The National Register.
London, England, 1815-12-31 00:00:00

11.4 E 'N

• 'taken tbr the pi
their public functions.
" We consider it to be our furtherand indispensable duty, to
assure your Exrellenc v, although 'we'eannot chnlbt that' titer late
abominable murder ellen individual—as amiable a Mk,ristrate,
and as upright es any that have beenleft behind to etnulate his
example in the firm support Of the laws—was intended as a mea,
sure of intimidation, as.applieti to the whole body of
tracy, to suspend -and paralyze the exercise -of our important
functions, that we are, notwithstanding determined, one au& all,;
to stand by each other withfirtnness.and perseverance, and.stea-:
dily to conti tine in the discharge of our public duties, until . in-.
surrection and outrage shall have been .effectually . repressed
social relations and domestic tranquillity re established; and-the
spirit•of combination and tonspiracy—tlie fatal source. of so. tna-
ny evils, sacrifices, and.crimes, eliectuallrdissolved, .and .un.
feagnedlv abandoned.
" Ana the • Magistrates of the Barony r,f Clanwilliam, upon:
whom, as placed in more immediate vicinity to the scene of the;
late most atrocious outrage, the duty of resisting, by the strong:
arm of the law, that desperate spi ri t of violence and assassination,:
w mld seem to hare been thrown in the first, instance, and in a
special degree ; and which the aid, to.be afforded by a more dis-
tant co-operation, must, of necessity, be comparatively weak aria
inefficient, haying declared themselves aid" the ordinary power!
of the Mirjstracy entirely incompetent -to undertake so -deep a
responsile I ity ; and having called for the strong interposition of
his Majesty's toyernment,,and the extension, to their particular
district, of the provisions of the Act of the 54th rear of the King,
cap. 13, entitled, an Act' for the better execution of Me luwc in
Ireland, by appointing superintendia,g Magistrates and addiiional
Constables, in counties, in certain cases :

,btracy i

" We, the Justices of the Peace of the county Of Tipperarvd
here in Sper!ial Sessions assembled, think it our duty, under the
peculiar circumstances herein before recited, unanimously to
submit it to your Excellency, as our opinion and humble recom-
- suendation, that the provisions of the said Act may he extended
• accordingly to the said Barony of Clanwilliatn.
" Confiding in your.Excelleney's administration, for a perse•
verance in the same wise and equitable principle which, in the
selection of the persons already made fur carrying these extraor-
dinary powers into effect, has so effectually protected the Go-
'verninent, not less than the Magistrates theinelves, against the
imputation of those unworthy motives, of an undue attention to
,patronage on the one hand, and belf-interet on the other."
(Signed, Doriouv no nu, and 75 other Magistrates.)

THE LORD LIEUTE.NANT's ANSWER.
" Dublin Castic. Dec. 17, 1815.

"Mr Loan--I am commanded by the Lord Lieutenant to
acquaint your Lordship, that his Excellency has received the
Address which your Lordship was requested to transmit whim,
from a General Meeting of the .NlagiArates of the coutrty of
Tipperary.
" It is gratifying in the highest de,;ree to his Excellency, to
. receive from a body so deeply interested in the welfare of that
County, an assurance that they approve of theseveral measures
to which his Excellency. has resorted, for the purpose of restoring
• and maintaining the public peace, of bringing to justice the
murderers of a roost upright and efficienelligistrate, and of
protecting from the same fate those who were associated with
him in the performance of duties, to the conscientious discharge
.of which he fell a victim.
"While his Excellency deeply deplores thp loss whiff So-
ciety has sustained by this atricious murder, he has seen, with
the greatest satisfaction, that, so far from intimidating the Ma-
gistrates, it has stimulated them to enereased exertion ; and
that, by the general indignation which it has-excited, and the
union which it has promoted, this crime itself has been instru-
tneatal in defeating the very..object for which it was planted
and.perpetraied.
" Ells Excel encv desires me to assure the :Magistrates, that
e‘ cry energy of the Executive Government shalt continue to be.
appited ;a aid of-their personal exertigalh* anti stiptilit-the melt-
hut* at present in oporatiou provt tnadequatei he will not

'PIC. 31.

10 su,

othe!s,•as tir-

shrink tioin the respiy_
gent necessity may call for and jottify.
"'His Excellency has directed immediate steps to be taken,
with the viewofapplving to the Barony of Clanwill lam, the pro-
,visions of the Act which the Magistrates have reconintended,to
be enforced ; .and they may be assui (xi, that in selecting the in-
strtiroents.for carrying it into'execution, his Excellency will act
upon the rfil c ple upon which he has hitherto acted—and con-
sider tteir .eincitucy their strongest and their sole reconitneu-
'dation.

" 1 have the honour to be, &c.
ROBilitT

44 The Itightilon. the Earl. of Donoughinore,
atc.Zec. tiro."

TIM DRAMATIC REGISTER.

du original CRITHEUE on 'BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, OA
the BEGGAR'S' Boot, and its REvtvaL.
.(As promised last week.)
The transcendant merit of our early dramatic writers is
now fully acknowledged. •Shokespeare, partly by the
acting of Garrick, ,and partly by the zeal of some com.
mentators Of genius, amongst wham we enumerate War.
&urinal ..Prlpe, and Johnson, has long since been rescued
from the oblivion into which a taste, vitiated by the dissi-
pation of a luxurious Court, in the days of the Id Charles,
anit'an absurd admiration for French manners end• French
clritleisln,-(the manners and the criticism of the tinsel -age
of Louis XI V.)-had thrown him ; and the active, restietts
curiosity of the present age, certainly not deficient in ori.
ginal genius, but almost encumbered with learning, affords
a' fair'opportunity for again decorating with fresh laurels
the honoured heads of Beaumont acid Fletcher, and-the
learned Jonson. The two :former were, at one time,
the favourite poets of the town ;Attiring their lives,-they
almost usurped the stage, and.theirplays were much mora
frequently-acted than those of Shakelpeare. During the
Commonwealth, and•the usurpatiantrferonstrell, the stage
suffered -ate inkerreenum ; .and when the puritanical spirit
had. passed away; there came, with- theßestoration, an alai,
.puritanical epirit, which . could -take -no pleasure in - the
sound -and ..solid sense of our .forefithevs, ',bet converted
every thing into frivolity.and.unbridled debauchery. With
a. Co u rt, sueb-as is_ described. by the Count De .Grammo fit,
.it. is .quite impossible that any good taste .could have been
preserved ; for, not to, have debauched the taste of a pen.
ph., must have left them all the misery df consciousness, in
fhe midst of their ciegradation; And.out CIE the just sense of
their humiliation, would have sprung :theptoutl spirit of re.
sistance. It required some years,. before the genius even of
Shakespeare could escape from the. shade. into •which his
fame must necessarily in such times :pass. 'His merits.are
now fully known; and as Bearmsont,and. Fletcher bad
formerly almost excluded him -from the • stage, each is the
revolution of events, that we find they, having been per.
baps at first too highly praised, have been certainly since
too much neglected. In learning, they appear to havegreatly
surpassed Shakespeare, of whose knowledge and.learniag
however, we have formed by no means so Contemptible a
notion as some of his critics. In sublimity And pathos,
they must, of course, come short of him who surpassed all
'others, In richness of fancy also, they are unequal ; and
there is a sweetness in the harmony of Shakespeare':
verse, in which he is quite unrivolled. His ear seoins to
have bleu toned as nicety as that of Milton, who alone, in
his maiuwt, in the beautiful Mask of Comm*, and in some

torc.

TWE N,ATION

and Eve, in our only epic. poem, moves ift the same sphere
with the first of poets. In wit they partake of Shulce.
speare's spirit, and are tainted with his faults, which were
the faults of the ate. Their humour isaomytimes coarse,,
and their languagi indelicate, hot it is alwaysAbe.language
of th-ir low characters They make beggars, and, Pe-

speak grossly; hut their gentlemen are wits, soldiers, and
scholars, with princely minds, noble feelings, and'graceftd,
speech, neither wanting in dignity nor in manners, They
love a quibble, and so do we, and so does. everroni.; butt
the quibble of the ignorantis,a quibble out-of piker, like:st,
pun io a 'er'non or a quibble constantly usurplerthe place
of better things, as in the perpetual puns and,ballivf the.
modern comedy, whither they are drawn by force, for want.
of a richer store, to supply the materials of the dialogue.
In the Comedy of the Beggar's, Rush, Van. Dunk,, over-
come with liquor, after abusing Wolfort, plays upon the.
word uphold, and refuses to take Macre: hand,, till he!
has given his assurance that he does not. uphold Wijifort.
Then says the merry drunkard, " HOLD Mt This,l
is nature, and therefore true wit, just what is seen every,
day, when liquor, having usurped the place of calm reason*i
and a nicer taste, has given ferment to the very feculesseiee,
of our fancy. What was thought decent in the times ot
our ancestors, would be intolerable now ;a—not becauset
we are perhaps better ; for we doubt whether our private,
bacchanalian orgies, at the tables whereMorrisorliiwerdine.
were frequent guests, did not lately sink far below any in
times past, except when Rochester was the Court Buffoon;
but because we have learnt to cover in public, every thing!
which may be offensive to nice delicacy; aatheanciests hadt
refined so far, and the French have followed them, as to,
banish all actual scenes of blood from their whole drama..
The opinion of their cotetnporaries was certainly much ite
favour of our authors.; and when we consider that one was;
the son of a bishop, and the other of a judge, we must fairly
presume, that their taste and manners were not low. Love...
lace, a poet of some eminence, speaking of the great. deli..
cacy of expression, in " The Custom of the Countrys"'
says, 46 Minerva might have spoke in Venus' face;" such.
is his sense of the purity of their language. Dryden, on
tke contrary, thinks it flat bawdry, and we are certain that:
it. would. be intolerable now ; but we conclude from it, amt.
manners were eltered, and words which at onetime are.
offensive must formerly have been in common use.
Before we quit these general observations on Beaumont
and Fletcher, we cannot omit to mention- our surprise at.
the extraordinary union of talent which they formed, con.
stantly wri ing in copartnership, in such a manuer, that no
one has been able to distinguish their different styles. Fat. ,
staff, though as heavy as two men, says, he is rout what he
seems, with Percy on, his back,--not a double man ; but
Beaumont and Fletcher are quite a miracle of a coalition;
they are, to borrow a quibble of Colman's, " two single
poets well rolled into one," and have not been unaptly
compared by one of, their panegyristsio Latin, to Parma.
MS biceps hill, on the two forks of which poetic
genius is said to have placed its Deity, in the ancient
mythology.
The present play is, in the commendatory ‘41.. ses of
Gardner and lia/s, attributed wholly to Fletcher. Mr.
Colman, whose edition of our authors was published in
1.778, says,, that until within a few years it used to be
freqaently repreitented at Covent Garden Theatre ;. in con-
*rotation of. which, we know a gentleman who saw it three-

• •

. r .. ,::::aoit~

837

ncl-forty.. years age. 4n. tite,.year; 17W', air. tiuit made
same alterations in it 4 and with the, addition of ser.)ral
songs, brought it out as an Opera, under the title of the
Royal MPrchant it is now: published with the name of
Mr. Douglas Kinaairdl to whotn,we are indebted. for the
revival. What alteration it underwent in Mr. Colman's
imas we. are not informed. At presents Mt. Kits:laird
opeue.to have done.no more than use the pruning knife, by
cutting out all that was strugling and irregular. so as to
encumber the action ; but what he haeengrafted, consistieg
principally of three some, is ratherdue to. Mr. Lainbe•and
Mr; Hubhouse, the latter of whom has. written the. pro.
!ogee andiepilogue. The first scene is ofigieel, but short,
and iamade to supply) one which the hist edition condemns
as cold and superilitoas. The pieetnow-opens with a song
from Higgaill the sentiment:of- which must be allowed to
he at least as just,. in these days, when the lives of old
Kings, we• fear, outlive. theire memories, except in the re.
ports of their physicians, aod,cortainly- ranch more decent
than the old,one, of " Take her and hug. her," sung by
the-same character, in the. 3d act of the ori4inal.. From
this song, we should conjecture, Mr. Lansbe is of opinion,
that the loyalty which- begins, in a bumper toast, and ends
if hip—hip--hip, and•three times three, is but.of a beg,
tett, sort, and, in truth, we think he is right.
SONG.—By ITionEN.
By the Honourable Mr. Lambe.
Well, brother-e, oar merry old Kingis dead,
What mutters ? We'll soon have another instead;
He would -not have cried,
Had you or I died ;
Teen :mum, him no longer, but merrily sing,
Rest, Kest, to the hones of our merry old King,
Drain the can brother;
We'll soon have another ;
Drink till our eye, with tears shall swell,
Teats of brandy, alone,
Asld the monarch that's gone
Shall be wept in the liquor he lov'd so well.

Of the play itself, we repeat our former praise. It
an acquisition to any stage, in any time, and for happiness
of incident is. remarkable. It fails to excite strong irate.
rest, because the plot is so long concealed, that the denoue.
ment bursts upon us somewhat too soddenly. But the man.
tiers of the Beggars, which are well preserved ; the anxi-
ous affection of Gerald ; the noble generosity, the painful
irritation during a failure of credit, the strict adherence to
his word, in preference to the gratification of the most virr
tuous passion, in the Royal Merchant, are among the best
•samples of the dramatic art. Allowing for the improba,.
(lity of all such plots, without which plays could not bet
written, there is not a word misplaced, not a sentiment that
does not naturally flow from the situation of the character,
Nor an incident which is not must simple, easy, aucl natural.
We thought we could perceive among the female pas
of the audience, at least in the boxes, a want of interest its
the humour of the beggars. There is a fastidious delicacy
among our elegsnt females which repels all that is low.
Tom Jones and Partridge begin to be out of relish amongst
our fishionable novel.readers, and with such tastes Prig
and Higsren must be quite odious. But the tradesinen'i
wives ia ti;e pit, all the gods in the ;aeries, and at least
some of the critic,, every where, must be deligho-ti w.th the
satire, which, like the arrows of Death, strikes the 4rett
and the mean, ~he beggar and the king, at the -Arne time.
Who does not feel, that when Prig says, if he is king, g, lee
must have his capons and his tarkics.brougikt him