The National Register.
London, England, 1808-02-21 00:00:00

FEB. 21.

with lively s witnent, and so►ne honed English wit, instead of
antithese, and puns. An attempt of this kind might tend to
cure a vitiated taste ; and even the n►any (who are oftener al-
lured by the decorations, than by the sterling merit of the piece)
would soon find a higher relish in the genuine English comedy,
than in all the tricks of the mechanist, or the most brilliant
d'wurre of the scene-painter.

TIIE DKAM ATI c DETECTOR.

No. 11.
Impiger, irarundus, inexarabilis, acer !
In these times, when the spirit of chivalry is almost extinct,
and a single warrior no longer ventures to storm an enchanted
castle, there is some boldness in attacking an enemy who is not
only armed with powerful weapons of defence, but guaidal by
the talisman of public favour. in assailing The E.iaminer
we
have, therefore, undertaken a s
erviceec of danger, and opposed
to the talents which glitter e shall be fighting like the
knights in Mr. Skitlington's Sleeping Beauty, tignimt thunder
ant lightning. But if the enchanter employ his art to the pur-
rases of mischief, we will try to sound the itro, by the blast of
which his magic influence may fall. and to rescue all the un-
happy men and distressed damsels who for so long a time have
hem beneath his oppression.
The theatrical censor, in The Examiner,•annottnces himself to
be the same who formerly brandished the critical quill in The
,zeros. In that paper he did not content himself with lashing
these writers who came regularly under his review, hut scarcely
ever passed a week without introducing the names of some three
or four authors, whom hr seemed to consider as the vicegerents
of dullness upon earth. We are sorry to mind, that in The k.;.r-
amirier he pursues a line of conduct exactly similar, and that
the same people are introduced by head and shoulders, nicest!,
that then nuty be abased. Our impartial renders will he a lit-
tle surprised. when they are informed, that among those who
are stigmatized as the greatest blockheads tbut ever insulted
the taste of a nation, are the authors of the Dramatist, and of
the Jew and Daelar. That Mr. Reynolds has too {Men dressed
comedy in a harlequin jacket, and that Mr. {Malin has tisnally
spread pints, as thick its duck-weed, over the waters of his dra•
math. Helicon, ais ate perfectly ready to confess : But that
men who have done so much for the relaxation of rigid muscles,
are to he considered as blockheads we never ran allow : and we
think that, eveu it' they were duller than the fat weed on !settle's
harf, a Critic could have no right to abuse them, except when
their a orks were regularly the subjects of his animadversion.
But this v.:Weal-in has set up Shakespeare and Cortgreve as the
north poles of _miss, and the modern authors as their diame-
trical oppositvs : and in praportion as any writer approaches
ta the staudarl point at either extreme, his literary latitude
411 d loilettuds. are calt•olated by this theatrical philosopher.—
There is to subject, however apparently unconnected with the
mimes of the raolern authors, that is not immediately coupled
a its au ins er.iye agaioq their ahsurdities: and if all his readers
ttre like us, they :met by this time he heartily tired °No. sounds.
, Cherry, and Reynolds,
Cherry, Keynold,,, and Oindio, with which the changes:ire so uni-
farmly rung up.m our ears. If the Critic has occasion to speak
of the nevi val-' at Drury Lane, he tells us that the other house
is al ways in she extremes of Shakespeare and Dibdin. 1f he
mentions air. Kite tholles•s opi;rs, which he very deservedly
condemns. he tells us that Me. CisiTy must be in " a happy
•• maraca, of bispiration•' to compose any thing as good: and
though the unfortunate frequency of bad plays gives him fre-
queut opportunities of fair censure, he cannot be Comfortable
unless he drags the Nair authors, risen when they are nuoircnd-
beg, before the dreadful tribunal of criticism lie is not con-
tent with taking his gun, like a regular sportsman, and shoot-
ing the game that starts hefore him ; hut converts every Sunday
into Rhrove- tide. and brings the poor finis from their peaceful
roosts, merely that he may have the pleasure of breaking their
legs and wings. Besides we are not sure that the privileges of
a theatrical Critic are quite as eXtensive as this writer would
make them. Every body who sees a new play, and thinks it
stupid, has an sinooutited Het, publicly or privately, to say
that he thinks so : hut we do not conceive that any body has a'
right to call its author stupid : because a very clever man may
write a very Ptupid play : and censure, when transferred from
the individual piece to the general capacity which produced
that piece, is no loagor criticism, but personality. This we
hold to he the case ofjustice, even it' the author attacked were
really a blockhead ; hat when a man has actually produced one
good piece, he hits proved himself ingenious, and though his

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.