314 Dramatic Copyright [MARCH, 



prietorship or management. Besides, how is a country manager six hun- 

 dred miles off, to be aware of the guilt of the dramatist in Paris, while 

 the case is pending? He receives a popular piece from the capital, plays 

 it, and is deep in the twelfth night, before he can receive the formidable 

 announcement that the minister is displeased with the performance, that 

 he thinks it alludes to himself, or to somebody not dead twenty-five years, 

 including Napoleon, for whose especial sake, we take it for granted this 

 absurd date was fixed; and is unconsciously a debtor to the state of some 

 thousands of francs, and as many years as may please that most upright 

 of all tribunals, the French police. If this be liberty, we say, long live 

 King William, and down with the march of " wooden shoes!" 



The late " inquest" on the patent theatres brought up some odd 

 memoranda of theatrical affairs. Among the rest, Lord Brougham 

 having inquired of Mr. Harrison, what good plays had been produced 

 at either of the winter theatres since the year 1804, Mr. Harrison, 

 after consulting several authorities, living and dead, stated the following 

 as specimens : 



" John Bull, a very popular play," said Mr. Harrison, " has been 

 produced, and repeatedly acted since that period. A list had been 

 handed to him," he added, " which enabled him to mention several 

 others : Speed the Plough, by Morton A Cure for the Heart-ache, by 

 ditto The Poor Gentleman The W lied of Fortune The Iron Chest, 

 by Colman Brutus, by Mr. Howard Payne Firginius, by Mr. 

 Knowles, and Bertram, by Mr. Maturin." These three last being of a 

 somewhat different class from the others, and not very favourable speci- 

 mens of literature, or any thing else, might have been left out of sight, 

 as it is evident they are out of the mind; but of the six stock plays which 

 Mr. Harrison cited as having been produced since 1804, every one of 

 them was acted prior to that period. John Bull came out in 1803, and 

 was the last produced of the list quoted by Mr. Harrison, and received 

 by the court ; and the Wheel of Fortune, by the way, is given to the 

 wrong author. 



The paucity of plays of any value produced within the present cen- 

 tury is surprising, and Mr. Harrison's list, meagre as it is, comprehends 

 nearly the whole. But there must be some reason for this, as there is 

 for every thing. The general mind of England was never more vivid 

 than within the last thirty years, and especially in works next akin to 

 the drama. A new sera of poetry had appeared, infinitely more fur- 

 nished with the spirit of the drama, than any since the days of Shak- 

 speare ; full of passion, individual character, and picturesque thought ; 

 full of romantic adventure, and the wild and rich conceptions of the very 

 lands and times from which the Elizabethan age, and the finest periods 

 of European fancy drew their noblest inspiration. The poetry of Pope and 

 Dryden had gone by, or triumphed only in the memories of those old 

 gentlemen, who exhibited a similar veneration for the square skirts, per- 

 riwigs, and hair-powder of their ancestral coxcombs ; and who gave up 

 the world as undone, when men began to lay aside cocked-hats and long 

 queues. The poetry of their day was modelled on the French, and was 

 cold, dry and didactic: correctness was the grand merit, and the 

 standards of perfection were the neatness of Boileau, and the point of 

 Voltaire, 



The drama of the last century was, of necessity, miserable. Yet the 

 present age lias produced scarcely anything in the higher walk of the 



