[24]. When Meg Merrilies says in her dying moments—‘Nay, nay, lay my head to the East,’ what was the East to her? Not a reality but an idea of distant time and the land of her forefathers; the last, the strongest, and the best that occurred to her in this world. Her gipsy slang and dress were quaint and grotesque; her attachment to the Kaim of Derncleugh and the wood of Warrock was romantic; her worship of the East was ideal.
[25]. I have only to add, by way of explanation on this subject, the following passage from the Characters of Shakspeare’s Plays: ‘There is a certain stage of society in which people become conscious of their peculiarities and absurdities, affect to disguise what they are, and set up pretensions to what they are not. This gives rise to a corresponding style of comedy, the object of which is to detect the disguises of self-love, and to make reprisals on these preposterous assumptions of vanity, by marking the contrast between the real and the affected character as severely as possible, and denying to those, who would impose on us for what they are not, even the merit which they have. This is the comedy of artificial life, of wit and satire, such as we see it in Congreve, Wycherley, Vanbrugh, &c. To this succeeds a state of society from which the same sort of affectation and pretence are banished by a greater knowledge of the world, or by their successful exposure on the stage; and which by neutralizing the materials of comic character, both natural and artificial, leaves no comedy at all—but the sentimental. Such is our modern comedy. There is a period in the progress of manners anterior to both these, in which the foibles and follies of individuals are of nature’s planting, not the growth of art or study; in which they are therefore unconscious of them themselves, or care not who knows them, if they can but have their whim out; and in which, as there is no attempt at imposition, the spectators rather receive pleasure from humouring the inclinations of the persons they laugh at, than wish to give them pain by exposing their absurdity. This may be called the comedy of nature, and it is the comedy which we generally find in Shakspeare.’ P. 256.
[26]. See Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees.
[27]. This ingenious and popular writer is since dead.
[28]. See the Fudge Family, edited by Thomas Brown, jun.
[29]. The defects in the upper tones of Mr. Kean’s voice were hardly perceptible in his performance of Shylock, and were at first attributed to hoarseness.
[30]. For a fuller account of Mr. Kean’s Othello, see one of the last articles in this volume.
[31]. An old gentleman, riding over Putney-bridge, turned round to his servant, and said, ‘Do you like eggs, John?’ ‘Yes, sir.’ Here the conversation ended. The same gentleman riding over the same bridge that day year, again turned round, and said, ‘How?’ ‘Poached, sir,’ was the answer.—This is the longest pause upon record, and has something of a dramatic effect, though it could not be transferred to the stage. Perhaps an actor might go so far, on the principle of indefinite pauses, as to begin a sentence in one act, and finish it in the next.
[32]. The Examiner.
[33]. It will be seen, that this severe censure of Munden is nearly reversed in the sequel of these remarks, and on a better acquaintance with this very able actor in characters more worthy of his powers.