632 DRAMATIC LITERATURE. 



yawned away by the common but drowsy consent of the British 

 people. 



The poets of the nineteenth century have shown every disposition to 

 return to their best mistress, Nature ; and we have abundant evidence 

 to prove that genius is not wanting to supply the stage with dramas 

 not unworthy of their predecessors. Indeed, the works of Sheridan 

 Knowles sufficiently prove that, with proper encouragement, the 

 stage might once more lift its head, if not in pre-eminence over, at 

 least on an equality with our French neighbours, to whom at the 

 present moment it is vastly inferior. We are inclined to believe 

 that, much more than to any thing else, we are to ascribe the dearth 

 of good dramas on our boards to the want of encouragement on the 

 part of managers, acting under a mistaken conviction that English 

 audiences will no longer patronize what is called the legitimate 

 drama ; and that in order to ensure success for any new piece, it is 

 indispensable that it should be accompanied by meritorious attrac- 

 tions that appeal merely to the eye ; and be rife with merits of which 

 the senses alone are to take cognizance. 



We have much pleasure in being among the first ^o introduce to 

 the public an author who, in our opinion, were he to pay that due 

 attention to the preparatory structure of his plot, indispensable to the 

 production of a striking play, might achieve a reputation on the stage 

 were he permitted to find an entrance at either of the two great 

 houses neither inconsiderable nor ill-deserved. 



Mr. Smyth has much feeling and spirit, and writes as though he 

 and his characters were in earnest ; and although we are far from de- 

 nying that both inequalities and weak points may be discovered in 

 " Queen Anne Boleyn/' and that in some instances his versification 

 might be improved ; yet a little more attention, and, perhaps, con- 

 centration of plot, would remedy the former ; while the latter would 

 necessarily be improved by practice. 



Our author says in his very modest and sensible preface: 



" In venturing to publish the following tragedy, it will become me, per- 

 haps, to offer some explanation. The work has few, if any, pretensions to 

 originality. My idea for some time before I began it, and also while writing 

 it, was, that the subject, more than any other with which I was acquainted, 

 admitted of the construction of a play which should be at once historically 

 correct and theatrically effective. In preparing myself to produce a union 

 so desirable in all such cases, but so rarely attained, I naturally sought 

 out, and noted down such facts, sayings, and anecdotes of Queen Anne 

 Boleyn, and the other characters 1 have introduced, as the authors of that 

 period, and those who have since written of it, had furnished. And of these 

 materials I did not hesitate to make a free use, not supposing that a custom 

 so common with other authors would be seriously objected to in me." 



Accordingly he has adhered closely to history, the play com- 

 mencing with the estrangement of King Henry from Anne Boleyn, 

 and his love (if it may be called by that name) for Jane Seymour, 

 and terminating with the execution of the unfortunate queen. Mr. 

 Smyth has exhibited no ordinary degree of dramatic skill in his por- 

 traiture of the uxorious but capricious tyrant; nor is his delineation 

 of Anne Boleyn less felicitous. That time-serving tool of royalty, 



