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

THE COURT AND WORLD OF FASHION.

Friday morning, after breakfast, his Majesty rode on
horseback in Windsor Park, by Cranbourne, till half past
twelve o'clock, accompanied by the Dukes of Kent and
Cambridge, Princesses Augusta, Sophia, and Amelia, at-
tended by Lady Ely, Count Munster, Generals Manning-
ham and Cartwright, Colonels Upton and Taylor.
Friday at twelve o'clock, the Duke of Kent arrived at
Windsor. All the Royal Dukes were expected in the
course of the afternoon, to dine with her Majesty and the
Pfaicesses.

The following is said to he an original Letter from Lady
Craven, to one of her Theatrical female friends, who
asked how she liked her change of siluation.

MY DEAR T * • * ** *

No doubt you are interested in the question by asking me so
soon my opinion of " Matrimony"—it would he " Love's
Labour Lost." Indeed if I disliked it in the " Honey Moon"—if
you continue such a prude, as to retain your old opinion of
" Marriage a la mode" and still consider it as foolish, 1 would
advise you by all means to catch the " Folly as it Flies,"
provided you hit upon some sober spark who has sown hi=
•' Wild Oats"—" trial's all," you know—however, it
upon " Review" you should-tit like the state, why you may
cause " The Devil to Pay" in the " School for Scandal;" and
of course, the result of your " Wedding Day" will then form
a very pretty " Winter's Tale"! Thus, at all events, like a
fashionable woman, )uu will " Raise this Wind." Do oat

my
it—" As you Like it;" and if you are disappointed call
me a " Country Girl" " Too Friendly by half." With
fuck charms as you possess; I know all you want is " the Win."
---Once married, you may, quite in the fashion, act as you
choose; and if your spouse proves " a Provoked Husband," why
:i,ou may take your own " Revenge," and make him a " Suspi-
ious one."---11 now (notwithstanding all I have said) you re-
main obstinate and single, perhaps, in nine months hence, as
" Time's a Tell-tale," 1 may produce an additional inducement
Adieu, your's, Be.c. D.

If, as Swift says, God has decreed revenge against pun-
ning the late George Selwyn, was unfortunate indeed. So
conl;deut was he of his powers in this way, that he once
bet a friend five guineas that he would produce a pun on
any given subject—" Done," replies his friend, " pun on
the King."—" Damn it, man, (rejoined the witty George),
you know just as well as I do that the King's no subject 1"

When Garrick in the zenith of his powers took his
friend Doctor Johnson, to view his valuable estates which,
by a late decree, his widow has been ejected from, the
emot►on they caused in the mind of the great moralist
was singular, " Ah David, David, David, (exclaimed the
Doctor tapping the shoulder of our immortal R °wins)
these are the things which make a death bed terrible."!!!
On the rumour of a coalition, an opposition wit lately
obsers cd, that, he was sure Lord Howick never would de-
sert principles whidh he had grown Crew in.

Dramatic Criticism, or something which bears that title, is
now so much in request, that a Newspaper can scarcely obtain
a great circulation, without preseuting a pretty large portion
of such matter. We„, shall. therefore, des ote a coudderable
space in THE NATIONAL REGISTER 10 this fashionable sub-
ject, although we de not intend to treat it in the fashionable
style. Of late, in the most popular of the periodical Critique%
the absence of scientific principle has been supplied by the
superfluity of spleen, and the want of experience has been
compensated by the ebullition of wit. The fallacy has pleased
the Public: because every body can admire w bat is brilliant
in wit, but every body cannot detect what is erroneous is
science. The spectators in a Theatre are distant from the stage.
and foil dazzles their eyes with all the lustre of real gold : The
readers of these current criticisms are remote from those circle*
in which the Drama is understood, and pointed antithesis strikes
them with the force of truth. In the columns of this Paper
we shall consider the criticism of the Drama not as a task
which may be slurred by idleness or blotted by caprice: but as
a science possessing principles as certain and as exalted as the
general criticism of poetry, of painting, of sculpture, or of aoy
other of the Fine Arts.

The Drama, considered as a Fine Art, which may become
the sul►ject of criticism, divides itself naturally into two parts:
the one is the art of Dramatic Composition, which we may
criticise as fully as any poetry can be criticised : and the other
is the art of Acting, which can be criticised as fully as wepay
criticise Painting or Sculpture. To draw a parallel between
the art of Poetry and the art of Di onatie Compositioo
would be idle, because the latter is al.owed to be a
branch of the former : bat we are no less certain of oar
ground, when we assert that there is a strong analogy
in the three arts of Painting, Sculpture, and 'Acting. All
equally tend to the same object : that is, to please by the just
representation of w hat is striking, interesting, or agreeable is
nature. Acting bears the same relative distance to Sculpture,
that Sculpture bears to Painting—for Painting represents Nature
by lines and colours laid on a flat surface to be viewed from a
single point : Sculpture goes further, and represents the round-
ness and real proportion of Nature in every point from which
a statue can be viewed ; but Acting surpasses them both,
and with a Promethean power, gives motion, and voice, and
life

---- -
But though Acting, this considered, of all the Fine Arts
comes nearest to Natures Prototype ; yet it is the mast difficult
to he criticised, because its productions are the nuist evanescent.
If we wish to decide on the merit of a picture or a statue, we
may keep it before our eyes, unvarying in its ex pre.sien and un-
injured in its workmanship, for au hour, for a day, for years :
if we disapprove it at a first glance, we have opportunities of
discovering its beauties by degrees, of revising, perhaps totally
changing our original judgment. But the representation of
Nature, u hich is produced by Acting, vanishes as soon as it is -
beheld ; and though the spectator may not happen to be in the
right frame of mind at the moment when the actor delivers a
particular passage, there is no opportunity of arresting the
images in order to ascertain their rater its or defects.

Yet, though Acting is thus of all the Fine Arts the most dif-
ficult to he criticised, it is nevertheless tilt- most universally and
the most confidently canvassed. An uninformed person who
enters a gallery of pictures or statues, if be gives any opinion
at all, usually gives it with some sort of reserve : he for the
most part leans to the favourable side : and, even when he die-
approves a work, he usually makes use of some such phrase as,
" I don't admire it, but very likely that is because I know
" nothing about painting or sculpture." But almost every body
who enters a Theatre, thinks himself entitled to give a positive
opinion on Acting, although he perhaps may never have seen
fifty plays in his whole life. No one should believe that every
reasonable creature whom Nature has brought into the world,
can judge of acting, because good acting is a reasonable repre-
sentation of Nature; for Acting, as well as the other Arts by
which Nature is represented, has rules which direct, and mles
which restrain, not only its mechanism, but even its conception;

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3. THE NATIONAL REGISTER. 1s
" Wonder" at trifling, for you know "Laugh when you
THE THEATRES.
Can" has been ever my maxim. But to be serious—follow
my advice—in "Three_ Weeks after Marriage" speak of

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