 | Fatal Constancy |  |
ADVERTISEMENT.
The following sketch of a tragedy, tho' interrupted with breaks and et cæteras (which are left to be supplied by the fancy of the reader) is nevertheless a continued soliloquy spoken by the hero of the piece, and may be performed by one actor with all the starts, graces, and theatrical attitudes in practice at present.
If any young author should be ambitious of writing on this model he may begin his preface, or his advertisement, which is the more fashionable term, by observing that “it is a melancholy contemplation to every lover of literature, to behold that universal defect of science which is the disgrace of the present times.” He may then proceed to assert, “that every species of fine writing is at its very lowest ebb, that the reign of --- --- was what might properly enough be stiled the golden age of dramatic poetry; that since that happy æra genius itself has gradually decayed, 'till at length, if he may be allowed the expression, the effætæ vires of nature, by he knows not what fatality, seem quite exhausted.”
In his dedication, if to a lord, the proper topics are his lordship's public spirit, the noble stand which he made in the cause of liberty, but more particularly his heroic disinterestedness in hiding from the world his own
If to a lady, after the usual compliments of wit, beauty, elegance of taste, and every social virtue, he must by no means forget, that like Prometheus he has endeavoured to steal fire from heaven, and that the finest and most animated touches in the character of Lindamira are but faint copies of the perfections of his patroness.
He may take hints for his prologue from the following lines.
Critics, to-night at your dread bar appearsA virgin author, aw'd by various fears.
Should ye once hiss, poor man, he dies away,
So much he trembles for his first essay.
And therefore humbly hopes to gain your vote
—For the best play that ever yet was wrote.
Athens and Rome, the Stagyrite, old Ben,
Corneille's sublimity, exact Racine;
Rowe's flowing lines, and Otway's tender part,
How Southern wounds, and Shakespear tears the heart,
Rules, nature, strength, truth, greatness, taste and art, &c. &c. &c.
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