eagle uttering a louder cry, and spreading a broader wing as the storm whirled him,-a man of mighty mind, but shewing its magnificent proportions only as the evil elements stripped it of its robe. The glories and the joys of life disappearing like visions from before him; all that looked rest and security washing away from under his feet; nature seeming to withdraw from him, and this inlellectual giant, like the last man in the Deluge, standing in his melancholy and terrible grandeur alone, the solitary combatant of the storm, that had overwhelmed all beneath, and which was to make him only its last and mightiest victim. 20.-ON THE CANT RELATIVE TO THE IMMORALITY OF THEATRICAL AMUSEMENTS. In defiance of timid, short-sighted moralists, and the more furious attacks of the puritan and methodist, I trust that theatrical amusements will yet flourish with renovated vigour and luxurious elegance. In the ardour of mistaken, though, I believe, sometimes, well-meaning zeal, the declaimers now under consideration do not remember that the desire of pleasure is a natural, and if not intemperately indulged, a rational principle, which, for wise purposes, has been implanted in the breasts of us all. Heaven preserve us from yielding to the fools who represent that it is unlawful to laugh, and criminal to pretend to be happy; this is an impious idea, which would represent the benevolent Disposer of the Universe as a tyrant, and man as the victim of a severe anticipating destiny,—an idea which could only have entered an imagination clouded by Calvinistic despair, and impervious to the soft rays of hope and mercy. But supposing that the doors of our theatres could be closed, I fear that the divine and the philanthropist would have gained an inglorious and ineffectual victory, by driving the promiscuous multitude of a crowded metropolis to the styes of sensuality and drunkenness, or the recesses of secret sin. But though we may treat with calm contempt more noisy yet less able combatants, we must not deny or forget the merit of COLLIER, and some who followed him. These attacked and drove from the THEATRICAL MAGAZINE. 229 stage those impious railleries and obscene allusions, injurious to correct amusement, and disgraceful to national taste, which tainted the dramas of the day, and which too often sully the witty pages of WYCHERLY, Congreve, FARQUHAR, and VANBURGH. We know how very easy it is from the abuse to argue against the temperate use of an innocent and (properly conducted) a moral amusement; for, does it at all follow from reason, or the nature of things, that the avenues of our theatres must on every side be surrounded by the noisome and polluted dens of prostitution, infamy, and fraud? Surely a well-constructed and efficient police might prevent all this? 21.-LARGE THEATRES. The alterations which Mr. ELLISTON has lately effected in the interior of Drury Lane Theatre, though not, in one respect, carried to their full and proper extent, are entitled to the highest praise. Formerly, when the critic and dramatic amateur were seated in the brilliant magic circle, to enjoy that, for which most rational men visit a theatre, they found that comfort and the pleasure of distinctly hearing what was said on the stage had been wholly sacrificed to architectural grandeur and vastness of space,-a space, which the woeful experience of past seasons has feelingly told the managers is never, but on the rare occasion of some peculiar temporary stimulus, adequately occupied. Is it not strange that, without paying so dearly for their knowledge, they could not be taught that there is a degree of space, accurately determined by reason and experience, beyond which the human voice, however artificially assisted, or violently strained, cannot, with efficacy, reach? How much soever the rapture of an immense receipt may seize the imagination, or tempt the avarice of a manager, he ought never to lose sight of the prior claims of the public to comfort and amusement, or he will be often obliged to exhibit his gilded lattices, his stuccoes, his pilasters, his processions, his cavalcades, his laughing gaudy puppet-shew, will suffer mischiefs not easily remedied, from damp space unoccupied, and from freezing currents of air; and all they have in return, is a view of apparently dumb actors, whom they may like to see, but, with the exception of the fiddlers, cannot possibly hear. January 22, 1823. FLORES HISTRIONICI. X.-ICYNTHE. BY SAMUEL L. BLANCHARD. `Scene-the Ruins of a Grecian Temple.-Enter EUCELION. Of that loud voice a hundred echoes mourned. That ruled that world of melody, and gave THEATRICAL MAGAZINE. Ye perish silently, unmourned by men; Where freedom rose above the blood-sprung vapours, Soft, oh! lips and heart 231 (Low music is heard.) Yield to that sound! It rises there, and bows Delight on earth and air, whereof it comes. Oh, night, how still thou art! Oh, sky, how pure! These wild eyes trace a being which my thoughts With more of loveliness, breathe on the night; Then had perceived at a little distance, advances to a broken column near which he is standing.) My heart is touched With fear that quivers not, nor my warm cheek As night-dreams tremble into space, whene'er (The music ceases, and the figure remains motionless.) Slow to its rest, and yet its mistress keeps Her fine attraction thro' me, and the heart-spell Earthless, and fairer than the night that's o'er thee, A clay-stampt being seeks to win a sound From lips whose young bloom is unkiss'd. Oh, speak! Euc. Speak! Spirit. What would'st thou hear? Thou com'st, and what thy being? Spirit. I must trace |