O F

Delicacy and Decency in Tragedy, etc.

In a Second Letter to Sir EVERARD FALKENER, Ambassador at Conftantinople.

Taken from the Second Edition of ZARA.

M

Y dear friend; for your new dignity of ambassador renders our friendship only more refpectable, and does not hinder me from making use of a title more facred than that of a public minister. The name of Friend is much fuperior to that of Excellence.

I dedicate to the ambaffador of a great king, and of a free nation, the fame work which I dedicated to the private citizen, the English merchant.

They who know to what point commerce is honoured in your country, know also, that a merchant there is fometimes a legiflator, a good officer, a public minifter.

Some people, depraved by the base custom of paying homage to grandeur alone, ftrove to throw a ridicule on the novelty of a dedication to a man who then had only merit on his side. They had the impudence to infult on a ftage

confecrated to falfe tafte and to detraction *, the author of that dedication, and the man who re ceived it; they had the impudence to upbraid him with being a merchant. You must not impute to our nation fo great a barbarity, which the most unpolished nations would be ashamed of. The magiftrates, who, among us, are entrufted with the care of our manners, and who are continually bufied in fuppreffing fcandalous practices, were, on this occafion, deceived. But the contempt and horror of the public for the known author of this base attempt, are fresh instances of the politeness of the French.

The virtues which adorn and form the character of a people are often contradicted by the faults of fome particular perfons. There were fome voluptuous men at Sparta. low and giddy minds in England.

There are Athens was

not extempt from tasteless unpolished barbarians, and there are some ftill to be found in Paris.

Let us forget them, as they are forgot by the Fublic; and accept this fecond homage. It is more naturally due to an Englishman, as this tragedy has been lately embellished at London. It has been tranflated and acted with fo much fuccefs, I have been mentioned on your stage with fo much kindnefs and civility, that I owe thefe public thanks to your nation for it.

There was a low farce acted on the Italian comic theatre at Paris, in which feveral perfons of merit were grofly infulted; and among the reft, Sir Everard Falkener. The public treated this undertaking with all the diflike and contempt it deferved. Voltaire.

I cannot do more, I believe, for the honour of literature, than to relate here to my countrymen the particulars of the tranflation and repre

fentation

don.

of Zara on the theatre of Lon

Mr. Hill, a man of letters, and who seems to understand the stage better than any other Engfifh writer, did me the honour to tranflate the piece, with an intent to introduce on your fcene fome novelties both in the manner of writing tragedies and in the delivery of them. I fhall speak first of the acting.

The art of acting with you was fomewhat diftant from nature. Most of your tragic authors expreffed themselves rather as enthusiastic poets than as men affected by paffion. Several of the players pushed this fault still farther; they used to repeat the bombaftic lines with a fury and vehemence that is to nature, as convulfions are to a noble and easy gait.

This air of forwardness is quite foreign to your nation, which is naturally reserved; and this refervednefs is fometimes taken for coldnefs by foreigners. Your preachers never take up. on them the manner of orators; and a lawyer would be laughed at in Westminster-hall, who fhould grow warm in his client's caufe. Your actors alone were allowed to rant. Our Paris actors and especially our actreffes were guilty of this fault fome years ago: it was mademoiselle le Couvreur that corrected them. This fame change which mademoifelle le Couvreur brought about on our scene, Mrs. Cibber has juft introduced on yours in the part of Zara. Strange!

that in all the arts it must be after much loft time that we come at last to what is natural and

fimple. Another novelty, which will be more furprising to the French, is, that an English gentleman of fortune was not above acting on your theatre the part of Ofman *. It was in

*It was eafy, fays Mr. Hill, to induce Ofman (as he is a relation of my own, and but too fond of the amusement) to make trial, how far his delight, in an art I fhall never allow him to practife, might enable him to fupply one part of the proof, that, to imitate nature, we must proceed upon natural principles. At the fame time, it happened that Mrs. Cibber was, fortunately, inclinable to exert her inimitable talent, in additional aid of my purpose, with view to continue the practice of a profeffion, for which, her perfon, her voice, the unaffected fenfibility of her heart, and her face, fo finely difpofed for affuming and expreffing the paffions, have fo naturally qualified her. Preface to the English tragedy of Zara.

Theatrical performances have, indeed, often been exhibited entirely by perfons of the first fashion, and with fuccefs; but in these representations, the apparatus of a regular theatre has been wanting, and the whole has been greatly hurt by that deficiency. The prefent age, perhaps, is the first, that ever produced fo rare an incident as a play performed on the public ftage, by perfons of diftinction. A fet of gentlemen celebrated for their tafte, and fpirit in gallantry, who were determined to give their acquaintance an uncommon entertainment, and to do it in an uncommon manner, performed the tragedy of Othello, March 7, 1751, at Drury-Lane theatre. The character of Othello was played by the elder Mr. Delaval; Iago and Caffio by the fecond Mr. Delaval and a younger brother; Defdemona by Mrs. Quon; Roderigo by captain Stevens; Emilia by that gentleman's lady; Lodovico by Mr. Pine. They hired

terefting enough to fee the two principal perfonages represented, one by a man of rank, and the other by a young actress of eighteen who had never repeated a line in her life.

This example of a gentleman who has publicly made use of his abilities in acting, is not the first among you. The only thing that is odd, is, that we should be furprized at it. We should remember that every thing in this world depends on custom and opinion. The French court have danced on the stage with the actors of the opera, and it has only been wondered at, why this fort of amusement has been discontinued. Why should it appear more furprising to act, than to dance in public? Is there any other difference between these two arts, except that the firft is as much above the last, as the talents of the mind are fuperior to those of the body. I Atill repeat it, and I shall always think, that none of the fine arts are despicable, and what is real

the theatre for the night; they gave among their friends as many tickets as would fill it; and exhibit. ed their performance with all the pomp and decora tion of the most regular concerted entertainment of the kind. The royal family did them the honour of filling the ftage boxes, and every corner of the house fhone with diamonds and embroidery. The tickets expreffed no particular place, fo that thofe only that came first had the advantage of the best feats: by this means the whole house was filled with equally good company; and ftars glittered for the firft, and probably the last, time in the fhilling gallery. The dreffes, and expence of the houfe, which was generally one hundred and fifty pounds, amounted to above one thousand.