_Spectator_.

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NOTES OF A READER

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DECLINE OF THE DRAMA.


One thing which I am unable to interpret among the oddities of the English,
is their inconsistency respecting dramatic entertainments. I have never
yet been present where two or three of my countrymen were gathered
together, that, after a wrangling review of the weather, they did not turn
their conversation upon the theatres. There is no topic more universally
discussed than the decadence of the drama, or the engagements, merits,
and adventures of the performers. Neither the Lord Chancellor nor the
Archbishop of Canterbury is ever so familiarly known by name and person
to the public, as the first tragedian and comedian of the day; and the
theatrical belles and heroines are either elevated to the peerage by
matrimony, or lowered by the undertaker into Westminster Abbey. As some
French Vaudevillist observed, "Moliere was denied in France the rights of
sepulture, while