| Citation |
BEP(F.765.013
18 Mar 1765:23 (1541)
Extract of a letter from Rohgsburg. I was last week invited
by our friend Montaine to see a tragedy expos'd, at a small
village about half a mile from this place; my curiosity was
the rather excited, as I understood it was Otway's Tragedy
of the Orphan, which had lately been translated into High
Dutch for that purpose; the assembly were some of the first
rank, among whom were the intendant general de T. the
Marshal de P. and sundry officers of the army. The ladies
made a most brilliant appearance.
I sat down, expecting much pleasure from the performance,
imagining that all those little errors which had been
cavill'd at by your criticks, would have been corrected in
the translation; but how was I disappointed! The translator
was very ignorant of the English idiom, frequently
substituting one word for another of the like sound, as
written for writing, patterns for patrons, prostitute for
prostrate, &c. &c. and disguis'd the tragedy in such a
manner by interpolation, abbreviations & wrong accent, that
very few of the audience who had seen it in the original
knew it to be a translation of the same.
The prelude began with a concert of musick, consisting of
two Dutch flutes and a fiddle, which entertained the company
greatly, several of whom expressed their approbation in the
highest terms, but I fancy it would not have been so well
received at Vauxhall or Ranelagh.
The scene (which consisted of two bed curtains) was at
length drawn up, and the old prologue which was adapted to a
different country, on a particular occasion, a century ago,
was likewise translated and spoken, the orator keeping a
continual see-saw with his hand, like the wood-sawers of
New-England; I could not help applying that line in the
Rosciad,
He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone.
Upon a view of the other actors as they came on the stage,
I found they were much of a piece with the one above-
mentioned, but consider what a mortification it must be to
one who had seen the graceful attitudes of a Garrick and a
Barry, to see two machines vibrate across the stage, like
the pendulum of a clock, for such was their pepetual motion.
The gentle and kind Monimia bluster'd into an impudent
Virago, and in one of the most tender and pathetic love
speeches, I really thought, by her gestures, she was going
to box with her lover. In short, I cannot tell you half the
absurdities, tho' I can forgive the actors, I must blush for
the audience.
I shall soon take my leave of this place, and am Your's,
&c.
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