Azam, the grand slave-master, being inclined to make the most of his place, consents to release Villaflor, but demands an exorbitant ransom. Osmin being arrived at manhood, conceives the design of selling himself at the fair of slaves, which is annually held at Ceuta; but he is prevented by Gulnare, who, under a strong impression of gratitude and compassion towards Villaflor, offers herself as the victim instead of Osmin, and finds a purchaser in Bensalla, but avails herself of the known generosity of his character to preserve herself for Osmin, and finally to procure her return to him.

The Portuguese, in the meantime, attack Ceuta by land, while their ships blockade the harbour. They are introduced by Osmin, and Bensalla is surprised, while in the act of generously preserving Gulnare for her lover. Prince Henry respecting the amiable character of Bensalla, orders him to be still treated with the respec due to a sovereign, and leaves him in possession of his throne.

The comic part of the piece, which is not destitute of some ludicrous situations, relates to the characters of Azam, Cotillon, O'Phelim, and Zulema; and the attempts of the latter to carry off the wealth of Azam, in company with her lover Cotillon, produce several whimsical embarrassments.

This is certainly the least successful of all Mr. HOARE's pieces. From the want of due connection between the incidents, the business is either often at a stand, or becomes so languid as to excite little interest. We have no novelty of character, and the dialogue, particularly in the comic passages, presents many lame and impotent attempts at wit and humour. Some sentiments, however, in the serious scenes, are marked with feeling and dignity; and the poetry is not inferior to that of several popular pieces. The author's failure may be attributed to two causes; to having formed his fable on so large a scale, that he was obliged to diversify it with circumstances bearing no just relation to each other, and to the obligation which he had contracted of finishing his production within a certain period, and for a particular object. In the former case, his judgment erred, and in the latter, it cannot be supposed by those who have formed but a slight estimate of the operations of the human mind, that an author can act with freedom and effect when prescribed a task. Genius, imagination, and taste, sink under such a burthen; and every exertion made to shake it off, only renders it the heavier.

The unusual length of the piece contributed also very much, on the first night of representation, to make an unfavourable impres sion upon the audience; but several judicious curtailments and alterations have been made both in the business and the dialogue, and it has since been performed to numerous and fashionable houses with considerable applause.

Every possible effort was made on the part of Mr. HARRIS to render the opera worthy of public patronage with respect to the scenery, dresses and decorations. The Moorish and Portuguese costumes were strictly preserved, and the number of attendants

4

employed

employed on the stage has been superior to that of any other musical piece.

The music by MAZZINGHI and REEVES, is more distinguished for harmony than for melody. The overture, the airs, and the chorusses, are, it is true, composed with taste and science; but they want that which may be easily conceived, but cannot be well expressed. They want the power of agitating the heart, and making the memory retentive for a long time after the illusion of the scene is over.

Of BRAHAM'S powers, science, and taste, we cannot speak too highly. He is, without doubt, the finest tenor in this or any other country. His voice is full, clear and rich in variety of intonation, while his falsetto appears perfectly natural. The surprising manner in which he ascends by semi-tones, may be proounced a new effort of the art, and his sostenuto has a bottom that defies competition. With all these great requisites, there are moments when we are disgusted with an ostentatious display of ornaments and embellishments that do not correspond with the subject. This is a waste of talents, and an idle excess of refinement, which, we trust, he will altogether reform. It would not be allowed by the best masters of the Italian school, and it has little chance of fascinating an English audience. His improvements have, in every respect, been very great since his last exhibition in this country, and will, no doubt, prove uncommonly at

tractive.

Madame STORA CE's reputation has been too long established to require any comment. As a singer, she is not inferior to what she has been, and as a broad comic actress, her humourous talents are not impaired. Her duet with BRAHAM was exquisitely managed.

Their MAJESTIES, accompanied by the five PRINCESSES, honoured this Theatre with their presence on the 16th, to see the new Comedy of Folly as 'it Flies. It was the first time of their appearing in a place of public entertainment since the KING'S late indisposition, and they were greeted by a most splendid and numerous audience with enthusiastic marks of loyalty and affec tion. Their Majesties sat in the box recently fitted up for them, nearly over the stage, on the second circle; annexed to which is a suit of apartments, laid out in an elegant style of accommodation.

The ornament which hung down the front of the box was of light blue satin, richly embroidered with the Union Arms, and the Shamrock and Thistle. Over the box was placed the crown, and some other ornaments, in gold.

God save the King and Rule Britannia were sung by the Performers, and accompanied by a full orchestra, amid loud and reiterated plaudits.

DRURY LANE.

Mrs. SIDDONS made her first appearance this season on the 16th, in the character of Isabella, in the Tragedy of the Fatal Marriage.

To expatiate upon her unrivalled performance in this arduous part would be but a repetition of those just praises which have been bestowed on it for nearly twenty years. No heart, however obdurate, could prove impenetrable to the pity she infused; no mind, however stern, could preserve itself from the horror which she excited. Although she towers above all expectation in the wild bursts of passion, it is in a single passage, a line, a word, at once combining exquisite feeling and rare discrimination, that she most excells. This is the most difficult province of the art, and, if Pliny be right, it is nature:-" Rerum natura nusquam magis quam in minimis tota est."

FRENCH DRAMATIC CRITICISM.

NATIONAL THEATRE.

First Appearance of Mademoiselle BOURGOING in LA HARPE'S MELANIE, and MOLIERE'S SCHOOL FOR WIVES.

"Thalia had reason to be jealous of Melpomene. The court of the tragic muse was adorned by the charms and the genius of two blooming theatric princesses; her comic sister, restricted to the limits of her ancient domain, saw her empire swelled by no new accessions. Mademoiselle Bourgoing, wishing to reconcile the sisters, proffered equal homage to both. The talents of this lady are equal to the utmost range of dramatic exhibition; to tragedy, comedy, or that bastard species of the drama designated by the title of Play." The French theatre will find utility and advantage in genius blest with such versatility. Nature, who in common is a niggard in the distribution of her favors, has been prodigal of them to this lady; figure, expression, and voice, those rare qualities, the want of which is often in vain endeavoured to be supplied by art, she is amply possessed of. Let her not suppose that this rich inheritance is to preclude the necessity of application in it she will find the means of facilitating her studies, and rendering them agreeable.

She formerly commenced her theatric career at this theatre; she was interrupted in it, but why, I shall not now examine. A publication of a satiric nature, which she has solemnly disavowed, might have excited the enmity of some persons against her. Those who best know her are convinced that she is incapable of such practices; but the indiscretion of friendship has ever been the source of danger. It has been whispered, that the directors of this theatre had the rudeness to refuse her the customary free admission, which are given on all first appearances. If this be true, her enemies have been more serviceable to her than her

friends.

friends. They took every precaution that her success should not be ascribed to the efforts of a party. They wished that her reception should be proportionate to her merit; thanks to their pains, there was not one among the spectators who earned his admission by the clapping of his hands. The applause with which the theatre resounded, was the fair expression of public favor, and not the result of partial and amicable exertion.

It was a great advantage for M. Bourgoing, that her first scene was with Molé. This great actor highly exerted himself to give her support and confidence in those first moments of anxiety, when the faculties are paralized by apprehension and dismay. We could perceive a dignified simplicity in her gesture, an enunciation true to nature, and a grace and feeling in her action and deportment. We could have wished for less monotony in her delivery, for more firmness in her recitation, and for something more of sensibility and energy in her manner: but this young actress had so many causes for apprehension, that it is not to be wondered her powers should have been much enfeebled. In the character of Agnès, in the School for Wives, she displayed an enchanting archness and "naïveté." Her delivery of the speech in the second act was natural and judicious, but she has one defect (that of not sufficiently throwing out the voice, which she must study to overcome. It is the grand and indispensable requisite in dramatic representation. Her reception, which was of the most flattering kind, should encourage her to forget and despise the petty mortifications of the profession, and to devote herself entirely to the study of the art.

Melanie is the only production of Laharpe which has attracted much attention, but its celebrity is not the consequence of its merit. A convent, a grate, a nun, and a confessor in his canonicals; a country clergyman, who affects the philosopher, and apologizes for human frailty; hackneyed declamations against cloisters and monastic vows: these were more than enough to turn the heads of the most sturdy fanatic philosophers in the year 1770. The author too was well aware that he would not be allowed with. impunity to deride religion on the stage, and metamorphose the licentious descendants of Thespis into nuns and confessors. Had his mawkish and melancholy homily ever been represented, the author would have been rewarded as he deserved. The first impulse of curiosity would have soon been satisfied. The nun, the grate, and the confessor, would have soon become familiar, and, at the end of a few days, the monotony of the declamation would have nauseated the audience, and the theatre would have been deserted. Government prohibited the piece. Laharpe, like a persecuted philosopher, or friend to human nature, oppressed by despotism, went from door to door to read his sublime drama. It must be acknowledged, that Molière was obliged to recite "Tartuffe" to private companies; but the distinction is not greater between the two authors than between their several productions.

The

The readings of Melanie, however, were much in fashion. Laharpe, in reciting his own compositions, appeared a tolerable poet. It is well known, that he was the best of the "dilletante" performers at the theatre at Ferney. It was then "the mode" to weep at Melanie. A lady of fashion would have forfeited all pretension to feeling, had she listened with unmoistened eyes to so pathetic a story. By the bye, it has never been the occasion of bedewing so many handkerchiefs as Kotzebue's play of Misanthropy and Repentance. It must be confessed, that there have been unnatural fathers, and victims have been frequently incarcerated in cloisters; but such abuses of parental authority have been very rare. It is possible that a young girl, in the phrenzy of amorous despair, might have preferred death to a cloister, but the course of revolving ages has scarcely furnished us with one wellauthenticated instance. What then, it may be asked, could have been the design of an author in making such an incident the subject of dramatic representation? Is it to plead the cause of humanity-The conduct of austere and avaricious fathers will be little influenced by the morality of the drama. His design was obvious by this, to draw the attention of the public on himself, and their indignation on the convents. This atheistical kind of gave a temporary fame to his dramatic sketch, for in those families where Laharpe was permitted to read Melanie, religion was laughed at as a vulgar prejudice.

tint

This master-piece, however, did not pass without its comment. There was published at the time a letter from the vicar of St. John of Latran, in which he thanked him for having put such noble sentiments into the mouth of an ecclesiastic. But the most poignant satire against the piece came from his friend Voltaire, when he wrote to him, that "all Europe was impatient for Melanie." Laharpe, with all his sense, did not discover that the philosopher of Ferney was laughing at him, and in pure simplicity, he caused this biting sarcasm to be inserted in his preface. At this day, when there are neither convents nor nuns, the interest of the piece is absolutely null. We only discover the disgusting exhibition of a girl, who poisons herself because she cannot marry the man she loves. By our laws, a father cannot employ personal violence to compel his daughter to become a nun. She had but to refuse and persevere until she became of age, and then she was protected against parental persecution. The lamentations of Melanie affect us but little, because we know, that to escape from her embarrassment, there was required but the physical force to say no, and to endure for a few years longer residence in a conThe heroine finds a dose of poison a speedier passport from cloistered tyranny. This paroxysm of despair, in a girl of modesty and sensibility, becomes detestable and revolting, as well as unnatural and unaffecting.

vent.

A critic lately asserted, in downright earnest, that the tragedies of Voltaire were the triumph of religion. It is with equal simplicity Laharpe maintains, that his drama is alike honourable to the

cause