Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Historical Deduction Of The British Drama.
HISTORICAL DEDUCTION OF THE BRITISH DRAMA .
HP HAT the present Age is little productive of Dramatic excel-{_ lence , is a position that may be safely admitted . What can Strictly be termed original , is not good ; and what may chatknge our admiration , is devoid of novelty . A developement of the causes which have produced this decline of an inchanting art , may not be unamusive , and it is hoped not without it ' s use . National
When the mighty genius of S HAKSPERE formed our Drama , Criticism was an art but little cultivated , and the translated Models of ancient Art were few . —The Audiences of our Theatres were in general mean ; learning , or rather the pedantry of learning , was confined to the Court . If we compare the productions which were collateral , we shall studied
see those played within the verge of the Court were coldly , and extravagantly laboured , larded with quotations , and deformed by a phraseology against the idiom of our language . —The Courtiers forsook the Vulgar , where the Vulgar was right , and sense and passion sunk under the load of " Taffata Phrases , silken terms precise ,
" Three-pil ' cl hyperboles , spruce affectation , " Figures pedantical . " The common Stages indeed were sustained by more natural efforts . —Sterling sense was little debased by a barbarous taste for lhe Ancients , and the powerful creations of our native fancy were not
mutilated by the application of a scale , upon which they were never constructed . The magic of MACBETH was wrought by the aid of popular charms ; and the incantations of LUCAN" and of HORACE were unknown ; or , if known , happily disregarded . —The PEOPLE could furnish a bolder enchantment , and one more suited to the genius and the taste of . Britons . How this Drama has been weakened by refinement , how Criticism has persisted in exacting Imitation , instead of Originality , and loudly applauded what it neither felt nor loved , I proceed to investigate .
Of a Court , the influence sooner or later must be universal . — No sooner did the dawn of our Dramatic Day appear , but it was destined to be deformed by two reigns of perverse study and learned affectation . —The steed that had been rough-ridden by ELIZABETH , was scrupulously appointed by JAMES—the manage was attentively studied , and every tag adjusted of his caparison , —Nature Ee
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Historical Deduction Of The British Drama.
HISTORICAL DEDUCTION OF THE BRITISH DRAMA .
HP HAT the present Age is little productive of Dramatic excel-{_ lence , is a position that may be safely admitted . What can Strictly be termed original , is not good ; and what may chatknge our admiration , is devoid of novelty . A developement of the causes which have produced this decline of an inchanting art , may not be unamusive , and it is hoped not without it ' s use . National
When the mighty genius of S HAKSPERE formed our Drama , Criticism was an art but little cultivated , and the translated Models of ancient Art were few . —The Audiences of our Theatres were in general mean ; learning , or rather the pedantry of learning , was confined to the Court . If we compare the productions which were collateral , we shall studied
see those played within the verge of the Court were coldly , and extravagantly laboured , larded with quotations , and deformed by a phraseology against the idiom of our language . —The Courtiers forsook the Vulgar , where the Vulgar was right , and sense and passion sunk under the load of " Taffata Phrases , silken terms precise ,
" Three-pil ' cl hyperboles , spruce affectation , " Figures pedantical . " The common Stages indeed were sustained by more natural efforts . —Sterling sense was little debased by a barbarous taste for lhe Ancients , and the powerful creations of our native fancy were not
mutilated by the application of a scale , upon which they were never constructed . The magic of MACBETH was wrought by the aid of popular charms ; and the incantations of LUCAN" and of HORACE were unknown ; or , if known , happily disregarded . —The PEOPLE could furnish a bolder enchantment , and one more suited to the genius and the taste of . Britons . How this Drama has been weakened by refinement , how Criticism has persisted in exacting Imitation , instead of Originality , and loudly applauded what it neither felt nor loved , I proceed to investigate .
Of a Court , the influence sooner or later must be universal . — No sooner did the dawn of our Dramatic Day appear , but it was destined to be deformed by two reigns of perverse study and learned affectation . —The steed that had been rough-ridden by ELIZABETH , was scrupulously appointed by JAMES—the manage was attentively studied , and every tag adjusted of his caparison , —Nature Ee