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A FEW WORDS ON THE DRAMA. 



It has of late been so general for managers of theatres to accuse 

 the public of withholding from them a due share of encouragement, that 

 it would seem, at first, there was some truth in the often-repeated asser- 

 tion. 



How frequently do we find them asserting, " it is not my fault that I 

 play everything but the legitimate drama, for were I to do so, the 

 consequence would be, an audience scant in the extreme. People 

 win not patronize it ; at the present day, the taste has altogether 

 changed, " and I must follow the stream." Upon this false foundation 

 they base all their arguments, and the result proves their sophistry ; 

 season after season comes to an end, and we find the managers con- 

 gratulating themselves upon every thing but their profits. This ought to 

 show them their errors — but, no ! they seem determined to commence 

 the next year W'ith even mcreased vigour in every department, save 

 always that which tends to uphold the dramatic literature of the country. 



We can remember how we winced some vear or two since, when ac- 

 companying a foreigner to one of our national theatres, at his remark- 

 ing, that the three pieces were translations from the minor theaires of 

 Paris, and any thing but improved by the adaptation. It would have 

 been of little use reminding him, that there were more eminent men 

 engaged in literature in England than in any other country in the 

 world ; but the national theatre was not their arena. 



One of the greatest drawbacks to the success of the theatres, are the 

 galleries ; not that we would be supposed for a moment to object to 

 them, for we should indeed be sorry to see them closed ; but every fre- 

 quenter of places of amusement must admit that the galleries always 

 rule the house : it is their tastes the managers and actors seek to please, 

 because they are loudest in their applause, and the most villanous 

 trash in the shape of maudling sentiment and vulgar songs is intro- 

 duced, for the purpose of what is called, in theatrical parlance, " bringing 

 down the galleries." What is tlie style of music selected by the galle- 

 ries for an encore ? some comic song, or sentimental air overladen with 

 meretricious ornament, and wliich every person of taste or judgment 

 in the house feels ought to have been left out ; and yet they ai'e obliged 

 to suffer the infliction of its repetition, and endure the double annoyance 

 of listening to such trash, and having it asserted that "it was stamped 

 by the approbation of the whole house." 



The managers, instead of striving to do away with the much-abused 

 system of an encore, do all in their power to encourage it. They seem 

 not to be aware that those morceaux which are really deserving of encou- 

 ragement will find their way quietly and surely, without any of those up- 

 roarious bursts whicli they so much delight in hearing, and which are 

 more generally the harbingers of bad success than otherwise. 



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