The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-02-19 00:00:00

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SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

On Tuesday last, the celebrated Col. THoRNTON
passed through York, from Thornville Royal,on his
way to the High Wolds of Yorkshire. He had with
)iim a very large hunting-train. In the carriages
were, two wolvei, two very strong and beautiful
stags, with a number of wolf and stag hounds ; also
greyhounds, &c. &c. There is little doubt but this
spirited sportsmal will attra& much company to the
Wolds, which are certainly the best grounds in the
kingdom for eiiher hunting or coursing.
On Monday next, at ten o'clock, Wolf and Stag
hunting commences—on Tuesday coursing—on
Wednesday Wolf and Stag—and so alternately for
the week. The Wold Farmers and Breeders, how-
ever, seem much dissatisfied at the Colonel's intro-
ducing his French wolves amongst their deep.

EPIGRAMS.

ON A TOYER.

11.4
.VINO VERIT AS.
Fair Truth, they say, lies in a Well,
Yet who has seen her, none can tell;
But Truth's in Wine then nought can cave her ;
So great Jtm's search, he's sure to have her!

CONTLMTCS MUNDT.

Wou!d'st happy live ? spurn life, unfw'd by (car
For he lives wretched, to whom life is de.u!

Yesterday morning, about half-past eight o'clock,
Iris MAJESTY left Buckingham-house encashed by a
hors., of the Light hor. for Windsor. About
twelve o'clock, her Mwat..r v, the Princesses
ACGESTA, SOPHIA, and AMELIA,
and two Ladies in waiting, fr.llowed in two carri-
ages, escorted by a party of Light-horse. The
Princess MARY remains at Buckingham-house,
being indisposed with a cold. The Duke of Ct. kt-
star. Art, spent great ;art of the day with his
Royal Sister.
Amongst the charities of this great town, that of
the Lock Hospital and Asylum, of late, has been re-
duce'. It is now materially assisted by a legacy of
15001. lately received.
Amongst the donations of the late eminent Mr.
WALDO, we rejoice in hearing that he has so hand-
somely noticed the worthy and deserving Chaplain
and Secretary (the Rev. Mr. PRINCE) of the Mag-
dalen Hospital.
• A new edition of that admirable work, so long
wanted, of the " Light of Nature pursued, by the
late AnaA it Ass TUCKER, Esq. corrected, enlarged,
and revised, together with a Biograph:cal Sketch of
the Life of the Author, by Sir HENRY Sr. JOHN
MI LOMA Y, Bart." is now in the press. •
A new edition of that excellent work, on the State
of Europe, by Professor GENTY, translated by C. J.
listratts, is also in the press.
Lord LANGFORD, on Thursday last, gave a din-
ner at his house in Berkeley-square, to a selea
party of fashionables.—ln the company were,
Lorth—Sydney, G. Seymour and Boyle; Cok.els—Copley,
• l'onsonby ; and tarly G. Seymour.
Lady LA soroni, gave a route, Upon the night
of the same day.—ln the splendid and fashionable
circle, were—

Maithioness of Bath; Euris.—Carttampton and Digby ;
Counresses--Chwe and Carhampton ; Viscountess Castlereagh;
Lards—Flizhaerio, Valet's, and Euston ; Ladies—two Thynnes,
Barham, Euston, and L. Curry; Sir John Shirley; Colonels
—Blyth and Coleman; Monsieur De Gunter; Madame De
Gunter Mears.—Tye, O'Kelly, and Churchill; .rlfistreser,—
Poole and Bouverie ; Misses—Wortley, Somerville, and Vil-
lers.

On Thursday evening, Sir LAURENCE and Lady
C. PA LKF, dined with the Earl of DAstili.i:v, at his
house in Berkeley-square.

The Marquis of 1-11Aoroar gave an elegant din-
ner, at his house, in Stanhope-street, May Fair.
The Marquis CoRNw A 1.1. ts is expected in town
on Tuesday, at his house, in Burlington-street.
Mr. MAssEv DAwsoN will give a grand Ball, at
is house, in the Crescent, at Bath, on Monday
next. All the people of fashion in that city are ex-
peeted to be present.
Sir SYDNEY SMITH has taken a house in Green-
street, Grosvenor-square, for the sea,on.

_
Lord Sun LEY gives a grand dinner this day, to a
party of fashionable friends, at. his house, in Do-
ver-street.

Lord SomEßvit.LE will entertain the Society of
Agriculture, and the principal farming nentlemen,
den the day of the Show of fat cattle in Smithfield,
at the Free Mason's Tavern, Great Queen-street,
Lincoln's-Inn Fields, the Ist of March next.

INCI.I.DON, on Wednesday, signed ar article with
Mr. HARRIS for five years. He is to have 151, a
week, which is 21. more than any perti.;rnier in the
Theatre. Mr. HARRIS, will' his accti,to:ned libe-
rality, suffers him to perform at Bath the ensuing
week.
Prince iI:STINIANI is arrived at Paris, with the
nomination of the French Cardin:lV. Tire hats will
be brought by the Prelate I)6R' A, whom his Holi-
ness has chosen his Apostolic Envoy, and who was
to have set out from Rome in ten ur twelve days
after the first messenger.
The Pension granted by the French Government
to the dismissed- Bishops, residing in France, is fix-
ed at 8830 francs.

The LORD MAYOR, SHERIFFS, and several
Aldermen, went yesterday, in state, to Bow .Church,
Che.iride ; where the annual sermon was preached
by the Right Rev. Father in God, the Bishop of
Coxf Ito. The following Prelates were elegantly
entertained by the LORD MAYoR, at the Mansion-
house. The Bishops of Lonnow, Desuass, Ox-
NORD, WINCHEsFER, Exersg, BATH and WELLS,
ECC. &c.
A curious Gams question is to be brought on at
the next Norfolk Assizes, wherein the lion. T.
COVENTRY is plaintiff; and Sir ROBERT H AI:D
defendant. The aaion is to recover damages for
the seizure of a post-chaise; well lined with bares,
pariridget, pheasants, &c. supposed to have been
filled upon Sir Roszax's planar, but seised by the
Baronet's Gamekeeper, " with sticks ! clubs ! and
staves ! in the parish aforesaid, and county afore-
said," rather questionably, on the manor of another
person. The son of Lord DEERIit sF was of this
extraordinary Storting-Party,' and will probably be
the principal evidence.

.N;ic•--, •

. -
LETTERS UPON THE FRENCH STAGE:.

I.ETTER THE SECOND.
You will have known by this time, that ate French
strianess, as to the unities of time and place, are not
at all to my taste.
Perhaps more may be said for the unity of anion.
While an interesting story occupies the scene, I am
persuaded, in spite of Dr. Johnson, that the feel_
ings it excites, must suffer something from the inter-
vention of excrescent incident, or of a collateral,
plot. Thus the affair between Roeltrtgo and logo,
which has no necessary relation to the jealousy of
Othello, is exceptionable, and tends only to prolong
the piece.
But in rejening the unity of anion, on other oc-
casions, SHAKspEA RE has created a species of drama,
which the French have not. I mean his historical,
and, accurately speaking, biographical plays ; of
which last his Henry,' Richard, and 11Inc&tb, are
specimens : and although in these, the anion he not
single, yet there is a particular interest excited of a
different nature, inasmuch as general history and
biography differ from single and detached tal^s.
There is always the unity of design which this class
requires, although there be many anions. In gene-
ral history, we look for the events and manners of
the age it treats of ; in biography, for the exposition
of an important charaner, by his sentiments and
anions : and the appeal of both is rather to the
mind than to the heart. Thus the judgment can-
not be offended at seeing, in the historical play of
Henry the Fourth, alternately, the wars of the King,
and the exploits of his son with the fat Knight and
his companions, which belong equally to the history
of the time. In Richard the Third, the murder of
Henry is one anion, his passion for Lady Anne is
another, his quarrel with Buckingham another ; but
they all form strong features in, the portrait of his
character, which is here the design of thp poet.
The success of SHAKSPEAIit'S plays of this kind,
skews how far they may be made agreeable, and by
their means charaners and events may be drama-
tized, which are not of themselves of sufficient
consequence to form a play of five ans another
prejuJice established by our blind respen for the
ancients.
On the expediency of the unity of anion, Vor.-
TAME thinks at once to found a necessity for the
unity of place ; " for," says he, " the same anion
cannot happen in different places."—Who can gain-
say it ?—A man cannot eat his dinner in his dining.
room, and in his drawing-room, at the same time.
But if this remark is to apply to the anion of a
tragedy, technically so called, it appears to me to
mean nothing. If the anion, forming the subjen of
a play, were bona irk the only one to be represent-
ed, Monsieur de VOLTAIRE would be perfealy
right, and a single scene would conclude the busi-
ness : but it is obvious, that many anions, conneaed
with the main one, must also be exhibited, or made
known by narration ; and in his own " More de
Ceear," the great anion itself takes place off the
stage, in consideration of that extreme delicacy
which forbids his countrymen the sight of assassi-
nations—them ones at least. It is owing to this
necessity of making known to the spenators, events
which are necessary to the eclaireissement of the plot,
and in which they will derive no assistance from a
change of scene, that the first afts of a French
tragedy, and often many other occasional scenes,
consist of long. recitals, which give them so insipid
an Uniformity. Cinna, one of the heroes of Co R•
SIEiLLE, has a narrative at one delivery of above a
hundred lines, and Orestes, one of seventy. In
Othello, the scene is first at Venice, and then at
Cyprus ; but the story is not therefore the less
simple, as what passed at the first place, must
otherwise have been conveyed through the medium
of a :.:dieus narrative.
The rhyme is another singularity in the French
tragedy, which you know I cann't bear. It is true,
that the genius of tragedy cannot altogether keep
the path of simple nature; but the less distant it
leaves her, consistently with its dignity, the better.
I made this remark to a soi-disant critic here. "ills!
matv Mon,teur," lie exclaims, "la rime est ri riche !"
—" T At MA nevertheless sinks it in his delivery."—
C'est me des plus grander kautis de raaeur I" he re-
plies.—" It F., Sir, because it gives more the ap-
pearance of nature to what he is saying. You are
sensible of this, it seems ; and you only admire the
rhyme then because it is rich: that is to say, I sup-
pose, became it augments the labour of the poet."
—Far my part, I do not like rhyme, in our own lan-
guage, in any heroic poem, much less in tragedy ;
far from adding to its majesty, a paltry jingle of
sounds appears to me to diminish it materially.
Their manner of playing is subjen to a similar
censure. In fan, it appears here, that in tragedy
an imitation of nature is quite out of the question.
All is declamation, even to the narrative; and, per-
haps, it is thus that they infuse into their first scenes
animation enough to render them supportable.
When two great men meet, each evens his head and
shoulders, as if the other were a statuary, and he
were placing himself in an attitude to be modelled ;
and if they be not upon very familiar terms, they

.. .
look at each other only with a side leer. .Their
voices aft iiuch &vowed by &it broad, openenun-
ciation. in .sEstiouting, which sends them freely through
the theatre. , • (
Conceive the puppet-stew etre& of all this upon
me, who hive beheld with such delight the tempe-
rate and natural deportMent of KIEMBLE ill Hanna;
who have been so forcibly persuaded by him, that
" any thing over-done is from the purpose of play-
ing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and
is to hoia as 'twere the mirror up to nature,"—and
of the truth of every other part of his instm&ions to
the players, himself, at the same time, so ably illus-
trating the Poet's advice ; who have seen COOKE oc-
casionally so wrapt up in Richard, as to have lost all
consciousness of his audience, and to have banished
from his audience all consciousness of COOKE