on, therefore little more is neceffary than to obferve, that though there does not appear much call for capital merit, yet feveral first-rate actrefles have made but a languid figure in representing her.

Notwithstanding Mrs. WOFFINGTON was extremely well received, and really did the part as well as her deplorable tragedy voice would admit, we must place Mrs. PRITCHARD foremoft; who made a very just distinction, in the scene where Banquo's ghost appears; between reproving Mac beth's behaviour with paffion, or the anxiety of apprehenfion, left he should betray his guilt; this latter method she happily pursued, and here, as well as in the sleeping scene, gained manifest superiority. Mrs. YATES, at prefent, comes nearest the point of praise, but certainly displays no very confpicuous merit in the character; and to mention Mrs. BARRY would be to injure her, as it certainly does not at all coincide with her capabilities,

The witches I fhould take no notice of, but for a fuppofed amendment in fpeaking and dreffing those characters at Covent Garden; as beings out of the course of nature, SHAKESPEARE furnished them with a peculiarity of style, why then, fhould we not fuppofe he meant a peculiarity of deportment and utterance? He certainly did, as much as for Caliban; a languid propriety of natural expreffion deftroys in them, pleafing and characteristic oddity-as to dreffing them in the Sybillic tafte, it makes them rather Roman than Scots witches, and facrifices established national ideas, at the fhrine of falfe decorum, for

did appearance, ugly features, and advanced age, dubbed any female a witch in the times of credulity; even now, a very difagreeable woman, bent with age, and wrapped in filthinefs, is ftigmatized with that title, though not fo feriously, north of the Tweed; nay, Macbeth himself ftiles them filthy hags, moft certainly alluding to perfonal appearance. If an alteration of drefs is to take place in this play, I could wish the characters were dreffed in habits of the times, which would be pleafing, and we apprehend neceffary.

Macbeth, for its boldness of fentiment, ftrength of verfification, variety of paffions and preternatural beings, deferves to be efteemed a firft rate tragedy, containing a number of beauties never exceeded, and many blemishes very cenfurable; dangerous in reprefentation, as has been faid, to weak minds; unintelligible to moderate conceptions in many places, upon perusal; therefore, chiefly calculated for foundunderstanding, and established refolution of principles, eitheron the ftage or in the study.

THE BEGGAR's OPERA.

Written by GAY.

Notwithstanding we confess a partiality for mu

fic when it is con:pofed of fweet, fignificant and perfuafive founds, yet the Opera, serious or comic, but especially the former, is a fpecies of the drama not at all defenfible; it carries abfurdity in its front, and abfolutely puts nature out of countenance; to prove this would be fuperfluous, as we cannot pay any reader so bad compliment as to suppose that a fingle hint does not bear fatisfactory conviction.

Shocked as every man of real tafte, feeling and genius must be, at the predominance of those dear-bought, uneffential exotics, Italian operas, Gay had a mind to exercise his unbounded talent of fatire against them; and that good fenfe, a little embittered, might go down with a more fashionable gout, as apothecaries gild pills, he called in mufic to his aid, and fuch mufic too as was relifhable by, not caviare to the million; thus, as I have read of fome army, who defeated their enemies by fhooting back upon them their own arrows, fo he ftruck deep wounds into the emaciated fignori of that time, by fhewing fuch fterling wit and humour as they were unacquainted with, decorated with the reigning taste of the day-the thought was happy, the execution equal to the defign, and the fuccefs fuitable to both.

In

Beggar's Opera.

In the very name of this piece, the author feems to have iffued a keen fhaft of ridicule, and making the author a beggar is a noble farcafm on fortune and public taste, which have fuffered most excellent talents to pine under a thousand difadvantages, of unmerited penury and even contempt: no one knew better than Gay the neglect which too commonly attends, literary merit; he knew, felt, and with great poignancy of expreffion declared it.

This piece opens with Jonathan Wild, the reigning thief-maker and thief-taker of that time, under the title of Peachum, perufing his tyburn-register; his fong, in eight lines, contains more of the fpirit of truth and fatire than would animate fome poems of eight score; the fucceding scene with Filch exhibits many excellent remarks, and his account of the gang when looking out for proper facrifices, is not only an admirable, but a very useful picture to the profligate; Mrs. Peachum's expreffions of pleafure, that there has been no murder committed for fome time recommend her to favour; and Peachum's reply, fhewing what money will do in criminal profecutions, is, I am afraid, too just; mention of Macheath naturally falls in, and we are prepared to receive him, at least, as an agreeable highwayman his attachment to Polly comes aptly into the converfation, and the plot very properly begins to dawn.-Speaking of Polly's being in love, Peachum discovers a very suitable felfishness, and where he remarks of what fervice he may be to him, by acting on political principles, the expreffion, as well as fome preceding ones, glows with fatiric

Q 2

Beggar's Opera. fatiric meaning "My daughter to me thould be, "like a court-lady to a minifter of ftate, a key to the whole gang."

Mrs. Peachum's scene with Filch has nothing but fome ftrokes of low humour to recommend it, yet in that light is very fatisfactory, and always works a very laughable effect.

Polly is introduced by her father under fuch circumftances as engage favour; her mother's vio-. lent entrance is much in character; the fainting too,. and the remedy for it, are powerful burlefque on fimilar incidents to be met in graver pieces; the daughter's filence on her marriage being discovered, is a very probable effect of confufion and apprehenfion, nor does a word of the confequent dialogue fail of due influence; the impatience of the parents, one through pride, the other through interest, give a fine opening for Polly's delicate, interefting apology of a fincere paffion for the man fhe has married; and Peachum's defign of taking off his new fon-in-law, feems the growth of a mind fortified against any feelings of humanity.

It is matter of wonder how feveral of our gay ladies and fine gentlemen can hear the following fpeech without blufhing confcious guilt; "If fhe "had had only an intrigue with the fellow, why "the very best families have excufed and huddled

up an affair of that fort; 'tis marriage, huf"band, that makes it a blemish." What Peachum replies has a luxuriancy of merit, "But money, wife, is the true fuller's earth for reputa tions; there is not a spot or ftain but what it can

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"take