144 °^ ENGLISH PLAYS. Oft. ^. 



never allows his judgment or wit to be fuperior to his employ- 

 er's ; in faft, in that refpeS we are really aftors ; for whatever 

 may be our obfervations, there are few want difcretion. I 

 am. Sir, &c, A barbir. in Edinburgh. 



September 5. 1791. 



Remarks on fome Englijh Plays, continued from 

 page 80. 



The Devil to Pay— by Charles Coffey, Efq; 



Comical actors in Jobfon, Nell, and the Lady, make this piece 

 laiighabie on the ftage. In private perufal, it is low, flat, and 

 abiurd. There is one good fong in it, page 68 and 69. The reft 

 •ire execrable. Indeed, the bulk of this Colledion of celebrated 

 Farces, are fuch, that if you wifli to have entertainment in fee- 

 ing them aded on the ftage, you fhould never read one of them. 

 It you want to read theatrical pieces with tafte and pleafure, 

 yoii muft go back to the old poets'. Gay's " What d'ye Call 

 " it ?" is the beft modern little piece or farce, but is not to be 

 expefted in a Bookfeller's Colledtion*. That muft be fuited to 

 his own and the popular tafte ; and fo what good ones you 

 have, fall in by mere chance. 



The Lying Valet — by David Garrick, Efq; 



We have here a foolifli plot, no natural orinterefting charadVer, 

 and as little true original wit, or humour. Garrick, in all his 

 pieces, copies from plays, not from nature; and yet by liis 

 great abilities as an aftor, and by his art as a manager, he gain- 

 ed, and loag maintained, a fovereign diredlion over the Lon- 

 don tafte. 



This fort of famihar gentleman, and pert fpcech-making foot- 

 man, are charafters very current in modern comedv ; and cfpeci- 

 ally in the plays of Vanburgh, Gongreve, and Gibber, but are 

 not to be found in nature or realUfe, nor in the old plays of 

 true genius. 



• vVhcn this colledtiop. was pubUlhing, our critic advifed the 

 compiler to infert this piece, but his advice was rejedted. 



