thought it necessary publicly to
disclaim the infamy of the authorship. This circumstance, coupled with
the gross tendency of most of even the best plays of that time, must
convey to the reader a tolerably correct idea how far the wretched
author had outstripped his companions in the career of turpitude.

_An elegant translation._

One Gordon (not Thomas Gordon, the translator of Tacitus) translated
Terence in the year 1752, and rendered the words, _ignarum artis
meretricis_, "_quite a stranger to the trade of these b----s._"

_Beware of a too free use of the bottle._

One Henry Higden, a dramatic writer about the close of the seventeenth
century, wrote a comedy, called the _Wary Widow_, in which he introduced
so many drinking scenes, that the actors were completely drunk before
the end of the third act, and being therefore unable to proceed with the
play, they dismissed the audience.

FOOTNOTES:

[E] See Baker's companion to the playhouse. Vol. I, page 21, 2.

[F] See Baker, Vol. I. page 185.

DRAMATIC CENSOR.

I have always considered those combinations which are formed
in the playhouse as acts of fraud or cruelty. He that
applauds him who does not deserve praise, is endeavouring to
deceive the public. He that hisses in malice or in sport is
an oppressor and a robber.

_Dr. Johnson's Idler, No. 25._

_DOMESTIC CRITICISM._

In dramatic criticism the leading characters of the play, and the actors
who perform them, lay claim to the first and most particular
investigation. Those upon whom the more enlightened part of the public
have bestowed the greatest approbation, require the most severe
scrutiny, since they only can affect the public taste. Birds of passage
too who like Mr. Cooper and Master Payne "_come like shadows, so
depart_," are entitled to priority of attention; we therefore in our
last number, travelled with Mr. Cooper through the characters he
performed on his first visit to Philadelphia, without adverting to the
other performers, except in a few instances, in which the sterling merit
of Mr. Wood impressed itself so strongly on our minds, that we could not
resist our desire to do it justice, and his characters were so closely
connected with those of Mr. Cooper, that we thought they could not well
be separated. It would indeed be difficult to discuss Mr. Cooper's
merits in Zanga or Pierre, without dwelling upon the able support he
received in them, from