I am
probably singular in my taste as an Englishman, when I tell you that I
prefer Shakespeare for the closet and Racine or Voltaire or Corneille for
the stage: and with regard to English tragedies, I prefer as an acting
drama Home's _Douglas_[46] to any of Shakespeare's, _Macbeth_ alone
excepted; and for this plain reason that the interest in _Douglas_ never
flags, nor is diverted.
In giving my mite of admiration to the French stage, I am fully aware of
its faults, of the long declamation and the _fade galanterie_ that
prevailed before Voltaire made the grand reform in that particular: and on
this account I prefer Voltaire as a tragedian to Racine and Corneille. The
_Phedre_ and _Athalie_ of Racine are certainly masterpieces, and little
inferior to them are _Iphigenie, Andromaque_ and _Britannicus_, but in the
others I think he must be pronounced inferior to Voltaire; as a proof of my
argument I need only cite _Zaire, Alzire, Mahomet, Semiramis, l'Orphelin de
la Chine, Brutus_. Voltaire has, I think, united in his dramatic writings
the beauties of Corneille, Racine and Crebillon and has avoided their
faults; this however is not, I believe, the opinion of the French in
general, but I follow my own judgment in affairs of taste, and if anything
pleases me I wait not to ascertain whether the "master hath said so.
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