The National Register.
London, England, 1814-08-28 00:00:00

HAYMARKET.

It 11M4 SO long been customary
.to lament the decrease of
dramatic talent among us, and to prononnee every new pro•
duction of the Tragic or the Comic Muse a spurious or spring.
that such declarations have lost their force. They are not
even credited ; and unawed by the repeated cbarge of want
of taste, and the declamations of daily, weekly, monthly.
quarterly, and annual critics, (for we live in an age of criti•
cism) the public bestow the golden meed of their approba-
tion just where they like. The only manlier in which critics
may hope to regain their influence over the popular opi-
nion,. is, however contradictory it may appear, for a while.
to glide with the stream. Absurdity will soon lose its charms
.
when no longer supported by the spirit of opposition, and
after a temporary pause of silence, their voices will be
raised with revived and encreased effect. Until such a plan
be adopted, however, let all fastidiousness be relinquished,
and where we do not meet will) excellence, let us at least tole-
rate the humble endeavours made to attain it.

After such an exordium it cannot be expected we should
treat Mr. JAMESON'S new Comedy of Lore and Gout, or .4 rri.
Tals and Marria,aes, with severity. If it be not of a superior
kind, it possesses the merits of harmlessness, interest and
amusement, and that is so much more than is always found
in new plays, that in candour it ought not•to be despised.
Most of the characters seem written, not so much with a
view to copy life, as to suit the powers of the actors by whom
they are to be performed. This method, now pretty gene_.
rally adopted, as the surest passport to the honours of repre.'
sentation, may be at once one of the causes of the inferiority
of modern plays and of their success. They are inferior, be-
cause their authors do not display that knowledge of human
nature, and convey those lessons of morality and mannerly
feelitag which it is one of the objects of the drama to imprst
and they are successful, because the characters suiting exactly
the abilities and peculiarities of their representatives, pro-
duce a resistless exertion of histrionic excellence, and ac-
quire an appearance of truth which, in reality, they seldom
possess. Should this continue, a new era may open on the
stage. Men tur,y income actors without any study of their
own. AU, the trouble will be on the hands of the authors,
who by taking measure of a man's mind, disposition and
body, will have it in their power to create Rosa and Gar-
ricks, as easily as tailors make up fashionable fops.
Acting on this principle, and aware of Matthew's excel-
lence in the representation of age, its infirmities and its fol
lies, Mr. Jameson has given him the part of an old Nabob_
afflicted at once with the gout and with love. To Mr. Terry
he has assigned a variation of the same character, and in Sir
Solomon Gander, has made him a petty patron of science and
literature, who after marrying his cook, amuses hirnseif with
rebuking her in the language of her profession. .dupe's is of
course a coxcomb thrust in to enliven the piece : Besse!, a
foolish old-fishioned tailor; and fiermerton, an 'rich lawyer,
with more pretensions to wit than honest:.. With these cha-