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Condemned Poets
by
Such is the history of a damned dramatist, written by himself, with a truth and simplicity worthy of a happier fate. It is admirable to see a man, who was himself so deeply involved in the event, preserve the observing calmness which could discover the minutest occurrence; and, allowing for his particular conception of the cause, detailing them with the most rigid veracity. This author was unquestionably a man of the most honourable probity, and not destitute of intellectual ability; but he must serve as an useful example of that wrong-headed nature in some men, which has produced so many “Abbots of Unreason” in society, whom it is in vain to convince by a reciprocation of arguments; who assuming false principles, act rightly according to themselves; a sort of rational lunacy, which, when it discovers itself in politics and religion, and in the more common affairs of life, has produced the most unhappy effects; but this fanaticism, when confined to poetry, only amuses us with the ludicrous; and, in the persons of Monsieur de Beaussol, and of Percival Stockdale, may offer some very fortunate self-recollections in that “Calamity of Authors” which I have called “The Illusions of Writers in Verse.”
[Footnote 1:
Calamities of Authors, vol. ii. p. 313. ]
[Footnote 2:
It first appeared in a review of his “Memoirs.” ]
[Footnote 3:
The words are, “Une derriere la scene.” I am not sure of the-meaning, but an Act behind the scenes would be perfectly in character with this dramatic bard. ]
[Footnote 4:
The exact reasoning of Sir Fretful, in the Critic, when Mrs. Dangle thought his piece “rather too long,” while he proves his play was “a remarkably short play.”–“The first evening you can spare me three hours and a half, I’ll undertake to read you the whole, from beginning to end, with the prologue and epilogue, and allow time for the music between the acts. The watch here, you know, is the critic.” ]
[Footnote 5:
Again, Sir Fretful; when Dangle “ventures to suggest that the interest rather falls off in the fifth act;”–“Rises, I believe you mean, sir.”–No, I don’t, upon my word.”–“Yes, yes, you do, upon my soul; it certainly don’t fall off; no, no, it don’t fall off.” ]