i>) Hold, sir! whatever be your business,
+I&nbsp;beseech you to refrain a little, I&nbsp;must prepare her for your
+appearance, her spirits cannot brook surprise, back! back!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+<em>Bertrand</em> withdraws, and <em>Eugenia</em> descends the stair
+with a folded paper in her hand&mdash;she appears to struggle with
+emotion, and running towards <em>Monica</em>, casts her arms
+passionately around her.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+My kind mother! this is perhaps our last embrace; we must part.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Part! my child! what mean you?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Ah! it is my fate, my cruel unrelenting fate that drives me from you,
+from the last shelter and the only friend I yet retain on earth.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Explain yourself; I cannot comprehend.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Mother! I have an enemy, a dreadful one. Seventeen years have veil’d me
+from his hate in vain: those years have wasted the victim’s form, but
+the persecutor’s heart remains unchanged: my retreat is discovered: the
+wretches who were here last night too surely recognized me; soon they
+may return, and force me; oh! thought of horror. No, no, here I dare not
+stay.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+My poor innocent! whither would you&nbsp;go?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+To the woods and caves from which you rescued me. Mother, the wilderness
+must be my home again. I&nbsp;fly to wolves and vultures to escape from
+man! Receive this paper, ’tis the written memoir of my wretched life;
+read it when I am gone: my head burned and my hand trembled while I
+traced those characters: yet ’tis a faithful history. Mother!
+I&nbsp;dare not thank your charity, but heaven will remember it
+hereafter: bestow upon me one embrace, and then let me depart in
+silence.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Monica</em> gives a sign to <em>Bertrand</em> to advance.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Yet hold some moments; a stranger has been inquiring here this morning
+who describes himself your friend.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Ah! no, no: the tomb long since has covered all my friends; ’tis some
+wily agent of my foe! Ah! forbid him mother; let him not
+approach&nbsp;me.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+’Tis too late; he is already in the house.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Where?</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+<em>Monica</em> points, and <em>Eugenia’s</em> eyes following her
+direction, rest upon the prostrate figure of <em>Bertrand</em>, who has
+placed himself in a posture of supplication, and concealed his face with
+his hands.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+(<i>gazing intensely with apprehension.</i>) Speak! you kneel and still
+are silent. Ah! what would you require of&nbsp;me?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+(<i>uncovering his face without raising his eyes</i>) Pardon!
+pardon!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+(<i>shrieking and flying</i>) Ah! Bertrand.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+(<i>catching her mantle</i>) Stay! angel of mercy, stay and hear me. He
+that was your scourge now yields himself your slave: a&nbsp;wretched
+penitent despairing man lies humbled in the dust before you, and
+implores for pardon.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+(<i>pauses&mdash;<ins class = "correction" title =
+"text reads ‘pressess’">presses</ins> her crucifix to her lips, and then replies
+with fervor.</i>) Yes! charity and peace to all! Nay, heaven forgive
+thee, sinful man, I&nbsp;never will accuse thee at its bar.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Angel! my actions better than my prayers may plead with heaven for
+mercy: the cruel wrongs that I have offered, yet in part may be
+atoned&mdash;lady, I&nbsp;come to serve and save you.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Ah! to what fresh terrors am I yet devoted?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Might we converse without a witness? in your ear only dare I breathe my
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Nay, I will not be an eaves-dropper: my child you do not fear this
+person now? I’ll leave you with him&mdash;nay, ’tis best&mdash;perchance
+he comes indeed with service. My blessings go with you, stranger, if you
+mean her fairly, but if you wrong or play her false, a&nbsp;widow’s
+curse fall heavy on your death-bed.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+Exit up the staircase.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+A pause of mutual agitation.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Speak! man of terrors&mdash;say what has the persecuted and undone
+Eugenia yet to dread?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+The baron Longueville&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+That fiend!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+He now is in the neighbourhood; as yet he dreams not that you live: but
+accident this very hour might betray you to his knowledge. Lady!
+I&nbsp;possess the means. O&nbsp;blessed chance! to shield you from his
+malice.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+And wilt thou; O! wilt thou, Bertrand, at last extend a pitying arm to
+raise the wretch, thy former hate had stricken to the ground?
+I&nbsp;have been despoiled of fortune, fame, and health: my brain has
+been distracted by thy cruelty: yet now preserve me from this worst
+extreme of fate: let me not die the slave of Longueville, all my
+injuries, all my sufferings are forgotten, and this one gracious act
+shall win thy pardon for a thousand sins.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Lady! my o’er weighed conscience heaves impatiently to cast its load.
+(<i>sinks on his knee</i>) Lo! at your injured feet I kneel, and <ins
+class = "correction" title = "text reads ‘solemny’">solemnly</ins>
+pronounce a vow, the tyrant Longueville shall mar your peace no
+more.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+The cottage-door silently opens, and <em>Sanguine</em> looks in&mdash;he
+makes a sign to <em>Longueville</em> who follows, and they glide to the
+further end of the cottage unperceived; where they remain in anxious
+observation of the characters in front.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Rise! your penitence wears nature’s stamp, and I believe it honest.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Oh! lady, your words redeem me from despair: but say, to ease a heart
+that aches with wonder: say, by what prodigy you ’scaped the flames of
+that tremendous night, when all believed you perished?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+(<i>shuddering.</i>) Ah! what hast thou said? my dream of confidence
+dissolves, and now I turn from thee again with horror! Again I view thy
+murderous poniard reared to strike! Again my wounded infant shrieks upon
+my bosom, and the fiery gulf yawns redly at my feet! begone? begone! for
+now I hate thee!</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">14</span>
+<a name = "page_f14" id = "page_f14"> </a>
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Ah, not to me&mdash;to Longueville ascribe the horrors of that night.
+(<i>Aside</i>) What shall I say? I&nbsp;dare not own to her that De
+Valmont lives. Hear me, lady; scarce was your lord’s untimely fall
+reported, when the cruel Longueville in secret plotted to remove his
+infant heir, the only bar that held him from a rich succession; by
+hellish means he won me to his cause: <i>his</i> hand it was that oped
+the castle gates at midnight to the foe, and when the fierce Huguenots
+rushed shouting through the halls, still <i>his</i> hand it was that
+fired the chamber where you slept in peace: to save your child you
+rushed distracted to the rampart’s edge; just as I followed to complete
+my prey, a&nbsp;falling turret crossed my path, and presently the
+general fabric sank in ruin.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+A wayward destiny that night was mine; at once both saved and lost!
+a&nbsp;hidden passage dug beneath the rampart, twining through many a
+cavern’d maze, at distance opened to the woods. I&nbsp;reached the
+secret entrance of that pass, just as the turret fell and screened me
+from pursuit. Concealing darkness wrapt my flying steps: the roar of
+death sank far behind, and ere the dawn, in safety with my child,
+I&nbsp;gained the forest.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Your child! eternal powers! the infant then escaped my blow.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Thy dagger’s point twice scarred his innocent hand, but failed to reach
+the life. (<i><em>Bertrand</em> gesticulates his transport</i>)
+A&nbsp;sanguine cross indelibly remained; but nature and his mother’s
+tears assuaged the pain. Charitable foresters, ignorant of our rank,
+relieved our wants and changed our robes for rustic weeds; thus
+disguised, my infant in my arms, on foot I travelled far and long,
+seeking ever by the loneliest paths, to reach my sovereign’s court, and
+at the throne of power implore for justice.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+O! does the infant yet survive? Speak, lady! bless me with those
+words&mdash;he lives.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+No, Bertrand, no; fortune but mocked me with a moment’s hope to curse me
+deeper still through ages of despair. In vain I snatched my darling boy
+from poniard and from flame: when way-lost in the wilderness, but for a
+moment did I quit my treasure, the mazes of the wood ensnared my step:
+the fever of my body rushed upon my brain: I&nbsp;wandered, never to
+return; while my forsaken infant&mdash;he perished, Bertrand. Ah! my
+brain begins to burn afresh! mark me, he perished terribly: inquire not
+further.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+(<i>deeply affected.</i>) Thou suffering excellence! be witness heaven!
+the monster that I was, no longer has a life; thy tears have drowned it
+quite, and now it strangely melts in pity and remorse. Come, lady, let
+me bestow thee in a safe retreat: the hoarded wages of my sinful youth,
+I’ll use as offerings to redeem thy peace: far hence in foreign lands a
+certain refuge waits our flight, and there secure from
+Longueville&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+The <em>Baron</em> suddenly stands before them in the centre:
+<em>Eugenia</em> shrieks and <em>Bertrand</em> stands aghast and
+trembles.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Undone forever?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+(<i>furiously to Sanguine</i>) Guard well the door&mdash;let not a
+creature enter or depart.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+<em>Sanguine</em> advances by his direction. <em>Eugenia</em> flies by
+the stairs to the upper chamber. <em>Longueville</em>, after a short
+pause of indecisive passion, draws a poniard and seizes upon
+<em>Bertrand</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Wretch!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Strike! yes, deep in this guilty bosom, strike at once, and rid me of
+despair.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Thou double traitor! thy perjuries now meet their just reward. Tremble
+at impending death.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+No; I have not feared to live in vice, and will not shrink at least to
+die for virtue.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+(<i>throwing him off.</i>) No; I&nbsp;will not take the wretched
+forfeit: thou’rt spared from hate, not pity; I&nbsp;gave thee back thy
+life, but I will study punishments, to make the boon a curse
+unutterable.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Tyrant, I defy thy vengeance to increase my torments; the innocent,
+I&nbsp;pledged myself to save, already stands devoted to destruction,
+and the measure of my anguish and despair is full.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+(<i>to Sanguine</i>) Sanguine, ascend the stair, and force that wretched
+woman to my presence.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Hold, hold, my lord! recal those threatning words. O&nbsp;God! what
+damning crime is in your thoughts? pause&mdash;yet for a moment, pause,
+ere you barter to the fiend your soul for ages. Omnipotence hath
+interposed with miracles and still preserved you from the guilt you
+sought, your conscience yet is undefiled with blood.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Away! my purpose is resolved.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+Will you then reject the mercy Heaven extends? (<i>kneels and catching
+his cloak.</i>) Hear me, my lord; nay, for your own eternal being, hear
+me; as you now deal with this afflicted innocent, even so, hereafter,
+shall the God of judgment deal with you.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+I brave the peril, (<i>call aloud</i>) hasten, Sanguine, produce my
+victim.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+(<i>Desperately.</i>) Cover me mountains! hide me from the sun! (<i>He
+casts himself upon the ground.</i>)</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Sanguine</em> returns precipitately from above.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Sang.</span>
+My lord, one fatal moment has undone your scheme, the female has
+escaped.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Villain! escaped.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+(<i>raising himself in frantic joy.</i>)&nbsp;Ha!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Sang.</span>
+I found the casement of the upper chamber open, some twisted linen
+fastened to the bar, nearly reached to the ground without, and proved
+the method of her flight; a&nbsp;beldame who must have aided her escape,
+remains alone above, (<i>turning towards the window</i>,) ha!
+I&nbsp;catch a female figure darting through the trees at a distance;
+she runs with lightning speed,&mdash;now&mdash;she turns towards the
+castle.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Distraction! if she gains the castle, I&nbsp;am lost forever; pursue!
+pursue!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+<em>Longueville</em> and <em>Sanguine</em> rush out.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+(<i>Vehemently.</i>) Guardians of innocence, direct her steps!
+<span class = "stagedir">He follows them.</span></p>
+
+
+<h5 class = "scene"><a name= "act_II_iii" id = "act_II_iii">
+<ins class = "correction" title = "printed as lower-case">SCENE</ins>
+III.</a>&mdash;<i>A Gallery in the Chateau.</i></h5>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Rosabelle</em> followed by <em>Gaspard</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+Ha! young mistress Rosabelle, whither so fast I pray? ’faith, damsel,
+you are fleet of foot.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Yet my steps are heavier than my heart, for that’s all feather, ready
+for any flight in fancy’s hemisphere; give thought but breath, and
+’twere blown in a second to the moon or the antipodes, wilt along with
+me, Gaspard?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+What, to the moon or the antipodes? Alack! damsel, I&nbsp;should prove
+but a sorry travelling companion upon either road; no, no, youth is for
+night; but age for falls.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Wilt turn a waltz anon, and be my partner in the dance?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+Hey! madcap, have we dances toward?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Ay! upon the terrace presently, all the world will assemble there; the
+lady Geraldine and myself for beauty; and then for rank, we shall have
+the count himself, and the baron, and the chevalier, and&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+Out upon you, magpie; would you delude the old man with fables? his
+lordship, the count, among revellers! truly a pleasant jest; I&nbsp;have
+been his watchful servant these twenty years, and never knew him to
+abide the sight or sound of pleasures.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">15</span>
+<a name = "page_f15" id = "page_f15"> </a>
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Then I can acquaint you, he proposes on this day to regale both his eyes
+and his ears with a novelty; I&nbsp;heard him promise lady Geraldine to
+join the pastimes on the terrace.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+Oh! the blest tidings: damsel, thy tongue has made a boy of me
+again.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Now charity forefend, for so should I bring thee to thy second
+childhood.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+Ah! would you fleer me! his lordship among revellers! oh! the blest
+prodigy! well, well, I&nbsp;give no promise, mark; but should a certain
+damsel lack a partner, adod. I&nbsp;know not&mdash;sixty-live shows with
+an ill-grace in a rigadoon, but for a minuet: well, well, St. Vitus
+strengthen me, and I accept thy challenge.
+<span class = "stagedir">Exit.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Go thy ways, thou antique gallantry; thy pledge shall never be
+endangered by my claim; I’m for a brisker partner in every dance through
+life, I&nbsp;promise thee.</p>
+
+<div class = "poem">
+
+<h5>AIR.&mdash;<i>Rosabelle.</i></h5>
+
+<p>On the banks of the Rhine, at the sun-setting hour,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+Oh! meet me, and greet me, my true love, I&nbsp;pray!</p>
+<p>Or feasting, or sleeping, in hall, or in bower,</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+To the Rhine-bank, oh! true love, rise up and away!</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+On that bank, an old willow dejectedly grieves</p>
+<p class = "indent">
+And drops from each leaf, for love’s falsehoods, a&nbsp;tear;</p>
+<p>Go! rivals, and gather the willow’s pale leaves,</p>
+<p><ins class = "correction" title = "indentation unchanged">For</ins>
+falsehood ne’er cross’d between me and my dear.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+Exit.</p>
+
+
+<h5 class = "scene"><a name= "act_II_iv" id = "act_II_iv">
+SCENE IV.</a>&mdash;<i>The Castle Gardens decorated for a F�Şte, and
+crowded with Dancers and Musicians: a&nbsp;lofty Terrace crosses the
+extremity of the Stage, from which Village-Girls advance, scattering
+flowers before Geraldine, who is led by Florian to an open Temple
+between the Side-scenes, containing three Seats.</i></h5>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+(<i>Pointing to the centre seat</i>) There is our hero’s seat of
+triumph: nay, my commands are absolute, and you have no appeal,
+I&nbsp;reserve this for my uncle, he will join us presently.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+They seat themselves&mdash;a ballet immediately commences&mdash;boys,
+habited as warriors, pay homage before <em>Florian</em>, and hang
+military trophies round his seat. Girls enter, as wood-nymphs, &amp;c.
+who surprise and disarm the warriors, then remove the trophies, and
+replace them with garlands. The warriors and nymphs join in a general
+dance&mdash;Suddenly a piercing shriek is heard: the action of the scene
+abruptly stops, and <em>Eugenia</em>, entering from the top of the
+stage, rushes distractedly between the groups of dancers, and casts
+herself at the feet of <em>Geraldine</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Save me! save me!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Ah! what wretched supplicant is this?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+By heavens! the very woman who yesternight preserved my life.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+<em>Longueville</em> enters in pursuit.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+(<i>Advancing rapidly, with instant self-command</i>) Dear friends!
+Heaven has this hour appointed me the agent of its grace. I&nbsp;have
+discovered in this wretched woman, the long-lost wife of an ancient
+friend, at Baden; lend your assistance to secure her person ’till I can
+apprise the husband of this unexpected meeting.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+No, no, I have no husband&mdash;they have murdered him; he would
+betray&mdash;destroy me. (<i>catching Geraldine’s robe</i>) Oh! you,
+whose looks are heavenly-soft, to <i>you</i> I plead: protect me from
+this fiend.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+How earnestly she grasps my hand, indeed&mdash;indeed her agony seems
+genuine.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+You are deceived, she utters nought but madness, her mind has been for
+years incurably diseased; come, away! away!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+He seizes violently upon <em>Eugenia</em> to force her with him, <ins
+class = "correction" title = "text reads ‘he’">she</ins> clings to
+<em>Geraldine</em> in anguish.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Forsake me not! I have no protector to invoke but you.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Forbear, my lord, I cannot find that wildness you proclaim; forbear, and
+recollect the rights of hospitality never yet were violated at my
+uncle’s gate. Lady, dismiss your fears, here sorrow ever meets a ready
+shelter, for here resides the Count De Valmont.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Who?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+The excellent, the suffering Count De Valmont.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+(<i>starting up with recurring insanity.</i>) Ha! ha! ha! come to the
+altar,&mdash;my love waits for me, weave me a bridal crown!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+(<i>triumphantly.</i>) Behold! can you doubt me now?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Too painfully I am convinced; miserable being! Ah! remove her hence,
+before my uncle joins us; so terrible an object would inexpressibly
+afflict him.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Yes, yes; remove her hence! but O! I&nbsp;charge you treat her with the
+tenderest care.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+(<i>eagerly to his people.</i>) Advance! bear her to my pavilion! mark!
+to <i>my</i> pavilion on the river-bank!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+The men seize upon Eugenia&mdash;the Count appears at the same moment
+advancing from the extremity of the Terrace.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+My friends! I come to join your pleasures.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+(<i>struggling violently.</i>) Hark! he calls me to his
+arms&mdash;unhand me! nay, then oh! cruel, cruel, cruel.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+Overcome by her exertions, she sinks into a swoon and falls in the arms
+of the two men. <em>Longueville</em> rapidly draw her veil across to
+conceal her features from the Count as he advances.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Away with her this instant!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+He turns quickly toward the Terrace and catches De Valmont’s arm as he
+<ins class = "correction" title = "text reads ‘decends’">descends</ins>
+to prevent his approach&mdash;then turns imperatively to the men.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Quick! Quick! away!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+De Valmont pauses in surprize: Longueville maintains his restraining
+attitude. Florian and <em>Geraldine</em> join to arrest his steps: the
+bravos withdraw the insensible and unresisting Eugenia upon the opposite
+side: The various characters dispose themselves into a picture, and the
+curtain falls upon the Scene.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+End of act II.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h4 class = "act"><a name= "act_III" id = "act_III">
+ACT III.</a></h4>
+
+
+<h5 class = "scene"><a name= "act_III_i" id = "act_III_i">
+SCENE I.</a>&mdash;<i>The Steward’s Room, <em>Gaspard</em> and
+<em>L’Eclair</em> discovered drinking, the latter
+half-intoxicated.</i></h5>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gas.</span>
+Adod! a very masterpiece of the military art? Why this Turenne must be a
+famous captain. I’ll drink his health, (<i>drinks</i>) Odso! where did
+we leave the enemy? Oh! the Bavarians were just driven across the
+Neckar, and had destroyed the bridge. Well, and then what did our
+troops?</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">16</span>
+<a name = "page_f16" id = "page_f16"> </a>
+<p><i>L’Ecl.</i> They clashed after them thro’ the river like a pack of
+otters.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+Hold; you said just now the river <ins class = "correction" title =
+"text reads ‘was’nt’">wasn’t</ins> fordable.</p>
+
+<p><i>L’Ecl.</i> Did I? Pshaw, I only meant, it wasn’t fordable to the
+enemy: no, poor devils! they couldn’t ford it certainly; but as to our
+hussars: whew! such fellows as they would <i>get</i> thro’ any thing,
+were it ever so deep to the bottom. (<i>takes the flask from
+<em>Gaspard</em> and drinks</i>).</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+O! the rare hussars! Now this is a conversation just to my heart’s
+content. I&nbsp;dearly love to hear of battles and sieges. The household
+are all retired to rest, and my room is private; so here we may sit
+peaceably, and talk about war for the remainder of the night.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Bravo! agreed: we’ll make a night of it; but harkye, is not this room of
+yours built in a queer sort of a circular shape?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+No; a most perfect square.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Well, I never studied mathematics; but, for a perfect square, methinks
+it has the oddest trick of turning round with its company I ever
+witnessed.</p>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Rosabelle</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Here’s a display of profligacy! So, gentlemen, are these your morals?
+Methinks you place a special example before the household; drinking and
+carousing thus after midnight, when all decent persons ought to be at
+rest within their beds.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+Marry now, my malapert lady! How comes it you are found abroad at these
+wild hours?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+I have always important motives for my conduct. A&nbsp;strange female
+waits at the castle-gate, who clamors for admittance; she seems in deep
+distress, refuses to accept denial or excuse, and demands to speak with
+the person of first consequence in the family. Now, Mr. Gaspard, as you
+happen to be steward&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+(<i>rises pompously</i>) I am of course the personage required. You say
+a female?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Yes; she waits for you in heavy trouble at the gate.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+I fly. Gallantry invites, and I obey the call. Good Mr. L’Eclair,
+I&nbsp;cast myself upon your courtesy for this abrupt departure:</p>
+
+<div class = "poem">
+<p>’Tis woman tempts from friendship, war, and wine&mdash;</p>
+<p>My fault is human&mdash;my excuse divine!
+<span class = "stagedir">
+Exit.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+In sooth, the old gentleman has not forgotten his manners in his cups;
+but as to you, sir, (<i>to L’Eclair</i>) how stupidly you sit&mdash;have
+you nothing to say for yourself?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+(<i>rising and reeling towards her</i>). Much, very
+much&mdash;love&mdash;midnight&mdash;all snug and private.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Mercy O me! the wretch is certainly intoxicated; how wickedly his eyes
+begin to twinkle. Why, Scapegrace, I’m sure you’re not sober.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Don’t say so, pray don’t, you wound my delicacy. O! Rosabelle! beautiful
+but misjudging Rosabelle! I&nbsp;am unfortunate, but not criminal. This
+morning I beheld only one Rosabelle, and yet I was undone; now I seem to
+behold two Rosabelles; ergo, I&nbsp;either see double, or am doubly
+undone. There’s logic for you. Now, could a man who wasn’t sober, talk
+logic? only answer me that.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+What shall I do with him? If I leave him here, he’ll drink himself into
+a fever. I&nbsp;must e’en coax him. L’Eclair, come, come, my dear
+L’Eclair, let me prevail upon you to go to bed; I’m going to bed
+myself.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+O! fy, that’s too broad; I blush for you; would you delude my
+innocence?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+The profligate monster! I delude!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Well, I yield to fate: stars! veil your chaste heads, and thou. O!
+little candle, hide thy wick! behold the lamb submitting to the
+sacrifice. (<i>Reels to embrace her.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Why, you heathen monster! how dare you talk to me about lambs and
+sacrifices? ah! if you stir another step, I’ll alarm the family!
+I&nbsp;can scream, sir!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+I know you can; but pray, don’t, somebody might hear you, and that would
+be very disappointing, recollect I have a character to lose.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+And have not I a character too, Sir?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Hush! hush! Let’s drops the subject.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+How now, sirrah! have you any thing to say against my character?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+Oh! no, I never speak ill of the dead.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span>
+Why, you vile insinuating, but I shall preserve my temper though you
+have lost your manners: well, assuredly of all objects in creation, the
+most pitiable is a man in liquor.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span>
+There’s an exception&mdash;a man in love.</p>
+
+<div class = "poem">
+<h5><a name = "duet_III_i" id = "duet_III_i">DUETT.&mdash;<i>Rosabelle
+and L’Eclair.</i></a></h5>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ros.</span> The precept of Bacchus to man
+proves a curse,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+The head it confounds, and the heart it bewitches.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+<span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span> I’m sure, the example of Cupid is
+worse,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+For he walks abroad without shirt, drawers, or breeches.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+<span class = "speaker">Ros.</span> Pshaw! Cupid, you dolt, has rich
+garments enough.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+<span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span> Nay, his wardrobe’s confin’d to a
+plain suit of buff.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+<span class = "speaker">Ros.</span> ’Twas Bacchus taught men to drown
+reason in cans.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+<span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span> ’Twas Cupid taught ladies the first
+use of fans.</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+<span class = "speaker">Ros.</span> How diff’rent the garland, their
+votaries twine,&mdash;</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+How genteel is the myrtle&mdash;how vulgar the vine!</p>
+
+<p class = "stanza">
+<span class = "speaker">L’Ec.</span> Of myrtle or vine I pretend not to
+know,</p>
+<p class = "indent2">
+But a fig-leaf I think would be most apropos:
+<span class = "stagedir">Exeunt.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<h5 class = "scene"><a name= "act_III_ii" id = "act_III_ii">
+SCENE II.</a>&mdash;<i>The Count’s Chamber&mdash;De Valmont is
+discovered gazing in profound meditation upon a miniature
+picture.</i></h5>
+
+<div class = "poem">
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span> Eugenia!</p>
+<p>Now of the angel race, and hous’d in Heaven!</p>
+<p>Forgive, dear saint! these blameful eyes that flow</p>
+<p>With human love, and mourn thy blessedness.</p>
+<p>O! ye strange powers! with what excelling truth</p>
+<p>Has Art’s small hand here mimic’d mightiest Nature!</p>
+<p>What cheeks are these! could Death e’er crop such roses?</p>
+<p>Eyes! star-bright twins! fair glasses to fair thoughts,</p>
+<p>Where, as by truest oracles confest,</p>
+<p>The godlike soul reveals itself in glory.</p>
+<p>Your glances thrill me! amber-twinkling threads!</p>
+<p>Half bound by grace, half loos’d by winds, how strays</p>
+<p>This shining ringlet o’er this clear white breast!</p>
+<p>Like the pale sunshine streaking wintry snows!</p>
+<p>These lips have life&mdash;yea! very breath; a&nbsp;sweet</p>
+<p>Warm spirit stirs thru’ the cleft ruby now!</p>
+<p>They move&mdash;they smile&mdash;they speak. Soft! soft! sweet
+heavens!</p>
+<p>I’ll gaze no more; there’s witchcraft in this skill,</p>
+<p>And my abus’d weak brain may madden soon!
+<span class = "stagedir both">
+conceals the picture in his bosom</span></p>
+<p>The spell is hidden, still th’ illusion works:</p>
+<p>O! in my heart Eugenia art thou trac’d&mdash;</p>
+<p>There&mdash;there&mdash;thou livest&mdash;speakest&mdash;yet art
+mortal.</p>
+<span class = "pagenum">17</span>
+<a name = "page_f17" id = "page_f17"> </a>
+<p>Strong memory triumphs over death and time,</p>
+<p>In all my circling blood&mdash;each vein&mdash;each pulse</p>
+<p>Wherever life is, ever there art thou.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Gaspard</em> speaks without.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+Go, go; his lordship may not be disturb’d.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+(<i>without</i>) Away! I have a cause that must be heard.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+How now! voices in the anti-room!&nbsp;Ho!</p>
+
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Gaspard</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+Alack! that folk will be so troublesome: my good lord! here’s a strange
+woman; truly a most <ins class = "correction" title =
+"text reads ‘obsinate’">obstinate</ins> spirit, who craves vehemently to be heard,
+on matters (so she reports) of much importance to your lordship.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Nay, in the morning be it; not at this hour.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+I told her so; my very words; but truly, her grief seems to have craz’d
+her reason.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+How! is she unhappy then? her sorrows be her passport here; admit her
+instantly: where should the afflicted heart prefer a prayer, if kindred
+wretchedness deny its sympathy?</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Gaspard</em> introduces <em>Monica</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+So! you are seen at last, my lord! men say your heart is good; grant
+Heaven! I&nbsp;find it so; but ah! perhaps it is too late. Yes, yes;
+I&nbsp;fear it: the dove is in the vulture’s <ins class = "correction"
+title = "text reads ‘gripe’">grip</ins> already.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Woman! what strange distraction’s this? Give me a knowledge of your
+griefs with method.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+I will, I will, but anguish stifles me; O! my lord, my lord, this is
+your castle, and here she fled for shelter, yet cruel hearts refused her
+prayer. I&nbsp;have been told by your people that the baron’s pavilion
+on the river-bank is made her prison; she will be murdered there: oh! my
+lord, gracious lord, save her, save her!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+She throws herself passionately at his feet.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Rise; attempt composure, your words are riddles to&nbsp;me.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+My lord! ’tis of the poor lunatic she speaks; she whom the baron has
+confined: this woman claims her as her charge.</p>
+
+<p><i>De Val.</i>I saw the person not, but heard in brief her story from
+the baron; rest, good woman, rest; my kinsman is her friend.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+No, no, he is a monster thirsting for her blood: here, here, I&nbsp;have
+read his character.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+Producing Eugenia’s MSS.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Beware! you offend me; grief yields no privilege to slander.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+I am not a slanderer, indeed, <i>indeed</i>, I&nbsp;am not; here are
+proofs: your lordship, I&nbsp;find, is called the Count De Valmont; had
+you not once a relation of the same title, who fell in battle with the
+Huguenots eighteen years ago!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Never.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Yet ’twas the same title: ay, here ’tis written: “in forcing the passage
+of the Durance.”</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+How! ’tis of myself assuredly you read; I&nbsp;was reported falsely in
+that very action to have fallen; and for a time my death was credited
+through France.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Ah! my lord! my lord! O! it rushes on my heart&mdash;nay, give but a
+moment; speak; were you once wedded to a lady named Eugenia?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Woman! ah, name beloved!&mdash;wherefore that torturing question?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Yes, yes; it is&mdash;it must be so&mdash;I cannot,
+here&mdash;read&mdash;this!&mdash;(<i>giving the scroll</i>).</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Eternal Powers! Eugenia’s well-known character! when and whence did you
+procure this writing?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+This very morning, from her own hand, my lord, Eugenia lives to bless
+and to be blessed again.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+De Valmont starts as if stricken to the center, for a moment his
+features express amazement, then incredulity, and lastly indignation<ins
+class = "correction" title =
+"period outside closing bracket">.&nbsp;</ins></p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Begone! thou wretched woman, lest I forget thy sex, and kill thee for
+thy cruelty.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+Nay, let me die, but not be doubted: read, read, and let your eyes
+assure your soul of joy!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+The Count faintly staggers back into a seat, and then fastens his eyes
+upon the scroll with a frenzied earnestness.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+Woman! if you have spoken falsely, my noble master’s heart will break at
+once.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Mon.</span>
+By the great issue, let my words be judged!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+(<i>reading</i>) “The chamber burst in flames, I&nbsp;snatched my infant
+from its slumber, I&nbsp;heard the voice of Longueville direct our
+murder, ruffians rushed towards us to perform his bidding.” (<i>starting
+forward with uncontrolable fury</i>) Oh! God of wrath and vengeance!
+hear thou a husband’s and a father’s prayer! strike the pale villain!
+oh! with thy hottest lightning blast him dead! a&nbsp;curse,
+a&nbsp;tenfold curse o’erwhelm his death-bed! Traitor! thou shalt not
+’scape, this hand shall rend thy heart-strings, I’ll smite thee
+home.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+In the delirium of his passion he draws his sword, and strikes with it
+as at an ideal combatant, his bodily powers forsake him in the effort,
+he reels, and falls convulsed into Gaspard’s arms.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Gasp.</span>
+Help! help! death is on him, help there swiftly!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Geraldine</em> rushes in, followed by domestics.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Whence these cries? ah Heavens! what killing sight is this? uncle,
+uncle, speak to me, ’tis Geraldine that calls.</p>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Florian</em> from the opposite side.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+My patron! ha! convulsed! dying. Eternal Mercy spare his sacred
+life!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+Nay, bend him forward, his eyes unclose again&mdash;he sees&mdash;he
+knows&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+The Count in silence draws a hand from <em>Geraldine</em> and
+<em>Florian</em> within his own, and presses them together to his
+heart.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+How fares it, sir? bless us with your voice.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Ah! Ah! (<i>he grasps the scroll and points to it emphatically, but
+cannot articulate.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+O! for a knowledge of your gracious pleasure, speak sir, pronounce one
+word.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+(<i>very faintly and with effort.</i>) Longueville: ah fly,
+preserve&mdash;(<i>again his accents fail him, he seems to collect all
+his remaining strength for one short effort, and a second time just
+articulates</i>&mdash;
+Longueville! (<i>he relapses into insensibility.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Enough! I comprehend your will; nay, bear him gently in, I’ll to the
+river-bank and seek the Baron!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Geraldine</em>, &amp;c. bear the count off on one side,
+<em>Florian</em> rushes away by the opposite.</p>
+
+
+<h5 class = "scene"><a name= "act_III_iii" id = "act_III_iii">
+SCENE III.</a>&mdash;<i>A rugged Cliff that overhangs the
+River.</i></h5>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Longueville</em> and <em>Sanguine</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Tardy, neglectful slave! still does he loiter?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Sang.</span>
+Nay, return to the pavilion; the signal soon must greet us: you bade
+Lenoire to sound his bugle when he reached the bank.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Ay, thrice the blast should be repeated; still must I listen for those
+notes of destiny in vain? hark! here you nothing now?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Sang.</span>
+Only the rising tide that murmurs hoarsly as it frets and chafes against
+the bank below&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Is midnight passed?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Sang.</span>
+Long since: just as we crossed the glen the monastery chime swang heavy
+with the knell of yesterday.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">18</span>
+<a name = "page_f18" id = "page_f18"> </a>
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+A guiltless end that flighted yesterday hath reached. O! that the morrow
+found as clear a tomb! When the next midnight tolls, Eugenia, thou wilt
+rest in blessedness, whilst thy murderer&mdash;Ah! what charmed couch
+shall bring the sweet forgetful slumber at that hour to me? Midnight,
+the welcome sabbath of unstained souls, O, to the murderer thou art
+terrible&mdash;silence and darkness that with the innocent make blessed
+time, to him bring curses, for then through sealed ears and close-veiled
+eyes, strange sounds and sights will steal their way, that in the hum
+and glare of day-light dare not stir: then o’er the wretch’s forehead
+ooze cold beads of dew&mdash;-in feverish, brain-sick dreams, with
+starts and groans: on beds of seeming down he feels the griding rack,
+and finds himself a hell more fierce, than fiends can show
+hereafter.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Sang.</span>
+How now, my lord? unmanned by conscience? Nay, then, let Eugenia
+live.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Not for an angel’s birthright! think’st thou I would deign to breathe on
+wretched sufferance? No, no; her death is necessary to my honor and my
+peace. Come on! my hand may falter, but my heart’s resolved; ’tis sworn,
+inexorably sworn: Eugenia dies.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">Exeunt.</p>
+
+
+<h5 class = "scene"><a name= "act_III_iv" id = "act_III_iv">
+SCENE IV.</a>&mdash;<i>The river-bank&mdash;the Rhine flows across the
+stage at distance&mdash;on one side a pavilion extends obliquely,
+through the lower windows of which lights appear&mdash;nearly opposite
+is a small bower of lattice-work.&mdash;The moon at full, has just risen
+above the German bank, and pours its radiance upon the water.
+<em>Bertrand</em> is discovered watching the pavilion.</i></h5>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+I watch in vain; all means of access to the prisoner are debarred: her
+chamber now is dark and silent: still tapers glare and voices murmur
+from the hall beneath: the baron and Sanguine are there: ’tis against
+life these midnight plotters stir. Oh! that this heart might bleed to
+its last guilty drop in ransom for Eugenia! Soft! does not the dashing
+of a distant oar disturb the silence of the tide? Yes; just where the
+moonlight gleams a boat now crosses rapidly; it rows towards this bank;
+it pauses now in stillness&mdash;what may this mean? the hour so late,
+the spot so unfrequented and remote. (<i>A bugle is sounded three
+times</i>) Ha! a&nbsp;bugle sounded thrice! too sure the omen of some
+fatal deed. I&nbsp;will not quit this spot&mdash;no, Eugenia,
+I&nbsp;will preserve or perish with thee! Soft, the pavilion opens.
+Bower, receive me to thy friendly shades! watch with me blessed
+spirits.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+He retires into the bower fronting the pavilion. <em>Longueville</em>
+advances cautiously from the pavilion.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+’Twas the signal! the boat has reached the bank, Ho! Lenoire! advance:
+no eye observes thy step.</p>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Lenoire</em> along the bank by an entrance between the bower
+and the river.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Len.</span>
+All is prepared: your orders are <ins class = "correction" title =
+"text reads ‘fulfiled’">fulfilled</ins>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Laggard! too many precious moments have been wasted in their execution:
+the moon has risen high, and casts a brightness round scarce feebler
+than the day: your course may be observed.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Len.</span>
+Dismiss that fear: nothing that lives hath voice or motion: now, not
+e’en the solitary fisher spreads his nets upon the stream.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Where have you left the boat?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Len.</span>
+Under the bank in shade, fastened to the roots of yon tall willow.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Sanguine shall accompany you; then when you reach the middle of the
+current&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Len.</span>
+Ay, where it flows deep and strong; Eugenia’s funeral rites are few and
+brief.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+To-morrow, I shall report she has been conveyed in safety to her friends
+upon the German bank&mdash;thus all inquiry stands forever barred.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Bertrand</em>, who watches from the bower, clasps his hands in
+despair and groans aloud.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Ha! what sound was that?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Len.</span>
+(<i>looking cautiously round.</i>) Some tree moaning to the
+blast&mdash;no more.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Now then! yet hold! wherefore come you not masked? some of the peasantry
+may chance to stir ere you return, and I should wish your persons were
+unmarked by any.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Len.</span>
+I left a mask within the boat; this flowing mantle will conceal my
+dress&mdash;trust me both form and feature shall effectually be hid.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Bertrand</em> makes a gesticulation of hope towards the pavilion,
+then glides silently round the angle of the bower, and starts along the
+bank.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+’Tis well! (<i>to the pavilion.</i>) Ho! Sanguine! lead forth your
+charge: despatch, Lenoire! return to the boat, and row it swiftly
+hither! Away!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+Exit <ins class = "correction" title =
+"text reads ‘Lenoir’"><em>Lenoire</em></ins>.</p>
+
+<p>She comes! Ill-starred Eugenia! fate chides the lingering echo of thy
+step, yet but a moment and ’tis hushed forever.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+<em>Sanguine</em> leads <em>Eugenia</em> from the pavilion.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Ah! whither do you lead me? Speak, in pity&mdash;nay, nay,
+I&nbsp;prithee force me not; this is a savage hour, and I must fear your
+purpose, speak, whither would you hurry me? Ah! Longueville! now then I
+read my answer&mdash;’tis to death&mdash;to murder!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Lady, you misjudge my purpose&mdash;true, that once I proved myself your
+foe, perhaps a kindless one; time and pity have extinguished hate.
+Across the Rhine, upon the German bank, a&nbsp;safe asylum is provided,
+where peace shall gild the evening of your life, and cure the memory of
+its early woes; ’tis necessary you should cross the river before dawn;
+a&nbsp;boat is now in readiness to bear you over.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+No, no, I find a language in your eye more certain than your
+lip&mdash;murder&mdash;midnight murder is its direful theme. Thou
+wretched man! rather for thee than for myself I kneel. Pause,
+Longueville! raise but thine eye to yon clear world, thick-sown with
+shining wonders&mdash;think, that throughout the boundless beauteous
+space, an omnipresent, and all-conscious spirit is; think, that within
+his awful eye-beam, now thy actions pass, and presently before his
+throne must wait for judgment; think, that whene’er he touched the
+veriest worm, that crawls on this base sphere, with life, mighty his
+will encompassed it with safety! then, tremble, creature as thou art, to
+spurn his law by whom thou wert created, nor quench with impious hand,
+that gifted spark Omnipotence hath once ordained to glow.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Lady, already I have said, your auguries wrong me (<i>the noise of a
+combat sounds from the bank.</i>) Ha! the crash of swords! Sanguine! fly
+to the spot. Lenoire, I&nbsp;fear me, is in danger.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+Exit <em>Sanguine</em>.</p>
+
+<p>Confusion to my hopes! what ill-beamed planet rules the hour?
+Eugenia, return to the pavilion.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Not, while succour seems so nigh, help! help!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Dare but repeat that cry, by heavens! this very moment is your last.
+(<i>draws a dagger.</i>) Nay, nay, you strive in vain,&mdash;away!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+<em>Longueville</em> forces <em>Eugenia</em> into the pavilion, then
+drags a bar across the door.</p>
+
+<p>What cursed step has wandered on these banks to thwart my ripe
+design? Perdition to the meddling slave! his life shall pay the forfeit
+of his rashness.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">19</span>
+<a name = "page_f19" id = "page_f19"> </a>
+<p class = "stagedir">
+Re-enter <em>Sanguine</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Sang.</span>
+My lord, the combatants, whoe’er they were, had vanished ere I reached
+the spot; close to the water’s edge the turf was stained with blood, and
+already to a distance from the bank, Lenoire had rowed away the boat;
+I&nbsp;called aloud, but he increased his speed, and gave no answer.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Lon.</span>
+’Sdeath! some prying hind has stolen on our plans; doubtless Lenoire has
+been assailed and for a while avoids the bank, fearful of further
+ambush; follow me to search yon winding path; if the villian have
+received a wound, traces of blood will guide us to his
+haunt,&mdash;vengeance direct our steps!
+<span class = "stagedir">Exit, with <em>Sanguine</em>.</span></p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Eugenia</em> appears at the lower windows through a grating.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Fond, trusting heart! art thou again deceived? does the great thunder
+sleep, and are the heavens still patient of a murderer’s crimes; yes,
+yes, the sounds have ceased, and now a dreadful stillness sits upon the
+night; the tomb seems imaged in the hour. Hope in the breathless pause
+forsakes my breast forever.</p>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Florian</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Ha! lights still burning&mdash;fortunately then he has not retired to
+rest,&mdash;baron! baron!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+Runs to the door.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+(<i>Shrieks.</i>) Ah! the voice of succour&mdash;turn, turn in
+pity&mdash;snatch me from despair&mdash;preserve me from the grave.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Heavens!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+Involuntarily he withdraws the bar, and <em>Eugenia</em> darting forth,
+clings wildly round him.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Unhappy woman! whence these transports?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Swear to preserve me, swear not to yield me to the murderer’s dagger;
+no, no, you have a human heart; am I not safe with you?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+My honor and my manhood both are pledges for your safety: but who is the
+enemy you dread!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Longueville; he seeks my life: nay, nay, I&nbsp;am not mad, indeed I am
+not; turn not from me: look with compassion on a desolate, devoted
+creature, whom man conspires to wrong, and Heaven forgets to aid.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Appease these agonies; by my eternal hope, I&nbsp;swear, whatever the
+danger, or the foe that threatens, I&nbsp;will defend you with my life
+from injury.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+A wretch’s blessing crown thee for the generous vow! oh! let my soul
+dissolve and gush in tears upon this gracious hand!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+<em>Eugenia</em> enthusiastically clasps Florian’s hand, and covers it
+with tears and caresses; suddenly a new impulse appears to direct her
+actions: she rubs the back of the hand she has seized with strange
+earnestness, and a tremor pervades her entire frame.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Why do you fasten thus your looks upon my hand: what moves your
+wonder?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+(<i>tremblingly.</i>) This scar, this deep, <i>deep</i> scar, that with
+a crimson cross o’erseams your hand; speak, how gained you first this
+dreadful mark?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+From infancy I recollect the stamp, its cause remains unknown.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Who were your parents?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Alas! that knowledge never blessed my heart. I&nbsp;am a foundling:
+eighteen years since, in a forest at the foot of the Cevennes&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Ah! did watchful angels then&mdash;yes, yes, twice the dagger struck!
+’tis nature’s holy proof!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Merciful heavens! you then possess the secret of my birth: woman! woman!
+pronounce my parents’ name, and I will worship you.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Your parents! ah! they were, ah!&nbsp;ah!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+She attempts to enfold him with her arms, but faints as he receives the
+embrace.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Speak! I conjure you, speak! breathe but their sacred name! she hears me
+not, and nature struggles at my heart in vain!</p>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>Longueville</em> and <em>Sanguine</em> at distance.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+The lurking knave, whate’er his aim, has fled beyond our search, and all
+is now secure. Has Lenoire return’d your signal to approach the
+bank?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Sang.</span>
+He rows towards us now&mdash;nay, look&mdash;the boat draws close.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Then to our last decisive deed!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+Passing to the pavilion he beholds the characters in front, and
+starts.</p>
+
+<p>Ha! confusion and despair! Eugenia rescued, and in Florian’s
+arms!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Help, baron!&mdash;swiftly help!&mdash;aid me to preserve a dying
+woman!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Florian! by what wild chance at such unwonted hour I find you on this
+spot, admits not of inquiry now&mdash;but for this fair impostor, resign
+her to my care&mdash;with me her safety is at once assured.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Pardon me, Longueville; whate’er the laws of courtesy demand,
+I&nbsp;yield&mdash;but to this female’s fate my soul is newly bound by
+ties so strange and strong, that even your displeasure must not
+part&nbsp;us.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+The alarum-bell tolls from the castle.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Ha! the castle is alarmed&mdash;look out, Sanguine:&mdash;what means
+this tumult?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Sang.</span>
+My lord! the glare of numerous torches wavers through the
+grove&mdash;this way the crowd directs its course.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Distraction!&mdash;Florian, beware my just resentment, and instantly
+resign this woman<ins class = "correction" title =
+"text has question mark">!&nbsp;</ins>(<i>Attempting to force her from him.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Never!&mdash;my word stands pledged for her protection, and only with my
+life will I desert my honor.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Hell!&mdash;ho! Lenoire!&mdash;Lenoire!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+He rushes furiously to the bank, and motions to the boat.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+(<i>just recovering.</i>) Stay, blessed vision!&mdash;(<i>recognizing
+Florian</i>) ah! ’twas real&mdash;I fold him to my heart, and am blessed
+at last.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+The boat, rowed by a man enveloped in a mantle and a masque, at that
+instant gains the bank.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+(<i>triumphantly</i>) Ha! the boat arrives!&mdash;now then presumptuous
+boy! receive the chastisement you dare provoke.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+He draws and rushes upon <em>Florian</em>, who disengages himself from
+<em>Eugenia</em> and stands upon the defence.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+In the just cause I would not shrink before a giant’s arm! (<i>they
+engage.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+(<i>frantic</i>) Inhuman Longueville!&mdash;forbear! forbear!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+While <em>Florian</em> encounters <em>Longueville</em>,
+<em>Sanguine</em> suddenly darts upon Eugenia, who is too enfeebled to
+resist; by the action of a moment he transports her from her protector’s
+side to the Baron’s. Florian’s position is next to the audience, so that
+Longueville’s sword now equally intercepts him from <em>Eugenia</em> and
+from the river.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+(<i>Perceiving his advantage</i>) Away!&mdash;drag&mdash;her to the
+boat&mdash;be mine the task to curb her champion’s valor.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Hold! dastard&mdash;unless thou art dead to every sense of
+manhood&mdash;hold!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Boy! I triumph, and deride thy baffled spleen.</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Sanguine</em> lifts <em>Eugenia</em> into the boat, and the masque
+receives her.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+(<i>from the boat</i>) Great nature! speed my dying words!&mdash;Thou
+dear-lov’d youth! thy mother blesses
+thee&mdash;long-lost&mdash;late-found&mdash;behold! she struggles
+<i>now</i> to bless her child&mdash;and <i>now</i> she dies content!</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">20</span>
+<a name = "page_f20" id = "page_f20"> </a>
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Eternal Providence! what words were
+those?&mdash;Longueville!&mdash;Barbarian!&mdash;Fiend!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+He rushes madly upon the Baron, who parries the assault; then in an
+agony casts himself before his feet.</p>
+
+<p>Oh! if thou art human, hold!&mdash;I kneel&mdash;I fall thy
+slave&mdash;spurn me&mdash;trample on my neck&mdash;take my
+life&mdash;but O! respect and spare my parent!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Sang.</span>
+(<i>from the boat</i>) Decide, my lord; the crowd approach, already they
+o’erlook the bank.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+’Twere vain to pause&mdash;I founder upon either course&mdash;nay then,
+revenge shall brighten ruin; swift! plunge your poniards in Eugenia’s
+bosom! let me behold my victim perish, and then commit me to my
+fate!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+(<i>starting up in desperation</i>) Monster!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+They come&mdash;obey me, slaves!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Sanguine</em> draws <em>Eugenia</em> back, and the Masque lifts a
+dagger over her.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Sang.</span>
+We are prepared.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Now.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Sang.</span>
+Comrade! strike!</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Masque.</span>
+Ay! to the heart!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+The Masque rapidly darts his arm across Eugenia’s figure and plunges the
+dagger into <em>Sanguine</em>, who reels beneath the blow and falls into
+the stream.</p>
+
+<p>(<i>triumphantly</i>) Eugenia is preserved!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">
+With one arm he supports the lady, and with the other snatches away the
+masque and discovers the features of <em>Bertrand</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Bertrand&mdash;perfidious slave! eternal palsies strike thy arm!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir long">
+<em>Gaspard</em>, <em>Monica</em>, <em>Domestics</em>, &amp;c. with
+torches, enter at the moment and surround the baron, whose surprise
+bereaves him of power to resist.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Secure the villain, yet forbear his life&mdash;Mother! Mysterious
+blessing&mdash;ah! yield her to my arms&mdash;my heart!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Bertrand</em> resigns <em>Eugenia</em> to Florian’s embrace.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+My boy, my only one&mdash;Bertrand! life is thy gift, and now indeed I
+bless thee for the boon.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Bert.</span>
+I swore to save you, I have kept my oath, unseen I watched, unknown I
+ventured in your cause&mdash;your forgiveness half relieves my soul, and
+now I dare to pray for heaven’s!</p>
+
+<p class = "scenedesc">
+Enter <em>De Valmont</em>, supported by <em>Geraldine</em> and
+<em>Domestics</em>.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Ah! ’tis she, dear worshipp’d form; she lives&mdash;she lives.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Ah! shield me&mdash;Florian, yon phantom shape&mdash;death surely hovers
+near&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Nay, fly me not, Eugenia! tis thy lord, thy living lord, thy once
+beloved De Valmont calls: thou dear divorced-one bless these
+outstretch’d arms&mdash;I kneel and woo thee for my bride again!</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+<em>Florian</em> leads <em>Eugenia</em> trembling and uncertain to the
+Count, he catches her irresolute hand.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Eug.</span>
+Indeed, my wedded lord!&mdash;I wept for a dear warrior once; and did
+the sword forbear so just a heart?&mdash;ah! chide not love, joy kills
+as well as grief&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class = "stagedir both">
+She sinks gradually into his embrace, and he supports her on his breast
+in speechless tenderness.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Detested sight! well, well, curses are weak revenge, and I’ll disdain
+their use.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Remove the monster to some sure confinement. The Count hereafter shall
+pronounce his punishment.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Long.</span>
+Already I endure my heaviest curse. I&nbsp;view the objects of my hatred
+crown’d with joy. Come! to a dungeon!&mdash;darkness is welcome, since
+it hides me from exulting foes!
+<span class = "stagedir">Exit.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Ger.</span>
+(<i>advancing with tenderness.</i>) Florian!&mdash;friend&mdash;ah! yet
+a dearer name&mdash;you rob me of a birth-right, still I must greet my
+new-found kinsman.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Geraldine! what means my love?</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+Florian! Heaven mysteriously o’er-watch’d thy hour of peril, and led a
+father through the desert, unconsciously to succour and redeem his
+child.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">Flor.</span>
+Ha! De Valmont’s glorious blood then circles in these veins!&mdash;My
+parent, my preserver! Ha! twice has existence been my father’s gift.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "speaker">De Val.</span>
+My pride thus long in humbleness!&mdash;my forest-prize! my foundling
+boy!&mdash;thou had’st my blessing ere I knew thy claim. Eugenia, greet
+our mutual image. Ah! wilt thou weep, sweet love. Thou bendest o’er his
+forehead e’en as a lily, brimming with clear dews, that stoops in
+beauteous sorrow to embathe its neighbouring bud. Thro’ many a storm of
+perilous and marring cares o’erborne, our long-benighted loves at last
+encounter on a sun-bright course, and reach the haven of domestic
+peace.</p>
+
+<div class = "poem">
+<p>Thus Judah’s pilgrim&mdash;one whose steps in vain</p>
+<p>Climb sky-crown’d rocks&mdash;o’erpace the burning plain,</p>
+<p>Just when his soul despairs&mdash;his spirits faint,</p>
+<p>Achieves the threshold of his long-sought Saint:</p>
+<p>The desert’s danger&mdash;storms and ruffian-bands&mdash;</p>
+<p>All sink forgotten as the shrine expands&mdash;</p>
+<p>Feet cure their toil that touch the hallow’d floors&mdash;</p>
+<p>He rests his staff&mdash;kneels, trembles, and adores!</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class = "stagedir">Exeunt Omnes.</p>
+
+</div> <!-- end div foundling -->
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic
+Censor, by Stephen Cullen Carpenter
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@@ -0,0 +1,7042 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, by
+Stephen Cullen Carpenter
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor
+       Volume I, Number 1
+
+Author: Stephen Cullen Carpenter
+
+Release Date: September 2, 2007 [EBook #22488]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF TASTE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Louise Hope, Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  [Transcriber's Note:
+
+  Typographical errors are listed at the end of the text. No attempt
+  was made to regularize the use of quotation marks.
+
+  The printed book contained the six Numbers of Volume I with their
+  appended plays. The Index originally appeared at the beginning of
+  the volume; it has been relocated to the end of the journal text,
+  before the play. Pages 1-108 refer to the present Number.]
+
+
+
+
+THE MIRROR OF TASTE,
+
+AND
+
+DRAMATIC CENSOR.
+
+
+  Neque mala vel bona quae vulgus putet. --_Tacitus._
+
+
+
+
+PROSPECTUS.
+
+
+The advantages of a correct judgment and refined taste in all matters
+connected with literature, are much greater than men in general imagine.
+The hateful passions have no greater enemies than a delicate taste and a
+discerning judgment, which give the possessor an interest in the virtues
+and perfections of others, and prompt him to admire, to cherish, and
+make them known to the world. Criticism, the parent of these qualities,
+therefore, mends the heart, while it improves the understanding. The
+influence of critical knowledge is felt in every department of social
+life, as it supplies elegant subjects for conversation, and enlarges the
+scope, and extends the duration of intellectual enjoyment. Without it,
+the pleasures we derive from the fine arts would be transient and
+imperfect; and poetry, painting, music, and that admirable epitome of
+life, the stage, would afford nothing more than a fugitive, useless,
+pastime, if not aided by the interposition of the judgment, and sent
+home, by the delightful process of criticism, to the memory, there to
+exercise the mind to the last of life, to be the amusement of our
+declining years, and, when all the other faculties for receiving
+pleasure are impaired by old age and infirmity, to cast the sunshine of
+delight over the last moments of our existence.
+
+In no age or country has the improvement of the intellectual powers of
+man made a larger share of the business of life than in these in which
+we live. In the promotion of this spirit the stage has been an
+instrument of considerable efficacy, and, as such, lays claim to a full
+share of critical examination; yet, owing to some cause, which it seems
+impossible to discover, that very important subject has been little
+attended to in this great commonwealth; and in Philadelphia, the
+principal city of the union, has been almost totally neglected. No
+apology, therefore, can be thought necessary for offering the present
+work to the public.
+
+The utility of miscellanies of this kind has been sometimes called in
+question; nor are those wanting who condemn the whole tribe of light
+periodical productions, as detrimental to the advancement of solid
+science and erudition: yet, in the most learned and enlightened nations
+of Europe, magazines and periodical compilations have, for more than a
+century, been circulated with vast success, and, within the last twenty
+years, increased in price as well as number, to an extent that shows how
+essentially the public opinion, in that quarter of the world differs
+from that of the persons who condemn them.
+
+Taking that decision as a decree without appeal, in favour of such
+works, the editors think themselves authorized in offering the present
+without any formal apology. If the perusal of such productions had a
+tendency to prevent the youth of the country from aspiring to deep and
+solid erudition, or to divert men of talents from the prosecution of
+more important studies, the editors would be among the last to make any
+addition to the stock already in circulation; but, convinced that, on
+the contrary, works of that kind promote the advancement of general
+knowledge, they have no scruple whatever in offering this to the
+American people; and so firm do they feel in the conviction of its
+utility, that they let it go into the world, unaided by any of those
+arts, or specious professions which are sometimes employed, in similar
+cases, to excite the attention, enlist the partialities, and seduce the
+judgment of the public.
+
+Of those who possess at once the talents, the leisure, and the
+inclination to hunt erudition into its deepest recesses, the number must
+ever be inconsiderable; and of that number the portion must be small
+indeed, who could be diverted from that pursuit by the casual perusal of
+light fugitive pieces. On the other hand, the great majority of mankind
+would be left without inducement to read, if they were not supplied, by
+publications of the kind proposed, with matter adapted to their
+circumstances, to their capacities, and their various turns of fancy;
+matter accessible to them by its conciseness and perspicuity, attractive
+by its variety and lightness, and useful by its easy adaptation to the
+familiar intercourse of life, and its fitness to enter into the
+conversation of rational society. Men whose time and labour are chiefly
+engrossed by the common occupations of life, have little leisure to
+read, none for what is called study. In books they do not search for
+deep learning, but for amusement accompanied with information on general
+topics, conveyed with brevity; happy if, in seeking relaxation from the
+drudgery of business, they can pick up some new particles of knowledge.
+For this most useful and numerous portion of society, some adequate
+intellectual provision ought to be made. Nor should it be imagined that,
+in supplying them, the general interests of literature are deserted. The
+frequent perusal of well collated miscellanies imparts to youth an
+appetite for diligent reading; by slow but certain gradation, stores the
+young mind with valuable ideas; accumulates in it a large stock of
+useful knowledge; and imperceptibly insinuates a correct and refined
+taste. Nor is this all. It may serve, as it often has, to rouse the
+indolent from the gratification of complexional sloth, and recall the
+unthinking and irregular from the haunts of dissipation and vice to the
+blessings of serious reflection.
+
+Few things have more tended to inflame the general passion for
+literature in Great Britain than the practice of uniting the plan of the
+reviews with that of the magazines, and making them jointly vehicles of
+dramatic criticism. Multitudes at this day know the character of books,
+and form a general conception of their subjects, who, but for the light
+periodical publications, would never have known that such books existed:
+many who would not otherwise have extended their reading beyond the
+columns of a newspaper, are led by the pleasures of a represented play,
+to read the critic's strictures upon it, and thence, by a natural
+transition, to peruse attentively the various other subjects which
+surround those strictures in the magazines. This is the reason why
+hundreds read the Monthly Mirror and similar productions of London, for
+one who reads the Rambler.
+
+For the passionate love of books, and the rapid advancement of
+literature which distinguish her from all young countries, America is
+greatly indebted to her periodical publications. Those, though small in
+number, and, unfortunately, too often shortlived, have been read in
+their respective times and circles with great avidity, and produced a
+correspondent effect. THE PORT FOLIO alone raised, long ago, a spirit in
+the country which malicious Dulness itself will never be able to lay.
+Yet the disproportion in number of those miscellanies which have
+succeeded in America, to those which enrich the republic of letters in
+England, is astonishing, considering the comparative population of the
+two countries. London boasts of several periodical publications founded
+on the DRAMA alone; and though the other magazines occasionally contain
+short strictures on that subject, those have the greatest circulation
+which are most exclusively devoted to the stage.
+
+IN AMERICA THERE HAS NOT YET BEEN ONE OF THAT DESCRIPTION.
+
+To supply this defect, and raise the United States one step higher in
+laudable emulation with Great Britain, the editors have planned the
+present work, of which, (though not to the total exclusion of other
+matter) the basis will be
+
+THE DRAMA.
+
+
+The first and by far the larger share will be allotted to the stage, and
+dramatic productions. The residue to miscellaneous articles, most of
+them connected with the fashionable amusements, and designed to correct
+the abuses, which intemperate ignorance, and Licentiousness, running
+riot for want of critical control, have introduced into the public
+diversions of this opulent and luxurious city.
+
+In the composition of the several parts of this work, care will be taken
+to furnish the public with new and interesting matter, and to select
+from the current productions of the British metropolis such topics as
+will best tend to promote the cultivation of an elegant taste for
+knowledge and letters, and, at the same time, repay the reader for the
+trouble of perusal, with amusement and delight. Abstracts from the most
+popular publications will be given, accompanied with short critical
+remarks upon them, and, whatever appears most interesting in the
+periodical productions of Great Britain will be transferred into this;
+pruned if they be prolix, and illustrated by explanatory notes, whenever
+they may be found obscured by local or personal allusion.
+
+As the leading object of the work is, not to infuse a passion, but to
+inculcate a just and sober taste for dramatic poetry and acting, the
+editors propose to give, _seriatim_, a history of the drama from its
+origin, with strictures on dramatic poesy, and portraits of the best
+dramatic poets of antiquity. To this will succeed the history of the
+British stage, with portraits of the most celebrated poets, authors, and
+actors who have flourished on it, and strictures on the professional
+talents of the latter, illustrated by parallels and comparisons with
+those who have been most noted for excellence on the American boards.
+
+From that history the reader will be able to deduce a proper conviction
+of the advantages of the stage, and the importance, if not the
+necessity, of putting the actors and the audience on a more proper
+footing with each other than that in which they now stand. Actors must
+lay their account with being told their faults. They owe their whole
+industry and attention to those who attend their performance; but the
+editors hold that critic to have forfeited his right to correct the
+stage, and to be much more deserving of reprehension than those he
+censures, who, in the discharge of his duty, forgets that the actor has
+his rights and privileges also; that he has the same rights which every
+other gentleman possesses, and of which his profession has not even the
+remotest tendency to deprive him, to be treated with politeness and
+respect; that he has the same right as every other man in society, as
+the merchant, the mechanic, or the farmer, to prosecute his business
+unmolested; shielded by the same laws which protect them from the
+attacks of malicious libellers out of the theatre, and the insults of
+capricious Ignorance or stupid Malevolence within. "Reproof," says Dr.
+Johnson, "should not exhaust its power upon petty failings;" and "the
+care of the critic should be to distinguish error from inability, faults
+of inexperience from defects of nature. On this principle the editors
+will unalterably act. And, since they have cited the great moralist's
+maxim as a direction for critics, they, even in this their first step
+into public view, beg leave to offer a few sentiments from the same high
+source, for the guidance of AUDITORS. "HE THAT APPLAUDS HIM WHO DOES NOT
+DESERVE PRAISE IS ENDEAVOURING TO DECEIVE THE PUBLIC; HE THAT HISSES IN
+MALICE OR IN SPORT IS AN OPPRESSOR AND A ROBBER.[1]"
+
+  [Footnote 1: Johnson's Idler, No. 25.]
+
+This work, therefore, will contain a regular journal of all, worthy of
+notice, that passes in the theatre of Philadelphia, and an account of
+each night's performances, accompanied with a critical analysis of the
+play and after-piece, and remarks upon the merits of the actors. Nor
+shall the management of the stage, in any particular, escape
+observation. Thus the public will know what they owe to the manager and
+to the leader of each department, and those again what they owe to the
+public. To make THE MIRROR OF TASTE AND DRAMATIC CENSOR, as far as
+possible a general national work, measures have been taken to obtain
+from the capital cities, of the other states, a regular account of their
+theatrical transactions. To this will be added a register of the other
+public exhibitions, and, in general, of all the fashionable amusements
+of this city, and, from time to time, the sporting intelligence of the
+new and old country.
+
+To the first part, which will be entitled "The Domestic Dramatic
+Censor," will succeed the "Foreign Dramatic Censor." This will contain a
+general account of all that passes in the theatres of Great Britain,
+likely to interest the fashionable world and _amateurs_ of America, viz.
+the new pieces, whether play, farce, or interlude, with their prologues
+and epilogues, together with their character and reception there, and
+critiques on the acting, collected from the various opinions of the best
+critics, together with the amusing occurrences, anecdotes, bon-mots, and
+greenroom chitchat, scattered through the various periodical
+publications of England, Ireland, and Scotland.
+
+The next head will be Stage Biography, under which the reader will find
+the lives and characters of the leading actors of both countries.
+
+These will be followed by a miscellany collated from the foreign
+productions, catalogues of the best books and best compositions in
+music, published or preparing for publication in Europe or America, with
+concise reviews of such as have already appeared.
+
+Poetry, of course, will be introduced; not, as usual, under one head,
+but scattered in detached pieces through the whole.
+
+
+
+
+TERMS.
+
+
+_The price of the Mirror will be eight dollars per annum, payable on the
+delivery of the sixth number._
+
+_A number will be issued every month, forming two volumes in the year._
+
+_To each number will be added, by way of appendix, an entire play or
+after-piece, printed in a small elegant type, and paged so as to be
+collected, at the end of each year, into a separate volume._
+
+_The work will be embellished with elegant engravings by the first
+artists._
+
+
+
+
+THE MIRROR OF TASTE,
+
+AND
+
+DRAMATIC CENSOR.
+
+
+Vol. I.  JANUARY 1810.  No. 1.
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE STAGE.
+
+
+  Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem
+  Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et quae
+  Ipse sibi tradit spectator.[2]  _Hor. de Arte Poetica._
+
+  [Footnote 2:
+                         What we _hear_
+    With weaker passion will affect the heart
+    Than when the faithful eye beholds the part. --_Francis._ ]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+OBJECTIONS TO THE STAGE CONSIDERED AND REFUTED.
+
+
+That amusement is necessary to man, the most superficial observation of
+his conduct and pursuits may convince us. The Creator never implanted in
+the hearts of all his intelligent creatures one common universal
+appetite without some corresponding necessity; and that he has given
+them an instinctive appetite for amusements as strong as any other which
+we labour to gratify, may be clearly perceived in the efforts of
+infancy, in the exertions of youth, in the pursuits of manhood, in the
+feeble endeavours of old age, and in the pastimes which human creatures,
+even the uninstructed savage nations themselves, have invented for their
+relaxation and delight. This appetite evinces a necessity for its
+gratification as much as hunger, thirst, and weariness, intimate the
+necessity of bodily refection by eating, drinking, and sleeping; and not
+to yield obedience to that necessity, would be to counteract the
+intentions of Providence, who would not have furnished us so bountifully
+as he has with faculties for the perception of pleasure, if he had not
+intended us to enjoy it. Had the Creator so willed it, the process
+necessary to the support of existence here below might have been carried
+on without the least enjoyment on our part: the daily waste of the body
+might be repaired without the sweet sensations which attend eating and
+drinking; we might have had the sense of hearing without the delight we
+derive from sweet sounds; and that of smelling without the capability of
+enjoying the fragrance of the rose: but He whose wisdom and beneficence
+are above all comprehension, has ordained in another and a better
+manner, and annexed the most lively sensations of pleasure to every
+operation he has made necessary to our support, thereby making the
+enjoyment of pleasure one of the conditions of our existence. This is an
+unanswerable refutation of one of the most abominable doctrines of the
+atheists--the overbalance of evil; and as such, that wise and amiable
+divine, doctor Paley, has made use of it in his Natural Theology. It is
+true, that yielding to the tendency of our frail, overweening nature to
+push enjoyment of every kind to its utmost verge, men too often
+overshoot the mark, and frustrate the object they have most at heart, by
+eagerness to accomplish it. For though to a reasonable extent and in
+certain circumstances, all enjoyments are harmless, they degenerate into
+crimes, when excessively indulged, and particularly when the imagination
+is overstrained to improve their zest, or to refine or exalt them beyond
+the limits which Nature and sobriety prescribe. But this can no more be
+alledged as a reason for renouncing the moderate use of the enjoyment,
+than the excesses of the drunkard or glutton for the rejection of food
+and drink.
+
+That man must have amusement of some kind, "Nature speaks aloud." He,
+therefore, who supplies society with entertainment unadulterated by
+vice, who contributes to the pleasure without impairing the innocence of
+his fellow-beings, and above all, who instructs while he delights, may
+justly be ranked among the benefactors of mankind, and lays claim to the
+gratitude and respect of the society he serves. To that gratitude and
+respect the dramatic poet, and those who contribute to give effect to
+his works, are richly entitled. Accordingly history informs us that in
+all recorded ages theatrical exhibitions have been not only held in high
+estimation by the most wise, learned, and virtuous men, but sedulously
+cultivated and encouraged by legislators as matters of high public
+importance, particularly in those nations that have been most renowned
+for freedom and science.
+
+In the multitude and diversity of conflicting opinions which divide
+mankind upon all, even the most manifest truths, we find some upon this
+subject. Many well-meaning, sincere christians have waged war against
+the enjoyment of pleasure, as if it were the will of God that we should
+go weeping and sorrowing through life. The learned bishop of Rochester,
+speaking of a religious sect which carries this principle as far as it
+will go, says: "their error is not heterodoxy, but excessive, overheated
+zeal." Thus we find that the stage has ever been with many well-meaning
+though mistaken men, a constant object of censure. Of those, a vast
+number express themselves with the sober, calm tenderness which comports
+with the character of christians, while others again have so far lost
+their temper as to discard in a great measure from their hearts the
+first of all christian attributes--charity. We hope, for the honour of
+christianity, that there are but few of the latter description. There
+are men however of a very different mould--men respectable for piety and
+for learning, who have suffered themselves to be betrayed into opinions
+hostile to the drama upon other grounds: these will even read plays, and
+profess to admire the poetry, the language, and the genius of the
+dramatic poet; but still make war upon scenic representations,
+considering them as stimulants to vice--as a kind of moral cantharides
+which serves to inflame the passions and break down the ramparts behind
+which religion and prudence entrench the human heart. Some there are
+again, who entertain scruples of a different kind, and turn from a play
+because it is a fiction; while there are others, and they are most
+worthy of argument, who think that theatres add more than their share to
+the aggregate mass of luxury, voluptuousness, and dissipation, which
+brings nations to vitious refinement, enervation and decay.
+
+In all reasoning of this kind, authority goes a great way, and therefore
+before we proceed any further, we will enrol under the banners of our
+argument a few high personages, whose names on such an occasion are of
+weight to stand against the world, and enumerate some great nations who
+reverenced and systematically encouraged the drama. If it can be shown
+that some of the most exalted men that ever lived--men eminent for
+virtue, high in power and distinction, and illustrious for talents, in
+different countries and at different times, have countenanced the stage
+and even written for it; nay, that some of that description have
+themselves been actors, further argument may well be thought
+superfluous: yet we will not rest the matter there, but taking those
+along with us as authorities, go on and probe the error to which we
+allude, even to the very bone.
+
+It might not be difficult to prove by inference from a multitude of
+facts scattered through the history of the world, that a passion for the
+dramatic art is inherent in the nature of man. How else should it happen
+that in every age and nation of the world, vestiges remain of something
+resembling theatrical amusements. It is asserted that the people of
+China full three thousand years ago had something of the kind and
+presented on a public stage, in spectacle, dialogue and action, living
+pictures of men and manners, for the suppression of vice, and the
+circulation of virtue and morality. Even the Gymnosophists, severe as
+they were, encouraged dramatic representation. The Bramins, whose
+austerity in religious and moral concerns almost surpasses belief, were
+in the constant habit of enforcing religious truths by dramatic fictions
+represented in public. The great and good PILPAY the fabulist, is said
+to have used that kind of exhibition as a medium for conveying political
+instruction to a despotic prince, his master, to whom he dared not to
+utter the dictates of truth, in any other garb. In the obscurity of
+those remote ages, the evidences of particular facts are too faintly
+discernible to be relied upon: All that can be assumed as certain,
+therefore, is that the elementary parts of the dramatic art had then
+been conceived and rudely practised. But the first _regular_ play was
+produced in Greece, where the great Eschylus, whose works are handed
+down to us, flourished not only as a dramatist, but as an illustrious
+statesman and warrior.
+
+Without dwelling on the many other examples afforded by Greece, we
+proceed to as high authority as can be found among men: we mean Roscius
+the Roman actor. That extraordinary man's name is immortalized by
+Cicero, who has in various parts of his works panegyrized him no less
+for his virtues than for his talents. Of him, that great orator,
+philosopher and moralist has recorded, that he was a being so perfect
+that any person who excelled in any art was usually called A
+ROSCIUS--that he knew better than any other man how to inculcate virtue,
+and that he was more pure in his private life than any man in Rome.
+
+In the Roman catholic countries the priesthood shut out as far as they
+could from the people the instruction of the stage. For ages the fire of
+the HOLY inquisition kept works of genius of every kind in suppression
+all over the south of Europe. In France the monarch supported the stage
+against its enemies; but though he was able to support the actors in
+life, he had not power or influence sufficient to obtain for them
+consolation in death; the rights of the church and christian burial
+being refused to them by the clergy.
+
+In England, where the clouds of religious intolerance were first broken
+and dispersed by the reformation, the stage has flourished, and
+exhibited a mass of excellence and a constellation of genius
+unparalleled in the annals of the world. There it has been encouraged
+and admired by men whose authority, as persons deeply versed in
+christian theology and learned as it is given to human creatures to be,
+we do not scruple to prefer to that of the persons who raise their
+voices against the stage. Milton, Pope, Addison, Johnson, Warburton,
+bishop of Gloucester, and many others have given their labours to the
+stage. In many of his elegant periodical papers Mr. ADDISON has left
+testimonies of his veneration for it, and of his personal respect for
+players; nay, he wrote several pieces for the stage, in comedy as well
+as tragedy; yet we believe it will not be doubted that he was an
+orthodox christian. The illustrious POPE, in a prologue which he wrote
+for one of Mr. Addison's plays--the tragedy of Cato--speaks his opinion
+of the stage in the following lines:
+
+  To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,
+  To raise the genius, and to mend the heart,
+  To make mankind in conscious virtue bold,
+  Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold:
+  For this the tragic Muse first trod the stage,
+  Commanding tears to stream through every age.
+  Tyrants no more their savage nature kept,
+  And foes to virtue wondered how they wept.
+
+Warburton, the friend of Pope, a divine of the highest rank, wrote notes
+to Shakspeare. And an infinite number of the christian clergy of as
+orthodox piety as any that ever lived, have admired and loved plays and
+players. If in religion doctor Johnson had a fault, it certainly was
+excessive zeal--and assuredly his morality cannot be called in question.
+What his idea of the stage was, may be inferred from his labours, and
+from his private friendships. His preface to Shakspeare--his
+illustrations and characters of the bard's plays--his tragedy of
+Irene, of which he diligently superintended the rehearsal and
+representation--his friendship for Garrick and for Murphy--his letters
+in the Idler and Rambler, from one of which we have taken our motto for
+the Dramatic Censor, and his constant attendance on the theatre, loudly
+proclaim his opinion of the stage. To him who would persist to think
+sinful that which the scrupulous Johnson constantly did, we can only say
+in the words of one of Shakspeare's clowns--"God comfort thy capacity."
+
+One example more. Whatever his political errors may have been, the
+present old king of England can never be suspected of coldness in
+matters of divinity, or of heterodoxy in religion. His fault in that way
+leans to the other side--for it is doubted by the most intelligent men
+in England whether his zeal does not border on excess. He has all his
+life too taken counsel from those he thought the best divines; yet he
+has done much to encourage the stage, and greatly delighted in scenic
+representations--particularly in comedy. But as a much stronger proof of
+his esteem for the drama, we will barely mention one fact: When his
+majesty first read Arthur Murphy's tragedy of the Orphan of China, he
+sent the poet a present of a thousand guineas.
+
+The notion that the theatre should be avoided as a stimulant to the
+passions deserves some respect on account of its antiquity; for it is as
+old as the great grand-mother of the oldest man living. In good times of
+yore, when ladies were not so squeamish as they are now about words,
+because they did not know their meaning, but were more cautious of
+facts, because the meaning of facts cannot be misunderstood, young men
+had a refuge from the temptations of the stage in the reserved
+deportment and full clothing of domestic society, we cannot wonder that
+the good old ladies who abhorred the slightest immodesty in dress
+little, if at all less than they abhorred actual vice, should urge to
+their sons the necessity of keeping aloof from the allurements of the
+theatre. If at that time the costume of the stage differed essentially
+from that of private life, and was the reverse of modest, or if the
+actresses indulged in meretricious airs which dared not be shown in
+domestic society, there was a very just pretence, or rather indeed there
+was the most cogent reason for preaching against the theatre. But at
+this day, no hypothesis of the kind can be allowed. That beautiful young
+women ornamented with every decoration which art can lend to enhance
+their charms will perhaps excite admiration and licentious desires, is
+true; but that those arts are more generally practised, or those
+incitements more strongly or frequently played off on the boards of the
+theatre than in respectable private life, our eyes forbid us to believe.
+He who looks from the ladies on the stage to those seated on the
+benches, and compares their dress and artificial allurements must have
+either very strong nerves or very bad sight, if he persist in saying
+that there is more danger to be apprehended from the former than the
+latter. He knows very little of modern manners and must be a very
+suckling in the ways of the world who imagines that a young man has any
+thing to fear from the actresses on the stage, who has gone through the
+ordeal of a common ball-room, or even walked of a fine day through our
+streets. The ladies of London, Dublin, New-York, Philadelphia and
+Baltimore, have thrown those of the stage quite into the back ground in
+the arts of the toilet. Nor is this qualification confined to those of
+the _haut-ton_, but has descended to tradesmen's wives and daughters; to
+chambermaids, laundresses, and wenches of the kitchen white, yellow, and
+black, coloured and uncoloured.
+
+Familiarity with impressive objects soon robs them of their influence;
+and if our natural disgust and anger at the shameful innovations in the
+female costume for which Great Britain and America stand indebted to the
+_virtues_ of France, be blunted by the constant obtrusion of them on our
+sight, it is to be hoped that the pernicious influence of them upon
+public morals will be diminished also. In those regions where a tropical
+sun renders clothing cumbersome, and the costume of the ladies of
+necessity exceeds a little that of ears in transparency and scantiness,
+familiarity renders it harmless; little or nothing is left for the
+imagination to feed upon; cheapened by their obviousness, the female
+charms are rejected by the fancy which loves to dwell on what it only
+guesses at, or has but rarely seen, and the youthful heart finds its
+ultimate safety in the apparent excess of its danger. Thus the stage, if
+it ever possessed, has lost its vitious allurements, as a bucket of
+water is lost in the ocean. To test this reasoning by matter of fact we
+appeal to the general feeling, and have no fear of being contradicted
+when we assert that, with reference to their comparative numbers, more
+mischievous throbs have been excited in every theatre in London,
+New-York, and Philadelphia for some years past before, than behind the
+curtain.
+
+We are aware that there are some who will object, as a thing taken for
+granted, the greater licentiousness of a player's life; but this, before
+it can be admitted in argument, must be proved, and the proof of it
+would be very difficult indeed. From a long and attentive consideration
+of the subject, founded upon a perfect knowledge of the private
+characters of the stage, and the general complexion of society off of
+it, we are persuaded that in point of intrinsic virtue the players stand
+exactly on a par with the general mass of society. That there are
+offenders against the laws of morality and religion among them is
+certain; but it must be remembered that they labour in this respect
+under great disadvantages, from the publicity of their situation. There,
+they stand exhibited to public view, every turn of their conduct,
+private and public, becomes a subject of general scrutiny. Ten thousand
+eyes are rivetted upon them, for one that is fixed upon individuals in
+private life. And though it often happens that some of them are
+suspected whose lives are perfectly pure, none who have deviated from
+the paths of virtue can long keep their fall concealed. Can the same be
+said of the other departments of life? No. Now and then indiscretion,
+accident, or a total abandonment of decency brings to light the
+misconduct of an individual; but in general the irregularities of
+private life either escape detection or are hushed up by pride.
+Sometimes indeed one vitious purpose occasions the detection of another,
+and family disgrace is revealed to pave the way to a divorce, with a
+view to another marriage, and perhaps to another divorce. Were the
+private conduct of individuals in other stations as well known as that
+of the people of the stage, the former would have no cause to exult at
+the superiority of their morals; and in truth if a candid review be
+taken individually of the actresses of the English stage, by which we
+mean every stage where the English language is spoken, it will appear
+that, with few exceptions, they stand highly respectable for private
+worth and pure moral character. In England, Scotland and still more in
+Ireland, an unblemished reputation is necessary to a lady's success on
+the stage. In some instances, the greatest favourites of the public have
+been driven for a time from the stage, for trespasses upon virtue, and
+when permitted to return were never after much more than endured. To
+these instances we shall have occasion to advert in the course of this
+work.
+
+While we assert, on the best grounds, that the theatre may be made, by
+proper established regulations, a school of virtue and manners, we do
+not wish to conceal our persuasion that there is nothing more potent to
+debase and corrupt the minds of a people than a licentious stage. But it
+may be averred with equal truth, that the abuses of every other
+institution are fraught with no less mischief to the public. At this
+very moment the abuse of the pulpit is the parent of more public
+mischief in Great Britain and America than the stage ever produced in
+its most prolific days of vice; and it is deplorable to reflect that the
+former is rapidly increasing, while the vitiation of the latter has been
+for a century on the decline. The licentiousness of the stage in the
+reign of Charles II was enormous: but it was a licentiousness which the
+theatre in common with the whole nation derived from the court, and from
+a most flagitious monarch whose example made vice fashionable. In
+servile compliance with the reigning taste, the greatest poets of the
+day abandoned true fame, and discarded much of their literary merit:
+Otway and Dryden sunk into the most mean and criminal slavery to it--the
+former with the greatest powers for the pathetic ever possessed by any
+man, Shakspeare excepted, has left behind him plays which in an almost
+equal degree excite our admiration and contempt, our indignation and our
+pity. It is charitable to suppose that "his poverty and not his will
+consented." But Dryden had no such excuse to plead for his base
+subserviency to pecuniary advantage, or for the detestable
+licentiousness of his comedies. He who will take the pains to turn to
+that admirable tragedy, Venice Preserved, by Otway, will find in the
+scenes between Aquileia and the old senator Antonio enough to disgust
+the taste of any one not callous to all sense of delicacy. But had
+Juvenal lived at that period, he would have scourged Dryden out of
+society. To those we might add Wycherly. Congreve and other cotemporary
+authors succeeded: but the offences committed by those men can no more
+be alleged as a ground of general condemnation of the stage, than the
+works of lord Rochester can be set up as a reason for condemning Milton,
+Pope, Thomson, Goldsmith, and all our other poets, or the innumerable
+murders committed by unprincipled quacks, be alleged as a cause for
+abolishing the whole practice of medicine.
+
+Exasperated by the outrages of the dramatic poets, on virtue and
+decency, Jeremy Collier, a non-juring clergyman, attacked the stage. His
+charge against the authors was unquestionably right; but his attack upon
+the stage itself, exhibited a disposition splenetic almost to
+misanthropy, and an austerity of principle urged to unsocial ferocity.
+In his fury he renounced the idea of reforming the stage; he was for
+abolishing it entirely. He attacked the poets with "unconquerable
+pertinacity, with wit in the highest degree keen and sarcastic, and with
+all those powers exalted and invigorated by just confidence in his
+cause."[3] Thus arose a controversy which lasted ten years, during which
+time authors found it necessary to become more discreet. "Comedy (says
+Dr. Johnson) grew more modest; and Collier lived to see the reformation
+of the stage." Colley Cibber, who was one of those whose plays Collier
+attacked, candidly says, "It must be granted that his calling our
+dramatic writers to this account had a very wholesome effect upon those
+who writ after his time. Indecencies were no longer wit; and by degrees
+the fair sex came again to fill the boxes on the first day of a new
+comedy, without fear or censure."
+
+  [Footnote 3: Dr. Johnson.]
+
+Such a licentious stage as is here described well deserved the severest
+attacks: but what is there to justify severity now? at this day not only
+the success of every new play so much depends upon its purity, but so
+scrupulously correct in that particular is the public taste, and so
+abstinent from every the slightest indelicacy are the authors of plays
+and even farces, that not a word is uttered upon the stage from which
+the most timid _real_ modesty would shrink. In conformity to this happy
+state of the general taste and morals, all the old plays that retain
+possession of the stage, have been cleared of their pollution, and all
+the offensive passages in them have been expunged; some have been
+entirely thrown out as incapable of amendment, and in truth, purity of
+sentiment, and delicacy of expression, have become so prevalent, that it
+is very much to be doubted whether if it were proposed to act one of
+Wycherly's, Dryden's, or Otway's offensive plays in its original state,
+a set of players could be found who would prostitute themselves so far
+as to perform it.
+
+From the offences of mankind arise despotic restrictions and penal laws
+of every kind. From the licentiousness of the stage in England, arose
+the licensing law which still continues to hold a heavy hand over all
+the dramatic productions that are acted; and which has too often been
+perverted to corrupt purposes.
+
+But if the abuses of the stage in the times alluded to, serve to show
+its power to do mischief, the general reformation in the public taste,
+which followed that of the dramatic writings, equally show its
+competency to effectuate good. Rousseau, who had little less dislike to
+plays and players than Jeremy Collier, says, in a letter to D'Alembert,
+"Let us not attribute to the stage the power of changing opinions or
+manners, when it has only that of following and heightening them. An
+author who offends the general taste may as well cease to write, for
+nobody will read his works. When Moliere reformed the stage he attacked
+modes and ridiculous customs, but he did not insult the public taste; he
+either followed or explained it." So far Rousseau was right. It is the
+public that gives the stage its bias--necessarily preceding it in taste
+and opinion, and pointing out the direction to its object. In return the
+stage gives the public a stronger impulse in morals and manners.
+Wherever the stage is found corrupted with bad morals, it may be taken
+for granted that the nation has been corrupted before it; when it
+labours under the evils of a bad taste, it may safely be concluded that
+that of the public has been previously vitiated. The truth is evident in
+the wretched state of dramatic taste in England at this moment, where,
+corrupted by the spectacles and mummery of the Italian opera, by the
+rage for preternatural agency acquired from the reading of ghost novels
+and romances, and by the introduction of German plays or translations,
+the people can relish nothing but melo-drame, show, extravagant
+incident, stage effect and situation--goblins, demons, fiddling,
+capering and pantomime, and the managers, in order to live, are
+compelled to gratify the deluded tasteless multitude at an incalculable
+expense.
+
+What the advantages are which could be derived from abolishing the stage
+can only be judged from a view of the moral state of those countries in
+which the drama has been for ages discouraged and held in disrepute,
+compared with that of countries where it has been supported and
+cultivated. Spain comes nearest to a total want of a regular drama of
+any Christian country in Europe; and if there be any person who prefers
+the moral state of that country to the moral state of Great Britain or
+America, we wish him joy of his opinion, and assure him that we admire
+neither his taste, his argument, nor his inference.
+
+We have thus far entered into a vindication of the stage, not with the
+slightest hope of changing the opinion of its enemies, nor with the
+least desire to increase the admiration of its friends; but to awaken
+public opinion to a sense of its vast importance, and of the advantages
+which society may derive from giving full and salutary effect to its
+agency, by generous encouragement, and vigilant control--by directing
+its operations into proper channels, and fostering it by approbation in
+every thing that has a tendency to promote virtue, to improve the
+intellectual powers, and to correct and refine the taste, and the
+manners of society. This desirable end can only be attained by making it
+respectable, and sheltering its professors from the insult and
+oppression of the ignorant, the base-minded, and the illiberal. None
+will profit by the precepts of those whom they contemn; and the youth of
+the country will be very unlikely to yield to the authority of the
+instructor whom they see subjected to the sneers and affronts of the
+very rabble they themselves despise. Besides, if actors were to be
+treated with injustice and contumely, young gentlemen of talents and
+virtue would be deterred from entering into the profession; and the
+stage would soon become as bad as it is falsely described to be by
+fanatics--a sink of vice and corruption: but the wisdom and liberality
+of the British nation, after the example of old Rome, having, on the
+contrary, given to the gentlemen of the stage their merited rank in
+society, and raised actors and actresses of irreproachable private
+character, to associate with the families of peers, statesmen,
+legislators, and men of the highest rank in the nation, the profession
+is filled with persons eminently respectable for talents, learning and
+morals, and estimable as those of other classes in social
+life--estimable as husbands, fathers, children, friends and companions.
+But in Great Britain, they have a twofold protection--that of the
+audience and that of the law--from the insults and injustice of
+capricious, saucy, or malignant individuals. There, the line that
+separates the rights of the actor from those of the auditor has been
+exactly defined by the highest judicial authority.[4] And if an
+individual assaults a performer by hissing[5] without carrying the
+audience, or a large majority of it, along with him, the performer has
+his action against his malicious assailant, and is adjudged damages as
+certainly as persons of any of the other professions or trades recover
+for an assault, a calumny, or a libel. Hence the stage is looked up to
+as a great school, and the eminent actors are universally looked to as
+the best instructors in action, elocution, orthoepy, and the component
+parts of oratory. By following the same liberal and wise system with
+respect to OUR stage, we may reasonably hope soon to bring it to a
+reputable state of competition with that of Great Britain, and in that
+as in most other parts of the elegancies of life, not very long hence,
+to place the new on a complete footing with the old country.
+
+  [Footnote 4: By Lord Mansfield in the King's Bench, in the case of
+  Macklin against Sparks, Miles, Reddish, and others.]
+
+  [Footnote 5: The audience, whenever an individual hisses against the
+  sense of the house, always silence the offender by crying, "there's
+  a goose in the pit (or wherever it is) turn him out," and if he
+  persists they expel him by force. It is to be hoped our audiences
+  would follow the example. It is frequently necessary.]
+
+
+
+
+BIOGRAPHY--FOR THE MIRROR.
+
+
+The passion for inquiring into the lives of conspicuous men is so
+universally felt, that we cannot help indulging it in cases where not
+only the person is unknown, but where his actions are so remote, that we
+can neither form a picture of the one, nor any possible way be affected
+by the other. The delight with which children themselves read the
+histories of remarkable characters, and the avidity with which, at every
+period of life, we read biography, are proofs that this passion has it
+source in nature, abstracted from any connexion imagined to exist
+between the object and our own heart. It is, however, more lively when
+the object lives in our time, and when his actions are the subject of
+daily conversation in our hearing, or when we have ourselves been
+witnesses of them; and still more so, when the person being still in
+existence has found means by the force of his talents to agitate a whole
+people, to rouse general curiosity and admiration, and to form, as it
+were, a landmark in any interesting department of civilized life.
+
+That mankind, in general, derive greater pleasure from biography than
+from most other kinds of writing is universally acknowledged. One of the
+greatest moral philosophers of Britain justly observes, that of all the
+various kinds of narrative writing, that which is read with the greatest
+eagerness, and may with the greatest facility and effect be applied to
+the purposes of life is biography; and the accomplished and sagacious
+Montaigne, speaking in raptures, upon the same subject, says "Plutarch
+is the writer after my own heart, and Suetonius is another, the like of
+whom we shall never see."
+
+As a master key to the study of the human heart, the biographical
+account of particular individuals is infinitely superior to history.
+History, in fact, is not a just picture of man and nature, but a
+registry of prominent actions which derive conspicuity from their name,
+place, and date, while the inward nature of the agent, the secret
+springs, the slow and silent causes of those actions, being left
+unnoticed and undistinguished, remain forever unknown. The man himself
+is seen only here and there, and now and then, and lies hidden from
+view, except in those points in which his conduct is connected with
+those actions. But biography follows him from his public exhibition into
+his private retreat, haunts him in his closet concealments, accompanies
+him through his house, where his desires, passions, irregularities,
+vices, virtues, foibles, and follies take their full swing--sits by his
+fireside--watches for his unsuspecting, unguarded moments,--catches and
+lays up all the ebullitions of his heart, when it is freed from all
+restraint by domestic confidence--scans all his expressions when he is
+mixing in free social converse with his friends and family, and thus
+penetrates into his heart--detects every secret emotion of the man's
+soul, even when he thinks himself most effectually concealed, and in
+every glance of his eye, every whisper, every unpremeditated act and
+expression, dives to the very bottom of his designs and brings up his
+real character.
+
+In the regulation of life, therefore, or the improvement of moral
+sentiment, little benefit is to be derived from a knowledge of the
+events of history, the subjects of which are so far removed from the
+ordinary business of the world, that they seldom address a salutary
+example to the heart or understanding--seldom present an action in any
+way applicable to the ordinary transactions of the world, or which men
+in general can hope or wish to imitate, and which are therefore read
+with comparative indifference, and passed by without improvement, while
+biography conveys the best instruction for the conduct of life, by a
+happy mixture of precept and example.
+
+Doctor Johnson has, in some of his writings, given it as his opinion
+that "a life has rarely passed, of which a judicious and faithful
+narrative would not be useful; for not only, says he, every man has, in
+the mighty mass of the world, great numbers in the same condition with
+himself, to whom his mistakes and miscarriages, escapes and expedients
+would be of immediate and apparent use; but there is such a uniformity
+in the state of man considered apart from adventitious and separable
+decoration and disguises, that there is scarce any possibility of good
+or ill but is common to human kind." How much more beneficial as a mass
+of precept and example, and how much more captivating as a narrative
+must be the biography of any person who has held a conspicuous place for
+any length of time in the eye of the world, particularly if, by the
+industrious exercise of vigorous or brilliant talents, he has
+contributed more than his share to the happiness, the improvement, or
+the innocent pleasure of society. In that case a mixed sentiment of
+admiration and gratitude insensibly fills the public mind, from which
+there arises a lively interest in all that concerns the person and an
+eager curiosity to learn his origin, his early education, private
+opinions and habits, the fortunes and incidents of his life, and, above
+all, the singularities of his temper, and the peculiarities of his
+manners and deportment. Few men in society stand so much in the public
+eye, or have such opportunities to engage popular interest and personal
+admiration as celebrated actors. In the general account current of life,
+casting up the debtor and creditor between individual and individual,
+the balance between the auditor and actor will be found largely in
+favour of the latter. There are few, we know, to whom this assertion
+will not appear paradoxical, because few have given themselves time to
+consider that there is no place where a person, having an hour or two to
+bestow on relaxation, can obtain so much delight and improvement with so
+little concurrence of his own efforts as at the theatre. "At all other
+assemblies," says Dr. Johnson, "he that comes to receive delight will be
+expected to give it; but in the theatre nothing is necessary to the
+amusement of two hours but to sit down and be willing to be pleased."
+Where the private deportment and moral character of a celebrated actor,
+therefore, are not at great variance with the general feelings, he
+becomes by the very nature of his profession and talents an object of
+general interest, and his life, character, and every circumstance
+belonging to him are inquired into with earnest curiosity and
+solicitude.
+
+He who fairly considers the requisites indispensable to a tolerable
+actor, will allow that the professors of that art must be persons of
+intellectual capacity and personal endowments much superior to the
+common herd of mankind. The vivid intelligence, the high animal spirits,
+the aspiring temper, and the resolute intrepidity, which impel them to
+the stage and support them under its difficulties, are generally
+associated with an eccentricity of character and a giddy disregard of
+prudential considerations, which generate adventure and chequer their
+lives with a greater variety of incidents and whimsical intercourse with
+the world than falls to the lot of men of other professions. Hence it
+follows that the stage presents the most ample field for the biographer;
+and that whether he writes for the instruction or the entertainment of
+his readers, he will not be able to find in any other department of
+society men whose lives comprise such an interesting variety as the
+actors.
+
+In selecting the persons with whose lives it is intended to enrich this
+work, the editors find it necessary in the very first instance to depart
+from the rule which their original purpose and strict justice, as well
+as a due regard to priority, had prescribed to them. The biography of
+the deceased Mr. Hallam, as the father of the American stage, no doubt
+lays claim to the first place. There were others too, whose priority to
+Mr. Cooper cannot be contested; but, as the materials were not to be
+immediately had they have been obliged to postpone them.
+
+
+
+
+LIFE OF MR. COOPER.
+
+
+Mr. Thomas Abthorpe Cooper is the descendant of a very respectable Irish
+family, though he was, himself, born in England. His father, doctor
+Cooper--a gentleman universally known, and not more known than beloved
+and respected by all who have had any intercourse with East Indian
+affairs, was a native of Ireland, and after having served his time to
+one of the most eminent surgeons in that kingdom, with the reputation of
+a young man of genius and great promise, went over to England, in order
+to acquire, in the London hospitals, more perfect practical skill in his
+business, and to avail himself of the lectures of the principal
+professors of surgery and medicine in that metropolis; intending to
+return to his native country again, and there practise for life. It
+happened with the doctor however, precisely as it does with the greater
+part of young Irish gentlemen, who have their fortunes to raise chiefly
+by their own efforts. London gradually unfolded to his view all her
+irresistible charms; the ligaments which tied him to his native home,
+grew every day more and more slender and weak: the dictates of common
+sense and prudence, in this one instance at least enforced by the
+attractions of pleasure, pointed out the vast superiority of England to
+the oppressed, impoverished country which he had left, as a field for
+genius and industry to work upon. Having a prepossessing face and
+person, and manners frank, conciliating and firm, he soon extended his
+acquaintance to a wide circle of friends, whose advice conspired with
+his own taste to bring him to a determination, in consequence of which
+he settled near the metropolis, and became a practitioner in surgery and
+physic. While he was successfully engaged in this career, he was
+introduced to some of the great men of Leadenhall-street, by whom he was
+appointed to the lucrative office of inspecting-surgeon of the recruits
+destined for the service of the East India Company. In the discharge of
+this duty it fell to his share to visit the ships preparing for a voyage
+to India, and of course to mingle with the company's servants of all
+ranks and conditions, by whom he was in no common degree beloved and
+respected--by the higher order for his agreeable and manly
+deportment--by the lower for his tenderness and humanity. Though he
+lived in England, he viewed his own country with a laudable fond
+partiality; and being constitutionally benevolent, and having a heart
+"open to melting Charity," and a hand prompt to indulge it, it may
+reasonably be conjectured that in his office of inspecting-surgeon he
+was exposed to many sharp attacks upon his feelings; the far greater
+part of the recruits who came under his inspection being unfortunate
+Irish youths who had thrown themselves upon a strange world, destitute
+of every thing but health, youth, and bodily vigor. By such objects, the
+sympathy of such a warm heart as that which beat in doctor Cooper's
+bosom, could not fail to be strongly excited, and it was pretty
+generally believed that his family had less reason than his unfortunate
+countrymen to exult at the goodness of his nature. Nor was his
+philanthropy confined to those wretched children of misfortune, the
+recruits; many young Irish gentlemen who were going to India as cadets,
+experienced his kindness also, but in another form. He had many friends,
+and considering his rank, very extraordinary interest with the high
+officers and commanders in the company's service. This he never failed
+to exert in favour of such of his young countrymen as he considered
+deserving of it: and in short strained his powers in every way to
+increase their comfort and accommodation during that trying ordeal,
+their passage to India, and to procure them friends when they got there.
+
+His son Thomas, the subject of this paper, was born in the year 1777,
+and received an early liberal education. As doctor Cooper's interest lay
+wholly with the East India company, his children were sent to that
+emporium of wealth, Bengal, as soon as their ages fitted them for
+admission into the world. Had he lived till our hero was of a suitable
+age the probability is that the American stage would at this day want
+one of its greatest ornaments; and that the hand which now wields the
+truncheon of Macbeth, Richard, and Coriolanus on the American boards,
+would be grasping a sword or driving a quill in the service of the East
+India company in Bengal, whither doctor Cooper at last went himself,
+being promoted to a respectable rank on the medical staff of that
+settlement, and where at length he died to the deep regret of all who
+knew him, and to the irretrievable loss of an amiable family. To the
+last will and testament of the generous man there is seldom any great
+trouble in administering--doctor Cooper made a great deal of money; but
+retained little of it. We do not mention this as a feature in that
+worthy man's character to be imitated. On the contrary we wish it, so
+far as it goes, to operate as a warning against the indulgence of a
+spirit, which, though it be a virtue of the highest order when kept
+under the control of discretion, does, like every other virtue,
+degenerate into a foible, when carried to excess. Fortunately for that
+member of doctor Cooper's family of whom we are writing, he found, when
+his youth wanted it, a sincere friend. Mr. Godwin, whose name is well
+known in the republic of letters, particularly as the author of a work
+the name of which we will not put upon the same page with this
+honourable instance of posthumous friendship to doctor Cooper, took the
+youth to his own care; adopted, educated, and, as some say, intended him
+for an author; a scheme too absurd in our opinion, to be meditated by a
+person of Mr. Godwin's sagacity, who would at least postpone such a
+project till the genius of the young man should unfold itself in full
+maturity. Such, however, is said to have been the plan, which, whether
+the story be true or false, there is cause to rejoice was frustrated. At
+this distance it would be hopeless, if indeed it were very desirable, to
+trace that strange report to its origin, but we think it not at all a
+forced conclusion that it arose from the nature of the education which
+Mr. Godwin bestowed upon the youth. Hence without knowing the amount of
+Mr. Cooper's literary attainments, we think it may be fairly inferred
+from the existence of such a report, that his education was a learned
+one, and that he was early grounded in the dead as well as the most
+useful modern languages. Mr. Godwin cannot be suspected of intending for
+an author by trade, a youth from whom he had withheld the Greek and
+Latin classics.
+
+It is not necessary to recur to the instructions of Mr. Godwin for the
+fervid partiality which Mr. Cooper early disclosed for the French
+revolution. In that feeling he partook in common with men who as
+radically, substantially, and essentially differed in principle from Mr.
+Godwin, as light from darkness, or heat from cold. Several high
+statesmen in England, who afterwards deplored it, at first viewed that
+extraordinary event with a favourable eye, as likely to better the
+condition of twenty millions of people. So, Mr. Dundas, now lord
+Melville, for himself and his colleague Pitt, openly avowed in
+parliament. And even Burke himself, whose penetrating eye discerned from
+the outset, and foretold all the mischiefs that lurked under that event,
+complimented a young Irish gentleman of reputable birth, upon his having
+fought as a volunteer with Dumourier, at the battle of Jamappe; adding,
+that he gloried in every instance in which he found his young countrymen
+disclosing an enthusiastic love of freedom. Nay, he did not scruple to
+declare very frequently that, considering the plausible appearance of
+the revolution, he should entertain but a very poor opinion of a youth
+who was not enamoured with it. With such an authority to warrant us, we
+feel no hesitation in stating it as an honourable trait in the character
+of Mr. Cooper, that he was delighted with the French revolution, and
+that in his enthusiastic admiration of that event, he resolved to
+abandon his literary pursuits to give his young arm (he being then not
+above seventeen years of age) to the defence of the new republic and, as
+he thought, the cause of liberty. He had scarcely taken this resolution,
+and made preparations to go to the continent and join the army of the
+French republic, when the war broke out between England and France, and
+totally overset his purpose and his hopes of military promotion,
+rendering that which before would have been lawful if not laudable, an
+act of treason to his country, of the bare contemplation of which, it is
+fair to believe, he was incapable.
+
+It was on occasion of this disappointment and check to his military
+ambition, that Mr. Cooper turned his thoughts to the stage. Young as he
+was, he made a full and accurate estimate of his situation. Too proud by
+nature to be dependant, his feelings suggested the necessity of
+immediately doing something for his own support and advancement. He
+boldly resolved to be the architect of his own fame and fortune, and it
+is probable had too much common sense to take the author's pen either as
+a material or an instrument in constructing the edifice. Having made up
+his mind to try his fortune on the stage, he imparted his intention to
+Mr. Godwin, who received the communication with deep regret, and
+encountered it with the most decided disapprobation, and with every
+argument and dissuasive which ingenuity and a perfect knowledge of the
+subject could lend to friendship. It was in vain every topic was urged
+which could serve to dissuade, to deter, or to disgust: Mr. Cooper
+firmly adhered to his purpose, and Mr. Godwin perceiving him immovable,
+yielded to what he could not overcome, and resolved, since he could not
+divert him from the stage, to do all he could to set him forward on it
+to the best advantage. To this end, Mr. Holcroft, the friend of Mr.
+Godwin, was called in; and he gave the young man some preparatory
+lessons, a task for which he was exceedingly well qualified uniting in
+himself the several talents of actor, author, and critic.
+
+To procure admission on the stage in England is not always an easy task.
+In the present instance it seemed to Mr. Holcroft and Mr. Godwin a
+matter of serious consideration to whom an application should be made
+for the purpose, and what theatre would be most likely to receive him
+with least disadvantage. At length application being made to Mr. Stephen
+Kemble he agreed, without seeing the young gentleman, to take him under
+his auspices; and to that end Mr. Cooper repaired to Edinburgh. Of his
+reception by Mr. Kemble the most ludicrous description has been given;
+a description, which, as biographers, we should not think of introducing
+on the present occasion, if it had not already appeared in public,
+accompanied with an assertion that it came from Mr. Cooper himself. "The
+writer of this sketch (says the publisher of that account) has heard
+Cooper himself describe with great pleasantry his first interview with
+the Scotch manager; he was at that time a raw country youth of
+seventeen. On his arrival in Edinburgh, little conscious of his
+appearance and incompetency, he waited on Mr. Kemble, made up in the
+extreme of rustic foppery, proud of his talents, and little doubting his
+success. When he mentioned his name and errand, Mr. Kemble's countenance
+changed from a polite smile to a stare of disappointment: Cooper had
+been prepared for young Norval; but he was obliged to exchange all his
+expected eclat for a few cold excuses from the manager, and the chagrin
+of seeing some nights after, his part filled by an old man and a bad
+player. During the remainder of the season he continued with Stephen
+Kemble, without at all appearing on the stage. From Edinburgh he went
+with the company to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, there he lived as dependent,
+inactive, and undistinguished as before, till, owing to the want of a
+person to fill the part of Malcolm in Macbeth, he was cast to that
+humble character. In so inferior a sphere did he begin to move who is
+now become one of the brightest luminaries of the theatrical hemisphere.
+His debut was even less flattering than his reception from the manager
+had been. Till the last scene he passed through tolerably well, but when
+he came to the lines which conclude the play--
+
+  "So thanks to all at once, and to each one,
+  Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone."
+
+After stretching out his hands and assuming the attitude and smile of
+thankfulness, a slight embarrassment checked him, and he paused, still
+keeping his posture and his look--the prompter made himself heard by
+every one but the bewildered Malcolm, who still continued mute, every
+instant of his silence naturally increasing ten-fold his
+perplexity--Macduff whispered the words in his ear--Macbeth who lay
+slaughtered at his feet, broke the bonds of death to assist his dumb
+successor, the prompter spoke almost to vociferation. Each thane dead or
+alive joined his voice--but this was only "confusion worse
+confounded"--if he could have spoken the amazed prince might with great
+justice have said, "So thanks to all at once"--but his utterance was
+gone "_vox faucibus haesit_"--a hiss presently broke out in the pit, the
+clamor soon became general, and the curtain went down, amid a universal
+condemnation."
+
+No part of biography is so interesting, or affecting as that which
+brings before us the struggles of unassisted vigour and genius with the
+obstructions which accident, or the ignorance or malice of vulgar souls
+throw in their way, and their ultimate triumph over adversity. Few men
+have enjoyed that triumph more than Mr. Cooper, for few have in their
+outset met with a more mortifying repulse, or more discouraging
+difficulties. There are not many whose resolution could have outlived
+such a cruel discomfiture as that at Edinburgh: but on him it seemed to
+have the happy effect of steeling his natural fortitude, and sending his
+spirit forward in its career with increased impetuosity.
+
+Disappointed and chagrined, but not humiliated, he returned back to
+London, more determinately than ever resolved to persevere till he had
+mastered fortune and established a footing on the stage--exhibiting a
+degree of confidence which generally inheres in genius, and which his
+ultimate success well justified. Far from being depressed or obscured by
+his Edinburgh adventure, his talents had so much unfolded themselves and
+been so visibly improved, that his friends Godwin and Holcroft felt
+convinced he had not mistaken or overrated his powers; but, on the
+contrary, possessed qualifications, which, if diligently and judiciously
+cultivated, would raise him to a rank with the most eminent actors then
+living. The great bar to his advancement was that diffidence which
+occasioned his discomfiture in Edinburgh: but his friends knew enough of
+the human heart and powers to be assured that that very diffidence is so
+universally the concomitant of sterling merit, that where it
+superabounds wise men give credit for much excellence, and bestow their
+partiality with a liberal hand; while the want of it is generally
+suspected of denoting a great deficiency in merit: and they were right;
+for the young person who wants modesty wants every thing. Fraught with
+these considerations, those discerning men and steady friends thought
+that they would best consult their _protege's_ interest by putting him
+into training in some obscure company, and took measures to introduce
+him into a routine of acting in the country theatres, from which
+novitiate they expected he would soon emerge well practised in stage
+business, and fully qualified to give out the whole force of his natural
+powers on some of the stages of the metropolis.
+
+The country managers, however, seemed to think very differently from
+Messrs. Godwin and Holcroft of Mr. Cooper's capabilities. If they had
+not the genius, the discernment, or the "spirits learned in human
+dealings" of our hero's patrons, they had self-sufficiency and obstinacy
+in abundance, and what was more unfortunate, they had the power in their
+hands; a power which in such persons is rarely softened in its exercise
+by liberality or candor. These, notwithstanding the authority of Godwin
+and Holcroft's opinion, considered or affected to consider Mr. Cooper as
+a poor juvenile adventurer, who had no one requisite for the profession.
+"Their hands, they said, were already full--(of trash no doubt they
+were) every character even the lowest was engaged. To show their
+deference, however, to the high opinion of the young man's friends, they
+would endeavour to think of something for him to perform." In conformity
+to the dictates of this _generous_ spirit, they vouchsafed him some
+inferior parts: but every one knows, who knows any thing at all of
+theatrical affairs, that the coldness of a manager to a young performer,
+creates at least, distrust in the audience--that the young candidate who
+is set forward in humiliation, is forbidden to rise; as he who is thrust
+into characters far beyond the reach of his powers will, for a time, get
+credit for talents which he does not possess: for discerning and
+despotic as the multitude think themselves, they are still the dupes or
+the submissive slaves of dexterous leaders in every department of life.
+By the error, the ignorance, or the churlishness of the country
+managers, Mr. Cooper was excluded from any fair opportunity to redeem
+the credit he had lost in Edinburgh--they considered, or affected to
+consider him as wholly incompetent to any character of consequence:
+those which were vouchsafed him were of so inferior a rank that they
+denied scope to the exercise of his yet latent powers; for such a genius
+as that of Cooper could no more dilate in a meagre character, than
+Eclipse or Flying Childers could lay themselves out at full speed in a
+city building lot; and it is reasonable to suppose that, notwithstanding
+all his fortitude, the spirits of the youth were depressed, and his
+faculties chilled by such humiliating neglect, and such reiterated
+disappointments. Who is he that would not, under such circumstances,
+sink into languor? It cannot be doubted that dejection every day
+detracted from his powers, and that by a kind of irresistible
+gravitation, he descended like a falling body in the physical world,
+with accelerated velocity, till at last he reached the very bottom of
+the profession. Reader, behold--and refrain from regret if you
+can--behold COOPER, on whom crowded theatres have since gazed with
+astonishment and delight, reduced to the condition of a mere deliverer
+of letters and messages upon the stage of a low country theatre. The
+writer of this cannot help picturing to himself the feelings of a
+multitude of great and worthy personages in Great Britain and India, and
+particularly the feelings of a sister, the lovely inheritress of her
+family's virtues, if they had known at the time, that which our hero's
+manly pride concealed, that the son of doctor Cooper, whose goodness of
+heart had often been the refuge of the distressed, was for months
+languishing under the chill of public neglect, and dragging on existence
+upon a miserable pittance which scarcely afforded him physical support;
+or if they had seen him in his unaccommodated removal from that
+situation, walking on foot to the metropolis.
+
+The repulses of a mistaken and unworthy few, and the neglect of a world
+very little better, had no other effect upon Mr. Cooper's friends Godwin
+and Holcroft, than to quicken their sensibility and inflame their ardour
+to serve him. It is more than probable those mortifications tended to
+increase the conviction of the former that his _eleve_ had made a
+deplorable choice of profession, but did not at all shake the opinion
+which both, and particularly the latter, entertained that he had great
+capabilities for the profession. The youth had now waded in so far, that
+to go back might be worse than to go forward; Mr. Holcroft therefore
+again took him in hand; read Shakspeare with him, and accompanied their
+reading with practical commentaries upon the force of that author's
+meaning, marked out to him those parts where the character was to depend
+for its interest and impression, on the actor's exertions; heard him
+over and over again repeat the most difficult speeches, and instructed
+him how to adapt his action, looks, and utterance to the passion which
+the author designed to exhibit, so as to excite appropriate feelings in
+the auditor. Though Shakspeare is above all others the poet of Nature,
+his meaning frequently eludes the dim or vulgar mind, and to be
+intelligibly elicited from the stiffness and obscurity which sometimes
+injures his language, requires profound consideration. For the minute
+investigation requisite for this purpose few men were better qualified
+than Mr. Holcroft--few men much more equal to the task of bringing forth
+from the rich mine where they lay and purify of their dross the talents
+of Mr. Cooper. With an earnestness and indefatigable zeal proportioned
+to the object, and which nothing but the most generous friendship could
+impel him to employ, Mr. Holcroft gave those powers to the instruction
+of our hero, and with such speedy and felicitous effect, that the young
+gentleman was, in the course of a few months, considered by his two
+friends as perfectly qualified to appear before a London audience in
+some of Shakspeare's most important characters. Having been for some
+time a successful dramatic writer, Mr. H. enjoyed the ear and confidence
+of the managers, and arranged with those of Covent Garden for his
+pupil's appearance on that stage. And now the time arrived when his
+fortitude was to be rewarded, his sufferings compensated, and his
+talents to find their proper levels. His first appearance was in Hamlet,
+in which he received unbounded applause. In two or three nights after he
+performed the very arduous part of Macbeth to a house so very full as to
+occasion an overflow. It is but justice to the Edinburgh and other
+provincial managers to observe, that when Mr. Cooper appeared on the
+London boards he was greatly improved in his externals. His person had
+grown more into masculine bulk and manly shape; his face had become more
+marked and expressive, and his voice had swelled into a more full deep
+tenor.
+
+The friendship of Mr. Holcroft caused Mr. Cooper to be universally
+misjudged. The opposition prints represented him in the most extravagant
+terms of eulogy. The government prints ran into the opposite extreme,
+and he became at once the idol and the victim of party spirit. Yet such
+a reception, by a London audience, was a sufficient pledge of future
+success. He was still young, had much to learn in order to reach the
+first rank of that profession, and if a real, well-grounded, just fame
+had been his object, he ought to have felt that it could only be
+attained by perseverance, and by the customary natural gradations. The
+London managers offered him an engagement, which, though allowed to have
+been liberal, seems not to have come up to his own estimate of his
+deserts. Playing two or three or four characters well is a very
+different thing from sustaining a whole line of acting, to which long
+practice and great constitutional force are as necessary as any other
+requisite. In this view of the matter, as well as because managers
+neither desire nor will be permitted in England to supersede established
+favourite servants of the public, it will not appear surprising that the
+first rate rank of characters to which Mr. Cooper aspired, was refused
+to him by the managers, who thought that they better consulted the
+public feeling, their own interest, and even the young gentleman's fame
+and ultimate prosperity, by placing him in a secondary general line, in
+which he might improve himself by playing with and observing the best
+models, and in regular gradation make his way to the first, as Kemble,
+Cooke, and others had done before him. This however was too unpalatable
+for his ambition to swallow. The first he would be, or none. There is
+not a sentiment of Julius Caesar's that is thought so censurable and
+unworthy of his great mind as that which he uttered when, pointing to a
+small town, he said, "I would rather be the first man in that village
+than the second in Rome." This has been justly called perverted
+ambition, and Milton stamped it with terrible condemnation when he put
+into the mouth of his arch fiend the sentiment--"better to reign in hell
+than serve in heaven." The passions of youth extenuate those errors
+which in ripened manhood are criminal; and it is not improbable that Mr.
+Cooper's own opinion at this day concurs with ours when we say that his
+refusal of the manager's offer seems to us to have been very
+injudicious. From Plautus, with whom we dare say he had long before had
+an intimacy, he might have taken this profitable lesson,
+
+  Viam qui nescit qua deveniat ad mare
+  Eum oportet amnem quaerere comitem sibi.
+
+Had he not rejected that offer he would long ere this have had permanent
+possession of the rank to which he too prematurely aspired. His refusal
+was followed by a retreat into the country, where, with the perseverance
+of Demosthenes, he laboured in fitting himself for a more successful
+effort; resolved to force his way if possible to the high object of his
+ambition.
+
+During his retirement intimations of his success crossed the Atlantic.
+Mr. Tyler, some time since the manager of the New-York theatre, received
+the intelligence from a friend in England: "Prepare yourself for
+astonishment," said his correspondent, "that identical Mr. Cooper who,
+a few months ago, was playing the very underling characters at our
+theatre, and who appeared so extremely incompetent, is now performing
+Hamlet with applause in London." Sometime after this the agent of the
+Philadelphia manager in England made proposals to Mr. Cooper, who
+exulting in the thoughts of obtaining in America that rank which he was
+refused in London, closed with the offer, and soon after passed over to
+America. In Philadelphia, however, he found that his object was not
+altogether so attainable as he imagined. In no place does favouritism
+flourish with much more rank luxuriance than in that city--in no place
+do personal prepossessions more frequently operate to the overthrow of
+judgment, to the exclusion of merit, and to the fostering of incapacity.
+The multitude had their favourites whose merit touched the highest
+standard of their conceptions--any thing beyond that was hid in an
+intellectual mist. The taste of the many was formed upon the kind of
+merit which they so much admired in their favourites, and little did it
+relish that of Mr. Cooper. It is astonishing how constantly fond
+overweening prejudice deceives itself. The philosopher who told the
+powerful despot, his sovereign, that there was no royal way to
+mathematics, was believed, because the despot had common sense--but a
+headstrong multitude can never be persuaded that a person can be
+incompetent to any one thing, if they only _will_ him to be great in it:
+and thus it has happened not infrequently, in all cities as well as
+Philadelphia, that splendid talents have stood behind as lackeys, while
+doleful incapacity has feasted upon public favour.
+
+The abilities of Mr. Cooper gave great uneasiness, for they every day
+forced a passage for themselves to some share of approbation, in the
+very teeth of favouritism and prejudice. Some there were who could
+discern no merit at all in him; some who industriously employed
+themselves in depreciating and denying the little which others allowed
+him. At last his vigorous struggles made it necessary to call in a
+_corps de reserve_ which he little suspected; his private life was
+impeached, and the careless, irregular habits of youth--habits, by the
+by, in which no youth indulge more than our own, were arrayed against
+him. Unjust as this was, it produced the desired effect; for when his
+benefit was announced, very few seats were taken in the boxes. And here
+we have to record a feature in that gentleman's character which marks
+his honest pride and magnanimity in deep impression. The manager was
+bound by his contract to make up to a certain stated amount, the
+proceeds of Mr. C.'s benefit. To such an advantage Mr. C. disdained to
+have recourse. At the same time his pride shrunk from the thoughts of
+playing to empty boxes at his benefit. He resolved to have a full house,
+and hit upon an expedient which showed that, young as he was, he knew
+something of the human heart, and that, though a stranger, he had made a
+very shrewd estimate of the public taste, for which he had the skill to
+cater more appropriately and successfully than he could by merely
+dishing up a play of Shakspeare's in his own rough cookery. Fortunately
+for his purpose there had lately arrived in Philadelphia an actor of
+great weight and merit, a native of India, of whose immense and popular
+talents he resolved to avail himself; this was an elephant, which for
+the trifling _douceur_ of sixty dollars, that is, near twice as much as
+the best actor in the city now gets for one week's labour, he prevailed
+upon to _press the boards_ of the theatre for that one time only, and be
+the chief performer and great attraction of the night. This was what a
+seaman would call hitting the public between wind and water: Mr. Cooper
+therefore poured in a whole broadside of printed notices, which were put
+into every hand, and a huge playbill, which glared at the corner of
+every street in letters of elephantine size, informing the public that
+the distinguished performer already mentioned, had kindly consented to
+act a principal part in the entertainment of the evening. No sooner was
+this announced than the whole city was in one hubbub of curiosity--one
+twitter of delight; and Mr. Cooper had so many _friends_ who were all at
+once intent upon giving him their dollar at his benefit, that the house
+was crammed, and there was as great an overflow from every part of it as
+if the renowned master Betty himself were to have occupied the place of
+the elephant.
+
+Very different was Mr. Cooper's reception at New-York, whither he went
+when the theatre of Philadelphia closed for the season. On his very
+first appearance he established himself in the public opinion as a first
+rate actor. The New-York stage might about that time vie for actors in
+number and quality with the best provincial company that ever played in
+England. Hodgkinson, Cooper, Fennell, Jefferson, Harwood, Bernard, Mrs.
+Morris, and Mrs. Hodgkinson, besides two or three admirable comedians.
+Pierre is well adapted to Mr. Cooper's talents and style of acting, and
+he evinced his judgment in selecting it for his first appearance.
+Through the whole play the ball was well tossed to him by the other
+actors; the consequence was that the impression he made has never been
+erased. The opinion entertained of him was more substantially evinced
+than by mere applause. There was a unanimous desire that he should leave
+the Philadelphia theatre and engage at New-York; but to this it was
+objected, that he was bound by his contract with the manager of the
+former, to play for a certain time under a penalty of two thousand
+dollars; this objection, however, was soon superseded by a subscription
+raised among the gentlemen of New-York to pay off that sum if the
+manager should be able to enforce it. Thus honourably was Mr. Cooper
+planted in the city which he contrived to make his head-quarters till
+the beginning of the year 1803, when he passed over to England. During
+that period he paid a professional visit to Philadelphia, where he was
+so justly appreciated that he had no further occasion for the aid of the
+elephant.
+
+It happened that Mr. John Kemble the chief actor, and once the acting
+manager of Drury Lane theatre, had in the year 1802, a misunderstanding
+with the proprietors, in consequence of which he left it, and visited
+the continent, leaving the first line of character very inadequately
+filled. Intelligence of this secession having reached America in the
+latter end of 1802, Mr. Cooper, who was invited, as it is said, by the
+proprietors of Drury Lane, to take Mr. Kemble's place, if his reception
+by the town would warrant them in retaining him, crossed the Atlantic,
+and once more appeared in London. His success was by no means equal to
+the expectations of his New-York friends. Those however who were better
+acquainted with the general subject and the state of the stage in
+England, who were aware how much actors of the greatest talents profit
+by constantly playing with men of equal standing with themselves, and
+how much they lose by the want of great models either to emulate or
+follow, were far from being so sanguine in their expectations. By the
+London audience he was handsomely received, and greeted with the
+applause and kindness due to a stranger of respectable powers: but in
+efficient benefit to the house and to himself he failed; wherefore,
+passing on to Liverpool, he played a few nights in that town with great
+applause, then took shipping and returned to America, where he was
+received with open arms.
+
+After his departure the theatre of New-York fell into a state of decline
+for want of a proper manager and proper company. The deceased Hodgkinson
+having been joined in the management of the Charleston theatre, and
+brought along with him some of the best performers, it was resolved by
+the proprietors of the New-York theatre, to give it upon encouraging
+terms to a manager of sufficient qualifications to conduct the business
+of it successfully. Hodgkinson was elected to the management of it
+almost unanimously; but soon after died of the yellow fever. Mr. Cooper
+then undertook it--bought the theatre at a vast expense--improved and
+embellished the house, and was amply remunerated by the immense receipts
+of the first season; at the end of which he sold out his property in it
+to another gentleman, who we believe now owns and manages it.
+
+No actor ever made so much money in America as Mr. Cooper. By a skilful
+distribution of his time and exertions, he takes care never to stay so
+long in one place as to satiate the public appetite. Regardless of the
+fatigues of travelling, and always supplied with the best cattle, he
+flies from city to city over this extended union, like a comet; one day
+he is seen at New-York, the very next he performs in Philadelphia. A few
+days after, we have an account of his playing at Boston, and perhaps
+before a month elapses we again have intelligence of his acting at
+Charleston, (S.C.) in each of which places he receives an enormous
+salary, and always has a full benefit. Thus if he possesses the gift of
+retention as he does that of gaining, he must necessarily become very
+rich. There are modes of getting rid of money, however, to which gossip
+Fame, we regret to say it, whispers he is much addicted. That he may be
+more extravagant than he ought to be, we can suppose without injury to
+his moral character. Whether he be so or not is not our business to
+discuss--but it is our duty to relate those things which may be set down
+as a counterpoise to the blamable disregard of economy of which he is
+impeached by many who are perhaps little capable of estimating his means
+or his motives. He is one of the most dutiful and generous of sons to an
+amiable mother, whose old age he cheers with punctual bounty, and by the
+most constant and pious filial reverence and affection.
+
+Mr. Cooper has a sister, or at least had one, a lady of high personal
+endowments and great goodness. She was early married to Mr. Perreau of
+Calcutta, a gentleman who stands as high in the opinion of the world as
+any man in India.
+
+Of the merit of Mr. Cooper as an actor we shall have occasion to speak
+in another part of this work.
+
+
+
+
+LIFE OF ALLEYN, THE PLAYER.
+
+
+Mr. Edward Alleyn, who though an actor, is ranked among "the British
+Worthies," was born in London in 1566, and trained at an early period to
+the stage, for which he was naturally qualified by a stately port and
+aspect, corporal agility, flexible genius, lively temper, retentive
+memory, and fluent elocution. Before the year 1592 he seems to have
+acquired a very considerable degree of popularity in his profession; he
+was one of the original actors in the plays of Shakespeare, and a
+principal performer in some of those of Jonson; but it does not now
+appear what were the characters which he personated. They were probably
+the most dignified and majestic, for to these the portly and graceful
+figure of his person was well adapted. At length he became master of a
+company of players, and the proprietor of a playhouse called the
+Fortune, which he erected at his own expense, near Whitecross-street;
+and he was also joint proprietor and master of the Royal Bear-Garden, on
+the Bank side, in Southwark. By the profits accruing from these
+occupations, added to his paternal inheritance, and to the dowries of
+his two wives, by whom he had no children, he amassed a considerable
+property, which he bestowed in a manner that has redounded more to his
+honour than his professional merit. The wealth thus acquired enabled him
+to lay the foundation of a college, for the maintenance of aged people,
+and the education of children, at Dulwich in Surrey, which institution,
+called "The College of God's Gift," subsists at this time in an improved
+and prosperous state. The liberal founder, before he was forty-eight
+years of age, began this building after the design, and under the
+direction of Inigo Jones: and it is presumed that he expended eight or
+ten thousand pounds upon the college, chapel, &c. before the buildings
+and gardens were finished, which was about the year 1617.
+
+Alleyn had long been regarded by all the great and good people of
+England, including the sovereign Elizabeth, with admiration and respect.
+This charitable endowment presented him to the world in a new and
+grander attitude. But still as he was a player, the vulgar and
+superstitious were unable to account for this act which would have done
+honour to a king or a saint, by any other than diabolical influence. It
+was therefore reported, and by the ignorant multitude was believed, that
+Mr. Alleyn, "playing a demon with six others in one of Shakspeare's
+plays, was in the midst of the play surprised by the apparition of the
+devil, which so worked on his fancy, that he made a vow, which he
+performed at this place." This most laughable story is handed down
+seriously in a book written by a person of the name of Aubrey. Tradition
+says that it was from Alleyn's acting and conversation Shakspeare wrote
+his admirable instructions to players which he has put into the mouth of
+Hamlet.
+
+After the founder had built this college, he met with difficulties in
+obtaining a charter for settling his lands in mortmain, that he might
+endow it, as he proposed, with 800_l._ per annum, for the support and
+maintenance of one master, one warden, and four fellows, three of whom
+were to be ecclesiastics, and the other a skilful organist; also six
+poor children, as many women, and twelve poor boys, who were to be
+maintained and educated till the age of fourteen or sixteen years, and
+then put out to honest trades and callings. The master and warden were
+to be unmarried, and always to be of the name of Allen or Alleyn. At
+length the opposition of the lord chancellor Bacon was overcome, and
+Alleyn's benefaction obtained the royal license, and he had full power
+granted him to establish his foundation, by his majesty's letters patent
+under the great seal, bearing date June 21, 1619. When the college was
+finished, the founder and his wife resided in it and conformed in every
+respect to the regulations established for the government of his
+almoners. Having by his will liberally provided for his widow, and for
+founding twenty almshouses, ten in the parish of St. Botolp, without
+Bishopgate, in which he was born, and ten in St. Saviour's parish,
+Southwark, and bequeathed several small legacies to his relations and
+friends, he appropriated the residue of his property to the use of the
+college. He died in 1626, in the sixty-first year of his age, and was
+buried in the chapel of his own college. The chapel, master's
+apartments, &c. are in the front of this building, and the lodgings of
+the other inhabitants, &c. in the two wings, of which that on the east
+side was handsomely new built, in 1739, at the expense of the college.
+They have a small library of books and a gallery of pictures with that
+of the founder at full length. The inscription over the door concludes
+with these words: _abi tu et fac similiter_--go thou and do likewise.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+TO
+
+THE DRAMATIC CENSOR.
+
+I have always considered those combinations which are formed in the
+playhouse as acts of fraud or cruelty: He that applauds him who does not
+deserve praise, is endeavouring to deceive the public; He that hisses in
+malice or sport is an oppressor and a robber.
+
+  _Dr. Johnson's Idler, No. 25._
+
+
+The establishment of a regular and permanent work of dramatic criticism,
+and of censorship upon the public amusements of this city has often been
+attempted. The uniform failure of these efforts renders it natural to
+apprehend that the proposition now submitted to the public will incur
+the charge of presumption, and perhaps experience, for a time, the
+coldness and discouragement with which the majority of mankind are
+always inclined to treat even laudable exertions, if they in any degree
+militate against the dictates of common prudence, and are not
+recommended by a certainty of public approbation. Taking their auspices
+of the present undertaking from the fate of those hasty productions on
+the same subject, which have been brought forth and expired within the
+compass of their short season, there are too many, who, instead of
+applauding the hazardous boldness of the measure, and for the sake of
+its public utility standing forward in its encouragement and support,
+will endeavour to damp it by premature censure, ascribe the undertaking
+to vanity, or unworthiness, and if it should fail, be ready to aggravate
+the disappointment of the projectors with the galling imputation of
+temerity, impudence, or overweening self-conceit. The sympathy which
+mankind in general think it handsome to feel for unassuming merit,
+stumbling in its way through life by incautiously venturing upon ground
+untrodden before, will be gladly withheld from persons who are supposed
+wilfully to rush forward into error, with the warning monitions of
+example before their eyes--who obstinately persist in an unadvised and
+hopeless enterprise, in defiance of manifold and recent experience, and
+whom the imprudence and misfortunes of others have been incapable of
+rendering cautious or discreet.
+
+With encountering these, and many other objections (the offspring of
+indistinct conception and cold hearts) the projectors of the present
+work lay their account; yet, since nothing honourable or arduous would
+ever be accomplished, if hope were to be extinguished by partial defeat,
+and a generous enterprise were to be abandoned, because it had before
+been tried without success, the work now proposed is undertaken, with
+the most firm conviction of its utility and the most unequivocal
+confidence of success. Let their difficulties be what they may, however,
+the editors are prepared to meet them, not only without fear, but with
+satisfaction; since they know that nothing but impossibility will be
+refused to undismayed perseverance and unremitting industry, and that in
+the work they are entering upon, they labour for the promotion of a
+purpose which, whatever the amount of their pecuniary advantage may be,
+will entitle them to public respect and to the gratitude of the rising
+generation. Before such proud hopes, all the little obstructions they
+anticipate--the cavils of the scrupulous, the doubts of the sceptical,
+the reluctance of the timid, the resistance of the refractory and
+incorrigible, and the sneers, the censures, and the sarcasms of the
+curious and the malignant vanish, as the gloomy chills and shades of the
+night recede before the glorious luminary of the morning.
+
+That the drama is a most powerful moral agent in society has been
+admitted by men of learning and wisdom in all ages of its existence.
+Whether its effects be, on the whole, injurious or not, will long be a
+subject of contest; but be they what they may, it can have very little
+influence of any kind beyond that of harmless amusement, on the wise,
+the pious, the learned and the experienced. Were those alone to visit
+theatres and be exposed to its allurements, the task of the dramatic
+censor might without injury be dispensed with: but since it is the
+young, the idle, the thoughtless, and the ignorant, on whom the drama
+can be supposed to operate as a lesson for conduct, an aid to experience
+and a guide through life, and since such persons are generally
+unfurnished with ideas and undefended by principles, prompt to receive
+first impressions, and easily susceptible of false opinions and
+pernicious sentiments, it becomes a matter of great importance to the
+commonwealth that this very powerful engine, (acting as it does upon our
+youth through the delightful medium of amusement, and by the
+instrumentality of every circumstance that can lay hold of the fancy,
+and through the senses fascinate the heart) should be kept under the
+control of a systematic, a vigilant and a severe, but a just criticism.
+
+To the formation of that rare compound "a finished man" there belong,
+besides the higher requisites of moral character, an infinite number of
+minor accomplishments, which are materially affected either for the
+better or the worse, by a frequent and studious attendance on dramatic
+representations. MANNERS, which constitute so important a part of the
+character of every people, are considerably fashioned by a constant
+observation of the pictures of human life exhibited in the theatre: on
+the action, the utterance and the general deportment, the effects of the
+stage have ever been materially felt and are unequivocally acknowledged.
+The most eloquent men of antiquity, and the most eloquent men in
+England, have owned themselves indebted to actors for perfecting them in
+oratory. Roscius, the actor of Rome, is immortalized by Cicero, and
+Garrick by lord Chatham and Edmund Burke. If then the stage has been
+felt to produce such weighty effects in the more arduous part of human
+improvement, how ponderous in its operation must it not of necessity be,
+on the other hand, in the promotion of evil, if it exhibit to the
+growing generation corrupt examples and defective models, not only
+unrestrained and uncensured, but sanctioned with the applause of an
+uninstructed and misjudging multitude. Every plaudit which a vitious
+play, or a bad actor receives is a blow to the public morals, and the
+public taste. Man is an imitative animal, and insensibly conforms to the
+models and examples before him. Young men who excessively admire a
+favourite actor, will insensibly imitate him, without scanning the man's
+merits or defects; and without ever reflecting upon the ultimate
+influence which their partiality, if it should be misplaced, may have
+upon their lives, fortunes and characters, will adopt his manner, his
+action, his enunciation, nay, his worst defects, and in short every
+thing that is imitable about him.
+
+Those who dissent from us on other propositions, will agree with us at
+least in this, that the highest degree of attention ought to be paid to
+the morals, the manners, the address and the language of youth; and that
+nothing which has a tendency to mislead them, in any of those
+essentials, should be submitted to their eyes or ears; but that on the
+contrary, every thing should be done, as a great moral philosopher has
+instructed us, "to secure them from unjust prejudices, from perverse
+opinions, and from incongruous combinations of images." Let it be kept
+in mind that we are not now discussing the question whether the stage be
+beneficial to society or not. Though it be a fair subject of inquiry,
+and will hereafter engage a share of our attention, we have no use for
+it, at present; since be our opinions or those of our readers what they
+may, the stage exists, and will continue to exist and attract the
+regards of mankind. The true point of consideration, therefore, is, not
+how far it is beneficial or how far injurious; but in what way its
+benefits may be enhanced, and its mischiefs, if any, be abated. He who
+should demonstrate that it has a pernicious tendency, would but the more
+strongly enforce our propositions; since he would thereby show the
+expediency of diminishing that tendency and of mitigating that evil
+which the public will forbids to be entirely prevented.
+
+It is not merely on account of its effects upon the audience, but on
+that of the actors themselves, that the theatre calls loudly for a
+strict critical regimen. An actor resigned to his own opinion, and
+committed to the unrestrained licentious exercise of his own judgment,
+if he be not one in a million, sinks into negligence, becomes wilful,
+and if, as is nine times in ten the case, he should obtain the casual
+applause of a few stupid and injudicious spectators, becomes headstrong,
+refractory, and incorrigibly hardened in error. If by means of the
+oversight of critical judges, or the false adjudication of applause, an
+actor insensibly slides into popularity, he is erected into a standard
+of taste, by those who have not seen better; instead of being himself
+tested by sound principles of criticism and estimated by comparison,
+with the best models, he becomes gradually absolved from submission to
+all authority, is held up as a criterion for determining the merit of
+other actors, and dubbed the Roscius of his little theatre by a number
+of confident pretenders who know just as much about dramatic character
+and acting, and on the very same grounds too, as the poor islander of
+St. Kilda did of architecture, when he sagaciously concluded that the
+great church of Glasgow was excavated out of a rock, because he had
+never before seen an edifice made of hewn stone and mortar. Thus not
+only a false taste is circulated among the youth at large, but the very
+fountain of taste is itself polluted. This is an evil which nothing but
+a well-regulated body of competent critical authority can prevent. In
+the prosecution of the intended work, an occasion will occur of pointing
+out eras during which, even in the great metropolitan seat of the
+English drama, the public taste suffered years of vitiation from
+defective models being at the head of the stage. Till Garrick, led on by
+Nature herself, introduced her school, the theatre presented a stage on
+which scarce a vestige of the human character as it really existed, was
+to be seen. But pompous monotony of speech held the highest praise, and
+"DECLAMATION ROARED WHILE PASSION SLEPT."
+
+Hitherto the theatre of Philadelphia has been too much resigned to the
+licentiousness of bold, and blind opinion. Men of letters, with which
+the city abounds, and who in every society are the natural guardians of
+the public taste and morals, seem to have deserted this important trust.
+Applause which ought to be measured out with scrupulous justice,
+correctness and precision, has been by admiring ignorance, poured forth
+in a torrent roar of uncouth and obstreperous _glee_ on the buffoon,
+"the clown that says more than is set down for him," and on "the
+robustious perriwig-pated fellow, who tears a passion all to rags,"
+while chaste merit and propriety have often gone unrewarded by a smile.
+
+If critical judgment were a matter of physical force or numerical
+calculation, then indeed the roar of the multitude would be as
+conclusive in reason, as it too often is in practical effect; but
+criticism is a matter of intellectual estimate; and many acquirements go
+to the composition of a well-qualified dramatic critic, to any one of
+which, but a small number of the auditors of a play can, in the nature
+of things, have the smallest pretensions. If indeed any man under the
+assumption of the critic's name should attempt dogmatically to impose
+his _dictum_ as a law upon the public, he would deserve to be repelled
+with indignity and rebuke. All the genuine critic will attempt to do, is
+to hold out those lights, with which his own study, experience, and
+observation have supplied him, in order to enable the public to discern
+more clearly what in the play or the actor is worthy of censure or
+applause--of rejection or adoption. In the common operations of human
+life, every man is compelled by the necessity of his nature to take
+succedaneous aid from others. The mechanic in erecting the poorest
+building, or forming the most simple machine, is indebted for his means
+to the practical geometrician, and instrument maker, and the latter
+again, to the master of the science of mathematics. The practical
+surveyor or navigator finds it his interest to be governed by rules
+supplied by those whom study has furnished with the great elementary
+principles of science, and is contented to stand indebted to them for
+his means of determining, the area of his land, or the latitude and
+longitude at sea, without impugning the rights of those studious men who
+have given him the compendious rules and the tables by which he works.
+It is so with dramatic criticism. The legitimate source of judgment lies
+with those who have by deep study made themselves masters of the first
+principles of the science; and from them the people at large, who are
+too much otherwise and certainly better employed, to learn those
+principles, must be content to take the rules and laws by which they
+judge. The most infatuated self-devotee would be ashamed to contest this
+point, if he were at all apprised of the various acquirements requisite
+for forming an accurate judgment of the business of the theatre,
+interwoven, as the dramatic art is, with some of the highest departments
+of literature, and the multifarious operations of the human heart. The
+vainest being who cajoles himself into the notion that a man either
+unlettered or inexperienced can form a just judgment of a play and
+actors, must at once be convinced of his error by reflecting that "the
+drama is an exhibition of the real state of sublunary nature;" and that
+"to instruct life, and for that purpose to copy what passes in it, is
+the business of the stage."[6] To understand this well, demands not only
+some book-learning, but that experience which, though books improve,
+they cannot impart, and which never can be attained by seclusion or
+solitary study, but must be derived from intercourse with men in all
+their forms of conduct, from converse with society, and from an
+attentive and accurate examination of that complex miscellany, the
+living world. To know the drama we must know men; and "if we would know
+men (says Rousseau) it is necessary that we should see them act." It is
+equally necessary too that we should lift the veil which time has thrown
+over the past, and see how men have thought and acted through the lapse
+of ages upon the uniform principles of human passion, which ever have
+been and ever will be the same, and by that means distinguish that which
+is natural, innate and permanent in man, from that which is adventitious
+and acquired. He whose knowledge of the world is circumscribed within
+the narrow limits of one generation or one society can know man only as
+he appears in the superficial colouring and peculiar modification of
+personal habit, derived from the fashions, the modes, and the capricious
+changes of that time, and that society, while the great body of human
+nature remains buried from his sight. "The accidental compositions of
+heterogeneous modes (says the gigantic critic Johnson) are dissolved by
+the chance which combined them, but the uniform simplicity of primitive
+qualities neither admits increase nor suffers decay." And assuredly
+there was never an age in which man so masked his nature under modish
+innovations as he does in the present.
+
+  [Footnote 6: Dr. Johnson.]
+
+The works of the ancients, says a great writer, are the mines from which
+alone the treasures of true criticism are to be dug up--the pure sources
+of that penetration which enables us to distinguish legitimate
+excellence from spurious pretensions to it. He, therefore, who would get
+at the true principles of dramatic criticism ought to read the poetry
+and criticism of the two great ancient languages, and to have formed
+some acquaintance with those authors, whether ancient or modern, who
+have furnished the world with the great leading principles upon which
+dramatic poetry is constructed. Doctor Johnson has informed us that
+before the time of Dryden, the structure of dramatic poetry was not
+generally understood; and what was the consequence? "AUDIENCES,"
+continues the doctor, "APPLAUDED BY INSTINCT, AND POETS OFTEN PLEASED BY
+CHANCE."[7]
+
+  [Footnote 7: See Johnson's Life of Dryden.]
+
+Without calling in the aid of such high authority, no risk of
+contradiction can be incurred by asserting that he must be radically
+deficient in the requisites of a dramatic critic, who is not
+sufficiently versed in philological literature to discriminate between
+the various qualities of diction--to distinguish the language of the
+schools from that of the multitude--the polished diction of refinement
+from the coarse style of household colloquy--the splendid, figurative,
+and impressive combination of terms adapted to poetry, from those plain
+and familiar expressions suited to the sobriety of prose; and finally,
+to form a just estimate of a poet's pretensions to that delicacy in the
+selection of words which constitutes what is called beauty in style. Nor
+is this all, he should be perfectly competent to form a judgment of the
+fable and its contrivance, to determine according to the canons of
+criticism laid down by the greatest professors of the art, whether the
+scheme of a piece be obscured by unnatural complexity or rendered jejune
+and uninteresting by extreme simplicity, and familiarity of
+design--whether description be bloated, or overcharged, or imagery
+misplaced or extravagant; and lastly, whether the performance be on the
+whole deficient in, or replete with moral institution.
+
+The editors are free to confess that while they enumerate the requisites
+necessary to a critic, they tremble for their own incompetency. Labour
+however shall not be spared---and they cherish the most sanguine hopes
+of supplying their general deficiency by candour and integrity; being
+determined while they endeavour with encouragement and applause to
+foster the rising genius and growing merit of the stage, to rescue it
+from the encroachment of sturdy incapacity, and while they sit in
+judgment for the security of the public taste, to be as far as the
+canons of dramatic criticism will allow, the strenuous advocates of the
+valuable man and unassuming actor--still keeping in sight that
+impressive truth contained in the motto: "HE THAT APPLAUDS HIM WHO DOES
+NOT DESERVE PRAISE, IS ENDEAVOURING TO DECEIVE THE PUBLIC; HE THAT
+HISSES IN MALICE OR IN SPORT IS AN OPPRESSOR AND A ROBBER."
+
+The editors have said thus much merely to explain their motives, and to
+smooth their way to the discharge of a task, in the performance of which
+they will necessarily be exposed to many invidious remarks from the
+misconceptions of presumptuous ignorance. Having done so they fearlessly
+commit the subject to the public judgment, and proceed to the execution
+of their duty.
+
+
+
+
+DRAMATIC CENSOR.
+
+
+_The Philadelphia Theatre opened on Monday the 20th of November, with_
+
+"A CURE FOR THE HEART-ACH."
+
+It has been said by a great moral philosopher that fashion supplies the
+place of reason. On superficial consideration the assertion will appear
+paradoxical; but there is much truth in it, and much biting satire too,
+upon the absurdities of the world. Fashion could not supply the place of
+reason, if reason were not absent; and most irrational and unaccountable
+indeed are all her ladyship's ways. Her capriciousness is proverbial,
+and her agency is generally illustrated by comparison with the most
+unsteady elements of the physical world. We say "Fashion that
+_fluctuating_ lady," alluding to the ebbing and flowing of the tide--and
+"Fashion that weathercock," implying that she veers about with every
+puff of wind. There are some few cases, however, on the other hand, in
+which she may be compared to a rock, because she stands immovably fixt
+to her seat; supplying, according to the idea of the philosopher
+abovementioned, the place of reason, who stands self-exiled forever. It
+would seem as if fashion never could take repose but in supreme
+irrationality. There and there alone she is firm. Whoever will take the
+trouble (or rather the pleasure) to read "Browne's Vulgar Errors," will
+see how much deeper root absurd notions strike in "the brain of this
+foolish compounded clay man," than those that belong to sound sense and
+reason. The insignia of fashion, therefore, may be considered in
+relation to the human head, as the notification on the door of an empty
+house, signifying that the family has removed to another tenement. Hence
+no one of common sense expects any caprice of that lady to be accounted
+for on rational grounds. There is one of her freaks, however, which we
+have endeavoured to trace to its source in the wilds of luxuriant
+absurdity, and have never been able to succeed. Nay, we venture to
+affirm that if the most sagacious man in America were asked, why it was
+considered a violation of the laws of fashion for a lady to attend the
+theatre on the opening night of a season, he would be puzzled for any
+other reply than that it was permanently fashionable, because it was
+prodigiously absurd. On the opening of our theatre this season the house
+was full of MEN. The audience presented one dark tissue of drab and
+brown, and black and blue woolen drapery, with here and there a solitary
+exception of cheering female attire. Had there been a heavy fall of
+snow, the ladies would have been sleighing--had there been a public ball
+the darkness of the streets would have been broken by multitudes of
+attractive meteors in muslin, either "hanging on the cheek of night," or
+hurried along like gossamer through the air. But fashion has so ordained
+it: and a good play and after-piece were well represented to a house
+which, from the little intermixture of the lovely sex, somewhat
+resembled the auditory of a surgeon's dissecting theatre.
+
+Mr. Morton's comedy "A Cure for the Heart Ach," is by this time so well
+known that to relate the fable of it here, would be uselessly to
+encumber the work. Of the quality of this production it would be
+difficult for criticism to speak candidly, without adverting to the
+present miserable state of dramatic poetry in England, which from the
+days of Sam Foote has been gradually descending to its present
+deplorable condition. The body of dramatic writers of the last thirty
+years first corrupted the public taste, and now thrive by that
+corruption. By hasty sketches, not of Nature as she appears in all times
+and places, but of particular and eccentric manners and characters, the
+excressences of overloaded society, they have made a short cut to the
+favour of the public, and inundated the stage with a torrent of
+ephemeral productions, to the depravation of public taste, and in
+defiance of classical criticism: their highest praise that they do no
+moral mischief, and that if they possess not the bold outline and
+faithful colouring of nature which distinguished the productions of
+their mighty predecessors, they are no less exempt from the obscenity
+and immoral effects of those authors. As bad writing is infinitely
+easier than good, the pens of our living dramatic writers in general
+teem with an inconceivable fertility--and the purlieus of London are
+beat over in every direction to hunt up game suitable to the genius of
+their weak-winged muse; in short, to find out new modifications of
+character, attractive not by its consonance to man's general nature, but
+by its eccentricity and departure from the ordinary tracks of human
+conduct.
+
+Having thus insulated this class of comedies, and put them apart from
+the old stock, to which, with the exception of the Honey Moon, there is
+no modern production comparable, criticism may weigh the merits of each
+piece as compared with its class, and perhaps find something to praise.
+We consider some of the comedies of Mr. Morton, however, as raised high
+above the throng. The Cure for the Heart Ach has much in it to commend.
+The moral tendency of many parts of it is good, while the incidents are
+exceedingly laughable. _Old Rapid_ continually betraying his trade by
+stuffing his conversation with the technical terms of the taylor--his
+son's distress at it--the honest rusticity of _Frank Oatland_--the
+baseness, vanity and folly of _Vortex_ the nabob--the insolence and
+amorousness of _Miss Vortex_ his daughter, and the whimsical incidents
+arising from their various designs, mistakes, detections and
+disappointments, form altogether a _melange_ of pleasantry highly
+provocative of laughter, yet by no means so low as to reduce the piece
+to the rank of farce, which some austere critics in London have
+assigned it.
+
+Of the performance generally, we repeat that it was good. Young Rapid
+afforded criticism much satisfaction in the person of Mr. Wood, who in
+many parts persuaded us that he had seen Mr. Lewis in that character,
+and seen him with profit. Mr. Wood's walk is not unlike that of the
+great original in London--a nasal tone of voice too is common to both.
+These, if they did not create, certainly increased the resemblance
+between those two gentlemen, which, however remote, was yet discernible.
+In _Sir Hubert Stanley_, as in every other character in which we have
+seen him, Mr. M'Kenzie deserved warm applause--he was dignified,
+pathetic and interesting. Mr. Francis gave a strong colouring to Vortex;
+and to say that Frank Oatland was all that the author could wish, we
+need only to state that he fell to the share of Mr. Jefferson. After
+all, we are doubtful whether old Rapid was not as well off in the hands
+of Mr. Warren as any other character in the play.
+
+We were greatly interested and indeed delighted by Mrs. Wood in Jesse
+Oatland. Mrs. Francis was abundantly droll in Mrs. Vortex; and Mrs.
+Seymour was entitled to the marks of approbation she received.
+
+
+  _November 22._
+
+PIZARRO and the Review composed the bill of fare for this evening.
+Although in the attack and defence of Pizarro criticism has worn down
+the edges of its weapons to very dulness, we cannot forbear taking this
+opportunity of recording our opinions of that extraordinary production.
+
+No play that has appeared during the last century, possesses the power
+of agitating the passions, and interesting the feelings in an equal
+degree to Pizarro. From a child of the brain of Kotzebue, trained and
+corrected by Sheridan, much might be expected. And the piece before us
+is worthy of the talents of such men.
+
+In any contest between _oppressed_ and _oppressors_ the heart takes in
+an instant, a decided and a warm part. If the crime of _oppression_ is
+aggravated by other guilt in the _oppressor_, and the object of it is
+rendered more lovely and respectable by the most exalted virtues, pity
+for the one rises to respect and affection--indignation against the
+other becomes exasperated to hatred, to abhorrence, and disgust; without
+the intervention of the will, but merely from the spontaneous movements
+of the heart, we sympathise, we silently pray for the one--we recoil
+from, we execrate the other. We are pressed by our very nature into the
+service of virtue; our souls are up in arms against vice and improbity,
+and thus we receive lasting impressions, which, when our hearts are not
+very corrupt, must forever after have a favourable influence on our
+moral conduct.
+
+To elucidate and confirm our opinions on this subject, we beg leave to
+ask, what is that play in which there is such a mass of virtue and
+simplicity, and such a number of amiable personages, opposed to such a
+mass of villany, subtlety, fraudful avarice, and sensual vice, as in
+Pizarro? Not one. The lofty moral sentiments of Rolla, his exquisite
+feelings and exalted notions as the patriot, the friend, the lover, are
+unequalled. He exists out of himself, and lives but for others: for his
+country, his king, his friend, and the dearest object of his love, of
+whom being bereft by that very friend, he becomes their brother--their
+protector--devotes his life to death to save the man--escaping that,
+devotes it again to save their offspring. How much worse, if worse could
+be, than a satanic soul must that man have, who could be insensible to
+such a character! Who is there whose heart beats in harmony with heroic
+virtue and humanity, that would not accept such a death, to have lived
+such a life? Need we say more then of Pizarro than to contrast him with
+such a character. The only gleam of light that breaks in upon that black
+_Erebus_, his heart, is his conduct to Rolla when the latter throws
+aside his dagger; and this the poet (Sheridan) has artfully contrived
+for the purpose of heightening the lustre of such virtue, by showing
+that even that monster could not be insensible to it.
+
+Let us add that in the true liberal spirit of Christian piety, tolerance
+and humanity displayed by Las Casas, a popish Spanish priest; in the
+noble indignation, the inflexible fortitude, and the intrepid patriotism
+and virtue of Orozimbo; in the valour, the beneficent wisdom, and the,
+ardent connubial fidelity and affection of the young Alonzo, in the
+tenderness, the simplicity, the conjugal and maternal virtues of Cora,
+and in the artless display of vivid patriotism in the old blind man and
+his boy--there is, exclusive of Rolla's glorious qualities, a mass of
+excellence sufficient to make the character of any two plays, and put
+each out of the reach of competition with any other that we can
+immediately think of.
+
+Such as we have described are the emotions which are always produced by
+the play now under consideration, when it happens to be properly
+represented. Fortunately or unfortunately as it may happen, the play is
+so constructed that almost every part in it contributes largely,
+according to its kind, to the interest of the piece. Every person of the
+_oppressed_--the Peruvians, even down to the blind man and the little
+boy, are made by the poet to produce a large share of the general
+effect. For this reason it is a piece which taxes a manager highly,
+calling for a variety of excellent talents in the actors. It is not one
+of those plays which satisfy the mind and from which we come home
+contented, if two or three characters are well done. The play of Pizarro
+is a lifeless body when compared with what it ought to be, if _all_ the
+high Peruvians at least, are not well performed. In the movement of a
+watch every small wheel and every little rivet is as necessary to the
+general effect as the mainspring. So Las Casas, Orozimbo, the blind man,
+and the blind man's boy, are as necessary not perhaps to the mean
+progress of the fable (but to that effect, that necromantic influence
+upon the feelings, that penetrating moral which alone can render a play
+useful as well as delightful) as is the character of Rolla.
+
+It may appear a singular avowal, yet being truth we will not withhold
+it, that having witnessed the performance of this play many times in
+England and America, we have never yet seen it performed to our
+_perfect_ satisfaction. Kemble was great in Rolla, but the feebleness of
+his voice was severely felt by the audience in the celebrated speech of
+the Peruvian to his soldiers. That speech has been the stumbling block
+of most actors we have seen. Hodgkinson, who in other respects was
+unexceptionable, rather failed in it. Throughout the whole character,
+Mr. Wood preserved a very equable tenor of acting. He had neither the
+rich beauties nor the striking defects of others. He evinced
+considerable judgment, but at times powers were evidently wanting.
+
+Mr. M'Kenzie supported Pizarro well, and showed that he possesses
+abilities to support it better. It appears to us that this gentleman's
+physical powers are sometimes subdued by an over-scrupulous chasteness.
+In his answers to Elvira's solicitations on behalf of the unhappy
+Alonzo, he did not, we think, sufficiently mark all the feeling and
+emotions of the tyrant. Pizarro is stung with jealousy as well as rage;
+not so much the jealousy of love as of infernal pride; but both rage and
+jealousy are mastered by triumphant insolence and contempt. The
+utterance therefore of his laconic decisive sentence, "He dies," should
+be marked with a triumphant sneer as well as malice.
+
+Mr. Warren did ample justice to the venerable Las Casas.
+
+Mr. Cone who, though labouring under the disadvantages of a voice
+radically, and we fear, incurably monotonous, gives promise of being a
+useful actor, displayed considerable spirit in Alonzo. To the praise of
+diligence and attention to his business Mr. C. is entitled, and those
+rarely fail in any department to insure respectability and success. Mr.
+Cone's personal appearance is very much in his favour.
+
+The only part in the play on which we can justly bestow _unqualified_
+applause was Mr. Jefferson's Orozimbo. It is seldom that criticism has
+such a repast, a repast in which there was no fault but that of the poet
+in making it too short.
+
+Elvira is not one of the characters in which Mrs. Barret appears to
+advantage.
+
+Had Mrs. Wood the requisite talent of singing, we should have been much
+pleased with her Cora. Certainly so far as that lady was able to go, we
+know no person on this stage who could be substituted in her place with
+advantage to the character. But the omission of Cora's exquisitely
+beautiful, wild, and pathetic song, was a great drawback from the effect
+of the part.
+
+
+_December 21._--TOWN AND COUNTRY, by Morton--Village Lawyer. Some of the
+British critics rank Mr. Morton with the farce-writers of the day,
+others again pronounce his comedies to be the best which the age has
+produced, and say that they will be selected by posterity from the
+perishable trash of the day. We agree with neither, thinking it likely
+they may remain for a _few_ years among the stock of acting plays. To
+say that they will be admired by posterity is praise as hyperbolical and
+unjust, as ranking them in farce is calumnious and untrue.
+
+The comedy before us is a very pleasing production. The plot is well
+imagined, and the author has contrived to condense into it more bustle
+and incident than can readily be found in a piece of the same length.
+Reuben Gleuroy, the hero, is a noble character, possessed of the most
+exalted virtues, which are continually brought into active exercise for
+the good of his fellow beings. He preaches little and does a great deal,
+and displays a generosity and greatness of mind touching, as the world
+now goes, upon the chivalrous. But that which makes him more
+conspicuously amiable and interesting is that while he takes the most
+ardent and active concern in the happiness of mankind, he is himself
+reduced by the wickedness of others to a state of misery almost of
+distraction, which awakens the most poignant sympathy for his situation.
+Deserted, as he imagines, by the object of his dearest affections,
+Rosalie Summers, who is supposed to have eloped with a villain of high
+rank of the name of Plastic, he goes to London and finds his brother in
+the last stage of ruin and despair by gambling, and stops his hand just
+at the moment he is attempting suicide. In the end he reforms the
+brother, discovers his Rosalie, and finds that she is innocent and
+faithful; and by a series of those events, which whether likely or not,
+modern dramatists without scruple press into their service, is made
+perfectly happy. The colouring of this admirable portrait is not a
+little heightened in its effect by a tinge of eccentricity caught from a
+life of rural retirement in the romantic mountainous country of Wales.
+On this character and that of old Mr. Cosey, a philanthropic, wealthy,
+and munificent stock-broker, whose cash, always at the disposal of his
+friends, enables Reuben to accomplish his purposes, the author seems to
+have dwelt _con amore_. The comic dialogue of the piece arises chiefly
+from the contrasted feelings of Mr. Cosey and Mr. Trot. Cosey admires
+the city, and is miserable in Wales, while Trot, a wealthy
+cotton-spinner, rejoices at the loss of a large share of his property
+because it furnishes him with a pretext for returning to the country and
+leaving the _abominable_ city to which he was hurried away by the vanity
+of his wife.
+
+Mr. Wood displayed in Reuben, much ability, sound sense, and fine
+feeling. No person that we know on the stage discloses in his
+performances so little of the mere actor. That indefinable something,
+which though obvious to perception cannot be described, but is
+understood by the term "plain gentleman," tinctures all he says and does
+upon the stage. Whether this be detrimental to him as a general actor,
+we have not yet seen this gentleman often enough to determine: but this
+we will say, that while it stands a perpetual security against his being
+positively disagreeable in any character he may be obliged to act, it
+throws a charm over all those for which he is best fitted by nature.
+
+The amiable, the inimitable Cosey, never was, nor ever can be more
+perfectly at home than in the person of Mr. Jefferson. Were the author
+to see the performance and to observe the correspondence of the actor's
+physiognomy as well as action and utterance, with the sentiments of the
+character, he would from his heart exclaim in the words of Cosey
+himself, "NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL COMFORTABLE."
+
+It would be great injustice not to acknowledge the pleasure we received
+from Mr. Francis in the character of Trot, which he conceived and
+executed with great humour and spirit.
+
+A Mr. West from the southward made his appearance in the Yorkshire
+rustic Hawbuck. His face and person are well adapted to a certain class
+of low comedy; his voice still more so. If he will but avoid that bane
+of comedians, the effort to raise laughter by spurious humour and low
+trick, he will thrive in his department.
+
+In the drawing of the female parts there is nothing sufficiently
+striking to call forth the powers of an actress. What was to be done was
+sufficiently well done by Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Wilmot. But, were they well
+cast? or, should they not change sides?
+
+
+_FARCES FOR THE FIRST WEEK._
+
+_November 20._ OF AGE TOMORROW.
+
+Every character tolerably well played.
+
+
+_November 22._ WAGS OF WINDSOR.
+
+Hardinge, an old favourite of the town in Irish characters, appeared the
+first time for four years in Looney M'Twoulter. His return to this stage
+was hailed with thunders of applause; and all his songs were
+_encored_.--We have not seen Caleb Quotem better performed in England,
+nor so well by a great deal in America as this night by
+Jefferson.--Wilmot is a true child of nature and simplicity in all such
+characters as John Lump.
+
+
+_November 24._ VILLAGE LAWYER.
+
+We abhor this farce. Scout, from whom it takes its name, is too
+detestable a picture of human meanness and depravity to be fit for
+farce, the proper effects of which, however nonsensical it may be, ought
+to be to enliven and not create disgust. We cannot bear to see a
+respectable actor in it. Blisset, a favourite son of Momus, played the
+Sheepstealer. Mr. West, whom we have mentioned in Hawbuck, played Old
+Snarl with great humour, which his audience, and indeed himself, seemed
+heartily to enjoy. In characters of low humour, particularly crabbed old
+men, Mr. West would be very pleasing, if he would aim less at raising
+gallery laughter by spurious means. And all that could be done for Mrs.
+Scout was done by Mrs. Francis.
+
+
+_November 27._
+
+ELLA ROZENBERG.--WOOD DEMON.
+
+Ella Rozenberg, a melo-drame, by Mr. Kenny, was brought out for the
+first time at Drury Lane in 1807, and has ever since maintained its
+ground in the public opinion. It is extremely interesting, and though
+there is nothing new or singular in the plot or incidents is calculated
+to lay fast hold on the imagination and feelings. At the opening of the
+piece, the scene of which is laid near a Prussian camp, the heroine
+_Ella Rosenberg_ reduced by the disappearance of her husband to a state
+of poverty, is living under the protection of captain _Storm_,
+a crippled old officer of invalids, and the friend of her deceased
+father. Here she has concealed herself for two years, when she is
+discovered by colonel _Mountfort_, who having conceived a criminal
+passion for her, had in order to gratify that passion, purposely
+provoked her husband to draw his sword upon him, in consequence of which
+apprehending the severity of the military law, the latter had set off to
+the capital to appeal to the electoral prince, but was no more heard of.
+The colonel, who is a finished master of intrigue, enters Storm's house
+in disguise, and attempts with the help of a band of his soldiers to
+carry off Ella by force. In this he is opposed by the good and gallant
+old officer, who, sword in hand, beats off the soldiers, tears the
+colonel's sash from him, and in a rage tramples it under foot, in
+consequence of which Storm is made prisoner, and Ella left unprotected,
+is borne away by the soldiers. The elector, who has just returned
+victorious from the war, appears considering a petition from old Storm
+on behalf of Ella, which interests him so much, that he resolves to
+visit her incognito. Mountfort, who is a favourite of the elector's and
+has just arrived to congratulate him, is alarmed, endeavours to dissuade
+him from going to Ella, and in the meantime to secure himself from
+detection orders the immediate trial of Storm, who is found guilty and
+sentenced to die. Ella escapes and reaches Storm, her old protector,
+just as he is on his way to execution. He does all he can to keep his
+fate concealed from her; but it being betrayed, she is torn from him in
+a state of distraction and anguish, and being consigned by her generous
+protector to the care of a brother officer who commands the guard, is
+conducted to a solitary inn by a soldier. The elector appears at night
+passing in disguise to visit the cottage of Storm, and is encountered by
+Rosenberg, who appears in the most wretched state, flying from his
+pursuers, and supplicates him for the means to procure shelter. Without
+disclosing who he is, Rosenberg informs the elector that he (Rosenberg)
+has been secretly and violently imprisoned. The elector directs him to
+the house to which Ella is carried by the soldiers, and promises to meet
+him there in the morning and assist him. Rosenberg reaches the inn
+whither Ella too is brought in a state of insensibility, and placed in a
+separate apartment. Mountfort arrives alone, and not knowing Rosenberg
+engages him to guard Ella, while he goes to seek a conveyance for her.
+Rosenberg now finds the cause of his imprisonment--an interesting
+discovery takes place between him and Ella--but he is detected by one of
+his pursuers, and is again in the hands of his enemies, when the elector
+enters, and obtaining the most perfect conviction of the villany of
+Mountfort, disgraces him, restores the young couple to rank and
+happiness, and the brave and virtuous old Storm to life, liberty and
+joy.
+
+The plot of this melo-drame is wrought up with uncommon skill: the
+interest rising by a progressive climax which keeps the heart in a warm
+glow of feeling from the first scene to the last. Old Storm is worth a
+whole army of what are called heroes, and the elector is a model of
+justice and humanity for princes to imitate.
+
+According to the London casting Rosenberg would have fallen to the share
+of the first player in the house: but we had no reason to complain of
+Mr. Cone. Mr. Warren discharged the high office of elector with dignity;
+and Mr. M'Kenzie was an excellent representative of the old
+cut-and-thrust-colonel. Such characters as Ella are always interesting
+when played by Mrs. Wood.
+
+The tasteful amateur must have been roused and delighted by the music,
+particularly the overture.
+
+
+Ella Rosenberg was followed by one of the most monstrous productions,
+the mind of man ever groaned withal. Never did melancholy madman
+labouring under the horrors of an inflammation of the brain--never did a
+wretch fevered with gluttony and intemperance, and writhing under the
+pressure of the night-mare, dream of more horrible circumstances than
+those which Mr. Lewis has offered in this prodigious melo-drame, for the
+ENTERTAINMENT of the British nation. Where will the taste of England
+stop in its descent? Where will the impositions on it by bastard genius
+end? Yet since this monster has produced a powerful effect, and is
+managed with such perverted skill as to excite a strong interest, and
+since whole audiences condescend to club tastes with the scarecrow old
+women of the heath and the mountain, and to play "look at the bugabow,"
+with the nurselings of the lap, we should be sorry to be deficient in
+curtesy, or when so many good and wise people drivel not to drivel a
+little too; we bend therefore with stiff and painful obedience to our
+duty, and offer our readers a short summary of the fable.
+
+To clear the way then, be it in the first place known, that Mr. Matthew
+Lewis has found out a new kind of infernal agent--a demon who delights
+in human sacrifices, and lives in the woods. Perhaps it is because we
+are poorly versed in demonology that we do not recollect to have heard
+of this particular infernal before. Be that as it may, _Count
+Hardyknute_ of Holstein, having been sent into the world deformed in
+person and poor in circumstances, and being resolved to sell his soul to
+damnation for the bettering of his body, makes a contract with the
+demon, in condition of his being made handsome and powerful, to
+sacrifice to him a human victim on a particular day in each year; in
+failure of which he is to become the prey of the demon, who is very
+handsomely named _Sangrida_. The count has sacrificed nine victims
+before the opening of the piece, and is meditating with himself with
+what fat offering he shall next glut the maw of Sangrida, in anniversary
+punctuality. _Leolyn_, a dumb boy, the rightful heir of the estate and
+title which Hardyknute had usurped, has been secretly bred up by
+_Clotilda_ as her own, but Hardyknute discovers him by the mark of a
+bloody arrow on his wrist, and determines to help Sangrida to his little
+body. _Una_, a beautiful young lady, to whom the count pays his
+addresses, is selected by the guardian spirit of Holstein to be the
+preserver of the intended victim. The time approaches for the fulfilment
+of the agreement. By a process of the most horrible kind of enchantment
+Una is enabled to remove the boy so as to elude the count, and gets
+possession of the key of an enchanted place on which the boy is chained.
+She gets him down from it--the clock is seen just near the stroke of
+one--she resolves to push the hand forward--Hardyknute seizes and is
+about despatching her, when Leolyn with difficulty mounts to the clock,
+pushes forward the hand and it strikes one--the demon appears, seizes
+the count in his claws--the earth opens, and the demon carries him down,
+in the same manner that an alligator or shark carries down a puppy dog,
+to devour him in comfort.
+
+Such is the piece, and such the depravity of a nation's taste. It is no
+wonder that the tasteful, the learned and the judicious, should wage an
+open war of wit and satire upon such things. On this subject we refer
+our readers to a piece signed THEOBALDUS SECUNDUS, which will appear in
+our next number.
+
+
+SECOND WEEK.
+
+_November 29._ RECONCILIATION, OR FRATERNAL DISCORD, _with_ FALSE AND
+TRUE.
+
+It would be superfluous to say any thing of a play so well known and so
+justly admired.
+
+
+_December 1._ ABAELLINO, OR THE GREAT BANDIT, _with the_ LADY OF THE
+ROCK.
+
+The Great Bandit is one of those extraordinary productions which
+distinguish the present dramatic writers of Germany from those of all
+ages and all countries. There are but few topics connected with the
+stage which deserve more serious discussion than this of the German
+drama. A proper investigation of it would require more room than we can
+at present spare: but we shall not so far desert our duty as to decline
+it when we can devote to it the deliberation it deserves. A future, and
+not far distant number will contain such reflections as occur to us on
+the subject.
+
+
+_December 2._ ROAD TO RUIN--DON JUAN.
+
+Mr. Wood in _Harry Dornton_ was very successful. It is a line of acting
+for which he is well calculated. The character of _Goldfinch_ was better
+performed by Mr. Jefferson than it could be in any other person in this
+theatre. But we received less pleasure from it than from any other we
+have seen him play, _Scout_ excepted.
+
+
+_FARCES FOR THIS WEEK._
+
+The Wood Demon, though used as an after-piece, demanded observation of a
+more serious kind than is due to farce, and has therefore received it in
+pages 71 and 72.
+
+
+The farce of "False and True" is a wretched thing. To speak
+Johnsonically it is a congeries of inexplicable nonsense. An Irishman,
+who, after having committed the _very probable_ blunder of going to
+Naples instead of Dublin, mistakes Vesuvius for the hill of Hoath, is
+the most laughable character of the piece. What could be done for it
+Hardinge did. A song of his was spoiled by the neglect of the band,
+whose conduct deserved reprehension from the manager.
+
+
+The Lady of the Rock is the production of Holcroft. Had he not himself
+given it to the world as his own, we should have thought it a libel upon
+his understanding to ascribe it to his pen.
+
+
+No pantomime has ever made so deep and so universal an impression as Don
+Juan. The merit of the original belongs to the celebrated Moliere.
+Averse on principle to pantomime, we have often felt ourselves indebted
+to it for relief from the drowsiness induced by some modern plays; but
+that perhaps was more owing to the badness of the play than the value of
+the pantomime. Of all pantomimes Don Juan is the most blamable. It is
+good in its kind, but the kind _is bad_.
+
+
+THIRD WEEK.
+
+_Monday, Dec._ 4. SPEED THE PLOUGH--ELLA ROSENBERG.
+
+The comedy of Speed the Plough is deservedly reckoned among the best of
+the modern stock, and considered as reflecting great credit upon the
+muse of Mr. Morton. The plot is very skilfully mixed up, notwithstanding
+the difficulty that always must attend carrying on, in connection with
+each other, two interests of a totally distinct and opposite nature,
+connecting two contradictory agencies without either encroaching on the
+other, and conducting an alternation of serious and comic scenes to one
+end, without making them clash. This Mr. Morton has, to a considerable
+degree, successfully accomplished; making that which occasions the
+difficulty subservient to one of the most desirable but arduous ends in
+dramatic writing, that of concealing the final unravelling or
+denouement, as it is called, of the plot.
+
+A striking beauty in this play, and the more striking because seldom met
+with, is the fidelity with which some of the characters are drawn from
+life; not as it is found in a solitary individual, but as it appears in
+a whole numerous class. Such is farmer Ashfield--such is dame Ashfield.
+Yet the characters in general are not very impressive, and there are
+some inconsistencies in them as well as in the arrangement of the
+incidents. A young lady's suddenly, and at first sight, falling in love
+with a peasant boy, though it may have happened, is an occurrence too
+singular to be perfectly natural; and as a dramatic incident, it is a
+coarseness which cannot well be reconciled to the characteristic
+delicacy of such a young lady, even by the _ex post facto_ discovery
+that the object of her love was in reality a person of condition. We do
+not think that love at first sight, which is in reality nothing more
+than Forwardness indulging itself in the airs of Romance, and Prurience
+calling in Fate to sanction its indelicacy, ought to be clothed in such
+a respectable and captivating dress as our author has bestowed upon it
+in this play.
+
+Yet with these defects to counterbalance them, Speed the Plough is
+replete with beauties--the dialogue is neat, spirited, and forcible; and
+there are many delicate touches of the pathetic, and much excellent
+moral sentiment to recommend it.
+
+The best character, beyond all comparison, is that of Farmer Ashfield.
+It is a picture of real life, originals of which are found in multitudes
+in England--plain, honest, benevolent, and under a rustic garb,
+possessing a heart alive to the noblest feelings. No man that we know in
+this country possesses such happy requisites for exhibiting the farmer
+in the true colours of nature as Mr. Jefferson. In the rustic deportment
+and dialect--in the artless effusions of benignity and undisguised
+truth--and in those masterly strokes of pathos and simplicity with which
+the author has finished this inimitable picture Mr. Jefferson showed
+uniform excellence: and as in the humorous parts his comic powers
+produced their customary effect on our risibility, so in the serious
+overflowings of the farmer's honest nature the mellow, deep, impressive
+tone of the actor's voice vibrated to the heart, and excited the most
+exquisite sensations.
+
+Mr. Wood performed Bob Handy. He was given out in the bills for sir
+Philip Blandford; but was, by a casualty, obliged to take the part of
+Bob: a change which, on more accounts than one, the audience had no
+cause to regret. Nor in our opinion, had either Bob or sir Philip any
+cause to lament it. Mr. Wood is at home in light comedy, while Mr.
+M'Kenzie, whose merits seem not to be sufficiently appreciated, is well
+calculated for such characters as Philip Blandford.
+
+The judgment of Mr. Warren enables him to perform any character he
+undertakes with propriety--but there are some parts in comedy for which
+he seems admirably qualified by nature and knowledge of stage business.
+We could enumerate several; but this is not the place for doing so--his
+representation of sir Abel Handy was uncommonly humorous and
+appropriate.
+
+Mr. Cone's Henry was pleasing. This young actor promises well. Though,
+to adopt the cant of the turf, he will never be first, there is no fear
+of his being distanced, unless he carries too great weight.
+
+Dame Ashfield in the performance of Mrs. Francis would be admired by
+Mrs. Grundy herself; and to express our opinion of Mrs. Wood's Susan
+would be only to repeat what we have already said of her on more
+occasions than one.
+
+
+It gives us infinite regret to be compelled, just as we put our foot
+upon the threshold of the critic's office, to animadvert upon some
+errors and defects in pronunciation, of which we could not have imagined
+the persons concerned to be capable. Our purpose is to persuade the
+people to encourage the stage upon principles honourable to it; not as a
+place of mere barren pastime; but as a school of improvement. But how
+shall we be able to bring the public mind to that habitual respect for
+the stage without which it must lose all useful effect, if the actors
+show themselves unfit for conveying instruction. Were this to be the
+case, and were mere pastime the object of theatres, Astley's
+horse-riders, the tumblers and rope-dancers of Sadlers-Wells, nay, the
+PUNCH of a puppet-show, would be as useful and respectable as Garrick,
+Barry, Cooke, or Kemble, and the circus might successfully batter its
+head against the walls of that building in Chesnut-street which the
+sculptor has enriched with the wooden proxies of Melpomene and Thalia.
+But criticism will not allow this. For the sake of the stage it will
+exert all its might to support the actors--and for the sake of the stage
+it will hold them in admonition. If the established principles of
+literature be violated by the actors, the very ground upon which the
+critic would support them, is blown up by a mine of their own
+construction, and not only they must sink, but the critic must, for the
+maintenance of a just cause, put his hand to their heads and give them a
+lanch. The theatre is a school for elocution or it is nothing. In Great
+Britain it has time immemorial been attended to, not as authority for
+innovations, but as an organ of conveyance of the authorised
+pronunciation, to which the growing youth of the country were to look
+for accurate information of what was correct, as settled and considered
+by their superiors, that is, by high learned men and statesmen. If the
+actors, therefore, run counter to authority, and thereby endanger the
+cause which they are presumed to aid, the mischief is too general and
+extensive in its operation to be neglected or endured. There is nothing
+belonging to the stage which demands such strict discipline as its
+orthoepy, because there is none in which it can so immediately and
+powerfully affect the public. On this point therefore we are determined
+to sacrifice nothing to ceremony; being convinced that debasing the
+language is essentially as injurious, though legally not so punishable,
+as defacing the current coin of a country.
+
+Without pointing to individuals by name, we request the ladies and
+gentlemen of the green-room to consult all the acknowledged authorities
+for the pronunciation of the words: true, rude, brute, shrewd, rule, in
+which the u is by some of them sounded very improperly; _true_ so as to
+rhyme to _few_, _new_, &c. _rule_ as if it were to rhyme to _mule_, and
+so on; whereas true ought to be pronounced as if it were spelled _troo_,
+and rhymed to _do_; rule as if spelled _rool_, and so on; and thus they
+will find them in the dictionaries of acknowledged authority.
+
+Since we are on the subject we will now advert to some other words which
+are often most lamentably mispronounced, not only contrary to the
+pronunciation established by all learned men and orators in Great
+Britain, but exactly in that way in which skilful actors often pronounce
+them in Europe when they wish to mimic the most low and ignorant classes
+of society. Of this description is the pronunciation of the word
+"sacrifice." For these words we refer all whom it may concern to the
+dictionaries of the best orthoepists, by which they will be instructed
+that it is not pronounced say-crifice but sac-rifize. If the former be
+really the pronunciation, the old ladies who smoke short pipes in the
+chimney corners of English and Irish cottages, are right, and Burke,
+Fox, Pitt, Windham, Curran, Grattan, Sheridan, and in short every man
+who speaks in a public assembly in England or Ireland, are wrong. We are
+not sure whether Mr. Kemble, who, as an excellent critic has observed,
+is always seeking for novelty and always running into error, may not
+lately have added that patch to his motley garb of new readings; but his
+authority is disallowed. Even Garrick, whose claims were of a very
+superior kind, when he attempted to render the English language, already
+too unstable, more so, by his innovations, was repelled with helpless
+contempt.
+
+This is a point to which it is the manager's duty to attend, because it
+is not a matter of doubt, nor subject to discretionary opinion. What
+must that part of our youth who attend to these things from a laudable
+desire for improvement, think, when they hear the same word differently
+pronounced in the same scene by different actors. Upon one night
+particularly, Mr. M'Kenzie several times returned the mispronounced
+word, pronounced as it should be, with an emphasis which could not be
+misunderstood: yet the mispronunciation was persisted in.
+
+Before we drop this subject we must observe that the pronunciation of
+the last syllable of the word sacrifice is sometimes as erroneously
+pronounced as the first, indeed worse, as the sound given to it
+approximates to one which conveys an offensive idea. Properly pronounced
+it rhymes to the verbs _advise_, _rise_, and not to mice, spice, &c.
+
+
+Having brought our critical journal up to the appearance of that
+phenomenon of the stage of this new world, Master Payne, we find
+ourselves constrained, by the limits of this number, to postpone our
+observations upon the plays in which that extraordinary boy, for so many
+nights, astonished and delighted crowded houses, and far beyond our
+expectations, made good his title to the partiality of every city in
+which he has performed.
+
+
+
+
+CRITICISM.
+
+THE FOUNDLING OF THE FOREST--A PLAY.
+
+
+This production which we have annexed to our first number, not on
+account of its superior merit, but because it was the most recently
+published of any that has yet come to our hands, will, on the most
+superficial reading, be discerned to be of the true German cast. The old
+trick of grouping the characters at the end of a scene, and dropping the
+curtain upon them, by way of leaving it to the general conception of the
+audience to guess the rest, as is done in the Stranger, and all others
+of that breed, is here twice put in practice. Those who like such drugs
+mixed up with a _quantum sufficit_ of horror, and all the tenterhook
+interest, hair-breadth escapes, and incident so forced as to stagger
+belief, which make up the hotchpotch romances whether narrative or
+dramatic of the present day, will like this. Mr. Dimond has in this
+piece certainly shown great skill in working up that kind of materials
+to the production of stage effect; since to those who can be interested
+or affected by the marvellous and mysterious, and who love to step for
+amusement out of the precincts of nature, and the conduct of "the folks
+of the world" the Foundling of the Forest will be interesting and
+affecting. Viewing it with a strict critical eye, not only the plot is
+faulty, but the composition is in many places extremely bad. If the
+production of original character was the author's design, he has
+succeeded to his heart's content in that of Florian, which we believe
+has never had a prototype in this world. In this _hero_ who is sometimes
+as bombastical as ancient Pistol, and sometimes as ridiculous as a
+buffoon, the author attempts to be droll, and
+
+  Aims at wit--but levell'd in the dark,
+  The random arrow never hits the mark.
+
+A London critic remarking with just severity upon the strange way in
+which the divinity is addressed in this piece, says, "This blot defaces
+almost all the modern things called dramas or plays. In the farcical
+comedies we have low vulgar swearing unworthy even the refuse of
+society; while in the _comedies larmoyantes_ (_weeping comedies_) and
+tragedies, we have eternal imprecations of the deity, indicative only of
+madness in literature." To this observation as well as that which
+follows from the same critic we heartily subscribe. "It is interspersed
+with songs, to one of which we direct[8] the reader, to remind the
+author of what Pope says:
+
+  Want of decency shows want of sense.
+
+  [Footnote 8: _See the Duett between Rosabelle and L'Eclair, Act.
+  III, scene I, page 16._]
+
+"Among _soi-disant_ jolly fellows revelling in senseless ribaldry and
+inebriety (continues the reviewer) this song might be deemed very fine;
+but we shrewdly suspect that if the lines had been spoken at the theatre
+instead of being sung, the audience would have resented the insult."
+
+It would be injustice not to add that the concluding speech of count
+Valmont, and many other parts scattered through the piece, must be
+admired as specimens of very fine composition.
+
+
+
+
+MUSIC.
+
+
+The lovers of poetry and music have lately been highly gratified by the
+publication of "A Selection of Irish Melodies, with Symphonies and
+Accompaniments, by Sir JOHN STEVENSON, Doctor of Music, and
+Characteristic Words, by THOMAS MOORE, Esq. the first number of which
+was published in London and Dublin in the month of February of the last
+year, the reviewers spoke with decided approbation. To the second
+number, published in April, they are no less favourable. These melodies
+have been for some time anxiously expected--it being pretty generally
+understood that that fascinating poet, Moore, was employed in the
+pursuit of them. He had promised them for sometime. "It is intended,
+says the editor, to form a collection of the best Irish melodies, with
+characteristic symphonies and accompaniments, and with words containing
+as frequently as possible, allusions to the manners and history of the
+country;" and in a letter of Mr. Moore's which appears in the
+publication, he says, "I feel very anxious that a work of this kind
+should be undertaken. We have too long neglected the only talent for
+which our English neighbours ever deign to allow us any credit. While
+the composers of the continent have enriched their operas and sonatas
+with melodies borrowed from Ireland, very often without even the honesty
+of acknowledgment, we have left these treasures in a great degree
+unclaimed and fugitive. Thus our airs, like too many of our countrymen,
+for want of protection at home, have passed into the service of
+foreigners. But we are come I hope to a better period both of politics
+and music: and how much they are connected, in Ireland at least, appears
+too plainly in the tone of sorrow and depression which characterizes
+most of our early songs. The task which you propose to me of adapting
+words to these airs, is by no means easy. The poet who would follow the
+various sentiments which they express, must feel and understand that
+rapid fluctuation of spirits, that unaccountable mixture of gloom and
+levity which composes the character of my countrymen, and has deeply
+tinged their music. Even in their liveliest strains we find some
+melancholy note inhere, some minor third or flat seventh which throws
+its shade as it passes, and makes even mirth interesting. If BURNS had
+been an Irishman (and I would willingly give up all our claims upon
+Ossian for him) his heart would have been proud of such music, and his
+genius would have made it immortal."
+
+A London reviewer speaking of the first number, says, "the idea is
+excellent, and the twelve vocal airs which this first number of the work
+contains, are tastefully arrayed by sir John Stevenson, and happily
+provided with language by Mr. Moore.
+
+"We are happy (continues the reviewer) to find that even where Mr.
+Moore's subject is amatory, his poetry is very little in the style of
+those baneful effusions which are undergoing so rigorous an examination.
+His verse is here fanciful and gentlemanly, full of his subject, and, as
+far as our English souls can judge, faithfully expressing it. Nothing
+can be more pathetic than "Oh! breathe not his name;" nothing more
+brilliant than "Fly not yet, 'tis just the hour;" and nothing more
+poetical than "As a beam o'er the face of the waters may glow." We must
+be indulged in quoting one of those effusions of Mr. Moore's genius; and
+we can find none more elegant or natural than the following:
+
+_SONG._
+
+  Oh! think not my spirits are always as light,
+    And as free from a pang as they seem to you now,
+  Nor expect that the heart-beaming smile of tonight,
+    Will return with tomorrow to brighten my brow.
+
+  No, Life is a waste of wearisome flowers,
+    Which seldom the rose of enjoyment adorns;
+  And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers,
+    Is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns.
+
+  But send round the bowl, and be happy awhile;
+    May we never meet worse in our pilgrimage here
+  Than the tear that Enjoyment can gild with a smile,
+    And the smile that Compassion can turn to a tear.
+
+  The thread of our life would be dark, heaven knows!
+    If it were not with friendship and love intertwined;
+  And I care not how soon I may sink to repose,
+    When these blessings shall cease to be dear to my mind!
+
+  But they who have lov'd the fondest, the purest,
+    Too often have wept o'er the dream they've believed;
+  And the heart that has slumber'd in friendship securest,
+    Is happy indeed if 'twas never deceiv'd.
+
+  But send round the bowl; while a relic of truth
+    Is in man or in woman, this pray'r shall be mine,
+  That the sunshine of love may illumine our youth,
+    And the moonlight of friendship console our decline.
+
+"The airs of the first number are excessively beautiful in
+themselves--particularly those of the well known "Gramachree," "Plausty
+Kelly," and the "Summer is Coming," and the duets of "The Maid of the
+Valley," and the "Brown Maid," are very delightful. "The latter (says
+the London reviewer) is a perfect specimen of the genius of duet, each
+part taking up the other alternately. The publication of these Irish
+airs fully discovers the source of Mr. Moore's musical compositions."
+
+Speaking of the second number, the reviewer says it is by no means
+inferior to the first either in music or in poetry. The air "Oh! weep
+for the hour" ("The Pretty Girl of Derby O!") is harmonized in a style
+of great elegance; and that, and "The Red Fox," "The Black Joke," and
+"My Lodging is on the Cold Ground," have particularly pleased us in
+their arrangement. The song which Mr. Moore has written to "The Black
+Joke," is both poetical and political, and though the affairs of Spain
+have now rendered it, as to that country, an _old newspaper_, yet it is
+still good in the cause of Ireland."
+
+
+
+
+SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.
+
+
+The coterie of old ladies in the British parliament, the _chairwoman_ of
+which was the late sir Richard Hill, have failed in all their attempts
+to tie up the hands of the people from their old sports. They have
+declaimed in parliament, and they have declaimed in print, against all
+the gymnastic exercises which time immemorial have been the pride and
+the pastime of the hardy natives of the British islands. Never did
+Robespierre weep such unfeigned tears over "sweet bleeding humanity," as
+those good souls have shed over the broken heads, and black eyes, and
+bloody noses of the Bull family, who, obstinate dogs, will still go on
+and laugh at their ladyships. Indeed Bonaparte himself, whose interest
+it really is, could not more anxiously desire the abolition of those
+gymnastic exercises.
+
+The sports of England are horse-racing; fox, hare, and stag-hunting;
+coursing with greyhounds; shooting, fishing, bull-baiting, wrestling,
+single stick, pugilism, pedestrianism, cricket, &c. These are practised
+by all ranks and on national accounts, are encouraged by all the wise
+and patriotic men of the country; some few, and those mostly fanaticks,
+excepted. To those games they add, in Ireland, the noble sport of
+hurling, in which that vigorous race exhibit such prodigies of strength
+and activity as induced the celebrated Arthur Young to speak to this
+effect in his Tour through Ireland: "In their hurlings, which I would
+call the cricket of savages, they perform feats of agility that would
+not do discredit to Sadler's Wells."
+
+The gymnastic games have been long carried on so systematically that
+they make as regular a part of the public intelligence as any that finds
+its way into the public papers, and have, like the theatre, their
+appropriated periodical publications.[9] On this subject we would say
+much more, as we mean to present our readers with such things as appear
+curious or extraordinary in those publications; but by way of a
+beginning, and to pave the road for the reception of this part of our
+work by the public, we beg leave to offer, not to their hasty perusal,
+but their profound consideration, the following defence of pugilism,
+written, it is said, by that profound statesman, patriot, and scholar,
+William Windham, whose eloquence and wit caused sir R. Hill's
+bull-baiting bill to be laughed out of the House of Commons.
+
+  [Footnote 9: The Sporting Magazine for one.]
+
+"I lay it down as a principle, that in every state of society, men,
+particularly those of the lower ranks, will ever require some means of
+venting their passions and redressing personal affronts, independently
+of those which the laws of their country might afford them; and that it
+is of more benefit to the community that these personal contests should
+be under such regulations as place bounds to resentment, than that they
+should be left to the unrestrained indulgence of revenge and ferocity.
+In most countries on the northern continent of Europe, bodily strength
+exclusively decides the contest; hands, feet, teeth, and nails are all
+employed, and the strongest gratifies his resentment by biting, kicking,
+and trampling upon his prostrate adversary.[10] In the south the appeal
+is usually to the stiletto, and a _colpo dicoltello_ is so common at
+Naples, that there is hardly a lazarone who has not the marks of it on
+some parts of his body; not a year passes in which there are not
+hundreds of assassinations in this city. Now, observe the different
+effects of a different principle: A sailor, some time since, at
+Nottingham, lent an aeronaut his assistance in preparing the ascent of
+his balloon; when receiving a blow from one of the by-standers while he
+held a knife in his hand--"You scoundrel," exclaims the tar, "you have
+taken the advantage by striking me because you knew that, as I held a
+knife I could not strike you again." Under similar circumstances, what
+would have been the conduct of a Genoese or a Neapolitan?
+
+  [Footnote 10: He might have added gouging, as practised in the
+  southern States of this Union.]
+
+Boxing, as it is conducted in this country, is a remnant of the ancient
+tilt and tournament, conducted on the principles of honour and equity;
+a contest of courage, strength, and dexterity, where every thing like an
+unfair and ungenerous advantage, is proscribed and abhorred. It is a
+custom peculiarly our own, and to which probably we are not only
+indebted for the infrequency of murder and assassination, but also for
+the victories of Maida, and Trafalgar.
+
+Some persons are willing to allow these effects, provided the practice
+was confined to casual contests, and not extended to public combats and
+stage fights. These, they say, induce the laborious men to quit their
+occupations, and serve as a rendezvous for the disorderly and the
+profligate; but is not the same objection to be made to all amusements
+in which the lower orders are peculiarly interested, and where else
+would men of this description practically learn, that the gratification
+of their personal resentments must be limited by the laws of honour and
+forbearance? Had Crib struck Gregson after the decision of the contest
+in his favour, what would have been the indignant feelings of the
+surrounding multitude, and what would he not have experienced from their
+resentment? And are these feelings not worth inculcating? will they not
+characterise a nation, and are they not the genuine sources of
+generosity and honour? If it be admitted, which I think cannot be
+denied, that any advantage be derived to society from individuals in
+these combats being restrained from giving full scope to ferocity and
+revenge, these advantages must be exclusively ascribed to the custom of
+public exhibitions. It is from these that all regulations and
+restrictions originate--it is from these they are propagated, and with
+these they will be extinguished.
+
+"I am not without apprehension, that from abhorrence of what some call
+brutal and vulgar pursuits, the noble science of attack and defence
+should be in future proscribed at the seminaries of Eton, Winchester,
+and Westminster, and that little master should be enjoined by his mama,
+in case of an affront, to resort to his master for redress and
+protection. To the custom, indeed, as it now prevails, the English youth
+are, in a great measure indebted for their nobleness and manliness of
+character. Two boys quarrel, they agree to box it out--they begin and
+they end by shaking hands; the enmity terminates with the contest--And
+what is this but a lesson of courage, magnanimity, and forgiveness? the
+principles of which are thus indelibly impressed on the mind of the boy,
+and must ever after influence the character of the man.
+
+"Away then with this effeminate cant about maintaining order and
+decorum, by the suppression of the public exhibitions of manly
+exercises. To them the individual Englishman owes his superiority to the
+individual of every other country, in courage, strength, and agility:
+and as a country is composed of individuals, to what other causes can
+England more reasonably impute her proud preeminence among nations which
+she now enjoys, and which she will ever maintain till this spirit is
+tamed into servility, under the pretence of applying salutary
+restrictions to the licentiousness of the people."
+
+
+After the foregoing essay, a parallel drawn between English men and
+English mastiffs by the celebrated cardinal Ximenes comes not
+unappropriately in this place.
+
+The cardinal, who was minister to one of the French monarchs, observed
+that the English, like their native mastiffs, lived in a state of
+internal hostility. "The cause," said he, "which creates a canine
+uproar, every one knows, is a bone; whence among the English, every
+statistical elevation, as well as other causes of contest, is called A
+BONE OF CONTENTION. During the time of profound peace, these island dogs
+are always growling, snapping at, and tearing each other; but the moment
+the barking of foreign dogs is heard, the contention about bones ceases,
+the whole species become friends, and with one heart and mind they join
+their teeth to defend their kennels against foreign enemies."
+
+The following extraordinary circumstances are selected from the British
+sporting intelligence of the last year.
+
+
+"A herdsman lately met a fox in the morning, on a mountain in the
+neighbourhood of Ballycastle (Ireland). On his approach, the animal did
+not offer to avoid him, but allowed him to come close up, when he struck
+it with a stick and killed it. On examination the fox was found to be
+completely destitute of teeth, and is supposed to have been blind with
+age.
+
+
+"A fox lately turned out at Fisherwick-park, the hunting seat of the
+marquis of Donnegal, being hard pressed, forced his way into the window
+of a farm house, and took shelter under the bed of the farmer's wife who
+had not an hour before lain in. The feelings of all parties may easier
+be imagined than described. The good woman, however, suffered no
+material injury by Reynard's unexpected visit, who was taken and
+reserved for the sport of another day.
+
+
+"On Wednesday last, about six o'clock, a covey of partridges were seen
+to pitch in the middle of the CIRCUS, Bath, supposed to have taken
+refuge there, after having escaped from the aim of some distant gunner.
+Under the effects of fright and fatigue six were easily caught by three
+servants, and strange as it may appear the three servants of three
+eminent physicians who reside in that elegant pile. Doctor F.'s man
+secured three; doctor P.'s two, and doctor G.'s the other bird.
+A _consultation_ afterwards took place respecting the fate of these poor
+tremblers, when it was humanely determined that they should be taken in
+a basket to some distance, and liberated, which was accordingly done.
+A keen sportsman would not approve of this forbearance; but perhaps none
+of the doctors had taken out a license to kill--GAME.
+
+
+"A male and female hare were put together by lord Ribblesdale for one
+year, when the offspring amounted to sixty-eight. A pair of rabbits
+inclosed for the same time produced above three hundred. The value of
+rabbits' wool used annually in the manufacture of hats in England is two
+hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
+
+
+"A few days ago a hare was observed lying before a door in
+Manchester-street, London. The poor animal was immediately pursued, and
+in less than a minute the street was crowded: she succeeded in making
+her way down through Duke-street, followed by an immense mob. The
+novelty of a hunt in such a place caused every person in the surrounding
+streets to join in the chase. Notwithstanding her numerous pursuers she
+made her way down Oxford-street and into Stratford-place, where she got
+into the corner next to the duke of St. Alban's house, and remained
+quietly until she was taken alive by the duke's porter in the presence
+of an immense concourse of spectators.
+
+
+"On the twenty-ninth of October last, in the afternoon, a fox was seen
+crossing the fields of Camptown in Bedfordshire, followed by a
+shepherd's dog. The fox first made his way into the grounds of the
+reverend Mr. Davies's boarding-school, at Campton, where the boys were
+at play. Reynard was no sooner in the midst of this juvenile assembly
+than a tumultuous uproar assailed him, from which he fled with all speed
+through a border plantation into the road, and crossing to the house of
+the reverend Mr. Williamson the minister of the parish, he bolted
+through the glass into the library. Here a female servant was cleaning
+the room, who by the sudden and unexpected appearance of this new
+visitor was thrown into fits. The family running into the apartment
+found the fox skulking in a corner, and the poor girl lying extended on
+the floor. With some difficulty she was recovered, and master Reynard
+was bagged for a future chase. Nobody can tell where the chase
+commenced, but the dog is known to belong to a shepherd at Meppershall,
+the adjoining parish to Campton.
+
+
+"The Cranborne chase pack had one of the finest runs ever known in the
+western part of the kingdom. They unkennelled at Punpernwood, four miles
+east of Blandford. The fox went off immediately for "the chase," and
+having taken a round in the West-walk, broke off over Iwern hills, and
+entered the vale of Blackmore, leaving the parish of Shooten to the
+left, making his play towards Duncliffwood near Shaston; but having been
+headed, he bent his course to the river Stow, which he boldly crossed in
+defiance of the flood, and after running the vale many miles passed
+through Piddleswood towards Okeford, Fitzpaine, but the hounds pressing
+him hard he was obliged to return to the cover, where having taken a
+turn or two he broke on the opposite side near the town of Shirminster,
+and crossed the commons to Mr. Brunes's seat at Plumber, where he
+entered a summer-house, passed through the chimney flue, and entered a
+drain, whence being bolted, he was run into and killed at Fifehide
+Neville, fourteen miles straight from the place where he was found,
+after a chase of two hours and ten minutes.
+
+
+BACKGAMMON.
+
+"It appears from the glossary to the Welch Laws that the game of
+backgammon was invented in Wales, sometime before the reign of Canute
+the Great, and that it derived its name from _Back_, which in the welch
+language meant _little_, and _Cammon_, which in the same language
+signified _Bottle_.
+
+
+"A blacksmith of Winchester in Hampshire, undertook, for a wager, to
+shoe six horses, and make the shoes and nails himself complete in _seven
+hours_. He accomplished it in twenty-five minutes less than the time.
+
+
+"Mr. Brewer of the Crown inn, Nothingham, undertook for a wager of forty
+guineas to go with a mare belonging to him in a cart, to Newark and back
+again, being a distance of _forty miles, in four hours_. He performed it
+in twelve minutes less than the given time. Considerable bets were laid
+against the performance. The mare is under fourteen hands high.
+
+
+DICK THE HUNTER.
+
+"A poor fellow, half an ideot, has by his singularity got himself so
+noticed by the sporting gentlemen at Newmarket, that his picture has
+been painted by Mr. Chalon, and engravings from it have been published.
+He was intended for a blacksmith, but being untractable, was allowed to
+follow his own inclination. Being always fond of hunting he soon
+attracted the attention of the gentlemen of the chase, and never failed
+joining the hounds whenever they made their appearance. Dick is such an
+amazing swift runner that he keeps in with the hounds for many miles
+together, to the surprise of all the gentlemen, who confess him to be a
+very useful man among them, as he instantly discovers the track of a
+fox, and is very clever at finding a hare sitting, and who therefore
+support him. He never goes out without carrying a knife, a fork, a spoon
+and a spur, which are all of his own making, a performance that shows
+him not to be destitute of ingenuity, as they are not separately made,
+but contained in one, and with these he is at once equipped either for
+sporting or eating. The spur he uses for pricking himself, which he
+fancies enables him to keep up with the hounds. He frequently uses it to
+the no small amusement of the spectators. His dress is quite as singular
+as his mode of life, for he always wears a long surtout coat,
+a hunting-cap, a boot on one leg and a shoe on the foot of the
+other--and thus equipped he runs with the speed of a hunting-horse,
+clearing with ease all the ditches and fences the riders do.
+
+
+"One of the best packs of hounds in England was most completely beat
+lately by a fox. The latter was turned out before them near Wold Newton,
+in Yorkshire, and after running rings for sometime, went off for
+Scarborough, near which place the hounds were so completely knocked up
+that he beat them in view, for the huntsman could not get them a yard
+further--a number of riders lost their horses in the cars, and were seen
+wading up to their necks to catch them again. The fox ran upwards of
+twenty miles.
+
+
+"In the discussions which have arisen in and out of parliament in
+England about the abolition of the Briton's old favourite sports, it was
+conceded by all but a few, that from the custom of boxing, singlestick
+and backsword playing, wrestling, &c. arose the good temper which
+distinguishes that people--Englishmen being less subject to violent fits
+of anger than the people of any other nation in the world. In the
+compass of eighteen pages of a work now before us we have details of no
+less than two grand matches of singlestick, one Wiltshire against
+Somersetshire, and the other Somersetshire against all England, for
+large purses. In both cases the champions of Somerset county beat; and
+what must astonish those who hear it, the victors (though men in the
+lowest classes of life in one case) shared the prize with the
+vanquished. In the former, Somerset gave nine broken heads and received
+seven--in the latter, gave eight and received six. The Wiltshire men
+went to Trowbridge in Somersetshire, the appointed place of meeting,
+attended by some of the leading gentry of Wiltshire, and the gentleman
+who was appointed by them to preside, bore public testimony to the
+liberal and kind treatment his countrymen experienced.
+
+"Any person who has seen the farce of Hob in the Well, performed, will
+remember to have seen a specimen of this kind of prize fighting, for
+which as well as wrestling, the people of Somersetshire have for ages
+been renowned. In Scotland they excel at the backsword--the Irish too
+are admirable hands--but neither have the temper of the English;
+"Oppression makes a wise man mad;" what should it do then with a poor
+peasantry? The tempers of the English have not had that to irritate
+them. We will close this subject with a letter from an intelligent
+Londoner, who was travelling through Hampshire.
+
+
+"Passing, sometime since, through Rapley Dean, Hants, my attention being
+attracted by a crowd of rustics on a little green near the road I turned
+my horse thither, and arrived in the time when a lame elderly man, who I
+afterwards found was the knight marshal of the field, from the middle of
+a ring made by ropes, proclaimed, that "a hat worth one guinea was to be
+played for at backsword; the breaker of most heads to bear away the hat
+and honour," and inviting the youth there to contend for it. A little
+after, a young fellow threw his hat into the ring and followed, when the
+lame umpire called out "a challenge," and proceeded to equip the
+challenger for the game. His coat and waiscoat were taken off, his left
+hand tied by a handkerchief to his left thigh, and a stick, with basket
+hilt, put into his hand; he then walked round the ring till a second hat
+was thrown in, and the umpire called out, "the challenge is answered."
+
+"As soon as prepared, the knights met, measured weapons, shook hands,
+walked once round, turned and began the contest. In about a minute, the
+umpire called out "About," when they dropped the points of their weapons
+and walked round, and this calling I observed, was repeated as often as
+the umpire judged either distressed. After some twenty minutes play,
+some blood trickled down the challenger's head; the umpire called
+"Blood;" and declared the other to have won a head.
+
+"When both left the ring another hat was thrown in, and the challenge
+again accepted, and played off in the like manner, till the umpire
+announced there were four winners of heads, and proceeded to call the
+ties, that is, he called on the winners of the first two heads to play
+together, and afterwards on the winners of the third and fourth heads;
+after which the winners of two heads each played for the hat, and the
+proud victor (Morgan) thus to earn it, broke three heads. I was much
+struck with the amazing temper with which the game was played: not a
+particle of ill-will was shown, two young fellows, who played together
+forty-five minutes, and in the course of it gave each other many severe
+blows, one alone of which would have satisfied the most unconscionable
+taylor or man-milliner breathing, drank frequently together between the
+bouts, shaking hands as often as the weight of the blows given seemed to
+require it of their good-nature. Indeed it appeared to be a rule with
+each pair that played, to drink together after the contest, and a
+general spirit of harmony seemed to prevail. This game is certainly of
+great antiquity, and the only relick (with the exception of wrestling)
+of the ancient tournament. The knight defied with throwing down his hat
+or gauntlet--the rustic gamester does the same, and is equally courteous
+with the knight towards his opponent: nor were there in this instance
+village dames or damsels wanting, to animate the prowess of the youth.
+
+"It has been asserted, that these exhibitions engender a ferocious
+spirit; but were I to judge from what I saw, and from the inquiries I
+made into the characters of the players at Ropley Dean, from the farmers
+on my right and left, I should pronounce quite the contrary; and think
+that as long as the sword is used by our cavalry and navy, and as long
+as we wish to entertain in the nation a fearless, generous, martial
+spirit, we should encourage the like pastimes at our fairs and revels."
+
+
+
+
+MISCELLANY.
+
+
+A general sense seems to pervade all the most intelligent men of Great
+Britain that a reformation is wanting in almost every department of life
+in that country. The corruption of public taste in dramatic literature
+and acting, and in most of the fashionable amusements of the high flyers
+cries aloud, no less than that of the state, for a heavy-handed scourge
+and receives it. Among other things, the _musico-mania_ is attacked as
+having reached the highest acme of absurdity. The Covent Garden
+proprietors are very roughly handled, but not more roughly than they
+deserve, for hiring Madam Catalani at the enormous salary of four
+thousand pounds sterling and a free benefit for the season, with a
+provision annexed, which is thought insolent, degrading, and unjust; no
+less than that of her French husband putting what fiddlers he pleases
+into the orchestra. The public prints are filled with remonstrances to
+the people, whose attention is directed to the storm which was raised on
+a similar occasion in 1755 and 1756, and which burst with such
+tremendous mischief on the head of Garrick. One writer thus vehemently
+expresses himself: "Shall a judge of the land be required to exercise
+the faculties of his vigorous mind, which have been cultivated and
+matured by an expensive education and the most laborious study; shall he
+be continually employed in discriminating between right and wrong, in
+the adjustment of individual differences, and in protecting the persons
+and properties of the honest and peaceable part of his majesty's
+subjects from the assaults of violence and the stratagems of fraud;
+shall his sensibility be wounded, and his heart pierced by the painful
+necessity to which he is frequently reduced of passing on his fellow-man
+those awful sentences which the nature of their crimes, and the voice of
+Justice imperiously demand; shall he, in short, be compelled to
+discharge the duties of an office which necessarily renders his nights
+anxious and restless, and subjects him in the day to the most irksome
+fatigue--and shall he, for all this fatigue of body and unremitting
+solicitude of mind, receive a salary scarcely exceeding _half_ the sum
+given to an ITALIAN CANTATRICE for the display of her vocal powers for a
+few nights?"
+
+The fact is that the robust and vigorous appetite of the English has
+been worn down by the intemperate use of German dramas, and is so
+vitiated and enfeebled that it can swallow nothing but hot spiced trash,
+or water gruel spoon-meat. Are the French wrong in calling John Bull
+_stupide barbare_ when they see him pouring thousands into the laps of
+foreign singers--and for what?--why, to sing such songs as this:
+
+  Tom Gobble was a grocer's son,
+      Heigho! says Gobble;
+  He gave a ven'son dinner for _fun_,
+  And he had a belly as big as a _tun_,
+    _With his handy dandy, bacon and gravy_,
+      Ah, hah, says alderman Gobble.
+
+  The servants ushered the company in,
+      Heigho! says Gobble;
+  The dinner is ready, quoth Tom, with a grin,
+  So he tucked a napkin under his chin,
+    With his handy dandy, bacon and gravy,
+      Ah, hah, says alderman Gobble,
+
+  Then Betty the cook-maid she gave a squall,
+      Heigho! says Gobble;
+  Poor John the footman has had a fall,
+  And down stairs tumbled, ven'son and all,
+    With his handy dandy, bacon and gravy,
+      Alas! says alderman Gobble.
+
+  So down the alderman ran in a fright,
+      Heigho! says Gobble;
+  And there sat John in a terrible plight
+  Astride on the ven'son _bolt upright_,
+    With his handy dandy, bacon and gravy,
+      Dear me! says alderman Gobble.
+
+  Was ever man so cruelly put on,
+      Heigho! says Gobble;
+  Get off the meat you rascally glutton,
+  You've made my ven'son a saddle of mutton,
+    With your handy dandy, bacon and gravy,
+      Good lack, says alderman Gobble.
+
+  Lord, sir, says Betty, what a _splash_,
+      Heigho! says Gobble;
+  'Tis a monstrous bad _rumbistical_ crash,
+  But tomorrow I'll tickle it up in a hash,
+    With your handy dandy, bacon and gravy,
+      Ay, do! says alderman Gobble.
+
+This vile, low, degrading farrago is taken from an opera called the
+Russian Impostor, or Siege of Sloremskho.
+
+After such trash it will be delightful to turn to some lines, written by
+lord Byron on this general subject of complaint. They are extracted from
+an excellent poem entitled "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,
+a Satire," with notes by the author.
+
+  Now to the DRAMA turn--oh, motley sight!
+  What precious scenes the wondering eyes invite!
+  Puns, and a prince within a _barrel_ pent,[11]
+  And Dibdin's nonsense yield complete content.
+  Though now, thank heaven! the _Roscio mania's_ o'er,
+  And full-grown actors are endured once more;
+  Yet, what avails their vain attempts to please,
+  While British critics suffer scenes like these;
+  While Reynolds vents his '_dammes_, _poohs_' and '_zounds_'[12]
+  And common place, and common sense confounds?
+  While Kenny's World just suffered to proceed,
+  Proclaims the audience very kind indeed?
+  And Beaumont's pilfer'd Caratach affords
+  A tragedy complete in all but words?[13]
+  Who but must mourn while these are all the rage,
+  The degradation of our vaunted stage?
+  Heavens! is all sense of shame and talent gone?
+  Have we no living bard of merit?--none?
+  Awake, George Colman! --Cumberland, awake!
+  Ring the alarum bell, let Folly quake!
+  Oh, Sheridan! if aught can move thy pen,
+  Let Comedy resume her throne again,
+  Abjure the mummery of German schools,
+  Leave new Pizarros to translating fools;
+  Give, as thy last memorial to the age,
+  One classic drama, and reform the stage.
+  Gods! o'er those boards shall Folly rear her head,
+  Where Garrick trod, and Kemble lives to tread?
+  On those shall Farce display Buffoonery's mask,
+  And Hook conceal his heroes in a _cask_?
+  Shall sapient managers new scenes produce
+  From Cherry, Skeffington, and Mother Goose?
+  While Shakspeare, Otway, Massinger, forgot,
+  On stalls must moulder, or in closets rot?
+  Lo! with what pomp the daily prints proclaim,
+  The rival candidates for attic fame!
+  In grim array though Lewis'[14] spectres rise,
+  Still Skeffington and Goose divide the prize.
+  And sure _great_ Skeffington must claim our praise,
+  For skirtless coats and skeletons of plays
+  Renowned alike; whose Genius ne'er confines
+  Her flight to garnish Greenwood's gay designs;[15]
+  Nor sleeps with 'Sleeping Beauties,' but anon
+  In five facetious acts comes thundering on,[16]
+  While poor John Bull, bewildered with the scene,
+  Keeps wondering what the devil it can mean;
+  But as some hands applaud, a venal few!
+  Rather than sleep, why John applauds it too.
+    Such are we now, ah! wherefore should we turn
+  To what our fathers were, unless to mourn?
+  Degenerate Britons! are ye dead to shame,
+  Or, kind to dulness, do you fear to blame?
+  Well may the Nobles of our present race
+  Watch each distortion of a Naldi's face;
+  Well may they smile on Italy's buffoons,
+  And worship Catalani's pantaloons,[17]
+  Since their own drama yields no fairer trace
+  Of wit than puns, of humour than grimace.
+    Then let Ausonia, skill'd in ev'ry art
+  To soften manners, but corrupt the heart,
+  Pour her exotic follies o'er the town,
+  To sanction Vice and hunt Decorum down:
+  Let wedded strumpets languish o'er Deshayes,
+  And bless the promise which his form displays;
+  While Gayton bounds before the enraptured looks
+  Of hoary marquises and stripling dukes:
+  Let high-born lechers eye the lively Presle
+  Twirl her light limbs that spurn the needless veil;
+  Let Angiolini bare her breast of snow,
+  Wave the white arm and point the pliant toe;
+  Collini trill her love-inspiring song,
+  Strain her fair neck and charm the listening throng!
+
+  [Footnote 11: In the melo-drama of Tekeli, that heroic prince is
+  clapt into a barrel on the stage: a new asylum for distressed
+  heroes!]
+
+  [Footnote 12: All these are favourite expressions of Mr. R. and
+  prominent in his comedies, living and defunct.]
+
+  [Footnote 13: Mr. T. Sheridan, the new manager of Drury Lane
+  Theatre, stripped the tragedy of Bonduca of the Dialogue, and
+  exhibited the scenes as the spectacle of Caractacus. Was this worthy
+  of his sire, or of himself?]
+
+  [Footnote 14:
+    Oh, wonder-working Lewis! monk, or bard,
+    Who fain would make Parnassus a church-yard!
+    Lo! wreaths of yew, not laurel, bind thy brow,
+    Thy Muse a sprite, Apollo's sexton thou!
+    Whether on ancient tombs thou tak'st thy stand,
+    By gibbering spectres hail'd, thy kindred band;
+    Or tracest chaste descriptions on thy page,
+    To please the females of our modest age.
+    All hail, M.P.![a] from whose infernal brain
+    Thin sheeted phantoms glide, a grisly train;
+    At whose command, "grim women" throng in crowds,
+    And kings of fire, of water, and of clouds,
+    With "small gray men," "wild yagers," and what not,
+    To crown with honour thee and Walter Scott:
+    Again, all hail! if tales like thine may please,
+    [b]St. Luke's alone can vanquish the disease;
+    Even Satan's self with thee might dread to dwell,
+    And in thy skull discern a deeper hell.
+
+    [Footnote 14a: See a poem to Mr. Lewis, in the Statesman, supposed
+    to be written by Mr. Jekyll.]
+
+    [Footnote 14b: St. Luke's is an hospital for lunatics in London.
+    _Editor of the Mirror._] ]
+
+  [Footnote 15: Mr. Greenwood is, we believe, scene-painter to Drury
+  Lane Theatre--as such, Mr. S. is much indebted to him.]
+
+  [Footnote 16: Mr. S. is the illustrious author of the "Sleeping
+  Beauty" and some Comedies, particularly "Maids and Bachelors."
+  _Baculaurii Baculo magis quam lauro digni._]
+
+  [Footnote 17: Naldi and Catalani require little notice--for the
+  visage of the one and the salary of the other, will enable us long
+  to recollect these amusing vagabonds; besides, we are still black
+  and blue from the squeeze on the first night of the lady's
+  appearance in trowsers.]
+
+A London critic adds the following pertinent observations: "Thus far our
+author concerning the stage, to which we add an observation or two of
+our own. We certainly think the _barrel_ a curious asylum for a
+distressed prince; but when we reflect on what kind of princes and
+heroes the modern stage and modern authors exhibit, (the seige of St.
+Quintin for instance, by the same author, Mr. Hook) we cannot help
+exclaiming (no plagiarism, we hope)
+
+  We with the sentence are indeed content,
+  To see _such_ princes in _such_ barrels pent.
+
+And as a barrel is described by our best lexicographers to be "any thing
+hollow," what vehicle more appropriate could be found? The ingenious
+author, was surely a favourite of the barrel, and well acquainted with
+the virtues of a _cask_; although according to sir Walter Raleigh, "some
+are so ill-seasoned and conditioned that a great part of the contents is
+ever lost and cast away."
+
+Respecting Mr. Reynolds's indulgence of himself, in perpetual repetition
+of his vocables,[18] we should be glad to have it in our power to affirm
+that the _beef and mutton_[19] author was the only one who disgraced
+himself by such contemptible degradation; but, alas! the pages of our
+work have too often exhibited similar complaints against the majority of
+our great playwrights--many of these _gentlemen_ being reduced to
+silence, without their auxiliary _dammes_!
+
+  [Footnote 18: Damme, pooh, zounds, &c.]
+
+  [Footnote 19: "Authors have lived and still live who write for
+  what they call _fame_! --For my part I write for more substantial
+  food--_beef_ and _mutton_ are the objects of my ambition."
+    --_Reynold's Preface to Begone Dull Care._]
+
+We differ widely from our author respecting Mr. T. Sheridan's
+_stripping_ of Bonduca--for we really think it worthy the son of that
+poet, who, neglecting his own genius and the duties of a regular
+practitioner, condescends to turn quack, and bedizen that high German
+doctor Pizarro, in an English dress!!
+
+Apropos of awaking George Colman! --We beg the noble lord's pardon; but
+we are not in such a violent hurry to disturb this gentleman; for if,
+when awake, he should not acquit himself better than in his last
+production of the Africans, we think the sounder he sleeps the more
+solid will be his reputation. Therefore,
+
+  Sleep on, George Colman! prithee, don't awake!
+  Nor let the alarum bell thy slumbers shake!
+  Lest jokes like _Mugg's_[20] should make our senses quake!
+
+  [Footnote 20: One of Mr. Colman's witty characters in the
+  _Africans_.]
+
+Why our author has coupled John Kemble's name with that of Garrick we
+cannot conceive; but that there appears more rhyme than reason in it, we
+can safely aver. We have somewhere heard that "a live ass is better than
+a dead lion," which we quote, not as individually applicable, but as a
+general adage; for we disclaim personalities, and well know that J. K.
+is an eminent actor, and one whom we have not niggardly praised. Yet we
+will not disparage departed excellence for any person existing; and
+therefore cannot avoid wishing our young author had seen Garrick, and
+bearing in his "mind's eye" his natural acting of Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth,
+Richard, &c.--he might then go and witness the performances of Mr.
+Kemble--and judge!
+
+
+
+
+CORRESPONDENCE.
+
+
+The conductors of the Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, have already
+to make acknowledgments to correspondents. Scarcely had their intention
+been promulgated when they were favoured with a letter, which, in less
+than a week afterwards was followed by two more, all of them upon the
+same subject, though evidently written by different persons. It had
+before been the intention of the conductors to call the public attention
+very soon to that very point to which these letters are intended to
+direct them; and conceiving that a fairer occasion for doing so can
+hardly occur than these letters afford them, they hasten to lay the
+contents of them before the public.
+
+"_To the Conductors of the Dramatic Work to be published by Messrs.
+Bradford and Inskeep._
+
+_November 27._
+
+"Sirs,
+
+"From what I can learn about your intended publication I like the idea,
+and have no doubt it may be of great use. I have often said that such a
+thing was much wanting, for I look upon a playhouse to be a very good
+thing, often keeping young men from worse places, and young women from
+worse employment. But if our playhouse goes on as it does, it will soon
+be a worse place to go to than any I allude to. Last evening I brought
+my family to see the play, and I assure you, I often wished we were all
+away again, the scandalous talk in the gallery was so bad. The noise was
+so great that there was no hearing any thing else. The players' voices
+were ten or a dozen times interrupted so that they could not be heard,
+and two or three fellows in the gallery were particularly scandalous.
+Above all the rest there was one, a finished vagabond, who spoke smut
+and roared it out loud, directing it to the ladies in the boxes. If any
+of you was there, gentlemen, you must have noticed it; if not, I can't
+write such filthy words as was spoken the whole evening. My wife begged
+me to come away on our little girl's account who was with us. It is not
+the players you ought to criticise, they behave themselves--but it is
+those vagabonds that think they have a right to disturb the house
+because they pay their half dollar a piece. I think it your duty to take
+notice of this, and I beg you will.
+
+A CITIZEN."
+
+N.B. They in the pit were bad enough, and so was some in the boxes.
+
+
+_To the Editors of the Mirror, &c._
+
+"Gentlemen,
+
+"As your intended publication is to come out monthly, I am doubtful
+whether I should trouble you on the present occasion; more particularly
+as you may probably think of the matter yourselves without a hint
+from me. Besides, I am not sure whether it is not the duty of the
+editors of the daily papers rather than yours. For my part, I think it
+is the duty of all people who regard the credit of the city, or tender
+the peaceableness and comfort of society. Our theatre, gentlemen, has
+sunk to the worst state imaginable of licentiousness and savage riot.
+Don't mistake me--I don't mean behind the curtain; but before it. While
+we hold ourselves so proudly to the world, what must those foreigners
+think of us who visit our theatre. From a place of rational recreation,
+and improvement, it has become a mere bear-garden. The play is
+interrupted, and all enjoyment, save that of riot and brawling, killed
+in various ways. The very boxes themselves are no sanctuary from
+ruffianish incivility; while the ears are stunned, and the cheek of
+Decency crimsoned with the profaneness, obscenity, and senseless brawl
+of barbarians in the gallery, the sight is intercepted, and all comfort
+destroyed by the unmannerly and unjust conduct of intruders in the boxes
+and pit, who think they have a right to push in and even stand up before
+another who has been previously seated, provided they have bodily
+strength to make good their violence. I say, gentlemen, this ought to be
+stopped. The spirit of the manager at New-York, backed by the laws, has
+put an end to it there, so far, that no theatre in Europe precedes it in
+order and decency. The same power exists here and ought to be exercised.
+These things disgrace the city as well as annoy our audiences, and I
+think our daily editors on both sides would evince their regard for the
+public by giving a few lines every day to the reform of this evil till
+it shall be abated. The proprietors and manager ought to call a meeting,
+invoke the aid of the magistrates and the people, and come to some
+decisive resolutions on the subject.
+
+Forensis."
+
+
+
+COMMUNICATION.
+
+_For the Mirror, &c._
+
+"The manager, or the magistrates, or somebody is greatly to blame about
+the playhouse. I brought my family to the pit to see that great actor,
+Cooper, play Zanga. We sat in the pit the whole time the blackguards
+were throwing down various kinds of things upon our heads. Scraps of
+apples, nutshells in handfulls, and what is worse something I can't well
+name--some about me said that brandy or strong grog was thrown down--it
+might be so once;--but it was not exactly that which fell on me and my
+family. Since then, I went to see him in Macbeth, and left my wife and
+daughter at home for fear; and the fellows above were as bad as
+before--and had not I luckily kept my hat on I should once have got my
+head broke with a hard heavy hiccory-nut that was thrown with all the
+force and spitefulness as if the person wanted to hurt somebody very
+severely."
+
+
+We agree with our correspondents that some prompt and effectual remedy
+ought to be applied to the evils of which they complain: and we are
+surprised it has not yet been done, because every person with whom any
+of us converses, makes pretty nearly the same complaint, and expresses
+the very same wish.
+
+In every country there exist multitudes as well disposed as those now
+alluded to, to disturb the playhouse, and bring brutal riot within its
+walls--but they will not be allowed. Any one who reads Colquhoun's
+account of London and its rabble, will perceive that there are people
+enough there ready to do offensive offices for the pure sake of offence
+and savageness; but not only the magistrates, but the audience
+themselves will not put up with it. The latter generally abate the
+nuisance in a summary way--they turn out the offender; and the law
+warrants, and if necessary aids them. If our audience suffer these
+encroachments what will be the fair conclusion, but that they concur
+with the offenders.
+
+It was but a few nights ago, a company (of perhaps ten,) converted the
+boxes into a grog shop--brought jug and bottle, and glass, and tumbler
+into the front seats, and there caroused, laughing, talking aloud, and
+swearing aloud, even during the performance. On the night the Revenge
+was performed, even while Mr. Cooper was engaged in a most interesting
+scene, a boy, not in mean clothes either, stood up at the front corner
+of the gallery, roaring out and speaking as loud as he could to some one
+on the opposite side. Yet this, were it not for the time it happened,
+was to the surrounding tumult, as a dying sigh to the roar of a
+northwester.
+
+It cannot be doubted that in a civilized society like this, some legal
+means must exist to put an end to these grievances. There are other
+grievances, however, that cannot be so _immediately_ made the subject of
+redress by the magistrate, but which, nevertheless, require correction,
+and would never occur if every one who can afford to wear such a coat as
+gentlemen wear, could imitate the manners of gentlemen as well as they
+can ape their dress. By a number of _well-coated_ persons of this kind,
+the time immemorial privileges of the theatre are violated, and its
+customary rights denied. Provided they think themselves able to scuffle
+it out by bodily strength they will indulge themselves at the expense of
+others--one of those will sit before a lady and refuse to take off his
+hat--another coming late will force his way contrary to all right and
+usage, before a person who has an hour before taken his seat--and if
+spoken to, utter surly defiance. Against every such unmannered intruder,
+the whole audience ought, for the establishment of the general right and
+the good old custom, to make common cause, and thrust him out by force.
+No doubt there are drawcansirs enough to push this offence as far as it
+will go. Let them know that there have been and still are drawcansirs in
+England, Ireland and Scotland--that Dublin particularly was once full of
+them; but that they were soon brought to manners by the just resentment
+of the audience--the gripe of the constable, and the contempt of every
+body.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+  A
+  Actors, animadversion on
+    WOOD,
+      in Rapid, 62
+      Rolla, 65
+      Reuben Glenroy, 67
+      Harry Dornton, 73
+      Bob Handy, 76
+      Alonzo, 229, 337
+      Jaffier, 337
+      Copper Captain, 339
+      Prince of Wales, 339
+    CONE,
+      Alonzo, 65
+      Henry, 76
+    WARREN,
+      Las Casas, 65
+      Abel Handy, 76
+      Falstaff, 344
+      Cacafogo, 344
+    JEFFERSON,
+      Frank Oatland, 62
+      Orozimbo, 65
+      Cosey, 67
+      Goldfinch, 73
+      Farmer Ashfield, 75
+    M'KENZIE,
+      Sir Hubert Stanley, 62
+      Pizarro, 65
+      Old Norval, 155
+    FRANCIS,
+      Vortex, 62
+      Trot, 68
+    Mrs. WOOD,
+      Jessy Oatland, 62
+      Cora, 66
+    Mrs. FRANCIS,
+      Mrs. Vortex, 62
+      Dame Ashfield, 76
+    Mrs. SEYMOUR, 62
+    PAYNE,
+      in Douglas, 145
+      Octavian, 220
+      Frederick, 221
+      Zaphna and Selim, 222
+      Tancred, 222
+      Romeo, 223
+    COOPER,
+      Othello, 225
+      Zanga, 227
+      Richard, 230
+      Pierre, 230
+      Hamlet, 231
+      Macbeth, 231
+      Hotspur, 234
+      Michael Ducas, 234
+      Alexander, 422
+      Antony, Jul. Caes. 420
+    WEST, 68, bis
+    DWYER,
+      Belcour, 425
+      Tangent, 427
+      Ranger, 427
+      Vapid, 427
+      Liar, 427
+      Rapid, 427
+      Sir Charles Racket, 427
+  Advice to conductors of magazines, 402
+  AEschylus, 114, 189
+  Alleyn, the player, account of, 45
+  Anecdotes and good things
+    Dick the Hunter, 92
+    Dr. Young, 181
+    Othello burlesqued, 181
+    Voltaire, 184
+    Louis XIV. 184
+    Mara and Florio, 185
+    Macklin, 247, 248, 397, 408, 409
+    Mozart, the composer, 257
+    Old Wignell, 343
+    Macklin and Foote, 397
+    Impertinent _Petit Maitre_, 406
+    Curious Slip Slop, 406
+    Specific for blindness, 407
+    Kemble and a stage tyro, 407
+    Kemble's bon mot on Sydney playhouse, 407
+    Irish forgery, 407
+    Woman and country magistrate, 408
+    French dramatic, 481
+    Bacon and cabbage, 485
+  Apparition, sable or mysterious bell-rope, 325
+  Aristophanes, 269
+  Authors' benefits
+    see Southern, 502
+
+  B
+  Barry, the great player, account of, 298
+  Bedford, duke of, monument, 317
+  Betterton, the great actor, 133, 213
+  Biography, 24, 118, 202, 357
+  Bull, a dramatic one, 505
+
+  C
+  Carlisle, countess of, opinion of drama, 398
+  Catalani, madam, 96
+  Cibber, Colley, his merit, 506
+  Coffee and Chocolate, account of, 311
+  Cone, see actors
+  Cooper, life of, 28
+  Cooper, see actors
+  Cooper, account of his acting, 223
+  Correspondence
+    on abuses of the Theatre, 103, 104
+  ----, from Baltimore on Theatricals, 157
+  ----, from New-York, ditto, 414
+
+  D
+  Dramatic Censor, 49, 141, 220, 337, 414
+  Drama, Grecian, 109, 189, 269, 350
+  ----, lady Carlisle's opinion on, 398
+  Dwyer, actor, 235
+  ----, see actors.
+  Dramaticus, 251, 328, 502
+  Dungannon, famous horse, 500
+
+  E
+  Edenhall, luck of, old ballad, 487
+  Edward and Eleonora, remarks on, 502
+  English, parallel between English men and English mastiffs,
+      by cardinal Ximenes, 88
+  Epilogues, humorous ones after tragedies censured, 400
+  Euripides, 195
+
+  F
+  Francis, see actors
+  ----, Mrs., ibid.
+  Fullerton, actor, driven to suicide, 504
+
+  G
+  German Theatre, vindication of, by Dramaticus, 251
+  Gifford, Wm. life of, 357, 447
+  Greek drama, 109, 189, 269, 350
+
+  H
+  History of the stage, 9, 109, 189, 269, 350, 431
+  High Life below Stairs, account of, 506
+  Hodgkinson, biography of, 202, 283, 368, 457
+
+  I
+  Irish bulls, specimen of, 455
+  Jefferson, see actors
+
+  L
+  Lear, essay on the alterations of it, 391
+  Le Kain, the French actor, account of, 438
+  Lewis, his retirement from the stage, 185
+  Literary World, what is it? 406
+  Longevity, instance of, 496
+  Lover general, a rhapsody, 399
+
+  M
+  Macklin checked practice of hissing, 504
+  Man and Wife, a comedy, 188
+  Menander, 350
+  Metayer Henry, anecdote of with Theobald, 503
+  M'Kenzie, see actors
+  Milton and Shakspeare, comparison between, 248
+  Miscellany, 96, 173, 241, 307, 384, 467
+  Music, 81, 257
+  ----, Oh think not my spirits are always as light,
+      a song by Anacreon Moore, 83
+  ----, Irish, 161
+  Musical performance, expectation of a grand one, 428
+
+  N
+  New-York reviewers impeached, 505
+  Nokes, comedian, 381
+
+  O
+  O'Kelly's horse Dungannon, 500
+  Originality in writing, Voltaire's idea of, 184
+  Otway, observations on, 502
+
+  P
+  Payne, American young Roscius, criticised on, 141, 220, 241
+  ----, see actors
+  Pedestrianism, humorous essay on, 262
+  Players celebrated compared with celebrated painters, 387
+  Plays, names of, attached to each No.
+    Foundling of the Forest, No. I
+    Man and Wife, No. II
+    Venoni, No. III
+    New Way to pay Old Debts, No. IV
+    Alfonso, king of Castile, No. V
+    The Free Knights, No. VI
+  Plays criticised in the Censor
+    Cure for the Heart-ach, 59
+    Pizarro, 62
+    Town and Country, 66
+    Ella Rosenberg, 69
+    Wood Demon, 71
+    Abaellino, 73
+    Road to Ruin, 73
+    Speed the Plough, 74
+    Man and Wife, 188
+    Foundling of the Forest, 80, 345
+    Africans, 418
+  Poetry
+    Tom Gobble, 97
+    English bards and Scotch reviewers, extract from, 98
+    Occasional prologue on the first appearance of Miss Brunton,
+      afterwards Merry and Warren, at Bath, 121
+    Latin verses on do. and translation, 124
+    Prologue on first appearance, of the same lady in London,
+      by A. Murphy, 126
+    Duck shooting, 172
+    A true story, 183
+    Lewis's address on taking leave of Ireland, 187
+    On the death of Mrs. Warren, 246
+    Descent into Elisium, 253
+    Gracy Nugent, by Carolan, 261
+    O never let us marry, 324
+    Epilogue by Sheridan, censuring humourous ones after tragedies, 401
+    Logical poem on chesnut horse and horse chesnut, 404
+    Quin, an anecdote in verse, 409
+    Luck of Edenhall, 487
+    The parson and the nose, 495
+    Solitude, advantages of for study, 495
+    Soldier to his horse, 499
+  Prospectus, 1
+
+  R
+  Reviews of New-York impeached, 505
+
+  S
+  Seymour, Mrs. see actors
+  She would and she would not, merit of, 506
+  Southern, 502
+  Socrates, death of, 280
+  Sophocles, 189
+  SPORTING, 85, 164, 262, 410, 499
+  Spain, divertissements in, 495
+  Strolling Player, a week's journal of, 396
+  Stage, history of, 8, 9, 109, 189, 269, 350
+
+  T
+  Taylor, Billy, critique on ballad, 467
+  Thespis, account of, 113
+  Theobaldus Secundus, 173, 241, 307, 384
+  Theatre, misbehaviour there, 267
+  Theobald, his theft from Metayer, 503
+  Theatrical contest, Barry and Garrick, in Romeo, 507
+  Thornton, Col. his removal from York to Wilts, 164
+
+  V
+  Voltaire, his idea of originality in writing, 184
+
+  W
+  Warren, Mrs. life of, 118
+  Warren, actor, see actors
+  West, see actors
+  Wit, pedigree of, by Addison, 406
+  Wife, essay on the choice of, 477
+  Wood, actor, see actors
+  ----, Mrs., ibid.
+
+  Y
+  Young, celebrated actor, 236
+
+  Z
+  Zengis, so unintelligible audience not understand it, 507
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+           *       *       *       *
+
+Errors and Inconsistencies: The Mirror of Taste
+
+  Spellings were changed only when there was an unambiguous error,
+  or the word occurred elsewhere with the expected spelling.
+
+_Unchanged:_
+  But this can no more be alledged
+  Congreve and other cotemporary authors
+  melo-drame  [most common spelling for this publication]
+  the excressences of overloaded society
+  Ella Rozenberg
+    [this spelling is used in the header and first citation; later
+    references use "Rosenberg"]
+  put his hand to their heads and give them a lanch
+  A poor fellow, half an ideot
+  His coat and waiscoat were taken off
+
+_Corrected:_
+  From Edinburgh he went with the company  [Edinburg]
+  notwithstanding the difficulty  [dfficulty]
+  the reviewers spoke with decided approbation  [appprobation]
+  Is happy indeed if 'twas never deceiv'd
+  in the adjustment of individual differences  [idividual]
+  While Reynolds vents his '_dammes_, _poohs_' and '_zounds_'[12]
+    [word "and" italicized]
+
+_Index_:
+  Missing or inconsistent punctuation has been silently regularized.
+
+  _Poetry_
+    Soldier to his horse, 499  [tohis]
+  Zengis, so unintelligible audience not understand it
+    [word missing in original]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+           *       *       *       *
+
+
+  THE
+  FOUNDLING OF THE FOREST:
+
+  A PLAY.
+
+
+  By WILLIAM DIMOND, Esq.
+
+  Author of "Adrian and Orrila," "Hero of the North,"
+  "Hunter of the Alps," &c. &c.
+
+
+  "And yet poor Edwin was no vulgar boy." _Beattie._
+
+
+  Published by Bradford and Inskeep, Philadelphia;
+  Inskeep and Bradford, New-York; and William
+  M'ilhennny, Boston.
+
+  Smith and Maxwell, Printers.
+
+  1810.
+
+
+
+
+THE FOUNDLING OF THE FOREST.
+
+
+
+
+DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
+
+  Count De Valmont.
+  Baron Longueville.
+  Florian, _a foundling adopted by De Valmont_.
+  Bertrand, _valet to Longueville_.
+  L'Eclair, _valet to Florian_.
+  Gaspard, _an old domestic_.
+  Sanguine, } _bravoes in the pay of Longueville_.
+  Lenoire,  }
+
+  Geraldine, _niece to De Valmont_.
+  Rosabelle, _her woman_.
+  Monica, _an old woman_.
+  Unknown Female.
+  _Domestics, Peasants, Dancers, &c. &c._
+
+
+  SCENE--_The Chateau de Valmont and its environs, situate in the
+  upper Alsace, near the River Rhine._
+
+
+
+
+ACT I.
+
+
+  SCENE I.--_A hall in the Chateau de Valmont._
+
+    Enter _Bertrand_, in agitation, followed by _Longueville_.
+
+_Ber._ Forbear, my lord! to urge me further.--Would you tempt me to
+insure perdition?--my soul is heavy enough with weight of crimes
+already.
+
+_Long._ Hypocrite! You, whom I have known in childhood--a villain, even
+from the cradle--committing crimes as pastimes--has your hand been
+exercised thus long in blood, to shake with conscience, and desert me
+now?
+
+_Ber._ I have, indeed, deserved reproaches, but not from your lips,
+my lord! Remember, for you it was this hand was first defiled with
+blood--remember, too--
+
+_Long._ Yes, villain! I do remember, that my misplaced bounty once gave
+you back a forfeit life. Twenty years past, when, as a deserter, you
+were sentenced, by the regiment under my command, to death, your fate
+was inevitable, had not I vouchsafed a pardon. Traitor! you, too, had
+best remember a solemn oath at that same period passed your lips, which
+bound you, soul and body, to my service ever--unscrupling to perform my
+pleasures, whether good or ill, and still to hold my secrets fast from
+earthly ears, though unabsolving priests renounced you on the death-bed.
+
+_Ber._ (_shuddering_) Ay! ay! it was an oath of horror, and if you
+command, it must be kept. Well, then--the young, the brave, the good,
+kindhearted Florian--yes--he dies!
+
+_Long._ Then only may your master be esteemed to live.
+
+_Ber._ But whence this hatred to an unoffending youth?--one, whose form
+delights all eyes, and whose virtues are the theme of every tongue?
+
+_Long._ Fool! that person and those virtues of which you vaunt, are
+with me his worst offences--they have undone my love and marred my
+fortunes--the easy heart of Geraldine is captivated by the stripling's
+specious outside, while his talents and achievements secure him with the
+uncle undivided favour.
+
+_Bert._ Can nothing but his blood appease your enmity?
+
+_Long._ Nothing--for now my worst suspicions stand confirmed. I have
+declared to De Valmont my passion for his niece, and the sullen
+visionary has denied my suit--nay, insolently told me "Geraldine's
+affections are another's right." --Curses on that minion's head!--'tis
+for Florian De Valmont's heiress is reserved--and shall I suffer this
+vile foundling, this child of charity, to lord it over those estates,
+for which my impatient soul has paid a dreadful earnest! No, by heavens!
+never!
+
+_Bert._ Fatal avarice! already have we bartered for those curst estates
+our everlasting peace!--for those did midnight flames surprise the sleep
+of innocence--for those did the sacrificed Eugenia with her shrieking
+babe--
+
+_Long._ Wretch! dare not repeat those names! Now, mark me: this night
+Florian returns a triumpher from his campaign--two of my trusty
+blood-hounds watch the road to give me timely note of his approach. One
+only follower attends the youth. In the thick woods 'twixt the chateau
+and Huningen, an ambush safely laid, may end my rival and my fears
+forever. In the west avenue, at sunset, I command your presence. Mark
+me! I command you by your oath.  [_Exit._
+
+_Bert._ Miserable man! I am indeed a slave, soul and body--both are in
+the thrall! I know the fiend I serve. If I attempt to fly, his vengeful
+agency pursues me to the world's limit. No--my doom is fixed--I must
+remain the very wretch I am for life--and after life--Oh! let me not
+think of that!
+
+    Enter _Rosabelle_ behind, who taps his shoulder.
+
+_Ros._ Talking to yourself, Mr. Bertrand? that's not polite in a lady's
+company.
+
+_Bert._ (_starting_) Ah! Rosabelle--good lass!--how art, Rosabelle?
+
+_Ros._ Why, Mr. Bertrand, how pale you look, and your limbs quite
+tremble--I fear me you are ill.
+
+_Bert._ Oh, no--I am well--quite well--never better.
+
+_Ros._ Then you are out of spirits.
+
+_Bert._ You mistake--I am all happiness--ha! ha!--all joy!
+
+_Ros._ What! because the wars are over, and chevalier Florian returns to
+us?--'tis a blest hearing, truly--after all the hardships and dangers he
+has passed to see him once again in safety--
+
+_Bert._ (_involuntarily_) Ah! would to heaven we might!
+
+_Ros._ Can there be any doubt? He reaches the chateau this night--will
+he not be in safety then?
+
+_Bert._ Yes, yes, with this night every danger certainly will cease.
+
+_Ros._ Bertrand! why do you rub your hand before your eyes?--surely you
+are weeping.
+
+_Bert._ No, 'tis a momentary pain that--but 'twill leave me soon. At
+night, Rosabelle, you shall see me jovial--joyous!--we'll dance
+together, wench--ay, and sing--then--ha! ha! ha!--then who so mirthful,
+who so mad, as Bertrand.  [_Exit._
+
+_Ros._ What new spleen has bewitched the man? he is ever in some sullen
+mood, with scowling brows, or else in a cross-arm'd fit of melancholy;
+but I never marked such wildness in his looks and words before.
+
+    [_Geraldine_ speaks without.
+
+_Ger._ Rosabelle.
+
+_Ros._ Here, my lady, in the hall.
+
+    Enter _Geraldine_.
+
+_Ger._ Girl! I have cause to chide you; my toilette must be changed--you
+have dressed me vilely--here! remove these knots--I hate their fashion.
+
+_Ros._ Yet they are the same your ladyship commended yesterday.
+
+_Ger._ Then 'tis the colour of my robe offends me--these ornaments are a
+false match to it--either all the mirrors in the house have warped since
+yesterday, or never did I look so ill before.
+
+_Ros._ Now, in my poor judgment, you rarely have looked better.
+
+_Ger._ Out! fool; you have no judgment.
+
+_Ros._ Well, fool or not, there's one upon the road who holds faith with
+me, or I'm a heretic. Your charms will shine bright enough, lady, to
+dazzle a soldier's eye.
+
+_Ger._ Ah! no, Rosabelle--you would deceive your mistress. Florian
+returns not as he left us; his travelled eyes have gazed on beauties of
+the polished court--and now he will despise the wild untutored
+Geraldine.
+
+_Ros._ Will he? Let him beware he shows not his contempt before me.
+What! my own beautiful and high-born mistress; the greatest heiress in
+all Alsace; to be despised by a foundling, picked up in a forest, and
+reared upon her uncle's charity?
+
+_Ger._ Hush!--the mystery of my Florian's birth is his misfortune, but
+cannot be his reproach. Our countrymen may dispute his title to command,
+but our enemies have confessed his power to conquer; and trust me, girl,
+the brave man's laurel blooms with as fresh an honour in the poor
+peasant's cap as when it circles princely brows; nay, Justice deems it
+of a nobler growth, for Flattery often twines the laurel round a
+coronet, but Truth alone bestows it on the unknown head.
+
+_Ros._ I confess the Chevalier is a proper gallant for any woman. Ay,
+and so is the Chevalier's man. I warrant me, that knave, L'Eclair, when
+he returns, will follow me about, wheedling and whining, to recollect
+certain promises. Well, well, let but the soldiers return with whole
+hearts from the war, and your ladyship and myself know how to reward
+fidelity. In sooth, the chateau has been but a doleful residence in
+their absence; the count never suffered his dwelling to be a merry one;
+but of late his strange humours have so increased, that the household
+might as well have lodged in purgatory.
+
+_Ger._ Hold! I must not hear my uncle's name pronounced with levity. An
+angel at his birth, mingled the divine spirit with less than human
+frailty; but fiends have since defaced the noble work with more than
+human trials. That fatal night, when the fierce Huguenots fired his
+castle, and buried both his wife and infant in the blazing ruin; that
+night of horrors has to his shocked and shrinking fancy still been ever
+present; there still it broods--settled, perpetual and alone! Ah!
+Rosabelle! the petulancies of misfortune claim our pity, not resentment.
+My dear uncle is a recluse, but not a misanthrope; he rejects the
+society of mankind, yet is he solicitous for their happiness; and while
+his own heart breaks in silence under a weight of undivided sorrows,
+does he not seek incessantly to alleviate the burthen of his complaining
+brethren?
+
+_Ros._ I know the count has an excellent heart; but surely his temper
+has its flaws.
+
+_Ger._ And shall we deem the sun that cheers the season less gracious in
+its course, because a cloud at intervals may hide or chill its beams?
+(_A bell rings_). Hark! 'tis the bell of his chamber. Perhaps he will
+admit me now; for four days past I have applied at the door in vain. Ah
+me!--these constant growing maladies sometimes make me tremble for his
+life. Girl! if from the turret-top at distance you espy the hastening
+travellers, turn, swift as thought, and call me to partake your watch!
+  [_Exit._
+
+_Ros._ If they arrive before sun-set, I'm sure I shall know L'Eclair a
+mile off by the saucy toss of his head: before that rogue went on the
+campaign, he certainly extorted some awkward kind of promises from me.
+As a woman of honour, I'm afraid it must be kept; I don't want a
+husband--oh! no, positively--to be sure, winter is coming on, my chamber
+faces the north, and when the nights are long, and dark, and cold, when
+the wind blusters, and the hail patters at the casement, then a solitary
+woman is apt to have strange fancies, and sometimes to wish that--well,
+well, my promise must be kept at all events.
+
+SONG.--_Rosabelle._
+
+  Oh! come away! my soldier boy,
+    From war to peace incline thee;
+  Thy laurel, Time shall ne'er destroy.
+    But Love with roses twine thee.
+        Come, come away,
+        Love chides thy stay,
+  Oh! prithee come my soldier!
+
+  Let fife and drum preserve their place,
+    While softer sounds delight thee;
+  The fiddle shall our wedding grace,
+    But _horns_ shall never fright thee.
+        Come, come away,
+        Love chides thy stay,
+  Oh! prithee come my soldier!
+
+    [Exit.
+
+
+  SCENE II.--_A saloon: a large window is open and discovers the
+  gardens: the noise of song and dance is heard immediately below the
+  window._
+
+CHORUS.
+
+  Sing farewell labour,
+  Blow pipe and beat tabor,
+    Fly care far away;
+  In light band advancing,
+  Let music and dancing
+    Proclaim holyday.
+
+    _De Valmont_ opens the door of an inner chamber, and crosses the
+    stage with a quick petulant step, to ring a bell in the saloon:
+    no answer is immediately given, and he repeats the ring with
+    increased fretfulness.
+
+    Enter _Gaspard_.
+
+_De Val._ So! am I heard! old man! to what strange dwelling have I been
+borne while sleeping? and who is your new master?
+
+_Gas._ Alack! your lordship is in your own fair castle, nor other master
+than yourself do I, or any of my fellows serve--a kind and noble master.
+
+_De Val._ You tell me wonders; I thought the master in his house had
+borne command among his people, but here it seems, each groom is more
+absolute in his humours than the lord; how is't? do I clothe and feed a
+pampered herd, but to increase my torments? when I would muse in
+privacy, must I be baited still, and stunned with crowds and clamours?
+knave! drive the rabble from my gate, and rid my ears of discord.
+
+_Gas._ Well-a-day! who could have foreseen this anger? my good lord 'tis
+but your tenantry rejoicing: this morning, I distributed your lordship's
+bounty among them to celebrate chevalier Florian's return; and now the
+honest grateful souls would fain thank their benefactor by the song that
+tells him they are happy.
+
+_De Val._ Their thanks are hateful to me; ungenerous wretches! is it not
+enough that they are happy whilst I am miserable, but they must mock my
+anguish by a saucy pageant of their joys, and force my shrinking senses
+more keenly to remark the contrast of our fates? (_Tabors, &c.
+without._) Quick! quick! begone and drive them from my gate (_stamps
+imperatively_).
+
+_Gas._ (_frighted_) I am gone, my lord! --I am gone.
+
+_De Val._ Hold! another word--perhaps the unthinking creatures might
+design this torture kindly, and I would not punish the mistakes of
+ignorance. Do not dismiss them harshly--I would have them indulge their
+gayety, but I cannot bear to be a witness of it. Gaspard, this house is
+Melancholy's chosen home; and its devoted master's heart, like a
+night-bird that abhors the animating sun, has been so long familiarized
+to misery, it sickens and recoils at the approach of mirth.
+
+_Gas._ (_pressing his hand_) My kind, unfortunate, my beloved master!
+
+_De Val._ (_snatching it from him_) Pshaw! I loathe pity-- (_shouts_)
+--hark! again! go, go, send them from the gate, but not harshly.
+
+  [Exit _Gaspard_.
+
+_De Val._ All hearts rejoicing; mine only miserable! every peasant
+yielding to delight, their lord alone devoted to despair; a subtle, slow
+despair that, drop by drop, congeals the blood of life, yet will not bid
+the creeping current quite forbear to flow; that has borne its victim
+just to the sepulchre 's tempting edge, but holds him there to envy, not
+partake its slumbers. Well, well, your own appointed hour, just
+heavens!--if it be the infirmity of man to repine here, it is the
+Christian's hope to rejoice hereafter.
+
+    Re-enter _Gaspard_.
+
+_Gas._ I've sent them hence; they'll not be heard again; but since they
+may not thank, they are gone to pray for you--Mass! I had nigh
+forgotten--young Madam Geraldine is in the anti-room, and waits to see
+your lordship.
+
+_De Val._ Admit her! (_Exit_ Gaspard) My gentle one! my desolate, orphan
+maid, if any softening drop were yet permitted in my cup of bitters,
+I think the affectionate hand of Geraldine would mingle and prepare it
+for my lip.
+
+    Enter _Geraldine_.
+
+_Ger._ (_Tenderly embracing him_) Ah! my dear, dear uncle! how am I
+rejoiced by a permission to visit you again; for four long days you have
+secluded yourself, and indeed I have been so distressed--but I will not
+speak of past anxieties now; war restores its hero to our vows; Florian
+returns to us--are not you quite happy, uncle?
+
+_De Val._ Happy? I? my good child--do not mock me.
+
+_Ger._ Nay, could I intend--
+
+_De Val._ Well! let it pass; you it seems, my Geraldine, are really
+happy; your lips confess much, but your eyes still betray more--niece,
+you love my adopted Florian.
+
+_Ger._ Love! fy, uncle--Oh yes, yes, I do certainly love him like a
+brother.
+
+_De Val._ Something better.--Suppose I should offer this Florian to you
+as a husband
+
+_Ger._ (_looking down demurely._) I never presume to dispute my dear
+uncle's commands.
+
+_De Val._ Little equivocator! answer me strictly: do you not wish to
+become his wife?
+
+_Ger._ Indeed, I never yet have asked my heart that question.
+
+_De Val._ But if Florian married any other woman, would you not hate the
+object of his preference?
+
+_Ger._ (_throwing herself upon his neck._) Ah! uncle, you have my
+secret: no, I would not hate my fortunate rival--I would pray for her
+happiness, but my heart would break while it breathed that prayer!
+
+_De Val._ My excellent ingenuous child, indulge the virtuous emotions of
+your heart without disguise--Florian and Geraldine are destined for each
+other.
+
+_Ger._ Generous benefactor! what delightful dazzling visions your words
+conjure up to my imagination; the universe will concentrate within the
+fairy circle of our hearth; a waking consciousness of bliss will ever
+freshly dress our day in flowers, and at nights, fancy will gild our
+pillow with the dream that merrily anticipates the future.
+
+_De Val._ Enthusiast! you contemplate the ocean in a calm, nor dream how
+frightfully a tempest may reverse the picture.
+
+_Ger._ Ambitious pride may tremble at the storm, but true love, uncle,
+never can be wrecked; its constancy is strengthened, not impaired by
+trials, and when adversity divorces us from common friendships, the
+chosen partners of each other's hearts a second time are married, and
+with dearer rites.
+
+_De Val._ (_averting his face with a look of anguish_) Girl!
+
+_Ger._ (_unnoticing his emotion_) Then if they have children, how
+surpassing is the bliss, while their own gay prime is mellowly subsiding
+into age, to trace the features and the virtues they adored in youth,
+renewed before their eyes, and feel themselves the proud and grateful
+authors of each other's joy--Ah! trust me, uncle! such a destiny is
+beyond the reach of fortune's malice; 'tis the anti-type of heaven.
+
+_De Val._ (_Grasping her hand suddenly, convulsed with agitation._) 'Tis
+the distracting mockery of hell that cheats us with an hour's ecstatic
+dream to torture us eternally: girl! girl! wouldst thou find happiness,
+die! seek it in the grave, only in the grave--a watchful fiend destroys
+it upon earth! Prat'st thou of love? Connubial and parental love? Ah!
+dear-lov'd objects of my soul! what are ye now--ashes, ashes, darkly
+scattering to the midnight winds. God! the flames yet blaze--here,
+here--my brain's on fire!  [_Rushes out._
+
+_Ger._ Uncle! listen to your Geraldine! --Ah! ingrate that I am! the
+vulture that gnaws his generous heart, had slumbered for a moment, and I
+have waked it to renew its cruelty! my fault was unawares, yet I could
+chide it like a crime; my mounting spirits fall from their giddy height
+at once. Oh! uncle! noble, suffering uncle! would that my tears could
+wash away the recollection of my words.  [_Weeps._
+
+    _De Valmont_ suddenly returns and embraces _Geraldine_.
+
+_De Val._ Geraldine! dear child, forgive me! my violence has terrified
+your gentle nature. I would not pain you, love, for worlds; but I am not
+always master of myself, and my passions will sometimes break forth
+rebellious to my reason; pity and forgive the infirmities of grief.
+
+_Ger._ Ah! Sir. (_Attempts to kneel._)
+
+_De Val._ (_Preventing her, and kissing her forehead._) Bless you, my
+good and innocent child; nay, do not speak to me, my happiness is lost
+forever, but I can pray for yours. Bless you, my child! bless you ever.
+[_Breaks from her, and exit.
+
+_Ger._ My happiness! ah! if the exalted virtues of a soul like yours, my
+uncle, despair of the capricious boon, how shall the undeserving
+Geraldine presume to hope?
+
+    Enter _Rosabelle_.
+
+_Ros._ Oh! my lady, such news, he's arrived, he's in the hall.
+
+_Ger._ My Florian?
+
+_Ros._ No, lady, not your Florian, but my L'Eclair, not quite so great a
+hero as his master to be sure, but yet a real, proper, mettlesome
+soldier every inch; he looks about him among the men so fierce and so
+warlike; then with the women, he's so impudent, and so audacious;--oh!
+he's a special fellow.
+
+    _L'Eclair_ speaks without.
+
+_L'Ec._ Here's a set of rascals! no discipline? no subordination in the
+house! eh! look to the baggage, curry down my charger! hem! ha!
+
+    Enter _L'Eclair_.
+
+Your ladyship's devoted servant, ever in the foremost rank! never did a
+nine-pounder traverse the enemy's line with more promptitude than I,
+Phillippe L'Eclair, unworthy private of the fifth hussars, now fly to
+cast my poor person at your ladyship's gracious feet.
+
+_Ger._ You are very welcome from the wars, L'Eclair, Fame has spoken of
+you in your absence.
+
+_L'Ec._ Fy! my lady, you disorder me at the first charge,--a pestilence
+now upon that wicked, impertinent gossip, Fame,--will not her
+everlasting tongue suffer even so poor a fellow as L'Eclair, to escape?
+'tis insufferable; may I presume to inquire then, what rumours have
+reached your ladyship's ear?
+
+_Ger._ To a soldier's credit, trust me.--But your master, L'Eclair,
+where is he?
+
+_L'Ec._ Ah! poor gentleman, he's in the rearguard, I left him four
+leagues off, at the fortress of Huningen, unexpectedly confined by----
+
+_Ger._ Confined! heavens! by what complaint?
+
+_L'Ec._ Only the complaint of old age; the general commissioned my
+master upon his route to deliver some instructions to the superannuated
+commandant of the fortress; now the old gentleman proving somewhat dull
+of apprehension, my master though dying of impatience, was constrained
+to a delay of some extra hours, despatching me, his humble ambassador,
+forward, to prevent alarms, and promise his arrival at the chateau
+before midnight.
+
+_Ger._ Midnight! so late?--four leagues to travel--alone--his road
+through an intricate forest, and the sky already seeming to predict a
+tempest.
+
+_L'Ec._ Why, as your ladyship remarks, the clouds seem making a sort of
+forced march over our heads; but a storm is the mere trifling of nature
+in a soldier's estimation; my master and his humble servant have faced a
+cannon-ball too frequently, to be disconcerted by a hail-stone.
+
+_Ger._ Then you have often been employed upon dangerous service,
+L'Eclair?
+
+_L'Ec._ Hay, I protest, your ladyship must excuse me there; a man has so
+much the appearance of boasting, when he becomes the reporter of his own
+achievements; I beg leave to refer your ladyship to the gazettes, though
+I confess the gazettes do but afford a soup-maigre, whip-syllabub sort
+of narrative, accurate enough, perhaps in the main, but plaguily
+incommunicative of particulars: for instance, in the recent affair at
+Nordlingen, I can defy you to find any mention in the gazette, that the
+chevalier Florian charged through a whole regiment of the enemy's
+grenadiers, drawn up in a hollow square, that Phillipe L'Eclair, singly
+followed the chevalier, and rode over all those his master had not time
+to decapitate, how a masked battery suddenly opened with twelve pieces
+of heavy ordnance, firing red-hot balls; how the chevalier's horse
+reared; how L'Eclair's neighed; but how both officer and private,
+neither a whit discouraged at this dilemma, galloped their chargers
+gracefully up to the flaming mouth of the danger; cleared a chevaux de
+frise of fifteen feet at a flying leap; then dismounting; carried the
+battery by a coup de main; spiked the guns; muzzled the gunners with
+their own linstocks; and, finally compelled the principal engineer to
+turn cook, and grill a calf's head at his own furnace, for the dinner of
+his conquerors! Now this affair which had no small influence in
+determining the fortune of the day, with many parallel traits, our
+gazetteers have unaccountably neglected to publish. My memory, perhaps,
+might remedy their deficiencies to any curious ear, but alas! an
+insurmountable modesty renders the task so painful, that I cast myself
+upon your ladyship's compassion, and beseech you to forbear from further
+inquiry.
+
+_Ger._ Ha! ha! your sensitive delicacy shall be respected L'Eclair;
+Rosabelle, be it your care to make the defender of his country
+welcome--at midnight then.--Oh! hasten on your flight, dark-wing'd
+hours! through your close shadows once disclose my Florian, then if ye
+list, be motionless, and still retard the day.  [_Exit._
+
+_L'Ec._ There, you hear young woman!--you are to make the defender of
+his country welcome.
+
+_Ros._ I'll do my best towards your pleasure,--what service can I lend
+you first.
+
+_L'Ec._ Dress my wounds.
+
+_Ros._ Wounds! gramercy! I never should have guessed you had any.
+
+_L'Ec._ Deep, dangerous, desperate,--here! (_affectedly pressing his
+heart_) here, Rosabelle! here's the malady; 'tis an old hurt, I took it
+'ere I went on my campaign; time and absence had clapped an awkward sort
+of plaster on't; but now--oh! those eyes!--the wound breaks out
+afresh;--must I expire?--Rosabelle! prithee, be my surgeon.
+
+_Ros._ I have not the skill to prescribe, but I could administer a
+remedy by directions; what salve will you try first.
+
+_L'Ec._ Lip-salve, you gipsy! (_Kisses her furiously._)
+
+_Ros._ Now, shame upon your manners, master soldier, was this a trick
+taught you by the wars?
+
+_L'Ec._ Yes, faith! saluting is one of the first lessons in a soldier's
+trade, so my dear, tempting, provoking. (_Catches her round._)
+
+_Ros._ Hay, keep your hands off, you have taught me enough of the manual
+exercise already; but say now, were you indeed so great a hero in the
+battle as you told my lady?
+
+_L'Ec._ Pshaw! I did'nt tell her half, my modesty forbade, but for thee,
+my pretty Rosabelle--
+
+_Ros._ Ay, with me, I'm certain your modesty will be no obstacle.
+
+_L'Ec._ None, for while I gaze upon the face of an angel, the devil
+himself can't put me out of countenance.
+
+DUETTO.--_Rosabelle and L'Eclair._
+
+  _Ros._ Tell, soldier, tell! and mark you tell me truly,
+  How oft in battle have you slain a foe?
+
+  _L'Ec._ Go, count the leaves when winds are heard unruly,
+  In autumn that from mighty forests blow.
+
+  _Ros._ Did e'er a captain, worth a costly ransom,
+  Own you his conqueror in the deadly broil?
+
+  _L'Ec._ I've twigg'd field-marshals, pickings snug and handsome,
+  Twelve waggons now are loaded with my spoil.
+
+  _Both._ Oh! loudly, proudly, sound the soldier's fame!
+  Oh! flashy, dashy, flaunt the soldier's dame!
+
+  _Ros._ Tell, soldier, tell! and mark, you tell me truly,
+  Did foreign maids ne'er win your roving vow?
+
+  _L'Ec._ O! blood and fire! --I swear I can't speak coolly,
+  By Mars! to you, and only you, I bow.
+
+  _Ros._ Say, shall love's chain of blossoms hold for ever?
+  Nor time, nor absence, bid its bloom depart?
+
+  _L'Ec._ Not sword, or gun, such magic links can sever,
+  Or rend from Rosabelle her hero's heart.
+
+  _Both._ O! loudly, proudly, &c.
+
+
+  SCENE III.--_A front wood, stage very dark, thunder and lightning._
+
+    Enter _Longueville_ and _Bertrand_, the latter disguised and
+    masqued.
+
+_Long._ Come, sir, to your post! what! a coward even to the last? you
+tremble.
+
+_Bert._ I do indeed, the storm is terrible, it seems as if heaven's own
+voice were clamoring to forbid the deed.  [_Thunder._
+
+_Long._ This tumult of the night assists our enterprise; its thunders
+will drown your victim's dying groan. Where have you placed the bravoes?
+
+_Bert._ Hard by--just where the horse-road sinks into a hollow dell, and
+over-spreading branches almost choke the pass, there we may rush upon
+the wretched youth securely, and there our poniards--
+
+_Long._ Hush!--a footstep!--who passes there?
+
+    Enter _1st Bravo_.
+
+_1st Br._ Sanguine!
+
+_Long._ Wherefore are you here, and parted from your fellow?
+
+_1st Br._ I left him lurking in the hollow, while I sought you out to
+ask advice. Just now, a horse without a rider, burst furiously through
+the thicket where we lay; the lightning flashed brightly at the time,
+and I plainly marked the steed to be the very same young Florian rode,
+when we dogged him from the last inn, at sunset.
+
+_Bert._ (_involuntarily_) merciful God! then thou hast preserved him.
+
+_Long._ Villain! you may find your transports premature; perchance he
+has dismounted to seek on foot some shelter from the increasing fury of
+the storm; but 'tis impossible he should escape; one only path conducts
+to the chateau. Quick! bestow yourselves on either side, and your
+victim's fate is certain. I must return to avoid suspicion.
+
+_Bert._ (_catching his arm._) Yet, my lord, once more reflect.
+
+_Long._ (_throwing him off._) Recollect your oath.
+
+_Bert._ (_desperately._) Yes, yes, it must be written on my memory in
+characters of blood. [_Exeunt separately._
+
+
+  SCENE IV.--_Another part of the forest more entangled and intricate,
+  the tempest becomes violent, and the stage appears alternately
+  illumined by the lightning, and enveloped in utter darkness. Florian
+  is seen advancing cautiously through the thickets from a distance._
+
+_Flor._ A plague upon all dark nights, foul ways, and runaway horses!
+a mettlesome madcap, to start at the lightning and plunge with me head
+over heels in the brushwood; in scrambling out of that thicket,
+I certainly turned wrong, and have missed my road--how to regain it?
+'sdeath! I could as soon compose an almanac as and a clue to this
+puzzle. Well, I was found in a wood when a baby, and have just lived to
+years of discretion to be lost in a wood again! Fortune! Fortune! thou
+spiteful gipsy! was this an honest trick to pass upon a faithful
+servant, who has worn thy livery from his cradle, and taken off thy
+hands a thousand knocks and buffetings without a murmur? Just at this
+moment too, when hope and fancy were dancing merrily, and had made the
+prettiest ball-room of my heart--just too when the image of my
+Geraldine-- (_rain, storm increases_) but a truce with meditation, this
+pelting shower rather advises action-- (_turns to an opening_) --No;
+that can't be the path; which ever way I turn I may only get farther
+entangled; then there are pit-falls, wolves, bears--yes! I've the
+prospect of a delectable night before me; what if I exercise my lungs
+and call for help? oh! there's scarcely a chance of being heard; well,
+'tis my forlorn hope and shall e'en have a trial. Holloa! Holloa!
+Holloa! [_a whistle answers from the right_] Huzza! somebody whistles
+from the right! kind lady Fortune! never will I call thee names again.
+[_another whistle from the opposite side._] Ha! answered from the left
+too! --Lucky fellow!--where are you my dear boys--where are you?
+
+    _Florian_ runs toward the right--a very vivid flash of lightning
+    at that instant gleams upon the path before him, and displays the
+    figure of a masqued bravo, _Sanguine_, with an unsheathed poniard
+    advancing between the trees, _Florian_ recoils.
+
+_Flor._ Ha! a man armed and masqued!--perhaps some ruffian!--'sdeath!
+I am defenceless, my pistols were left in the saddle!
+
+_Sanguine._ (_advancing_) Who called?
+
+_Flor._ If I return no answer in the darkness I may retreat unseen.
+
+    [He creeps silently to the left as the bravo advances.
+
+_San._ Speak! where are you?
+
+    [2d bravo emerges from the gloom and directly crosses the path by
+    which _Florian_ is about to escape.
+
+_Len._ Here!  [_Thunder._
+
+    [_Florian_ at the second voice discovers himself to be exactly
+    between the ruffians, and stops.
+
+_Flor._ God!
+
+    [He recedes a single step, and strikes his hand against a tree
+    immediately behind him, the trunk of which is hollowed by time,
+    and open towards the audience.
+
+Ha! a tree!
+
+    [By his touch he discovers the aperture, and glides into the
+    hollow, at the very instant the two bravoes stepping forward
+    quickly from either side of the tree, encounter each other's
+    extended hands in front.
+
+_San._ (_raising his poniard_) Die!
+
+_Len._ Hold! 'tis I--your comrade!
+
+_San._ Why did you not answer before, I took you for--hark?
+
+    [_Bertrand_ comes through the trees from the top of the stage.]
+
+_Bert._ Hist! Sanguine?--Lenoire?
+
+_San._ Here!--both of us.
+
+_Bert._ (_coming forward_) Why did you whistle?
+
+_San._ In answer to your call--you hallooed to us.
+
+_Bert._ When?
+
+_San._ But now--a minute back.
+
+_Bert._ I never spoke.
+
+_San._ I'll swear I heard a voice--no doubt then but 'twas he that--
+
+_Bert._ From what quarter did the cry proceed?
+
+_San._ I thought it sounded hereabouts, but the storm kept such a
+confounded patter at the time--
+
+_Bert._ Well--let us take the left-hand path; and if we hear the call
+repeated--
+
+_San._ Ay!--our daggers meet all questions with a keen reply.
+
+    [Exeunt to the left.
+
+_Flor._ (_extricating himself cautiously from the tree._) Eternal
+Providence, what have I heard! Murderers then are upon the watch for me!
+no, no--not for _me_. _I_ cannot be the destined victim. I never yet
+offended a human being, and fiends themselves would not destroy without
+a cause for hatred. Heaven guard the threatened one, whoe'er he be!
+Well, Prudence at least admonishes me to avoid the left-hand path; faith
+any turn but that must prove the right for _me_. Ha! unless my eyes are
+cheated by a Will-o'-th'-Wisp, a friendly light now peeps out through
+yonder coppice. (_looking out_) Perhaps some woodman's hut, with a fresh
+faggot just crackling on the hearth. Oh, for a seat in such a chimney
+corner. (_Whistle again at a distance_) I hear you, gentlemen,
+a pleasant ramble to you. Adieu, Messieurs! space be between us! yours
+is a left-handed destiny; I'll seek mine to the right. [_Exit._
+
+
+  SCENE V.--_The outside of a cottage in the wood; a light burning in
+  a casement._
+
+    Enter _Monica_, supporting herself on a crutch, and carrying a
+    basket of flax.
+
+_Mon._ Praise to the virgin! my old limbs have reached their resting
+place at last: what a tempest! my new cardinal is quite drenched. Well,
+I've kept the flax dry, however, that's some comfort, (_strikes against
+the door._) Ho, there, within--open quickly.
+
+    [The door opens, and a female wildly dressed, appears; she catches
+    Monica's hand with affection, and kisses it.]
+
+_Mon._ Ah, my poor Silence! thou hast watched and fretted for me
+preciously, I'll warrant: but the road from Brisac is long, and this
+rough night half crippled me.
+
+    [The female feels her damp garments, and seems with quick
+    tenderness to invite her into the house.]
+
+Well, well, never fright thyself, if I shiver now, a cup of warm Rhenish
+will soon make me glow again: 'faith I am weary though; wilt lend an arm
+to an old woman?
+
+    [The female embraces and supports her.]
+
+Ah, there's my kind Silence.
+
+    [Exeunt into the cottage.
+
+    Enter _Florian_ running and out of breath, from the left hand.
+
+_Flor._ I'm right, by all the household gods! 'Twas no goblin of the fen
+that twinkled to deceive, but a real substantial weatherproof tenement
+shining with invitation to benighted travellers. Oh, blessings on its
+hospitable threshold; my heart luxuriates already by anticipation, and
+pants for a fireside, a supper, and a bed. Hold though--just now I was
+on the point of shaking hands with a cutthroat; who knows but here I may
+introduce myself upon visiting terms with his family? 'faith I'll
+reconnoitre the position before I establish my quarters. This casement
+is commodiously low. (_Steps to the casement on tiptoe._) I protest,
+a vastly neat, creditable sort of mansion! Yes--it will do! on one side
+blazes an excellent fire; in the middle stands a table ready covered;
+that's for supper: then just opposite is a door left ajar; ay, that must
+lead to a bed. Ha! now the door opens; who comes forward? by all my
+hopes a woman! Enough; here will I pitch my tent. Whenever doubts and
+fears perplex a man, the form of woman strikes upon his troubled spirit
+like the rainbow stealing out of clouds--the type of beauty and the sign
+of hope! (_he knocks_) Now Venus send her with a kindly smile!--she
+comes--she comes.
+
+    [The female opens the door, but on seeing _Florian_ recoils with
+    trepidation--he catches her hand, and forcibly detains her.]
+
+_Flor._ My dear madam! no alarm, for Heaven's sake. You have thieves in
+your neighbourhood, but, upon my soul, I don't belong to their
+fraternity. No, madam, I'm an unlucky fellow, but with the best morals
+in the world: the fact is, I have lost myself in the forest; the storm
+rages--and as I am no knight-errant to court unnecessary hardships,
+respectfully I entreat the hospitality of this roof for the remainder of
+the night.
+
+    [The female surveys his figure with suspicion and timidity.]
+
+_Flor._ I fear 'tis my misfortune to be disbelieved; nay then, let my
+dress declare my character! (_he releases her hand to throw open his
+riding-cloak, and discovers the regimental under it._) Behold! I am a
+soldier.
+
+    [The female shrieks violently; for an instant she covers her eyes
+    with both hands shudderingly, and then with the look and action
+    of sudden insanity, darts away into the thicket of the wood.]
+
+_Flor._ (_calling after her._) Madam! my dear madam! only hear me,
+madam! she's gone! absolutely vanished! I wish I had a looking-glass;
+certainly I must have changed my face when I lost my road--no scare-crow
+could have terrified the poor woman more. What's to be done? If I follow
+her, I shall but increase her terrors and my own difficulties. Shall I
+enter the cottage and wait her return? the door stands most invitingly
+open, and to a wet and weary wanderer, that fire sparkles so
+provokingly--'faith, I can't resist the temptation--Adventure seems the
+goddess of the night, and I'll e'en worship the divinity at a blazing
+shrine!  [_Exit into the house._
+
+
+  SCENE VI.--_The interior of the cottage--the entrance, door, and
+  casements are on one side--opposite is the fireplace--and a
+  staircase in the back scene conducts to an upper chamber--a table
+  with a lamp burning, and a frugal supper stands in the middle of the
+  stage.--Florian is discovered when the scene draws, kneeling at the
+  hearth and chaffing his hands before the fire._
+
+_Flor._ Eternal praise to the architect who first invented
+chimney-corners? the man who built the pyramids was a dunce by
+comparison. [_rises and looks round him._] All solitary and silent:
+faith, my situation here is somewhat whimsical. Well, I am left in
+undisturbed possession, and that's a title in law, if not in equity.
+[_he takes off his cloak and hangs it on a chair_] Yes, this shall be my
+barrack for the night. What an unsocial spirit must the fair mistress of
+this cottage possess. Egad, she seemed to think it necessary, like the
+man and woman in the weather-house, that one sex should turn forth into
+the storm, so soon as the other sought a shelter from its peltings:
+a plague on such punctilio.
+
+    [_Monica_ enters down the staircase from her chamber.]
+
+_Mon._ [_speaking as she descends._] There, my garments are changed, and
+we may now enjoy our supper.
+
+_Flor._ Ha! another woman! but old, by the mother of the Graces!
+
+_Mon._ A stranger!
+
+_Flor._ Not an impertinent one, I trust. One, who in the darkness of the
+storm has missed his road, despairs of regaining it till morning, and
+craves of your benevolence a shelter for the night. You shall be soon
+convinced I am no dangerous guest.
+
+_Mon._ [_with a voluble civility._] Nay, young gentleman, never trouble
+yourself to inform me of your rank; you have told me your necessity, and
+that's a sufficient claim to every comfort my little cabin can afford;
+pray, sir, take a seat: I am much honoured by your presence: we have a
+little supper toward; you must partake it, sir: here! my good Silence!
+come hither. Ah! I do not see--[_looking anxiously round the cottage._]
+
+_Flor._ I am afraid, my good madam, you miss one of your family.
+
+_Mon._ I do, indeed, sir; and--
+
+_Flo._ It was my misfortune to drive a female out of your house at the
+moment I entered it.
+
+_Mon._ Sir!
+
+_Flor._ But not intentionally, I protest. The fact is, though I have
+always esteemed myself as a well-manufactured person, yet something in
+my appearance so terrified the lady that--
+
+_Mon._ Ah, I comprehend; you wear the habit of a soldier, sir, and my
+poor Silence never can abide to look upon that dress.
+
+_Flor._ Indeed! that's rather a singular antipathy for a female. May I
+inquire--is she a daughter of yours?
+
+_Mon._ Not by blood, sir; but she is the child of misfortune, and as
+such may claim a parent in every heart that has itself experienced
+sorrow; but come, sir, take a seat, I beseech you; my alarm ceases now I
+know the cause of her absence. She is accustomed to wander in the woods
+by night when any thing disturbs her mind. She'll return to me anon calm
+and passive as before: I have known it with her often thus. You look
+fatigued, sir; let me recommend this flask of Rhenish: pray drink, sir;
+it will do you good; it always does me good.
+
+_Flor._ Madam, since you are so pressing, my best services to you--a
+very companionable sort of old gentlewoman this (_aside_); I protest,
+madam, I feel myself interested for this unfortunate under your
+protection; there was a wild and melancholy sweetness in her eye that
+touched me at our first exchange of looks with awe and pity; is her
+history a secret?
+
+_Mon._ Oh, no--not a secret, but quite a mystery, you know nearly as
+much of it as I do; but since we are on the subject--another draught of
+wine, sir!
+
+_Flor._ Madam, you will pledge me. And now for the mystery.
+
+_Mon._ Well, sir, about sixteen years ago when I lived in Languedoc, for
+you must know I am but newly settled _here_, a stranger in Alsace, ay!
+about sixteen or seventeen years ago, there came a rumour to our
+village, of a _wild woman_, that had been caught by some peasants in the
+woods near _Albi_, following quite a savage and unchristian life;
+gathering fruits and berries for her food by day, and sleeping in the
+mossy hollows of a rock at night. She was brought round the country as a
+show. All the world in our parts went to look upon the prodigy, and you
+may be sure _I_ made one among the crowd. Well, sir, this wild woman was
+the very creature you beheld but now. At that time she was in truth a
+piteous object; her form was meagre and wasted, and her wretched garment
+hung over it in filthy tatters; her fine hair fell in matted heaps, and
+the sun and the wind together had changed her skin like an Indian's. Yet
+even in the midst of all this misery, there was a something so noble and
+so gentle in her air, that the moment I looked upon her, my curiosity
+was lost at once in pity and respect. The people by whom she was
+surrounded, were stunning her with coarse and vulgar questions, but
+never an answer did she deign to give, though some wheedled and some
+threatened; still 'twas to all alike: so most persons concluded she was
+dumb.
+
+_Flor._ And a very natural conclusion it was, when a female remained
+silent, who had so excellent an opportunity of exercising her tongue.
+
+_Mon._ Well, Sir, presently _my_ turn came to approach her, when somehow
+my heart swelled quite painfully, to see the gracious image of our Maker
+degraded, and one's own fellow creature treated like the brutes of the
+field, so, that when I touched her, my tears started unawares and fell
+upon her trembling hand. Would you believe it, sir? the poor desolate
+statue felt the trickling drops, and reason was rekindled by the warmth
+of pity. Suddenly her eyes, so lately dull and vacant, flashed with
+recovered brightness. She cast herself at my feet--clasped my knees--and
+cried out, in tones that might have moved a heart of rock--"Angel of
+compassion! save me from disgrace?" All present started as if a miracle
+were worked. "Will you preserve me?" cried the suppliant. I was a
+widowed and a childless woman; in an instant I raised the forlorn one to
+my arms, as a companion, as an adopted daughter. Her keepers were
+ignorant men, but not cruel; their hearts were softened by the scene,
+and they yielded their claims to my entreaties. I led the unfortune to
+my dwelling; from that moment, she has shared my mat and partaken of my
+morsel. I love her with the affection of a real parent, and were I now
+to lose her, I think my heart would break upon the grave that robbed it
+of its darling.
+
+_Flor._ By heavens, I reverence your feelings! in truth 'tis a
+melancholy story.
+
+_Mon._ Yes, sir; and melancholy stories make people dry, so let me
+recommend another cup of wine.
+
+_Flor._ Madam, I can't refuse the challenge-- (_aside_) the old lady
+certainly designs to send me under the table. But pray, madam, have you
+never discovered the cause of that distress, from which you first
+relieved this suffering woman?
+
+_Mon._ Never. On the subject of her early adventures she remains
+inflexibly silent. I have often tried to win the secret from her, but
+though she is mild and rational enough upon all other themes, yet, let
+but a hint remind her of her former wretchedness, her wits directly
+start into disorder, and for whole hours, nay, sometimes days together,
+she remains a lunatic. I do not even know her name, but call her
+Silence, because her voice is heard so very rarely. I think her
+dejection has increased since we quitted Languedoc, for about two months
+since, a kinsman of mine died, and bequeathed me this cottage with some
+land here in Alsace; 'tis a lone house, and the thick woods about I fear
+remind my poor Silence too much of her former way of life, sometimes she
+wanders in them half the night.
+
+_Flo._ Are you not fearful of her safety? these woods are full of
+danger; within this half hour, I myself have encountered three ruffians
+lurking for their prey.
+
+_Mon._ Ruffians! young gentleman. Blessed Mary save us!--'tis true, I am
+a stranger in these parts, but never did I hear of such neighbours.
+Well, well, I fear not for my child, she has no wealth to tempt a
+plunderer. Poverty is the mother of ills, but her offspring generally
+respect each other. Come, sir, finish the flask; and now let me prepare
+your chamber for the night. (_rises._)
+
+_Flor._ Kind hostess! I am bounden to you ever. (_rises and fills his
+glass_) Here's woman! beauteous, generous woman! _admired_ when we are
+happy, but in our adversity _adored_! (_drinks._)
+
+_Mon._ (_curtseying_) Sweet sir, down to the very ground I return your
+gallantry.
+
+_Flor._ Hist!--don't I hear footsteps in the wood?
+
+_Mon._ (_listening_) Ah, yes, perhaps my child returns to us.
+
+    [The casement is thrust open, and _Bertrand_ with the two bravoes
+    look into the cottage.]
+
+_Mon._ Ah! men in masks!
+
+_Bert._'Tis he! (_they disappear from the casement._)
+
+_Flor._ Swift! help me swift to bar the door!
+
+_Mon._ Ah! 'tis forced already! (_noise at door._)
+
+    [The door is burst, the two bravoes instantly spring upon
+    _Florian_ and grapple with him. _Bertrand_ seizes the woman.]
+
+_Mon._ Murder! murder!
+
+_Bert._ Silence, or you die!
+
+    [_Florian_ struggles towards the centre of the stage in front, and
+    is there forced down upon one knee.]
+
+_Flo._ Is it plunder that you seek? what is your purpose with me? speak!
+
+_San._ Learn it by this! (_raises his dagger._)
+
+_Bert._ Hold! not _here_, drag him into the wood, despatch him _there_!
+
+_Flo._ Inhuman villains! by your soul's best hope--I charge you--I
+implore you--
+
+_Bert._ (_stamping furiously, and casting Monica from him_) Toward the
+wood! --Follow me!
+
+    [_Bertrand_ turns to the door, and the bravoes struggle to force
+    _Florian_ after him, at that instant, the unknown female enters
+    from the wood, and pauses in the door-way exactly opposite to
+    _Bertrand_, his advanced arm falls back nerveless by his side, his
+    limbs shake with strong convulsion, and he reels backwards.]
+
+_Bert._ Support me, ah! save me, or I die!
+
+    [The bravoes release _Florian_ to fly towards _Bertrand_, who
+    sinks in their arms. The female, with a light and rapid step
+    crosses in front of the group to the middle of the stage where
+    _Florian_ remains kneeling, she spreads her wild drapery before
+    the victim, and places herself between him and the ruffians in
+    the attitude of protection.]
+
+_Bert._ (_pursuing her with his eye deliriously_) Look! look! she rises
+from the grave! she blasts me with her frown! away! away! heaven itself
+forbids the deed!
+
+    [The ruffians rush forth into the wood again. _Florian_ and
+    _Monica_ catch the hands of the unknown to their lips in
+    transport, and the curtain falls suddenly upon the scene.]
+
+
+    End of act I.
+
+
+
+
+ACT II.
+
+
+  SCENE I.--_A gallery in the chateau._
+
+    Enter _Longueville_ and _Bertrand_.
+
+_Long._ Traitor! infamous, unblushing traitor! Florian has arrived,
+arrived in safety: every way I have been betrayed; and now to screen
+your perfidy from punishment, you dare insult my ear with forgeries too
+monstrous and too gross for patience.
+
+_Bert._ Hear me, my lord! as I have life, as I have a soul, so have I
+spoken truly, the grave yawned asunder to forbid the blow, it was no
+vision of my cowardice--I saw--distinctly saw-it was _Eugenia_! as in
+her days of nature, entire and undecayed, the spectre-form stood
+terribly before me, it moved--it gazed--it frowned me into madness!
+
+_Long._ Villain! still would you deceive me!
+
+_Bert._ Ah, my lord, you would deceive yourself. I swear it was Eugenia,
+her shadowy arms were stretched between the lifted dagger and the
+prostrate youth; while her swift dark eye flashed on mine with
+brightness insupportable: such was her dreadful look, when, with her
+bleeding infant clinging to her breast, she sprang into the flames,
+and--
+
+_Long._ Hush! [_the doors of an inner chamber open, and De Valmont
+appears conversing with Florian and Geraldine._] We are interrupted;
+quick! change those ruffled features into smiles, quick! mark me,
+wretch!
+
+_De Val._ (_coming forward_) My boy, your preservation was indeed a
+miracle. Ascribe not to the vague results of chance, that which belongs
+to Providence alone. Ah, here is my kinsman--one, whose anxious fears on
+your account, have held him a sleepless watcher through the night.
+
+_Long._ (_with affected fervency_) Florian! a thousand welcomes: the
+return of friends at all times is a joy, but when they come through
+dangers to our arms, there's transport in the meeting. Tell me--what
+strange tale is this I catch imperfectly from every lip? can it be
+possible you were assailed last night by ruffians in the wood?
+
+_Flor._ Yes, my dear baron, yes! but morning has chased away night, and
+I am out of the wood now; therefore let us banish gloomy retrospections,
+and yield the present hour to bliss without alloy.
+
+_De Val._ Not so: in this your friends must claim an interest dearer
+than your own: these men of blood shall be pursued to justice, if Alsace
+yet hold them.
+
+_Long._ Be that my task. (_to Flor._) Should you recognize their
+persons?
+
+_Flo._ Positively no--their disguises were impenetrable.
+
+_Ger._ But their voices, Florian, you heard them speak?
+
+_Flo._ True, sweet Geraldine, a few broken sentences; but their accents
+were not framed like thine, to touch the ear but once, yet vibrate on
+the memory forever.
+
+_Long._ Indulge my curiosity, how were you preserved?
+
+_Flo._ Well, baron, since you will force me to act the hero in my own
+drama, thus runs my story: I was defenceless, helpless, hopeless: two
+sturdy knaves had mastered my struggling arms, and the dagger of a third
+gleamed against my throat, when suddenly a female form appeared before
+us; in an instant, as if by magic, the murderers relaxed their hold,
+shuddered, recoiled, uttered cries, and fled the spot, the female mute
+and motionless remained.
+
+_Bert._ (_aside to Longueville._) You mark.
+
+_Long._ (_repulsing him._) Silence!
+
+_Flo._ Cowardice is ever found the mate of Cruelty: this stranger was
+doubtless regarded by the villains as a preternatural agent, she proved
+however, a mere mortal, frail and palpable as ourselves.
+
+_Bert._ (_listening with tremulous attention._) God! living!
+
+_Long._ (_not regarding Bertrand, who has drawn behind._) Whence came
+this woman? What was she?
+
+_Flo._ Alas! the most pitiable object in nature--an unhappy maniac; she
+resides at the same cottage where I found shelter from the storm.
+
+_Bert._ (_as if electrified by a sudden thought._) Direct me, heaven!
+
+    [He glides silently out of the gallery unobserved by all.]
+
+_Long._ Were not any other circumstances linked with this adventure?
+
+_Flo._ None of consequence: but I suspect one of the ruffians was known
+to this wretched woman; her incoherent words implied that she recognized
+in him an ancient enemy; but her frail remains of intellect, were, for a
+time, quite unsettled by the terror of the scene; she fled from me to
+her chamber in dismay, and at daybreak I left the cottage without a
+second interview.
+
+_Long._ Florian! it is necessary this woman should be interrogated
+further-- (_with much emotion_) not a moment must be lost--dear count,
+excuse me for an hour, my anxiety admits not of delay. I will myself
+visit this cottage instantly. [_Exit._
+
+_Ger._ (_half aside to De Valmont_) Uncle, if the baron tarries beyond
+the hour, we must not wait for his return, recollect it is to be at noon
+exactly.
+
+_Flo._ (_overhearing._) And what at noon, dear Geraldine?
+
+_De Val._ (_smiling_) Florian, you are destined to be our hero in peace
+as well as war--my niece has planned a little fete in compliment to the
+conquerors of Nordlingen.
+
+_Ger._ Fy, uncle, Florian was not to have known of it till the moment,
+you have betrayed my secret, now as a due punishment for the treason,
+I impose upon you to appear at our fete in person.
+
+_De Val._ What a demand! --I, who never--
+
+_Ger._ Nay, if it be only for a minute, positively you must come among
+us--nay, I will not be denied.
+
+_De Val._ Well, you reign a fairy sovereign for the day, and if it be
+your will to play the despot, your subjects, though they murmur, must
+obey.
+
+_Ger._ (_embracing him_) There's my kindest uncle! thanks! Florian I
+warn you not to stir towards the terrace till I summon you, beware of
+disobedience, I have the power to punish.
+
+_Flor._ And to reward also.
+
+_Ger._ Ah! at least I have the inclination, it will be your own fault if
+ever my actions and my wishes dissociate, or Geraldine refuse a boon
+when Florian is the suitor.  [_Exit._
+
+_Flor._ (_looking after her_) Geraldine! too kind, too lovely Geraldine,
+ah! sir, is she not admirable?
+
+_De Val._ She has been accounted so by many in your absence. I cannot
+estimate her beauty, but I know her virtue; and the last fond wish left
+clinging to this heart is Geraldine's felicity. I shall endeavour to
+secure it, by uniting her in marriage with a worthy object.
+
+_Flor._ Sir!--marriage did you say? Gracious heaven! Marriage!
+
+_De Val._ What is it that surprizes you? I can assure you, Geraldine
+already has been addressed by lovers.
+
+_Flor._ To doubt it were a blasphemy against perfection. Oh! Sir, it is
+not that--oh! no.
+
+_De Val._ Wherefore, my dear Florian, so much emotion? Does the idea of
+Geraldine's marriage afflict you?
+
+_Flor._ I am not such an ingrate--her happiness is the prayer of my soul
+to heaven, and I would perish to insure it.
+
+_De Val._ (_after a pause, during which he regards the agitated Florian
+with tender earnestness._) Young man, I have long since determined to
+address you with a brief recital of circumstances necessary to your
+future decisions in life. Every word of that recital must draw with it a
+life-drop from my heart, for I shall speak to you of the past, and
+recollection to me is agony. The trial we once have considered as
+inevitable, it is fruitless to defer. Draw yourself a seat, and afford
+me for a few minutes your fixt attention.
+
+    (_Florian_ presents a chair to the _Count_, and then seats
+    himself.)
+
+_De Val._ Florian, you now behold me, such as I have seemed, even from
+your infancy--a suffering, querulous, cheerless, hopeless,
+broken-hearted man--one who has buried all the energies of his nature,
+and only preserves a few of its charities tremblingly alive. It was not
+with me always thus--I once possessed a mind and a body vigorously
+moulded, a heart for enterprize, and an arm for achievement. Grief, not
+time, has palsied those endowments. Born to exalted rank, and
+luxuriously bread, like the new-fledged eaglet rushing from his nest at
+once against the sun, eager, elate, and confident, I entered upon life.
+
+_Flor._ Ah! that malignant clouds should obscure so bright a dawn!
+
+_De Val._ My spirit panted for a career of arms--civil war then
+desolated France, and, at the age of twenty, I embraced the cause of my
+religion and my king. Fortune, prodigal of her flatteries, twined my
+brow with clustering laurels, and at the close of my first campaign, my
+sovereign's favor and the people's love already hailed me by a hero's
+title. Fatigued with glory--then--ah! Florian! then it was I welcom'd
+love!--a first, a last, an only and eternal passion! (_Pauses with
+emotion._)
+
+_Flor._ Nay, sir, desist--these recollections shake your mind too
+strongly.
+
+_De Val._ No, no--let me proceed. I can command myself--Florian! I wooed
+and won an angel for my bride--my expression is not a lover's
+rhapsody--at this distant period, seriously I pronounce it--Eugenia
+approached as closely to perfection as the Creator has permitted to his
+creature! Such as she was, to say I loved her were imperfect phrase! my
+passion was enthusiasm--was idolatry! Our marriage-bed was early blessed
+with increase--and as my lip greeted with a father's kiss the infant, my
+heart bounded with a new transport towards its mother.--My felicity
+seemed perfect! Now, Florian, mark! My country a second time called me
+to her battles; I left my kinsman, Longueville, to guard the dear-ones
+of my soul at home, then sped to join our army in a distant province.
+I was wounded and made prisoner by the enemy. When I recovered health
+and liberty, I found a rumour of my death had in the interval prevailed
+through France. I trembled lest Eugenia should receive the tale, and
+flew in person to prevent her terrors. It was evening when I reached the
+hills of Languedoc, and looked impatiently towards my cheerful home
+beneath. I looked--the last sunbeam glared redly upon smoking ruins! Oh!
+oh! the blood now chills and curdles round my heart--the wolves of war
+had rushed by night upon my slumbering fold--fire and sword had
+desolated all. I called upon my wife and my infant. I trembled on their
+ashes while I called! (_he sinks back exhausted in his chair._)
+
+_Flo._ Tremendous hour! so dire a shock might well have paralized a
+Roman firmness.
+
+_De Val._ (_resuming faintly._) Florian, there is a grief that never
+found its image yet in words. I prayed for death--nay, madness! but
+heaven, for its own best purposes, denied me either boon. I was ordained
+still to live, and still be conscious of my misery. For many weeks I
+wandered through the country, silent, sullen, stupified! My people
+watched, but dared not comfort me. Abjuring social life, I plunged into
+the deepest solitudes, to shun all commerce with my kind. 'Twas at the
+close of a sultry day, the last of August, that I entered a forest at
+the foot of the Cevennes, and worn with long fatigue and misery,
+stretched myself upon the moss for momentary rest. On the sudden,
+a faint and feeble moan pierced my ear; instinctively I moved the
+branches at my side, and at the foot of a rude stone-cross beheld a
+desolate infant, unnaturally left to perish in the wilderness! It was
+famishing--expiring. I raised it to my breast, and its little arms
+twined feebly round my neck Florian! thou wert heaven's gracious
+instrument to reclaim a truant to his duties! Welcome! I cried to thee,
+young brother in adversity!--"thou art deserted by thy mortal parents,
+and my heavenly father has forsaken me!" From that moment I felt I had a
+motive left to cherish life, since my existence could be useful to a
+fellow-being--my wanderings finished, and I settled in Alsace. Eighteen
+years have followed that event; but I shall not comment on their course.
+
+_Flor._ (_with energy._) Yet, sir, those years must not, shall not pass
+forgotten. Deeds of generous charity have made them sacred, and an
+orphan's blessing wafts their eulogy to heaven--_he casts himself at De
+Valmont's feet_). Friend! protector! more than parent! the beings who
+had called me into life denied my claim, and you performed the duties
+nature had renounced. Ah! sir, I am thoughtless, volatile, my manners
+wild--but, from my inmost soul, I love, I reverence, I bless my
+benefactor!
+
+_De Val._ Rise young man! your virtues have repaid my cares. Here let us
+dismiss the past, and advert to the future. Geraldine is my heiress; my
+niece and my vassals must receive the same master: both are objects of
+my care, and I would confide them only to a man of honor. Florian! let
+Geraldine become your wife--be you hereafter the protector of my people.
+
+_Flor._ Merciful powers! what is it that I hear? I?--the child of
+accident and mystery: a wretched foundling: I?
+
+_De Val._ Young man, your sentiments and your actions have proved
+themselves the legitimate offspring of honor, and I require no pedigree
+for limbs and features. Fortune forbade you to inherit a name, but she
+has granted you a prouder boast: you have founded one. Common men vaunt
+of the actions of their forefathers, but the superior spirit declares
+his own! Nay, no reply--I never form or break a resolution lightly.
+I know your heart: I am acquainted with Geraldine's; they beat
+responsive to each other--your passion has my consent: your marriage
+shall receive my blessing. Farewell. [_He exits suddenly, and prevents
+Florian by his action from any reply._]
+
+_Flor._ Heard I aright? Yes, he pronounced it--"Geraldine is thine."
+Earth's gross substantial touch is felt no more: I mount in air, and
+rest on sunbeams! Oh! if I dream now--royal Mab! abuse me ever with thy
+dear deceits; for in serious wakeful hours, truth ne'er can touch my
+senses with a joy so bright. O! I could sing, dance, laugh, shout; and
+yet methinks, had I a woman's privilege, I'd rather weep; for tears are
+pleasure's oracles as well as grief's.
+
+    Enter _L'Eclair_.
+
+_L'Ec._ So, Captain! you are well encountered. I have sad forebodings
+that our shining course of arms is threatened with eclipse. If I may use
+the boldness to advise, we shall strike our tents, and file off in quick
+march without beat of drum. Our laurels are in more danger here than in
+the midst of the enemy's lines.
+
+_Flor._ How now! my doughty 'squire: what may be our present jeopardy?
+
+_L'Ec._ Ah! captain, the sex--the dear seductive sex; this house is the
+modern Capua, and we are the Hannibals of France, toying away our severe
+virtues amid its voluptuousness. One damsel throws forward the prettiest
+ancle in anatomy, and cries, "Mr. L'Eclair, I'm your's for a Waltz":
+a second languishes upon me from large blue melting eyes, and whispers,
+"Mr. L'Eclair, will you take a stroll by moonlight in the grove?" while
+a third, in all the ripe round plumpness of uneasy health, calls the
+modest blood to my fingers' ends, by requesting me "to adjust some error
+in the pinning of her 'kerchief." O! captain, captain, heros are but
+men, men but flesh, and flesh is but weakness; therefore, let us briefly
+put on a Parthian valor, and strive to conquer by a flight!
+
+_Flor._ Knave! prate of deserting these dear precious scenes again, and
+I'll finish your career myself by a coup-de-main. No, no; change
+churlish dreams and braving trumpets to mellifluous flutes. I am to be
+married. Varlet, wish me joy.
+
+_L'Ec._ Certainly, captain, I _do_ wish you joy; when a man has once
+determined upon matrimony he acts wisely to collect the congratulations
+of his friends beforehand, for heaven only knows, whether there may be
+any opportunity for them afterwards. May I take the freedom to inquire
+the lady?
+
+_Flor._ 'Tis _she_--L'Eclair, 'tis _she_, the only she, the peerless,
+priceless Geraldine.
+
+_L'Ec._ "_Peerless_" I grant the lady, but as to her being
+"_priceless_," I should think for my own poor particular, that when I
+bartered my liberty for a comely bedfellow, I was paying full value for
+my goods, besides a swinging overcharge for the fashion of the make.
+
+_Flor._ Tush! man, 'tis not by form or feature I compute my prize.
+Geraldine's _mind_, not her beauty, is the magnet of my love. The
+_graces_ are the fugitive handmaids of youth, and dress their charge
+with flowers as fleeting as they are fair; but the _virtues_ faithfully
+o'erwatch the couch of age, and when the flaunting rose has wither'd,
+twine the cheerful evergreen, crowning true lovers freshly to the last!
+  [_Exit._
+
+_L'Ec._ "True lovers!" well, now I love Love, myself, particularly when
+'tis mix'd with brandy! like the loves of the landlady of Lisle, and the
+bandy-legg'd captain.[*]
+
+SONG.
+
+  A landlady of France, she loved an officer, 'tis said,
+    And this officer he dearly loved her brandy, oh!
+  Sigh'd she, "I love this officer, although his nose is red,
+    And his legs are what his regiment call bandy, oh!"
+
+  2
+
+  But when the bandy officer was order'd to the coast;
+    How she tore her lovely locks that look'd so sandy, oh!
+  "Adieu my soul!" said she, "if you write, pray pay the post,
+    But before we part, let's take a drop of brandy, oh!"
+
+  3
+
+  She fill'd him out a bumper, just before he left the town,
+    And another for herself, so neat and handy, oh!
+  So they kept their spirits up, by their pouring spirits down,
+    For love is, like the cholic, cured with brandy, oh!
+
+  4
+
+  "Take a bottle on't," said she, "for you're going into camp;
+    In your tent, you know, my love, 'twill be the dandy, oh!"
+  "You're right," says he, "my life! for a tent is very damp;
+    And 'tis better, with my tent, to take some brandy, oh!"
+
+    [Footnote: For this speech, and the song that follows, the author
+    is indebted to the pen of George Colman, Esq.]
+
+
+  SCENE II.--_The Cottage._
+
+    Enter _Monica_ and _Bertrand_.
+
+_Mon._ In truth, sir, I have told you every circumstance I know
+concerning my poor lodger. But wherefore so particular in your
+inquiries?
+
+_Bert._ Trust me, I have important motives for my curiosity. Seventeen
+years ago, I think you said: and in the woods near _Albi_?
+
+_Mon._ Ay, ay, I was accurate both in time and place.
+
+_Bert._ Every incident concurs. Gracious heaven! should it prove--my
+good woman, I suspect this unfortunate person is known to me; bring me
+directly to the sight of her!
+
+_Mon._ Hold! sir, I must know you better first. I fear me, this poor
+creature has been hardly dealt with; who knows, but you may be her
+enemy?
+
+_Bert._ No, no, her friend; her firm and faithful friend: suspence
+distracts me: lead me to her presence instantly!
+
+_Mon._ Well, well, truly, sir! you look and speak like an honest
+gentleman; but tho' I consent, I doubt whether my lodger will receive
+you; her mind is ill at ease for visitors. All last night I overheard
+her pacing up and down her chamber, moaning piteously and talking to
+herself; towards day-break, all became quiet, then I peeped thro' the
+crevice of her door and saw that she was writing. I never knew her write
+before, I knocked for admittance, but she prayed me not to interrupt her
+for another hour.
+
+_Bert._ Does she still keep her chamber?
+
+_Mon._ She has not quitted it this morning--hark! I think I hear her
+stir, (_goes to the stair-foot and looks up_) ay! her door now stands
+open, place yourself just here, and you may view her plainly without
+being seen yourself; her face is turned towards us, but her eyes are
+fixed upon a writing in her hands.
+
+    [_Bertrand_ looks for a moment to satisfy his doubts, then rushes
+    forward and casts himself upon his knee transportedly.]
+
+_Bert._ She lives! Eternal mercy! thanks! thanks!
+
+_Mon._ Holy St. Dennis! the sight of her has strangely moved you:
+collect yourself, I pray, she comes towards us.
+
+_Bert._ Oh! let me cast myself before her feet!
+
+_Mon._ (_restraining him_) Hold, sir! whatever be your business,
+I beseech you to refrain a little, I must prepare her for your
+appearance, her spirits cannot brook surprise, back! back!
+
+    [_Bertrand_ withdraws, and _Eugenia_ descends the stair with a
+    folded paper in her hand--she appears to struggle with emotion,
+    and running towards _Monica_, casts her arms passionately around
+    her.]
+
+_Eug._ My kind mother! this is perhaps our last embrace; we must part.
+
+_Mon._ Part! my child! what mean you?
+
+_Eug._ Ah! it is my fate, my cruel unrelenting fate that drives me from
+you, from the last shelter and the only friend I yet retain on earth.
+
+_Mon._ Explain yourself; I cannot comprehend.
+
+_Eug._ Mother! I have an enemy, a dreadful one. Seventeen years have
+veil'd me from his hate in vain: those years have wasted the victim's
+form, but the persecutor's heart remains unchanged: my retreat is
+discovered: the wretches who were here last night too surely recognized
+me; soon they may return, and force me; oh! thought of horror. No, no,
+here I dare not stay.
+
+_Mon._ My poor innocent! whither would you go?
+
+_Eug._ To the woods and caves from which you rescued me. Mother, the
+wilderness must be my home again. I fly to wolves and vultures to escape
+from man! Receive this paper, 'tis the written memoir of my wretched
+life; read it when I am gone: my head burned and my hand trembled while
+I traced those characters: yet 'tis a faithful history. Mother! I dare
+not thank your charity, but heaven will remember it hereafter: bestow
+upon me one embrace, and then let me depart in silence.
+
+    (_Monica_ gives a sign to _Bertrand_ to advance.)
+
+_Mon._ Yet hold some moments; a stranger has been inquiring here this
+morning who describes himself your friend.
+
+_Eug._ Ah! no, no: the tomb long since has covered all my friends; 'tis
+some wily agent of my foe! Ah! forbid him mother; let him not
+approach me.
+
+_Mon._ 'Tis too late; he is already in the house.
+
+_Eug._ Where?
+
+    (_Monica_ points, and _Eugenia's_ eyes following her direction,
+    rest upon the prostrate figure of _Bertrand_, who has placed
+    himself in a posture of supplication, and concealed his face with
+    his hands.)
+
+_Eug._ (_gazing intensely with apprehension._) Speak! you kneel and
+still are silent. Ah! what would you require of me?
+
+_Bert._ (_uncovering his face without raising his eyes_) Pardon! pardon!
+
+_Eug._ (_shrieking and flying_) Ah! Bertrand.
+
+_Bert._ (_catching her mantle_) Stay! angel of mercy, stay and hear me.
+He that was your scourge now yields himself your slave: a wretched
+penitent despairing man lies humbled in the dust before you, and
+implores for pardon.
+
+_Eug._ (_pauses--presses her crucifix to her lips, and then replies with
+fervor._) Yes! charity and peace to all! Nay, heaven forgive thee,
+sinful man, I never will accuse thee at its bar.
+
+_Bert._ Angel! my actions better than my prayers may plead with heaven
+for mercy: the cruel wrongs that I have offered, yet in part may be
+atoned--lady, I come to serve and save you.
+
+_Eug._ Ah! to what fresh terrors am I yet devoted?
+
+_Bert._ Might we converse without a witness? in your ear only dare I
+breathe my purpose.
+
+_Mon._ Nay, I will not be an eaves-dropper: my child you do not fear
+this person now? I'll leave you with him--nay, 'tis best--perchance he
+comes indeed with service. My blessings go with you, stranger, if you
+mean her fairly, but if you wrong or play her false, a widow's curse
+fall heavy on your death-bed.  [_Exit up the staircase._
+
+    (A pause of mutual agitation.)
+
+_Eug._ Speak! man of terrors--say what has the persecuted and undone
+Eugenia yet to dread?
+
+_Bert._ The baron Longueville--
+
+_Eug._ That fiend!
+
+_Bert._ He now is in the neighbourhood; as yet he dreams not that you
+live: but accident this very hour might betray you to his knowledge.
+Lady! I possess the means. O blessed chance! to shield you from his
+malice.
+
+_Eug._ And wilt thou; O! wilt thou, Bertrand, at last extend a pitying
+arm to raise the wretch, thy former hate had stricken to the ground?
+I have been despoiled of fortune, fame, and health: my brain has been
+distracted by thy cruelty: yet now preserve me from this worst extreme
+of fate: let me not die the slave of Longueville, all my injuries, all
+my sufferings are forgotten, and this one gracious act shall win thy
+pardon for a thousand sins.
+
+_Bert._ Lady! my o'er weighed conscience heaves impatiently to cast its
+load. (_sinks on his knee_) Lo! at your injured feet I kneel, and
+solemnly pronounce a vow, the tyrant Longueville shall mar your peace no
+more.
+
+    [The cottage-door silently opens, and _Sanguine_ looks in--he
+    makes a sign to _Longueville_ who follows, and they glide to the
+    further end of the cottage unperceived; where they remain in
+    anxious observation of the characters in front.]
+
+_Eug._ Rise! your penitence wears nature's stamp, and I believe it
+honest.
+
+_Bert._ Oh! lady, your words redeem me from despair: but say, to ease a
+heart that aches with wonder: say, by what prodigy you 'scaped the
+flames of that tremendous night, when all believed you perished?
+
+_Eug._ (_shuddering._) Ah! what hast thou said? my dream of confidence
+dissolves, and now I turn from thee again with horror! Again I view thy
+murderous poniard reared to strike! Again my wounded infant shrieks upon
+my bosom, and the fiery gulf yawns redly at my feet! begone? begone! for
+now I hate thee!
+
+_Bert._ Ah, not to me--to Longueville ascribe the horrors of that night.
+(_Aside_) What shall I say? I dare not own to her that De Valmont lives.
+Hear me, lady; scarce was your lord's untimely fall reported, when the
+cruel Longueville in secret plotted to remove his infant heir, the only
+bar that held him from a rich succession; by hellish means he won me to
+his cause: _his_ hand it was that oped the castle gates at midnight to
+the foe, and when the fierce Huguenots rushed shouting through the
+halls, still _his_ hand it was that fired the chamber where you slept in
+peace: to save your child you rushed distracted to the rampart's edge;
+just as I followed to complete my prey, a falling turret crossed my
+path, and presently the general fabric sank in ruin.
+
+_Eug._ A wayward destiny that night was mine; at once both saved and
+lost! a hidden passage dug beneath the rampart, twining through many a
+cavern'd maze, at distance opened to the woods. I reached the secret
+entrance of that pass, just as the turret fell and screened me from
+pursuit. Concealing darkness wrapt my flying steps: the roar of death
+sank far behind, and ere the dawn, in safety with my child, I gained the
+forest.
+
+_Bert._ Your child! eternal powers! the infant then escaped my blow.
+
+_Eug._ Thy dagger's point twice scarred his innocent hand, but failed
+to reach the life. (_Bertrand gesticulates his transport_) A sanguine
+cross indelibly remained; but nature and his mother's tears assuaged the
+pain. Charitable foresters, ignorant of our rank, relieved our wants and
+changed our robes for rustic weeds; thus disguised, my infant in my
+arms, on foot I travelled far and long, seeking ever by the loneliest
+paths, to reach my sovereign's court, and at the throne of power implore
+for justice.
+
+_Bert._ O! does the infant yet survive? Speak, lady! bless me with those
+words--he lives.
+
+_Eug._ No, Bertrand, no; fortune but mocked me with a moment's hope to
+curse me deeper still through ages of despair. In vain I snatched my
+darling boy from poniard and from flame: when way-lost in the
+wilderness, but for a moment did I quit my treasure, the mazes of the
+wood ensnared my step: the fever of my body rushed upon my brain:
+I wandered, never to return; while my forsaken infant--he perished,
+Bertrand. Ah! my brain begins to burn afresh! mark me, he perished
+terribly: inquire not further.
+
+_Bert._ (_deeply affected._) Thou suffering excellence! be witness
+heaven! the monster that I was, no longer has a life; thy tears have
+drowned it quite, and now it strangely melts in pity and remorse. Come,
+lady, let me bestow thee in a safe retreat: the hoarded wages of my
+sinful youth, I'll use as offerings to redeem thy peace: far hence in
+foreign lands a certain refuge waits our flight, and there secure from
+Longueville--
+
+    [The _Baron_ suddenly stands before them in the centre: _Eugenia_
+    shrieks and _Bertrand_ stands aghast and trembles.]
+
+_Bert._ Undone forever?
+
+_Long._ (_furiously to Sanguine_) Guard well the door--let not a
+creature enter or depart.
+
+    [_Sanguine_ advances by his direction. _Eugenia_ flies by the
+    stairs to the upper chamber. _Longueville_, after a short pause of
+    indecisive passion, draws a poniard and seizes upon _Bertrand_.]
+
+_Long._ Wretch!
+
+_Bert._ Strike! yes, deep in this guilty bosom, strike at once, and rid
+me of despair.
+
+_Long._ Thou double traitor! thy perjuries now meet their just reward.
+Tremble at impending death.
+
+_Bert._ No; I have not feared to live in vice, and will not shrink at
+least to die for virtue.
+
+_Long._ (_throwing him off._) No; I will not take the wretched forfeit:
+thou'rt spared from hate, not pity; I gave thee back thy life, but I
+will study punishments, to make the boon a curse unutterable.
+
+_Bert._ Tyrant, I defy thy vengeance to increase my torments; the
+innocent, I pledged myself to save, already stands devoted to
+destruction, and the measure of my anguish and despair is full.
+
+_Long._ (_to Sanguine_) Sanguine, ascend the stair, and force that
+wretched woman to my presence.
+
+_Bert._ Hold, hold, my lord! recal those threatning words. O God! what
+damning crime is in your thoughts? pause--yet for a moment, pause, ere
+you barter to the fiend your soul for ages. Omnipotence hath interposed
+with miracles and still preserved you from the guilt you sought, your
+conscience yet is undefiled with blood.
+
+_Long._ Away! my purpose is resolved.
+
+_Bert._ Will you then reject the mercy Heaven extends? (_kneels and
+catching his cloak._) Hear me, my lord; nay, for your own eternal being,
+hear me; as you now deal with this afflicted innocent, even so,
+hereafter, shall the God of judgment deal with you.
+
+_Long._ I brave the peril, (_call aloud_) hasten, Sanguine, produce my
+victim.
+
+_Bert._ (_Desperately._) Cover me mountains! hide me from the sun! (_He
+casts himself upon the ground._)
+
+    (_Sanguine_ returns precipitately from above.)
+
+_Sang._ My lord, one fatal moment has undone your scheme, the female has
+escaped.
+
+_Long._ Villain! escaped.
+
+_Bert._ (_raising himself in frantic joy._) Ha!
+
+_Sang._ I found the casement of the upper chamber open, some twisted
+linen fastened to the bar, nearly reached to the ground without, and
+proved the method of her flight; a beldame who must have aided her
+escape, remains alone above, (_turning towards the window_,) ha! I catch
+a female figure darting through the trees at a distance; she runs with
+lightning speed,--now--she turns towards the castle.
+
+_Long._ Distraction! if she gains the castle, I am lost forever; pursue!
+pursue!
+
+    [_Longueville_ and _Sanguine_ rush out.
+
+_Bert._ (_Vehemently._) Guardians of innocence, direct her steps!
+  [_He follows them._
+
+
+  SCENE III.--_A Gallery in the Chateau._
+
+    Enter _Rosabelle_ followed by _Gaspard_.
+
+_Gasp._ Ha! young mistress Rosabelle, whither so fast I pray? 'faith,
+damsel, you are fleet of foot.
+
+_Ros._ Yet my steps are heavier than my heart, for that's all feather,
+ready for any flight in fancy's hemisphere; give thought but breath, and
+'twere blown in a second to the moon or the antipodes, wilt along with
+me, Gaspard?
+
+_Gasp._ What, to the moon or the antipodes? Alack! damsel, I should
+prove but a sorry travelling companion upon either road; no, no, youth
+is for night; but age for falls.
+
+_Ros._ Wilt turn a waltz anon, and be my partner in the dance?
+
+_Gasp._ Hey! madcap, have we dances toward?
+
+_Ros._ Ay! upon the terrace presently, all the world will assemble
+there; the lady Geraldine and myself for beauty; and then for rank, we
+shall have the count himself, and the baron, and the chevalier, and--
+
+_Gasp._ Out upon you, magpie; would you delude the old man with fables?
+his lordship, the count, among revellers! truly a pleasant jest; I have
+been his watchful servant these twenty years, and never knew him to
+abide the sight or sound of pleasures.
+
+_Ros._ Then I can acquaint you, he proposes on this day to regale both
+his eyes and his ears with a novelty; I heard him promise lady Geraldine
+to join the pastimes on the terrace.
+
+_Gasp._ Oh! the blest tidings: damsel, thy tongue has made a boy of me
+again.
+
+_Ros._ Now charity forefend, for so should I bring thee to thy second
+childhood.
+
+_Gasp._ Ah! would you fleer me! his lordship among revellers! oh! the
+blest prodigy! well, well, I give no promise, mark; but should a certain
+damsel lack a partner, adod. I know not--sixty-live shows with an
+ill-grace in a rigadoon, but for a minuet: well, well, St. Vitus
+strengthen me, and I accept thy challenge.  [_Exit._
+
+_Ros._ Go thy ways, thou antique gallantry; thy pledge shall never be
+endangered by my claim; I'm for a brisker partner in every dance through
+life, I promise thee.
+
+AIR.--_Rosabelle._
+
+  On the banks of the Rhine, at the sun-setting hour,
+    Oh! meet me, and greet me, my true love, I pray!
+  Or feasting, or sleeping, in hall, or in bower,
+    To the Rhine-bank, oh! true love, rise up and away!
+
+  On that bank, an old willow dejectedly grieves
+    And drops from each leaf, for love's falsehoods, a tear;
+  Go! rivals, and gather the willow's pale leaves,
+  For falsehood ne'er cross'd between me and my dear.
+
+    [_Exit._
+
+
+  SCENE IV.--_The Castle Gardens decorated for a Fete, and crowded
+  with Dancers and Musicians: a lofty Terrace crosses the extremity of
+  the Stage, from which Village-Girls advance, scattering flowers
+  before Geraldine, who is led by Florian to an open Temple between
+  the Side-scenes, containing three Seats._
+
+_Ger._ (_Pointing to the centre seat_) There is our hero's seat of
+triumph: nay, my commands are absolute, and you have no appeal,
+I reserve this for my uncle, he will join us presently.
+
+    (They seat themselves--a ballet immediately commences--boys,
+    habited as warriors, pay homage before _Florian_, and hang military
+    trophies round his seat. Girls enter, as wood-nymphs, &c. who
+    surprise and disarm the warriors, then remove the trophies, and
+    replace them with garlands. The warriors and nymphs join in a
+    general dance--Suddenly a piercing shriek is heard: the action of
+    the scene abruptly stops, and _Eugenia_, entering from the top of
+    the stage, rushes distractedly between the groups of dancers, and
+    casts herself at the feet of _Geraldine_.)
+
+_Eug._ Save me! save me!
+
+_Ger._ Ah! what wretched supplicant is this?
+
+_Flor._ By heavens! the very woman who yesternight preserved my life.
+
+    _Longueville_ enters in pursuit.
+
+_Long._ (_Advancing rapidly, with instant self-command_) Dear friends!
+Heaven has this hour appointed me the agent of its grace. I have
+discovered in this wretched woman, the long-lost wife of an ancient
+friend, at Baden; lend your assistance to secure her person 'till I can
+apprise the husband of this unexpected meeting.
+
+_Eug._ No, no, I have no husband--they have murdered him; he would
+betray--destroy me. (_catching Geraldine's robe_) Oh! you, whose looks
+are heavenly-soft, to _you_ I plead: protect me from this fiend.
+
+_Ger._ How earnestly she grasps my hand, indeed--indeed her agony seems
+genuine.
+
+_Long._ You are deceived, she utters nought but madness, her mind has
+been for years incurably diseased; come, away! away!
+
+    (He seizes violently upon _Eugenia_ to force her with him, she
+    clings to _Geraldine_ in anguish.)
+
+_Eug._ Forsake me not! I have no protector to invoke but you.
+
+_Ger._ Forbear, my lord, I cannot find that wildness you proclaim;
+forbear, and recollect the rights of hospitality never yet were violated
+at my uncle's gate. Lady, dismiss your fears, here sorrow ever meets a
+ready shelter, for here resides the Count De Valmont.
+
+_Eug._ Who?
+
+_Ger._ The excellent, the suffering Count De Valmont.
+
+_Eug._ (_starting up with recurring insanity._) Ha! ha! ha! come to the
+altar,--my love waits for me, weave me a bridal crown!
+
+_Long._ (_triumphantly._) Behold! can you doubt me now?
+
+_Ger._ Too painfully I am convinced; miserable being! Ah! remove her
+hence, before my uncle joins us; so terrible an object would
+inexpressibly afflict him.
+
+_Flor._ Yes, yes; remove her hence! but O! I charge you treat her with
+the tenderest care.
+
+_Long._ (_eagerly to his people._) Advance! bear her to my pavilion!
+mark! to _my_ pavilion on the river-bank!
+
+    (The men seize upon _Eugenia_--the _Count_ appears at the same
+    moment advancing from the extremity of the Terrace.)
+
+_De Val._ My friends! I come to join your pleasures.
+
+_Eug._ (_struggling violently._) Hark! he calls me to his arms--unhand
+me! nay, then oh! cruel, cruel, cruel.
+
+    (Overcome by her exertions, she sinks into a swoon and falls in
+    the arms of the two men. _Longueville_ rapidly draw her veil
+    across to conceal her features from the _Count_ as he advances.)
+
+_Long._ Away with her this instant!
+
+    [He turns quickly toward the Terrace and catches De Valmont's arm
+    as he descends to prevent his approach--then turns imperatively to
+    the men.]
+
+_Long._ Quick! Quick! away!
+
+    _De Valmont_ pauses in surprize: _Longueville_ maintains his
+    restraining attitude. _Florian_ and _Geraldine_ join to arrest his
+    steps: the bravos withdraw the insensible and unresisting _Eugenia_
+    upon the opposite side: The various characters dispose themselves
+    into a picture, and the curtain falls upon the Scene.
+
+
+    End of act II.
+
+
+
+
+ACT III.
+
+
+  SCENE I.--_The Steward's Room, _Gaspard_ and _L'Eclair_ discovered
+  drinking, the latter half-intoxicated._
+
+_Gas._ Adod! a very masterpiece of the military art? Why this Turenne
+must be a famous captain. I'll drink his health, (_drinks_) Odso! where
+did we leave the enemy? Oh! the Bavarians were just driven across the
+Neckar, and had destroyed the bridge. Well, and then what did our
+troops?
+
+_L'Ecl._ They clashed after them thro' the river like a pack of otters.
+
+_Gasp._ Hold; you said just now the river wasn't fordable.
+
+_L'Ecl._ Did I? Pshaw, I only meant, it wasn't fordable to the enemy:
+no, poor devils! they couldn't ford it certainly; but as to our hussars:
+whew! such fellows as they would _get_ thro' any thing, were it ever so
+deep to the bottom. (_takes the flask from Gaspard and drinks_).
+
+_Gasp._ O! the rare hussars! Now this is a conversation just to my
+heart's content. I dearly love to hear of battles and sieges. The
+household are all retired to rest, and my room is private; so here we
+may sit peaceably, and talk about war for the remainder of the night.
+
+_L'Ec._ Bravo! agreed: we'll make a night of it; but harkye, is not this
+room of yours built in a queer sort of a circular shape?
+
+_Gasp._ No; a most perfect square.
+
+_L'Ec._ Well, I never studied mathematics; but, for a perfect square,
+methinks it has the oddest trick of turning round with its company I
+ever witnessed.
+
+    Enter _Rosabelle_.
+
+_Ros._ Here's a display of profligacy! So, gentlemen, are these your
+morals? Methinks you place a special example before the household;
+drinking and carousing thus after midnight, when all decent persons
+ought to be at rest within their beds.
+
+_Gasp._ Marry now, my malapert lady! How comes it you are found abroad
+at these wild hours?
+
+_Ros._ I have always important motives for my conduct. A strange female
+waits at the castle-gate, who clamors for admittance; she seems in deep
+distress, refuses to accept denial or excuse, and demands to speak with
+the person of first consequence in the family. Now, Mr. Gaspard, as you
+happen to be steward--
+
+_Gasp._ (_rises pompously_) I am of course the personage required. You
+say a female?
+
+_Ros._ Yes; she waits for you in heavy trouble at the gate.
+
+_Gasp._ I fly. Gallantry invites, and I obey the call. Good Mr.
+L'Eclair, I cast myself upon your courtesy for this abrupt departure:
+
+  'Tis woman tempts from friendship, war, and wine--
+  My fault is human--my excuse divine! [_Exit._
+
+_Ros._ In sooth, the old gentleman has not forgotten his manners in his
+cups; but as to you, sir, (_to L'Eclair_) how stupidly you sit--have you
+nothing to say for yourself?
+
+_L'Ec._ (_rising and reeling towards her_). Much, very much--
+love--midnight--all snug and private.
+
+_Ros._ Mercy O me! the wretch is certainly intoxicated; how wickedly his
+eyes begin to twinkle. Why, Scapegrace, I'm sure you're not sober.
+
+_L'Ec._ Don't say so, pray don't, you wound my delicacy. O! Rosabelle!
+beautiful but misjudging Rosabelle! I am unfortunate, but not criminal.
+This morning I beheld only one Rosabelle, and yet I was undone; now I
+seem to behold two Rosabelles; ergo, I either see double, or am doubly
+undone. There's logic for you. Now, could a man who wasn't sober, talk
+logic? only answer me that.
+
+_Ros._ What shall I do with him? If I leave him here, he'll drink
+himself into a fever. I must e'en coax him. L'Eclair, come, come, my
+dear L'Eclair, let me prevail upon you to go to bed; I'm going to bed
+myself.
+
+_L'Ec._ O! fy, that's too broad; I blush for you; would you delude my
+innocence?
+
+_Ros._ The profligate monster! I delude!
+
+_L'Ec._ Well, I yield to fate: stars! veil your chaste heads, and thou.
+O! little candle, hide thy wick! behold the lamb submitting to the
+sacrifice. (_Reels to embrace her._)
+
+_Ros._ Why, you heathen monster! how dare you talk to me about lambs and
+sacrifices? ah! if you stir another step, I'll alarm the family! I can
+scream, sir!
+
+_L'Ec._ I know you can; but pray, don't, somebody might hear you, and
+that would be very disappointing, recollect I have a character to lose.
+
+_Ros._ And have not I a character too, Sir?
+
+_L'Ec._ Hush! hush! Let's drops the subject.
+
+_Ros._ How now, sirrah! have you any thing to say against my character?
+
+_L'Ec._ Oh! no, I never speak ill of the dead.
+
+_Ros._ Why, you vile insinuating, but I shall preserve my temper though
+you have lost your manners: well, assuredly of all objects in creation,
+the most pitiable is a man in liquor.
+
+_L'Ec._ There's an exception--a man in love.
+
+DUETT.--_Rosabelle and L'Eclair._
+
+  _Ros._ The precept of Bacchus to man proves a curse,
+  The head it confounds, and the heart it bewitches.
+
+  _L'Ec._ I'm sure, the example of Cupid is worse,
+  For he walks abroad without shirt, drawers, or breeches.
+
+  _Ros._ Pshaw! Cupid, you dolt, has rich garments enough.
+
+  _L'Ec._ Nay, his wardrobe's confin'd to a plain suit of buff.
+
+  _Ros._ 'Twas Bacchus taught men to drown reason in cans.
+
+  _L'Ec._ 'Twas Cupid taught ladies the first use of fans.
+
+  _Ros._ How diff'rent the garland, their votaries twine,--
+  How genteel is the myrtle--how vulgar the vine!
+
+  _L'Ec._ Of myrtle or vine I pretend not to know,
+  But a fig-leaf I think would be most apropos:  [_Exeunt._
+
+
+  SCENE II.--_The Count's Chamber--De Valmont is discovered gazing in
+  profound meditation upon a miniature picture._
+
+  _De Val._ Eugenia!
+  Now of the angel race, and hous'd in Heaven!
+  Forgive, dear saint! these blameful eyes that flow
+  With human love, and mourn thy blessedness.
+  O! ye strange powers! with what excelling truth
+  Has Art's small hand here mimic'd mightiest Nature!
+  What cheeks are these! could Death e'er crop such roses?
+  Eyes! star-bright twins! fair glasses to fair thoughts,
+  Where, as by truest oracles confest,
+  The godlike soul reveals itself in glory.
+  Your glances thrill me! amber-twinkling threads!
+  Half bound by grace, half loos'd by winds, how strays
+  This shining ringlet o'er this clear white breast!
+  Like the pale sunshine streaking wintry snows!
+  These lips have life--yea! very breath; a sweet
+  Warm spirit stirs thru' the cleft ruby now!
+  They move--they smile--they speak. Soft! soft! sweet heavens!
+  I'll gaze no more; there's witchcraft in this skill,
+  And my abus'd weak brain may madden soon!
+
+    (conceals the picture in his bosom)
+
+  The spell is hidden, still th' illusion works:
+  O! in my heart Eugenia art thou trac'd--
+  There--there--thou livest--speakest--yet art mortal.
+  Strong memory triumphs over death and time,
+  In all my circling blood--each vein--each pulse
+  Wherever life is, ever there art thou.
+
+    (Gaspard speaks without.)
+
+_Gasp._ Go, go; his lordship may not be disturb'd.
+
+_Mon._ (_without_) Away! I have a cause that must be heard.
+
+_De Val._ How now! voices in the anti-room! Ho!
+
+    Enter _Gaspard_.
+
+_Gasp._ Alack! that folk will be so troublesome: my good lord! here's a
+strange woman; truly a most obstinate spirit, who craves vehemently to
+be heard, on matters (so she reports) of much importance to your
+lordship.
+
+_De Val._ Nay, in the morning be it; not at this hour.
+
+_Gasp._ I told her so; my very words; but truly, her grief seems to have
+craz'd her reason.
+
+_De Val._ How! is she unhappy then? her sorrows be her passport here;
+admit her instantly: where should the afflicted heart prefer a prayer,
+if kindred wretchedness deny its sympathy?
+
+    (_Gaspard_ introduces _Monica_.)
+
+_Mon._ So! you are seen at last, my lord! men say your heart is good;
+grant Heaven! I find it so; but ah! perhaps it is too late. Yes, yes;
+I fear it: the dove is in the vulture's grip already.
+
+_De Val._ Woman! what strange distraction's this? Give me a knowledge of
+your griefs with method.
+
+_Mon._ I will, I will, but anguish stifles me; O! my lord, my lord, this
+is your castle, and here she fled for shelter, yet cruel hearts refused
+her prayer. I have been told by your people that the baron's pavilion on
+the river-bank is made her prison; she will be murdered there: oh! my
+lord, gracious lord, save her, save her!
+
+    (She throws herself passionately at his feet.)
+
+_De Val._ Rise; attempt composure, your words are riddles to me.
+
+_Gasp._ My lord! 'tis of the poor lunatic she speaks; she whom the baron
+has confined: this woman claims her as her charge.
+
+_De Val._I saw the person not, but heard in brief her story from the
+baron; rest, good woman, rest; my kinsman is her friend.
+
+_Mon._ No, no, he is a monster thirsting for her blood: here, here,
+I have read his character.
+
+    (Producing Eugenia's MSS.)
+
+_De Val._ Beware! you offend me; grief yields no privilege to slander.
+
+_Mon._ I am not a slanderer, indeed, _indeed_, I am not; here are
+proofs: your lordship, I find, is called the Count De Valmont; had you
+not once a relation of the same title, who fell in battle with the
+Huguenots eighteen years ago!
+
+_De Val._ Never.
+
+_Mon._ Yet 'twas the same title: ay, here 'tis written: "in forcing the
+passage of the Durance."
+
+_De Val._ How! 'tis of myself assuredly you read; I was reported falsely
+in that very action to have fallen; and for a time my death was credited
+through France.
+
+_Mon._ Ah! my lord! my lord! O! it rushes on my heart--nay, give but a
+moment; speak; were you once wedded to a lady named Eugenia?
+
+_De Val._ Woman! ah, name beloved!--wherefore that torturing question?
+
+_Mon._ Yes, yes; it is--it must be so--I cannot, here--read--this!--
+(_giving the scroll_).
+
+_De Val._ Eternal Powers! Eugenia's well-known character! when and
+whence did you procure this writing?
+
+_Mon._ This very morning, from her own hand, my lord, Eugenia lives to
+bless and to be blessed again.
+
+    (_De Valmont_ starts as if stricken to the center, for a moment
+    his features express amazement, then incredulity, and lastly
+    indignation.)
+
+_De Val._ Begone! thou wretched woman, lest I forget thy sex, and kill
+thee for thy cruelty.
+
+_Mon._ Nay, let me die, but not be doubted: read, read, and let your
+eyes assure your soul of joy!
+
+    (The _Count_ faintly staggers back into a seat, and then fastens
+    his eyes upon the scroll with a frenzied earnestness.)
+
+_Gasp._ Woman! if you have spoken falsely, my noble master's heart will
+break at once.
+
+_Mon._ By the great issue, let my words be judged!
+
+_De Val._ (_reading_) "The chamber burst in flames, I snatched my infant
+from its slumber, I heard the voice of Longueville direct our murder,
+ruffians rushed towards us to perform his bidding." (_starting forward
+with uncontrolable fury_) Oh! God of wrath and vengeance! hear thou a
+husband's and a father's prayer! strike the pale villain! oh! with thy
+hottest lightning blast him dead! a curse, a tenfold curse o'erwhelm his
+death-bed! Traitor! thou shalt not 'scape, this hand shall rend thy
+heart-strings, I'll smite thee home.
+
+    (In the delirium of his passion he draws his sword, and strikes
+    with it as at an ideal combatant, his bodily powers forsake him in
+    the effort, he reels, and falls convulsed into Gaspard's arms.)
+
+_Gasp._ Help! help! death is on him, help there swiftly!
+
+    (_Geraldine_ rushes in, followed by domestics.)
+
+_Ger._ Whence these cries? ah Heavens! what killing sight is this?
+uncle, uncle, speak to me, 'tis Geraldine that calls.
+
+    Enter _Florian_ from the opposite side.
+
+_Flor._ My patron! ha! convulsed! dying. Eternal Mercy spare his sacred
+life!
+
+_Ger._ Nay, bend him forward, his eyes unclose again--he sees--he
+knows us.
+
+    (The _Count_ in silence draws a hand from _Geraldine_ and _Florian_
+    within his own, and presses them together to his heart.)
+
+_Flor._ How fares it, sir? bless us with your voice.
+
+_De Val._ Ah! Ah! (_he grasps the scroll and points to it emphatically,
+but cannot articulate._)
+
+_Flor._ O! for a knowledge of your gracious pleasure, speak sir,
+pronounce one word.
+
+_De Val._ (_very faintly and with effort._) Longueville: ah fly,
+preserve-- (_again his accents fail him, he seems to collect all his
+remaining strength for one short effort, and a second time just
+articulates_) --Longueville! (_he relapses into insensibility._)
+
+_Flor._ Enough! I comprehend your will; nay, bear him gently in, I'll to
+the river-bank and seek the Baron!
+
+    (_Geraldine, &c. bear the count off on one side, Florian rushes
+    away by the opposite._)
+
+
+  SCENE III.--_A rugged Cliff that overhangs the River._
+
+    Enter _Longueville_ and _Sanguine_.
+
+_Long._ Tardy, neglectful slave! still does he loiter?
+
+_Sang._ Nay, return to the pavilion; the signal soon must greet us: you
+bade Lenoire to sound his bugle when he reached the bank.
+
+_Long._ Ay, thrice the blast should be repeated; still must I listen for
+those notes of destiny in vain? hark! here you nothing now?
+
+_Sang._ Only the rising tide that murmurs hoarsly as it frets and chafes
+against the bank below us.
+
+_Long._ Is midnight passed?
+
+_Sang._ Long since: just as we crossed the glen the monastery chime
+swang heavy with the knell of yesterday.
+
+_Long._ A guiltless end that flighted yesterday hath reached. O! that
+the morrow found as clear a tomb! When the next midnight tolls, Eugenia,
+thou wilt rest in blessedness, whilst thy murderer-- Ah! what charmed
+couch shall bring the sweet forgetful slumber at that hour to me?
+Midnight, the welcome sabbath of unstained souls, O, to the murderer
+thou art terrible--silence and darkness that with the innocent make
+blessed time, to him bring curses, for then through sealed ears and
+close-veiled eyes, strange sounds and sights will steal their way, that
+in the hum and glare of day-light dare not stir: then o'er the wretch's
+forehead ooze cold beads of dew--in feverish, brain-sick dreams, with
+starts and groans: on beds of seeming down he feels the griding rack,
+and finds himself a hell more fierce, than fiends can show hereafter.
+
+_Sang._ How now, my lord? unmanned by conscience? Nay, then, let Eugenia
+live.
+
+_Long._ Not for an angel's birthright! think'st thou I would deign to
+breathe on wretched sufferance? No, no; her death is necessary to my
+honor and my peace. Come on! my hand may falter, but my heart's
+resolved; 'tis sworn, inexorably sworn: Eugenia dies.  [_Exeunt._
+
+
+  SCENE IV.--_The river-bank--the Rhine flows across the stage at
+  distance--on one side a pavilion extends obliquely, through the
+  lower windows of which lights appear--nearly opposite is a small
+  bower of lattice-work.--The moon at full, has just risen above the
+  German bank, and pours its radiance upon the water. _Bertrand_ is
+  discovered watching the pavilion._
+
+_Bert._ I watch in vain; all means of access to the prisoner are
+debarred: her chamber now is dark and silent: still tapers glare and
+voices murmur from the hall beneath: the baron and Sanguine are there:
+'tis against life these midnight plotters stir. Oh! that this heart
+might bleed to its last guilty drop in ransom for Eugenia! Soft! does
+not the dashing of a distant oar disturb the silence of the tide? Yes;
+just where the moonlight gleams a boat now crosses rapidly; it rows
+towards this bank; it pauses now in stillness--what may this mean? the
+hour so late, the spot so unfrequented and remote. (_A bugle is sounded
+three times_) Ha! a bugle sounded thrice! too sure the omen of some
+fatal deed. I will not quit this spot--no, Eugenia, I will preserve or
+perish with thee! Soft, the pavilion opens. Bower, receive me to thy
+friendly shades! watch with me blessed spirits.
+
+    (He retires into the bower fronting the pavilion. _Longueville_
+    advances cautiously from the pavilion.)
+
+_Long._ 'Twas the signal! the boat has reached the bank, Ho! Lenoire!
+advance: no eye observes thy step.
+
+    Enter _Lenoire_ along the bank by an entrance between the bower
+    and the river.
+
+_Len._ All is prepared: your orders are fulfiled.
+
+_Long._ Laggard! too many precious moments have been wasted in their
+execution: the moon has risen high, and casts a brightness round scarce
+feebler than the day: your course may be observed.
+
+_Len._ Dismiss that fear: nothing that lives hath voice or motion: now,
+not e'en the solitary fisher spreads his nets upon the stream.
+
+_Long._ Where have you left the boat?
+
+_Len._ Under the bank in shade, fastened to the roots of yon tall
+willow.
+
+_Long._ Sanguine shall accompany you; then when you reach the middle of
+the current--
+
+_Len._ Ay, where it flows deep and strong; Eugenia's funeral rites are
+few and brief.
+
+_Long._ To-morrow, I shall report she has been conveyed in safety to her
+friends upon the German bank--thus all inquiry stands forever barred.
+
+    [_Bertrand_, who watches from the bower, clasps his hands in
+    despair and groans aloud.]
+
+_Long._ Ha! what sound was that?
+
+_Len._ (_looking cautiously round._) Some tree moaning to the blast--no
+more.
+
+_Long._ Now then! yet hold! wherefore come you not masked? some of the
+peasantry may chance to stir ere you return, and I should wish your
+persons were unmarked by any.
+
+_Len._ I left a mask within the boat; this flowing mantle will conceal
+my dress--trust me both form and feature shall effectually be hid.
+
+    (_Bertrand_ makes a gesticulation of hope towards the pavilion,
+    then glides silently round the angle of the bower, and starts
+    along the bank.)
+
+_Long._ 'Tis well! (_to the pavilion._) Ho! Sanguine! lead forth your
+charge: despatch, Lenoire! return to the boat, and row it swiftly
+hither! Away!
+
+  [Exit _Lenoire_.
+
+She comes! Ill-starred Eugenia! fate chides the lingering echo of thy
+step, yet but a moment and 'tis hushed forever.
+
+    _Sanguine_ leads _Eugenia_ from the pavilion._
+
+_Eug._ Ah! whither do you lead me? Speak, in pity--nay, nay, I prithee
+force me not; this is a savage hour, and I must fear your purpose,
+speak, whither would you hurry me? Ah! Longueville! now then I read my
+answer--'tis to death--to murder!
+
+_Long._ Lady, you misjudge my purpose--true, that once I proved myself
+your foe, perhaps a kindless one; time and pity have extinguished hate.
+Across the Rhine, upon the German bank, a safe asylum is provided, where
+peace shall gild the evening of your life, and cure the memory of its
+early woes; 'tis necessary you should cross the river before dawn;
+a boat is now in readiness to bear you over.
+
+_Eug._ No, no, I find a language in your eye more certain than your
+lip--murder--midnight murder is its direful theme. Thou wretched man!
+rather for thee than for myself I kneel. Pause, Longueville! raise but
+thine eye to yon clear world, thick-sown with shining wonders--think,
+that throughout the boundless beauteous space, an omnipresent, and
+all-conscious spirit is; think, that within his awful eye-beam, now thy
+actions pass, and presently before his throne must wait for judgment;
+think, that whene'er he touched the veriest worm, that crawls on this
+base sphere, with life, mighty his will encompassed it with safety!
+then, tremble, creature as thou art, to spurn his law by whom thou wert
+created, nor quench with impious hand, that gifted spark Omnipotence
+hath once ordained to glow.
+
+_Long._ Lady, already I have said, your auguries wrong me (_the noise of
+a combat sounds from the bank._) Ha! the crash of swords! Sanguine! fly
+to the spot. Lenoire, I fear me, is in danger.
+
+  [Exit _Sanguine_.
+
+Confusion to my hopes! what ill-beamed planet rules the hour? Eugenia,
+return to the pavilion.
+
+_Eug._ Not, while succour seems so nigh, help! help!
+
+_Long._ Dare but repeat that cry, by heavens! this very moment is your
+last. (_draws a dagger._) Nay, nay, you strive in vain,--away!
+
+    [_Longueville_ forces _Eugenia_ into the pavilion, then drags a bar
+    across the door.
+
+What cursed step has wandered on these banks to thwart my ripe design?
+Perdition to the meddling slave! his life shall pay the forfeit of his
+rashness.
+
+    Re-enter _Sanguine_.
+
+_Sang._ My lord, the combatants, whoe'er they were, had vanished ere I
+reached the spot; close to the water's edge the turf was stained with
+blood, and already to a distance from the bank, Lenoire had rowed away
+the boat; I called aloud, but he increased his speed, and gave no
+answer.
+
+_Lon._ 'Sdeath! some prying hind has stolen on our plans; doubtless
+Lenoire has been assailed and for a while avoids the bank, fearful of
+further ambush; follow me to search yon winding path; if the villian
+have received a wound, traces of blood will guide us to his
+haunt,--vengeance direct our steps!  [_Exit, with Sanguine._
+
+    [_Eugenia_ appears at the lower windows through a grating.]
+
+_Eug._ Fond, trusting heart! art thou again deceived? does the great
+thunder sleep, and are the heavens still patient of a murderer's crimes;
+yes, yes, the sounds have ceased, and now a dreadful stillness sits upon
+the night; the tomb seems imaged in the hour. Hope in the breathless
+pause forsakes my breast forever.
+
+    Enter _Florian_.
+
+_Flor._ Ha! lights still burning--fortunately then he has not retired to
+rest,--baron! baron!  [_Runs to the door._
+
+_Eug._ (_Shrieks._) Ah! the voice of succour--turn, turn in pity--snatch
+me from despair--preserve me from the grave.
+
+_Flor._ Heavens!
+
+    [Involuntarily he withdraws the bar, and _Eugenia_ darting forth,
+    clings wildly round him.]
+
+_Flor._ Unhappy woman! whence these transports?
+
+_Eug._ Swear to preserve me, swear not to yield me to the murderer's
+dagger; no, no, you have a human heart; am I not safe with you?
+
+_Flor._ My honor and my manhood both are pledges for your safety: but
+who is the enemy you dread!
+
+_Eug._ Longueville; he seeks my life: nay, nay, I am not mad, indeed I
+am not; turn not from me: look with compassion on a desolate, devoted
+creature, whom man conspires to wrong, and Heaven forgets to aid.
+
+_Flor._ Appease these agonies; by my eternal hope, I swear, whatever the
+danger, or the foe that threatens, I will defend you with my life from
+injury.
+
+_Eug._ A wretch's blessing crown thee for the generous vow! oh! let my
+soul dissolve and gush in tears upon this gracious hand!
+
+    [_Eugenia_ enthusiastically clasps Florian's hand, and covers it
+    with tears and caresses; suddenly a new impulse appears to direct
+    her actions: she rubs the back of the hand she has seized with
+    strange earnestness, and a tremor pervades her entire frame.]
+
+_Flor._ Why do you fasten thus your looks upon my hand: what moves your
+wonder?
+
+_Eug._ (_tremblingly._) This scar, this deep, _deep_ scar, that with a
+crimson cross o'erseams your hand; speak, how gained you first this
+dreadful mark?
+
+_Flor._ From infancy I recollect the stamp, its cause remains unknown.
+
+_Eug._ Who were your parents?
+
+_Flor._ Alas! that knowledge never blessed my heart. I am a foundling:
+eighteen years since, in a forest at the foot of the Cevennes--
+
+_Eug._ Ah! did watchful angels then--yes, yes, twice the dagger struck!
+'tis nature's holy proof!
+
+_Flor._ Merciful heavens! you then possess the secret of my birth:
+woman! woman! pronounce my parents' name, and I will worship you.
+
+_Eug._ Your parents! ah! they were, ah! ah!
+
+    [She attempts to enfold him with her arms, but faints as he
+    receives the embrace.]
+
+_Flor._ Speak! I conjure you, speak! breathe but their sacred name! she
+hears me not, and nature struggles at my heart in vain!
+
+    Enter _Longueville_ and _Sanguine_ at distance.
+
+_Long._ The lurking knave, whate'er his aim, has fled beyond our search,
+and all is now secure. Has Lenoire return'd your signal to approach the
+bank?
+
+_Sang._ He rows towards us now--nay, look--the boat draws close.
+
+_Long._ Then to our last decisive deed!
+
+    [Passing to the pavilion he beholds the characters in front, and
+    starts.]
+
+Ha! confusion and despair! Eugenia rescued, and in Florian's arms!
+
+_Flor._ Help, baron!--swiftly help!--aid me to preserve a dying woman!
+
+_Long._ Florian! by what wild chance at such unwonted hour I find you on
+this spot, admits not of inquiry now--but for this fair impostor, resign
+her to my care--with me her safety is at once assured.
+
+_Flor._ Pardon me, Longueville; whate'er the laws of courtesy demand,
+I yield--but to this female's fate my soul is newly bound by ties so
+strange and strong, that even your displeasure must not part us.
+
+    [The alarum-bell tolls from the castle.]
+
+_Long._ Ha! the castle is alarmed--look out, Sanguine:--what means this
+tumult?
+
+_Sang._ My lord! the glare of numerous torches wavers through the
+grove--this way the crowd directs its course.
+
+_Long._ Distraction! --Florian, beware my just resentment, and instantly
+resign this woman! (_Attempting to force her from him._)
+
+_Flor._ Never!--my word stands pledged for her protection, and only with
+my life will I desert my honor.
+
+_Long._ Hell!--ho! Lenoire! --Lenoire!
+
+    [He rushes furiously to the bank, and motions to the boat.]
+
+_Eug._ (_just recovering._) Stay, blessed vision!-- (_recognizing
+Florian_) ah! 'twas real--I fold him to my heart, and am blessed at
+last.
+
+    [The boat, rowed by a man enveloped in a mantle and a masque, at
+    that instant gains the bank.]
+
+_Long._ (_triumphantly_) Ha! the boat arrives!--now then presumptuous
+boy! receive the chastisement you dare provoke.
+
+    [He draws and rushes upon _Florian_, who disengages himself from
+    _Eugenia_ and stands upon the defence.]
+
+_Flor._ In the just cause I would not shrink before a giant's arm!
+(_they engage._)
+
+_Eug._ (_frantic_) Inhuman Longueville!--forbear! forbear!
+
+    [While _Florian_ encounters _Longueville_, _Sanguine_ suddenly
+    darts upon _Eugenia_, who is too enfeebled to resist; by the
+    action of a moment he transports her from her protector's side to
+    the Baron's. Florian's position is next to the audience, so that
+    Longueville's sword now equally intercepts him from _Eugenia_ and
+    from the river.]
+
+_Long._ (_Perceiving his advantage_) Away!--drag--her to the boat--be
+mine the task to curb her champion's valor.
+
+_Flor._ Hold! dastard--unless thou art dead to every sense of
+manhood--hold!
+
+_Long._ Boy! I triumph, and deride thy baffled spleen.
+
+    [_Sanguine_ lifts _Eugenia_ into the boat, and the masque receives
+    her.]
+
+_Eug._ (_from the boat_) Great nature! speed my dying words! --Thou
+dear-lov'd youth! thy mother blesses thee--long-lost--late-found--
+behold! she struggles _now_ to bless her child--and _now_ she dies
+content!
+
+_Flor._ Eternal Providence! what words were those? --Longueville!
+--Barbarian! --Fiend!
+
+    [He rushes madly upon the _Baron_, who parries the assault; then
+    in an agony casts himself before his feet.]
+
+Oh! if thou art human, hold! --I kneel--I fall thy slave--spurn
+me--trample on my neck--take my life--but O! respect and spare my
+parent!
+
+_Sang._ (_from the boat_) Decide, my lord; the crowd approach, already
+they o'erlook the bank.
+
+_Long._ 'Twere vain to pause--I founder upon either course--nay then,
+revenge shall brighten ruin; swift! plunge your poniards in Eugenia's
+bosom! let me behold my victim perish, and then commit me to my fate!
+
+_Flor._ (_starting up in desperation_) Monster!
+
+_Long._ They come--obey me, slaves!
+
+    [_Sanguine_ draws _Eugenia_ back, and the _Masque_ lifts a dagger
+    over her.]
+
+_Sang._ We are prepared.
+
+_Long._ Now.
+
+_Sang._ Comrade! strike!
+
+_Masque._ Ay! to the heart!
+
+    [The _Masque_ rapidly darts his arm across Eugenia's figure and
+    plunges the dagger into _Sanguine_, who reels beneath the blow and
+    falls into the stream.
+
+(_triumphantly_) Eugenia is preserved!
+
+    [With one arm he supports the lady, and with the other snatches
+    away the masque and discovers the features of _Bertrand_.
+
+_Long._ Bertrand--perfidious slave! eternal palsies strike thy arm!
+
+    [_Gaspard_, _Monica_, _Domestics_, &c. with torches, enter at the
+    moment and surround the baron, whose surprise bereaves him of
+    power to resist.]
+
+_Flor._ Secure the villain, yet forbear his life--Mother! Mysterious
+blessing--ah! yield her to my arms--my heart!
+
+    [_Bertrand_ resigns _Eugenia_ to Florian's embrace.]
+
+_Eug._ My boy, my only one--Bertrand! life is thy gift, and now indeed I
+bless thee for the boon.
+
+_Bert._ I swore to save you, I have kept my oath, unseen I watched,
+unknown I ventured in your cause--your forgiveness half relieves my
+soul, and now I dare to pray for heaven's!
+
+    Enter _De Valmont_, supported by _Geraldine_ and _Domestics_.
+
+_De Val._ Ah! 'tis she, dear worshipp'd form; she lives--she lives.
+
+_Eug._ Ah! shield me--Florian, yon phantom shape--death surely hovers
+near--
+
+_De Val._ Nay, fly me not, Eugenia! tis thy lord, thy living lord, thy
+once beloved De Valmont calls: thou dear divorced-one bless these
+outstretch'd arms--I kneel and woo thee for my bride again!
+
+    [_Florian_ leads _Eugenia_ trembling and uncertain to the _Count_,
+    he catches her irresolute hand.]
+
+_Eug._ Indeed, my wedded lord! --I wept for a dear warrior once; and did
+the sword forbear so just a heart?--ah! chide not love, joy kills as
+well as grief--
+
+    [She sinks gradually into his embrace, and he supports her on his
+    breast in speechless tenderness.]
+
+_Long._ Detested sight! well, well, curses are weak revenge, and I'll
+disdain their use.
+
+_Flor._ Remove the monster to some sure confinement. The Count hereafter
+shall pronounce his punishment.
+
+_Long._ Already I endure my heaviest curse. I view the objects of my
+hatred crown'd with joy. Come! to a dungeon!--darkness is welcome, since
+it hides me from exulting foes!  [_Exit._
+
+_Ger._ (_advancing with tenderness._) Florian!--friend--ah! yet a dearer
+name--you rob me of a birth-right, still I must greet my new-found
+kinsman.
+
+_Flor._ Geraldine! what means my love?
+
+_De Val._ Florian! Heaven mysteriously o'er-watch'd thy hour of peril,
+and led a father through the desert, unconsciously to succour and redeem
+his child.
+
+_Flor._ Ha! De Valmont's glorious blood then circles in these veins!
+--My parent, my preserver! Ha! twice has existence been my father's
+gift.
+
+_De Val._ My pride thus long in humbleness!--my forest-prize! my
+foundling boy!--thou had'st my blessing ere I knew thy claim. Eugenia,
+greet our mutual image. Ah! wilt thou weep, sweet love. Thou bendest
+o'er his forehead e'en as a lily, brimming with clear dews, that stoops
+in beauteous sorrow to embathe its neighbouring bud. Thro' many a storm
+of perilous and marring cares o'erborne, our long-benighted loves at
+last encounter on a sun-bright course, and reach the haven of domestic
+peace.
+
+  Thus Judah's pilgrim--one whose steps in vain
+  Climb sky-crown'd rocks--o'erpace the burning plain,
+  Just when his soul despairs--his spirits faint,
+  Achieves the threshold of his long-sought Saint:
+  The desert's danger--storms and ruffian-bands--
+  All sink forgotten as the shrine expands--
+  Feet cure their toil that touch the hallow'd floors--
+  He rests his staff--kneels, trembles, and adores!
+
+    [Exeunt Omnes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+           *       *       *       *
+
+Errors and Inconsistencies: The Foundling
+
+  Spellings were changed only when there was an unambiguous error,
+  or the word occurred elsewhere with the expected spelling.
+  Variation between "Flo." and "Flor." is as in the original.
+  Names in stage directions were inconsistently italicized; they have
+  been silently regularized. Missing or invisible periods have been
+  silently supplied.
+
+_Unchanged:_
+  anti-room  [both occurrences use this spelling]
+  did'nt  [both occurrences are in this form]
+  I could as soon compose an almanac as and a clue
+    [error for "find a clue"?]
+  For falsehood ne'er cross'd between me and my dear.
+    [inconsistent indendation in original]
+  I led the unfortune to my dwelling
+    [error for "unfortunate"?]
+
+_Corrections:_
+  to be disconcerted by a hail-stone  [to de disconcerted]
+  _Bert._ (_pursuing her with his eye deliriously_)  [Bart.]
+  _Mon._ She has not quitted it this morning  [Lon.]
+  and solemnly pronounce a vow  [solemny]
+  SCENE III.--_A Gallery in the Chateau._  [Scene III.]
+  presses her crucifix to her lips  [pressess]
+  she clings to Geraldine in anguish.  [he clings]
+  catches De Valmont's arm as he descends  [decends]
+  a most obstinate spirit  [obsinate]
+  the dove is in the vulture's grip already  [gripe]
+  _Len._ All is prepared: your orders are fulfilled.  [fulfiled]
+  [Exit _Lenoire_.  [Lenoir]
+
+_Punctuation:_
+  I don't want a husband  [dont]
+  wouldst thou find happiness  [woulds't]
+  _1st Br._ Sanguine!  [printed "1st. _Br._"]
+  vibrate on the memory forever.  [, for .]
+  SCENE II.--_The Cottage._  [invisible dash]
+  How she tore her lovely locks that look'd so sandy, oh!  [? for !]
+  you said just now the river wasn't fordable  [was'nt]
+  amazement, then incredulity, and lastly indignation._)
+    [period after close parenthesis]
+  instantly resign this woman!  [? for !]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic
+Censor, by Stephen Cullen Carpenter
+
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