The National Register.
London, England, 1808-08-07 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

DRAMATIC DETECTOR.
No. VII.

A

?assess!. STATE OF TUE FIIENCII DRAMA.
what are our sensations, when in the midst of our modern
beauties, arrayed iu all the easy elegance of wallow,
we behold a stiff antiquated dame. whose eves now dwell with
complaceney on the enormous swelling of her hoop, now glance
cantemptuously at the light airy vestments of our belles! Her
ridiculous appearance awakens a smile, and her haughty scorn
of our taste calls for pity at her blindness. We then think that
all those who tread the fields of society might to conform them-
selves to the si:es established there, nor display the stubbornness
of private opinion, in direct opposition to the sense of the com-
munity. If we pry w ith the glass of observation into the re-
gions of modern literature, we shall be struck with a contrast
equally conspicuous, the result of self-conceit heightened by na-
tional vanity. Whilst nature now and then reveals herself
naked to our view on the British Stage, and obedient to the
tali-man which she entrusted to her favourite bard, always at-
tends at the representation of his dramas,we perceive at a distance
the French tragic Muse, wrapped in assamed majesty, stalking
disdainful of all the native graces of simplicity, stiff with affec-
tation, and mistaking the language of art for the expression of
real passion. The genius of Imitation has kindled his torch in
vain, to guide our neighbours through the difficulties of dramatic
composition. Ilk light has proved an ignis plans that led them
into error. They fancied that the Greek poets had exhausted
passion and sentiment ; in their works alone, therefore, they
looked for models and subjects, and not In the unbounded extent
of mental and material creation. The unity of time, place, and
action, %%hick certainly never found in nature, they deter-
mined strictly to observe ; in order, they tell us, to inflict
no wound on probability. This reasoning would hold good, and
Aristotle's rules would d;-er we compliance, were the means pro-
posed adequate to the end he had in view. But who %vould at-
tempt to cure insanity with remedies capable of shaking the stout-
est foundations of human intellect, and produciug that dread-
ful disorder the soul ? Who, therefore, can reasonably expect
to increase the probability of a fact, by an actual violation of
probability itself, in the manner of relating or representing it?
Yet the French are so bigotted in their Dramatic creed, if such
an expression may be used, that any author, who in a tragedy
would remove the scene of action from the vestibule to the in
tenor of a palace, a mighty distance! would meet with instant
coudemnation. In serious comedy they are equally strict; hut
in meld-dramas and Vaudevilles they allow themselves more la-
titude, and suffer the scene to be altered at the beginning of every
act. Deprived of all the brilliancy of changing scenery, the
play must rest for success on its own merit and the exertions of
the actors, and from this very necessity for eminence of talent in
the authors and actors, springs their inferiority to ours. The for-
mer study not nature, tile language of which is irregular and unla-
boured as its thoughts, but a faultless correctness of diction, cold
when it should be simple, and bombastic when it should be
warm. Unable to display a great and powerful variety of sen-
timents and passions, o hick alone could subdue the soul, since
the organs through which it commonly receives its perceptions,
ate little affected by theatrical pomp, they crowd their per-
formances with heroes, kings, queens, and warriors, and sedu-
lously avoid whatever savours of common life, fully persuaded
that the mind accustomed to the ordinary incidents of life re-
quirks higher and more important events to captivate closely her
attention and awaken strong sensations of pleasure, pity or
terror. The actors, equally unassisted by the magical decep-
tions of the stage, find themselves compelled, by the multiplicity
of their geitures, and the loudness of their tones, to give life to
the cold and deficient passages with which their parts abound,
and in order that the difference of situations and passions may
be perceived, to vociferate with increased vehemence and more
extravagant gesticulations those, that merely require animation.
It is not astonishing therefore, that to every Englishman who
has lately witnessed the chaste, judicious, and energetic per-
formance of a Kemble and a Siddons, the actors most highly
approved on the French stage, should seem to overstep the
modesty of nature, or rather to express love, revenge and am-
bition, as ours v ould madness. A proof that they are indebted
to their authors for the inferiority of their merits (ts hen com-
pared with those of our performers, for candour obliges us to
allot that some of them possess eminent talents which they de-
grade by sacrificing to the bad taste of the public), is that in
the lower theatres, such as Louuubt, now Theatre de l'lmpera-
tries, the Thcatro tis l'Opera Cvmigue, and Comique,

AUGUST 7.

where plays are performed, in which the three unities are not
so strictly observed, we meet with actors greatly superior to
the former in the easy delineation of nature, though
perk pg
endowed with a genius of a humbler cast. Lauvois is mostly
supplied with pieces by one of the best comedians in France,
M. Picard. who like his great predecessor Moliere, and ioir
English translator Mr. C. Kemble, always acts in the dramas
which he has composed. His productions display a cultivated,
elegant and judicious mind, wit chaste and refined, a consi-
derable share of inventive ingenuity in the contrivaore of his
plots, and of facility in painting characters. His Mediocre a
Rampant ranks high in the estimation of his countrymen; his
Voyageurs has, we believe, appeared on the English. stat:e un•
der a different name, and hts Fifirs a Merrier, one of his lateq
compositions, an entertainment in three acts, is full of simplicity
and unaffected Wit. He is the author of several other pieces WI)
numerous to be mentioned here. It was at this theatre that
about six years ago, the farce of Plot and Counterplot made its
appearance under the title of Le Portrait de Michel Cer-
vantes. The writer of this article was present at the first re-
presentation of this amusing afterpiece, w hick though severely
censured by the French Newspaper Critics of the time, on ac-
count of the intricacy of its plot, met with a very favourable
reception. The translation given by Mt. C. Kemble is faithful,
but the scene hetw een the two supposed dead bodies, being a
little altered, did not strike us with the same effect as the
original.
L'Opera Comique presents a still livelier scene. There, they
now and then indulge in what the French call, des ehea:gemcac
a vete, or changes of scenery executed without lowering the
curtain. For in all the Parisian theatres, the Great Opera, or
Academie Imperials de Musique, and the Opera Comips except-
ed, the curtain always falls when any change of scenery is about
to take place. This must be understood to apply only to tho,e
theatres in which such a gross violation of the rules of 4ri.totle
is tolerated. The singers in this house are, in general, good,
though certainly very deficient in taste and execution, if we put
them in comparison w ith our Braham and Billingion.
L'Ambigu Cotnique is the fertile ground from whence our
modern ant hors plucked all the melodramatic plants which hay,-
of late flourished on our London stages. liere sse meet with
the original; of Telerti, The Wife with Two flusban:is, The Nor.
tress, The Young Hussar, and many others, the names of which
have escaped our memory. It is here a (took found invention and
harmless wit, which he improved into indecent double entendres.
It is whilst reading the productions of time numberless bards,
who write for this theatre, that his partiality for escapes first
unfolded itself ; and as we have no doubt of his being desirous,
perhaps, through the force of habit, to imitate his heroes, and
also effect his escape from the lash of deserved criticism, we
will indulge him this time, and defer the continuation of our
remarks on the French and English stage till a future opportu-
nity.