my lands, which are free from all tribute, I am the more addicted to my king. If I was an exile, I had not obtained from my court many a pastport for English noblemen. The fervice I rendered to them intitles me to the juftice I expect from the noble author. SIR, As to religion, I think and I hope he thinks with me, that God, is neither a Presbiterian, nor a Lutheran, nor of the Low Church, nor of the High Church; but God is the father of all mankind, the father of the noble author, and mine. Cafle of Fornex in Burgundy. I Have received the honour of your letter, dated from your cattle of Fornex in Burgundy, by which I find I was guilty of an error, in calling your retirement an exile. When another edition fhall be made of my Dialogues, either in English or French, I will take care that this error shall be corrected; and I am very forry I was not apprifed of it fooner, that I might have corrected it in the edition of a French tranflation of them just published under my infpection in London. To do you justice is a duty I owe to truth and myself; and you have a much better title to it, than from the passports you fay you have procured for English noblemen: you are intitled to it, Sir, by the high fentiments of refpect I have for you, which are not paid to the priviledges you tell me your king has confirmed to your lands, but to the noble talents God has given you, and the fuperior rank you hold in the Republic of Let ters. I am, &c. The favours done you by your king are an honour to him, but add little luftre to the name of Voltaire. I intirely agree with you, that God is the father of all mankind; and fhould think it blafphemy to confine his goodness to a fect; nor do I believe that any of his creatures are good in his fight, if they do not extend their benevolence to all his creation. These opinions I rejoice to fee in your works, and shall be very happy to be convinced, that the liberty of your thoughts and your pen, upon fubjects of philofophy and religion, never exceeded the bounds of this generous principle, which is authorised by revelation as much as by religion; or that you difapprove, in your hours of fober reflection, any irregular fallies of fancy, which cannot be juftified, though they may be excufed by the vivacity and fire of a great genius. I have the honour to be, &c. [From the Pub. Ledger.] the performance of any new piece, which bore the name of a Comedy. I went therefore to the first night of the Jealous Wife, a Comedy written by Mr. Colman, Author of many of the humorous effays, publifhed under the title of the Connoiffeur. I went, I went, I fay, with more curiofity than expectation, yet, to my inexpreffible fatisfaction, found the latter more fully gratified than the former. The novelty of plot and defign, which minds fit only for fufpence are fond of being kept in fufpence by, I immediately perceived from the Author's candid declaration in the Prologue, I was no longer to hope for; but how agreeably was I difappointed, when, inftead of it, I found in the piece a redundance of the more effential, the more valuable perfections of the Drama, viz. Charafter, incident, conduct, and fentiment. In a word, that like the mafters whofe authority he appeals to in the Prologue, his outlines only were copied, but the whole colouring, the whole effect of light, fhade, and perfpective we were indebted to himfelf for; indeed, to speak in his own words, I faw, feverity....The part of Lord Trinket however is quite modern. It is the newest picture of a coxcomb I have seen, and rendered of confequence enough in the conduct of the drama, and is fufficiently spirited in itself to keep up the attention of the audience in thofe fcenes he is concerned in....Tom Jones's character, the hero of fo long and capital a piece as Mr. Fielding's, cannot be expected to be fully difplayed in that of young Oakley, who is here, at the moft, only one party among many, in a narrow circle of incidents..... The author however, has maintained the only merit in his power, in this respect, which is that of not having, in any particular, deviated from it....But Mifs Ruffet has somewhat more advantage, fince her fcenes with her father, with Lady Freelove, with Charles and with my Lord, give her an opportunity of expreffing all that "That borrowing little, much was found duty and tenderness, and that delicacy of "his own." The machine which puts the jealoufy in motion, is built on that part of the Hiftory of Tom Jones, where Sophia, flying from her father to avoid a deteftable match with Bufil, takes refuge in the house of her kinfwoman Lady Bellafton, who inftead of protecting her from all infult or vicious attacks, aids the design formed against her by Lord Fellamar.... The circumftances attending on this part of the ftory, are as closely kept up to, in this comedy, as the conduct and catoftrophe of such a piece would admit of....The characters which are concerned in it, are well and strikingly fupported....Mr. Western's obftinacy, paffion, and avarice intimately blended with paternal affection, and doating fondness for his daughter, each alternately, and almoft every moment ftarting forth in his behaviour, are finely introduced into the character of Mr. Ruffet. Mr. Fielding's Lady Bellafton, the woman of quality, who void of all principles of virtue herself, readily joins in a defign of corrupting that of another, and confiders her rank and effronterie as fufficient protections from the censure of the world, is happily copied in Lady Freelove....Lord Trinket (the Fellamar of Tom Jones) is a character of less fingularity, and therefore required lefs heightening than the two former, as coxcombs of quality prefuming on title and fortune to take every improper liberty with unprotected innocence, have at all times and in all countries been frequent, and as frequently rendered the objects of dramatic fentiment which are so strongly the characteristics of Sophia Western---Sir Harry Beagle is a perfect sportsman, who, as Lady Freelove juftly defcribes him, "bears "the name of the animal without his fa"gacity."...It may perhaps be objected that this picture is somewhat too strongly painted; and that it is impoffible for any man to be so entirely infenfible and brutish, as he is fuppofed to be; and the objection may have fome little weight; but when it is confidered, how near are the approaches made by many to this kind of character, and that it is the only part of low comedy in the whole piece, the Licentia poetica will surely be allowed to the author, for the introducing one caricature by way of contraft, among so many chafte and close drawn characters. Thus much will fuffice as to that part of the defign, in which the author appears to have trod in a path in fome degree pointed out to him, where as he himself expreffes it, "what a master's pencil drew "He brings more forward in dramatic view." PROL Now proceed we to take notice of those characters which are entirely his own, and on which therefore the judgment of his more substantial, as more original merit, must be fuppofed to depend....These are the parts of Mrs. and Mr. and Major Oakley. Thefe, especially the first of them, from whom he has named his piece, were certainly his first and principal care, and to the difplay of these the whole plot and and all the other characters are rendered fubfervient.... Mrs. Oakley's jealous difpofition, her violence of temper, her unfteadiness of refolution when agitated by her prevailing foible, and the laboured artifices the makes ufe of to render herfelf and husband unhappy, are highly natural, and are drawn with fuch strong colours, and heightened by fo many delicate touches of true nature, that it may truly be called a finished character: nor is Mr. Oakley's lefs fo. ....The fenfible feeling man, endued with fufficient refolution on proper and particular occafions, yet in the more general occurrences of life borne down by the torrent of female impetuofity, and giving way even in oppofition to his judgment for the fake of preferving domeftic quiet, is a character which every perfon, who has been ever fo little converfant with the world must have frequently met with among his acquaintance. Every one therefore must acknowledged it to be natural; yet have we never feen it fet forth to pub lic view fo clearly, or marked so distinctly to general obfervation as in the character of Mr. Oakley....The Major is a staunch old batchelor, the hearty and open franknefs of whose difpofition renders him very amiable, and from whofe difcernment and obfervation an opportunity is afforded of introducing many just and valuable fentiments in regard to matrimonial happinefs and mifery. As to the conduct of the piece, it is truly admirable. The beft ufe imaginable is made of the plan which has been borrowed, and at the fame time the new characters are fo intermingled with the general design, as to appear to have originally belonged to it....The incidents are well connected and naturally introduced, forming a regular chain of confequences properly dependent on each other, and perhaps it would be difficult to point out among the catalogue of plays ufually acted, a scene more truly comic or more ingeniously managed than that in the third act of this play, wherein all Mrs. Oakley's unjust fufpicions are in appearance authorised and confirmed, and that without any thing being ftrained or outre, from the partially overhearing a converfation, wherein there was in reality no one circumstance intended to her injury. The incident of Harriet's fainting into Mr. Oakley's arms, and the accufations of Mr. Russet misunderstood by Mrs. Oakley, are happy conceptions, and the management of them as judiciously ex ecuted as the thought is conceived. The language appears to be elegant, easy and characteristic, and the fentiments bold, just and spirited. On the whole, I think it may justly be confidered as the very best new comedy, that has made its appearance on the English ftage for many years, and feems to afford us the agreeable hope of much future pleasure from such other pieces as the fuccefs of this may encourage the author to oblige the world with. As to the performance, the parts were fo extremely well cast, and such a general emulation fhewed itfelf through the whole company for the fupport of their respective characters, that it was almost impoffible to point out where the greatest excellence lay. Mr. Garrick and Mrs. Pritchard, however, in the two principal parts were, what we have frequently feen them in others, inimitable. The conflicts of the paffions, in the most interefting fcenes, were ftrongly painted in the features of both; their conceptions of character did honour to themselves and to the Author, and their action was interspersed with many of thofe delicate, yet striking touches, which alone can diftinguish the mafter, which point out the most perfect, the most intimate acquaintance with nature and the human heart, and which, perhaps, no performers befides themselves ever either conceived or executed. Mrs. Clive was very original in Lady Freelove, and Mr. King natural, and at the fame time not too extravagant in Sir Harry Beagle. Nor ought we to forget Mr. Ruffet, who from the fenfibility expressed in it by Mr. Burton, was rendered, even in the very height of all his abfurdities, an object not only of compaffion but of esteem. Having faid thus much in due commendation of the piece and its performance, it would be injuftice not to take notice of the candour and judgment shewn by the audience, who received both with all the applaufe they merited, and did equal honour to themselves, by the disapprobation they expreffed at a paffage or two, which appeared in the first night's representation to have some small tendency to indelicacy, but which were omitted on the fecond, and by the universal teftimony they gave on both nights of their satisfaction at other passages, wherein sentiments of virtue and morality were ftrongly inculcated, I am, &c, The |