N.B.-This BALLAD has of late years served as the subject for some Novels & catch-penny Pamphlets, the makers of which have deviated still further from the original, than Mr. Lillo did.

CRITICISMS

ON

"GEORGE BARNWELL."

THIS Play was first acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane with great success. Although 'tis written in prose, and the language consequently not so dignified as that of the buskin is usually expected to be, yet it is well adapted to the subject, and exalted enough to express the sentiments of the characters, which are all exhibited in domestic life. The plot is ingenious, the catastrophe just, and the conduct of the whole affecting and no lesson surely can be more proper or indeed more necessary to inculcate among that valuable body of youths, trained up to the various branches of mercantile business, so eminently estimable in a land of commerce such as England; and who must necessarily have large trusts confided to their care, and consequently large temptations thrown in the way of their integrity; than warning them how much greater strength will be added to those temptations, how almost impossible it will be for them to avoid the snares of ruin, if they suffer themselves but once to be drawn aside into the paths of the harlot, or permit their eyes once to glance on the allurements of the wanton, where they will be sure to meet with the most insatiable avarice to cope with on one hand, and an unguarded sensibility originally proceeding from the goodness of their own hearts, on the other, which will excite the practice of the most unprincipled artifices on the

part of an abandon'd woman, to impose on, and plunge the unwary youth headlong into vice, infamy, and destruction. This warning is strongly, loudly given in this play; and indeed 'tis to be wish'd that the performance was more frequent, or at least that the managers of the different Theatres would make a rule constantly to have it acted once at least in each house during the course of every period of those holidays in which the very youths to whom this instruction is addressed almost always form a considerable part of the audience.

It has often been disputed whether Tragedies, in which the plots are taken from domestic life, should be written in prose or metre; the success of the present performance, and Mr. Moore's Gamester, must incline us very strongly in favour of the former. A great author, however, appears to have been of a different opinion. Mr. Gorges-Edmund Howard says, that upon communicating his play of the Female Gamester to Dr. Samuel Johnson, that gentleman observed, "that "he could hardly consider a prose tragedy as "dramatic; that it was difficult for the performers to speak it; that let it be either in the middling or in "low life, it may, though in metre and spirited, be properly familiar and colloquial; that many in the middling rank are not without erudition; that all "have the feelings and sensations of nature, and

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every emotion in consequence thereof, as well as "the great; that even the lowest when impassioned "raise their language; and that the writing of prose "is generally the plea and excuse of poverty of "genius."

Biographia Dramatica, vol. 2.

Substance of some Critical Remarks on this Tragedy, by a Living Authoress.

Mr. Lillo being a tradesman, was perhaps thereby influenced to describe scenes in humble life; beyond which his knowledge could only exist in theory; and the popular ballad of George Barnwell supplied him with an excellent subject for indulging his taste, while it's moral tendency duly accorded to his own private character.

Though not founded on the distresses of the great, yet Colly Cibber eagerly received this Pathetic Drama, which was soon patronized by the Mercantile Interest, and after its first run of 20 successive nights in the summer, was also frequently represented to crouded houses during the following winter.

Mr. Pope allowed that the Fable was well conducted; the Language natural, and if sometimes elevated above the simplicity of the characters yet it never was mean, nor deviated from propriety of style calculated to affect the heart.

False notions of elegance in woe had of late years reduced this tragedy almost to only a holiday warning for journeymen and apprentices, against the arts of profligate women, but what brought it nearly into absolute contempt was giving the part to actors whose appearance did not bear any resemblance to the bashful youth Barnwell is represented to have been; and who, from that cause, could not excite pity for his crimes arising partly from the difficulty of finding a performer young enough to represent a merchant's stripling-clerk, and at the same time able to express the various and tumultuous passions supposed to agitate his unexperienced bosom, which obstruction was not fully removed till

VOL. I.

Mr. Charles Kemble elevated this play to the rank it formerly so justly held, by undertaking the principal character, in which he first appeared when about the age Barnwell is related to have been.

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The opinion said to have been given by Dr. Johnson, "That he could hardly consider a prose tragedy as dramatic" was delivered to the Author of an indifferent prosaic tragedy laid before the Doctor for his opinion, and was probably a gentle way of condemning that performance.

[Observations similar to the remainder of those made by the Lady have already been fully detailed in the preceding criticism copied from the Biographia Dramatica.]