THE THEATRES.
The Patrician's Daughter met with an indulgent reception from the audience assembled at Drury Lane on Saturday ; the majority of whom appeared predisposed to favour the first new play of the season, what- ever its merits, out of pure good-will to the popular Manager, for they applauded most zealously at every opportunity : a few tears also were shed by sympathetic ladies ; but involuntary symptoms of weariness and merriment showed that the admiration was by no means general, though the dissentients refrained from hissing. The equivocal success of a first night, in which friendly encouragement has a greater share of influence than public opinion, is represented in one quarter as " decisive and triumphant "; and in another as establishing the " principle" which the author, Mr. MansTos, has attempted to work put in this drama,- — namely, that the characters and incidents of the present day are fit subjects for tragedy. But neither inference is justified by the result : the success of The Patrician's Daughter as an acting play has yet to be proved by the only satisfactory test, its power to interest the many; and the "principle " sought to be exemplified, instead of being established, has been virtually abandoned by the author himself, who has worked his experiment in a most unskilful manner.
The conflict of aristocratic and democratic pride is the main subject of the drama ; and thus it is conducted. The hero, Edgar Mordaunt, the plebeian, being rejected by " the Patrician's Daughter," afterwards contrives to get himself accepted by her, and then in his turn rejects the lady on the eve of marriage, in the face of her assembled kindred : and this miserable game of " tit for tat" the author designates " a battle for high principles"; putting into the mouth of the unmanly egotist, thisflaming sentiment, blazoned forth with all the emphasis of italics and capitals, as the justification of his pitiful spite-
" Convention, when it dares to tread down man,
MAN SHALL ARISE IN TURN AND TREAD IT DOWN!"
BOW the upstart comes to be accepted, we are left to guess ; the vulgar dignity of knighthood being the only additional set-off to his low birth, for when he first proposed for the lady be was a popular poet and an oratorical M.P. But the play is a tissue of absurdities from first to last ; as we bad occasion to hint about a year ago, when it first appeared as a book. Our business now is with its effect in representation. The performance renders more glaring the inherent incongruity of the sub- ject treated tragically : the laughter that burst forth on the first night at the entrance of the footmen ushering in the guests, and at the appearance of one of the party in the uniform of a Captain of the Guards, was but an irrepressible manifestation of a sense of the lu- dicrous that was more or less felt throughout, and proved fatal to tragic pathos. So long as the characters confine themselves to conversation, the ridiculous anachronism of persons living in the present day spouting blank verse, in the phraseology of ELIZA- BETH'S reign, is the most conspicuous absurdity ; but when the action begins—which is not until the end of the third act—the scene becomes preposterous. Fancy MACREADY, in draw ing-room costume, haranguing the wedding-party assembled in the mansion of the nobleman whose daughter he came to marry, but now rejects With an ostentatious parade of studied insult—this brutal outrage being resented by a valiant young Guardsman drawing on the un- armed ruffian—and some idea may he formed of the picture of life in the highest English society which is exhibited in The Patrician's Daughter. The catastrophe caps the climax of improbability and bad taste : the proud Earl seeks the base plebeian who had taken this despicable revenge, and humbly pleads for his daughter ; and the poor dying girl is suffered to follow her father to the house of the lady-killer, at whose feet she dies, exclaiming, as the Earl calls the fellow " my lam," " I am happy—very happy !" It is difficult to conceive an audience tolerating such monstrous fiction, put forth as an exhibition of the workings of passion at the present day. It is not worth while noticing minor inconsistencies of character and violations of custom and Propriety, after such flagrant instances of absurdity. These extra- vagancies, though sot altogether inseparable from the false theory on which the author has constructed his play, are a consequence of it ; and as Mr. MARSTON'S example may be followed by other dramatic aspirants, it may be as well to point out wherein the fallacy consists. Those who contend that the scene of tragedy may be laid in our own familiar life, argue as if elevated characters, violent passions, and calamitous results, were the only essentials of a tragic drama : but even if these could be exhibited in the form of dramatic action consistently with contemporary habits, a chief element of tragedy would be want- ing—imaginative grandeur. We regard the tragic hero not as a mere individual, however great, but as a type of human nature : his deeds and sufferings move us with pity or admiration not as concerning hint alone—they excite sympathy profound and universal in proportion to the extent of their relation to mankind at large. The exemplar must be elevated above familiar life, that his character may appear more exalted, and his thoughts and emotions fitted for the lofty utterance of poetry. In producing this ideal state, remoteness of place or time is requisite, in order to exclude all trivial associations, and to remove the individual from the ignoble circumstances of every-day life. It is for this reason that SHAKSPERE and all other great dramatists have, with scarcely an exception, laid the scene of their tragedies in foreign countries or at distant periods. The pomp and circumstance at- tendant on high station are powerful aids in sustaining those artificial splendours which are so influential on the stage : hence the chief per- sonages in tragedy are generally invested with the attributes of rank and worldly greatness to dignify their personal condition ; their oc- casional abasement serving like the shadows of the picture to make the lights more brilliant by contrast. The end and aim of tragedy is not to distress the feelings, but to impress the mind, to enlarge the sympa- thies, and ennoble the thoughts and aspirations. If to excite the sensi- bilities were the only object, melodrama would be far more potent: " Black-eyed Susan" causes more sensation than " Othello" or " Mac- beth." Comedy or melodrame are the only forms of the drama in which contemporary characters and incidents admit of being moulded to produce grave emotions. Distressful stories may be written, in prose or poetry, the scenes of which may be taken from every-day life : in narrative and description the art of the writer may be successfully exercised to conceal mean circumstances and develop noble features, the reader's mind being influenced by the associations awakened by the author : but stage-representation admits not of this kind of conceal- ment and artifice ; what is, must appear; and the only way to get rid of disparaging accessories is to shift the ground. Mr. MARSTON, in en- deavouring to reconcile the suppressed emotions, calm demeanour, and polished courtesies of modern society, with the language and action of violent passion, is on the horns of a dilemma: when his characters act in accordance with the usages of the world, they become ineffective on the stage—when they obey the requirements of the tragic drama, they become stilted and unnatural. The efforts of all the performers are cramped by the false position in which they are placed, and they deserve greater credit for what they avoid than they are likely to receive for what they achieve. Mr. PHELPS'S personation of the Earl is admirable for quietude and unaffected propriety : Mr. MACREADY'S style of acting is unsuited to the man of fashion ; and the rest of the male performers do not appear like persons accustomed to move in upper society. Miss H. Faucrr as the heroine produces effects with as little sacrifice of reality as can be expected ; and Mrs. WARNER makes a most repulsive character impressive. The prologue, written by Mr. CHARLES DictiEsts, and well spoken by Mr. MACREADY, was much applauded; but as a plea for the drama it had neither force nor validity.
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