Newspaper Reviews: Belle’s Stratagem (1780)
Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, Feb. 26, 1780
Theatrical Intelligence.
We purposely avoid giving an account of the performers in the new comedy of The Belle’s Stratagem, till the second night; from a wish to do justice to so excellent a performance, in which so many of the principal actors are engaged. The first night of a new play ought generally to be considered as the last rehearsal, rather than the first finished performance, from the number of little awkward circumstances which intervene, and destroy the intended effect; especially in a play of so much variety, bustle, and business, as the present.
Doricourt, who is evidently intended by the author to be placed at the head of the men in the drama, was given in a very characteristic stile by Mr. Lewis, who is more happy in presenting the manners of a man of fashion, improved by foreign travel, than any other performer on the stage: he was unfortunately so hoarse in the first scene, that it was hardly articulate the first night; but he was on Thursday evening much better, and was received with marked applause. His manner of playing the madness, in the last act, is particularly happy; had the idea been given in a less masterly manner, it is probable it would have been dangerous. At present the whole has an original, humourous and brilliant effect, without lessening the interest, which depends principally on Doricourt’s very happy discovery.
Mr. Wroughton gives the agitation of an honourable mind in an embarrassed situation with a warm and natural force; he is very happily placed in the present piece; his situation is in some measure new on the stage, as, without the least tincture of suspicion, he feels a thousand anxious, tender jealousies for the danger to which the beloved of his heart is exposed, from the contamination of fashionable manners; and he expresses those feelings in a manner with which every fond husband must heartily sympathize, in the very excellent debate between him and Mrs. Racket in the second act; he speaks with all the freedom of a man of sense and spirit, but preserves every thing which is due from the politeness of a gentleman, with an easy and well-marked discrimination.
The character of Savile is given in a few strokes, but they are in a very masterly stile—his conduct in preserving the woman he had fondly loved, but who is married to another—for that other—with the warmth of his feelings, in asserting the honour of female virtue, stamps him the most generous and amiable of men; and the wishes of the audience anticipate the gratitude of Sir George for the preservation of his wife. Mr. Aickin gave that manly [BLANKED OUT] open boldness of manner which is [BLANKED OUT] trait of his acting, with a happy effect; it gave a forcible contrast to Doricourt, and heightened the character into an idea of the representative of the noble old English manners, opposed to the polished graces of their descendants.
The part of Old Hardy seems drawn with particular attention to the easy good humour and pleasantry of Mr. Quick’s manner; and is very happily executed. The little gentleman forms as strong an interest, and becomes as great a favourite with the audience, as those more essentially interwoven into the business; and we foresee, that his power of pleasing will increase, as the original stile of his humour becomes more familiar.
Flutter does the author particular credit, and is excellently played by Mr. Lee Lewes. This character, which seems in the idea calculated to excite nothing but contempt, is one of the most busy, lively, pleasant, and entertaining fellows in the world; and, but an admirable contrivance, his lies are made of particular use in the plot. Nothing can exceed the natural ease and naivete with which the actor gives the whole.
Mr. Villars seems to have been intended for an older man than Mr. Whitfield; but he played the character with an easy and pleasing attention.
The ladies, though fewer in number, have evidently had a larger share of the author’s attention. Miss Hardy is one of the finest characters that ever was conceived, for calling out every power of pleasing, which a most elegant and accomplished actress can possess; and Miss Younge [BLANKED OUT] a manner so perfectly [BLANKED OUT] give the last finish to her reputation, as the universal favourite of the public, in every variety of character or accomplishment, which the tragic or the comic Muse can call forth. In the woman of keen and delicate sensibility, in the first act of the play; in the lively, humourous, and entertaining Miss Mawking of the third; and in the all-conquering charmer of the 4th and 5th, she was equally excellent; her minuet was perfectly the elegant minuet of a woman of the first fashion, and displayed a thousand graces, and her song had all that natural and pleasing melody of a sweet voice, without being confined to that labored attention to the harmony which is expected from a professed singer. NO actress now living has been equal to the talk of giving a character of such varied, yet uniform, excellence.
Mrs. Hartley is very judiciously placed in a situation, in which the superior beauty of her face and figure, and the sweetly timid delicacy of her manner, assimilate with the character; she gives an interest to the whole situation of Lady Frances Touchwood, and a degree of probability to the tender solicitudes of her husband, that has the happiest effect in every situation in which she is engaged. As her forte is plaintive tragedy, we should not have thought it possible to have introduced her in comedy with so very good an effect.
Mrs. Racket, the lively, the spirited, the fashionable, the agreeable, the mischievous Mrs. Racket has fortunately an excellent representative in Mrs. Mattocks, who plays the whole character with ease, spirit, and vivacity.
The rest of the performers are placed in less favourable points of view, though they sustain their situations in the dramatic groupe with propriety. Mr. Robson and Mrs. Morton are in this predicament. The pleasant and peculiar humour of Mr. Edwin, is less suited to that of an auctioneer than any other character we have seen; when his humour is hit, it is morst deservedly popular, but the talk seems difficult. Mr. Wewitzer has the merit of bringing forward the French valet into the rank of an entertaining character, on very slender ground. Mr. Booth opens the masquerade scene in the character of a quack doctor, in a very pleasant and entertaining manner.
If on this occasion we unite the critic and the eulogist, it is barely doing justice. The play consists of an unusual number of performers, and it would be very difficult for the severest cynic to find fault with any part of it. It is a fact, the whole play is strongly cast, and admirably performed. It does Mrs. Cowley great credit, that she has been able to call out the powers of so many able actors in one piece.
The dresses and scenery are elegant and well adapted, and no expence appears to have been spared, which could evince the high opinion which the managers entertained of this play. Mr. Richards, in the opening scene, has given so beautiful and masterly a view of Lincoln’s inn, that it is to be regretted that the plot will not permit its being longer or more frequently exhibited. The auction-room is extremely well adapted, and the Pantheon is a very fine scene, though it partakes too much of that cold and correct air, inseperable from so regular a building, and is by no means so well adapted to give the joyous sensations of a scene illuminated in a more familiar stile.
The play was on Thursday night repeated to a most crowded house, and went off with a degree of applause, which is very unusual on a second night. Some very judicious, though minute improvements, greatly increased the effect.
2. General Evening Post, Feb. 22, 1780
Theatrical Intelligence
On Tuesday night a new comedy, intitled The Belle’s Stratagem, written by Mrs. Cowley, was performed (for the first time) at Covent-garden Theatre.
The author evidently alludes to Farquhar’s charming comedy, The Beaux Stratagem, in her title, but there is no kind of resemblance between them in the fable or characters: the title therefore must be supposed to contain a very acceptable assurance, that she considers Farquhar as the best model of stile and manner in comedy. [there follows a list of the cast of characters]
With a great variety of subordinate characters, consisting of company, puffing servants at an auction, and a very numerous assembly who appear at a masquerade at the Pantheon.
The fable is founded on incidents which are supposed to be passing at the present hour in the gayest and most elegant scenes of life; and tho’ obviously natural, and well calculated for producing every pleasing and useful effect of comedy, have the strong claims of variety and originality on the stage … [plot summary omitted]
Doricourt pronounces an eulogium on the delicate timidity and graceful modesty of the British Lady, opposed to the glare and polish of foreign graces, which does Mrs. Cowley particular honour, as the moral of a play produced by a female pen. It was received with the loudest applause, which was several times repeated, on dropping the curtain.
Retrospective views
Elizabeth Inchbald, “Remarks on The Belle’s Stratagem” from Hannah Cowley, The Belle’s Stratagem, 3–5. London: Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1816.
This comedy appeared on the stage in 1780; it was extremely attractive for two seasons, and still holds a place in the catalogue of those plays which are generally performed every year.
Its greatest charm is, that it is humourous, without ever descending to that source of humour, easy of access, and which is placed among characters in low life.
The persons of importance in this drama are all elegant, or, at least, well bred; and while they excite mirth, they create also an interest in their behalf, which is assisted to the end of the piece by a variety of forcible and pleasing occurrences.
The incident, from which the play takes its title is, perhaps the least pleasing, and the least probable of any amongst the whole; still, this stratagem, as the foundation of a multiplicity of others, far better conceived and executed, has a claim to the toleration of the reader, and will generally obtain admiration from the auditor, by the skill of the actress who imitates a simpleton.
The dialogue of the play is very good; abounding in excellent satire, with a most perfect description of the modes and manners of the fashionable world.
If Doricourt should remind the reader of Sir Harry Wildair, or Valentine in “Love for Love,” it is the only character in the work that does not appear original—Sir George and Lady Frances Touchwood are more particularly new than the rest.
The second plot, in which they are the principals, is, to many spectators and readers, much more interesting than the first. It is assuredly more refined and more natural, though neither so bold nor so brilliant.
The love of Sir George and his wife is fervent, yet reasonable; they are fond, but not foolish; and with all their extreme delicacy of opinions, never once express their thoughts, either in ranting, affected, or insipid sentences.
Lady Frances, being protected at the masquerade, delights some auditors, as much as Doricourt’s falling violently in love there: and though neither of these events, traced through all their meanders, may appear strictly within the bounds of likelihood, yet dramatic probability is seldom for a moment lost; which is the happy art of alluring the attention of an audience, from the observation of every defect, and of fixing it solely upon every beauty which the dramatist displays.
To explain this remark—who does not scorn that romantic passion, which is inflamed to the highest ardour, by a few hours conversation with a woman whose face is concealed? And yet, who does not here sympathize with the lover, and feel a strong agitation, when Letitia, going to take off her mask, exclaims in a tremulous voice,—“This is the most awful moment of my life!”
The Belle’s Stratagem certainly classes amongst modern plays; and yet the mention of powder worn by the ladies, their silk gowns, and other long-exploded fashions, together with the hero’s having in Paris “danced with the Queen of France at a masquerade,” gives a certain sensation to the reader, which seems to place the work on the honourable list of ancient dramas.
But the period of the last twenty-six years, which has produced in the world more wonderful changes in fashions, manners, opinions, and characters, than, many a century had done before, has yet preserved one illustrious character, named in this play, free from alteration;—and, at the present moment, her eulogium is heard in the midst of crowded theatres, with all that glow of veneration and love, which heretofore it inspired; and which now, more than ever, becomes due to those virtues—which time has proved to be stedfast.