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£08 
papers, to secure whose good offices, the 
managers give. them admissions gra- 
tuitously for themselves and their friends. 
** Persons admitted gratis (said the Mas- 
ter of the Rolls in Ireland lately, on de- 
termining a case heard before him) are 
necessary appendages to the manager, 
and necessary stuffing for a house. Un- 
less they were so admitted, bad acting 
would go without any applause.” Such 
was the remark of thateminent and’acute 
Tegal character, who stated, on the same 
occasion, that ‘‘ he was early in life an 
observer of the drama, from the highest 
point of observation; but as he grew 
weightier, he descended nearer the 
stave.”- Now these gratuitous visitors, 
under the generalship of the reporters, 
give laws to all the rest, and decide, 
whether a play shall enjoy the public 
applause, or be consigned to damnation, 
No feelings of compassion will move 
their callous hearts towards an author 
who has not the interest or means to in- 
sinuate himself into their good graces; or 
who may perhaps be a formidable rival 
of those play-makers, whose cause they 
habitually advocate; and the same is the 
case with a new candidate who appears 
on the boards, So that the fate of the 
new piece, or actor, is pre-determined in 
the court.of criticism before their trial ; 
as has in former times been the practice 
of judges of the land, especially where 
culprits were to be tried for offences 
against the existing government. 
' Im the boxes, it is very unpolite for 
those who pay to hiss, and almost as 
much ¢o to applaud; unless it be some 
sentiment expressive of the loyalty of the 
day. Besides, persons of fashion are 
above attending a theatre for the sake 
of the performance. Their time is more 
appropriately employed in interrupting it 
by their tonish chattering, and in the 
charms of*seeing and being seen, The 
pit, formerly the judgment-seat of cri- 
ticism, is now filled with “ fat and greasy 
citizens,” and their wives and daughters, 
gaping at the play with the same sort of 
zvidity as the gods themselves ; or spruce 
shopmen, without any opinion of their 
own, and who are enly vociferous when 
they are taught how to open, as young 
dogs in a pack wait for the cry of the 
leaders, The occupiers of the upper 
regions, in general, are both loud and 
forward enough to express their honest 
‘sentiments; but their opinions are little 
aitended to, exceptin Pantomime, where 
they take a decisive lead, ‘There are 
On Theatrical Criticism. 
eee) fae — we 
[July ty 
certainly in the boxes, and in all parts 
of the house, from the lowest to the 
highest, persons who can judge of the 
merits of the drama; but of these, the 
great proportion rather chuse to confine 
their opinion within their own circle, 
than to testify the same in public by 
marks of applause or disapprobation, 
Thus then it is not wonderful that the 
aforesaid professional critics, being ju- 
diciously stationed in the different parts 
of the theatre, almost despotically res 
gulate the success of a new piecé, of a 
new player, Sometimes, it is true, aa 
cannot entirely carry this sway; a play is 
so bad, that the audience show their de- 
cided judgment:.it is to ail appearance 
condemned to oblivion, But here our 
critics have another strong hold, they are 
determined that it shall have its run, the 
people must be forced to relish it inspite 
of themselves. While the bills of next 
day modestly announce its having been 
“received by an overflowing audience 
with unanimous and unbounded thunders 
of applause;” in the reports of the morn. 
ing papers we find the piece as full of 
beauties, as on representation it was of 
trash, and that “ the symptoms of dis- 
satisfaction expressed by a few indi- 
viduals, with an evident hostility ta 
the author, were drowned amrdst the 
plaudits of a judicious audience!” Every 
day the Journalists declaim on the con- 
tinued and increasing applause which it 
experiences, The good-natured people 
who go, cannot but in decency applaud 
what, they are thus told from all quarters, 
is and must be applauded; ull at length, 
in the midst of its successtul career, ‘the 
play expires for want of focd, its “ade 
miring audiences” having shrunk to no. 
thing. 
As to the unbiassed frequenters of the 
theatre supporting a good piece, against 
the hisses and clamours of the reporters, 
and the hostile bands planted in array 
against it by its adversaries, it is absa- 
lutely impossible; and, if the first rate 
productions of a Shakespeare were to be 
tried by that ordeal, all their_merits 
would be of no avail. Were a Garrick 
to appear on the stage with this host of 
opponents, his most exquisite perfor- 
mance would not obtain for him a second 
hearing; on the contrary, if a boy come 
forward, pulls as a prodigy by the news~ 
papers, he will be hailed and extolled ag 
such by the indiscriminating multitude, 
while the more judicious few see that it 
would be both unnecessary and ineflecs 
tual 
