THE BRITISH STAGE. IMITATIO VITAE, SPECULUM CONSUETUDINIS, IMAGO VERITATIS. Cicere? The Imitation of LIFE---The Mirror of MANNERS---The Representation of TRUTH. ON THE ECCLESIASTICAL CANONS IN THE ROMISH CHURCH, WHICH Prohibit the Burial of Actors in consecrated Ground. MR. EDITOR, I PERCEIVE that your plan does not exclude the notice of Foreign theatres. I have read some amusing articles in your work relative to the French, German, and Portugueze stages, and I confess I should consider your publication as conducted upon too narrow a principle if you entirely overlooked the dramatic concerns of our continental neighbours. The following paragraph in a morning paper* of the 23d instant, brought to my recollection the observations of an ingenious writer, which I had formerly perused with no less satisfaction than conviction, and which, it occurred to me, might not be unacceptable to the readers of the Monthly Mirror. The paragraph is couched in these words: "Mademoiselle Chameroy, the Parisian actress, was interred on the 17th inftant, in the evening about seven o'clock: her remains were attended by a long procession; it consisted of numerous deputations from all the theatres. But an unfortunate event occurred, which disturbed the solemnity of this melancholy ceremony: when the procession had reached the church of Saint Roch, they found the gates shut, and the curate declared, that Mad. Chameroy having died an actress, she was excommunicated by the Canon laws, and could not be received into the church. Every effort was made to induce him to alter his opinion, but in vain : he declared he could not relax in the least, unless they produced him a certificate of the confession of the deceased; and as this could not be done, he persisted that the gates of the church should remain shut. These delays caused an immense crowd to assemble, and it was proposed by some that the gates of the church should be forced, and by others that an officer of justice should be sent for, in order that the refusal of the curate should be formerly verified. Neither of these measures were adopted, the body was taken to the church of St. Thomas, where it was received without any opposition." *The Morning Herald. "Voltaire," says the writer I speak of, "in his Temple of Taste.* accuses the French preachers of having found out the secret of lulLing a congregation to sleep by their discourses. C'est ce Dieu qu' implore & révère Toute la Troupe des Acteurs, Qui représentent sur la terre ; Et ceux qui viennent dans la chaire Upon this passage the author of the Bibliothèque Raisonnée des ouvrages des Savans de l' Europe, has the following remark. "It is very clear that the writer, in his two last verses, means to describe the clergy; but as it is the only instance of his mentioning the taste of the pulpit, it is inconceivable that in all France there should not be a single preacher who does not set his congregation asleep, and it is still more inconceivable, that all the preachers of the kingdom should implore and revere the God of Taste with so little success, whilst out of toute la troupe des acteurs, at least one actress has been found who has merited the honour of an altar in the temple of this deity, as the author informs us immediately after. C'est-là que je vous vis, aimable Couvreur Si les saintes rigueurs d'un préjugé cruel "We may easily infer from thence," continues the author of the Bibliothèque Raisonnée, " that the writer is one of those persons who are always kept awake by a beautiful actress, and who as constantly fall asleep under our best sermons; but ought he to have said this in the account of a journey in which a Cardinal and an Published at Amsterdam in 1733. + In the second edition, also published at Amsterdam in 1733, which is called the true edition, Voltaire has disclaimed the first, though in a manner somewhat indirect. These five verses do not appear in this true edition, which differs so materially from the former, that it may be almost said to be another work. Vol. X. p. 2 p. 416. Abbe are his guides* ? Ought he there to have treated as a cruel prejudice the Ecclesiastical Canons which deny the honours of christian burial to persons of the same profession with Le Couvreur Let him say what he will, these canons are very wise, and the observance of them ought to be inviolable, unless the ritual of the office of the dead were suppressed, when people are buried whose life has been, in every respect, a constant scandal to the church. It would be a ridicule of religion to sing over the body of an actress whose virtue consists ordinarily in nothing more than a voice-to sing, I say, on committing her remains to the earth, the Antiphona, In Paradisum deducant te Angeli. In tuo adventu suscipiant te Martyres, et perducant in Civitatem Sanctam Jerusalem. Chorus Angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere, æternam habeas requiem.” The author of the Temple of Taste treats as a cruel prejudice that which denies ecclesiastical burial, in France, Portugal, Spain, and elsewhere, to the comedians. In my opinion, he is quite in the right, and the author of the Bibliothèque Raisonnée has very unjustly censured him for so doing." The Ecclesiastical Canons,” he says, prohibit the interring of comedians in consecrated ground." That is saying nothing we know that the ecclesiastical canons of which he speaks, far from being infallible, contain numerous errors;— these in particular are the very contrary of wise, and the observance of them might be neglected, without suppressing the ritual of the office of the dead, merely on this account. : The invocation which is made to the angels, and the assistance of the martyrs which is implored to conduct their souls into the heavenly Jerusalem, are, in my opinion, the strongest reasons for suppressing this ritual altogether, not so far as respects merely the comedians, but the dead in general. Is it not a mockery, both of religion and common sense, to permit the antiphona, "May the angels conduct thee into Paradise!" to be sung over the body of a common courtezan, or a public robber, and not over a comedian ?"Oh," says our author, "the virtue of an actress ordinarily consists in nothing but a voice." This is overstrained: there are actresses who are virtuous in other respects. La Faustine was never regarded otherwise than as a very virtuous woman; at Vienna, at Venice, and elsewhere, her good conduct uniformly met with admiration, and secured her from the reproaches and shame which *The author of the Temple of Taste professes to have for his guides Cardinal de Polignac and the Abbé de Rothelin. several of her own sex have drawn upon themselves, who have never been on the stage. Is it not an open mockery, I repeat, to refuse this holy ground to a Faustine, or even, if you please, to every other actress, who had, while living, the virtue, or the art, of singing well, and to grant this holy ground to a highwayman or a strumpet, both abandoned to the commission of crimes the most odious, disgraceful, and destructive to society ?* Father Barros, a Jesuit, was called upon to confess a man of quality, who was at the point of death. The dying man told him that he had lived for several years with a concubine, and that he had deprived an heir of his possessions, by indirect and criminal means. "Before I can give you absolution," said the Jesuit to him, 66 you must send your mistress about her business, and make ample restitution of the property you have unjustly acquired, and declare, at the same time, to whom it legally belongs.”—" I will do neither one nor the other," said the sick man." Very well," replied Father Barros, "in a moment you will become an inhabitant of Hell; and you will be damned without hope of mercy."-" Be it so, Father," rejoined the Nobleman: "I should like to know whether you speak the truth, and whether you form a just notion of what may happen to me in the other world."-So saying, he turned his back on the confessor, and died. The ecclesiastical canons do not exclude an impenitent wretch of this sort from church burial; one who, from his own confession, had been for several years living in a state of constant profligacy and vice. This man, or this monster, has been buried with as much solemnity, as if he had been a most devout christain. Over his body has been sung the Antiphona, by which the angels and the holy martyrs are besought favourably to receive his soul, and charged to conduct it into Paradise, or place it near Lazarus, in the heavenly Jerusalem. The canons have no objection to this. Their rigour is solely confined to the poor comedians. Let them die in the most perfect repentance of their sins; let them manifest the most unequivocal signs of it; nothing of all this will obtain for them the honour of ecclesiastical burial-they must "in ground unsanctified be lodged," and left to perish like rats "in holes and corners."* ttt. Antonio Ruiz, a Spaniard, maintained a creditable situation on the Lisbon stage, for several years. He was an excellent poet, philosopher, historian, and courtier, He was also a virtuous man, as well as a deserving actor. His good conduct procured him a handsome pension from the king. Respected by the nobility, and connected with several of the prelates, he was also the idol of the people, and yet this man could expect, at his death, no better burial place than a dog. Such is the wisdom of these canons, ORIGINAL LETTER FROM MR. GARRICK TO THE SECRETARY OF THE CUSTOMS. DEAR SIR, Nor Rachael weeping for her children could shew more sorrow than Mrs. Garrick-not weeping for her children,--she has nonenor indeed for her husband; thanks be to the humour of the times, she can be as philosophical upon that subject as her betters.-What does she weep for then? Shall I dare tell you? It is-it is for the loss of a chintz bed and curtains.-The tale is short, and is as follows:-I have taken some pains to oblige the gentlemen of Calcutta, by sending them plays, scenes, and other services in my way; in return, they have sent me Madeira, and poor Rachael the unfortunate chintz. She has had it four years, and upon making some alterations in our little place at Hampton, she intended to shew away with her prohibited present. She had prepared paper chairs, &c. for this favourite token of Indian gratitude. But, alas! all human felicity is frail. No care having been taken on my wife's part, and some treachery being exerted against her, it was seized, the very bed, "by the coarse hands of filthy dungeon villains, and thrown among the common lumber." If you have the least pity for a distressed female, any regard for her husband, (for he has a bad time of it) or any wishes the environs of Bushy-Park be made tolerably neat and clean, you may put your finger and thumb to the business, and take the thorn out of Rachael's side. I am, dear Sir, Yours, D. GARRICK. TEXT." For earthly power doth then look likest God's, when mercy seasons justice. Shakespear's Merchant of Venice. PETITION. O Stanley, give ear to a husband's petition, If you knew what I suffer since she has been caught, |