The National Register.
London, England, 1813-05-02 00:00:00

M AY 2.

BRA MATIC REGISTER.

COVENT-GARDEN.

EnccaTtoN.
The title of this comedy had excited more than common interest :
not because the subject itself was of the utmost importance to so-
ciety ; but because the public love for ridicule and scandal had '
created an expectation, that not only the modes, but the inventors
of modern systems of education would have felt the discipline of the
comic lash. Quakers and Churchmen, it was hoped, would have es-
ergo d the vigilance of the Licenser, and would have been made to
expose themselves on the stage,_ after having done it willingly in
the world instead of carrying on jointly, and
,therefore more-effec-
tively, the useful work of universal instruction. This expectation
was happily disappointed. We say happily, because whatever
tends to degrade the professora, must also impair the value and the
power of education, and because the differences of men, sincere in
the parts which they have espoused, and whose object, however
connected it may be with individual feelings, is evidently calculated
to produce public good, do pot fall within the province of thea-
trieal censure. Besides, to point out the detects of modern edu-
cation, what could be more efficient than to display its rouse-
quencea in the various classes of society ? Taken under this point of
view, the field widened, artl the harvest of ridicule thickened.
The fashionabie coxcomb, cii:tivating his Whiskers at the expense
of his mind;—the dashing wife, lavishing her smiles on every one
save her hustaand, whose fortune, however, she condescends to
squander away :--the private libeller, anonernoasly stabbing those
Whollt he flatters openly as his friends—the purchased orator, thun-
dering against venality, and the placeman agaivat the removal .of
abuses, form as many living satires on the preceptors of yowl', more
poignant than any which the pen of wit could hurl against them,
arid more illustrative of the errors of modern education, than the
•exposure of the party squabbles of its professors could prove. Mt.
Motet." the veteran author of this comedy, has well telt this, and
acted opi his conviction. He has collected characters from several
clauses of society, both foreigners and natives, awl placed them
sitnations whitit naturally call out the prejudices ercated by a de-
fective education, at the saute time that they show their injustice
and Bally. This is applying the drama to its boldest end, the ens-
section, and not merely the amusement, of the public. How Mr
Mon-rosi has caviled a good plan into execution, will be seen by an
analysis of his pave?.
As plays only instruct in proportion as they attract attention,
and as they canuot secure attention unless they awaken our sensibi-
lities, the Aittlior of Education has endeavoured to interweave as
much i•derest as novelty in his plot. If he has not always suc-
ceeded in the latter, in the former he has not failed. Mankind,
like a chess-hood, ever presents the same characters, and though
they may be combined in a titans:oat various ways, according to
their respective powers and dispositions, yet there run-t always be a
similarity of feelings and views which imparts its colouring to their
actions, and renders total novelty of plot unattainable. We should
think Mr. NIOIITON infest be an habitual chess player. As in that
game the qustitity of pieces is limited, so in almost all his plays he
has rang all the changes of the passions with a few characters,
whose action he has skilfully diversified. In this comedy, however,
he has enlarged the number of his agents.
Dumper (Me. Bann vaionE), a blunt friend to honesty and tsntli,
visits Iti.s former partner in a London bank, Templeton (Mr. VAW-
C ETT ), at ilk country seat. Here he finds m:n saddled wall a
aecoad wife (Mrs. C. Kumnix), just taken from a fashionable
school, and a parasite, Aspic (Mr. JONES), who supports the lady
in her extravagance, and libels lar anonymously. 'rempietan's
son (Mr. C. Kum Btu), a weak young maa, whose natural tendency
to views. has been so powertidly shaken by- the vices f his educa-
tion, that he has deluded a supposed orphan, 11(mi:if, (iii-s BouroN),
to the cottage of one of his father's tenants, Brimuledisi (11r.
Em FRY), under the pretence of carrying her to be sec( ived by ilk
family as his wife, is awakened to remorse by the reproaelit s
of
Damper, and promises to ceps'"- her wrongs; bat is persuaded by
Aspic to drown his conscience in wine, in order to consummate her
ruin. Intoxicated, he repairs to leer co:trge, and pioposcs to take
her to another place, which she avoids by jioniMb: out oh the
window. Struck with fresh remorse, he abjures his evil intentions,
and only pursues leer to Otani his pardon, awl her hand. She had
however, wandered to the lands of sib. Guy Manuel (MA-rums),
by whose daughter, Ellen (Miss Bourn WllOlll !she hail instructed
at school, she is presented to her father anel rev vivid into his fa,
oily. Here a new set of charactees present themselves. Sir t;uy,
a rich old fox-hunter; is a comy,:und oloddity and good nature; La&