The National Register.
London, England, 1808-07-17 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

rally spread itself to the audience. But the displeasure, which
we felt at Mr. May's performance, arose from a totally different
cause; it arose not through damps and flatness, but from that
net of mixed tedium and indignation which is 'Aire to fill the
mind at the sight of heavy mirth and dashing impotence.
The Comic Anse has many suitors, for her gaiety and man-
ners are generally enticing; but very few of her admirers are
happy earmark io obtain her favours. We do nta ,:aeak •of the
basatrd goddess of lon Comedy ; we mean the more dignifisal
and elegant divinity.. We hope that Mr. May will consider
himself, Irani this moment, as a hopeless lover; and, like the
wooers of Shakespeare's Portia, having failed in his chance,
be content to court. no more. his physical defects alone are
sufficient to render success unattainable : his sharpness of visage, .
and his harshness of voice, must always make him unpleasing.
But he Iris also a total want of dignity in his manner, of ease
in his carriage, of whim in his drollery, and of impressiveness
in his heroism. And if his external deficiencies are thus re-
markable, his mental powers do not seem to compensate the
evil. His coheeption is as bad as his execution. Our readers
will, perhaps, be able to form some judgment of his intellectual
incompetency, when we tell them, that, in repeating the line.
"" A voice, potential double as the Duke's," that is, a vote
twice as powerful at• the Duke's ; he gave the reading—
' " A voice potential, double as the Duke's," as if he intended
to say, a powerful voirr, hare ns fond as the Duke's.
Mr. 111.1 y has a tolerably good figure, and, for ought we
know, tarty be a gentlemanly- man in private; but on the stage
he is terribly inelegant, and seems too eager to make the most
both of I tis person and his part. It may he right that every
body she uld have a trial ; but it is very had upon us critics to
:AK ,oblige. Ito see such rulers in such weather. The thermome-
ter is too- high, and our impatience grows hotter with our
blood.
On We. lnesday evening appeared, (for the first time) after a
sleep of t wenty years, Mr. George Lillo's tragedy of Fatal
Curiosity. We see no reason for congratulating the public upon
,this revival.
Lillo is an author, nut perhaps so highly estimated in this
country as lie might to be; for though he has succeeded almost
beyond any tragic poet, except only Shakspeare, in rousing
the passions and touching the heart ; he is scarcely ever men-
tioned when people are talking of Rowe, Otway, Fletcher,
Dryden, and Massinger, and indeed appears to be a poet too
little fashionable to be named with safety. The reason of this
injustice it is not easy to determine ; we are a little inclined to
Oink that it arises from Lillo's practice of selecting domestic
stories for his plays, and then not kuowing how to snit his lan-
guage to the genius of his fable. A domestic story, as we have
1,..i0wn in the tragedy of the Gamester, may he made a 3 per-
fectly. pathetic. as the most exalted event of heroic history;
but tlitit thnuld be treated in a manner adapted to its own na-
ture and cat"L'llities. Now Lill() has in this very play selected
a dotoestic storti
mid treated it, in the language of princely ire-
yeti v. The incon,s,ni IY tobOCkS us, and we are tempted to smile
at the language, whet{ the situation ought to make us weep.--
The eharacters at the Ilav-Martet are thus represented :
Old Wilmot , Mr. Young.
lain ng Wilmot ~ .. Mr. Palmer, jun.
Etistact
Panda(
• Agnes . Mrs. bt. Leger.
Caaraitte
• Mario Mrs. MathewS.
Old Wilmot and Agnes his wife, are reduced from a flourish-
ire; situation to gradual penury. This penury, and the sup-
posed loss of their son, who has been many years absent from
blame withont transmitting any accounts of himself, prey deeply
ml their spirits. They are relieved and consoled by Charlotte,
ii ho is' ttaideriy attached to Young Wil,not, and whose distress
at his unexplained absence, is no less heavy than theirs.
During the depth of these sorrows, Young Wilmot suddenly
atvioe, - rediscovers himself to Charlotte, who at first fails to
recagnise. h,im, in his disguise; and this inspires him with an
4S,'* aft withholding the discovery from his parents, in order
resenitly to inereree their pleasure by a surprise. He there-
... Ire/wilts lodging at their house as a friend of Charlotte's.
fa9our they grant, and he entrusts his jewels to their care
e begbes to rest. The temptation of so much a ealtit is
;be faculties of resistance ; Agnes proposes to her hus-
'ban 'the murdtr of the Stranger ; he agrees to the deed, ;and
,
stabs Youne.•ll+ &not during sleep. As he comes out d.t• the
youth's apartment, ,Charlotio enters, with Jiustare, the cumpa-

nion of her Jover's voyage, and Randal, a ►ervam
mot. The natrdcrees bloody hands reveal ihe dr
and the wretched parents find themselves the des'
n son. Old Wilmot stabs first his wife, and
Our traders will °Verve, that the sensatiotr
Play, is tIT sensation rather of horror than of svi
Plays chew the powers of an Author's genius, ht.
the spectators in general, who love to he interest,
shocked. Here, till the third Art, we are decal
dull declarations front all the characters : and in

which le thelast, we are suddenly electrified by a pi.
which, though it he not, we fear, totally improbaln
theless of so atrocious a kind, under all the eircumm
considering the characters of the parties, as to be •
more pain than pleasure trethe audience. A mur
through avarine, that is, for the sake of getting wt.
murders, that which people in general least willingis
a murder committed through ambition, that is, for the
setting power, has something dazzling and splendid in i:s
tive, and more easily obtains the allowance of the audience.
Excepting this great difference in the motives, the great incident
in the third Act of Toe Fatal Cariosity, almost resembles thc!
murder •,f Punran, by Maeheth and his wife, both in the con-,
ception of the pistil, and in Cie language employed during its
execution. The imitation seems too evident, to he denied. Rut
this murder of Young Wilmot is not only shocking in itself,
but has no attendant circumstances to make it .e tolerable to
the audience. If Young Wilmot had been made interesting,
:he sensation of horror at the murder would have been mingled
is ith a sensation of pits for the sufferer : but at present the mind
dwells on the villany of the parents, and its horror is timuiti4ated
by the participation of any other feeling. The character of
Maria is an incumbrance to the piece ; she appears, only to sing
a song, which would hate been better left out.
r. Young did little for the part of Old Wilma. This is
not excusable, because the character affords considerable oppor-
tunities to a good actor for producing strong eft'ects. Mr.
Palmer had not indeed the same advantages in Young Wilmot,
whirl; is really a bad part but he needed' not have committed
so gross an error as to appear before Charlotte and his parents
with an uncovered head. Finn must have recognised him in a
state so completely undisguised. Mrs. Bellamy's Charlotte
shewed more knowledge of melo-dramatic movement than of
the human heart.
A Farce followed, called The Cheats of Srapin, altered by
Mr. Winston (as we are told) from several Farces, but princi-
pally from Moliere's Fourberies de Scapin. Mr. Winston doe;
not seem to have done much for the Farce ; which is a shame :
for as he was so bad an actor, he ought to have been doubly
careful to make amends to his brother-managers by excelling as
an author. In fact, there is nothing in the piece worth no-
ticing, except Mr. Mathe%v's cleverness in theassumption of se-
veral different tones and dialects.