rules prescribed by the ancients, from the classical simplicity of the old models? It is very difficult, almost impossible, to write any thing to please a modern audience. I was instrumental in getting up ‘Bertram,’ and it was said that I wrote part of it myself. That was not the case. I knew Maturin to be a needy man, and interested myself in his success: but its life was very feeble and ricketty. I once thought of getting Joanna Baillie’s ‘De Montfort’ revived; but the winding-up was faulty. She was herself aware of this, and wrote the last act over again; and yet, after all, it failed. She must have been dreadfully annoyed, even more than Lady was. When it was bringing out, I was applied to, to write a prologue; but as the request did not come from Kean, who was to speak it, I declined. There are fine things in all the Plays on the Passions: an idea in ‘De Montfort’ struck me particularly; one of the characters said that he knew the footsteps of another.[1]
- ↑ “De Montfort.—’Tis Rezenvelt: I heard his well-known foot!
“From the first staircase, mounting step by step.
“Freberg.—How quick an ear thou hast for distant sound!
“I heard him not.”Act II. Scene 2.
