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diff --git a/22488.txt b/22488.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8cabdc4 --- /dev/null +++ b/22488.txt @@ -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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF TASTE *** + +***** This file should be named 22488.txt or 22488.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/4/8/22488/ + +Produced by Louise Hope, Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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