It is remarkable also, that every one of the plays denounced by Collier has long since been consigned to the shelves of the dramatic collector; and although he erred by falling into the extreme of wishing to abolish a useful institution, because it had been abused, his antagonists, while they tried to defend themselves, gave ample evidence that he had the best of the argument. Dryden acknowledged his faults in a manly apology, and thanked Collier for schooling him, though he complained of his roughness. Congreve made an angry answer, but opinion was against him, and he tacitly acknowledged that he was wrong, by a careful revision of his plays, and omitting many offensive passages in a subsequent edition. Collier's re monstrances roused the nation and the dramatists to a better tone of feeling,* and led the way to the reform which we hope and believe has ever since been gradually operating. That there have been bad plays, as there have been bad every thing else, is a fact too palpable to be disputed; but that for that reason the Stage should be abolished, and its use denied, because of its abuse, would be almost as wise in practical legislation, as to denounce the pulpit, because there have been rebellious and heterodoxical preachers; to proscribe the bench, because there have been unjust judges; to ille *See Dr. Johnson's Life of Congreve. galize the art of printing, because there have been immoral books; to abolish penmanship because there have been forgeries; or to forbid wine because there have been drunkards. In all large communities, where a mixed population is heterogeneously blended together, and where the habits and characters of men are as varied as their employments, it has been found politically* wise to establish places of public recreation. In doing this, the sound legislator will seek for what is consistent with the cause of morality; morals being at the same time inseparable from religion, and the whole forming continuous links of the same chain. A system of government founded on any other basis, is not likely to last long. When, therefore, we find the Stage in almost all civilized countries, and nearly at all times, protected and encouraged by the laws, we are justified in concluding, that magistrates have found it to combine political utility with moral advantage; to unite instruction with amusement; and calculated to improve rather than deprave the minds and manners of the public. At the same time, from its peculiar elements, and the extraordinary sway it is capable of exercising over a mixed assembly, it is easily * To prevent mistakes, it is as well to observe, that here and elsewhere, I only use this word in its extended sense, as comprising that portion of ethics which consists in the general science of government. perverted to bad purposes, as we have often seen, when administered by careless or vicious spirits: and therefore the same power which extends the protection, feels the necessity of restraining license by a rigid censorship. On this point, the following quotation from a sound authority is particularly applicable: "As one writer may disinterestedly kindle the affections of an assembled multitude for what is good and noble, so another may entangle them in the nets of sophistry, and dazzle them by the glare of a false magnanimity, where vainglorious crimes are depicted as virtue, nay as devotion. Beneath the pleasing garb of oratory and poetry, corruption steals imperceptibly into ear and heart. But of all others, the comic poet needs to be on his guard, (seeing that by reason of his very task and destination, he grazes upon the edge of this precipice,) lest he authorize the common and base elements of human nature to display themselves with unblushing effrontery. This power of indoctrination in good or evil has from old (as meet it was) attracted to the drama the attention of the legislature. Governments have sought to bend it to their objects, and to guard it from abuse. Few have deemed it necessary to subscribe to Plato's sentence of excommunication, but few have seen fit to leave the Theatre entirely to its own courses, without any supervisal on their parts. On the other hand, it has been * Donaldson's Theatre of the Greeks, p. 307. said, that any thing which requires such powerful restraint, is too dangerous to be desirable, and that the virtue which is in need of a constant sentinel is not worth preserving. But the argument is neither sound in itself, nor fair when individually applied. In every thought and action of our lives, the bad propensities are struggling for the mastery, and there is perpetual danger lest they should prevail. Every shade of human feeling, every impulse of human passion, requires to be carefully watched and checked, lest extreme indulgence should entirely change its features. Nothing is more easy and natural than for excited virtue to border on vice, or exuberant gaiety to lead to dissipation. The degree of temptation may be unequal, but the tempter is always at our elbow, whatever may be the object of our pursuits or desires. If the Theatre was so thoroughly opposed to morals and religion, as the authorities which contend for its abolition declare, it would not only have been especially forbidden by the laws of God, but the laws of man, instead of protecting, would long since have rooted it out from amongst them as an intolerable nuisance. Yet the wise counsellors who surrounded the throne of Elizabeth, declared that stage-playing was not evil in itself. They distinguished between the use and abuse of salutary recreations in a well governed State, and they determined to regulate the Stage, and by restricting the number of play-houses, to insure their usefulness:* thus acknowledging, in the language of honest John Taylor, the water-poet, that "Plays are good or bad as they are us❜d, Subsequent enactments have proceeded from the same conviction, till coming down to our own times, we find the Act of Parliament, from which the patent of the present Theatre Royal in Dublin is derived, contains these words in the preamble: "Whereas the establishing a well regulated Theatre in the City of Dublin, being the residence of the Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland, will be productive of advantage, and tend to improve the morals of the people." And the patent itself contains the royal intention and expectation, distinctly expressed in these words; "that the Theatre in future may be instrumental to the cause of virtue, and instructive to human life." After which follow various restrictions, forbidding any performances tending to profaneness, disloyalty, or indecency. The instructors of youth, also, who are safe authorities to refer to on this subject, will be found in many instances agreeing with the magistrate in the utility of theatrical representation. In the reign of Elizabeth, plays were frequently SeeFarther Account of the English Stage," by G. Chalmers, in the Prolegomena to the different variorum editions of Shakspeare, where the Act of the Privy Council for the regulation of Theatres is detailed at full length. |