LONDON,February 6,O.S.1752.
MY DEAR FRIEND:Your criticism of Varon is strictly just;but,in truth,severe.You French critics seek for a fault as eagerly as I do for a beauty:you consider things in the worst light,to show your skill,at the expense of your pleasure;I view them in the best,that I may have more pleasure,though at the expense of my judgment.A 'trompeur trompeur et demi'is prettily said;and,if you please,you may call 'Varon,un Normand',and 'Sostrate,un Manceau,qui vaut un Normand et demi';and,considering the 'denouement'in the light of trick upon trick,it would undoubtedly be below the dignity of the buskin,and fitter for the sock.
But let us see if we cannot bring off the author.The great question upon which all turns,is to discover and ascertain who Cleonice really is.There are doubts concerning her 'etat';how shall they be cleared?
Had the truth been extorted from Varon (who alone knew)by the rack,it would have been a true tragical 'denouement'.But that would probably not have done with Varon,who is represented as a bold,determined,wicked,and at that time desperate fellow;for he was in the hands of an enemy who he knew could not forgive him,with common prudence or safety.
The rack would,therefore,have extorted no truth from him;but he would have died enjoying the doubts of his enemies,and the confusion that must necessarily attend those doubts.A stratagem is therefore thought of to discover what force and terror could not,and the stratagem such as no king or minister would disdain,to get at an important discovery.If you call that stratagem a TRICK,you vilify it,and make it comical;but call that trick a STRATAGEM,or a MEASURE,and you dignify it up to tragedy:
so frequently do ridicule or dignity turn upon one single word.It is commonly said,and more particularly by Lord Shaftesbury,that ridicule is the best test of truth;for that it will not stick where it is not just.I deny it.A truth learned in a certain light,and attacked in certain words,by men of wit and humor,may,and often doth,become ridiculous,at least so far that the truth is only remembered and repeated for the sake of the ridicule.The overturn of Mary of Medicis into a river,where she was half-drowned,would never have been remembered if Madame de Vernuel,who saw it,had not said 'la Reine boit'.Pleasure or malignity often gives ridicule a weight which it does not deserve.The versification,I must confess,is too much neglected and too often bad:but,upon the whole,I read the play with pleasure.
If there is but a great deal of wit and character in your new comedy,Iwill readily compound for its having little or no plot.I chiefly mind dialogue and character in comedies.Let dull critics feed upon the carcasses of plays;give me the taste and the dressing.
I am very glad you went to Versailles to see the ceremony of creating the Prince de Conde 'Chevalier de l'Ordre';and I do not doubt but that upon this occasion you informed yourself thoroughly of the institution and rules of that order.If you did,you were certainly told it was instituted by Henry III.immediately after his return,or rather his flight from Poland;he took the hint of it at Venice,where he had seen the original manuscript of an order of the 'St.Esprit,ou droit desir',which had been instituted in 1352,by Louis d'Anjou,King of Jerusalem and Sicily,and husband to Jane,Queen of Naples,Countess of Provence.