Page images
PDF
EPUB

Memoirs of Mrs. Crouch, including a Retrofpect of the Stage during the Years fhe performed. By M. J. Young. 2 vol. 12mo. Afperne.

From the age of Colley Cibber, who was, we think, the firit that (by combining memoirs of the individual with the state of the ftage, previous to and during his time, fyftematized dramatic hiftory, a great number of works of the fame nature have been published, which, although more or lefs defultory, according to the inclination or genius of their authors, contain a great variety of anecdotes refpecting both plays and performers; and, in thort, in fome degree comprife the annals of our theatres down to near the close of the laft century.

To thefe works we have no doubt but that the lovers of the drama will

confider the memoirs of Mrs. Crouch a valuable addition; becaufe, while the retrospective view of the ftage during the years that the enlivened it, will render the feries of theatrical tranfactions more complete, every one that has seen. her perform must unquestionably have admired her for her perfonal attractions as well as her hiftrionic and mufical accomplishments, and will be glad to be reminded of the parts the fustained with fuch applaufe, and the effects of her exertions upon the variety of different audiences before whom the appeared.

When we take a mental view of the

lovely Mifs Phillips a few years after her first appearance, at a period when her charms were the moft brilliant, and when he was almost daily rifing in her profeffion, when he was the favourite of the town, and, as we may fay, the fashion (we have heard it termed the rage) of the times, and pursue her from the courfe which he had fo aufpicioufly began, through the various events of thete volumes, to its conclufion, we cannot help thinking, independent of the entertainment they contain, that they have a moral tendency.

"Virgins are like the fair flower in its

Jultre."

We can well remember the luftre of the fubject of this work; and although the did not, we believe, live to experience that neglect which is too frequently the lot of faded beauty, yet we think her example fufficiently confpicuous to afford a fingular warning to the nu

merous votaries of Melpomene and Thalia, the fair candidates for public applause in the present day.

We thought it neceffary to make thefe preliminary oblervations, in order to place this work before these both in a ufeful and a moral point of view: as an object of curiofity to theatrical amateurs, to thofe who wish to be correctly informed of the tranfactions of thofe fantastical empires which have been faid in their interiors, not only before, but behind the fcenes, to be epitomes of parts of the great world, it will be defirable; for indeed if we confider the facility with which monarchies and kings are produced upon the stage, and compare its viciffitudes to thofe of certain countries, we shall find the analogy tolerably correct; but this entre nous. The political tranfactions of theatrical microcofms, as detailed in these volumes, will, we hope, afford the reader more entertainment, and that he will, at leaft, be as ufefully employed as in contemplating papers which, upon a scale embracing great part of the continent, contain feene-plots and groundplots, and a fucceffion of tricks and changes almoft too rapid for a pantomime.

Mrs. Crouch (fays the authorefs, at the beginning of the preface,)" wished to have her memoirs regularly written, and published during her existence. She then faid, My father deferves a biographer more than many whose lives are daily given to the public.'" This we firmly believe. The life of Mr. Peregrine Phillips was one of great variety.

We well remember him. He was a man of confiderable talents; but we think not always fo happy as might have been wifhed in the application of them. When we fay this, we do not mean faftidiously to cavil at the part he took in the politics of the times. We believe, warm and energetic as he certainly was, that his paffions arofe from the fimulations of principle, but we lament that they led him to become quite fo active a partizan, as on many occafions he appeared to be. In short, he was one of thofe volunteer statesmen that on all great occafions the ebullitions of the public mind are fure to produce.

Gentlemen who liberally burthen themfelves with all (perhaps more than all) the care, trouble, and anxiety of a demagogue of the people, or a minister of ftate, without the fmalleft hope of enjoying the applaufe, or its more folid concomitants attendant G 2

upon

upon the former, or the profit and patronage confequent to the latter. In company (politics out of the queftion) he always difplayed a mind equally ftrong and well informed. He had, at command, abundance of anecdotes, could defcant upon moft fubjects with elegance and propriety, but on those respecting the drama he was par ticularly amufing; nay we have known him to be liftened to with eagerness, we may fay with pleafure, arifing from the manner in which he pointed his obfervations, though he was haranguing upon a topic as dry as any that he could poffibly have cholen, namely, the affairs of Keppel and Pallifer; and although a majority of the company had a very different opinion of that bulinefs from himself. We find that he had been equally warm in the cause of another admiral, in whofe behalf we think that he properly employed both his tongue and his pen.

Many of our readers must remember the beautiful Anna Maria Phillips, the fubject of the volumes we are now confidering, who we find first appeared on the stage of Drury lane theatre in the character of Mandane, in the winter of 1780, at which period she had not compleated her feventeenth year.

"When her arduous task was over, fhe faid, 'How grateful do I feel for the indulgent applaufe which I have fo undefervedly received to-night! I am truly fenfible that the audience might justly have hiffed me for my bashful awkwardness: but instead of fevere critics, whom I dreaded, I appeared before merciful friends, who pardoned my errors, and compaffionated my fears, and they fhall fee in future the effect which their infpiring kindness will produce. My timidity will be overcome by my ardent exertions to render myself deferving of their applaufe. Amply did the verify her prophecy, and the expectations which a judicious and liberal audience had

formed of her abilities."

This is the introduction to the theatrical life of Mrs. Crouch, in which is interwoven the domeftic, and, alfo, the long feries of dramatic hiftory that we have mentioned, down to the production of Pizarro, (24th of May 1799,) which we find, late in the fealon as it appeared, had a run of thirty-one nights. This was the laft new piece,

• In the Opera of Artaxerxes,

(except the Pavilion, which was played but two nights,) in which the appeared, and confequently, with refpect to her, clofes the dramatic retrofpect; though the authorefs informs us, that the intends to continue it, from the run of Pizarro, to the clofe of the prefent fea

fon.

Having, in the beginning of this cri. tique, fully ftated our opinions of this work as a Theatrical Mentor, in more refpects than one, we have only to add, that its ftile, without aiming at elevation, is correct, and properly adapted to its fubject; that the monotony which we have fometimes obferved in others, which might be deemed merely dramatic journals, is frequently in this broken and enlivened by prologues, epilogues, and other poetical effufions, that are truly ingenious, which we think add to it a confiderable value. We also applaud the authoress for her forbearance, in not having adopted any of the common place rumours of the day, and thofe private anecdotes of public characters which, continually afloat, too frequently difgrace works of this nature. On the contrary, her objet has been, in this tribute to the memory of her friend, to place her in that amiable point of view which, in many inftances, we believe the deferved. If in this the has shown any partiality, it is certainly laudable, as the once lovely object of her eulogium IS NO MORE.

Had MISS PHILLIPS been liable to cenfure, which we believe the was not, her advocate, pointing to her, might have said,

"If to her share fome female errors fa", Look on her face, and you'll forget them all."

A Winter in London; or Sketches of Fashion, a Novel, by T. S. Surr. In Three Volumes.

with refpect to the poems of Homer, It is an obfervation of Dr. Johnson tranfcend the common limits of human that we can only difcover that they intelligence by remarking, that nation after nation, and century after century,

has been able to do little more than

tranfpofe his incidents, new name his characters, and paraphrafe his fentithink it not quite entitled to the full laments. This obfervation, although we titude given to it by the learned doctor, as it certainly should hve been confined to epic compofitions, is, if we apply it

to

[blocks in formation]

The works of Defoe and Richardson are certainly aberrations from that regular fyftem of imitation refpecting which we have hinted our ideas, or rather a new clafs of compofition, of which, perhaps, the pious and ingenious John Bunyan was the founder.

The fame remark will alfo apply to fome ftill more romantic effufions; of thefe, the Caftle of Otranto was the precurfor, and from their effects they have fince been properly defignated by the appellation of the terrific.

Having mentioned thefe various excurfions of the imagination, we fhould have been fatisfied with ftating that the volumes before us do not feem regularly to belong to any clafs of them, had we not accidentally caft our eyes on our book shelves, where two folio volumes of Scudery's novels ftruck our fight: thefe, of a fpecies which identifies at once the erratic fancy and inexhauftible ingenuity of their author, with the romantic taste of the age in which they were produced, compared to thofe of Mr. S. which we are now called upon to confider, feem to touch the two extremities of this kind of compofition, while in their fize and fentiment they appear as if one set had been collected from the Brobdingnagian, the other from the Lilliputian libraries: but, as Dogberry fays, "comparisons are odorous," we thall rather endeavour to give a faint idea what these volumes are, than what they certainly are not: as, for example; they feem to contain a fpecies of writing founded perhaps upon the fyftem of Scarron dulcified and adopted with much good nature and liberality by the late Dr. Goldsmith in his poem of Retaliation.

"Of old, when Scarron his companions

invited,

"Each guest brought his dish, and the feast was united.

"If our landlord fupplies us with beef and with fish,

"Let each guest bring himself, and he brings the best dish."

Which in our apprehenfions is exactly a cafe in point: The landlord, or, rather, author, fupplies the principal materials; the beef and fish, the incidents and converfations; and the characters feem to offer themselves in groupes, for his felection, as garnish for the three feveral dishes, (which are only cooked in order to be fo garnished,) which he has fet upon the table of the town. This fpecies of compofition, this miscellany of perfonal traits, to which every one of the drama contributes his or her mite, has never, in our opinions, been properly denominated. We shall therefore take the liberty to become its nomenclators; and announce it as the pic nic, by which appellation we request it may, in future, be defignated.

Having fettled this momentous point, we fhall, after we have hinted that we have heard more refpecting the introduction of one of the characters than we intend to communicate, observe, that we are not enthufiaftic admirers of that mode of writing which,in the early part of the last century, was fo fuccefsfully purfued by the fair author of the Atalantis. General fatire, levelled at the vices and follies of the age, is our delight, because we know its ufe: while perfonal traits are our averfion, because we are equally fenfible of their abuse. The former may be compared to the finished effufions of Hogarth, the latter to the cut and dash ketches of Mats Darley; but as Mr. S. feems, and we fear too juftly, to think that "Fashion in every thing bears fovereign fway,"

we may venture to whisper to him, that his works already have, and, if he continues this mode of composition, (though he has talents for a much fuperior,) will always be, the height of fashion.

Leaving the preface with only one obfervation, namely, that as a work whofe object is merely amusement is not worth a farthing, we are glad to find that the author of this withes to mingle with it morality, (an ingredient which fometimes an endeavour to incorporate produces a ferment,) and that he would be rather claffed among the dull, than the immoral writers; we proceed to an examination of the volumes that have elicited thefe obfervations: and

here,

here, candour obliges us to ftate, that the tory, which is fine drawn through thm, teems to us merely intended, as Layes fays, "to introduce good things; that is, to convey the fathionable characters, and perfons, to the notice of the reader. Thefe are the great fupporters of this work, the threats upon which are trung a number of labels *, (which the author has with much in genuity tacked together,) the wires that move a number of puppets whom he chooses to entitle Dukes, Marquiffes, Earls, Lords, Barons, Captains, Ducheffes, and Ladies, who at his command appear, for the amufement of the fpectators, while he, their prolocutor, fupplies them with words proper; or, rather, in fome inftances, improper for their character. Having given this general idea of the work, we hope we thall be excufed from particularly detailing the ftory, because as in the first inftance it would tend to the repreffion of the curiosity of the reader, fo in the fecond, as we have hinted, a plot worked up with art, and rendered intricate, or, as Boyle fays, undiaphanous, till, like a comet, the great light burits from its tail, was not the object of Mr. S.; therefore the Rory, we repeat, is actually fubordinate to his plan, which appears to be, the fatyrical delineation of well known characters, or rather of characters faid to be well known; for our ha bits of life have of late kept us fo far diftant from the fashionable world, that wedeclare we are (except from report,) acquainted with very few of them, and therefore unable to judge whether the Sketches of Mr. S. are in any degree correct; though we hope, for the honour of our nobility, in many inftances they

are not.

That the reader may be apprifed of the entertainment he has to expect, we fhall quote the pic nic bill of fare, from the heads of the chapters of this work, as it is laid on the table before us, and then, with a few more obfervations, clofe this fpeculation.

"A ftorm-The founder of a family -An Act of Oltentation-A Diclofure A Stranger-An old DemefticAccidental Accomplishment-AWoodman-A Mole Rattle-A FratricideAn Accident--An Expref-A Surprife -The Paragraph-A Metamorrhofis -A Victim of Fathion-The Royal

We hope that this word will not be mifprinted LIBELS.

Inftitution-Modern Reviewers-Rival Duchelles-A Masquerade-A Detection-Sir Alfred's Story-A Fa fhionable Phyfician-A Prefentation at Court-A Secret-A Grand Rout, or Seeing Company-The Mother and Daughter-The Opera-Hyde Park— A Penitent."

Having given the reader the titles of the different portions of this work, as we do not mean to analyfe them, it only remains for us to oblerve, that through the medium of the ftory of Ed. ward Montague, a fuppofed orphan, but who afterward is difcovered to be the fon of a Baronet, (Sir Alfred Beauchamp,) and who, in confequence of a ftorm and hipwreck, falls, while an infant, into the hands of a fisherman; and is, in confequence of his unprotected fate, by the humanity of the Countefs of Rofeville, placed under the care of Mr. Enfield; at whole cottage in Cumberland he is fortunate enough to obtain an accidental education, and alfo, in due courte of time, to fave the life of Lady Emily, the lovely daughter of the Counters, for whom he has, from a very early age, felt a presentrment, now matured into a pathon. This young lady, after our hero has, with the fame good fortune that hadattended him through life, difcovered his father, (the legal reprefentative of the houfe of Beauchamp, who was fuppofed to be dead, and whom his younger brother had actually attempted to murder,) he marries with the approbation of the Earl of Rofeville, they fettle in Cumberland, and revive the ancient fplendor of Beauchamp Abbey.

Through this medium, as we have obferved, characters are introduced; fuch as thofe of the Dukes of Delaware and Belgrave, the Duchefles of Belgrave and Drinkwater, Lords Rofeville and Barton, Lady Beauchamp, Charles Torrington, Captain Neville, and many others, to which we have heard real titles or names affixed; but as we are not fufficiently acquainted with thefe jubjects, we fhall make no further ob fervations upon what we have heard or read, than that we think if the author's difclofures have their foundation in fact, they can be of little ufe to the world, and that if the fcenes he introduces are the effufions of his genius, he might have employed his talents to a better purpose.

A few words more before we conclude;

clude; which we fhall, as Reviewers, addrefs to Mr. S.: for, although the feries of criticifm fpread through the numerous volumes of this Magazine evinces that we have but a fmall portion of the fins with which he charges critics in general, to answer for, yet we hope that the truly deplorable inftance of horrid and unfeeling cenfure upon the high wrought fenfibility of an ingenious and ingenuous mind, which he has fo feelingly and fo pathetically defcribed, is rather an ideal delineation of what might have been, than a mif. fortune that actually occurred: but whether the circumftance be real or fictitious, when it was in his mind, we wonder that it did not ftrike him that he was, in thefe volumes, doing the very thing which he fo properly repro

bates.

We wonder it did not occur to Mr. S., that as our brethren and selves were the reviewers of literary productions, he was of the fame profeffion, only moving in a more elevated fphere, a reviewer of characters. We wonder it did not strike him that this, although a higher, was a much more barbarous purfuit, because every evil that he has deplored, with refpect to literary reviewing, and many more unnoticed by him, might arife from productions fuch as this novel: in fact, that he was, upon a larger fcale, doing the very thing for which he cenfures others. We could fay much more upon this fubject; but as his work has been tamped with approbation refulting from the judgment of the public, further to contravert that judgment would, perhaps, endanger the reputation of cur own.

Remarks on the Operation and Confequences of the Laws for the Recovery of Debts; in a Series of Letters addreffed to the Right Hon. the Earl of Moira.

This author enters boldly on his fubjet; he writes forcibly, and brings to the talk a competent knowledge of the law, with abundant ftores of facts and cafes illustrative of his arguments; the uniform tendency of which arguments is, to render lefs common the baneful practice of imprifonment for debt, without fome previous inquiry being inftituted as to the reality of the grounds of action. He proves, that nothing is more eafy, under the exifting practice, than for malignity, or finifter inten. tions, to thut up a worthy and honeft

man in prifon for ten months as a debtor, without a farthing being due to (or any pecuniary tranfaction having ever paffed between the prifoner and) the alledged creditor: the latter, when he can procraftinate a trial no longer, perhaps, abfconds or fecretes himself; and his wretched victim, ruined in his trade by his abfence, injured in his credit, his health, and perhaps his morals, by imprifonment, and impoverished by the neceflary expenfes attending it, eturns to his family to begin the world anew. --This pamphlet well deferves the attention of every lawyer, and efpecially of every legiflator.

From the very numerous cafes of fimilar hardship and oppreffion which the author adduces, we have only room to felect one:

"The custom of permitting the affidavit of debt to be taken without any examination, without in tituting the leat inquiry into the validity or probability of the plaintiff's demand, has enabled flagitious and anprincipled perfons to exercife the moft enormous depredations on foreigners. It frequently occurs that they are arrefted at the fuit of perfons with whom they never had any pecuniary tranfactions; and being ignorant of our laws, and unable to obtain bail, they are content to procure their liberation by yielding to the extortion of their abandoned perfecutors. Confpiracies are frequently formed to defraud foreigners, and the purpose is effected under colour of legal procefs. One of the party arrefts him for a confiderable debt, while another confederate pretends the moft ardent friendhip, and affects to deplore his fituation: under pretence of arranging his debt, a low attorney (one of their coadjutors) is introduced; and, by the united means of hypocrity, feverity, and impofition, the lucklefs ftranger is tripped of his property, and perhaps configned to mifery, want, and impri

fonment.

An inftance of the terrible abufe attending arret, on the folitary unfupported oath of an individual, without any antecedent inve@igation or inquiry, was accidentally obtruded on my notice; and, for the honour of my country, I regret that fuch oppreffon and injuftice could be exercifed on an honeft, unoffending foreigner. The unprincipled barbarity, and outrage cus violation of morality, attending this tranfaction, induced me to exa

« PreviousContinue »