EVERY ONE HAS HIS FAULT: A COMEDY, En Five Acts. BY MRS. INCHBALD. PRINTED FROM THE ACTING COPY, WITH REMARKS, To which are added, A DESCRIPTION OF THE COSTUME,-CAST OF THE CHARACTERS, ENTRANCES AND EXITS,-RELATIVE POSITIONS 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, LONDON: JOHN CUMBERLAND, 19, LUDGATE HILL. REMARKS. Every One has His Fault. WE cannot conceive what instruction or amusement are to be derived from the exhibition of dramatic felonies. The Newgate Calendar is rich in this sort of entertainment; why, then, should they be transferred to the theatre, and preposterously worked into a comedy? If it be absolutely necessary that footpads should be introduced on the stage in the full exercise of their profession, Iet some moral, at least, be drawn from their example and punishment-let us have a decent execution against next sessions! But, in modern times, a young gentleman has only to fancy himself ill-treated by a rich father-in-law, and to sally forth on a dark night, pistol in hand, with the customary salutation your money or your life!" and he shall (dramatically speaking) become an object of respect and commiseration. Then shall he suddenly turn honest and sentimental, make handsome restitution, and, instead of going out of the world at "the fall of the leaf," and "with Cotton in his ears," come off with flying colours!-and this, forsooth, is comedy. The name of this piece is a truism, "which (as the old song says) nobody can deny." Every one has his fault; and the dramatis persona come in for their share. -Lord Norland, for. he is a cruel unnatural father.Solus, for he is a stupid undetermined old bachelor, who adds insult to unkindness.-Placid, for he is a henpecked Jerry-though married men may pronounce this less his fault than his misfortune.-Irwin, in the affair of the pistol and the pocket-book.-While, if any fault is attributable to Harmony, it springs from hi er. anxiety to make every one pleased with, and reconciled to, each other. We can hardly exclude the ladics from the general censure. Miss Spinster has her weak points, in her vanity.-Lady Irwin and Miss Wooburn their's, in too strong a regard for unworthy objects.—And, as to Mrs. Placid, we will not take the trouble to point out a fault in her character, in which we cacoat, even with microscopic aid, discover a virtue. This comedy embraces the highly probable incident of a man, who, having procured a divorce from his wife, for no other cause than that he had squandered away her fortune, and become tired of her person, actually falling in love (after a seven years' separation) with the very self-same lady, and imploring to be re-united to her.-E'ut not before he had learnt, from good authority, that she was on the eve of consoling herself with a second husband. Sir Robert Ramble is a rake, whose vices find no apology in his vivacity or wit. He is as dull as he is contemptible; and, however Miss Wooburn may rise in our esteem, for her generosity in returning the bond, it speaks little for her spirit or delicacy, in thus throwing herself, a second time, into the arms of such a worthless coxcomb as Sir Robert. There is some novelty in the character of Harmony, which is very pleasingly drawn, and was admirably acted by Munden; who, in the delineation of a mild, conciliatory, and benevolent spirit, had not his equal on the stage. Solus is not without humour; he is an old bachelor, who is ever and anon on the verge of wedlock, when some untoward accident dashes his hopes, and alters his resolution. One moment he threatens to marry the very first woman he meets; the next, Placid and his wife cry "noli me tangere" to his matrimonial experiments. His union with Miss Spinster is naturally brought about by the intervention of Harmony; whose good-humoured duplicity turns the tide |