-which, I presume, must have been
Oronoko.

* * * * *

OTWAY.

The manner of this unfortunate writer's death is variously stated by
various writers. I wish some of the correspondents of the Dramatic
Censor would elucidate this point. I hope the general opinion is not
true, that, being almost famished, he began so ravenously to devour a
loaf which was given him for charity, that the first mouthful choaked
him, and put a period to his existence.

Few dramatic performances require the pruning knife so much, and would
so amply repay the trouble, as some of those of Otway. In the Orphan
there are some passages as gross and offensive as are to be found,
probably in any tragedy whatever. There is moreover too much of horror
in it. The stage, it has been justly remarked, is made a mere
slaughter-house. These objections, both of which are very strong, might
be easily removed--and if they were, the tragedy would be excellent.
After writing these lines I have doubted whether I should not erase
them. The incestuous connexion of Polydore and Monimia, on which the
chief interest of the performance turns, is revolting, and incapable of
being eradicated without destroying the piece.

The error of judgment in Venice Preserved is equally conspicuous. Less
alteration would be necessary to render this tragedy, which is now to
the last degree exceptionable, a _chef d'oeuvre_. Had the tyranny and
oppression of the senators been made prominent and conspicuous--had the
conspirators been animated with the glorious spirit that fired a Bruce,
a Wallace, a Gustavus Vasa, a Hampden, a Sydney, a William Tell, or a
Washington--then angels might have bowed down to hear the language of a
Pierre deploring the miseries of his oppressed countrymen. But when,
instead of glorying in the risk they ran, and the sacrifice they made
for their country, their whole object clearly appears to be rapine and
murder, the liberal mind turns with horror from such a prostitution of
the writer's talents, which, had they been under the government of a
sound judgment and correct principles, would have reflected high honour
on the age and country in which they flourished.

* * * * *

_Candour and Modesty._

Henry Metayer, author of a tragedy called the Perfidious Brother,
committed it to Theobald, of Dunciad memory, for examination and
correction. The latter had the monstrous effrontery, after having mad