Sect. IX.] Drama. 59 



favourable field for the display of passion, and that 

 it renders the entertainment both more animated 

 and more instructive *. 



It may also be mentioned as a peculiarity in the 

 dramatic writings of the eighteenth century, that 

 they are in general more decent, and more moral 

 in their tendency, than those of the age immedi- 

 ately preceding. The comedies of Vanbrugh, so 

 justly admired for their humour and native ease 

 of dialogue, are extremely licentious ; and in the 

 greater part of .Congrev^e's dramas, amidst the 

 brilliancy of wit and force of language which so 

 remarkably characterise them, there are passages 

 which put virtue and decorum entirely out of 

 countenance. In several of the comedies of Dry- 

 den the indecency is so palpable and shocking, 

 that we are told, even in the dissolute age in 

 which he lived they were prohibited from being 

 brought on the stage. It is but justice to say, 

 that in the course of the last age a more correct 

 taste has arisen and prevailed. It is true, that, 

 in some of the most popular dramatic produc- 

 tions of this period, indelicate scenes occur, and 

 the general moral tendency of many is highly 

 censurable. But there has doubtless been, for a 

 number of years past, a decency in the public 

 taste, and in that of authors, which has revolted 

 from open and gross obscenity, and of course 

 given the dramatic publications of the day a great 

 superiority, in a moral view, over those w4iich 

 were fashionable in the time of Otway, Congreve, 

 yanbrugh, and Dryden. Among the hrst, who 



* Blair's Lectures. 



