Puslapio vaizdai
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vein of sarcasm to ridicule the exertion of eminent talents, which has so justly "earned its chronicle;" but to expose to merited contempt that fashionable affectation, that most excellent foppery of taste, which has of late usurped the balance and the rod of criticism, among our full grown babes of learning, who have suddenly become commentators on playing, by going to school at thirty to learn their mother tongue; and have formed an intimate acquaintance with authors, by spelling their names on labels at the backs of their volumes! Without knowing the distinction in terms between pronunciation, emphasis and reflexion, yet with the aid of a little effrontery in a side box, and a well-committed rosary of words, which they use in succession without choice or connexion, they acquire a frothy reputation for classical wisdom, which at once gives tone and circulation to their opinions, throughout the wide range of the shallow profundity of polite life! What a facility of literary education! Why it were a device worth the experiment, if a patent might be obtained for it; the market women in the publick streets of Athens repeated lines from Homer, while they sold apples and filberts; then wherefore should not the discipline of a tailor and a frizeur make as good a commentator of a beau, as the perusal of Malone, Johnson or Walker! This process too would prevent a great many fruitless head aches, would keep down the price of calf skin, and would save the expense and trouble of learning to read! What a crop of connoisseurs should we have; they would grow up, like the dragon's teeth, and destroy themselves for the amusement of their wits! This then

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will be the very millenium of letters, when taste shall be reduced under the dominion of fashion, and

"The fop, the flirt, the pedant, and the dunce,

Start up, (God bless us!) CRITICKS all at once!"

From this little episode of pleasantry, in which we have sported rather freely with the frivolous importance of our new race of theatrical virtuosos, we return to the more congenial and gratifying task of rendering to genius the due reward of its exertions.

Of the professional contest, between Mr. Cooper and Mr. Fennell, we shall not, upon the brief survey of one evening's exhibition, pronounce an opinion, which shall decisively award to either the palm of pre-eminence. We might easily run a parallel between their respective claims and properties. In the natural gifts and requisites of an actor, Mr. Cooper has never had a competitor on the American stage; and in good sooth it must be said, that "speech famed" Fennell has gathered much lore at the feet of Cratippus. But general conclusions conduce nothing to critical information. Whichever scale may preponderate, either of the combatants may retort on the other, in the words of Ajax :

"Ipse tulit pretium jam nunc certaminis hujus,

Qui, cum victus erit, Mecum certasse feretur !"

As there are two other nights, in which their prowess in dramatick chivalry, is to be exercised, we shall withold our examen of their respective beauties and defects, both in elocu tion and in action, until the lists shall be closed. One re

mark we shall now make, that Mr. Fennell, who prides him

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his own.

self on his scholastick "vis et venustas et ordo verborum," acquired on this occasion no distinction beyond his antagonist, in the severer graces of eloquence; although, in some brilliant moments of personation, he went beyond any former effort of It should be recollected, that he had to contend against many glaring natural disabilities for the character of a dramatick lover; a voice, obstinately sepulchral, a face, incapable of the lineaments of tenderness, a ponderous and overwhelming gesticulation, and an awkward majesty and indecision of movement; the whole exhibiting rather a false fulness, than a definite expression of sentiment. Yet, against all this host of incapacity, his ambition bore up its beaver proudly; and relying on his general knowledge of poetick effect on human passions, and his unwavering consciousness of his own classick maturity of speech and conception, he struck out many sparks of excellence, and stole many touches from nature; and in the general award, gathered with an unresisted hand, some luxuriant leaves of bay, which will long be green, as amaranth, from the tears of sensibility, with which they were bedewed. With this tribute, however, we must mingle the reproof of some passages of misrecitation, for which Mr. Fennell has no right to expect any indulgence, and which, therefore, a future number will expose.

We feel a reluctance to speak of Mr. Cooper's "Pierre," in contrast to Mr. Fennell's " Jaffier," from this very sufficient reason, that, in this disposition of the parts, nature has pronounced her inhibition against the one, and has given her amplest commission to the other. Every actor has peculiar

habitudes of gesticulation, speech and expression; in all these, Cooper is moulded and fashioned into "Pierre ;" and beyond these, which are great and striking endowments, he is eminently happy in transfusing the soul of his author into the character of his action. We do not believe this bold, ingenuous, generous, affectionate rebel was ever personated with more propriety, fire or discrimination, on the boards of London. In the scene with the conspirators, after the discovery of "Renault's" letcherous breach of trust, it may be truly said, he "Lurched all swords of the garlands!"

He had one errour in his speech to the senate, which we shall notice in a subsequent commentary.

Mrs. Stanley's "Belvidera" was the best tragick performance of this lady in Boston. The beautiful poetick flight, inspired by the prospective banishment and ruin of her hus band, was uttered with the most delightful chastity and tenderness. Her exit in the third act:

"Farewell, remember twelve !"

was delivered with greater purity and impression, than by Mrs. Warren; though she shared, in common with that admired performer, the censure of two misreadings in the following scenes. Her greatest praise, however, was, that she had evidently benefitted by the admonitions of criticism, and, throughout the whole character, confined her voice within the compass of its own natural modulation and power. In comedy, she needs no monitor.

The play altogether, was the best representation, which the Boston stage has ever afforded us.

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Why then our taxing, like a wild goose, flies
Unclaimed of any man."

In this and a few subsequent numbers, we shall aim to give an accurate survey of some of the more characteristick distinctions of performance in the two American competitors for the chair of Roscius. Hence we shall frame, in the spirit of impartiality, attempted with what little judgment we possess, a comparative estimate of their classical and professional merits.

On this subject, we shall generally premise, that Mr. Fennell's confessed reputation, as a scholar, and as an actor, does not "bear an equal yoke;" and that Mr. Cooper is not so much indebted for his fame to the mere bounty of nature, as some have been willing to imagine; but owes to erudition the establishment of that pre-eminence, which has been exclusively assigned to the incidental properties of person and voice. If the former may sometimes excel in arranging, in just proportion, the lineaments of a whole character, it may with equal candour and justice be allowed, that the latter seldom fails to shed a superiour lustre on the execution of particular passages.

Within our recollection, the publick curiosity has not been so highly excited, as by the collision of talent, which the vicissive assumption of " Othello," and "Iago," produced between Mr. Cooper and Mr. Fennell. Of their respective personations of each character, we do not intend to give a description at full length, but we shall touch on those points in their several pic

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