Clandeftine Marriage. Canton is an admirable delineation of a foreign fycophant playing upon a vain English nobleman; the picture is inftructive, and held to view in a very juft advantageous point of light by Mr. BADDELEY, who breaks expreffion well into the Swiss Dialect, and cringes through the part in a very characteristic manner. Brush is an excellent contraft of the affuming English valet, and while in view, claims fome notice -the late Mr. PALMER deferved and met more applaufe than could be expected to attend so short a character, where tipfey he was highly laughable; his fucceffor and name-fake if not quite so pleasant; has fo nevertheless a confiderable share of merit. As Farquhar faid in refpect of Sir Harry Wildair, that when Mr. WILKS died or left. the ftage he might really go to the jubilee; fo without exaggera tion we may say that Mrs. Heidelberg was loft to the public when Mrs. CLIVE retired; the ignorant affectation, volubility of expreffion, and happy difpofition of external appearance, she was so remarkable for, will render it difficult to find an equivalent; in many characters fhe proved herself mistress of a fund of laughter, but was in none more luxuri antly droll than in this, every line of the author was very becomingly enforced, and many paffages were much improved by emphatic illuftration, in fuch undertakings we have never seen her equal, and doubt if ever we may, Mrs. HOPKINS is fcarce a fhadow of her. Mifs Sterling, a character quite unfinished, fays a good deal to very little purpofe is eat up with am bition Clandeftine Marriage. bition, and I am afraid, with envy: fhe feems to have no commendable principles about her, her firft fcene indeed exhibits a confiderable share of harmless spirit though what follows rather speaks malevolence. She is left at the catastrophe in a most undetermined, and we may add, notwithstanding her foibles, an unfatisfactory ftate; the authors have made fomething of her at first, to drop her into nothing at laft; in this view, fhe must rather be a dead weight upon any performer; however, Mifs POPE, furmounting difadvantages, renders the young lady rather more than tolerable. Fanny has a manifest advantage of her fifter in fimplicity of manners, difinterestedness of affcction, and delicacy of feeling; her fituation alfo happily enforces the amiable parts of her character; Mrs. PALMER, the original in this part, fpoke more both to the head and heart, than Mrs. BADDELY either does or can do; fome lucky hits, with a more pleafing figure, make her pass off upon general opinion as well as her predeceffor, but where criticifm interferes, we must think much more favourably of the paft than the present. Betty will never again be performed with merit equal to the lady, who with much juftice declined the infertion of her name in the drama for fo infignificant a character; a character far below her capabilities, almost as far as it is above Mrs. LOVE's execution, of whom it was literrally cruel to make an actrefs-yet by fome unaccountable fatality, Clandeftine Marriage. tality, this unhappy lady is fhoved on for many things, which would have been much better in other hands, and could not be worfe in any.-Why, why will managers fo far mistake the judgment of an audience, as to venture the intrufion of fuch creatures as understand little, and express lefs. The chambermaid, according to what is said of her, was as well figured and played as ever fhe will be, by Mifs PLYMM. To speak of the piece in a complicate view, it certainly has a great deal of acting merit-a thorough knowledge of life and character is effential to draw comic fcenes fuccefsfully; of this the CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE is a pleafing proof; however, fome of the fcenes are heavy, and a few trifling; the dialogue is not fo fpirited and easy as Farquhar's, nor fo luxuriant and nervous as Congreve's, yet agreeably difengaged; the fatire well pointed, and the fentiments lively, though not generally inftructive: if ftanding the teft of clofet criticism be the fairest and most eftimable degree of merit, we must not venture to place this piece among the foremost; but in representation, we are willing to allow it every point of approbation, which the indulgent public has favoured it with, and much more than many others can claim, which poffefs thofe very requifites the CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE wants. THE THE FAIR PENITENT. A TRAGEDY by Mr. RoWE THIS HIS dramatic compofition was wrote at a time when genius received nourishment from the beams of royal favour, ere the muses of this ifle were germanized into ftone; and ftands to this day in estimation at least equal to any except those of Shakespeare. It opens with Horatio and Altamont, two persons of rank in Genoa, from whom we learn, that it is the latter's bridal day; there appears to be strong links of friendship between these two characters, and that Sciolto, a nobleman, father to Altamont's bride, has fhewn particular marks of favour to Horatio, on account of being Altamont's brother-in-law and friend; his attachment to Altamont arofe from a peculiar mark of filial duty fhewn by him to a dead father, in yielding himself to prison, that his father's corpfe, which had been arrested by rigid creditors, might obtain the usual rites of burial. Sciolto at his entrance expreffes himself in terms fuitable to the feelings of a tender parent, on the day which disposes of a favourite daughter according to his wishes, and as he imagines of her own; this fcene is mere congratulation, except where Altamont mentions the coldnefs and concern of his bride; this the father naturally interprets to arise from the real or artificial 'coynefs of her fex, and con Fair Penitent. conducts them off with fome lines of poetical, yet, we think, exceptionable expreffion. Lothario, a young lord of diffolute principles, with his confidante Roffano, appear next; from the expreffions at firft dropped by Lothario we find, there is a rooted enmity fubfifting between him and Sciolto's connections, chiefly on account of Califta, of whose unfortunate credulity, and his own triumph over her virtue, he gives a moft fanciful, but highly cenfurable description; vice is here adorned with irrefiftable charms to an unguarded mind, and therefore presented to public view in her most dangerous garb : reason and judgment commiferating the betrayed, must condemn the betrayer; yet we fear the luxuriance of fancy here works a quite contrary effect; lefs merit in the writing would have leffened the danger, either in perufal or reprefentation; grofs licentiousness difgufts, but the refined fort, like palatable poison, introduces deftruction unperceived. Lucilla appears on meffage from her mistress Califta, and addreffes the gay deceiver in pathetic terms; his replies are much in character, and the fcene has confiderable spirit in action; but we doubt whether delicacy and juft referve are not too violently offended by the maid's proclaiming her miftrefs's fituation before a third perfon: Horatio's unexpected approach fhortens their conference, and in the hurry of retiring, Lothario drops the letter just received from Califta by her maid. This the friend of Altamont takes up, and though good LI VOL. I. man |