THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE; OR LITERARY MISCELLANY, FOR DECEMBER 1799. With a View of the INCH-HOUSE, the Seat of Charles-Little Gilmour, THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE, OR LITERARY MISCELLANY, FOR DECEMBER 1799. FOR THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. The GLEANER, No. XIV. (Continued from our last, p. 323.) Mais comment le Poete parlera-t-il a-la multitude? Quelles font les impreffions qu'il doit choifir pour fe faire entendre a fes concitoyens ?-Ira-t-il reveiller les cendres des rois ? Ne verra-t-il a peindre dans le monde que ces tetes a diademes? Ou parmi ces concitoyens, f'arrera-t-il, comme poete du beau monde, fur les marquis elegans qui dans la comediè remplacent les rois, et qui pretendent donner a la focieté le ton qu'elle doit fuivre Agira-t-il comme f'il n'y avoit que ces deux efpeces d'hommes fur la terre? le crois qu'il peut mieux faire pour l'interet de tous. Son theatre, qu'il elargit avec la penfee, deviendra auffi etendu que celui de l'univers: fes perfonages feront auffi variés que ceux des individus qu'il apper çoit: il meditera en ecrivain fenfè, en peintre fidele,. en philofophe, et fongeant qu'il eft zu dix-huitieme fiecle, il laiffera dormir les moMarques dans leurs antiques tombeaux; il embraffera d'un coup d'oeil ses chers contemporains et trouvant des leçons plus utiles a leur donner dans le tableau des mœurs actuelles, au lieu donc de compofer une tragedie, il fera peut-etre ce que l'on appelle un drame. Mercier sur l'art Dramatique. IN my laft number, I propofed to popular applaufe, in the acquifition take a rapid furvey of the French of which, as manager of the theatre, theatre, and contraft its most promi- his intereft, as well as his reputation nent features with the characteristics was concerned, he employed his taof the German drama. The cha- lents on temporary fubjects, and racters of the four principal trage- painted individuals inftead of the fpedians of the French are marked by M. cies. Moliere betrayed the public Laus de Bo ffy, with equal elegance, truft, and perverted the office of a vivacity, and accuracy of judgment. comic poet. Never did that author, Moliere is their only firft-rate genius in except in his Tartuffe, direct the comedy. To that flexible and minute fhafts of his pointed ridicule against delicacy of ftile, which feizes the vice; but it is he who has frequentmanners of the age, and marks their ly mifreprefented the virtues, who niceft fhades with precifion, he foftered the frivolous and fatyrical united the utmost skill in the deli- turn of the French nation; it is he neation of character, and the moft who rendered the difgufting afpect lively perception of ridicule. His of vice amiable to the unthinking, wit is brilliant, and his humour irre- who taught the youth to ridicule. fiftibly fascinating; but thefe fplen- their parents, to mock the infirmities did powers are feldom directed to of age; in fhort, it is he who nefaany ufeful purpofe. Defirous of riously introduced the bafe infidious. 3 E 2 adulterer adulterer upon the ftage, and made the audience the apologists and the accomplices of his crime. Such is the comedy of Moliere; but there is another fpecies of comedy, which has been chiefly cultivated in latter times, and which has been termed by French critics, fomewhat faftidioufly La Comedie Larmoyante. One may affirm the author of this epithet to have been some frivolous fribble, equally devoid of tafte, fen fibility, and genius. But names are of little importance, and many excellent name has had a more foolish origin. This fpecies of comedy, or rather of drama, proposes to prefent an accurate outline of life and man ners, with equal fimplicity of plot and of characters Inttead of felec ting fome great remarkable or ftrik ing event, it delineated the common routine of life, and introduced us to the fociety of ordinary men like our felves, without masks or buskins Inftead of prelenting predominating characters, and paffions perfonified, it exhibited men of mixed and vari. ous paffions, mutually influenced by the relations of society and the affec tions by which mankind are connec ted. Of this fpecies of the French Drama, perhaps Diderot's "Pere du Famille, affords the beft example. This too, is the only fpecies of the French Drama with which the German has any affinity, and approaches much nearer the ancient Grecian model, in the fpirit fits execution, than the fe imitations of claffical fub jects which delineate a fpecies of man ners as artificial as if they had been intended for the inhabitants of fairy land. The Greeks introduced upon the ftage, recent events, the exploits of their ancestors, in the representa tion of which they felt the most live ly intereft. They never brought their heroes from Perfia, Egypt, or Carthage, they never defrauded their anceffors of the tears due to the me mory of their actions. The repre fentation of a Drama was not the a mufement of an idle hour; it was an affair which concerned the interests of the itate. the Theatre to revive the memory of The people reforted to the deeds of their fathers, to rouse the fpirit of patriotifm, to imitate thefe heroic characters, and cherish in their breafts the facred flame of liberty. Is it the imitation of the Greeks, to copy with a fervile hand their legendary tales, their imperfe& morality, their vague fuperftions and that fatalism which predominates in many of their pieces, and with unrelenting cruelty delights to plunge innocent men into inevitable misfor tunes. an acute author the Greeks, no veneration for antiIf this be the imitation of quity ought to justify fo abfurd a practice, for as fays, "no ancient of them all is fo old as common fenfe." But to imitate them; and we find that in copy the Greeks fervilely is not to our miferable modern refaccimentos, the true fpirit of antiquity is evaporated, while nothing remains but an infipid caput mortuum. ority of the ancients,, at the revival The fuperi in every other, converted the mọof literature, in the dramatic art, as derns into fervile copyifts. Hence it happened, that in almoft every nation, the most early Dramatifts who imitated the ancients, in point of original genius, fall infinitely below the compofers of the pageants and myfteries of the dark ages. Inftead of afpired at the difgrace of disfiguring the praife of originality, they only the exquifite Grecian models. Such is the character of the early French Dramatifts, Jodelle, Garnier, Hardi, Mairet, Triftan, Rotrou mafters of the French Drama, only The great thors. followed the footsteps of thefe autheir tafle, neither their power of Neither their genius, nor fentiment, nor elegance of tile, can ftamp their characters with originality. The ftile of compofition, the turn |