* Snu de lemys u dat d ̈sue of òzancie Selston vidi modem anus lae gei I en WHITE ʼn ICCESELE at same senais have bee caseri o tal cuard. Tus has ut scaped the reserva 20 of me of de irs inmate cross Jf my 16, 19ẻ Sorgei josers. The irama of Stammonia presents, song is grental britancy of surng, se seking a mciance. peu de vicie, our mance frama, that tight be suspected the love of Shakespear had infenced ranslator, her orientalists had not borne testimony the idelity of his transition. The present eclection afori ampie evidence to the same effect. Rudu dramatists have little regard for the unities of que and place; and if by unity of action be meant gleness of incident, they exhibit an equal disdain for such a restriction. At the same time, as we shall subsequency see, they are not destitute of systematic and wusible rules, and they are as unfamiliar with the extravagance of the Chinese drama, as with the severe emplicity of Grecian tragedy. Chere is one peculiarity in the Hindu theatre which Aably distinguishes it from that of every other people. there is little reason to doubt that the Sanscrit language was once a spoken tongue in some parts of India, yet it does not seem probable that it was ever the vernacular language of the whole country, and it certainly ceased to be a living dialect at a period of which we have no knowledge. The greater part of every play is written in Sanscrit. None of the dramatic compositions at present known can boast perhaps of a very high antiquity, and several of them are comparatively modern; they must, therefore, have been unintelligible to a considerable portion of their audiences, and never could have been so directly addressed to the bulk of the population, as to have exercised much influence upon their passions or their tastes. This circumstance, however, is perfectly in harmony with the constitution of Hindu society, by which the highest branches of literature, as well as the highest offices in the state, were reserved for the privileged tribes of Kshetriyas and Brahmans. Even amongst them, however, a small portion could have followed the expressions of the actors so as to have felt their full force, and the plays of the Hindus must therefore have been exceedingly deficient in theatrical effect. In some measure, this deficiency was compensated by peculiar impressions; and the popularity of most of the stories, and the sanctity of the representation, as well as of the Sanscrit language, substituted an adventitious interest for ordinary excitement. Still the appeal to popular feeling must have been immeasurably weakened, and the affectation or reality of scholarship, as at the Latin plays of Ariosto, or the scholastic exhibitions of Westminster, must have been a sorry substitute for universal, instantaneous, and irrepressible delight. Besides being an entertainment appropriated to the leading or learned members of society, the dramatic enter tainments of the Hindus essentially differed from those of |