Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]
[blocks in formation]

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN? PATERNOSTER-ROW.

[blocks in formation]

REMARKS.

It is certain that Dr Young was no enthusiastic admirer of Shakspeare's "Othello."-To suppose he was, is to accuse him of high presumption in hoping to write a still better play. For that he could take the same subject, which an admired author had used with infinite success, and not hope to transcend him, agrees but ill with the ambition of any dramatist, much less with that of the aspiring Young.

"The Revenge" is so excellent a production, that the reader will forgive the author's attempt, and compassionate his failure. In one of his characters, indeed, he has surpassed the genius of Shakspeare-but immorally so he has adorned malice and its kindred vices with a sentiment appropriate to the rarest virtue-scrupulous regard for unblemished honour.

The high-sounding vengeance of Zanga charms every heart, whilst the malicious purposes of Iago fill every bosom with abhorrence.

Another advantage is given to Zanga in his guilt; the persons whom he involves in utter ruin claim far less sympathy than Shakspeare's Othello and Desdemona. Alonzo can excite no interest equal to the first, and Leonora sinks even beneath comparison before the last.

Dr Johnson has said, that the inferior characters in the tragedy of " Othello" would make a very good play, were the three superior ones wholly omitted: and certainly Cassio, Roderigo, and Amelia, are ali excellent parts. But, should this method be pursued with the tragedy of "The Revenge," when the best were left out, what could be done with the remaining few? Isabella, in particular, is a tool of such insignificance in herself, that, till her importance as an instrument is testified, it seems degrading to the proud mind and acute understanding of the imperious Moor, to trust his perilous design to a woman's secrecy, who gives no one proof to the audience of possessing self-restraint peculiar from the rest of her sex, and powerful enough to keep silence.

Deservedly high as this tragedy must ever rank among English dramas, it is but seldom brought upon the stage, and then the actor who performs Zanga must be its sole support. This character is of such magnitude, and so unprotected by those which surround him, that few performers will undertake to represent it a less number still have succeeded in braving the danger. Mr Kemble stands foremost among those, and draws some splendid audiences every year merely to see him; though the intervals between his exits and entrances are sure to be passed in lassitude.

Dr Young has the praise of being an original poet, but this work cannot be brought as a proof; for, besides its resemblance to the "Othello" of Shakspeare, it is alleged he had also in his view the Abdelazer of

« ZurückWeiter »