Provok'd Husband. moit irrational and prodigal assemblies, lady Grace, fenfibly obferves, -" Of all public diversions, I " am amazed that this, which is so very expensive, " and has so little so shew for it, can draw so much " company together;" to which lord Townly replies," Oh, if it was not expensive, the better " would not come into it; and because money can " purchase a Ticket, the common people scorn to " be left out of it." Basset's choice of the masquerade for perpetrating his base designs, is not only natural to such a character, but also points out the danger of such a rendezvous, where vice or villainy may play their game under cover; Manly's scheme of friendly detection is judiciously laid, the Wronghead family are well rescued, and strict poetical justice is done by obliging the sharper to marry one he has debauched, and would have imposed on an unsuspecting country lad. The last scene, which is indeed but merely a conclufion, contains nothing more than a more formal exchange of matrimonial engagements between lady Grace and Manly; as it was necessary to introduce the ferious characters once more, we apprehend those lines which Lady Townly speaks at the end of their reconciliation scene, would have been much better referved to the last; indeed those rhimes which at prefent conclude the piece, are only an enlargement of the fame thought. This 1 Provok'd Husband. This comedy, though not strictly conformable to the nicest rules of time and place, is nevertheless sufficiently regular; the scenes are well arranged, the serious and ludicrous happily mingled; the plot well digefted, and the catastrophe much to be admired; the language of the polite characters is easy and nervous, of the lower ones humorous and spirited: the sentiments are adequate and instructive, seldom trespassing upon delicacy, and the moral is a most excellent one, shewing how follies of a different nature involve domeftic concerns in different perplexities. Lord Townly is a character of very amiable qualifications, sensible, polite, generous, tender and refolute, preferring indulgence, till he finds pernicious effects arising from it; his provocations are interesting and often repeated, yet all borne with patience, till the honour and dignity of a husband seem too much endangered, and every trace of difcretion, on the female fide, vanishes. From this view it is easy to perceive, that his lordship cannot be well represented by the requisites of mediocrity; from a great variety of performers we have feen, Mr. Ross must be selected, as manifesting much fuperiority in this character; his figure, deportment, and expression are happily suited: in the scences of least importance, he shews polished ease, in those of consequence, pathetic feeling and spirited resentment; he remonstrates, reproves, chastises and forgives with dignity.-Mr. BARRY is not without confiderable merit, but as freedom, either in action or expreffion, never appeared The DRAMATIC CENSOR. Provok'd Husband. 209 peared about this gentleman in comedy, he cannot safely become a competitor with one poffefsed of both; where tears are mingled with embraces, he must be allowed to stand foremost. -Mr. RYAN received and deserved much praise, but he made lamentable use of the sing-fong manner, and tragedized a great part of it abominably; Mr. SHERIDAN was as fententioussy pedantic as any fupercilious fellow of a college in Christendom, unvarying and infipid through the whole; Mr. MOSSOP haughty as a bashaw, vulgar as a stage-coachman, boisterous as a tavern-keeper, and awkward as a country dancing-master; pumping up every fentence from the bottom of the stomach; stalking backward and forward, like a Jack-tar on the quarter-deck, and clenching his fists, as if lady Townly was every moment to feel the effects of them. Mr. POWELL had sensibility, and was not void of cafe; but he wanted much of the nobleman, and fell very short of the character, except in the last fcene; Mr. HOLLAND was a perfect type of prim Stiff, the mercer from Ludgate-hill, both in utterance and appearance; we never wish to fee such a pasteboard peer again; Mr. SMITH has freedom and elegance; but a most lamentable sameness of expression hangs intolerably heavy on the ears of an audience in his performance of this part; in the essential of dignity he labours under a fimilar defect with Mr. POWELL. Manly appears possessed of a found understanding, is friendly, constant and discerning, farcaftical and rather rigid in his opinions: careful of his VOL. I. Ee own Provok'd Husband. own principles, and cautious of other peoples; Mr. SPARKS, whose figure and voice were both unfavourable to him for such a part, had nevertheless a manner so significant that we have been at a loss ever to find his equal; in those scenes where Sir Francis is made his butt, he threw out his infinuations with fuch forceable meaning, that while spectators laughed at one, they could not avoid smiling with the other; in the third act scene where lady Grace shews the letter she has received to his disadvantage, he supported a degree of genteel delicacy very little to be expected from his general mode of performance; and indeed superior to any other person we have seen. Meff. CLARKE and PACKER wanting essential characteristic shrewdness and cynical pleasantry, only reach that infipid medium which just avoids censure, yet never can reach praise; Mr. REDDISH would certainly do either this part or lord Townly much better than they stand at present in either house. Sir Francis Wronghead is an admirable portrait of false consequence, ignorant self-fufficiency and undifcerning good-nature; a tame husband, a foolish parent and a credulous friend; poffeffed of a genteel independency, yet vainly grafping at imaginary promotion, to the great prejudice of his real circumstances. - Mr. MACKLIN, beyond all doubt, filled the author's ideas of this part, and conveyed them to the audience admirably; consequential stupidity sat well painted in his countenance, and wrought laughable effects without the paltry resource of grimace; where he affected to be very wife, a laborious, emphatic flyness marked Provok'd Husband. the endeavour humorously; while the puzzles between political and domeftic concerns occafioned much food for merriment. Mr. YATES pursued the fame track, but with much fainter execution; in him there was a kind of unaffecting petitness which much reduced the sterling value of propriety. -Mr. ARTHUR moved in a fimilar line of direction, but still further on the decline. -Mr. SHUTER, forgetting every trace of character, burlesques it with ten thousand unmeaning transitions of countenance, and as many ill-applied breaks of voice; Mr. Love is as insipid as the last mentioned gentleman is wanton ; the former shews an uncultivated luxuriance of humour; the latter an abominable narrowness of conception, united to a matchless dryness of utterance. One general deficiency, which all the performers we have mentioned, labour under in this part, is making very imperfect attempts at the Yorkshire dialect; from which, for the most part, they are as different as if they were speaking the Irish brogue. Count Baffet, a superficial, forward, gambling, fashionable rascal, poffefsed of cunning enough to form the knave, but void of judgment to hide it; gaping like a hungry pike for prey, and snapping at every thing till at length he hooks himself; pert without wit, and shewy without elegance; Mr. WOODWARD used to do him strict justice, nay, indeed, make more of him than could be expected; Mr. DYER and Mr. Dodd represent him without leaving any material wish of criticism unfatisfied. |