MIRROR OF TASTE

AND

DRAMATIC CENSOR.

FOR THE YEAR 1811.

The property of this Work being transferred from Messrs. Bradford and Inskeep to Thomas Barton Zantzinger and Co. the first Number of the year 1811 (January) will be published at the store of the said Thomas Barton Zantzinger and Co. Shakspeare Buildings, South Sixth, near Chesnut street.

THE CONDUCTORS OF THE MIRROR OF TASTE TO THE PUBLIC.

ON the commencement of a new year, something prefatory is expected from the editors of periodical publications: long established custom sanctions the expectation; and we reverence the laws of prescription too much to violate them, even in cases of inferior consequence. Entering on the second year of this work, therefore, we think it incumbent on us to say a few words in that way, not only to offer the customary compliments to our friends, but to inform them that THE MIRROR now comes into the world under new auspices, and with means which embolden us to affirm, that the management of the work in the ensuing year shall fully compensate for its deficiencies in the last.

Retrospectively, we have much to lament, but nothing to be ashamed of. It may be said, that we have failed in redeeming some of the pledges given in our original prospectus: and this charge is certainly true; but we can also state with truth, that the delay is to be ascribed solely to circumstances not within the control of the Editor.

So much for the mechanical and commercial conduct of the work. Of the editorial, we freely confess, that its defects, whatever they may be, are entirely our own: for incorrectness in the language, want of taste in the selection, deficiency of interest in the general matter, or error of judgment in the critical observations, whatever the blame may be, we have no one to share it with us: neither, of the little there may be deserving of praise, can any one lay claim to a share, (our ingenious and respectable correspondent DRAMATICUS excepted); since, besides what came from him, we have not received one page of contribution: a fact which, though true, may appear singular; but which we ascribe to the unostentatious nature, and modest reserve of our literary scribes.

Had we no other difficulties than the want of correspondents, to encounter, we should have no plea to offer in abatement of the rigour of criticism: but many and of various kinds have been the clogs upon our efforts; many the obstacles which could not be foreseen, nor, if foreseen, prevented; inhering, as some of them do, in the nature of the work itself, and the checkered disposition of mankind." Quot homines, tot sententia," says the great Roman ́ dramatist; or, in vulgar English phrase, “So many men, so many minds." The human taste is volatile, variable, impatient of control, disloyal to its standard, untrue even to itself, and too often the mere versatile handmaid of a vain and froward will. To please all, therefore, were hopeless; to please many, for a long time, difficult. In criticism, we agnize a scantiness of one quality which others think worth all the rest put together. Men are more inclinable to censure than to praise, and often think that to be wit, which is, in truth, only malice. If we know ourselves, we have never been vain enough to aspire to the one; and we do most cordially abhor the other. Wanting both, our criticisms were disrelished by those who had enough of either one or other to satisfy themselves. Such censors, as we are, cannot please those who open a critical essay, as kind souls go to a public execution, to indulge their sympathies. with the butchery of their fellow creatures. Had we flayed alive the players, as very many expected we should have done, disgust would have taken place of pleasure in the audience. Far from being improved, the actors, palsied by reproach, would have sunk under their feelings; and perhaps some, in the agonies of a noble spirit bruised by wanton cruelty, would have shared the fate of

Fullarton: the interests of the drama require no such sacrificethey are not worth it-they shall not have it from us.

There were several other disadvantages we had to encounter in our first year: the state of the times was peculiarly unfavourable, in a commercial point of view, to any work of enterprise; the number of periodical publications, which had already established their just claims to public support, dried up or preoccupied many of the sources of patronage; and while, from without, a multitude of circumstances concurred to discourage hope, and depress exertion, domestic calamity fell with a weight, scarcely to be sustained, and for a long time smothered all our energies. In nothing else presuming to claim alliance with the great lexicographer of Britain, we cannot more truly describe the circumstances under which the greater part of THE MIRROR OF TASTE was composed, than in the very words which that great and good man uses in the preface to his English Dictionary, to describe the circumstances under which he wrote that work: "With little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academic bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow." With the recollection of so many embarrassments, pressing themselves upon the mind, we cannot help contemplating with wonder, and indeed with something like pride, the station which THE MIRROR OF TASTE now holds in public estimation. It is surely something to be able at this time to say, that we can survey our present situation with pleasure, and look forward to the future with more than hope.

In what manner the work may be carried on, the part already published has shown. In what manner it shall be carried on, is a point on which it might not, perhaps, become us to speak, and on which, therefore, we "refer our readers to the coming on of time." Some slight changes may take place in the arrangement; some material ones will be made in the general management of the work. For a religious observance of all promises, and the most strict punctuality in the publication, we pledge ourselves. The prints. shall be judiciously selected, and executed in the best manner, by the best artists in America; and the plays, accompanying the several numbers, shall be printed with a type, and in a form which cannot fail to give perfect satisfaction.

We have nothing to add, but that upon this plain, unvarnished representation of the subject, we feel some confidence of success,

when we solicit the support of the public in general, and in particular, the correspondence of the learned and ingenious, to whom THE MIRROR Opens a wide field for literary exercitation, being by no means confined to the drama, and excluding from its pages nothing but politics, theology, professional polemics of every kind, and the more profound parts of erudition.

TERMS.

The price of the Mirror will be eight dollars per annum, payable on the publication of the sixth Number in each year.

A Number will be issued every month, forming two volumes in the year.

With each Number will be delivered a play.

Each Number will be embellished with an elegant engraving.

WHEN a few writers of more boldness than others had brought the battery of ridicule to bear upon "The MYSTERIES," a practicable breach was soon made in that monstrous system of amusement; and as it began to fall into disrepute, dramas of a less preposterous nature succeeded. The religious mysteries were gradually decried; and a kind of heathen mystery became the fashion of the times. The innovation which had begun with "The tragedy of the Sacrifice of Abraham," the "Joyous Mystery of the Three Kings," and the "Pleasant Conceit of the Apocalypse of St. John of Zebedee," already mentioned, encouraged other poets to employ their talents in the invention of new modes of dramatic amusement; and there appeared a play called "The Mystery of the destruction of Troy the great; the rape of Helen done by Paris, and composed in good French rhyme; together with the prowess, the victories, and the nobleness of the valiant Hector; the damnable treason committed by the Greeks, and other transactions between the Trojans and Grecians." This piece excited no less admiration than the religious mysteries had done before, and, VOL. III,