Page:The Ladies' Cabinet of Fashion, Music & Romance 1832.pdf/61

Rh she who thus embodied every thing we ever dreamed of majesty, had, in truth, been the unfortunate consort of the fickle Henry ; if the chariot wheels of Old Time had, in very deed, been rolled back some three centuries, and the whole pageant, in its sad reality, been re-enacted before our eyes- even then, should we have felt it more, in the actual review, than in the scenic representation ? No. More than of any reality of common life, was, for the time, the effect, when Shakspeare and Siddons combined to enchain and enchant us. Had the same prolific talents, which, in modern days, have enriched the sister department of literature, reached the dramatic branch- had we Scotts and Edgeworths of the stagethe benefit, as well as the power, of the histrionic art would to-day have been unquestioned. Its influences would have been confessed as important as they are fascinating. Invidious as commonplace is it, for him who enters the arena to speak slightingly of his competitors : yet is the decline of the modern theatre, and the paucity of dramatic talent among us, a matter of complaint so notorious, that it were affectation to overlook the facts. Now that the tale, the novel, the romance, have been elevated to a rank which, in former days, belonged to graver efforts only, and that distinction in that line is a hopeless reward, except for talents of the highest order, may we not hope for a correspondingimprovement in a department nobler and worthier still ? When that improvement comes, small need will there be to challenge, for the dramatic art, a rank which even Shakspeare's powers of enchantment have proved insufficient with many fully to secure for it ; a rank as an art not fascinating only but useful ; an art, that shall improve the affections as well as gratify the imagination ; a Promethean art, that shall breathe life into the unimpassioned marble of history, and upon the cold beauty of the moral code ; an art practically philosophical, that shall exhibit what it desires to explain ; that shall place the past before our eyes, and cause us to know it ; that shall embody virtue to our senses, and cause us to love it ; an art, that, like a pure soul in a fair form, shall win while it teaches, and convince the understanding by first mastering the heart : an art, in fine, in accordance with the genius of the timeswith that mild spirit of modern reform, which strives not, as our headstrong ancestors used, to dam up the passions and propensities of youth, until, like the arrested torrent of some Alpine valley, the gathering stream outburst its ruptured barrier, carrying devastation in its path ; but rather seeks gently