even the most perfect known systems of moral philosophy. Let us be content with showing, that its tendencies preponderate on the side of virtue, and the Stage must be admitted as an institution beneficial to mankind. In what manner can the valuable lessons of history be so powerfully impressed on the mind, as in the historical plays of Shakspeare and other leading dramatists? We see there placed before us, in actual existence, the animated reality of what before we were only acquainted with through the cold medium of description. The genius of the poet, aided by the executive talent of the actor, recal the by-gone ages of the world, and make them pass in review as in a living panorama. The scenes, the actions, and the characters of men, are thus stamped on our memories, with a strength and accuracy, which mere reading or relation could never accomplish.* "The Drama,” says Lord Bacon, "is as a history brought before the eyes; it presents the image of things as if they were present, while history treats of them as things past."†

There are few plays which contain a more

* "Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem
Quàm quæ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus.”

Hor. de Art. Poet.

↑ "Dramatica poesis est veluti historia spectabilis, nam constituit imaginem rerum tanquam præsentium, historia autem tanquam præteritarum."-De Augm. Scientiar. lib. ii. c. 13.

applicable, though homely moral, than Lillo's oldfashioned tragedy of George Barnwell, which is usually acted at those holiday times, when young merchants and apprentices frequent the Theatre. A remarkable instance of the efficacy of this play is recorded in the life of the celebrated actor, Ross. A young clerk, whose follies had placed him precisely in the situation of George Barnwell, having, by the influence of a wanton, defrauded his master of £200, was taken alarmingly ill, and in an interview with his physician, Dr. Barrowby, confessed the whole of the circumstances, from an impression created on his mind, by seeing Mr. Ross and Mrs. Pritchard in the principal characters of the tragedy. The Doctor communicated the case to the youth's father, who paid the money instantly. The son recovered, and became an eminent merchant and a good Christian. In a letter from Ross to a friend, dated 20th August, 1787, are these words: "Though I never knew his name, or saw him to my knowledge, I had, for nine or ten years, at my benefit, a note sealed up with ten guineas, and these words, a tribute of gratitude from one who was highly obliged and saved from ruin, by seeing Mr. Ross's performance of George Barnwell."* Had Ross been a minister of the

* Baker's Biog. Dram. vol. ii. pages 377-8. Dr. Barrowby, with reference to this incident, said to Ross in the Green Room," you have done some good in your profession, more perhaps than many a clergyman who preached last Sunday."

Gospel instead of an actor, he could scarcely have received a more convincing proof of the sound morality of his doctrine. During the run of the popular drama of the Maid and Magpie, a servant girl in the gallery was so overcome by the natural pathos of Miss Kelly, that she cried out, "she's innocent-I stole the spoons, and they are in such a place." Many similar instances have been recorded, how

Guilty creatures sitting at a play

Have, by the very cunning of the scene,
Been struck so to the soul, that presently
They have proclaimed their malefactions."*

Herodotus relates a striking incident of the effects of tragedy upon the Athenians. When Phrynichus produced a drama, called The Captive of Miletus, the whole Theatre burst into tears, applying the subject to their own national calamities. They interdicted the future performance, and condemned the poet to pay a fine of a thousand drachmas.† Alexander, tyrant of Pharæa, wept at a tragedy of Euripides, and wondered at the

* Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. last.

† σε Αθηναῖοι μὲν γὰρ δῆλον ἐποιησαν ὐπεραχθεσθέντες τη Μιλήτου ἀλώσει, τῇ τε ἄλλῃ πολλαχῆ, καὶ δὴ καί ποιήσαντι Φρυνίχῳ δραμα Μιλήτου ἄλωσιν, καὶ διδάξαντι, ἐς δάκρυά τε ἔπεσε τὸ θέητρον, καὶ ἐξημιωσαν μιν, ὡς αναμνήσαντα οἰκηϊα κακὰ χιλίησι δραχμήσι· καὶ ἐπέταξαν μηκέτι μηδένα χρᾶσθαι τούτῳ τῷ δράματι.”Herod. Erato.

vol. ii.

controlling influence of an art whose power could move the savage nature which had revelled without a feeling of remorse in cruelty and barbarism.*

I may here add an anecdote, which not only testifies the useful tendency of the Stage, but the respect in which it was held by another eminent authority. Dr. Sheldon, Archhishop of Canterbury, in 1675, on an occasion when Betterton, the actor, (the Garrick of his day,) was dining with him, said, "Pray, Mr. Betterton, inform me what is the reason you actors on the Stage can affect your audiences with speaking of things imaginary as if they were real, while we in the church speak of things real, which our congregations only receive as if they were imaginary. "Why, my Lord," replied Betterton, "with submission to your Grace, the reason is very plain; we actors on the Stage speak of things imaginary as if they were real, and you, in the pulpit, as if they were imaginary." the "Conscious Lovers" is enough even for a sermon.

speak of things real Steele's comedy of in many parts grave When the great Duke

*Tyrants no more their savage nature kept,
And foes to virtue wonder'd how they wept."

Pope.

† See Mottraye's Travels in England, Biograph. Brit. and Rees's Cyclop. Tate Wilkinson, in his Memoirs, relates the anecdote from one of Whitfield's Sermons, who he says, introduced it when arguing against "velvet mouthed preachers." Whitfield is thus indirectly an eulogist of the Theatre.

Marlborough was observed to shed tears at the distresses of Indiana in this play, it was remarked, and justly, "that he would fight none the worse for that." The tragedy of the Gamester, by Moore, is a moral lecture throughout, of the highest order; perhaps the most impressive that has ever been given to the world on that absorbing vice, and as Dr. Young truly observed, "it should be brought forward once a week." I do not believe that any spectator, however thoughtless, ever saw that play, powerfully acted as it once was, without feeling his attention arrested, and his mind startled by its convincing truth, and without leaving the Theatre wiser and better than he entered it, satisfied that he had received a lesson which would do honour to the pulpit itself.* Cumberland's plays in general are quite unexceptionable, particularly the West Indian and the Wheel of Fortune. In the former, libertinism is checked, duelling reprobated, and selfishness exposed; in the latter, the forgiveness of injuries is nobly illustrated.

What reasonable objection can be urged against Sheridan's Comedy of the School for Scandal? The wit is brilliant, the language elegant, and the moral purpose sound; extravagance is reclaimed,

*Those who can recollect John Kemble, Mrs. Siddons, and Cooke, in the characters of Beverley, Mrs. Beverley, and Stukely, will remember, what acting was, and what the efficacy of the Stage may be.

T