The

such, as the incidental lapses of performance might occasion. For the distinctions were all of manner in the personation of the character, in its varieties of address to the other persons of the drama, with whom it was necessarily intermingled. Here, indeed, the merit of the representation belongs most eminently to Mr. Cooper. In the conduct of the scenes, his subtle honesty to Othello, his imposing assurance to Roderigo, and his deadly malignity in soliloquy, were more deeply imbued with discrimination, "form and pressure." colours were applied with a bolder pencil, and the lines were traced with a stronger character. Nature has denied to Mr. Fennell the use of such powerful means, as Mr. Cooper can employ prodigally, without exhausting them. In the economy of the stage art and situation, Mr. Cooper was wonderfully superiour. Yet, if we drop the curtain, and consider the exhibition as a mere didactick example of recitation, Mr. Fennell does not halt behind his antagonist.

But this subject has lost its novelty, and of course its interest. It is time it should be dropped. To Mr. Fennell, as a learned and meritorious instructor of the rising generation, we would say, "Proceed and prosper;" and to Mr. Cooper, as the acknowledged Roscius of the American stage, we would snatch a grace from Churchill to exclaim,

“.....................GARRICK, take the chair,

Nor quit it, 'till thou place an equal there!"

As this is an age in which regicides prosper, the mock monarchs of the buskin must not be surprised, if for a moment we forget their kingly prerogative, and "scant our breathing

courtesy." If it were not high treason against taste, aye "most infinite high," we would most valiantly affirm, that both of these imperial dignities of noun and pronoun, had in the plentitude of their royal authority over the parts of speech, most tyrannically laid an improper emphasis on an humble monosyllable in one of their subject sentences! The passage may perhaps admit of a questionable reading, and compares with a contested one in the "Merchant of Venice." But we condemn them both. Our first allusion is to the expression of "Iago," fiercely ruminating on the source of his resentment against the Moor:

"And nothing can, or shall content my soul,

Till I am even with him, wife for wife."

We have marked the line as pronounced by Messrs. Cooper and.Fennell; and although we frankly confess there are instances, in which the evident sense of the author "allots emphatick state" to monosyllables, yet we cannot, with our utmost ingenuity, discern the propriety of the stress in the quotation. We noticed the occurrence of a similar false emphasis in "Portia's" celebrated specch on mercy, which we the more regretted, as Mrs. Stanley, with this exception, presented to the audience, on this occasion, one of the most chaste and classical specimens of declamation, we have ever witnessed on the stage. Yet she erroneously uttered,

แ

...........................’'Tis mightiest in the mightiest."

To be brief in our exposition of errour, we will correct both readings at once. Both sentences require the greatest possi

ble weight and body of expression; and this, we think, is most forcibly given by the following discrimination of voice: "Till I am even with him, wife-for WIFE."

So again,

66 .......................... 'Tis mightiest in the MIGHTIEST."

Our judgment may be disputed, but we are confident it will bear the test of critical experiment. It should be added, that the rejected readings are consonant with the received modes of delivery in those passages. Criticism, however, submits to no prescription. Taste is truth, independent of the veneration allowed to time, or the prejudice born of opinion. Blackmore was no poet, though he imitated Virgil in his hemisticks ; and a village lawyer may be no orator, though he have a wart on his cheek as large as two of Cicero's! To performers of real eminence, emendatory criticism is the tribute of a mind, not disregardful of their excellence. That soil is not barren, which is worth the labour of tillage; and while shrubs are neglected, the tree, whose beauty, thrift or fruit, most excites the hopes of the horticultor, is most assiduously pruned.

OF

"Our scene is altered."

r the celebrated historical drama, "Pizarro," which, by the classick pen of Sheridan, has been adapted to the genius of English representation, the publick have already acquired so correct and intimate a knowledge, that to the American critick it may perhaps appear a rare example of managerial Super

erogation, to attempt to enlarge the sphere of its original attraction. When it is recollected, that the impressive merits of this play assembled twelve audiences during the last season, and would in all probability draw as many more if represented this season, it may be asked, why Mr. Whitlock, the present manager, should voluntarily incur so prodigal an expense, in its preparation, as the import of his publick advertisement, and the suggestion of well-credited rumour, have declared? The answer is not so latent, as some may surmise. It is in evidence from the manager's whole direction of the stage, that he will never insult or delude the publick with an immoral or imbecile play; but his is not a negative praise; for he has also evinced, that, while he considers wit and sentiment the "lawful lords" of the drama, he has not refrained from the expenses of spectacle, but has been anxious to assist the charms of the Muses with appropriate decoration. The play of "Pizarro" has hitherto acquired celebrity only by its own. intrinsick claims; with no other aid from the pencil, than an uncouth presentment of gorgeous colouring, and ill-managed perspective, which, while the eye was dazzled by the splendid imposture, bewildered the imagination in the search of nature and reality. As one of the manifest objects of the author was to render the play a, vehicle of novel and magnificent scenery, an opportunity was now offered to the managers to present one of the most interesting dramas in the language, in a style more worthy of its original design. Scenick ornament, if so happily portrayed, and so scientifically arranged, as to produce visual illusion, impresses the boldest similitude of life on dra

matick representation, it embodies the conception of the author, by giving to abstract sentiment "a local habitation." Upon the execution of this branch of the Thespian Art will very frequently depend the analogy, and sometimes the very effect, of personation. Another object of Mr. Whitlock, and which reflects as much honour on his liberality, as the first does on his taste, was to open a broad field of experiment for the scenick talent of Mr. Bromley, to exhibit in multifold effort its various creations. Mr. Bromley is a young man from Drury Lane theatre, and possesses real genius in his profession. To prepare the scenery for "Pizarro" has been the labour of three months; and, while on the one hand it is our wish to render to the manager the distinction, which he merits for his publick spirit in this expensive, and, we hope not, precarious undertaking, we think it injustice not to add, that Mr. Bromley will amply deserve the praise of having furnished the Boston stage with the most correct and fascinating exhibition, both of landscape and architecture, which its lamps ever illumined.

THE revival of "Pizarro" in its present improved style, scems not only to have increased its own attraction, but to have recalled taste and fashion to the theatre. In a drama, which in its original design appears to have been so much devoted to the purposes of spectacle, and in the contexture of