Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The British Drama, Vol. 2: Comprehending the Best Plays in the English Language; Comedies
But it is not only to the French, that we boast ourselves superior in comic writing, but to all our contemporaries. The Comic Muse ?ourishes most under a free government. Despotism compels uniformity of character; but in this favoured isle every whim may be indulged. No laws operate to restrain ca price; no tyrant watches to punish private folly, controul inconsistencies, or revenge fickleness. In the land of Freedom grows the legitimate food of Co medy and comic characters, in such a country, arrive at maturity, while, in a. More ungenial region, they would have been checked, if not eradicated, in their earliest infancy. If we look to the Spanish, or Portuguese, or Russian thea tre, we see the dramatic genius of the country kept down by the iron rod of despotism. The follies of the nobles must not be lashed; courtiers must not be exposed; and, if you touch upon religious hypocrisy, the doors of the Inquisition are open to receive you. Such is the state of comedy in tyrannic countries and it is with pride, that we contemplate the cause of its excellence in our own.
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