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A TRAGEDY,

IN FIVE ACTS;

BY MR. HOME,

AS PERFORMED AT THE

THEATRE ROYAL, COVENT-GARDEN

PRINTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MANAGERS

FROM THE PROMPT BOOK.

WITH REMARKS

BY MRS. INCHBALD.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, Hurst, Rees, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-RO”.

REMARKS.

DOUGLAS is written by Home, the only living author of a living tragedy.

This is the play, which Garrick refused for its simplicity of fable, incident, and poetry. Choice simplicity! on which has been founded its best claim to longevity.

To what particular cause can this dramatic false judgment of our great Roscius be attributed? Not, assuredly, to his want of taste to admire the work,— but to his want of reverence for the taste of the public. He conjectured, that, because his audience loved' the common pomp of common tragedies, they would reluctantly yield the splendid scene of courts, or the camp of military tyrants, with high-sounding words and verse, in exchange for domestic interest, plain sense, and true poetical composition. He did not consider, that, deceived or depraved as public opinion too frequently is, there is yet a certain magic in all that is near perfection, by which even ignorance and prejudice are charmed. Such was the event, when Douglas was first brought upon a London stage, after having passed its ordeal at the theatre of Edinburgh; not far distant from those very domains which the

poet has signalized-Balarmo and the Grampian Hills, The passions of grief, joy, fear, and bitter woe, which this tragedy pourtrayed, found instant accesss to every heart, from the aged to the youthful, either by the avenue of parental or of filial love.

Although Douglas be one of those plays worthy of a reader's, as well as of a spectator's literary hours, yet, perhaps, few classical plays have been more indebted for admirers to the art of acting. Lady Randolph has been distinguished by most eminent representatives. Mrs. Crawford (the once famed Mrs. Bary) displayed, in this part, dramatic powers, which, at times, electrified her audience. Of this effect was her simple interrogation, consisting of three words,"Was he alive?"*

But to Mrs. Siddons it is given to unite the same bursts of pathetic tenderness, so wonderful in her predecessor, to that matronal beauty of person, and dignity of action, wherein it was denied Mrs. Crawford, to paint this exquisite drawing, by Home, in faithful colours.

To the reader, who is not in the habit of attending theatres, and of estimating the effects of theatric genius, it may not be unnecessary to say,-that the short and seemingly inferior part of Glenalvon may be rendered a conspicuous character upon the stage by the actor's skill, though Cooke, in Glenalvon, is the

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