Sect. IX.] Drama. Jl 



plays, in his comedies, a large portion of wit and 

 humour, but they are too much of the licentious 

 kind. M. Saurin is also distinguished as a writer 

 of French comedy. His Anglomane is considered 

 as the best production of his pen, in this depart- 

 ment of dramatic writing. The comedies of M. 

 Gressett sustain a still higher character. The 

 Mechant, by him, ranks with the first comic 

 works of the age. M. Boissy has displayed con- 

 siderable talents as a WTiter of comedy. UHojinne 

 du JouTy and Les dehors Trompeurs, hold a respect- 

 able place in the critic's list. M. Beaumarchais 

 is also entitled to notice as belonging to the same 

 class. Though little can be said in favour of the 

 moral tendency of his Barhier de Seville, Mariage 

 de Figaro, and Mere Coiipable* ; yet they discover 

 so much wit and humour as to command much of 

 the public attention. 



To France is ascribed the invention of a new 

 species of drama, called C ome die Lar may ante, or 

 Crying Comedy. This is a genus between tragedy 

 and comedy of the pure unmixed kind ; and also 

 different in its character from the tragi-comedy of 

 Dryden and Southern. It offers pictures of tem- 

 porary domestic distresses, which in private life 

 too frequently occur, and which, though attended 

 with no consequences sufficiently fatal for tragedy, 

 are too serious for comic representation. The 

 inventor of this species of drama was M. Ja 

 Chaussee. In this style of writing he has had se- 



♦ These three plays of Beaumarchais form one story ; and in 

 the last the crimes and follies of the charJ^cters are represented 

 as punished. 



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