also, burst into tears, and pleaded "guilty." He was committed to Bridewell for one month.

Nor is this a solitary instance of the flagrant mischief occasioned by the theatre. Should we allow, that the stage can produce its manifold and tangible facts of moral usefulness, (though we may freely declare, that, with a sincere willingness to learn them, we really know not where to find them,) yet probably it will not be disputed, that an awful balance of historic proof belongs to the wrong side of the question. Were every individual, who is but tolerably informed of the effects of the theatre in his own local neighbourhood, to publish to the world his own share of the unhappy facts, what a scene would shock the imagination, and agonize the heart, of the sympathetic reader! Even those, it is hoped, who scourge the opponents of the stage as cruel enemies to the happiness of mankind, and who laud him as the truly philanthropic author, who pours a flood of elegant amusement upon the world, could hardly fail to heave a sigh at the dark and dismal shadows which mingle thus in the picture of their favourite recreation. We know of numbers of young men, (whose names and history, indeed, could now be produced,) who, having entered London with all the virtuous advantages which a pious education might be expected to supply, unfortunately went from the theatre to the brothel, and from the brothel to their graves! Could the patrons and defenders of this dreadful system place their hands upon their breasts, with their heads upon a dying pillow, and aver, "I am innocent of all this?"

To say nothing of the under-current of dramatic influence, which prevails in the secret and gradual formation of the character, and which is sometimes most clearly and unequivocally indicated by a sickly and morbid taste in literature, by negligence of business, and by dissipated habits, certain evils, more immediately resulting from the theatre, have in all ages. marked the progress of this dangerous diversion. In ancient Rome the parties who cheered or hissed the several actors often raised such tumults as to interrupt the performance, and turn the theatre, by their absurd factions, into a constant scene of riot and disorder, and not unfrequently of combat and of bloodshed. Similar instances of indecent contention may be found in the times of Tiberius, Marcus Aurelius, Nero, Hypatius, and Belisarius, Theodoric, of Italy, Henry IV. Henry

VIII. and Edward VI. of England. The authors who have charged such tumults on the theatre are, all of them, from Tacitus to Stow, writers of established credit.* In consequence of these abuses, most of the above princes deemed it proper to abolish the theatre in their respective dominions.

Many persons, competently versed in history, have not hesitated to account the stage as one among the numerous causes which accelerate the fall of kingdoms; and the worst periods among the Greeks and Romans are believed to have received no inconsiderable degree of their unhappy character from this one source of operation. The history of the French stage for thirty years previous to the French Revolution supplies a multitude of the most disgraceful facts to confirm the truth of this destructive bearing of the theatre. It is allowed by all, that its influence is great. To deny, then, that it can injuriously affect a country, is to deny what is allowed, unless it can be shown, that this influence is invariably of a pure and favourable quality. It is to deny, in substance, that the press itself is liable to become an engine of public moral or political depravation. Let the office of the Lord Chamberlain, which legally restricts the stage, illustrate the subject. It is observed, indeed, that the stage "was at its highest pitch in Rome during nearly the proudest and purest periods of the republic." But let us ask the candid reader, which is most probable,—that the great and master spirits of those ages, such as Cato the censor, who were distinguished by the loftiest contempt for luxurious amusements, should have derived their character from the stage, and in their turn conferred upon it their decided support; or, that the drama itself contributed, in no ordinary degree, to that general corruption which subsequently sank into the vitals of the commonwealth?

It is often seen, that those countries, and divisions of a country, where the stage is unknown, are far less corrupt than those in which it holds a seat. Thus, compare Sparta with Athens, and Switzerland with France. This is, at least, presumptive proof, though other causes be admitted also to operate in effecting the degeneracy of a people. Let determining evidence be shown on the other side. The advocates

* See the authorites enumerated in the "Stage Condemned,” p. 115. London, 1698.

+ See "Domestic Anecdotes of the French Nation," p. 309.

of the stage are required to substantiate, that it ought not to be ranked, as has been done, among those sweeping evils which deteriorate a nation; or that, supposing it has sometimes assumed this dreaded character, it possesses, notwithstanding, a preponderance of public usefulness, sufficient to justify the sanction it obtains.

The same noxious plant is identified from age to age by the production of the same fruit. This is manifest, whether we refer to the local effects immediately resulting from particular plays, or to the general operation of the theatre at large. Of the first of these cases certain instances have been frequently produced, which, though unhappy, yet are, it is presumed, proper specimens of stage-impression, because the pieces have been extremely popular. Though already known to the intelligent reader, it may be proper here to repeat one or two of these instances.

The effect produced by Schiller's tragedy of "The Robbers," on the scholars at the school of Fribourg, was alarmingly powerful. "They were so struck and captivated with the grandeur of the character of its hero, Moor, that they agreed to form a band like his in the forests of Bohemia; had elected a young nobleman for their chief; and had pitched on a beautiful young lady for his Amelia; whom they were to carry off from her parents' house to accompany their flight. To the accomplishment of this design they had bound themselves by the most solemn and tremendous oaths. But the conspiracy was discovered by an accident, and its execution prevented."*

"The robberies committed daily in the streets, during the representation of the Beggar's Opera,' were beyond the example of former times. And several thieves and robbers afterwards confessed in Newgate, that they raised their courage in the play-house by the songs of the hero, Macheath, before they sallied forth on their desperate nocturnal exploits. So notorious were the evil consequences of its frequent representation become, that, in the year 1773, the Middlesex Justices united with Sir John Fielding in requesting Mr. Garrick to desist from performing it; as they were of opinion, that it never was represented on the stage without creating an additional number

See "An Account of the German Theatre, by Henry Mackenzie, Esq." in the second volume of the "Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh."

H

of real thieves."* What, then, must be the power of the drama in regard to passions much more congenial to the heart, and deemed far more honourable, than that of thieving?

Nor are this taste and its effects less remarkable at present. "Tom and Jerry" still retains its ascendancy in the theatrical world. Here we have a grand specimen of the nature and extent of dramatic influence. Other pieces will sometimes procure a numerous attendance from the presence of some distinguished auditor, or the talents of some celebrated actor; but this transcendant composition has the merit of generally commanding a crowded assemblage of the patrons of the stage, all wound up to the height of interest and enjoyment, from its own intrinsic attractions. It is a species of food the most awakening and gratifying to the appetite of the whole menagerie. It throws them into transport. Do you wish to contemplate their character and habits? Then go and see them fed. At other times, indeed, you may, by witnessing their shape and motions, in a less excited state, conjecture something of their properties. But behold them on the occasion mentioned above. Their whole nature is brought out. Every spring and faculty of action is roused. The free current of their unhypocritical and delighted disposition rolls on with a progress which you may mark with astonishment.

Or should you think, on the contrary, that the audience cannot, in this instance, appear in their own proper character, but rather as persons held for the time by the sorcery of their situation; still it will be wonderful to see in their behaviour the perfect power of the dramatic art. It has been thought the perfection of this power to produce the momentary conviction that the actors were originals, and not imitators; as when Mr. Cooke in the York theatre was exclaimed against as a real villain Here, however, it would seem as if individuals of the audience were consciously changed into the actors, or characters exhibited, and proceeded at once, on their dismission from the theatre, to show the change in a series of follies positively mischievous. The general and lasting impression of a play which can daily produce such immediate and marked effects must be infinitely worse, although this impression is far more difficult of detection and of detail.

* See the Life of Gay, in the Biographia Britannica.

As to the influence of the stage on society in general, we have already given a sad concession from the author of an Essay on the Theatre," written in the boasted time of the celebrated Garrick. To this testimony may be added that of philosophic foreigners. Diderot pronounces English comedy to be "without morals." Voltaire, undoubtedly no rigid moralist, speaks of it in terms of the strongest reprobation. M. Moralt, in his "Letters upon the French and English Nations," ascribes the corruption of manners in London to comedy as its chief cause. "Their comedy," he observes, "is like that of no other country. It is the school in which the youth of both sexes familiarize themselves with vice, which is never represented there as vice, but as mere gaiety." Rousseau predicted, that if ever Switzerland should give encouragement to the stage, she would from that moment begin to lose the purity of her political and moral institutions. Unhappily, the theatre was afterwards introduced; and the subsequent character and state of the cantons have abundantly justified the truth of the prediction. The demoralizing influence of the stage on several of the ancient states is freely allowed by the friends of the drama. They merely offer the evasion, that the theatre of modern times is materially different from the primitive establishment.

V. DEFENSIVE OBSERVATIONS OF THE ADVOCATES OF THE STAGE, CONSIDERED.

ATTACHMENT to the stage, or to the opinion which defends it, is frequently maintained by those who feel a manifest conviction of its impropriety. I say "manifest," because with regard to such, in controversy, as already mentioned, acrimonious observations, contemptuousness, and an almost total avoidance of the leading arguments adduced against the theatre, sufficiently betoken the suspicions of their judgment; and their own subsequent confession has often put the fact beyond dispute. With views thus enlightened, many have yet resolved never to forsake the scene of their guilty pleasures, till the avenging fire of heaven, predicted by their own consciences, (for whatever be the character of the stage, such have been their sentiments respecting it,) should overwhelm them with destruction. Others have lingered on the plain with an enamoured reluctance; and, by the ingenuity of the pleadings to which at last they have