CONSISTING OF CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS ON SIVI AL PLAYS OF SHAKSPEARE: WITH A REVIEW OF HIS PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS, AND A S BY MR. NTID GARRICK, OTHER CELEBRATED COMEDIANS. AND WITH ANECDOTES OF DRAMATIC POETS, ACTORS, &c. LONDON: Printed for the AUTHOR, and fold at his shop in GREAT RUSSELL-STREET, COVENT GARDEN M.DCC.LXXXIII. DRAMATIC MISCELLANIE S. All's well that ends well, CHAPTER XXI. Unpromifing fable to All's well that ends well.- Shakspeare's creative power.— Revival of this comedy in 1741. Milward. Mrs. Woffington. Sickness of Milward.-His character.-Superftition of the actors. Parolles.- Macklin and The. Cibber. Chapman and Berry commended. All's well that ends well revived by Garrick.- Diftribution of the parts.- Abuse of wardship. Fafcinating power of certain worthless characters. Lully, Swift, and Lord Rivers.-Word Chriften dom. Helen's defcription of Parolles. Definition of clown, or fool.-His occupation.- Defcription from Johnfon and Steevens. B. Jonfon and Fletcher. ShakSpeare's fuperior knowledge of nature and the qualities of his auditors. Fonfon not averse to mirth in tragedy. His Sejanus and Catiline. Condition of phyficians in England, France, and Germany. Helen's delicacy. A Phyfician's daughter curing a king, diftempered with a fiftula, by a reeipe of her dead father, is the history on which this play is founded; a plot strange and unpromising. But the genius of Shakfpeare meets with no obstacle from the uncouthness of the materials he works upon, Action and character are the chief engines he employs in this comedy, and he raises abundance of mirth from the fituations in which they are placed. Parolles and Lafeu are admirable contrafts, from the collifion QUGUR of |
