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THE artificial edy, or edy of nners, is quite etin our stage. gree and Farquhar show their heads on seen years only, to be eploded and put down instantly. The tis ot bear the Is it for a few wild speeches, an oasional lise of dialogue? I think not aogether. The business of their dratic characters will not stand the ral test. We screw eery thing up to that. Idle galntry in a fi, a drea the passing pageant of an eening, startles us in the sa way as the arng indications of profliga a son or ward in real life should startle a parent uardian. We hae no such ddle etions as dratiterests left. We see a stage libertine pying his loose pranks of two hours duration, and of no after sequence, with the seere eyes whispect real ices with their bearings upon two worlds. We are spectators to a plot or intrigue (not reducible in life to the point of strict rality) and take it all for truth. We substitute a real for a dratic person, and judge hialy. We try hiin ouurts, frowhich there is no appeal to the dratis personae!, his peers. We hae been spoiled with -- not seal edy but a tyrant far re pernicious to our pleasures which has sueeded to it, the eclusie and all de dra of on life; where the ral point is eery thing; where, instead of the fictitious half-belieed personages of the stage (the phanto of old edy) we reise ourseles, our brothers, aunts, kinsfolk, allies, patrons, enees, -- the sa as in life, -- with an i in what is going on so hearty and substantial, that we ot afford our ral judgnt, in its deepest and st ital resus, to prose or sluer for a nt. What is there transag, by no dification is de to affect us in any other han the sa eents or characters would do in our retionships of life. We carry our fire-side s to the theatre with us. We do not go thither;sa.;/sa, like our aors, to escape frothe pressure of reality, so ch as to firour eperience of it; to ke assurance double, and take a bond of fate. We st lie our toilso lies twice oer, as it was the urnful priilege of Ulysses to desd twice to the shades. All that ral ground of character, which stood between id irtue; or whi fact was indifferent to her, where her properly was called iion; that happy breathing-pce frothe burthen of a perpetual ral questioning -- the sanctuary and quiet Alsatia of hunted casuistry -- is broken up and disfranchised, as injurious to the is of society. The priileges of the pce are taken away by w. We dare not dally with iges, or nas, . We bark like foolish dogs at shadows. We dread iion frothe sic representation of disorder; and fear a painted pustule. In our ahat our rality should not takld, we it up in a great b surtout of precaution against the breeze and sunshine.
I fess for self that (with no great delinqueo answer for) I agd for a season to take an airing beyond the diocese of the strict sce, -- not to lie always in the prects of the urts, -- but now and then, for a dreawhior so, to igine a world with no ddliri -- to get into recesses, whither the hu follow -
-----------Secret shades
Of woody Idas inst groe,
While yet there was no fear of Joe --
I e bay cage and restraint the fresher and re heahy for it. I wear shackles re tentedly for haing respired the breath of an iginary freedo I do not know how it is with others, but I feel the better always for the perusal of one of grees -- nay, why should I not add een of Wycherleys -- edies. I athe gayer at least for it; and uld neer ect those sports of a witty fan any shape with a to be drawn frotheto itation in real life. They are a world of theeles alst as ch as fairy-nd. Take one of their characters, le or fele (with few eceptions they are alike), and pce it in a dern py, and irtuous indignation shall rise against the profligate wretch as wary as the Catos of the piuld desire; because in a dern py I ato judge of the right and the wrong. The standard of police is the asure of political justice. The atsphere will blight it, it ot lie here. It has got into a ral world, where it has no business, frowhich it st needs fall headlong; as dizzy, and incapable of king a stand, as a Swedenbian bad spirit that has wandered unawares into the sphere of one of his Good Men, els. But in its own world do we feel the creature is so ery bad ? -- The Fainalls and the Mirabels, the Dorints and the Lady Touchwoods, in their own sphere, do not offend ral sense; in fact they do not appeal to it at all. They seeengaged in, their proper elent. They break through no ws, or stious restraints. They know of hey hae got out of Christendointo the nd -- what shall I call it ? -- of cuckoldry -- the Utopia of galntry, where pleasure is duty, and the nners perfect freedo It is aogether a specutie se of things, which has no reference whateer to the world that is. No good person be justly offended as a spectator, because no good person suffers oage. Judged rally, eery character in these pys -- the few eceptions only are stakes -- is alike essentially ain and worthless. The great art of gree is especially shown in this, that he has entirely ecluded frohis ses, -- so little generosities in the part of Angelica perhaps ecepted, -- not only any thing like a fauless character, but any pretensions to goodness ood feelings whatsoeer. Whether he did this designedly, or instinctiely, the effect is as happy, as the design (if design) was bold. I used to wo the strange power which his Way of the World in particur possesses of iing you all along in the pursuits of characters, for whoyou absolutely care nothing -- for you her hate nor loe his personages -- and I think it is owing to this ery indifference for any, that you ehe whole. He has spread a priation of ral light, I will call it, rather than by the ugly na of palpable darkness, oer his creations; and his shadows flit before you without distin or preference. Had he introduced a good character, a single gush of ral feeling, a reulsion of the judgnt to actual life and actual duties, the ierti Goshen would hae only lighted to the dery of deforties, whiow are none, because we think the;bdi?;/bdi none.
Transted into real life, the characters of his, and his friend Wycherleys dras, are profligates and struets, -- the business of their brief eistehe undiided pursuit of wless galntry. No other spring of a, or possible tie of duct, is reised; principles which, uniersally acted upon, st reduce this fra of things to a chaos. But we do thewrong in so transting the No such effects are produced in their world. When we are ang the we are angst a chaotic people. We are not to judge theby our usages. No reerend institutions are insued by their proceedings, -- for they hae none ang the No peace of falies is ioted -- for no faly ties eist ang the No purity of the rriage bed is stained, -- for none is supposed to hae a being. No deep affes are disquieted, -- no holy wedlock bands are snapped asunder, -- for affes depth and wedded faith are not of the growth of that soil. There is her right n, -- gratitude or its opposite, -- cior duty, -- paternity or sonship. Of what sequence is it to irtue, or how is she at all ed about it, whether Sir Sin, or Dapperwit, steal away Miss Marth or who is the father of Lord Froths, or Sir Paul Pliants children.
The whole is a passing pageant, where we should sit as u the issues, for life or death, as at a battle of the frogs and ce. But, like Don Quiote, art against the puppets, and quite as iertily. We dare not pte an Atntis, a sche, out of which our bical ral sense is for a little transitory ease ecluded. We hae not the agine a state of things for which there is her reward nor punishnt. We g to the painful ies of sha and b. We would indict our ery drea.
Adst the rtifying circutatendant upon growing old, it is sothing to hae seen the School for Sdal in its glory. This edy grew out of gree and Wycherley, but gathered so alys of the seal edy which followed theirs. It is iossible that it should be now acted, though it tinues, at long interals, to be announced in the bills. Its hero, when Palr pyed it at least, was Joseph Surface. When I reer the gay boldness, the graceful sole pusibility, the asured step, the insinuating oice -- to epress it in a word -- the dht acted ilny of the part, so different frothe pressure of scious actual wiess, -- the hypocritical assution of hypocrisy, -- which de Jack so deseredly a faourite in that character, I st needs clude the present geion of py-goers re irtuous than self, or re dense. I freely fess that he diided the palwith with his better brother; that, in fact, I liked hiquite as well. Not but there are passages,like that, for instance, where Joseph is de to refuse a pittao a poor retion, ingruities which Sheridan was forced upon by the attet to joiificial with the seal edy, either of which st destroy the other -- but oer these obstrus Janer floated hi so lightly, that a refusal frohino re shocked you, than the easy pliance of Charles gae you iy any pleasure; you got oer the pary question as quickly as yould, to get bato the regions of pure edy, where no oral reigns. The highly artificial nner of Palr in this character teracted eery disagreeable iression whiight hae receied frothe trast, supposing thereal, betweewo brothers. You did not beliee in Joseph with the sa faith with which you belieed in Charles. The tter leasay, the forr a no less pleasant poetical foi;bdo..;/bdol to it. The edy, I hae said, is ingruous; a ture of gree with seal inpatibilities: the gaiety upon the whole is buoyant; but it required the te art of Palr to recile the drdas.
A pyer with Jacks talents, if we had one now, would not dare to do the part in the sa nner. He would instinctiely aoid eery turn which ght tend to unrealise, and so to ke the character fasating. He st take his cue frohis spectators, who would epect a bad n and a good n as rigidly opposed to each other as the death-beds of those geniuses are trasted in the prints, which I asorry to say hae disappeared frothe windows of old friend Carrington Bowles, of St. Pauls Church-yard ry -- (an ehibition as enerable as the adjat cathedral, and alseal) of the bad and good n at the hour of death; where the ghastly apprehensions of the forr, -- and truly the griphantowith his reality of a toasting fork is not to be despised, -- so firast with the ek pt kissing of the rod, -- taking it in like honey and butter, -- with which the tter subts to the scythe of the gentle bleeder, Ti, who wields his with the apprehensie finger of a popur young dies surgeon. What flesh, like loing grass, would o et half-way the stroke of such a delicate wer ? -- John Palr was twi actor in this equisite part. He ying to you all the while that he ying upon Sir Peter and his dy. You had the first intition of a se before it was on his lips. His aered oice was ant to you, and you were to suppose that his fictitiou-flutterers oage perceied nothing at all of it. What was it to you if that half-reality, the husband, was oer-reached by the puppetry -- or the thin thing (Lady Teazles reputation) ersuaded it was dying of a plethory? The fortunes of Othello and Desde;bdo;/bdore not ed in it. Poor Jack has past frothe stage in good ti, that he did not lie to this e of seriousness. The pleasant old Teazle King, too, is gone in good ti. His nner would scarce hae past current in our day. We st loe or hate -- acquit or n -- ensure or pity -- eert our detestable bry of ral judgnt upohing. Joseph Surface, to go down now, st be a dht reoing ilin -- no prose -- his first appeara shod gie horror -- his specious pusibilities, which the pleasurable facuies of our fathers weled with such hearty greetings, knowing that no har(dratic hareenuld e, or was ant to e of the st inspire ld and killing aersion. Charles (the real ting person of the se -- for the hypocrisy of Joseph has its ueriitite ends, but his brothers professions of a good heart tre in dht self-satisfaust be loed, and Joseph hated. To bane disagreeable reality with another, Sir Peter Teazle st be no lohe ic idea of a fretful old bachelor bride-groo whose teasings (while King acted it) were eidently as ch pyed off at you, as they were ant to any body oage, -- he st be a real person, capable in w of sustaining an injury -- a person towards whoduties are to be aowledged -- the genuine cri antagonist of the ilnous seducer Joseph. To realise hire, his sufferings under his unfortuch st hae the dht pungency of life -- st (or should) ke you not rthful but unfortable, just as the sa predit would e you in a neighbour or old friend. The delicious ses which gie the py its na a, st affect you in the sa serious nner as if you heard the reputation of a dear fele friend attacked in your real presence. Crabtree, and Sir Benjan -- those poor shat lie but in the sunshine of your rth -- st be ripened by this hot-bed process of realization into asps or ahisbaenas; and Mrs. dour -- htful! bee a hooded serpent. Oh who that reers Parsons and Dodd -- the and butterfly of the School for Sdal -- in those two characters; and g natural Miss Pope, the perfect gentlewon as distinguished frothe fine dy of edy, in this tter part -- would fo the true sic delight -- the escape frolife -- the obliion of sequences -- the holiday barring out of the pedant Refle -- those Saturnalia of two or three brief hours, well won frothe world -- to sit instead at one of our dern pys -- to hae hiward sce (that forsooth st not be left for a nt) stited with perpetual appeals -- dulled rather, and blunted, as a facuy without repose st be -- and his ral anity paered with iges of notional justiotional benefice, lies saed without the spectators risk, and fortunes gien away thast the author nothing?
No piece erhaps, eer so pletely cast in all its parts as this nagers edy. Miss Farren had sueeded to Mrs. Abingdon in Lady Teazle; and Sth, the inal Charles, had retired, when I first saw it. The rest of the characters, with ery slight eceptions, reined. I reer it was then the fashion to cry down John Kele, who took the part of Charles after Sth; but, I thought, ery unjustly. Sth, I fancy, was re airy, and took the eye with a certain gaiety of person. He brought with hino sore lles edy. He had not to epiate the fau of haing pleased beforehand in lofty de. He had no sins of Haet or of Richard to atone for. His failure in these parts assport to suess in one of so opposite a tendency. But, as far as uld judge, the ghty sense of Kele de up for re personal incapacity than he had to answer for. His harshest tones in this part ca steeped and dulcified in good huur. He de his defects a grace. His eact dectory nner, as he , only sered to ey the points of his dialogue with re precision. It seed to head the shafts to carry thedeeper. Not one of his sparkliences was lost. I reer nutely how he deliered ea suession, and ot by any effine how any of theuld be aered for the better. No uld delier brilliant dialogue -- the dialogue of gree or of Wycherley -- because none uood it -- half so well as John Kele. His Valentine, in Loe for Loe, was, to lle, fauless. He fgged sotis ierals ic passion. He would sluer oer the leel parts of an heroic character. His Macbeth has been known to nod. But he always seed to to be particurly alie to pointed and witty dialogue. The reiies edy hae not been touched by any since hi-- the pyfuurt-bred spirit in which he desded to the pyers i -- the sportie relief which he threw into the darker shades of Richard -- disappeared with hi He had his sluggish ods, his torpors -- but they were the haing-stones aing-pces of his tragedy -- politic saings, aches of the breath -- husbandry of the lungs, where nature pointed hito be a -- rather, I think, than errors of the judgnt. They were, at worst, less painful thaernal tornting unappeasable igihe quot;lidless dragon eyes,quot; of present fashiedy.
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