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Article HISTORICAL DEDUCTION OF THE BRITISH DRAMA. ← Page 3 of 4 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Historical Deduction Of The British Drama.
The last step towards general impurity was taken , and the Gallants and Belles of their Comedies talked familiarly of Brothels and China Shops ; the Men were all Bullies , and the Women impudent and unchaste . Let any one , who wishes to wonder at the problem life , read three plays of the Reign of C HARLES II . and avoid shuddering , if he is able . in such the
It was perhaps doing some service to carry an age passions of Tragedy up to the topmost heat " of the thermometer of ROMANCE—Extravagance of purity is more friendly to virtuous life than it ' s opposite ; for though the one can never be attained , it is certain the other never ought . Nature indeed suffers by both . That there were among them those who knew better things is that the of
obvious . Suppose for instance , cause PIERRE were good , and the love-scenes of Venice Preserved are exemplary . — Yet O TWAY was afraid that chastity would pall upon the appetite . ^ and he accordingly indulged his audience with the rank infamy of AQUILINA ; she loved in a hig h strain , and alleviated her submissive depravity by the passion for a-Traitor to his Country . . and
Of DRYDEN we must speak with mingled reverence regret ; he occasionally wrote to his own heart ; he generally wrote for that of the People , and is the most striking instance of the grandest genius sinking into filth from feebleness of ' virtue . But his compliance procured him no competence—he drudged on for subsistence , and his princiles and his poetry were carried to any side .
p The Rabble of A SPASIAS and A EGERIAS , ASTRACAS and CASSANDRAS who fluttered from the Novel to the Comedy , and like other insects left some evidence of their qualities behind them , deserves no notice here . Another revolution courts our attention , when ANNA was called to the Throne of the State , and ADDISON
to the Chair of TASTE . Why should we wish to disguise , that at this period FRANCE possessed a juster judgment in Arts and Sciences , and that there the Ancients were studied with much greater care , and diffused with more copiousness of translation ? ADDISON naturally preferred Gallic decorum to British licentiousnessand from FRANCE were imported the tragedy of RACINEand
; , the Comedy so properly termed sentimental . We had , truly speaking , lost our natural Drama ; and the CATO of ADDISON is as much a French Play , as if it had been translated from the page of a French Writer . How such a smooth , correct , but tame composition agreed with the character of this people , we have proof enough—they were
received as the finest moral lesfons—and the heart was satisfied , if the judgment coldly approved-4-they were dieted upon declamation , and their passions were all reserved for politics . ROWE composed expressly in the taste of RACINE—Although himself an Editor of SHAKSPERE , he seems to have preferred inferior models , or rather he did not know the mode of imitation proper for genius—Nay , so strangely did he estimate his productions , to
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Historical Deduction Of The British Drama.
The last step towards general impurity was taken , and the Gallants and Belles of their Comedies talked familiarly of Brothels and China Shops ; the Men were all Bullies , and the Women impudent and unchaste . Let any one , who wishes to wonder at the problem life , read three plays of the Reign of C HARLES II . and avoid shuddering , if he is able . in such the
It was perhaps doing some service to carry an age passions of Tragedy up to the topmost heat " of the thermometer of ROMANCE—Extravagance of purity is more friendly to virtuous life than it ' s opposite ; for though the one can never be attained , it is certain the other never ought . Nature indeed suffers by both . That there were among them those who knew better things is that the of
obvious . Suppose for instance , cause PIERRE were good , and the love-scenes of Venice Preserved are exemplary . — Yet O TWAY was afraid that chastity would pall upon the appetite . ^ and he accordingly indulged his audience with the rank infamy of AQUILINA ; she loved in a hig h strain , and alleviated her submissive depravity by the passion for a-Traitor to his Country . . and
Of DRYDEN we must speak with mingled reverence regret ; he occasionally wrote to his own heart ; he generally wrote for that of the People , and is the most striking instance of the grandest genius sinking into filth from feebleness of ' virtue . But his compliance procured him no competence—he drudged on for subsistence , and his princiles and his poetry were carried to any side .
p The Rabble of A SPASIAS and A EGERIAS , ASTRACAS and CASSANDRAS who fluttered from the Novel to the Comedy , and like other insects left some evidence of their qualities behind them , deserves no notice here . Another revolution courts our attention , when ANNA was called to the Throne of the State , and ADDISON
to the Chair of TASTE . Why should we wish to disguise , that at this period FRANCE possessed a juster judgment in Arts and Sciences , and that there the Ancients were studied with much greater care , and diffused with more copiousness of translation ? ADDISON naturally preferred Gallic decorum to British licentiousnessand from FRANCE were imported the tragedy of RACINEand
; , the Comedy so properly termed sentimental . We had , truly speaking , lost our natural Drama ; and the CATO of ADDISON is as much a French Play , as if it had been translated from the page of a French Writer . How such a smooth , correct , but tame composition agreed with the character of this people , we have proof enough—they were
received as the finest moral lesfons—and the heart was satisfied , if the judgment coldly approved-4-they were dieted upon declamation , and their passions were all reserved for politics . ROWE composed expressly in the taste of RACINE—Although himself an Editor of SHAKSPERE , he seems to have preferred inferior models , or rather he did not know the mode of imitation proper for genius—Nay , so strangely did he estimate his productions , to