ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow. Wherefore, I beseech you, that ye would confirm your love towards him. For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things. To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it, in the person of Christ; lest Satan should get an advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices." ii. 6—11. Do we not likewise, on religious principle, excite interest and compassion sometimes for adulteresses at the institution of the Magdalen Hospital? and, on their penitence, restore them to society, to their husbands, and even give away penitent prostitutes in honourable marriage? That Mrs. Haller is a sincere penitent, and will lose nothing on a comparison with June Shore, I think, there can be no doubt. The husband of Jane Shore was more amiable and indulgent than Mrs. Haller's. Mrs. Haller lived but a few weeks with her paramour, and repented and left him in the prime of life and beauty. Jane Shore lived some years with hers, and in the wane of life was separated from him by his death. Mrs. H. retires from society, maintains herself by her own industry, and employs her time and her little wealth, in acts of charity. She does not desire to be restored to her husband by carrying pollution to his arms; but voluntarily confesses her crime and gives him a written acknowledgment of it, in order to enable him to proceed by law to procure a divorce. Mrs. H. attracts the notice of a young man of family and fortune, who entertains the most delicate attachment towards her, and proposes marriage; had she been still abandoned, she might, probably, if she had chosen, have lived with him as his mistress. Jane Shore, too, gives a proof of her repentance, by her refusal of the solicitations of Hastings; but his addresses were of a more repulsive nature. We are left at an uncertainty with respect to the extent of the forgiveness of Count Waldbourg, and how far they "will be very happy, after all that has passed." If we may form a conjecture from their different dispositions, supposing them to live together again, I conceive that there cannot be much real happiness between them; that their lives are passed in retirement, and that they by no means return to the gaieties of the world. I certainly agree with Mrs. West, that such an one is not "to preside at scenes of public festivity, or to dictate amusements." (p. 326.) And there is a wide difference between associating with the adulteress or the prostitute, during her guilty career, and countenancing the repentance, and soothing the sorrow of the contrite heart. The husband in Jane Shore, is still more forgiving, he seeks her out, and proposes retiring with her from the world: Will you then go? You glad my very soul. Banish your fears, cast all your cares on me; Plenty and ease, and peace of mind shall wait you, And make your latter days of life more happy. A. II. end. Again Act V. Scene 2. where she is dying, and he seeks her out, he says, Cast ev'ry black and guilty thought behind thee, And let me never vex thy quiet more. My arms, my heart, are open to receive thee, * * Beheld, unknown, thy mourning and repentance; And holds thee white as unoffending innocence.t I know not, neither, whether it can be said with strict propriety, that Jane Shore suffers on account of her adultery. Her connection with Edward, was the remote cause of her lamentable end; but the immediate cause was political, her espousing the interest of Edward's children against the usurper Gloster. I must own it appears to me, that the character of Mrs. Haller holds out no sanction to the crime of adultery, nor do I think that the author intended to offer any excuse for it. I believe his only object to have been, to produce an interesting play, which he has certainly done. How far he has done this judiciously, and whether he might not have produced a play equally interesting, and far more instructive, is another question. But, in estimating the effect of the play, as a lesson, we must take into the account all the self-reproaches of Mrs. Haller, and the conduct of the Countess, when Mrs. H. confesses to her who she is: "Did you never hear of the Countess Waldbourg? Countess. I think I did hear, at the neighbouring court, of such * See before, p. 156. + See before, p. 244. Isaiah i. 18. a creature. She plunged an honourable husband into misery. She ran away with a villain. Mrs. H. She did indeed. Do not cast me from you. [Falls at the feet of the Countess.] -I am that wretch. Ha!-Begone! Countess. [Turning from her with horror.] [Going. Her heart draws her back.] Yet, she is unfortunate: she is unfriended! Her image is repentance-Her life the proof-She has wept her fault in her three years agony. Be still awhile, remorseless prejudice, and let the genuine feelings of my soul avow--they do not truly honour virtue, who can insult the erring heart that would return to her sanctuary. [Looking with sorrow on her.] Rise, I beseech you, rise! My husband and my brother may surprise us. I promise to be silent. [Raising her.] Mrs. H. Yes, you will be silent-But, oh! conscience! conscience! thou never wilt be silent. [Clasping her hands] - Nothing can palliate my guilt; and the only just consolation left me, is, to acquit the man I wronged, and own I erred without a cause of fair complaint." A. III. S. 2: Mrs. Haller's whole conduct, and all her sentiments are in this strain; and can it be said, that this is any palliation of adultery, and that the adulteress can find any shelter in this play? The great fault of the play, seems to me to be in the manner in which the character of the husband is treated. Mrs. Haller, the adulteress, the sinner, is the interesting character, a penitent, accomplished without affectation, of superior understanding, and benevolent in her disposition. He, the person sinned against, with little cause for self-reproach, (speaking as a man) is the gloomy misanthrope. His concern is not for her, as having sinned and offended her Maker; but his own honour and pride are hurt. This, though not a good lesson to exhibit, as it is exhibited, is but too true a picture of what is frequently the case in the world; a great sin will alarm the conscience," ," bring the sinner to his consideration, and While the person sinned against, if he does not call in religion to his aid, becomes soured in his temper, and not turn him to a penitent. * Great crimes alarm the conscience, but it sleeps While thoughtless man is plausibly amus'd. 66 Cowper's Task, B. iii. 1. 185. Bishop Wilson, likewise, says, "A fault, which humbles a man, is of more use to him than a good action which puffs him up with pride.” Maxims. Art. Humility. §. 6. only hates the person who has injured him, but almost all the world beside. Here the author might have made a most valuable lesson, had he thought proper to have improved it; and, by means of his friend, or some Clergyman (as in the play of Lovers Vows) have brought him to a due sense of his state, and that of his wife, from explaining to him the true nature of repentance, forgiveness, and the real state of this world and of the next. That he has not done so, is not peculiar to this play or this author. We have seen before what is the religion of the Drama (see p. 25, &c. 112, &c.) and this play too fully exemplifies it, though this play is not totally devoid of both morality and piety. Count Waldbourg, we find from the play, A. I. S. 1. p. 13. of Mrs. Inchbald's Edition of the British Theatre, had studied and derived his consolation, not from the promises of the Gospel, but from Zimmerman on Solitude. Of this author and his Work, Ely Bates Esq. in his Rural Philosophy, gives the following account: "Zimmerman was undoubtedly a writer of singular endowments; he possessed great mental sensibility, and a cast of imagination which might be thought sublime; but does not seem to have been equally distinguished by force of reason, or solidity of judgment. In his philosophy he appears to me superficial, and in his notions of virtue, wild and romantic. To justify this censure it may be sufficient to observe, that an author who associates the names of Voltaire and Rousseau with that of the illustrious Bacon, and who regards their writings in common as devoted to the instruction and happiness of mankind,* must have very slender pretensions to the character either of a philosopher or a moralist; and, when most favourably estimated, can only rank as a grave sentimentalist." Preface, p. v. Upon some of the religious sentiments of Mrs. Haller, as expressed in the second song, A. IV. S. 1. there are some very just remarks in Mrs. West's Letters addressed to a Young Man, vol. iii. p. 221.† It is but justice to the German author to say, that this song is not his, but is of English growth. “Zimmerman on Solitude, p. 176, 7.— This reminds me of a minor Prophet of the Gallican School, who laments that the two former of these great men could not bring themselves to unite for the salvation of the world!”—or words to the same effect. + I cannot forbear noticing a sentence in this critique, which is another instance how apt writers are, unguardedly, to fall into nonsense and improprieties: the writer exclaims—“ But why, in the name Whether those who object to the principles of The Stranger would allow the introduction of the religious sentiments, which I wish for, I rather doubt. I have, however, on my side, the opinion of the pious Dr. Watts, in the Preface to his Hora Lyrica, referred to before, p. 108, and Jonas Hanway, and other of the authorities referred to in Note G. to Discourse I. In point of religion, however, The Stranger is not inferior to Jane Shore. Some exceptionable passages from Jane Shore have been already adduced, p. 127. 136. 153. 156. To these I will only add another, where it seems that Jane Shore thinks it possible that her own tears can wash away her stains: She says to Dumont, O forgive my tears! They fall for my offences--and must fall Long, long 'ere they can wash my stains away. A. I. S. 2. Thus, likewise, Mrs. Haller: "What were my penitence, if I hoped advantage from it beyond the consciousness of atonement for past offence ? * A. V. S. 1. But this, likewise, is the language of Calista : Then, when you see me meagre, wan and chang'd, A. IV. A. V. So, likewise, in Letters to a "Who, for Heaven's sake! 66 of the Goddess of Nonsense, &c. p. 223. Young Lady, vol. iii. p. 11. 3d Edition. could live with a drum and kettle drum, or endure the monotony of a bagpipe and castanets ??? Is not this an appeal to Heaven on much too trifling an occasion? especially in a moral writer? * And does not the speech of the Countess, before adduced (p. 247.) seem to imply the same thing: "She has wept her fault in her three years' agony ?" DD |
