The National Register. — London, England, 1808-01-03 00:00:00

my it—" As you Like it;" and if you are disappointed call me a " Country Girl" " Too Friendly by half." With fuck charms as you possess; I know all you want is " the Win." ---Once married, you may, quite in the fashion, act as you choose; and if your spouse proves " a Provoked Husband," why :i,ou may take your own " Revenge," and make him a " Suspi ious one."---11 now (notwithstanding all I have said) you re main obstinate and single, perhaps, in nine months hence, as " Time's a Tell-tale," 1 may produce an additional inducement Adieu, your's, Be.c. D. If, as Swift says, God has decreed revenge against pun ning the late George Selwyn, was unfortunate indeed. So conl;deut was he of his powers in this way, that he once bet a friend five guineas that he would produce a pun on any given subject—" Done," replies his friend, " pun on the King."—" Damn it, man, (rejoined the witty George), you know just as well as I do that the King's no subject 1" When Garrick in the zenith of his powers took his friend Doctor Johnson, to view his valuable estates which, by a late decree, his widow has been ejected from, the emot►on they caused in the mind of the great moralist was singular, " Ah David, David, David, (exclaimed the Doctor tapping the shoulder of our immortal R °wins) these are the things which make a death bed terrible."!!! On the rumour of a coalition, an opposition wit lately obsers cd, that, he was sure Lord Howick never would de sert principles whidh he had grown Crew in. Dramatic Criticism, or something which bears that title, is now so much in request, that a Newspaper can scarcely obtain a great circulation, without preseuting a pretty large portion of such matter. We„, shall. therefore, des ote a coudderable space in THE NATIONAL REGISTER 10 this fashionable sub ject, although we de not intend to treat it in the fashionable style. Of late, in the most popular of the periodical Critique% the absence of scientific principle has been supplied by the superfluity of spleen, and the want of experience has been compensated by the ebullition of wit. The fallacy has pleased the Public: because every body can admire w bat is brilliant in wit, but every body cannot detect what is erroneous is science. The spectators in a Theatre are distant from the stage. and foil dazzles their eyes with all the lustre of real gold : The readers of these current criticisms are remote from those circle* in which the Drama is understood, and pointed antithesis strikes them with the force of truth. In the columns of this Paper we shall consider the criticism of the Drama not as a task which may be slurred by idleness or blotted by caprice: but as a science possessing principles as certain and as exalted as the general criticism of poetry, of painting, of sculpture, or of aoy other of the Fine Arts. The Drama, considered as a Fine Art, which may become the sul►ject of criticism, divides itself naturally into two parts: the one is the art of Dramatic Composition, which we may criticise as fully as any poetry can be criticised : and the other is the art of Acting, which can be criticised as fully as wepay criticise Painting or Sculpture. To draw a parallel between the art of Poetry and the art of Di onatie Compositioo would be idle, because the latter is al.owed to be a branch of the former : bat we are no less certain of oar ground, when we assert that there is a strong analogy in the three arts of Painting, Sculpture, and 'Acting. All equally tend to the same object : that is, to please by the just representation of w hat is striking, interesting, or agreeable is nature. Acting bears the same relative distance to Sculpture, that Sculpture bears to Painting—for Painting represents Nature by lines and colours laid on a flat surface to be viewed from a single point : Sculpture goes further, and represents the round ness and real proportion of Nature in every point from which a statue can be viewed ; but Acting surpasses them both, and with a Promethean power, gives motion, and voice, and life ---- - But though Acting, this considered, of all the Fine Arts comes nearest to Natures Prototype ; yet it is the mast difficult to he criticised, because its productions are the nuist evanescent. If we wish to decide on the merit of a picture or a statue, we may keep it before our eyes, unvarying in its ex pre.sien and un injured in its workmanship, for au hour, for a day, for years : if we disapprove it at a first glance, we have opportunities of discovering its beauties by degrees, of revising, perhaps totally changing our original judgment. But the representation of Nature, u hich is produced by Acting, vanishes as soon as it is - beheld ; and though the spectator may not happen to be in the right frame of mind at the moment when the actor delivers a particular passage, there is no opportunity of arresting the images in order to ascertain their rater its or defects. Yet, though Acting is thus of all the Fine Arts the most dif ficult to he criticised, it is nevertheless tilt- most universally and the most confidently canvassed. An uninformed person who enters a gallery of pictures or statues, if be gives any opinion at all, usually gives it with some sort of reserve : he for the most part leans to the favourable side : and, even when he die approves a work, he usually makes use of some such phrase as, " I don't admire it, but very likely that is because I know " nothing about painting or sculpture." But almost every body who enters a Theatre, thinks himself entitled to give a positive opinion on Acting, although he perhaps may never have seen fifty plays in his whole life. No one should believe that every reasonable creature whom Nature has brought into the world, can judge of acting, because good acting is a reasonable repre sentation of Nature; for Acting, as well as the other Arts by which Nature is represented, has rules which direct, and mles which restrain, not only its mechanism, but even its conception; r illillill.1111.11111111111111" ,TAN. 3. THE NATIONAL REGISTER. 1s " Wonder" at trifling, for you know "Laugh when you THE THEATRES. Can" has been ever my maxim. But to be serious—follow my advice—in " Three _ Weeks after Marriage" speak of I • 0 .1 SPORTING INTELLIGENCE. EXTRAORDINARY PEDSSTRIAN lINDERTARING.--A per son of the name of Yardley, a victualler, in Berkshire, who, it has been stated, recently sprung forth, to astonish the ama teurs of agile sports, and to rival the pedestrians of the day, undertook, on Wednesday se - nnight, to perform 20 miles in two hours and a half, for a stake of 50 guineas. He started on a piece of ground about 4 miles from Croydon at 10 o'clock, yes terday morning, to go a mile to and from ; he ran 2 miles in 17 minutes, 2 in 16, 2 in 15, 2 in 14, 2 in 13, 2 in 17, and 3he 6 last miles in 54 minutes—total, 8 miles is 146 minutes. The pedestrian, it will be seen, bad two miles to go in 4 mi nutes, when he resigned, visibly fatigued. He only halted for about two minutes during the race, when he eat a mouthful of chicken and drank half a pint of malted wine. The day was extremely unfavourable for the pedestrian, who, if the report he correct, did the distance in less than the given time, on Tuesday last, whilst training. He is of low stature, and 35 years of age. His regular step was to do 2 miles in 15 minutes. CITY. BR►AD.—Tncsday the Lord Mayor ordered the price oi Bread to be raised half an assize, or a penny in the peck loafd The quartern loaf of wheaten will then be sold for 11*d. an household 91d. EAST INDIA AFFAIRS. Tuesda3 a Court of Directors was held at the East India House, when the following ships were thus timed, viz. Euphrates:, Sir William Hensley, Sovereign, Madras and Ben gal ; Monarch, Northumberland ; Madeira, Madras, and Ben gal ; Alexander, Madeira and Bombay. To be afloat 27th January. Sail from Gravesend 27th Feb. Harriet, Madras and Bengal ; Huddart, Bombay. afloat 11th Feb. Sail from Gravesend 11th March. To be The Court adjourned at 6 o'clock till Wednesday next. Tee Court of Directors of the East India Company, on Thursday, ordered the following ships, viz. Ocean, Ceres, Canton, Dorsetshire, Alnwick Castle, David Scott, and Exeter. to prepare for the reception of troops, to be landed at :Madras, in their outward voyage to India. _ : ~~,.~