nt-up
emotion, burst forth in so mighty a shout, that the discharge of
artillery would hardly have been heard in the throng. The anxiety,
sometimes amounting almost to frenzy, to get a sight of the convicted
murderer, to be present at the condemned sermon, to see his last agonies
on the scaffold, to examine the scenes of his crime, even to obtain a
lock of his hair or a piece of his garments, is another proof of the
disordered and often extravagant desires which the longing for strong
and tragic excitement will produce in a large portion of society. Rely
upon it, deep emotion, if rightly managed and properly directed, is more
attractive than either amusement or licentiousness. Suffering exacts a
far deeper sympathy than joy; the generous, for the time at least,
overpower the selfish feelings. Let but the tragic muse be restored to
her appropriate position on the stage, and supported by the requisite
ability in the author and performers, and she will extinguish rivalry,
and bear down opposition.

We have said that the tragic muse will do this, "if supported by the
requisite ability in the _authors_ and performers." We have said this
advisedly; for we belong to the former class, and we have no complaint
to make of want of ability on the stage. On the contrary, talent and
genius, of the most elevated kind, are to be found upon it. The fault
lies with our own profession, or rather with that portion of it who
cultivate dramatic composition. The origin of the evil is to be found,
the remote cause of the present degraded condition of the stage, is to
be found in--strike but hear--IN SHAKSPEARE!

The most devoted worshipper of the genius of the Bard of Avon, the most
enthusiastic admirer of the profound knowledge of the human heart, and
unequalled force of expression which he possessed, cannot exceed
ourselves in the deep admiration which we entertain for his transcendent
excellences. On the contrary, it is those very excellences which have
done the mischief; it is they which have misled subsequent dramatic
writers in this country, and occasioned the constant failures by which
his imitators have been distinguished. It is not surprising that it is
so. Shakspeare was supremely great; but he was so, not in consequence of
his dramatic principles, but in spite of them. He fired his arrow
further than mortal man has yet done; but he fired it not altogether in
the right direction, and no one since has been able to draw the bow of
Ul