Besides, did not the worthy ancient grant me full liberty of opinion? and were not his last words to me, as I departed for the Grand Tour, these: "Lad, go thine own way; be any thing but a Jacobin or a Cockney?" Enough of startling opinions, however, have been advanced for one number. The Drama is allowably in a rotten condition, and we must probe to the bottom of the evil; it is of the utmost importance that sound principles should be ascertained, applicable to this, the royal compartment of literature. There exists no living dramatic genius, as yet displayed, notwithstanding the late publication of many exquisite closet-dramas; but a great spirit may daily, hourly arise, and the great dread should be, that this critical age doth not mislead or neutralize the talent newly generated. All other poetry may be permitted to amuse or betake itself whither it pleases; but the drama, like the history and the language of the country, should be an object of anxious and universal consideration. Materials for comparative judgment are most copious, even in our very volumes; and if Blackwood's Magazine contains no* thing else than its articles of, and on the drama, they would be sufficient alone to render it worthy of its estimated value. The Teutonic drama we have introduced to the world; and, though we do not love the classic stage of France and Italy, we will yet expend some time and pages upon them. Moratin, the living comic writer of Spain, is at present engaged in writing the dramatic history of his country, which will afford new lights and further means of comparison. He promised us an article, but since the fever burst forth in Barcelona, his place of residence, we have not heard from him. His "Yes of the Maid' is a delightful comedy, and shall, please the fates, make one of our Horæ Hispanice. With the Dutch we are engaged; in spite both of our exhortations and subsidies, they will act French plays; and Holland is to the French actors what America is to ours-by proceeding thither, they fill their pockets, and whet the appetites of audiences at home by their absence. Now, we tell the King of the Netherlands flatly, that while his theatre is French, his nation will be so; nor is it a joke to declare, that the battle of Waterloo and the fort resses of Flanders are but straw bulwarks, as long as a Flemish pit enjoys the tragedies of Racine and Corneille. "To The three great French dramatic writers, in tragedy at least, have one disadvantage, viz. that every foreigner knows something about them, and yet few know any thing substantial. A page or a passage of Shakespeare, even if but half understood, is sufficient to impress the mind with a deep feeling of admiration; but the French dramatists, indeed French verse, if not taken in the ensemble, is nothing. Not that they wanted feeling, but their feeling is marked more by phrase than thought. "Les vers français sont à la fois ce qu'il y a de plus facile et de plus difficile à faire. Lier l' un à l' autre des hémistiches si bien accoutumés à se trouver ensemble, ce n'est qu'un travail de memoire; mais il faut avoir respiré l'air d' un pays, pensé, joui, souffert dans sa langue, pour peindre en poesie ce qu'on eprouve.' have thought, rejoiced, and suffered in the language," as de Staël so beautifully expresses it, is necessary not only for writing, but for reading its poetry. The French think, rejoice, and suffer in language, as we do in thought. With them, as with the more southern nations of Europe, words are things; and being, therefore, to speak metaphysically, independent essences, they have expressions supplementary to the thought. But even in this supplementary expression, the French tongue is so meagre, as to appear nothing to the full-cloyed ears of the south. Thus they are between two foes, and they prop themselves on either when attacked by the other. In arguing with an Italian on the beauty of their respective poetries, a Frenchman will rest on superior thought in his native verse; in arguing with an Englishman, he will rest on superior tone. There is, however, one overwhelming objection to all that French vanity can plead, their verse is utterly untranslateable-there is nothing in them; and, for experiment sake, the very first sheet we can spare for Balaam, shall be occupied with a literal translation of Racine's "Phædre." Thanks to the labours of Ducis, it is now easy to institute a comparison between French and English tragedy. That poet has re-written in his native language, for it would be unjust to say translated, most of the dramas of Shakespeare. The Macbeth and the Othello of Ducis are by no means inferior to any, even the best pieces of Racine and Voltaire, but that they fall immeasurably beneath their great originals, we need not add. Here we have an intermediate standard, to which both dramas may be applied, and by which we may ascertain, almost to mathematical precision, their relative merits. A tithe of the poetry which abounds in the originals, is sufficient to animate the French plays;-feeling, imagination, character, are all reset on a minor key, to suit the squeamish tastes of the Parisian audience; and the heroes of Shakespeare make their appearance, as after a long consumption, apparently sweated down, like jockies, to the dapper weight required by the laws of the course. Extracts or translations we dare not offer to our readers, for fear they should accuse us of being profane, in uttering paraphrases of the bard divine; but we shall offer analyses of the three best of Ducis' performances-the Hamlet, the Macbeth, and the Othello. By the alterations which the scene and action undergo, our readers may judge what the spirit of the poetry itself must have suffered. Hamlet was the poet's first essay, and it was represented for the first time in 1769. The piece commences with Claudius consulting Polonius, his confidant, as to his projects, yet in futuro, of marrying the Queen, and assuming the crown to the exclusion of Hamlet. Then follows a scene between Claudius and Gertrude; it re presents the latter, repentant for having participated in the murder of her husband, and ends with her ordaining the coronation of Hamlet. As the first act commenced between the King and his confidant, the second opens between the Queen and hers, (Elvira ;) this lady has overheard sufficient to render her suspicious; and in this scene Gertrude confesses her crime. (It is to be remarked, that in the French paraphrase the guilt of Claudius is diminished, by supposing him to have been a victorious warrior, envied and disgraced by his brother; and the queen is made to excuse her crime, by averring that she assisted to poison the king, in order to save the life of her lover.) The queen begs Norceste to restore the spirits and mind of the young prince. Hamlet rushes in, exorcising the spectre"Fuis, spectre epouvantable;"-then addressing the by-standers, "Eh! quoi, vous ne le voyez pas, Il vole sur ma tête, il s'attache à mes pas: Je me meurs:" This is describing a ghost à la Française with a vengeance. Only imagine the ghost flying over the head of Hamlet, instead of preserving the awful, still, imperturbable demeanour, which characterizes it in the original. Hamlet at length becomes calm, and relates to Norceste the appearance, words, &c. of the spirit. (In this recital, the author, for the first time, makes use of the exact language of Shakespeare.) He gives as his reason for not killing Claudius, the love he The • Shakespeare has been translated into Italian by Leoni, with partial success. Romeo and Juliet is thought to be the best rendered. The whole version is in verse, our poet's prose dialogues as well as his others. The Leonis are two brothers, resident at Florence, and are continually occupied in translations from our tongue. Milton has also issued from their hands, but not well performed except the Allegro and Penseroso, which are said to rival their originals. The best French literal translation of Shakespeare is Letourneur's; he was aided by Fontaine, Malherbe, and the Count de Caticalan, who had long lived in England. Guiyot has published a later translation. The merits of which are well summed up by Jouy, in one of his critical essays. "On remarque que Letourneur ne cherche jamais à se mettre á la place du grand poete qu'il traduit, qu'il ne veut pas faire l'écrivain, il se content d' être naturel et vrai, et n'aspire qu'à bien faire connaître son modèle. Les nouveaux traducteurs de Shakspear n'ont pas toujours suivi cette route, ils veulent briller aussi; le style doc trinaire se glisse à chaque page, en courant après la concision, en procédant par les géneralités, les traces du poete sont toujours presque effacés, et le prosateur ambitieux surgit de ce fratas enluminé, et place son ombre entre le poete et lui." Jouy follows this up with quoting Mercutio's description of Queen Mab, which he calls marivaudage. It certainly cuts a strange appearance in French prose. bears his daughter Ophelia; and engages Norceste to go to the King, and relate to him the assassination of the English monarch, for the purpose of observing what effect it would produce on the royal conscience. The third act commences between Polonius and Claudius, (whom we have perhaps prematurely called king,) plotting to prevent the crowning of Hamlet. The second scene of the third act answers to our play-scene; and is exceedingly meagre and wretched, the relation of the English king's death being substituted for our episodic drama. At the end of the act, Ophelia appears, and informs the Queen, that love for her is the cause of Hamlet's madness. The fourth act opens with Hamlet's soliloquy; it is interrupted by the appearance of Ophelia, who, not very delicately, acquaints the prince, that she has disclosed the secret of their loves, and settled the affair with the Queen. He answers very ungallantly, "Le bonheur quelquefois est plus loin qu'on ne pense." The scene, though one of the best in Ducis' play, shows manifestly that the author was as incapable of comprehending, as of imitating, the beauties of Shakespeare. Hamlet expresses his intention of killing Claudius, and Ophelia appeals to his love to spare her father. Ducis has made her the daughter of Claudius, not of Polonius. This affords a struggle in the mind of Hamlet between love and duty-that common-place contrariety of interest, which the French so gladly lay hold on. The catastrophe is somewhat reversed. Claudius besieges the palace -threatens Hamlet's life-but is kill ed by that prince. The Queen kills herself; and Hamlet concludes with, " Mais je suis homme et roi: reservé pour souffrir, Je saurai vivre encore; je fais plus que mourir." The “ Macbeth" of Ducis made its appearance in 1790; and is further removed from the spirit of its original, by the political allusions, which were necessary indeed to the success of any piece at that period. It is nevertheless far superior to his "Hamlet." The first scene is very fine and spirited, and takes place between King Duncan and Glamis, the supposed heir to the crown. Duncan, it seems, has visited the forest in which the scene is laid, for the purpose of consulting a sage old man, who is to acquaint him with important tidings. He mentions the rebellion of Cador, against whom Macbeth conducts the royal army, and indulges in presentiments and fears of ill fortune and an untimely end. Ducis is extremely fond of the prophetic mental horrors of the German school. From the second scene, in which the old man appears, we learn that Duncan has committed, secretly, his son Malcolm (supposed dead) to the care of this old man, (Sevar,) that he may be out of the reach of Cador. Duncan inquires of the character and education of his son ;-this is a poor and useless imitation of the original scene between Macduff and Malcolm. At the end of this act is a Variante, to be used or not, ad libitum; in which the three witches make a brief appearance, and hint at the conflict then engaged. The second act takes place near Macbeth's castle, which "doit être d'un caractere terrible," as we are informed. Except one or two scenes of little import, it passes between Macbeth and his lady, (Fredegonde.) The former has just returned; he relates his having met with the witches, to whom the poet, in obedience to the usual bad taste of the French with respect to imaginative propriety, gives a classic and incongruous occupation. "Dans les flancs entr'ouverts d'un enfant égorgé, Pour consulter le sort, leur bras s'etait plongé." He could not understand a Scotch witch, without metamorphosing her into a Roman augur. Fredegonde tempts Macbeth to aim at the crown. In the last scene of the act, Duncan and Glamis enter, and are conducted to their apartments. Act the third, Fredegonde urges Macbeth to murder Duncan, saying, that she had consulted Iphyctone, who declared he should be be They do not know Malcolm to exist, but suppose Glamis alone between them and the throne. Fredegonde still urges Macbeth-the dialogue between them is very fine, and literally taken from Shakespeare. He is about to perpetrate the crime, when interrupted by the cry of "To arms! Cador has attacked the castle!" Act fourth commences between Macbeth and Fredegonde, after the murder of the King. The people enter, and offer the crown to Macbeth, but with the proviso then fashionable, "Que tu n'es rien ici qu'un premier ci toyen." Then follows an imitation of our banquet scene. Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo becomes distracted-and his lady disperses the company. Sevar introduces Malcolm as the son of the late king. The fourth act concludes with a soliloquy of Fredegonde, meditating the destruction of the new-found Malcolm. Act 5th-Macbeth soliloquizes-is repentant, and professes his intention to restore the crown to the young prince. Fredegonde walks in her sleep, and reveals her criminal acts and purposes. This scene is supposed to be one of Mademoiselle George's finest pieces of acting. There are two catastrophes to the play, which the actors may choose between ;-in one, Macbeth confesses the King's murder, and restores the crown; while it appears that Fredegonde, in her sleep, has stabbed her own son, mistaking him for Malcolm ; in the other, assassins, employed by Fredegonde, are made to fall into a similar mistake, and stab Macbeth for Malcolm. O' my faith, were the French versifier living, we should indite him on the Maiming Act. The Irish never houghed cattle in a more cruel style than Ducis does Shakespeare. should be broiled and distributed for the food of the poor-yet these men could not tolerate Othello. The preface speaks of the tragedy of Shakespeare as "une des plus touchantes, et plus terribles productions dramatiques qu'ait enfanté le génie vraiment créateur de ce grande homme. L'execrable caractére de Iago y est exprimé surtout avec une vigueur de pinceau extraordinaire." This is another sign of French taste. The character of Iago is understood and appreciated; but, as we shall see, that of Othello is apprebended by the imitator not a jot farther than its coarse outline. None of the fine shades of the high-minded and passionate soldier are caught by the imitator-the broad features are given, and indeed are quite sufficient, more than sufficient, for the French muse; but all that we esteem the characteristic beauties of Othello-of that noble ideal of a soldier, is lost upon the perceptions of Ducis-they were to him " mere leather or prunella." The tragedy opens by an officer relating to the Doge (Moncenigo) the conquest of the rebellious Veronese by Othello. Odalbert (Brabantio) rushes in, plaining the loss of his daughter: Othello soon after enters. The scene is beautifully written, but Othello assumes a pathetic tone of expostulation, which is a poor substitute for the mild yet manly tone of the soldier of Shakespeare. The account of his courtship is closely and beautifully imitated. This act does not depart much from the original, except that Othello and Hedelmone (Desdemona) are not yet married. The second act commences between Hedelmone and her nurse; the former confesses the feeling of presentiment which we have mentioned as a favourite with Ducis. Loredan, son to the Doge, and an old suitor to Hedelmone, is introduced. He requests of her to obtain permission for him to accompany Othello to the war. He also acquaints her, that her father is en The "Othello," which is the chef d'œuvre of Ducis, was first acted in 1792. It is accompanied by a preface, which we should at first suspect to have been addressed to his countrymen in a tone of bitter irony; but upon examining it, we find it merely to consist of stupid flattery. It tends to il lustrate the natural tenderness of French hearts, and the impossibility of their sitting spectators of the cruel and ferocious Othello. Unluckily, this was written in 1792. They who could bear and enjoy the cold-blooded massacre of two millions of their fellow-gaged, from resentment against Othel countrymen, could not sit to behold Othello! They who-but we must not grow angry. One of the men of taste of that day, who was also, by the bye, an Academician, wrote a pamphlet, in which he proposed a vast saving to the nation. The proposal was, that the human carcases daily butchered should not be thrown to waste, but VOL. XI, lo, in a plot against the state-she entreats Loredan to watch over her father's safety. Towards the end, they are observed by Othello and his friend Pezare. The poetry of the scene between these two is very fine, and altogether original. The following description of the government is much esteemed by the French critics : 3 L "Dans tous les lieux, sans cesse, ouvrant l'œil et l'oreille, Et les bourreaux sont prets quand le soupçon commence, &c." In the third act, Odalbert having learned that his daughter is not married, endeavours to induce her to leave Othello; Loredan, the son of the Doge, he declares, can alone save him from the punishment due to his treason, and that Loredan demands Hedelmone's hand as the only price of her father's safety. After much reluctance she signs a promise to bestow herself upon him, and also gives to Loredan her bandeau of diamonds, in order to procuré food and necessaries for her fugitive father. This is all very lame-in the last scene of the act, Othello drags Hedelmone away. Act fourth commences between Othello and Pezare. Loredan has interrupted the secret marriage ceremony between Hedelmone and his rival. Fezare, the Iago of Shakespeare, is much softened down in Ducis, his diabolical purposes not being suspected by the audience until the denouement. Then follows a scene between Othello and Hedelmone-he begs her to accompany him to the war-she pleads the necessity of watching over her father. Othello's rising jealousy is but poorly copied from Shakespeare. Pezare declares to Othello the infidelity of Hedelmone, and produces for proof the billet and bandeau found on Loredan, whom he has killed. Hedelmone enters, brought by the boisterous imprecations of Othello, who ironically conveys to her his suspicions. Act the fifth represents the chambre à coucher of Hedelmone; it is, in one Variante, much the same as in Shakespeare, but much curtailed, hurried, and vastly inferior in effect. Hedelmone sings the Willow song, which was a singular innovation for the French stage. The other Variante ends happily, and makes the discovery of Pezare's treachery be announced as Othello's hand is raised to give the fatal blow. Othello " is one of the best of French tragedies," and after the foregoing analysis, many will be tempted to add bad is the best. It possesses, nevertheless, much vigour and beauty of versification. Ducis has also written Lear and Romeo and Juliet, besides the original pieces of " Edipe chez Admete," and "Allinfar, ou la Famille Arabe." We cannot quit the subject of the French drama without noticing the new tragedy by Jouy, which, in our theatrical phrase, has had such a run in Paris. The title, Sylla, sufficiently announces the gist of the piece, and saves us the trouble of an analysis. It is rich in all the beauties that French versification allows of; it is melodious and pointed, and strong in allusion at least, if not in passion. There is no plot-Sylla appears in the commencement, dressing his lists of proscription, and openly acting the tyrant. Upon the expostulation of Roscius, who upbraids him with his tyranny, and says "For what crimes, Sylla, punishest thou the Romans?" Sylla replies, "For accepting the chains that I give, for daring to hope from me pardon for their servility. Thou knowst me not, Roscius; I see that my soul is as yet a mystery to thee. The liberty which I destroy, has ever been my dearest idol; for it have I combated in the senate, the forum, on the plains of Cheronæa, and the sands of Arpinum. I wished it for all, but in Rome saw not one save myself, who wished or who dared to be free, &c." "I scaped from the axe of the lictor; proscribed I fled, and return dictator; what should I consult in these degenerate times, but my contempt for mankind? What plea have the Romans to aught but my hate? In spite of them I'll break their chains. Ye crouching citizens! 'tis slavery ye seek! I judge ye worthy of a nobler fate. Ye ask of me chains, and I answer ye, death." |