of quality mentioned, even if it be only in a book from the circulating library. Do write a paper, Sir, against pride and haughtiness, and people forgetting their country friends and acquaintance, and you will very much oblige, Your's, &c. ELISABETH HOMESPUN. P. S. My uncle's partner, the young gentlemen I mentioned above, takes my part when my coufins joke upon intimacies with great folks; I think he is a much genteeler and better bred man than I took him for at first, N N° 54. N° 54. SATURDAY, July 31. 1779. MONG the letters of my correfpondents, AMONG letters of my taining obfervations on the conduct and fuccefs of my paper. Of thefe, fome recommend fubjects of criticism as of a kind that has been extremely popular in fimilar periodical publi cations, and on which, according to them, I have dwelt too little. Others complain, that the critical papers I have published were written in a ftyle and manner too abftruse and technical for the bulk of my readers, and defire me to remember, that, in a performance addreffed to the world, only the language of the world fhould be used. I was last night in a company, where a piece of converfation-criticifm took place, which, as the fpeakers were well-bred perfons of both fexes, was neceffarily of the familiar kind. As an endea vour, therefore, to please both the above-mentioned correfpondents, I fhall fet down, as nearly as I can recollect, the difcourfe of the com pany. pany. It turned on the Tragedy of Zara, at the representation of which all of them had been prefent a few evenings ago. "It is remarkable," faid Mr "what "an æra of improvement in the French drama " may be marked from the writings of M. de "Voltaire. The cold and tedious declama❝tion of the former French tragedians he had "tafte enough to fee was not the language of "paffion, and genius enough to execute his " pieces in a different manner. He retained "the eloquence of Corneille, and the tender"nefs of Racine; but he never fuffered the "firft to fwell into bombaft, nor the other "to fink, into languor. He accompanied "them with the force and energy of our Shakespeare, whom he had the boldness to "follow;"" and the meannefs to decry," faid the lady of the house. "He has been "unjuft to Shakespeare, I confefs," replied Sir H (who has been a confiderable time abroad, and has brought home fomewhat more than the language and dress of our neighbours); yet I think I have obferved "our partiality for that exalted poet carry us "as unreasonable lengths on the other fide. "When we afcribe to Shakespeare innumerVOL. II. " "able ༢་་ "able beauties, we do him but justice; but, "when we will not allow that he has faults, "we give him a degree of praise to which no "writer is intitled, and which he, of all men, "expected the leaft. It was impoffible that, "writing in the fituation he did, he fhould "have escaped inaccuracies; fuffice it to say, they always arofe from the exuberance of "fancy, not the fterility of dullness." "There is much truth in what you say," anfwered Mr ; I but Voltaire was un"just when, not fatisfied with pointing out "blemishes in Shakespeare, he cenfured a "whole nation as barbarous, for admiring his "works. He muft, himself, have felt the "excellence of a poet, whom, in this very "tragedy of Zara, he has not difdained to "imitate, and to imitate very closely too. The speech of Orofmane, (or Ofman, as the Englifh tranflation calls him), beginning, J'aurais d'un oeil ferene, d'un front inal terable, "is almost a literal copy of the complaint of “Othello : Had Had it rain'd All forts of curses on me, &c. "which is perhaps the reason why our tranf "lator has omitted it." "I do not pre "tend to justify Voltaire," returned Sir H-; "yet it must be remembered, in alleviation, "that the French have formed a fort of na "tional taste in their theatre, correct, per, "haps, almoft to coldnefs. In Britain, I am "afraid, we are apt to err on the other fide ; "to mistake rhapsody for fire, and to applaud "a forced metaphor for a bold one. I do not "cite Dryden, Lee, or the other poets of their age; for that might be thought unfair; "but, even in the prefent ftate of the English "stage, is not my idea warranted by the prac"tice of poets, and the applaufe of the audi"ence? A poet of this country, who, in o"ther paffages, has often touched the tender "feelings with a masterly hand, gives to the "hero of one of his latest tragedies, the fol"ing speech: Had I a voice like Etna when it roars, |