69. rties, and acknowledges her as his wful wife. Sir Benjamin, at this nexpected incident, being affured by onfides, that young Bellfield was pofffed of a handfome fortune, confents his marriage with Sophia, which oncludes the piece.

THE BRITISH THEATRE.

Obfervations on the Conduct of the Fable. Though the author of the Brothers, y his prologue, (fee the poetry) feems entertain a very favourable opinion f his own performance, and to coneive but a difrefpectful idea of his coemporaries; a regard for truth, neertheless, obliges us to declare, that Mr. Cumberland has as little reafon or vanity on the first account as on he fecond; he has caufe for the genetal invective which he throws out against the prefent lift of our dramatical writers.-There is not, at this moment, an author in our recollection, to whom Mr. Cumberland is by any means equal; and we are furprized that a man, who ought to be exceedingly fatisfied with the negative merit of having escaped without cenfure, fhould infolently fit down to attack his betters in the literary republic.His fable is flimley beyond conception; badly designed, ard ftill more wretched in the execution. Andrew Bellfield is too deteftable a villain for co. medy; and Violetta's attachment to him after a knowledge of his turpitude, is injurious to the virtue even of a wife. Sophia's repeated readiness to marry either of the brothers, makes her abfolutely defpicable, and her father, Sir Benjamin, is wholly out of nature. As to Paterfon, Philip, Goodwin, Ironfides, Jonathan, Francis, the Mafter of the Privateer, the failors, Lucy Waters, the maid, and Fanny, they are utterly ufeleis; they, indeed, fpin out the fcenes, but never affift the bufinefs, and the poet only makes them talk, when he is entirely at a ftand for incident.

SENTIMENT.

Sentimental writing is much above the contracted abilities of Mr. Cumberland, and yet he aims at it frequently; however his efforts are contantly abortive, and always at the expence of propriety. Thus Fanny, a young girl, at the opening of the piece days to Philip, "Ay, ay, brother, a ood confcience in a coarfe drugget,

601

is better than an aking heart in a filken gown: a little country wench turning moralitt is, to be fare, extremely proper; but Mr. Cumberland wanted to introduce his favourite word drugget, and that must excufe the groffeft abfurdity. In the prologue he tells us his piece is,

66

Right British drugget, honest, warm, and rough."

As to the terms warm and rough, we have no quarrel to them; yet we thould be glad to know how drugget comes to be honeft; we have heard of an honeft man, and an honest cause; an honeft citizen, and an honest fenator: of honeft drugget, however, this is our firft information, and we think the epithet to the full as unfortunate here, as we confider the drugget itself, when Fanny fets it in oppofition to a filken gown.

DICTION.

Most commonly bald, as well as most commonly out of character. The people chiefly well-bred are the ruftics without education; and the polished ladies and gentlemen are the principal perfons guilty of rudenels in the comedy-Mr. Cumberland befides patches his dialogue fo much with thou's and you's, with thy's and your's, that it appears like the coat of a harlequin, and muft immediately difguft an elegant obferver." Thou lovelieft of women! behold your poor adventurer, &c. &c." MANNERS.

Characterifed in the antecedent ar

ticle.

CHARACETRS.

Notwithstanding the author's boaft, not a new one in the piece. Andrew Bellfield is an inferior Mafkwell; his brother is the lifeless lover of a thoufand farces; Sir Benjamin is a compound of Fribble, and Sir Paul Plyant; Ironfides, with an exception of his unpardonable obicenity only, is Smollet's Commodore Trunnion, or rather Captain Crowe; and the women have not a fingle mark of originality. MORAL.

We have not been able to discover any for the information of our readers. REPRESENTATION.

Admirable and to this, together with the judicious mutilations of Mr. Colman, the author's fuccefs is entirely owing, as we again pronounce his play a molt contemptible performance; at

the

THE BRITISH THEATRE.

Worthy, an English Mr. Mattocks ng orders, which he had just received

17

-69.

THE BRITISH THEATRE.

d was the fon of a tradefman at ifwick in Middlesex, and ferved an prenticeship to a turpentine merant in the city. His paflion for the ge difcovered itself very early; d on the expiration of his time, = applied to the managers of Dru-lane for an engagement, who foon ve him an opportunity of trying confes talents, and, in the ence, an opportunity of acquiring miverfal reputation. Of his merit s an actor the world is well inormed; we fhall characterize him he is celebrated by the author of the gotift: His understanding was rong-his manners were engaging

nd his principles were upright; geerous without parade, he was frugal without parfimony, and perfectly acquainted with the value of independence, he fenfibly purfued every laudable method to obtain it. A life of rectitude was clofed by a death of re fignation.The being he preferved without reproach, he hook off without terror, and quitted this fublunary fcene an ornament to religion, as he had filled it an honour to fociety.

Is

On the Death of Mr. Holland.
S Holland dead! And fhall the
[remain;
friendly mufe
That wept o'er Powell-filent now
Shall the the tribute of a verse refuse
When a new grief bursts ope the
wound again?

A wound juft clos'd,---ere yet the
[flow;
ftreaming eye
For Powell's lofs, had fcarce forgot to
Ere yet the tear-ftain'd cheek was scarce.
ly dry,

Muft the again renew the task of woe?
Muft the fo loon, in elegiack ftrain

Lament o'er Holland; and in pain-
ful verse

Twice in the circle of a year complain,
And weave fresh laurels to adorn his
hearfe?

way;

603.

Could virtue, or could merit melt the
(king,
heart,

Or parts fuperior move the ruthleis
Holland had now efcap'd the fatal dart;
Nor bow'd fo foon beneath the ty-
rant's fting.

But I must grieve---pafs'd is the final

She must! Since Death relentlefs in his
fway,
[dreadful rage;
Not to be mov'd, ftrides on with
All ranks of men, indifferent fweeps a-
youth and age.
Nor knows diftinction between
The good, the bad, the wife, the weak,
mult fall,
[grave;
All undiftinguifh'd victims to the
Some dire disease mult close the eyes of
[brave.
all,
Nor thall escape the fearful or the

doom:

A tear, a figh is all a friend can pay;
There's no recov'ry from the dreary
tomb,

Nor can the foul reanimate her clay.
BRISTOLIENSIS.
Dec. 11, 1769.

A general Defect in the Catastrophe of
English Tragedies.

HERE is one general defect in the

T catalftrophe Bor our tragedies.
which may be fo eafily corrected, tho
it is the groffeft violation of nature and
propriety, that I am aftonished it has
not yet occurred to any of our drama-
tic writers. This defect is the total in-
attention which is manifefted for the
recovery of any principal character
when wounded, even by the perfons
most afflicted at the melancholy event,
and most naturally folicitous to pre-
vent the fatal confequences of the
ftroke. The moment a hero has re-
ceived the unhappy blow, we conclude
him dead of courfe; and his wife, his
mother, or his father lament him in
accents of excruciating anguish, with-
out once dreaming of lending for the
phylician or the Turgeons Inftead of
flying for affittance they only pefter him
with fine fpeeches, and never recollect,
that deepest teftimonies of forrow are
not half fo useful as a little well applied
Tint, and the timely examination of a
fenfible practitioner.

I am well aware the critics will fay, that a nice attention to fo minute a circumftance of propriety, will be productive rather of difagreeable than pleating effects. That it will frequently render a cataftrophe cold, languid, and uninterefting, and that we thall more than lofe in paffion, what we acquire by exactnefs. I am, however, of a very different opinion: All theatrical impreffions are made in proportion as the object bears â refemblance to nature, and though many things may be frictly natural which are improper for reprefentation, yet fuch as are reprefented thould be perfectly conformable to custom and to common fenfe. For my own part,

when

604
when I fee Cato furrounded by his
friends and hear the lamentations of
his dutiful fon and daughter, I am
ready to execrate the whole group as
a pack of hypocrites; not a foul endea-
vours to procure a bit of plaifter for
the poor man, who is bleeding to death
before them, though all are fuch won-
derful patterns of fenfibility, and con-
fider the expiring patriot with the
higheft veneration.

Defect in the Catastrophe of English Tragedies. De

I remember fitting near Foote to fee the tragedy of Jane Shore laft winter at Covent Garden theatre, when the wag made an obfervation that fet me into a hearty fit of laughter, even in the most affecting fcene of the perforImance, the fcene where Dumont difcovers himself to his wife in the fifth act, after the has performed her públic penance, and is expiring through hunger in the freet. Here while Shore was powering out the whole compaffion of his heart for her miferable fituation, the modern Aristophanes exclaimed "Fine! Ay very fine! Yet a halfpenny roll, with a bit of double Glocefter, and a fingle pint of porter, would do the good woman more fervice

pafs of ten lines, and, I do not fup pose, a greater number would be requilite to correct the irregularity which I have here ventured to point out, in the general run of our tragic cataftrophes.

The neceffity of a reformation like this in our drama, becomes the more evident, when we recollect, that the catastrophe is the most important part of a play, and that the fame motive which makes us feel for the untimely death of a favourite character mat make us equally folicitous for its prefervation; while our friends therefore live in imaginary, as well as in red life, let us do our utmost to fave them; an impropriety here is doubly impoper. A violation of the manners or a difregard of the unities, is trivial in comparison to fuch a negle&t of the heart and as the error is so eafily avoided, the poet who commits it, is wholly without excufe.

An Anfuzer to the Mathematical Qu tion in the London Magazine jer October 1766.

than the prettief turned period in tha power PUT = the firft legacy, y = the

of poetry.

Rowe himself knew this criticism to be obvious, and therefore guarded against it, by making Dumont carry conferves in his pocket for the immediate nourishment of the heroine; but the circumftance, though natural in the strictest degree, was one of thofe natural circumstances which gave difguft, and it has been for many years omitted in the reprefentation. Now, had the poet immediately endeavoured to remove the dying penitent, yet rendered her immediate removal impoffible, on account of her deplorable condition; and had he dispatched Belmour, after the husband has pronounced her pardon, for affistance, he would have done every thing neceffary for him to do. Her diftrefsful Icene with Shore would be critically proper; and Belmour, inftead of being a cold, filent fpectator, might return just as the unhappy woman expires, time enough to conclude the play with his prefent reflexion upon the danger of conjugal infidelity. An alteration of this kind could be introduced within the com

x fecond, and x = the number of thoufands.

Then the feries x+y, + x + + 2x + 3y, &c. including twelve terms, will reprefent the fum of the required legacies, which is 1447+ 232110002 (= twice the twelfth term, added to the difference of the fecond and eleventh): Let 144 times the third term be fubftracted from the fum of the feries, to fhall their difference be 88y = 1000%

26352

26354

If a whole number be found for

(according to the rule in the fecond edition of Simpson's Algebra, p. 181.) we fhall have the values of ≈ = 4, 19 26, 37, 48, &c. but as only the num ber 37 gives x and y pofitive, this question is limited to one answer, viz x, y, and z = 62, 121, and 37 refpectively, hence the feveral bequefts are known, amounting to 370.01.

The

THE POLAR BEAR.