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

TONAL REGISTER.

rules which cannot be understood and applied without original
taste, extensive reading, theatrical intercourse, and long ex-
perience.

If these positions be true, our readers will not be surprised,
when we declare the very low opinion we entertain of the then,
trical critics, who blot the periodical publications of the present
age. As dramatic nature now appears, reduced to regular scien-
tific principles, yet casually " snatching [grace beyond the
•' reach" of any settled principle at all,attired in a garb, which
though it ought to fit her closely, yet is not the dress which
she wears on ordinary occasions, sometimes restrained by the
necessity of subordination, and sometimes stimulated for the dis-
play of magnificent effects, there can be but very few persons
who have the natural qualifications for judging nicely of acting,
and fewer yet to whom education and practice have imparted
their final and necessary skill. In our theatres there must al-
ways be a scarcity of fine actors, because in the highest walk of
the profession no man can he really great, without a union of
all the (panties which can give executive brilliancy to accurate
conception; among which are many of the powers of poetical
combination, all the qualities of discriminative analysis, and all
the qualities of a finished gentleman. There is as a lamentable
scarcity of fine critics in our newspapers; and it would be dif-
ficult to find four of these authors who possess poetry enough to
feel, and yet coolness enough to discriminate: gaiety enough
to laugh, and yet elegance enough to understand high-breeding :
who know the green-room sufficiently to distinguish how much
effect is produced by the author, and how much by the actor:
who, with all these natural and artificial requisites for forming
their judgment, have adequate powers of composition for de-
livering that judgment gracefully, and so much moderation us
to abstain from condemning unmercifully.

After having said so much of the requisites for perfect criti-
ci►m, it would be the height of vanity and presumption to pro-
mise that our criticisms will be perfect ; but we may be allow-
ed to say, that if we are not capable of doing all that these
principles require, we trust to avoid what these principles con-
demn. Before we animadvert upon a play or upon an actor,
it is our custom to study the play itself, with a view either of
discussing its merits, or of estimating its characters. Before we
make positive assertions, we shall take care to ascertain our
facts ; and having once made up our minds upon truth, we shall
never sacrifice that truth to party pique, or to the vanity of
pointed style. We shall criticise new plays with as much can-
dour as old ones, and endeavour to recommend our observations
on the actors, by pointing out the beauties of their conceptions,
and explaining the principles in which they may fail, rather
than by the puffs of personal partiality, or the vulgarity of per-
sonal abuse. While other critics write to obtain fame for their
own ingenuity, we shall labour to exhibit truth for our readers;
and as truth, in theatrical affairs, has so long been a stranger to
the public, we have no doubt that the public will receive her
with all the hospitality which a stranger should claim!