The Sun.
London, England, 1830-06-17 00:00:00

In Russia a similar arrangement has been lately
nacted. It now remains for the friends of the drama
in England to adopt the principle, and by it lay a
basis for the revival of the literature of the stage. To
the common argument, that the little trifling transla-
tions from the French are overpaid already, and that
the law needs not take the trouble of making for-
tunes for the translators, we answer, that those
translations have been encouraged only by the dearth
of original writing, and that the revival of original
writing would rapidly extinguish them, and will be
the only thing that can.
The most natural consequence of a law protecting
dramatic writing, would be to turn the efforts of
men of ability to it as a regular pursuit; the only
mode in which great skill in stage-authorship cati lie
attained, or the stage can be supplied with a con-
stant succession of performances adequate to attract
a manly popularity. Though Shakspeare and She-
ridan are gone, human nature is not fallow for ever;
public attention to the rising talent of the stage is a
stimulant which has never failed; and we might in
the course of a few years see the deserted walls of
our theatres crowded by the first personages of the
empire, to witness the young genius of men that are
in their day to remind us of the imperishable vigour
of the British mind.
To the possible objection, that, notwithstanding
the French law, the national drama has gone down •
in France, and the theatres are suffering under se-
rious embarrassments, we are entitled to reply, that
no encouragement of law can alter the nature of a
people—that the French are by nature farceur:,
and that they seem incapable of either the sublime
or beautiful, the higher tragedy or the higher co- '
medy. Their farces are in general excellent; failing •
in point of force, they perfectly succeed in the-light
touches of character, in dexterity of intrigue, and "
in neatness of phrase. Their dialogue wants point,
strength, and peculiarity. But the Frenchman in a
farce scarcely requires dialogue. He makes up for
the want of wit in words by wit in pantomime; his
tongue is scircely required when he can make free
use of his limbs; from the eyebrows to the feet he
is all busy with telling his meaning; he wears per- •
suasion in the eternal shrug of his shoulders, cad
declaims alike with his hand or his heel. So, the
French theatres of farce are flourishing; and the
Theatre de Madame, in which Scribe produces all '
his farceur spoil from every stage of the earth—
German, Spanish, English, Polish, Russian—is the
most productive mint within the realm of half the
Sovereigns of the Northern hemisphere.
The public business of Parliament prevented the a, -
tempt to make any serious impression on the Legisla-
ture in behalf of this natural right of authorship. •
But we rely upon the effect of the universal public •
conviction that some effort ought to be made to
protect one of the very finest triumphs of the human
mind. What, at this hour, constitutes the chief •
glory of Greece, in the eyes of scholarship, but the
Greek tragedies ?, What shines as the central jewel
in the coronet of England's intellectual supremacy ?
—the living glory of Shakspeare's drama. To
excite the vigour of the English mind t) folloW
this splendour would be among the noblest national '
services, and, for such, the authorship of the stage
has a right to call on the highest zeal and energy of
the Legislature.