We hate the carnage while we see the trick, And Lewis' self, with all his sprites, would quake We loathe the action which exceeds belief: Digna geri, promes in scenam; multaque tolles Neve minor, neu sit quinto productior actu Above all things, Dan Poet, if you can, On whores, spies, singers wisely shipp'd away. It scorns amusements which are not of price. he has made the anachronism to set off the scene: and if he could have produced the effect "by making his heroine blue,"-I quote him-" blue he would have made her!" (1) [In 1706, Dennis, the critic, wrote an "Essay on the Operas after the Italian manner, which are about to be established on the English Stage; " in which he endeavours to show, that it is a diversion of more pernicious consequence than the most licentious play that ever appeared upon the stage. - E.] So prosper eunuchs from Etruscan schools; Ere scenes were play'd by many a reverend clerk ( (1)" The first theatrical representations, entitled Mysteries a Moralities,' were generally enacted at Christmas, by monks (as the o persons who could read), and latterly by the clergy and students of universities. The dramatis personæ were usually Adam, Pater Cœles Faith, Vice," &c. &c. - See Warton's History of English Poetry. [Th to modern eyes, wild, uncouth, and generally profane performances, w thought to contribute so much to the information and instruction of people, that one of the popes granted a pardon of one thousand days every person who resorted peaceably to the plays acted in the Whits week at Chester, beginning with the "Creation," and ending with "General Judgment." These were performed at the expense of the ferent trading companies of that city. The "Creation" was performed the drapers; the "Deluge" by the dyers; "Abraham, Melchisedec, Lot" by the barbers; the "Purification" by the blacksmiths; the "I Supper" by the bakers; the "Resurrection" by the skinners; and "Ascension" by the tailors. In Mr. Payne Collier's recent work on glish Dramatic Poetry, the reader will find an abstract of the several lections of these mystery-plays, which is not only interesting for the l it throws on the early days of our drama, but instructive and valuable the curious information it preserves with respect to the strangely deba notions of Scripture history that prevailed, almost universally, before tr lations of the Bible were in common use. See also the Quarterly Revi vol. xlvi. p. 477.-E.] (2) Here follows, in the original MS. "Who did what Vestris- yet, at least,- cannot, And cut his kingly capers sans culotte." - E.] (3) Benvolio does not bet; but every man who maintains race-ho is a promoter of all the concomitant evils of the turf. Avoiding to bet little pharisaical. Is it an exculpation? I think not. I never yet h a bawd praised for chastity because she herself did not commit fornicati (4) [For Benvolio we have, in the original MS., " Earl Grosveno and for the next couplet Suppressing peer! to whom each vice gives place, Oaths, boxing, begging,-all, save rout and race. Farce follow'd Comedy, and reach'd her prime In ever-laughing Foote's fantastic time: Mad wag! who pardon'd none, nor spared the best, We smile, perforce, when histrionic scenes Ape the swoln dialogue of kings and queens, When "Chrononhotonthologos must die," And Arthur struts in mimic majesty. Moschus! with whom once more I hope to sit And smile at folly, if we can't at wit; Yes, friend! for thee I'll quit my cynic cell, And bear Swift's motto, " Vive la bagatelle !" Which charm'd our days in each Ægean clime, As oft at home, with revelry and rhyme. (1) "Suppressing peer! to whom each vice gives place, But we cannot trace the exact propriety of the allusions. Lord Grosvenor, now Marquis of Westminster, no doubt distinguished himself by some attack on the Sunday Newspapers, or the like, at the same time that he was known to keep a stud at Newmarket - but why a long note on a subject certainly insignificant, and perhaps mistaken? — - E.] (1) In dedicating the fourth canto of "Childe Harold " to his fellow traveller, Lord Byron describes him as " one to whom he was indebted for the social advantages of an enlightened friendship; one whom he had long known, and accompanied far, whom he had found wakeful over his sickness and kind in his sorrow, glad in his prosperity and firm in his adversity, true in counsel and trusty in peril: "-while Mr. Hobhouse, in describing a short tour to Negroponte, in which his noble friend was unable to accompany him, regrets the absence of a companion, "who, to quickness of observation and ingenuity of remark, united that gay good humour which keeps alive the attention under the pressure of fatigue, and softens the aspect of every difficulty and danger."-E.] (1) Under Plato's pillow a volume of the Mimes of Sophron was found the day he died.-Vide Barthélémi, De Pauw, or Diogenes Laërtius, if agreeable. De Pauw calls it a jest-book. Cumberland, in his Observer, terms it moral, like the sayings of Publius Syrus. (2) [The following is a brief sketch of the origin of the Playhouse Bill: In 1735, Sir John Barnard brought in a bill " to restrain the number of houses for playing of interludes, and for the better regulating of common players." The minister, Sir Robert Walpole, conceiving this to be a favourable opportunity of checking the abuse of theatrical representation, proposed to insert a clause to ratify and confirm, if not enlarge, the power of the Lord Chamberlain in licensing plays; and at the same time insinuated, that unless this addition was made the king would not pass it. But Sir John Barnard strongly objected to this clause; contending that the power of that officer was already too great, and had been often wantonly exercised. He therefore withdrew his bill, rather than establish by law a power in a single officer so much under the direction of the Crown. In the course, however, of the session of 1737, an opportunity offered, which Sir Robert did not fail to seize. The manager of Goodman's Fields Theatre having brought to him a farce called "The Golden Rump," which had been proffered for exhibition, the minister paid the profits which might have accrued from the performance, and detained the copy. He then made extracts of the most exceptionable passages, abounding in pro faneness, sedition, and blasphemy, read them to the house, and obtained leave to bring in a bill to limit the number of playhouses; to subject al dramatic writings to the inspection of the Lord Chamberlain; and to com. pel the proprietors to take out a license for every production before it could appear on the stage.-E.] |