ΤΗ THE BRITISH THEATRE. HE following letters contain fo much juftice, that we cannot poffibly refuse them a place in this department of our Magazine. To the AUTHOR of the BRITISH SIR, AS you frequently oblige your readers with ftrictures on pieces, no lefs ineligible from their dullness, than exceptionable from their indecency, will you have the goodness to tell me, what can have fo long preferved that moft impeachable of compofitions, The Provoked Wife, from a difagreeable oblivion? Perhaps you will fay, nothing but Mr. Garrick's performance of the capital character; but is it not paying an extravagant price for our amufentent? and the more efpecially, when there are numberlefs other parts for the exertion of his incomparable powers. It is with the drama as with human nature; we seldom meet with any thing fo depraved, but it has one agreeable feature, except in this fingle instance, where the whole groupe is fo completely odious, that it is difficult to determine which merits the largest portion of difapprobation. Sir John Brute is fo great a brute, that we do not feel a ray of compaffion for him, though we behold him on the point of being dishonoured by his wife; and Lady Brute is fo worthlefs a woman, that we are unable to with her a better husband. Conftant is fuch a wretch, that we are fhocked he paffes unpunished; and Heartfree fo licentious in his converfation, that we fhould be forry to find Belinda a more delicate lady than the author has thought proper to paint her. Lady Fanciful is too abfurd to amufe, and too ridiculous to excite our indignation. Mademoiselle and Razor are very well for people in their fituations, if it was not for the confequence in which they are held in their feveral families. However it would have been ftrange, if families, fuch as Lady Fanciful's and Sir John's, had been better regulated, than for the ribaldry of a bold footman and a pert chambermaid to be received for ferling 08. 1771 483 wit, by the one or the other. In a word, fo far from having a fingle pretenfion to merit, the plot, language, fentiment, and manners, are fuch as fhould make it be abhorred by the women, and execrated by the men; and I can only lament that Mr. Garrick, who has fo much of reformation in his power, and poffeffes fo large a fhare of refinement, will not compel us to be rational, by preparing such entertainments for us only, as we can be spectators of without a blufh; and that, on a retrospect, will prove no impeachment of our taste, or our principles. fir, your humble fervant, I am, A HONORIA. To the AUTHOR, &c. LLOW me, as one of our the GAR'S OPERA, to enter a little into atres have opened with the BEGthe merits of that celebrated compofition, which, on its original reprefentation, ran fixty-three nights, and has at feveral fucceeding periods been a rival performance at the rival houses not to mention its establishment as a ftock piece, in all probability to the diffolution of our stage. We feem to forget in our theatrical amufements, that fomething more is neceffary, than wit, vivacity, or even well-drawn characters. The ftage has always been called the School of morality; confequently the piece that is deftitute of a moral, is destitute of the chief excellence required in dramatic literature. It is not the flattering our paffions, or gratifying our piques; it is not foothing our ear, or captivating our imaginations, that conftitutes the effentials of a good play: our hearts must be amended by the laudable, or they must be inevi tably tainted by the falfe principles on which the author proceeds: the colours in which he has dipped his pencil must be carefully examined; vice must be ftripped of all her cuftomary attractions; and nothing but virtue held forth in an amiable view to the public. occafion I am travelling a beaten road, I am very fenfible, fir, that on this but if it is a neceffary one, as leading to conviction, I think it can never be travelled too frequently; for if my Rrr memory memory does not deceive me, I have feen Queen Caroline's opinion of the BEGGAR'S OPERA in print, which pronounces it one of the most extraordinary and immoral compofitions that ever difgraced a theatre. Our pulpits too have juftly remarked, that the hero is a highwayman of the most abandoned principles, who engages in fcenes of feduction and profligacy wholly unfit for representation; yet, for the fake of a fortunate cataftrophe, is fpared the due punishment of a halter. A young woman, the heroine of the piece, is given as a really deferving creature, though bred in the very bofom of infamy; yet, deferving as the is painted, the rejoices in fharing the fate of a defpicable villain, whofe bofom no fpark of gratitude or remorfe ever vifited, and who has not even courage enough to meet his fate, till he acquires a little feeming fortitude from brandy. Now, however amiable the matrimonial attachment is, and however meritorious it may be for the wife to ftand firm in the hour of affliction, to foften the evils fhe is unable to avert from the head of him she loves; there are certain circumftances that change the name as well as nature of this attachment, and convert merit into reproach. Turpitude of the most flagrant fpecies cannot be fanctified by any tie, nor is there a woman of honour but ought to separate the villain from the husband. Befides, it must be recollected; in the cafe of Polly, that it is not a husband fallen into vices after marriage that the is attached to; her lover was exactly the fame contemptible rafcal, the fame unprincipled vagabond as her bufband; nay, his very infamy gave him charms in her imagination; his villainies on the road the confidered as meritorious; and when he has united herself to a common thief, we find her feeking confolation in romance, where none of the great heroes are ever falje in love. Throughout her whole character it is apparent fhe has not the fmalleft abhorrence of his crimes; the only trembles for the confequence. She even participates in the plunder,and is neverthelefs complimented with principle. The husband too, contrary to the humour of most husbands, has neither alarms nor delicacies on her account: -he knows the company to which the is expofed at home, and he seems perfectly ready to introduce her to the fame licentious fcenes we behold him engaged in :-villains themselves are vulnerable where the marriage-bed is concerned, and feel for the honour of a wife, though wholly dead to all folicitude for their own reputation. The fongs, though many of them are perhaps the moft happily conceived, and the most happily executed of any in the drama, are in general too indelicate for a polite, how then must they fall on a decent, ear? instead of difapprobation, they nevertheless are continually received with the warmest applaufe; and it is no uncuftomary thing even for that air of Lucy's of "When young at the bar, &c." to be encored, though I affirm it to be calculated merely for the brothel, and ought either to be wholly omitted, or well pruned of its licentious exuberances. Such, fir, I muft confefs are my fentiments of the Beggar's Operaand in answer to all these just objections, we are told it abounds with wit; that it teems with fatire, and contains numberless proofs of a genius highly honourable to the author. I fubfcribe to the truth of every fyllable mentioned in this encomium; but, at the fame time, I affirm, it becomes doubly reprehenfible on this account; if wit is employed for the purpofe of corrupting the mind; if fatire is exercised to leffen the deformity of vice; and if genius is directed to the deftruction of fociety, then wit, fatire, and genius, become dangerous, in proportion as they render us enamoured of what we fhould defpife, and the poffeffor is criminal, in the fame proportion, for deftroying, as he has power to improve the principles of the public. In this perfuafion I am refolute enough to condemn the Beggar's Opera, and call upon the Author of the British Theatre to publish the fentiments of CRITO. The T THE BENEVOLENT SOCIETY. HE two following letters so justly merit the compliment of an early infertion, that we fhall make no apology for giving them to our readers. We have not however forgot, that we are greatly in arrears with refpect to the immediate concerns of the fociety; but we hope to acquit ourfelves to the fatisfaction of our friends and correfpondents at fome future period, however we may feem to trefpaís on their indulgence in the prefent inftance. To the BENEVOLENT SOCIETY. LADIES, AS your fociety feems calculated to point out at least, if not reform, the reigning follies of the age; give me leave to prefent you with a species that has hitherto efcaped your obfervation; notwithstanding it is one of the moft pernicious and fatal in its confequences, in the whole catalogue of human frailties. man fupport the clamour of her haughty relations, or enjoy that affluence neither his birth nor induftry give him claim to? Affuredly no. Coldly regarded by that part of the world, that is alone fuited to his tafte, he endeavours to form a world to himself, refolves that elegant authors fhall fupply to him the want of elegant converfation, and his little chamber prove at once his kingdom and afylum. But, alas! this refolution flatters only to deceive: he is obliged to encounter the brow-beatings of the over-bearing, and the fatigues that reach beyond the body, to procure his daily bread; thofe moments that were to have been given to relaxation, are moments of the bittereft reflections: and his apartment, inftead of a comfortable hiding-place, foon becomes, by fome little deficiencies, in an effential point to his landlord, a fource of fresh calamities; whilft each fhallow fellow of his acquaintance, though dead to every other fense of propriety, can fee and lament that fo worthy a lad, by the folly of his father, fhould languish out that exiftence as a gentleman, which would have been an honour to the public, and highly advantageous to himself in any other character. A man of understanding, and perfectly acquainted with his own confined circumftances, one would naturally fuppofe incapable of drawing his beloved offspring out to a thoufand mortifications and diftreffes, from which a judicious education would infallibly fecure them. But no his fon fhall fall a facrifice to the moft wrongheaded ambition; and, though a beggar in his fortune, be rendered a genileman in his employment. The church, the law, the army, are confequently the eminences he has in view: and having trained hard, by books and connexions, to awaken fenfibili ties in the breaft of the unhappy But there is still another fort of beyouth, that can exift only to toring, that by the abfurdity of its pament him, he leaves him ftarying to read or write in the two firft profeffions, with what appetite or fuccefs he may; or to strut a wretched defpicable coxcomb in the last. But this is not all. His mind enlarged, his ideas unspeakably refined, even the moft hacknied road to advancement is utterly fhut against him-I mean recommending himself in the matrimonial way. "Could fuch a man defcend to folicit the high-born female to unite herself with his humble fate? Could fuch Such, ladies, is the fate of the ingenuous, the modeft, the well-educated poor man; who can perih, but cannot be mean; can suffer, yet difdains complaint; and though conscious of what he ought to be, is unable to conform to ftern neceffity. rent is rendered truly contemptible; and however ruined for a mechanic, can never come under the denomination of a gentleman-the firft-born booby of an illiterate trader. Nothing lefs than a fcholar can fatisfy a father of this caft, notwithstanding the boy's capacity fhall in all probability be an hereditary one. He can calculate but not decline; yet language, instead of figures, is the thing he is deftined to beat his brains about. The pedagogue labours to gratify the weak defires of his pupil's family: but the Rrra utmost utmost he can teach him is to be confident and pedantic, idle and despica ble. He difgufts his friends, diverts his enemies, and adores himself. He is infinitely above engaging in any employment beneath the dignity of his education, though reduced at the fame time to the meaneft of artifices to procure himself a dinner. He borrows without either profpect or intention to repay, and grafps the donations of charity without a fingle pang; justice, delicacy, and gratitude, being equally unknown to him: and fo pliant is his dirty foul, that the very motives which induced him to be fervile to-day would render him infolent to-morrow. With the fofter fex the effects of a wrong education are ftill more dreadful. If a lovely perfon alone is fufficient to engage vice and cruelty in a vigorous purfuit, what think you of the inexpreffible triumph of vanquish ing an accomplished mind? Women are by nature timid and credulous; the men daring and fpecious-What infinite refolution is requifite for the young and unfortunate to refift the flattery, the temptations of affluence, and calmly embrace the horrors and miferies of poverty!--notwithstanding their election wholly depends on their feeing things through a true or falfe medium---the moft contracted circumstances, with humility and virtue, are not only happy but enviable; and what felicity or enjoyment can dwell with confcious guilt? Do not, good ladies, permit this improper, this cruel conduct of parents to pafs uncenfured: Call upon them to remember, that as the twig is bent the tree will be inclined; and affure them that by a due attention to this important particular, the gallows and the ftew would be difappointed of their prey, fociety delivered from its greatest pest, and the most deferving natures faved from the acuteft fufferings. I am, &c. PHILANTHROPIST. To the BENEVOLENT SOCIETY. LADIES, THERE is not a more sterling jeft in the whole mafculine catalogue, than the violence of the widow's grief, and its early termination. What changes have not been rung upon the subject; the head and the heart of us daughters of the creation most mi ferably arraigned---a defect in the one, and a corruption of the other, the undoubted caufes of fuch inftability and abfurdity. I would however gladly be informed if mankind never condefcend to play the fame inconfiftent part, or has an inftance reached my knowledge that is an exception to all rule? for it is certain, that if the ifer fex are fubject to the frailties of humanity, they have too much wisdom to record then, though the fatiric page bears everlafting teftimony to all our foibles. A young fellow, of an agreeable figure and reputed understanding, was, not many years ago, moft paffionately attached to an amiable girl. Her mind, her accomplishments, her fame, were elegant and fair as her form: but, as her father had not thought proper to marry her mother till fome time after he was brought into existence, the outrageously virtuous family, to which our lover belonged, were fhocked at every idea of lo contaminating an alliance. But when does oppofition, even upon juftifiable principles, interrupt connexions of this nature? the more his family idly exclaimed, he only became fo much the more fenfible of the lady's perfections, and their prejudices; for as all that they had to urge against her, reafon itfelf condemned, was it poffible that love thould fubfcribe to their arguments? His father, reduc ed by a violent illness to a very dangerous condition, fent for him to his bed-fide--I have Charles, faid he, made a provifion for you equal to every expectation I have taught you to form thirty-thoufand pounds now ftand in your name on my will; but it is my refolution to exclude you from every fhilling by a timely codi cil, unless you folemnly promise me, never to bring difgrace upon your relations; Mifs Sidney muft not be your wife. A very interefting fcene enfued---the fon pleaded the cause of his heart, and profeffed his nice fenfe of filial obedience with equal eloquence; but pleaded in vain; his refufing to renounce the lady deprived him of his fortune, and a small eftate was all he could then invite her to participate. Never, never did he regret the fa. crifice he had made. Oeconomy fup |