"Ravenna, January 4. 1821.
"I just see, by the papers of Galignani, that there is a new
tragedy of great expectation, by Barry Cornwall. Of what I have
read of his works Hiked the _Dramatic_ Sketches, but thought his
Sicilian Story and Marcian Colonna, in rhyme, quite spoilt, by I
know not what affectation of Wordsworth, and Moore, and myself, all
mixed up into a kind of chaos. I think him very likely to produce a
good tragedy, if he keep to a natural style, and not play tricks to
form harlequinades for an audience. As he (Barry Cornwall is not
his _true_ name) was a schoolfellow of mine, I take more than
common interest in his success, and shall be glad to hear of it
speedily. If I had been aware that he was in that line, I should
have spoken of him in the preface to Marino Faliero. He will do a
world's wonder if he produce a great tragedy. I am, however,
persuaded, that this is not to be done by following the old
dramatists,--who are full of gross faults, pardoned only for the
beauty of their language,--but by writing naturally and
_regularly_, and producing _regular_ tragedies, like the _Greeks_;
but not in _imitation_,--merely the outline of their conduct,
adapted to our own times and circumstances, and of course _no_
chorus.
"You will laugh, and say, 'Why don't you do so?' I have, you see,
tried a sketch in Marino Faliero; but many people think my talent
'_essentially undramatic_,' and I am not at all clear that they are
not right. If Marino Faliero don't fall--in the perusal--I shall,
perhaps, try again (but not for the stage); and, as I think that
_love_ is not the principal passion for tragedy (and yet most of
ours turn upon it), you will not find me a popular writer. Unless
it is love, _furious, criminal_, and _hapless_, it ought not to
make a tragic subject. When it is melting and maudlin, it _does_,
but it ought not to do; it is then for the gallery and second-price
boxes.
"If you want to have a notion of what I am trying, take up a
_translation_ of any of the _Greek_ tragedians. If I said the
original, it would be an impudent presumption of mine; but the
translations are so inferior to the originals, that I think I may
risk it Then judge of the 'simplicity of plot,' &c. and do not
judge me by your old mad dramatists, which is like drinking
usquebaugh and then proving a fountain. Yet after all, I suppose
that you do not mean that spirits is a nobler element than a clear
spring bubbling in the sun? and this I take to be the difference
between the Greeks and those turbid mountebanks--always excepting
Ben Jonson, who was a scholar and a classic. Or, take up a
translation of Alfieri, and try the interest, &c. of these my new
attempts in the old line, by _him_ in _English_; and then tell me
fairly your opinion. But don't measure me by YOUR OWN _old_ or
_new_ tailors' yards. Nothing so easy as intricate confusion of
plot and rant. Mrs. Centlivre, in comedy, has _ten times the bustle
of Congreve_; but are they to be compared? and yet she drove
Congreve from the theatre."
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