consult the rules of perspective. Matthews rarely indulges in personality; his imitations frequently border on satire, but never degenerate into parody. Liston, on the contrary, is often merely grotesque.

A comedian and dramatist of the last century, the celebrated Foote, whose talent resembled that of Matthews, had not the same regard for propriety. Individuals of every rank and profession were mercilessly satirized by him, and held up to public ridicule in his farces and comedies, of which he himself sustained the principal characters. He declared, that he was only waging war against affectation, and correcting fools, by forcing them to see their own likenesses in his caricatures; but, in some instances, he had reason to repent of having too faithfully seized the resemblance.

The grand object of the drama is, to instruct without offending. It should delicately warn men of their follies and vices; but the author, as well as the actor, must guard against all appearance of accusing, or attempting to give direct lessons, things which are never relished among equals.

Foote has often been called the English Aristophanes; but had Swift given a dramatic form to his virulent satires, that title would have been more correctly applied to him than to Foote.*

Swift's John Bull, in particular, very much resembles a satire of Aristophanes.

Aristophanes, who is so severely judged by Plutarch, has become one of the idols of British criticism. The Edinburgh Review declares, that in the democracy of Athens the censure of Aristophanes was more formidable than that of the Archons. He was the public journalist, whose business it was to record public events, to comment on the proceedings of men in power, to excite patriotism, to direct public spirit, and to denounce injustice. He was a critic who kept a jealous eye on the productions of contemporary authors, and guided the decisions of the judges of literary merit. The progress of civilization and information disable the modern poet from acting so important a part. It is not in France only that dramatic censors, those Procrusteses of literature, possess the power of mutilating the works which are submitted to their examination in England, the power of the Lord Chamberlain is nearly as great as that of our censor, and his lordship's authority was frequently exercised to keep Foote in check.

The hatred of Dr. Johnson proved very mortifying to Foote, and the contempt of that surly moralist was, to him, a continual provocation, such as Aristophanes, certainly, never received from Socrates. Johnson was, however, one of the few contemporaries of Foote, whom the satirist was induced to spare, through the dread of severe retaliation.

But, in spite of Johnson, Foote certainly deserves a distinguished place among the English comic dramatists. Though he may have been a

mere buffoon in private life, he has shown himself capable of something better in several of his works, whose spirited dialogue and well-drawn characters are calculated to afford entertainment, even in the closet. His easy, elegant, and unaffected style, may be compared to the attic purity of his model, but the characters he introduces are less gross and more true to nature than those of the Athenian dramatist. Foote was not however more scrupulous than Aristophanes, and saw no harm in a laughable deception, even though it should border on immorality. Yet he wants the fanciful invention, the variety, and piquancy of his model. Above all, he is deficient in those brilliant poetic sallies, those unexpected appeals to the better feelings of the public, which, even in the most vulgar scenes, remind the reader of the important object Aristophanes had in view, under the comic mask of the buffoon.

The "Mayor of Garratt" is one of the severest political satires Foote ever wrote. It has been very seriously censured by some English critics, as a libel upon the law of election. Foote took the principal incident of the piece from a custom which prevails in the village of Garratt, where the inhabitants have a mock election for a mayor. The candidate who obtains the united suffrages of these burlesque electors is generally the most stupid and uncouth-looking beggar in the parish. All the forms of the law of election are carefully observed on these occasions. The rival candidates struggle hard for the privilege of addressing the

mob, and telling falsehoods with as much ef frontery as any of the members of the honourable House of Commons. They promise the people that they will lower the price of bread, beer, &c. that they will accept of no place, that they will make all the old women bishops, &c. It is easy to conceive to what effect this little electioneering masquerade might be turned by the English Aristophanes. He himself played the part of Major Sturgeon, one of the most original caricatures on the British stage.

Foote waged everlasting war against antiquaries and virtuosi. In his farce entitled "Taste," there is a humorous trait of satire on the rage for collecting antiques. Some one observes to the pseudo-baron Groningen, that his antique bust has no nose; upon which the baron replies, with prodigious contempt for the ignorance of the remark, that the mutilation constitutes its whole value in the eye of a connoisseur, and that for his part he would not give a single shilling for it if it were perfect.

"The Minor" contains a collection of caricatures worthy to be placed beside the original creations of Hogarth's pencil. The scene in which Shift passes himself off for Mr. Smirk, would provoke the laughter of the laird of Monkbarns himself.

Foote determined to ridicule the taste for senti.. mental comedy, which was in his time so prevalent. He announced a new kind of entertainment at his theatre in the Haymarket, "The primitive Puppet-show," a drama, dedicated to the lovers of

tears, was to be represented by wooden puppets, andit attracted such crowds to the theatre, that even the orchestra was filled. The musicians performed the overture behind the scenes, and Foote advancing to the front of the stage, delivered an address which presents an admirable specimen of his style and manner. He attacked the Lord Chamberlain himself, while he affected to be merely giving an account of the worthy Mr. Punch, so much regretted by Tom Jones, and always so heartily welcomed as the diverting friend of our childhood.

LETTER XLI.

TO MADAME GUIZOT,

If the territory of the tragic muse has not of late been so unproductive in England as that of her smiling sister, that circumstance must be attributed to the labours of a female writer, and of three divines. It may naturally be supposed that the sex of Miss Joanna Baillie, and the functions of the Rev. Messrs. Maturin, Millman, and Croly, must debar them from a very intimate acquaintance with the Green Room. The consequence is, that their dramatic works, like the tragedies of some of their contemporaries, belong rather to general literature than to the drama. Mr. Mill.