PS. My uncle's partner, the young gentleman I mentioned above, takes my part when my cousins joke upon intimates with great folks; I think he is la much genteeler and better bred man than I took him for at first woy made of emod to yiisq cozzeed Ike youd odł nadv „dsewitzoa gaimon -qud of alow 1 towed, te duc arog songmns I ti bas 1 1970s th *

yo ni No.s LIV. SATURDAY, JULY 31390 tiz:) og tot ni 2 te mased end bemus,958

AMONG the letters of my correspondents, I have - been favoured with several containing observations on then conduct hand success of my paper. Of these, some recommend subjects of criticism ash of a kind that has been extremely popular in similar periodical publications, and ono which, according to them, I have dwelt too little. Others complain, that the critical papers I have published were written indarstyle and manner too abstruse and technical for the bulk of my readers, and desire me to remember, that in alperformance addressed to the world, only the language of the world should be used to mood bad i

I was last night in a company where a piece of conversation on criticism took place, which was the espeakers were well-bred persons of both sexes, ɓwas necessarily of the familiar kind. As an endeavour, stherefore, to please both the above-mentioned corres(pondents, I shall set down, as nearly as I can recolvlect, the discourse of the companyIt turned on the tragedy of Zara, at the representation of which all of them had been present a few evenings ago.

It is remarkable," said Mr. greiff what an ❝æra of improvement in the French drama may be "marked from the writings of M. de Voltaire. -The "cold and tedious declamation of the former French

"tragedians he had taste enough to see was not the "language of passion, and genius enough to ex"ecute his pieces in a different manner. He re"tained the eloquence of Corneille, and the tender"ness of Racine; but he never suffered the first to "swell into bombast, nor the other to sink into langour. He accompanied them with the force and << energy of our Shakespeare, whom he had the "boldness to follow ;"-" and the meanness to decry," said the lady of the house." He has been unjust "to Shakespeare, I confess," replied Sir H

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(who had been a considerable time abroad, and has brought home somewhat more than the language and dress of our neighbours); " yet I think I have ob"served our partiality for that exalted poet carry us "as unreasonable lengths on the other side. When "we ascribe to Shakespeare innumerable beauties, "we do him but justice; but, when we will not allow "that he has faults, we give him a degree of praise "to which no writer is entitled, and which he, of "all men, expected the least. It was impossible 1 writing in the situation he did, he should have escaped inaccuracies; suffice it to say, they "always arose from the exuberance of fancy, not "the sterility of dulness.'

"There is much truth in what you say," answered Mr. sinabang rubut Voltaire was unjust when, not "satisfied with pointing out blemishes in Shakes“peare, he censured a whole nation as barbarous for "admiring his works. He must, himself, have felt "the excellence of a poet, whom, in this very tragedy "of Zara, he has not disdained to imitate, and to ❝imitate very closely too. The speech of Orasmane "(or Osman, as the English translation calls him,) "beginning,

"J'aurois d'un oeil serene, d'une front inalterable,"

>

" is almost a literal copy of the complaint of Othello:

-Had it rain'd

All sorts of curses on me, &c.

"which is perhaps, the reason why our translator has omitted it."" I do not pretend to justify Vol"taire," returned Sir H-; "yet it must be * remembered, in alleviation, that the French have "formed a sort of national taste in their theatre, "correct, perhaps, almost to coldness. In Britain, "I am afraid, we are apt to err on the other side; ❝ to mistake rhapsody for fire, and to applaud a forced metaphor for a bold one. I do not cite Dryden, "Lee, or the other poets of their age; for that "might be thought unfair; but, even in the present "state of the English stage, is not my idea war"panted by the practice of poets, and the applause "of the audience? A poet of this country, who in "other passages, has often touched the tender feel"ings with a masterly hand, gives to the hero of one of his latest tragedies, the following speech:

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Had I a voice like Etna when it roars,
For in my breast is pent as fierce a fire, ́1
I'd speak in flames.

"That a man, in the fervour and hurry of compo"sition, should set down such an idea, dis nothing; "that it should be pardoned by the audience, is little ; "but that it should always produce a clap, is strange "indeed!"..

"And is there nothing like this in French tra"gedies?" said the lady of the house;" for there " is, I think, abundance of it in some of our late “imitations of them.”—“ Nay, in the translation of "Zayre, Madam," returned the baronet, "Hill has "sometimes departed from the original, to substitute a swelling and elaborate diction. He forgets the

"plain soldierly character of the Sultan's favourite "Orasmin, when he makes him say,

-Silent and dark

Th' unbreathing world is hush'd, as if it heard
And listen'd to your sorrows.

"The original is simple description;

"Tout dort, tout est tranquille, et l'ombre de la nuit.".

"And when the slave, in the fourth act, brings the fatal letter to the Sultan, and mentions the circum"stances of its interception, the translator makes "Osman stay to utter a sentiment, which is always "applauded on the English stage, but is certainly, however noble in itself, very ill-placed here :

Approach me like a subject

That serves the prince, yet not forgets the man.

"Osman had no breath for words: Voltaire gives him "but five hurried ones:

"Donne qui la portait donne."

"I am quite of your opinion, Sir H," said Mr. and I may add, that even Voltaire ""seems to me too profuse of sentiments in Zara, "which, beautiful, as they are, and though exprès❝sed with infinite delicacy, are yet somewhat foreign "to that native language which feeling dictates, and "by which it is removed. I weep at a few simple "words expressive of distress; I pause to admire a "sentiment, and my pity is forgotten. The single line " uttered by Lusignan, at the close of his description ❝ of the massacre of his wife and children,

"Helas! et j'etais pere, et je ne pus mourir,"

"moves me more than a thousand sentiments, how "just or eloquent soever.” "If we think of the noblest use of tragedy,” said Mrs. "we shall, perhaps, Sir, not be quite "of your opinion. I, who am a mother, wish my "children to learn some other virtues, beside com"passion, at a play; it is certainly of greater consequence to improve the mind than to melt it."

tr

"I am sure, mamma," said a young lady, her daughter," the sentiments of tragedy affect me as "much as the most piteous description. When I hear an exalted sentiment, I feel my heart, as it "were, swell in my bosom, and it is always follow"ed by a gush of tears from my eyes."-" You tell "us the effects of your feelings, child; but you'dɔn't "distinguish the feelings themselves.-I would have, " gentlemen," continued she, "a play to be virtu"ous in its sentiments, and also natural in its events. "The want of the latter quality, as well as of the "former, has a bad effect on young persons; it leads "them to suppose, that such a conduct is natural " and allowable in common life, and encourages that "romantic deception which is too apt to grow up in ❝ minds of sensibility. Don't you think, that the sud"den conversion of Zara to Christianity, unsupport"ed by argument, or conviction of its truth, is highly unnatural, and may have such a tendency as I have mentioned ?"— "I confess," said Mr.that has always appeared to me an exceptionable passage." "I do not believe, mamma," said the young lady, "that she was really converted in " opinion; but I don't wonder at her crying out she was a Christian, after such a speech as that of her "father Lusignan. I know my heart was so wrung "with the scene, that I could, at that moment, have "almost become Mahometan, to have comforted the "good old man.". -Her mother smiled; for this was exactly a confirmation of her remark.