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Article PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. Page 1 of 2 →
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Public Amusements.
PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS .
THEATRE-ROYAL , COVENT-OARDEN , Saturday , March 4 .. A New comedy was brought forward at . this Theatre , il . under the title of WIVES AS THEY WERE , AND MAIDS AS THEY ARE : ' ' This comedy is the avowed produ & ion of Mrs . Inchbald ; and is intended to shew the mischievous eifefts of modern manners in female life ; and this purpose is illustrated by the example of a wife brought up in the old school
, and two young ladies , who are educated according to the dissipated manners of the present times . The wife , by a proper submission to her husband , and a due observance of domestic duties , is respectable and easy ; while the modish fair , though in the bloom of life , is reduced , by extravagance , to poverty and a prison . This play , which has two plots , sufficiently implicated for the purposes of the drama—is a play of incident and character - —in one of its plots the
incidents unfold the characters ; in the ether , the characters produce the incidents . The Priorys exemplify the latter position ; the rest of the characters are comprised in the former . But the subject of the whole is distinctly anticipated in the title of the Corned ) ' " Wives , as they w « , " " Maids as they are "We wish the antithesis bad been quite exact , as we feel an invincible repugnance to believe that the unmarried lady of honour and breeding- can ever become acquainted with irresistible dissipation , and be hunted by the
catchpole at the suit of a creditor : notwithstanding it is true that many of our higher circles are nurseries of profligacy to an alarming extent ; and the passion for play is one in which the extremes of fashionable and savage life meet and join . We own we could have wished that we had received better proof ' s of amendment in Miss Dorrington , than a burst of filial affection—it is rather a palliative for crime , than a token of reformation ; and unless the mind is thoroughly changed , her marriage and her deliverance only affiird her means
to follow her inclinations , and to do so under the impunity of a husband ' s protection . There is no charafter , which is so distin & ly the prey of the moralist as the profligate with what is termed a good heart—He substitutes transient feeling i ' -.-ir steady justice ; and , while he ruins all about him , preserves too great a portion of our esteem . But if this be a worthy object of censure , the character opposed to it is little entitled to esteem . The law of life seems to have g iven ascendancy to the man ; but the submission of the woman is still di gnified .
" She with majestic energy approves " His pleaded reason . " There is , to be sure , a fashion in amusements , ami the aged naturally prefer the okasures of their youth—but the passive submission oi Lady Priory is not likely to have been the character of" a wife of any age , and cannot be the first of merits in any character : for , although the deference to superior sense is natural and becoming ; the allegiance to petulance and tyranny is a proof either of apathy , or of weakness . This comedy , upon the whole , will not at all lessen that reputation which
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Public Amusements.
PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS .
THEATRE-ROYAL , COVENT-OARDEN , Saturday , March 4 .. A New comedy was brought forward at . this Theatre , il . under the title of WIVES AS THEY WERE , AND MAIDS AS THEY ARE : ' ' This comedy is the avowed produ & ion of Mrs . Inchbald ; and is intended to shew the mischievous eifefts of modern manners in female life ; and this purpose is illustrated by the example of a wife brought up in the old school
, and two young ladies , who are educated according to the dissipated manners of the present times . The wife , by a proper submission to her husband , and a due observance of domestic duties , is respectable and easy ; while the modish fair , though in the bloom of life , is reduced , by extravagance , to poverty and a prison . This play , which has two plots , sufficiently implicated for the purposes of the drama—is a play of incident and character - —in one of its plots the
incidents unfold the characters ; in the ether , the characters produce the incidents . The Priorys exemplify the latter position ; the rest of the characters are comprised in the former . But the subject of the whole is distinctly anticipated in the title of the Corned ) ' " Wives , as they w « , " " Maids as they are "We wish the antithesis bad been quite exact , as we feel an invincible repugnance to believe that the unmarried lady of honour and breeding- can ever become acquainted with irresistible dissipation , and be hunted by the
catchpole at the suit of a creditor : notwithstanding it is true that many of our higher circles are nurseries of profligacy to an alarming extent ; and the passion for play is one in which the extremes of fashionable and savage life meet and join . We own we could have wished that we had received better proof ' s of amendment in Miss Dorrington , than a burst of filial affection—it is rather a palliative for crime , than a token of reformation ; and unless the mind is thoroughly changed , her marriage and her deliverance only affiird her means
to follow her inclinations , and to do so under the impunity of a husband ' s protection . There is no charafter , which is so distin & ly the prey of the moralist as the profligate with what is termed a good heart—He substitutes transient feeling i ' -.-ir steady justice ; and , while he ruins all about him , preserves too great a portion of our esteem . But if this be a worthy object of censure , the character opposed to it is little entitled to esteem . The law of life seems to have g iven ascendancy to the man ; but the submission of the woman is still di gnified .
" She with majestic energy approves " His pleaded reason . " There is , to be sure , a fashion in amusements , ami the aged naturally prefer the okasures of their youth—but the passive submission oi Lady Priory is not likely to have been the character of" a wife of any age , and cannot be the first of merits in any character : for , although the deference to superior sense is natural and becoming ; the allegiance to petulance and tyranny is a proof either of apathy , or of weakness . This comedy , upon the whole , will not at all lessen that reputation which