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Abstractedly considered, the progress of civilization, by multiplying the sources of intellectual pleasure, should naturally increase the aptitudes and sensibilities to the dramatic art. There is something in the very stillness and security of polished society, that creates a constant necessity for moral excitement, and that where the mental energies are not exhausted, must give a more powerful impulse to the imagination. The contemplation of action is to none more delightful than to those who are circumscribed in their sphere of activity, and who submit unwillingly to the consciousness of restraint and limitation. Experience justifies the assertion, that the conception of horrors may not only be acceptable to an age of elegance and refinement, but that, when unaccompanied by circumstances of disgust, they often inspire intense delight; but though candour must acquit science and literature of having exercised an anti-dramatic influence on society, it is impossible to dispute the fact,

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that the modern poet has been dispossessed of the privileges and immunities allotted to his predecessors, and that he has to lament the deprivation of that unentrammelled freedom which, under the nominal despotism of a Master of the Revels, the elder Bard was permitted to enjoy. Nor has he merely to complain of the forfeiture of those dear and invaluable privileges - he might appeal from the injustice which renders him amenable to laws from whose protection he is excluded:-he might protest against the tyranny which first enslaves and then degrades him—which forbids him to emulate the elder dramatist, and then stigmatises him with inferiority and contempt: but these are trifling evils, compared with the loss of public esteem and selfrespect. He is not only taught to believe that he belongs to an inferior order of dramatists, but even to a degenerate age, whose suffrage is not to be obtained by merit, and whose applause he can scarcely purchase but with his own contempt. Sen

tinents such as these are perpetually echoed by critics and declaimers; and in whatever measure they may obtain belief, must operate to the depreciation of talent, the extinction of energy, and the depravation of taste.

It is eminently unfortunate for the progress of any art, when the standard of excellence is in a style completely opposed to the rules prescribed to living students. Something like this may be observed to arise. from the contrast exhibited by such old plays as are still acted and applauded with the artificial mechanism invariably exacted (in fable and incidents) from living cotemporaries. With the exception, however, of Shakespeare, the great and universal interpreter of nature, the revivalsof our elder masters (for which a strong inducement is offered in their exemption from litigious criticism) are seldom found to engage the affections of the public; and

for the obvious reason, that the writers of a distant period cannot address themselves to our sympathies like one who has dwelt amongst us, who is familiar with our idioms and impressions, and by a sort of felicitous sub-intelligence, is capable of explaining our secret sentiments. Although this remark applies rather to comedy than tragedy, which, being founded on human sufferings, is less dependent on local or temporary impressions, there still remains, even with the latter, a barrier to intimacy in the antiquated language, or almost obsolete allusions, of a departed age. Shakespeare alone has triumphed over time. The venerable fathers of our dramatic literature are unquestionably entitled to every sentiment of gratitude and veneration, but this generous devotion degenerates into illiberal superstition when it exacts the sacrifice of our living cotemporaries, by whom those mighty masters of the spell should rather be invoked as tutelary protectors.

To establish the opinion that there exists a moral necessity for the degeneracy of modern dramatists, is to pronounce a sentence of ostracism against national genius-it is to blight the laurel that should invest the poet's brow:-it is to break the tripod which enthusiasm had consecrated, and to lay open the sanctuary of honour and immortality. Yet in contemplating the powerful energies which have been developed in other departments of literature, who can resist the persuasion, that the spirit of the drama also hovers over our sphere, ready to evolve from the kindred elements of society, its new and beautified and intelligent creations. But to realize this expectation, two changes are necessary in the public mind, and to the desire that good plays should be produced, must be added the conviction, that good plays will be successful.

The history of the modern Theatre strongly

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