feffedly wrote for the stage muft deal in strong character, and ftriking contraft: How can a lady ftand forward in a part, contrived to produce ridicule or difguft, or which is founded upon broad humour and vulgar buffoonery?

Nempe ipfa videtur,

Non perfona loqui.

"'Tis the herself, and not her mask which speaks."

I doubt if it be altogether feemly for a gentleman to undertake, unless he can reconcile himfelf to cry out with Laberius

Eques Romanus lare egreffus meo
Domum revertam mimus.

"Efquire I fign'd myself at noon,

"At night I counterfign'd Buffoon."

The drama therefore must be purposely written for the occafion; and the writer must not only have local knowledge of every arrangement. preparatory for the exhibition, but perfonal knowledge alfo of the performers, who are to exhibit it. The play itself, in my conception of it, fhould be part only of the projected entertainment, woven into the device of a grand and fplendid fête, given in some noble country house or palace: Neither fhould the fpectators be toVOL. IV.

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tally

tally excufed from their fubfcription to the general gala, nor left to dose upon their benches through the progrefs of five tedious acts, but called upon at intervals by mufic, dance or refreshment, elegantly contrived, to change the fameness of the fcene and relieve the efforts of the more active corps, employed upon the drama.

And now let me fay one word to qualify the irony I fet out with and acquit myself as a moralift.

There are many and great authorities against this fpecies of entertainment, and certainly the danger is great, where theatrical propenfities are too much indulged in young and inexperienced minds. Tertullian fays, (but he is speaking of a very licentious theatre) Theatrum facrarium eft Veneris-" A playhouse is the very facrifty "of Venus." And Juvenal, who wrote in times of the groffeft impurity, maintains that no prudent man will take any young lady to wife, who has ever been even within the walls of a theatre

Cuneis an babent spectacula totis

Quod fecurus ames, quodque inde excerpere possis ?

"Look round, and fay if any man of fenfe

"Will dare to fingle out a wife from hence ?"

Young

Young women of humble rank and small pretenfions fhould be particularly cautious how a vain ambition of being noticed by their fuperiors betrays them into an attempt at displaying their unprotected perfons on a ftage, however dignified and refpectable. If they have talents, and of course applause, are their understandings and manners proof against applause? If they mistake their talents, and merit no applaufe, are they fure they will get no contempt for their felfconceit? If they have both acting talents and attractive charms, I tremble for their danger; let the foolish parent, whose itching ears tingled with the plaudits, that refounded through the theatre, where virgin modefty depofited it's blushes, beware how his aching heart fhall throb with forrow, when the daughter, que pudica ad theatrum accefferat, inde revertetur impudica. (Cyprian. ad Donatum.)

So much by way of caution to the guardians and protectors of innocence; let the offence light where it may, I care not, fo it ferves the cause for which my heart is pledged.

As for my opinion of private plays in general, though it is a fashion, which hath kings and princes for it's nurfing fathers and queens and princeffes for it's nurfing mothers, I think it is

a fashion, that should be cautiously indulged and narrowly

U 2

narrowly confined to certain ranks, ages and conditions in the community at large. Grace forbid that what the author of my motto faid fcoffingly of the Greeks should be said prophetically of this nation; emulate them in their love of freedom, in their love of fcience; rival them in the greatest of their actions, but not in the verfatility of their mimic talents, till it fhall be faid of us by fome future fatirift

Natio comoda eft. Rides? majore cachinno
Concutitur: flet, fi lacrymas afpexit amici,
Nec dolet. Igniculum bruma fi tempore pofcas,
Accipit endromidem: Si dixeris, æftuo, sudat.
Non fumus ergo pares; melior, qui femper et omni
Note dieque poteft alienum fumere vultum.

"Laugh, and your merry echo burfts his fides;
"Weep, and his courteous tears gush out in tides :
"Light a few sticks you cry, 'tis wintry-Lo!
"He's a furr'd Laplander from top to toe;
"Put out the fire, for now 'tis warm-He's more,.
"Hot, fultry hot, and fweats at every pore:
"Oh! he's beyond us; we can make no race
“With one, who night and day maintains his pace,
"And fast as you fhift humours ftill can fhift his
"face."

Before I close this paper I wish to go back to what I faid respecting the propriety of new and occafional dramas for private exhibition: Too many men are in the habit of decrying

their contemporaries, and this difcouraging practice feems more generally levelled at the dramatic province, than any other; but whilft the authors of such tragic dramas as Douglas, Elfrida and Caralacus, of fuch comic ones as The School for Scandal, The Jealous Wife, The Clandeftine Marriage and The Way to Keep Him, with others in both lines, are yet amongst us, why should we suppose the state of genius fo declined as not to furnish poets able to fupport and to supply their honorary representatives? Numbers there are no doubt, unnamed and unknown, whom the fiery trial of a public stage deters from breaking their obfcurity: Let difinterested fame be their prize and there will be no want of competitors.

Latet anguis in berba,

There is a ferpent in the grass, and that ferpent is the emblem of wisdom; the very fymbol of wit upon the watch, couching for a while under the cover of obscurity, till the bright rays of the fun fhall ftrike upon it, give it life and motion to erect itself on end and display the dazzling colours of it's burnished fcales.

"Though thou, vile cynic, art the age's shame,
"Hope not to damn all living fame;
"True wit is arm'd in fcales fo bright,

4 It dazzles thy dull owlish fight;