On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
or a sentiment expressed , that would not he admutible in tht drawing * rdom of any gentleman of real refinement j and if ever you find a de « viation from that rule , I will submit to the utmost extent of your severity , indeed to the total deprivation of your future favours . ( Heav %
hear . ) I hare , gentlemen , on more than one occasion , trespassed upon your time , by an attempted advocacy of the claims of the Drama to that distinction so willingly conceded to every other imitative art ; and have been influenced in that attempt , by a supposition thut professional experience mi ^ ht probably force upon my observation arguments in our fuvour in addition to those universal conclusions that
are satisfactory lo every liberal and unprtjndiced mind . May I now venture to solicit , that in your reflections upon this subject , you will consider the claims of the stage with reference to its analogy to every other art , and the consequent advantage that arises to ail , by having one arena where their beauties can be blended and concentrated , C Cheers . ) The most fastidious person will scarcely dispute that the mind of Shakspeare was a vast illumination to the powers of others ,
that produced a thousand efforts of kindred genius . Amongst painters , for instance , Fuseli acknowledged that the perusal of his works often stimulated him to enterprise and exertion , mid had the liberality to declare that his " Shakspeaie gallery" was equally a monument to the genius that created , as to him who gave to those creations another form and aspect . ( Hear , hear . ) It is * said of Correggio , that he seldom painted a picture not previously suggested
by poetic description ; and a great genius of the present clay , allowed in a meeting like the present that the groupings even in some of our melo-diamas assisted him in his extraordinary creations . ( Cheers . ) Gentlemen , I could multiply illustration upon illustration . Let us now revert to musicians . Who csn deny but that the finest English melodies will be found in the good old operas of the stage ? Was not Shield created by that sympathetic feeling , that combined the author
and musician ? The talents of Bishop are essentially dramatic ; to the stage we owe the beauty of a Weber i \ nd Rossini , because there was no other field sufficiently diversified for their genius to range in . Beethoven slate * that notwithstanding bis blindness , he attended dramatic representations for the purpose of catchin ^ * tones and expressions that it was afterwards his amusement to reduce to musical modulation ; and so it is , that one gnat mind causes impressions to
insensibly glide into creation without art or effort , and therefore becomes so extensive in its variety of useful application . [ Loud cheers . ) If this position be admitted , is it any unnatural stretch of my argument , to suppose that the illiterate and uninformed mind must be occasionally advantaged by the scatterings of the seeds of intelligence that influenced beneficially their after lives ? If , to use a professional term , you can make an audience *• feel an effect , " you mu > t have
produced that curiosity that leads to enquiry , and so progresses to instruction . Now , gentlemen , if you allow the analogy of arts with the sta ^ e , what become * of the moral objection to giving those arts a representative form , " a local habitation and u name , ' ( Hear . ) There is not 11 religious person of intelligence *—and I be ^ it to t > e understood I tptak of them with no feeling of acrinftony , with no desire to recrimiimt « , —* tbtir professing religion it sufficient to mnke me pause upon
Untitled Article
* 44 tnietfrvctihikty of th * fatm * :
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1836, page 334, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2658/page/6/
-