Chapter 12

"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."

* * * * *