ADVERTISEMENT.

I Cannot think the subject of the following Poem ill chosen, whatever faults there may be in the manner of its execution. As some kingdoms are found to be influenced by the good or bad qualities of the sovereign, so the theatres of this country may be considered as instruments by which virtue or vice may be equally propagated: they are universally frequented; for, who is so high as not to honour them with an occasional visit, and who is so low as not to deem himself an expert judge of theatrical merit? That this merit is on the wane, I fear, cannot be denied; and I think one of the causes may be traced to that laxity of morals which pervades all ranks of people. The time was when a vicious or foolish character, among his brethren behind the curtain, would have been more dreaded, by an actor of genius, than the hisses of the multitude before it. “Fuit ista quondam in hac republica virtus, ut viri fortes acrioribus suppliciis civem perniciosum quàm acerbessimum hostem coercerent.” Cicero.

If it be allowed that an actor cannot do complete justice to his part unless he feel all the energy which the character is supposed to feel; or if, in other words, moral sensations and the glow of conscious virtue enhance the player’s powers; surely those powers must be impaired, if not totally annihilated, by debauchery and habitual intoxication; an observation not totally useless to those who, however they may slight virtue for virtue’s sake, will yet adhere to her when, like a modern heiress, she brings an ample fortune to increase her attractions.

I have only to declare that I commit this Poem to the press blinded by no partiality and influenced by no unworthy motives; that my pages are stained with no private scandal, and that, whatever may be the fate of the Poem, I shall never blush at an undertaking which has for its object the praise of the meritorious and the ridicule of the undeserving.