The National Register.
London, England, 1808-03-06 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTERI

15.7

=II

corENT GARDEN,
As usual in the sombre season of Lent, has recommenced her
Sacred Oratorios with the first part of Tim Car.AT ton, and a
miscellaneous selectiou; but the pressure of more urgent matter
precludes our entering this week into musical criticism. During
this week we have seen no other novelty, but have been highly
pleased with the repetition of the new farce, in which the per-
formers are now moreat home, and do it every justice—lt may
appear invidious to particularise, but we cannot help noticing
Liston in Caper, who not only acts, but also dresses the charac-
ter extremely well ; his affectation of grief, at opening the
will, is highly characteristic, and the testy terror with which
he listens to the " warbled complaints" of Miss Softly, it is
impossible to excel!. Fawcett, also, with a happy discrimina-
tion, gives a full display of his comic powers in extempore,
without any caricature; this enables us to smile at the Poet,
without destroying the interest which ought still to be felt, fur
the lover of the gay 'Vida o Belloir.
THE DILA ATIC DETECTOR.

No. 111.
What pert low dialogue has Farquhar writ :
Bow *Van wants grace, who never wanted wit:
The stage, how loosely does Astreleat tread,
Who fairly puts all characters to bed !
The Managers of Theatres are an order of men, who, from
certain causes totally iudepentlant of their own desert, such as
the extension of newspaper criticism, &c. have been for some
time attracting more and more of the public attention. But by
people in general, the word Manager is not fully understood.
It has two meanings; and denotes, in its first sense, the Manager
properly so called, who is employed by the Proprietors, at a
certain salary, as a sort of steward, and who sometimes acts as
Mr. Lewis lately did at Covent Garden, sometimes merely set-
tles the stage business, as Mr. Younger did some years ago at
Drury Lane. In its second, and more enlarged sense, it signifies
a Proprietor of the Theatre; and the faults of this second class
are perpetually imputed to the former, who have as little
power of pres euting or curing them as tl se least considerable actor
in the theatre.
There are certainly faults, and thole of a most flagrant de-
scription, which are committed in our theatres, and which de-
mand the public reprobation ; btu we- regret that the public re-
probation is not. directed to thi• real offenders: we arc sorry
to see Acting Managers perpetually stigmatized for what Pro-
prietors have done. 'We shill always endeavour to distinguish
carefully between the province of the Proprietor, and the pro-
vince of the mere Manager : and we will now take a survey of
the principal faults committed by the Proprietors. Those
faults are of three descriptions, inasmuch as they are committed
towards three different classes of persons, the authors, the ac-
tors, and the public. And th vise+ many of the faults rom;nit-
ted towards the authors and tl e actors, affect also the remaining
body of the public; yet as they most particularly operate upois
those two sets of people, it is, perhaps, the easiest and clearest
way to discuss separately the inj vstice done to each : and first of
the public in the widest sense of that word.
The Proprietors of the lanit'im Theatres exhibit plays by
patent from the Crown : and the Crown grants this patent far
the benefit of the public. But is exercised in the spirit with
which it is granted? Are the Proprietor of tles:e patents,
merely, as they ought to he, receive vs of an income. due to them
for public services ? No : they at t, too frequently, retrsons,
who, for the purposes of private e.holinent, cactliice all the
great objects which they are deputed to promote, and disgrace
the reputation of their country and 'lsi'r art, by the very power
which is given them for extending and exalting it. rhentres
are but courts of a petty description. Both alike air ilt first
established fur the sake of the multitude: both bavt• their
ministers, and both have their intrigue t. In each all •e tt.e
plunder of the public is the support of the public serval IS: in
each are carried on all the important and useful sciences of in-
gratitude and falshood, oppression and rapacity. Bel t, in
short, were contrived for the just advantage of the many ; both
end in the corrupt emolument of a few. set no one cols dude,
that courts and theatres are national evils, for that would be to
argue against good from its abuse; but let all who have any
influence upon the minds of Englishmen, exert their it titiost
dilierence in scouring from time to time Lae Weis st hich
in the country's ornaments. When we now take up our torUShp
Vranburf„h. t Mrs. Helm