HISS MITFORD'S DRAMATIC WORKS. • THIS" collected ,edition of Miss llitford's

Dramas and Dramatic Scenes contains a new tragedy, which not only offers a good speci- men of the writer's theatrical powers, but of those of the age ; and a very charming preface, more attractive in its graceful truth than the poetical woes of fictitious personages. Under the guise of an apology for acting as her own editor before death, and explaining the origin of her dramatic attempts, Miss Mitford gives a phase of her autobiography, mingled with hints as to a dramatist's troubles,- and reminiscences of playwrights and actors now ,.traditional. This general matter is pervaded by a strain of domestic anxiety, that would have been painful but-for the cheerful resolution with which it was met. Like most other writers, Miss Mitford became! an author from necessity. " About this time, my own prospects, so bright and sunny in e.arly youth, became gradually overclouded. A Chancery suit, the gaining of which cost eight years and eleven thousand pounds, was the-cilmax of our misfortunes. We were now so poor, that it became a duty. to earn moues' if

I could, and how I could; and so I determined to write a play." - ,

Such was the commencement of her dramatie authorship.

The- dramatic taste, if not innate, was formed long before the ruinoun. success of litigation. When she was four years old, .Dr. Mitford took his little daughter to see Othello, in a barn. Henceforth her visits to the playhouse were repeated as often as_might be; at a time when theatrical entertainments ranked. far higher than they do now as a mall° amusement and an intellectnel reegeation, and when as a consequence_both the art and the artists filled ,a higher [

place in public regard. _

" Sixty years ago, in the early times of the great war, the drama filled a, very different place amongst the amusements of a country town from that': which it holds now. Concerts were rare, lectures unknown ; and the 'theatre; patronized by the leading families, and conducted in the good town of Read- ing (to which we had removed) with undeviating propriety, formed the principal recreation of the place.. The new comedies of those old times, the comedies of Holcroft and Morton, of Colman and Sheridan, followed by the farces of Foote and O'Keefe; and the musical entertainments of 'Dibdin, formed the Staple of the house. I wonder wbether anybody reniernhers, now-e-days, the plealient extravagances of O'Keefe who, soar to what comi- cal absurdity he would, was stirs to carry his anilissuce with him ; or the ease, the neatness, the racy humour of Foote's dialogue, equal, in point and finish, to the finest scenes of Congreve ! or his translations of Where, almost as good as the originals themselves! Foote NV as 'one of these men' Whose great gifts as an actor and a mimic have injured this reputation as an author. The world is incredulous of versatility, and does not readily admit that any- body can excel in two ways. Because lie acted- his own parts with so much talent, the parts have died with him. They arc well worth revising and re- viving,; above all, they are worth studying. Well ! I did not look at them, I suppose, quite so critically, then ; but such wore the performances which, varied by an occasional visit from a star, prepared my mind forthe glories of

the metropolitan boards. * *

"If Foote's reputation. has been injur6d, as I think it 'like, by his trirn double talent as an actor and a mimic, so the fame of John Kerable—that perishable actor's fame—has suffered not a little by the contact with his great sister. Besides her uncontested and incontestable' power, Mrs. Siddons had one advantage not always allowed- for—she was a woman. The actress must always be dearer than the actor: goes cioseeto the heart, drawl ten- derer tears. Then she came earlier, and took the firat'porisession ; and she lasted longer, charming all London by her reading whilst he lay iira foreign grave. Add that the tragedy iu.whieli they were.beitremembered was one in which the heroine must always predominate, for Ledy-Maebeth is the moving spirit of the play. But take charaetess of moremquelity—,Katharin e and Wolsey, Hermione and'Leontee, Coriolanus and VOlumma, Hamlet and the Queen—and surely John Kenible may hold his own. How often have I seen them in those plays! What would I give to see again those plays so acted ! "Another and a very different test of John Kemble's histrionic skill was the life and body which he put into the thin shadowy sketches of Kotzebue, then in his height of fashion. Mr. Canning, by the capital parodies of the 'Anti-Jacobin,' demolished the sentimental comedy of the German school ; a little unmercifully perhaps, for with much that was false and absurd, and the bald gibberish of the translator, for -which the author is not answerable, the situations were not only effective but true. As Mr. Thackeray has some- where observed, the human heart was there; and John Kemble contrived to show its innermost throbbings. In Penruddock, (for 'The Wheel of For- tune' is of German origin, although written by an Englishman,) in Rolla, in the Abbe de l'Epee, three creations essentially various in form and in matter, nobody' that has seen him can forget his grace, his pathos, or the manner in which he lent a poetry of 'feeling to the homeliept prose. In the old French philanthropist particularly, a part Which is nothing, the smalls nese of the means, the absence of all apparent effort, produced that perfec- tion of art which looks like simple nature. Snell were my first impressions of London acting."

Besides equally pleasant recollections of Dr. Valpy's school plays, and of theatrical and other celebrities in their more private ca- pacity, as well as some agreeable criticism on the Elizabethan dramatists, Miss Mitford touches slightly on the troubles of a dramatist when the piece is submitted to " the manager," and during rehearsal. Here is a bit.

" .Foscari' was quickly followed by Julian,' originally suggested by the first scene of the Orestes' of Euripides, which happened to be given that year at Reading School. Both these plays were accepted and produced at Covent Garden, although in an inverse order to that in which they were written ; and but that I have promised myself and my readers not to enter into the vexed question of theatrical squabbles, a history of their adventures might be concocted quite as long as themselves. Suffice it to say, that poor- ' Foscari' had no leas than five last scenes—I think I underrate the num- ber, and that there were seven !—and that the two plays fought each other on the point of precedence during the best part of the season ; which was pretty much like a duel between one's right hand and one's left. • * *

"Before leaving Foscari,' it is well to say that two innovations began

• The Dramatic Works of Mary Russell Mitford, Author of " Our Village," "Atherton," &c., &c. In two volumes. Published by Hurst and Blackett. with my tragedies. The epilogue by some accident arrived so late, that the lady by whom it was to be spoken complained that she had not time to study it. She probably made the most of the delay. No fair comedian can be supposed to find much pleasure in being dragged to the theatre for so un- grateful a purpose every tragedy night : so Mr. Fawcett, the stage-manager- a man, as his acting always evinced, of excellent judgment—proposed its omission. It was, he said, simply an added danger, could do no good in failure, and stopped the applause in morass. So we discarded the epilogue altogether ; and afterwards, when bringing out Rienzi,' we also dropped the prologue : in both eases, I believe, for the first time."

The new tragedy is called Otto of Wittelsbach. The scene is laid in Germany ; tbes time is the close of the twelfth century ; the action is founded on the assassination of the Emperor Philip by Otto, with such alterations and additions—they are both extensive —as the dramatist deems necessary. In the play, Otto is drawn as a free-spoken patriot and a fiery soldier ; a sort of Hotspur, with more of tenderness and consideration than the rough chieftain of the house of Percy. His language, which is certainly biting enough, provokes the Emperor; the monarch's anger is further in- flamed by courtiers and diplomatists, till, tempted by political ad- vantages, he transfers his daughter' though betrothed to Otto, to Leopold Duke of Brunswick. Otto arrives at the church as the ceremony is beginning, challenges his rival, and accidentally kills the Emperor as he interposes. The remainder is taken up with the remorse, pursuit, and death of Otto, and the punishment of the courtly and cowardly villain who is the main source of the distress. In point of fine writing and poetical spirit, many of the dramas of the present age equal if they do not surpass any that have been written since the Restoration. In what is called the " business " of the stage, and probably in action or story, they are more de- ficient. Their greatest failing, however, is a want of nature. By this term we do not mean the large comprehension by which a great genius extends each thought or subject so as to bestow upon it an uni- versal oharacter,—for this is the triumph of poetry,—but simply that the conduct and speech of the dramatis permute should be probable under their circumstances. This is seldom the case with our existing dramatic writers. They do not so much look to what their characters would naturally say, as what will tell upon an audience. In many cases they ao not rise to discourse, but merely to dialogue. It would almost appear as if they considered what can be said rather than what would be said ; and the result , is often rhetoric instead of talk. In the month of a fine or fiery declaimer, this conventional notion of dramatic treatment may be as effective on the stage as more sober nature, during the run of the piece, or if some of the " parts " are adapted to show-off particular histrionic qualities that are more or less ge- neral. The reader of Miss Mitford's tragedy, quietly examining the volume, may see that some of Otto's speeches in his first scene are abrupt and almost purposeless ; rather an author's embodi- ments of the abstract quality of blunt and honest roughness, than an individual's speech, however blunt he may be, when he is ad- dressing his sovereign. A certain Sir Egbert has come to court to complain of Otto for having driven him from an estate which the Emperor had given to him.

"Otto. My liege, it was not thine to give,

That Hold of Brehna. An Imperial fief ! 'Tis held, as his or mine, from sire to son, On personal service in the field ; a knight's Good service to the Empire. Craved of thee! Thou might'st as well give to the first that asked The lands of Wolfenatein or Wittelsbach, Ay, and the County Palatine to boot, As Brehna! An Imperial fief! 'Tis held From heir to heir on the old feudal tenure Of service in the field ; and he knew well, At cost of one poor question all had known, That good Sir Rudiger, when he fell in the front

Of battle, bravely striving, left a son'

A toward boy. His weeping mother brought him For shelter to my halls. I left him, sire Lord of his father's towers; and my good arm Shall keep him there. Forget not that, Sir Falconer ! I will maintain his rights against the world. Nay, change the huntsman's boar-spear and his knife For knightly weapons, and I'll match the boy, Young Rudiger, against thee, lance to lance.

Back to thy hawks and hounds ! More honest one, More brave the other !"

After attacking another noble Otto turns upon the Emperor,

with less reason. Egbert and noble, had been active, but in Philip's case the charge is that he tnay do nothing.

"Philip. Peace awhile ! Restrain these bitter scoffs. A loftier theme Demands our care.

Otto. And mine. I had well nigh

Forgot my clients. Sire, the citizens Of the Free Towns seek at your Grace's :lands Redress of multitudinous wrongs : tolls, imposts, Exactions, and abuses infinite.

(Giving papers.) There be the scrolls. They say their sub- stance flows Into thy coffers, lavished upon gauds Vain and effeminate, gems, banquets, shows,

Processions, pageants, toys that -babbling women

Or prattling childhood revels in, not man, warn thee, sire, look to it. These free burghers, As sound and generous as their B.henish wines, Like them are somewhat rough. They will have justice : Ay, and they shall. Arden. Shall

Otto. Shall, Count Ardenberg. I have pledged my knightly word ; they shall have justice. Phasp. (Seats himself on the throne.) Admit the Ambassador.

We'll talk hereafter Of these Imperial towns."

Apart from this peculiarity, which is rather characteristic of the age than of the writer, Otto of Wittelsbach is a drama of much skill and much power, with many passages of nice "word-paint;. lag" or delicate pathos, and some scenes of considerable effect. It also exhibits greater force and maturity, we think, than the earlier Dramas and Dramatic Scenes of the writer, if it be not so thoroughly an acting play as Rienzi and Foscari. The entire series, however, is an attractive and in many cases a stirring collection of well-constructed stories, effective situations and genial sentiments clothed in elegant verse. To many the volumes will have a farther interest. The reader will be carried back to the closing days of the British stage, not unworthy surely of its long celebrity, when Young, Maoready, and Fawcett, with steady though less brilliant luminaries, threw a light upon its de- cline. In the Dramatic Scenes, too, he will be transported to the palmy days of the Annuals, when novelty and fashion enlisted able writers in their cause ; among the most effective of whom Miss Mitford may be reckoned, as her genius was the most fitted to the work.