THE CASTLE SPECTRE. A DRAMATIC ROMANCE, En Five Acts, BY MEWIS, 1175-1818 PRINTED FROM THE ACTING COPY, WITH REMARKS, BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL. To which are added, A DESCRIPTION OF THE COSTUME,-CAST OF THE CHARACTERS, EXITS AND ENTRANCES,-RELATIVE POSITION OF THE PERFORMERS ON THE STAGE, AND THE WHOLE OF THE STAGE BUSINESS, As now Performed at the THEATRES-ROYAL, LONDON. EMBELLISHED WITH A FINE WOOD ENGRAVING, By Mr. WHITE, from a Drawing by Mr. R. CRUIKSHANK. LONDON: JOHN CUMBERLAND, 19, LUDGATE HILL. A BELIEF has existed, in all ages and countries, in supernatural appearances. So universal was the impression in former times, that "Departed Spirits have appear'd to men, that it would have been accounted heresy to deny the fact; and indeed the re-appearance of departed spirits becomes an interesting question, even in these matter-of-fact days; since not only among the ignorant and barbarous nations of the world has this belief existed, but the sages of antiquity, the most eminent men of ancient and of modern times, have not scrupled to give their partial assent to it-some, from awful and mysterious evidence of the fact itself coming within their own knowledge and experience-others, from testimony so circumstantial and positive, that upon any other occasion it would have been pronounced conclusive by a competent tribunal: why, therefore, it is reasonably urged, doubt that evidence which, in ordinary cases, would have been received, had life or death been the issue?-God is a Spirit-the Soul is a Spirit-we are said, after death, to enter the world of Spirits. We may argue away the probability of supernatural visitations, but not the facts themselves; and such facts are upon record-not the phantoms of over-heated imaginations, but of calm and collected memories "It is not madness That I have utter'd: bring me to the test, And I the matter will re-word; which madness It is impossible wholly to separate fiction from fact-human nature is by instinct inclined to the marvellous-hence the innumerable superstitions, which may indeed be termed ridiculous, that credulity, and ignorance, sportive fancy, and unbounded imagination, have grafted upon events, incredible only from this monstrous association, and from which even religious belief is not exempt. The time of Shakspeare was fruitful in these superstitions, to which the bias of the reigning monarch was peculiarly favourable-"Our forefathers (says Addison) loved to astonish themselves with the apprehensions of witchcraft, prodigies, charms, and enchantments." And Bourne, in his Antiquities, gives a curious and interesting account of a winternight's conversation, where the parties sit round the fire, and tell stories of fairies, ghosts, and apparitions. The Demonology of James the First is the most singular, wild, and elaborate production that the credulity of man ever produced; and we cannot but regret, that so much learning and research, exquisitely quaint and amusing, should have been thrown away upon bull-beggars, spirits, witches, urchens, elves, hags, fairies, and a whole troop of black spirits and white, equally fantastic and incomprehensible!* Yet James was no impostor-he required not his subjects to give their implicit faith to wonders that had not already fixed his own; and he surely claims our lasting thanks, for rendering popular a belief which has proved the foundation of some of the noblest efforts of the imagination-MidsummerNight's Dream, the Tempest, Macbeth, and Hamlet. Of these various superstitions-if in truth they can all be called such-the doctrine of Guardian Angels is the most pleasing. To believe, that when death has separated us from a beloved object, we are not left wholly unprotected, but that the disembodied spirit still continues to watch over us, to guard us from impending evil, and to perform the office of a ministering angel, in moments of difficulty and danger, is a belief both rational and consoling: how beautifully has Tickell illustrated the idea, in his pathetic elegy upon Addison "Oh! if, sometimes, thy spotless form descend, Till bliss shall join, nor death can part us more " That deeds of darkness have been revealed and punished by the intervention of supernatural agency, was a prevalent notion from the earliest ages, and has probably not been wholly without it's use in society. The assassin's arm may have been arrested by a superstitious dread-Men, reckless of the ven Those who desire to see a complete exposition of these extraordinary fables, will do well to read "The Discoverie of Witchcraft," written by a contemporary and sensible author, Reginald Scot, geance of Heaven, start with horror from earthly retribution. The fear attending supernatural visitation never met with a finer illustration than in the guilty terrors of Macbeth "Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, The arm'd rhinoceros, or Hyrcanian tiger, It is only when these awful mysteries have been profaned by unskilful hands, that their effect becomes weakened and destroyed the glorious machinery of the immaterial world was never designed for the rude touch of Nature's journeymen: we have "Tales of Terror" that produce almost as powerful an effect upon our muscles as "Broad Grins." The story of the Castle Spectre is deeply interesting, and the plot is conducted and developed with a considerable portion of dramatic skill. It is a vulgar error to cry down Romance that mysterious power which enchains the mind, raising it to the highest pitch of intensity, and within whose magic circle the various conflicting passions that agitate the human breast obe-. dient move, may well appeal to a nobler tribunal than calculating heads and insensible hearts! Romance has been aptly called the child of melancholy-whose haunts, if ever they have been profaned by unhallowed footsteps, shall still remain sacred in the high-wrought imagination of the poet — Pale melancholy, And Madness, sister wan! together roam It has been objected, that the tale itself, and the characters, belong to no period that they form an heterogeneous mixture of persons and things, out of nature, and impossible. That it contains anachronisms we readily admit; but they detract little from it's value as a dramatic composition. Spenser introduces Wolves in England, and the correct Pope talks of a sacrifice of lambs, and of thanking Ceres for a plentiful harvest, in a scene laid in Windsor Forest! and last, not least, the ingenious Wilkie, in one of his most capital pictures, the News of the Battle of Waterloo, has introduced a man eating oysters in June! These are anachronisms with a vengeance! and deserve the attention of Sterne's critic, with his stop-watch. There is nothing even improbable in this Drama, but the Spectre-and with respect to the characters, Earl Osmond is not more outrageous in his anger, or in his love, than many a bold baron who cuts a conspicuous figure in the annals of chivalry. It was not the fashion in those days for heroes to woo in white kid |