it are all, at heart, human.
The pervasive spirit of the piece is kindly. Old Dowlas, restricted to
his proper place in life, is a worthy man. Dick Dowlas, intoxicated by
vanity and prosperity, has no harm in him, and he turns out well at
last. Even Dr. Pangloss--although of the species of rogue that subsists
by artfully playing upon the weakness of human vanity--is genial and
amiable; he is a laughing philosopher; he gives good counsel; he hurts
nobody; he is but a mild type of sinner--and the satirical censure that
is bestowed upon him is neither merciless nor bitter. Pangloss, in Milk
Alley, spinning his brains for a subsistence, might be expected to prove
unscrupulous; but the moraliser can imagine Pangloss, if he were only
made secure by permanent good fortune, leading a life of blameless
indolence and piquant eccentricity. From that point of view Jefferson
formed his ideal of the character; and, indeed, his treatment of the
whole piece denoted an active practical sympathy with that gentle view
of the subject. He placed before his audience a truthful picture of old
English manners; telling them, in rapid and cheery action, Colman's
quaint story--in which there is no malice and no bitterness, but in
which simple virtue proves superior to temptation, and integrity is
strong amid vicissitudes--and leaving in their minds, at the last, an
amused conviction that indeed "Nature hath framed strange fellows in her
time." His own performance was full of nervous vitality and mental
sparkle, and of a humour deliciously quaint and droll. Dr. Panglass, as
embodied by Jefferson, is a man who always sees the comical aspect of
things and can make you see it with him, and all the while can be
completely self-possessed and grave without ever once becoming slow or
heavy. There was an air of candour, of ingenuous simplicity, of demure
propriety, about the embodiment, that made it inexpressibly funny. There
was no effort and no distortion. The structure of the impersonation
tingled with life, and the expression of it--in demeanour, movement,
facial play, intonation and business--was clear and crisp, with that
absolute precision and beautiful finish for which the acting of
Jefferson has always been distinguished. He is probably the only
American comedian now left, excepting John S. Clarke, who knows all the
traditional embellishments that have gone to the making of this part
upon the stage--embellishments fitly typified by the bank-note b