give them the use of his stage; and the great body of the public, comprehending especially the middling and lower classes, hitherto(1) the most adverse to theatrical representations, were induced, from compassion for the fate of Drummond and his men, the victims of power, to suspend their prejudices for a moment, and to regard the humble attempt with that silent acquiescence, which, by leaving the young and gay-hearted to follow their inclinations, had all the effect of a more open encouragement. On the first performance of the opera, the house was crowded in every part; and it was repeated several successive nights to such numerous audiences, that tiers of benches were erected upon the stage to accommodate the overflow. The distresses of the suffering printers were thus, in a great measure relieved; but a more general and lasting advantage, derived from these representations, was the cessation of that rooted antipathy which a religious people, still warm with convert zeal, had, till now, persisted in maintaining towards the entertainments of the stage.(2) (1) The dramatic productions of the reign of Charles II., then almost the only ones performed on the stage, were of the most immoral and even indecent character. The wit, which was their only redeeming character, was, where not obscene, conventional, and could not be enjoyed even if its language had been understood, by a more sober and less artificial people, who were besides stung into dislike of England and English manners by recent wrongs and insult. (2) The success of the earlier representations of the Gentle Shepherd on the Scottish stage,-which however in its full extent lasted for a few years only, and was the effect of favouring circumstances, although this pastoral continued to appear annually on the Edinburgh boards for nearly three-quarters of a century,-is a proof that to dramatic performances of an innocent and instructive character, the presbyterian party in Scotland cherish no hostility. The narrator of this anecdote is in mistake, however, in inferring that the taste of the public for the impure and inflated productions of the stage was created or stimulated by the success of the first performance of the chaste pastoral of our author. There was a theatre and a regular dramatic company in Edinburgh when that took place, and had been for half a century previous; there is no more at the present day, although its population has increased threefold since then. The Edinburgh stage is supported in that moderate measure, which becomes a sober and thoughtful people. The performances are respectable as to at once subjects and histrionic talent. The first actors The multitude being thus dragged, as it were, by sympathy for oppressed merit, to the interdicted regions of pleasure, were induced 'to taste the forbidden fruit, and, pleased with the relish, they fed plenteously. Finding themselves not poisoned by the sweets, they returned to the feast with an increased appetite, and brought with them fresh guests to partake of the enticing fare."" V. IS THE GENTLE SHEPHERD ADAPTED FOR NOTWITHSTANDING its success during a number of years on the Edinburgh and the Scottish provincial stage, the Gentle Shepherd, neither in its original version nor in a translation into modern English, by Richard Tickle, Esq.-although the latter, according to Jackson, was ably executed, strongly cast, and excellently performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane,-has met with much encouragement in England, or been able to obtain a place in its acted drama. Even in Scotland it has of late years ceased to attract attention as a subject for the stage. This "indifferent success even with a strong national partiality in its favour," as Dr. Beattie says, “may perhaps be in a great measure ascribed to a deficiency on the part of the actors. The British actors are almost entirely unacquainted with dramas of the pastoral kind; and their mode of pronouncing the Scottish dialect is generally distorted and preposterous. The number of professional comedians furnished by North Britain is very inconsiderable; and the natives of that country who, for their own amusement, have occasionally at have ever regarded with anxious respect the opinions and criticisms of their Edinburgh audiences. tempted Ramsay's principal characters, must necessarily be supposed to have laboured under all the disadvantages incident to inexperience." (1) It is probable that it never appeared as an acted drama to so great advantage as on the occasion of its first representation in Edinburgh. The natural and yet not undignified pronunciation of the Scottish language on the part of the unemployed printers, some of them probably natives of the district in which its scenes are laid, and their knowledge of the manners and sentiments of its characters, must have given to their representation of it peculiar advantages, especially when played before a sympathizing and thoroughly appreciating auditory. It is doubtful, however, if this pastoral poem is in its nature so well adapted for the stage as for the closet. The sentiments are rather descriptive and didactic than effectively dramatic. It appeals to the sensibilities rather than to the passions. The following 'testimonies of authors,' one of them of recent date, may be quoted in corroboration of this opinion, and also as to the general merits of the poem-in addition to the celebrated critical dissertation of Lord Woodhouselee, given in an early part of the work. It will be observed that they all speak of it throughout as a poem, and never, except in the sense of a pastoral one, as a drama. 66 "Ramsay," says Mr. Ritson, was a man of strong natural parts, and a fine poetical genius, of which his celebrated pastoral The Gentle Shepherd will ever remain a substantial monument; The Lass of Patie's Mill, The Yellow-hair'd Laddie, Farewell to Lochaber, and some other songs, must be allowed equal to any, and even superior, in point of pastoral simplicity, to most lyric productions, either in the Scottish or any other language." (2) (1) Irving's Lives of Scottish Poets, vol. ii. p. 338. "No attempt to naturalize pastoral poetry," says Dr. Aikin, "appears to have succeeded better than Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd: it has a considerable air of reality, and the descriptive parts, in general, are in the genuine taste of beautiful simplicity." (1) "Whether the dialect of Scotland," says Mr. Roscoe, "be more favourable to attempts of this nature, or whether we are to seek for the fact in the character of the people, or the peculiar talents of the writers, certain it is that the idiom of that country has been much more successfully employed in poetical composition, than that of any other part of these kingdoms, and that this practice may there be traced to a very early period. In later times the beautiful dramatic poem of The Gentle Shepherd has exhibited rusticity without vulgarity, and elegant sentiment without affectation." (2) I must not," says Dr. Blair, "omit the mention of another pastoral drama, which will bear being brought into comparison with any composition of this kind, in any language; that is, Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd. It is a great disadvantage to this beautiful poem, that it is written in the old rustic dialect of Scotland, which, in a short time, will probably be entirely obsolete, and not intelligible; and it is a farther disadvantage that it is so entirely formed on the rural manners of Scotland, that none but a native of that country can thoroughly understand or relish it. But, though subject to these local disadvantages, which confine its reputation within narrow limits, it is full of so much natural description, and tender sentiment, as would do honour to any poet. The characters are well drawn, the incidents affecting; the scenery and manners lively and just. It affords a strong proof, both of the power which nature and simplicity (1) Aikin's Essays on Song-Writing, p. 33. (2) Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo de' Medici, vol. i. p. 296. possess, to reach the heart in every sort of writing; and of the variety of pleasing characters and subjects with which pastoral poetry, when properly managed, is capable of being enlivened." (1) "The sentiments of that piece," says Dr. Beattie," are natural, the circumstances interesting; the characters well drawn, well distinguished, and well contrasted; and the fable has more probability than any other pastoral drama I am acquainted with. To an Englishman who has never conversed with the common people of Scotland, the language would appear only antiquated, obscure, or unintelligible; but to a Scotchman who thoroughly understands it, and is aware of its vulgarity, it appears ludicrous; from the contrast between meanness of phrase and dignity or seriousness of sentiment. This gives a farcical air even to the most affecting part of the poem; and occasions an impropriety of a peculiar kind, which is very observable in the representation. And accordingly, this play, with all its merit, and with a strong national partiality in its favour, has never given general satisfaction upon the stage." (2) "Poetical expression in humble life," says Leigh Hunt, in one of the sweetest essays upon pastoral writing that has appeared in the present day, "is to be found all over the south. In the instances of Burns, Ramsay, and others, the north also has seen it. Indeed, it is not a little remarkable, that Scotland, which is more northern than England, and possesses not even a nightingale, has had more of it than its southern neighbour." 66 'Allan Ramsay is the prince of the homely pastoral drama. He and Burns have helped Scotland for ever to take pride in its heather, and its braes, and its bonny rivers, and be ashamed of no honest truth in high estate (1) Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric, vol. iii. p. 126. (2) Beattie's Essays, p. 382. |