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VIEWS OF SPAIN.

No. IX.

As theatrical pieces have lately been called to the support of patriotism in Spain, in a manner that appears extraordinary to us, and with appendages that would not be endured by British spectators, we take the present opportunity of stating the general nature and conduct of the Spanish theatre, and the liberties in which it has been accustomed to indulge. From these it will appear, that the dramatic representations composed on existing circumstances, are not wholly dissimilar from such as were familiar to the audience, and agreeable to the taste of a certain class of the citizens of Madrid, whose opinion in revolutionary times, the politician will not treat with disregard, or contempt.

them. It is in these pieces that the generosity... A by which those manners are still characterised, those flights of patriotism and religious zeal which formerly rendered the Spaniards capa ble of the greatest efforts; the swellings of national pride, which the pomp of style renders so noble; that irritability with respect to which made duels so frequent in Spain the delicate subjects of love and honour, before the causes which softened the manners of all Europe had gained sufficient influence over those of the modern Spaniards; the sacrifices and ardour of hopeful love, and the anguishes and arts of a disappointed passion are traced in the most lively colours. All the combats of the passion of love, all its resources, all the disorders it produces, in a word, all the intrigues now in use, were never publicly represented by any nation with greater variety than by the Spaniards at the period when jealousy, the difficulty of ap proaching women, and a thousand other obstacles arising from the circumstances of It would be unjust to judge of the Spanish the times, rendered, lovers more impatient, theatre according to Boileau's severe criticism.desires stronger, and temptations more violent It undoubtedly still suffers pieces in which the faw of the three unities is flagrantly violated. But, besides that this law may be considered as arbitrary, or at least not absolutely indispensable; there are many Spanish pieces in which it is not transgressed in such a manner as to be prejudicial to the interest. The Spaniards themselves pass condemnation on most of their heroic comedies, in which princes and princesses, from all corners of Europe, assembled without motive, as well as without probability, are by turns either actors or sports of the most incredulous adventures, relate, converse, and joke even in the most critical situations, and conclude by uselessly shedding their blood without having made any spectator shed a tear. Although several of these pieces have original beauties, and all afford proofs of the rare talent of inventing a complicated intrigue, and of finding its dénouement in the thread which has served to form it, the Spaniards found not upon this the much contested reputation of their theatre.

Such is the description given by the comedies of which the Spaniards are as fond as they were at the time they first appeared,

Their authors, of which Lopes de Vega, Roxas, Solis, Moreto, Arellano, and parti cularly the immortal Calderon de la Barca are the most celebrated, have so established this kind of comedy by their success, that more modern authors, as Zamora and Canizares, who wrote at the beginning of this century, dare not attempt any other.

The Spanish theatre therefore still continues, excepting with some difference, what it was in the last century; and notwithstanding all I have just said, I cannot but allow that it is full of defects.

An insipid buffoon, under the name of Gracioso, incessantly disturbs the attention with his vulgar grimace, and by the bursts of laughter he provokes, arrests the tears which were ready to flow. Lovers are prolix haranguers; an expression of sentiment or delicacy from them, is preceded by a long and cold metaphysical dissertation upon love.

But there are some of these productions Custom has made it necessary that each which they justly consider as intitled to the comedy should contain several recitals or naradmiration even of strangers. These are ratives, in which the author and actor, losing their characteristic pieces, which are gene sight of the story and the audience, seem to ially pleasing in the ground work, faithful in be wholly employed in making a parade, one most of the characters, and prove in their of his vain eloquence, the other of his preauthors an uncommon fertility of imagi.tended talent of enforcing at the expence of nation. his lungs, and by ridiculous, vulgar, and monotonous gestures, the multiplied descriptious of his long declamation.

The pieces the Spaniards call de Capa y Espada, are those which more particularly present an exact representation of ancient manners, and these comedies are perhaps the real sources to be resorted to in the study of

Compare Panorama, Vol. V. p. 511.

This kind of literature has been left to the most ordinary writers, who, without genius, and servilely following their models, imitate their extravagance only, and seem to have nothing in view but to please the populace; by,

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Hattering their inclination to the marvellous, lavishing romantic adventures, and gross witticisms, and having recourse to all the contemptible resources which so ill supply the want of real abilities. The men of letters who may have talents proper for the drama, despairing to bring it among their countrymen to the rules of good taste, cultivate other branches of literature.

At Madrid there was but one theatre for plays, and no opera....I was not often tempted to the theatre, which was small, dark, ill-furnished, and ill-attended, yet when the celebra ted tragic actress, known by the title of the Tiranna, played, it was a treat, which, I could suppose, no other then in Europe could compare with. That extraordinary woman, whose real name I do not remember, and whose real origin cannot be traced, till it is settled from what particular nation or people we are to derive the outcast race of Gipsies, was not less formed to strike beholders with the beauty and comfaith-manding majesty of her person, than to astonish all that heard her, by the powers that friend Count Pietra Santa, who had honornature and art had combined to give her. My ble access to this great stage-heroine, inumated to her the very high expectation I had formed of her performances, and the eager desire I had to see her in one of her capital characters, telling her, at the same ume, own country. In consequence of this intithat I had been a writer for the stage in my mation, she sent me word that I should bare notice from her when she wished me to come to the theatre; till when, she desired I would not present myself in my box upon any night, though her name might be in the bill, for it was only when she liked her part, and was in the humour to play well, that she wished me to be present.

They have, however, made some attempts, the success of which has proved that what is really excellent pleases in all countries. - There are, notwithstanding, some modern pieces which have at least the merit of fully delineating characters. These are what the Spaniards call Saynetes or Entremes, which are little pieces in one act, as simple in their plots as those of great pieces are complicated. The manners and character of the inferior classes of society, and the petty interests which associate or divide them, are therein represented in the most striking manner. It is not an imitation but the thing itself. The spectator seems to be suddenly transported into a circle of Spaniards, where he is present at their amusements and little cavilings. The manner of dress is so faithfully copied that he is sometimes disgusted. He sees porters, flowergirls, and fish-women, who have all the gestures, manner and lan guage of those he has seen a hundred times in the street. For these kinds of characters the Spanish comedians have an admirable talent.

The Sayneles seem to have been invented to give relief to the attention of the audience fatigued by following the intrigue of the great piece through its inextricable labyrinth.

After the second act, there is a new interruption longer than the first; another Saynete begins, and is succeeded by a species of comicopera, very short, and called Tonadilla. A single actress frequently performs the whole, she relates, in singing, either an uninteresting adventure, or some trivial maxims of gal lantry; if she be a favourite with the public, and her ruanner satisfies the admirers of this insipid and sometimes scandalous representation, she obtains the applause, which she never fails to solicit at the conclusion, and the third act of the great piece is permitted to begin. It is not uncommon to see, after the Tonadilla is finished, the audience diminish and become reduced to the few who are unacquainted with the principal piece, or whose curiosity is strong enough to make them wait to see the unravelling.

The following account of the celebrated gipsey actress El Tiranna, is related by Mr. Cumberland in his Memoirs; we insert it as forming a curious instance of Spanish acting in the tragic style.

In obedience to her message, I waited several days, and at last received the looked for summons. I had not been many minutes in the theatre before she sent a mandate to me to go home, for that she was in no disposition that evening for playing well, and should neither do justice to her own talents, nor to my expectations. I instantly obeyed, this whimsical injunction, knowing it to be so perfectly in character with the capricious humour of her tribe. When something more than a week had passed, I was again invited to the theatre, and permitted to sit out the whole representation. I had not then enough of the language to understand much more than the incidents and action of the play, which was of the deepest cast of tragedy, for in the course of the plot she murdered her infant children, and exhibited them dead on the bare floor, she sitting between them; the attitude, action, features, tones, defying all description, presented such a high-wrought picture of hysteric phrensy," laughing wild amidst severest woe, as placed her in my judgment at the very summit of her art; in fact I have no conception that the powers of acting can be carried higher; and soch was the effect upon the audience, that whilst the spectators in the pit, having caught a kind of sympathetic phrensy from the scene, were rising up in a tumultuous manner, the word was given out by authority for the let

ting-fall the curtain, and a catastrophe, probably too strong for exhibition, was not allowed to be completed.

A few minutes had passed, when this wonderful creature, led in by Pietra Santa, entered my box; the artificial paleness of her cheeks, her eyes, which she had died of a bright vermillion round the edges of the lids, her fine arms bare to the shoulders, the wild magnificence of her attire, and the profusion of her dishevelled locks, glossy black as the plumage of the raven, gave her the appearance of something so more than human, such an imaginary being, so awful, so impressive, that my blood chilled as she approached me not to ask but to claim my applause, demanding of me if I had ever seen any actress, that could be compared with her in my own, or any other country. "I was determined," she said, " to exert myself for you this night; and if the sensibility of the audience would have suffered me to have concluded the scene, I should have convinced you that I do not boast of my own performances without reason."

BEGGARS IN THE NETHERLANDS. The impudence of the beggars here is much greater than is common in other countries; they not only din the ears of the passengers In the streets with, charity for the love of God," and promise them a prayer to the virgin for their health at the price of a sous, but they make a common practice of ringing or knocking at the doors as they stand in succession, and repeat their calls till the tenants go out and send them away.

RUSSIAN FEMALE FIRMNESS, versus RUSSIAN POLITICAL IMBECILITY-OR BONAPARTE APPOINTED, AND DISAPPOINTED, It is one of the distinguishing and chathat even the most sequestered portions of racteristic phænomena of the present time, the earth have been visited by the scourge of has been unknown for ages, have been made war. Places and countries where hostility the scenes of carnage, or of desolation. The sands of Egypt, and the deserts of Syriathe plains of Apulia, and the rocks of the frozen or abandoned wastes of Lapland-all Asturias the mountains of Norway, and the these, in turn, are visited by the rod of Napoleon, either in persen, or by his delegation. His immeasurable ambition, inflamed and fanned by success, propels him, like a malignant and powerful dæmon, from kingdom to kingdom. The calamity which he cannot inflict with his own hand, he commits to others. At the head of so degraded a band, among the Joachims, and the Jeromes, stands the emperor of Russia, sovereign of the most extensive empire on the globe. What would Catherine the second have said to such degradation? The river Kiemi, to been driven, is nearly in the 66th degree of the left bank of which the Swedes have now latitude, and only a few miles from Tornea; at the northern termination of the Gulf of Bothnia. Never have any armies hitherto met on this inhospitable shore, a shore which suffers sufficiently from natural penury, with out the additional miseries of the sword! Who could have foreseen, only a few years ago, that the son of an obscure citizen of a miserable town in Corsica, become, by a Europe, should, while he renders Spain a series of crimes and victories, the despot of charnel-house, order a Czar of Muscovy to carry slaughter and destruction to the remotest coasts of Lapland, in the vicinity of the Pole?

There are not only fewer houses of charity and periodical benefactions since the Revolution, but the entire stagnation of commerce, which every town, even the most interior, feels to a certain degree, renders it difficult for the poor to get work; add to this, that provisions of every kind are risen to a very great price within the last three years; since Such reflections are perfectly natural; but 1802 they are nearly doubled. The difficulty the depth of degradation to which the emwhich the middling and lower classes experi-peror of Russia has suffered himself to be ence of living is very great, and their com plaints are loud and unceasing.

One cannot now pass through this country without feeling a painful impression at the sight of the ruins of ancient monuments, so lately the pride of the people. The convents and churches were a richer prey to the levellers in Flanders than in France. The quantity of iron, lead, timber, and hewn stones which they contained, presented a temptation that could not be resisted in the time of republican anarchy; and, in consequence, a very considerable number even of the parish charches were pulled to pieces, or wholly taken down for the sake of those materials. VOL. V. [Lit. Pan. Feb. 1809.]

sunk, exceeds whatever we can decm credible. The following statement has appeared in our public prints. It must depend on their au thority. That equal compliance with the dictates of Caulincourt, has undignified the descendant of Peter the Great, may be seen in our work, Vol. V. p. 390.

"The influence of the French minister at the court of St. Petersburgh was lately very strongly manifested in the case of an English gentleman, of the name of Elphinstone, a captain in the Russian navy. Mr. Elphinstone, who is related to several persons of consideration in this country, commande d the Russian frigate Venus, and on the break

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IN TRADE, IN BRITAIN.

It is very seldom that an accurate notion can be obtained of the extent of the trade and property of a mercantile house among us: because, propriety induces the principals, who alone are competent to speak correctly on the subject, to express themselves in general terms, and to maintain a discreet

ing out of the war with England, returned with admiral Greig, captain Bailey, and IMMENSE EXTENT OF INDIVIDUAL CONCERNS others, who relinquished their commands in the Tagus, to St. Petersburgh. It was some time since reported to the French minister, (Caulincourt,) that captain Elphinstone had spoken in terms of reproof of Buonaparte's conduct and politics; some fictitious charges were immediately preferred against him, and he was sentenced, by a court martial composed of Caulincourt's creatures, to be shot. The emperor Alexander, however, alarmed at so gross a violation of justice, yet at the same time dreading to offend the imperial representative, conimated the punishment to banishment into Siberia."

Notwithstanding this imbecility of the emperor, it should appear that the same sentiments do not pervade the whole of his family; of which the following anecdote, the veracity of which is affirmed, may be taken as a proof. Napoleon is unquestionably sensible of the defect personally attaching to his want of issue; and he has certainly more than once entertained ideas of repudiating Madame Buonaparte, for the purpose of espousing a princess of some roval house. It is a fact, that in one of the interviews on the river Niemen, in July, 1807, with the emperor Alexander, he proposed to that prince his marriage with the grand duchess Catherine, then, in the bloom of youth, being just nineteen years of age. It is equally true, that the Czar, her brother, did not dare to refuse compliance with the proposition of his Corsican conqueror. A letter was written to the princess by him, stating the demand made; his own assent to it, and the necessity of her acquiescence. But the grand duchess instantly replied by the same messenger, and wrote to Alexander in the following terms:-"Your imperial majesty may form or contract what ever engagements you think proper; but I am the grand daughter of Catherine the Ild, who gave me her name, and was my godmother. I know what I owe to myself, and rather than submit to such an opprobrium as to become the wife of Napoleon, I will die."-In whatever way this anecdote was communicated to Buonaparte, it terminated any further progress in the proposed marriage.

reserve.

While there are persons who, in order to obtain a little external consideration, talk very much at large, and unreasonably overshoot truth in their accounts of their dealings.

We presume that we may safely place a confidence in the facts stated in courts of law; and we therefore record for the informa tion of our readers, the particulars of twa investigations, from which the inference of commerce of great magnitude appears to be undeniably justified.

The first is the valuation, &c. of Meux's brewery, soon to be sold by auction under a decree of the court of Chancery.

The first lot in the catalogue comprizes the whole of the plant, that is the brewhouses, warehouses, mills, coppers, vats, with the dwelling-house, counting-houses, stables, and every other building upon the premises: these cost the proprietors upwards of £200,000. But the purchasers of this lot, will not purchase the buildings alone; he will also secure to himself an establishment that has brewed 190,000 barrels of porter in the year, the sale of the greatest part of which will, in all probability, remain with the house, while it continues to supply good beer. One third of this quantity is sent into the country, and this part is of high-priced porter, which yields a much better profit to the brewer, than the inferior kinds. The present owners in addition to their own customers, have actually bought and pulled down three brew eries, the whole trade of which is now 20cumulated in this, and the goodwill of the concern goes all with this lot. 10. per cent. is required as a deposit at the time of purchase, £40. per cent, additional on Feb 13, 1809, and two years more are given for completing the payment. The stock in trade, We have some reason to think that the beer, hops, malt, &c. on hand; the horses, emperor and king has experienced other mor- drays, butts, casks, &c. being variable, are tifying refusals on the same subject. Those to be taken at a valuation; twelve months princesses who have any regard to their credit is to be given on the amount of these if dignity of birth, or those ladies who have required. The present proprietors, possessing heard the particulars of his treatment of his a great number of freehold, copyhold, and present consort, will do well to consider at-leasehold public-houses, have had a valuation tentively, before they accept his hand, whether they can live with a man whose angry passions are infinitely violent, and who disre gards as well sex as connection during their paroxysms.

put upon them; the purchasers of the first lot may either purchase a part, or the whole of them. The amount of the freehold houses is £14,200; that of the leasehold £47,180. The very patronage of this concern is an

object. The proprietors appoint abroad coopers, appraisers, surveyors, &c. &c. who are paid by the customers, without any charge to the house, and yet nett incomes of £500. or £1000. and one of them, it is said, £2000. per annum. Many of these stations are extremely respectable, and might be filled with advantage to the concern, by some of the partners, of their relations. The house has for these ten years past paid annually into their banker's hands, from half a million to eight hundred thousand pounds.

This may stand as an instance of our home trade: that the commerce of some of our merchants, is fairly comparable to it, appears from an action tried a few days ago before lord Ellenborough, in the court of King's Bench

LOTTERY EVILS; LEADING ALSO TO OTHERS, Mr. Flower, of Harlow, in a tract lately published, has added the confession of his sufferings by adventuring in the lottery; to those with which the public has been ac quainted by other means. We think, that this instance, being a personal acknowledgement, may have its influence in deterring adventurous youth from similar conduct; and therefore, desire it may be taken in connec tion with our statement of the Report made by a Committee of Hon. House of Com mons, on this subject; for which vide Panorama, Vol. IV. p. 837.

"During my apprenticeship (says Mr. F.) my purchases exceeded the limits of my W. Gordon and others, versus Taylor and pocket money: The method I hit upon of others, for the recovery of 94,000 dollars, supplying this deficiency was, ensuring in being the balance of an account stated.-It the lottery; unfortunately my very first atappeared in evidence that Messrs. Gordon tempt proved successful: I call this success and Murphy were engaged in very considera- unfortunate; for had the event proved otherble mercantile concerns in South America, wise; had my father reproved me for my and among other things had engaged with conduct, or threatened me with punishment Messrs. Dick, Orr and Clark, in an extensive on a repetition of the offence, it might have' trade in dollars, the commission for which, nipped the evil in the bud; but the gain of in four months only, they charged £40,000. fifty shillings from the insurance of an eigthth This the plaintiffs thought too much, and of a lottery ticket elated me with success, offered £20,000; but Messrs. D. and Co. and the congratulations of the family enadhering to their original charge, the engage-couraged me to proceed. In every succeeding ment ceased, and the plaintiffs wrote to them to close the account and to send over the dollars that remained in their hands, which they did, amounting to 94,000, after deducting all their claim of commission of £40,000, consigning them to Messrs. Taylor and Co. of London, with an order not to deliver them until he had obtained a full discharge from Messrs. G. and M. with a further deduction

of £688 for insurance.-Lord Ellenborough was clearly of opinion that on no pretence whatever could the detention of this money be justified, as the law was open to the defendants, if they chose to bring their action for any disputed sum that might arise out of the transactions.-The jury, which was special, instantly gave a verdict for the plaintiffs.

What the whole concerns of a house are, the commission trade of which on dollars, amounted in four months only, to forty thousand pounds, may be guessed at, rather

than stated.

This house has several ships engaged in the trade to South America. One of them, the Monticello, has recently arrived from Lima, after a passage of 125 days. To what parts of the globe does not coinmerce carry the British flag!

lottery I pursued the same means of increas ing my scanty finances.

"In the last year of my apprenticeship the scene was reversed; I not only lost the amount of all my gains, but at the close of the drawing of the lottery stood indebted to the office-keeper upwards of sixty pounds...

"I had no means of paying the money; F but the office-keeper being a friend of the did not dare mention the matter to my father; family, who transacted a considerable part of my father's business in the funds, promised not to urge me for the payment, and that the transaction should be kept secret.

"About three months after this occurrence, my father, departed this life, and on my pos sessing the share of the property he left me, I sold out part of it which stood in the public funds, and paid the insurance debt."

We believe that we are not captious, in observing, that had Mr. F. been properly admonished on his first adventure, most, if not all, of the evils he has since endured in life would have been prevented. Should he peruse this article, he will understand us when we say, that we knew, and he knew, the family that repeatedly gained the £10,000