The National Register.
London, England, 1808-02-07 00:00:00

Titr_NATIONAL

IWOlrpeEpras 4tatt-: that the Managers Poptessitig Mrs. Fl. 'Sid-
. dons. and wishing to supply the place of Med. Powell; who
qapialotsesithwetts insisted that Bittir• Should he " too appearing
`Lowart.Y We have before hail occa.iou to lamest that Managers
wdisperatif it performer to play once any character which they
It Ow. . oever ss ill be suffered to play again ; but haw greatly
to bib anted are those directors, w hi; bring a lady, again.. her
sri!?,' .4 act a part, which she conceive; above her power! The
Asir is, that though the fair ezmdidate of _Monday night has a
etiospiete posseesitm of the stare business. anti appeared 1.. have
rieeeivtwta most.just-idea of the charm ter :Mooed to het-, yet
she has not sulicit•nt majesty of person. nor safheient power of
voilso so seskisly either tlir eke, or the ear, in Elpira—at lea- t.
it* till the stage of pi' vast it theatre as Drury-lane. Her action.
her. carriage, and her topes, wouid have liven exceedingly ap-
propriate, if she had possessed greater height of figure, and
slretigth of delivery; but that 111:LIIIIVI Willeil excites admiration
in a woman " que• fileidil Regina," is not effective from a di-
minutive figure and slender voice.—The sublime is incapable of
miniature.
iltrwever, we should be very sorry to discourage this :young
lady. Vie will not flatter her, by .sayin,z, that toe think
she cats be very seems-fal in a London play-house, because she
has not the physical requisites ; but if she can resolve to per-
form only is country thrntres, ty here she. IA ills bet generally
beard, we have no doubt that she ..ill be generally admired.
We have ;Wen most of, the priucipal pecforivers out of the
Metropolis, ittid . we have never foitud one that we can compare
to the actress w bu performed Elvira.

THE DRAMATIC DETECTOR.

No. I.
.Quid nevi 7-1 V hat of Tut NI: s ?

There was a custom in some cities of Holland, that a rest.eet-
able householder shoutd every evening take a round of eaeh
district, to see that the guardiam of the night performed their
duty. It • is. absolutely accessory that some person should, in
like matmer, take a survey of those critics who pretend to be
the Itatchaven of the public taste. Feeling this necessity, ne
mow before oar readers to expose the folly at:d ignorance of the
periedical scribblers, and senor a little of that filth which is
thrua it up to blind the e3es of impartial people. We have not
quite ,so vouch vanity as the persons whom we wish to lay open,
and thererure we do not, like them, set eat by prof, ssia; an
unqualified satisfaction in our own abilities: hut the conscious.
ness of ',Aperients!, perbaps, authorizes us to promise some-
thing, and if we have not always a it, we hope never to aban-
don decency. If lendingethe way, we can induce others, better
quail ed than ourtelveg, to undertake the office of undeceiving
tat pualic, we shall think our labours amply rewarded
have opened the first drata will be some sort of credit—lie who
cleanses the whole rewitory, will be a Hercules indeed'.
Among those Papers w hieli have struggled for pre-eminence,
in coarseness of abit‘r, 'The Veit* has long stood con,pirtioup.
Th r• theatrical department of that publication was formerly. or-
rnoied by a getaleman, hy, %vhile the ardour of youthful
Veal perpetually hurried him ieto gross error, seldom tailed to
el; ,play talents which, in many opinions, redeemed his faults.
Ile held no certain course, for 'he wandered through an ex-
panse with which he vas totally unacquainted : but if, like a
meteor, he travelled irregularly, like a meteor he blazed as he
Now we are told, in the Paper itielf, that he no longer
directs its columns : and if ue had not hero told so, we should
prehably have discovered it, without taking much trouble in
hunting for a clue. The internal evidence is talLeient. The
new CI itie ithitaies the faults of his predecessor, though he can-
not catch hip beauties : and having dressed himself in the
ipllmago of the pea,:ock, be does not expect to be recognized as
a daw. But literary men will see the diferenre between hit
anrt predcce.isor—Neat Peter Piudar will, perhaps, apply
Isis old lira'.

play d'void of incident, and stuffed with tint caricatur,-
stead of character, is flung once more in the face of the
world, and set alloat in all the buoyancy of putrAtctism.—
e were unwilling, in our own accouut of this piece, to
siy any thing aboutslite manner in which it was acted,
be-
cause the play was chtlemned, and, as the object of cr;..
tic6m is reform., ft seem Sin general a needless cruelty to ;*.t:ick
an actor for faults which he can tamer base an opportucit‘ of
r.Teating. Eat when we find this critic coming forward to ta_
visit encomium on the acting. of Mr. Hlitaon. in the chara; ter
of fant,B Meal, the only comic part we ever saw him in
which it was impossible to praise any thing, we feel tir,,el‘es
a little irritated at the outrage which is CO nals I MI every prin..
c•ple of true last and cannot forbear from entering our prob.:,
against the on-representations of The Neu2s. The character,
though intolerably flat, it gross enough for the lowest fartv,;;„,l
Mr. Elliston was not satistied ssiib playing it as fa•-ce, but he
nin=t needs play it tie broad pantomitne. The e;ernal bustle of
hi= halals and fret, ;he perpetual Nalwation of his neighbours by
renning against them, and the interrupted delivery of passagcl
which ought to be connected, would perhaps be very tit for Mr.
Grimaldi in a mein drama, but are faults to be avoided he Mr.
Elliston in conady. Elliston is an excellent comedian
• %%. hen he chusec : and as it very seldom happens that he does not
chase it, nothing should have tempted us to record an exception
to our general admiration of his talents, but the absurd zeal is it o
which his defects have been construed into beauties. We eau
never connive at a system of criticism which is intended to 'bake
black look like white, and we have received too much pleasure
from Mr. Elliston's merits, to encourage him in a repetition
of his errors.

So much for the matter of The ?lows, and the manner is about
as good : for we find several such elegant felicities ofevpressiou
as the following : " The most of it was," &c.—" Every body
was in the. nicest tune to relish a bustling comedy," tic.—`• lu
the former incident is a greater reciprocity of gutter mai
gullet.," &e.—The last two arts actually seemed," &c.
There are several snore such phrases, but we are sure our
readers wHI spare us the tedium of extracting them. The critic
mistake, pertness fur *it, and vulgarity for ease : but the dap-
per smartness of literature is at least a, tiresome as this familiar
impertinence that apes good manners : and The Nutrs is as re-
mote from elegance of critisism, as Southwark (tom St. J awes'