Makes a Man].1
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Many a comedy, where the scene is placed in Spain, owes its success to the splendid
fashion of Spanish dresses, to the bustling spirit of hide and seek in chamber-maids
and valets, or to the paroxysms of frantic jealousy between lovers.
The present comedy has claim to public favour upon superior advantages. Here is a
good fable, variety of occurrence, and, above all, some excellently drawn
characters.
The English, in bringing Spaniards upon the stage, have always given them a great
deal to do, and scarcely any thing to say; at least all they have said has generally
amounted to nothing. But in "Love makes a Man," the dramatis personæ
talk as well as act; and speak to a right purpose.
That there should be mind, as well as manners, attached to the characters of this
play, will no longer appear extraordinary, when it is considered, that the production
owes its origin to Beaumont and Fletcher.2
A third author, of no mean repute, exerted his skill in uniting and adorning the
ancient foundation of this work, (the dramas of "The Elder[Page 4]
Brother," and "The Custom of the Country,") according to
the modern taste, in 1700; and introduced the whole composition to the public under
the present title; with the additional name affixed, of Colley Cibber.
Whilst many a judicious critic boasted of knowing what kind of drama the public ought
to like; Cibber was the lucky dramatist
generally to know what they would like, whether they
ought or not. If he secured their interest, he defied their understanding; and here,
in the following scenes, so far he engages the heart in every event, that the head
does not once reflect upon the improbabilities, or even impossibilities, with which
the senses are delighted.
To atone for incident somewhat too extravagant and surprising, the author has brought
on the stage many very rational and most natural personages.
The love of learning in the illiterate Don Lewis, is a just trait of disposition,
though it appears a paradoxical one—and the endowing of a licentious
coxcomb, as
in Clodio,3 with
frankness and valour, has been an impartial distribution of virtues and vices, which
few authors have justice, or rather judgment, enough to bestow upon their copies of
mankind.
The creatures of a writer's brain are much oftener monsters than men; for the wicked
are seldom more deformed by every ill quality, than the virtuous are out of human
shape by every good one; and thus both parties are equally irregular, in not agreeing
with the common order of things.
But lest from this observation, Carlos should be[Page 5] liable to objection, from
his wisdom and goodness, it is proper to allow,—that in him, perfection has
been so naturally accounted for by the poet, in the description of his youth and
passion for study, that he appears like one whom temptations have yet never reached,
rather than like that supernatural being, who can always be proof against them.
This young student, just from college, argues, reasons, and even preaches without
either cant or affectation: and the long lessons which he gives
to Louisa, in the
fourth act,4 are so many short sermons addressed to all
females: which, combined with Louisa's character, will infallibly teach
them—that, though love may sometimes make a man; too frequently—it undoes
a woman.