The New English Drama, with prefatory remarks, biographical sketches, and notes ... with ... stage directions. ... Edited by W. O

Front matter

THE NEW ENGLISH DRAMA, WITH PREFATORY REMARKS, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, AND NOTES, Critical anc Œj-planators ; BEING THE ONLY EDITION EXISTING WHICH IS FAITHFULLY MARKED WITH THE STAGE BUSINESS, AND STAGE DIRECTIONS, As Performed <3t the 2Dhratrcs: Ifo-pal. By W. OXBERRY, Comedian. VOLUME SEVENTEENTH. CONTAINING TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. — TEMPEST. CATO. — GEORGE BARNWELL. THE TRAVELLERS. ILcnDon. PUBLISHED FOR THE PROPRIETORS, BY W. SIMPKIN AND R. MARSHALL, STATIONERS' COURT, LUDGATE STREET, AND C. CHAPPLE, 59, PALL MALL. 1823. From the Piess of W. Oxberry, 8, White Hart Yard. Mum MAjLJLAKsHPIE. Engraved by T.WOOLNOTH.from a Drawing by WAGEMAN. MbUshf d 1822 by SimpkmiMarsiall.Stauoiicr s C! k Chappie Pal Malt. ©jebertys dEottton. THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. A COMEDY; 3&B TOilltam dftaitfjpcare.

WITH PREFATORY REMARKS. THE ONLY EDITION EXISTING WHICH IS FAITHFULLY MARKED WITH THE STAGE BUSINESS, AND STAGE DIRECTIONS, AS IT IS PERFORMED AT THE SCljcatrcg Ko^al. BY W. OX BERRY, Comedian. HonDon. PUBLISHED FOR THE PROPRIETORS, BY W. SIMPKIN, AND R. MARSHALL, STATIONERS' COURT, LUDGATE STREET, AND C. CHAPPLE, 59, PALL-MALL 1823. From the Press of W. Oxberry, 8, White-Hart Yard. &cmar&g. TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. " This play," says the editor of the Biographia Dramatica, with a very misplaced display of rapture, " has been looked upon by some authors as the first that Shakspeare wrote j if so, what an amazing; soar of imagination did his genius take at its first flight '." Now, such hyperbolical praise as this must be the offspring either of affectation or of sheer stupidity ; for, though the piece contains some brilliant passages, and would be a feather in the cap of a secondary dramatist, it certainly has nothing about it that calls for these extravagant excla mations.

The critic, after sporting such superlative eulogy upon the " Two Gentlemen of Verona," must have been sadly at a loss for epi thets sufficiently elevated to express his admiration of " Hamlet," " Macbeth," and " Othello." Indeed, the correctness of his judgment is on a par with its consistency, for in the very page that contains the passage just quoted, speaking of an alteration of the play by Victor, be confesses that " a more able hand than his would prove insufficient to raise it into consequence." After all that has been said to the contrary, we suspect that, generally speaking, the popularity or neglect of a dramatic piece is no unfair criterion of its value ; and that, when it is constantly ill-received in the Theatre, its want of success must be placed to some other account than that of bad taste in the audiences who witness it.