as read chiefly with a view to amusement, and whose weakness, there❤ fore, may be entrapped by the specious but dangerous and untenable positions he has here advanced.

First Impressions, or the Portrait. A Novel. By M. Holford, Author of Selima, &c. 12mo. 4 Vols. 18s. Lane. 1801.

THE first impressions which the talents of Mrs. Holford made upon our mind were, if we recollect right, highly in her favour, and we are happy to find them strengthened by the perusal of this novel, which is dedicated to Miss Seward, and, in point of moral and religious tendency, is the very reverse of the preceding article. They who read for instruction will derive, also, considerable entertainment from these volumes.

Narrative of the singular Adventures and Captivity of Mr. Thomas Barry, among the Monsippi Indians, in the unexplored Regions of North America, during the Years 1797, 1798, and 1799: including the Manners, Customs, &c. of this Tribe; also a particular Account of his Escape, accompanied by an American Female ; the extraordinary Hardships they encountered, and their safe Arrival in London. Written by himself. 1s. 12mo. Neil. 1800.

WHETHER true or false, these adventures are singularly interesting. One would almost imagine that the author had paid a visit to "the Anthropophagi,

"Whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders,"

for his adventures are nearly as marvellous as any that have been recorded in the pages of the renowned Munchausen, or the Abyssinian Bruce.

DRAMATIC.

The Indian: a Farce. As it was performed at Drury-Lane Theatre. By John Fenwick.

Hughes. 1800

Is. 6d. 8v0. West and

To the observations we made upon this farce, when it appeared on the stage, we have nothing more to add, than that it appears rather better calculated for perusal than representation; but the author is not likely to derive much credit from either mode of rendering the piece public.

THE BRITISH STAGE.

IMITATIO VITAE, SPECULUM CONSUETUDINIS, IMAGO VERITATIS. Cicero. The Imitation of LIFE---The Mirror of MANNERS---The Representation of TRUTH.

REMARKS ON

SHAKSPERE'S TEMPEST AND MACBETH.

MR. EDITOR,

Ir is much to be lamented that the numerous commentators on the works of our immortal bard have not paid some attention to the peculiar phraseology at this day in use among the lower classes of the people in our provincial towns; a competent knowledge of which would, I am convinced, clear up, to the satisfaction of the curious, many passages which are now involved in obscurity, or but ill explained. Without wishing, in the least, to diminish the reputation so deservedly obtained by the learned researches of a Johnson, a Steevens, a Capel, or a Malone, or any other of the corps critique, I beg leave to hazard a conjecture, that, in two instances, they have not clearly elucidated the meaning of the dramatist.

The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea all which it inherit, shall dissolve,

And, like the baseless fabric of a vision,
Leave not a wreck behind.

Tempest.

The word wreck, in the latter line, is, in all the old editions, spelt wrack, and has no allusion to the modern word wreck, which is an indefinite term, and does not always mean a complete and total annihilation, but often only a partial destruction, whereas Shakespere meant, as is clearly expressed in the context, a total privation of all existing bodies; and this is a term commonly made use of, in many provincial places, to signify complete and irreparable ruin: hence the expression-" He, or it, is gone to wrack and ruin," that is, that there does not remain a vestige of the person or thing, which might lead one to suppose that he, or it, ever existed.

In Macbeth several obscure passages occur:
I see thee still,

And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which were not so before.

Macbeth.

I will not pretend to determine (for this has divided the critics) whether it should be blade and dudgeon, or blade o'th' dudgeon ;

whether the word dudgeon signifies a dagger, or only the handle or haft of a dagger, but I conceive that gouts of blood has been improperly said to mean simply drops of blood. This mistake has probably arisen from a supposition that it is derived from the Latin word gutta; and, although this supposition may be true, it does not, from thence, follow, that it was used exactly in the same signification with us. In the midland counties of England, and particularly in Leicestershire, the word gouts is only applicable to coagulated blood, and is a very common expression applied to extravasated blood, arising from a blow. It should seem that Shakespere meant that the dagger, in the disordered imagination of Macbeth, was besmeared with clotted gore, and not merely tinted with drops, and he could not more significantly express his meaning than by making use of the word gouts, which, from the explanation I have here given it, seems more consistent with the true reading of the passage, than the definition heretofore given of it.

I have suggested these remarks, with a view of exciting, in some of your correspondents, (who have made the works of our dramatic bard their peculiar study) a desire to elucidate the true meaning of the antiquated phrases which so much abound in Shakespere; without a knowledge of which, some of the admired passages of our great bard will be divested of half their beauty.

I am, &c. &c.

W. TOONE.

REFLECTIONS UPON THE DRAMATIC ART.

BY

MADAME HYPPOLITE CLAIRON.

DRESS.

Ir is my advice, to actresses in general, to pay the most scrupulous attention to dress. Dress adds considerably to the illusion of the spectators; and, when it is appropriate, it gives a degree of confi dence to the actor.-That it should be exactly so is scarce practicable: -to adopt the dress of past ages, in every respect, would be indecent and ridiculous. The dresses of antiquity display too much of the figure they are properly applicable only to statues and paintings; but, in supplying this defect, we ought to preserve, in some measure, the style of them, and show our desire to imitate, as far as possible, the luxury or simplicity of the times we are discribing. Fillets, flowers, pearls, veils, and stones of different colours, were

the only ornaments with which women were acquainted before the establishment of the commerce of the Indies, and the conquest of the New World.

I particularly advise tragic actresses to avoid the fashions of the day. The best and only mode proper to be followed, is to adopt, as near as you can, that of the costume of the character you are performing.

An actress, in arranging her dress, should particularly attend to the situation of the person she represents. Age, austerity, and grief, ill accord with the decorations of youth, gaiety, and happiness.` Hermione adorned with flowers would appear ridiculous: the violence of her character, and the sorrow that consumes her, reject an idea of her devoting much time to the toilette. She may have a magnificent habit; but it ought to have an appearance of negligence, and shew that her mind is not occupied about dress. The first appearance of an actress ought to prepare the public for the character she is about to pourtray.

UPON THE USE OF WHITE PAINT.

The use of white paint is now almost general upon the stage. This borrowed charm, of which no one is the dupe, and which all agree in condemning, spoils and discolours the complexion, weakens and dims the eye-sight, absorbs the whole countenance, conceals the expressive motion of the muscles, and produces a kind of contradiction between what we hear and what we see.

I had rather we should have recourse to the custom of using masks, like those of the ancients. There would be at least this advantage, that the time thrown away in painting the face might be employed in improving the delivery.

Is it possible that an actress, whose countenance is enamelled with paint, and, consequently, incapable of any motion, can give expression to the passions of rage, terror, despair, love, or anger?

Every motion of the soul is expressed through the medium of the countenance the extension of the muscles, the swelling of the veins, the blush upon the face, all evince those inward emotions, without which great talents cannot display themselves. There is no character in which the expression of the countenance is not of the utmost importance. To feel a character, and to shew, by the motion of the countenance, that the soul is agitated by what it feels, is a talent of equal consequence in an actress with any she can possess.

It is by the countenance alone you can distinguish between irony and jest.

1

A voice, more or less raised or depressed, or more or less tremulous, is insufficient to express such or such a sentiment of terror, or such or such a sentiment of fear. The countenance alone is enabled to mark its degrees.

I am not against giving every assistance to Nature: I have often myself borrowed assistance. Generally labouring under an ill state of health, yet, unremitting in my labours, the paleness of death was often upon my countenance. I had remarked in others, that nothing was so injurious to the expression of the features as having pale lips or pale ears. A little art gave them the appearance of florid health: I darkened the colour of my eyebrows, as the character I was to perform required; I did the same thing to my hair, with different coloured powders; but far from concealing, in the least degree, those features which give animation and expression to the whole countenance. I have ever made the anatomy of the head my particular study, in order that I might thereby be enabled to dispose it in positions most calculated to display it to advantage*.

REMARKS ON THE DRAMATIC POETS.

OTWAY.

BY PHILIP NEVE, ESQ.

Or Thomas Otway, whose works are now sought with avidity, and who, with Shakspeare and Rowe, will survive in the annals of English poetry, as long as just resemblances of nature and accurate delineations of the passions shall influence the human heart, so few particulars, towards a history of his life, are known, that what can now be collected amounts but to some trifling anecdotes, and those related upon no very certain anthority. From the "Complaint of his Muse" may be gathered, that his father died whilst he was at the university; and that he came from thence to London, where he spent two years in an idle and unprofitable course. "In 1672, he commenced actor; but did not succeed. His earliest piece was printed in 1675, his 24th year; but, whether it had been acted before that time does not appear. In 1676, he printed " Don Car

*Those who have an inclination for such a study would do well to read the description of the human figure, in Buffon's Natural History, vol. iv. p. 278. ect. edition.