Show TIIE PEEP 0’ da?— a Literary maOazixe- - X combined with the influence of geenery and climate have given birth to tlie German 6f our time as they have to tiie representative of any bther nation The German like the American or the The Holis a reflex of his country Englishman lander while possessed of great national virtue— as far flat and stagnant as“ the as enterprise is concerned-i- s The Ausdykes and marshes of hM native country trian is warm" gushing and sunny as his climate while the German of the Rhine is as romantic as his native In all cases man wherever you find him scenery takes into his nature the type and disposition of the land on which he dwells The Frenchman is an illustration of all that we hare said He is' light and volatile in Lis disposition because there has been nothing in his history to deAs a nation velop rugged strength of character France lias floated smoothly down the stream of time —tiie magnificent nation Except in the revolutions which in later times lave rolled over it France has had a tranquil time It has never had to struggle for national existence like Switzerland National greatness and prosperity have had its general lot hence like a child of affluence it is without that strength and resolution of character which distinguish nations which have Lctd to work their way to eminence and hold every inch of tlieir ground by hard fighting The great lote of the Frenchman for military display and show generally his genius for taste etiquette and refinement can all be’ distinctly traced to his surroundings the love of military glory to his great military history for what a man or a nation cab do well bach' ate sure to love to do France loves military movements because she lias excelled in conquest and invasion Equally can the gallantry and politeness Of the Frenchman be traced to the history of his counfry as ‘first among the surrounding natiems of modem Europe to develop kingly splendor And Courtly glory fihb became in these matters the school and study of her neighboring nations hence she became the pioThe Frenchman neer of grace taste and refinement THEATRICAL REVIEW graphical conditions ! ! having been in Europe by circumstances and general concurrence consulted always as the arbiter of taste and etiquette has been led to develop these qualities to hihnense perfection hut as these perfections belong to tlic lighter and more superficial qualities of our nature the Frenchman appears light and volatile in his He excels in wit in sprightly and salient disposition vigor in the glories of delicate ornamentation in the most exquisite sense of propriety as to form's hues gestures and expressions bftt he has not developed to the same perfection the massive solid and enduring elements of character Providence has led and trained lie his energies more eminently in another direction is like us all the child of his history and surroundings So much we wish to say at present for the way in which nations have acquired tlieir present national characteristics We do not however wish it to be understood that circumstances and surroundings independent of peculiarities of race will produce the same national features It takes the great heavy brain of tbe German the Hollander the Dane Englishman or American to produce the dominant race they represent But in tbe same race all the difference of characteristics-— all the peculiar thoughts and tastes— the or development given to peculiar prominence superior talent by each can be fully accounted for by the causes referred to In our next we will review the peculiarities of the Englishman and American- as traceable to the same source ' 11 Massinger’s play is eminent in its authorship Over two harri' dred years of life and celebrity libs not asserted this morelbr does its essential workmanship and the features of dramatic art seen in its cast We said last week that it is crowded with characters If fact in this quality it is rather too stroug to be pleasing Sir Giles will not become a public favorite but what of that? In him is one of the objects of dramatic art Authors bring such characters before us that they might not bt Great dramatists abound with them and their loveable loved characters are often neither so powerful nor so masterly conceived It is a curious fact that genius is most successful in both in epic and the drapia creating its repugnant characters Milton’s masterpiece is his ‘ Satan and the splendor of ‘ Para--' ' diseLost’ is seen in hell ‘A New Way to Pay Old Debts ’ ia ns crowded with plot Sir Giles holds the major plot and it ia comwith characters plex in its nature It begins before the action of the play and we only learn it by indirect episode and much of it tne imagination has to fill in You nre left to imagine by what crooited paths Sir Giles had trod from low birth to title and immense wealth and by what masterly management of villainy he had made beggars rtf nobles and men of estate seizing the spoil with his iron hand and forcing the very men whom he ruined to procure him rankF With the savage instincts of his' plebeian origin his plot actually revels in making hereditary' ruins beneath his feet and noble dames servant women to his‘ daughter It is true he gives us the cues to his past by what' he doetf and says in the action of the piece but even to Wellborn it only partially comes into the play The offer of his daughter to Lord Lovell with all bis wealth and lands and all the health and lands of others which that nobleman might covet If he but made his daughter Right Honorable is not part of the plot but a long sought issue Sir Giles is very we readily admit and never so repugnant aaf objectionable when he breaths insidious lesson into the ear of his daughter But the' to slacken her virtue to become Right Honorable author has not exaggerated human baseness Fathers have' even sold their daughters to their ravishers Sir Giles was an! archangel to such and he Would have sacrificed half d nation1 to have avenged a wrong to his daughter even as he would have sacrificed himself and her strict virtue to the man who would make her his Right Honorable wife We do not like to’ hear such moral laxity’on the stage but when Massinger Tbtei this’ did not sound so harsh and repugnant as it now does’ in a4 more delicate age Sbakspeare ahu all old authors — ye?even to the Sacred Hebrew writers — have more of the indelicacies' of language than we can bear to hear but even this peculiarity gives to our times an interpretation Of past generations wheii1 authors wrote and people read and heard from tHe pulpit as well as the stage in unsbockcd simplicity what will now an audience blush As for the master spirit Sir Giles though you abhor him you can fancy that had he been born in a ruling sphere his plots would have been higher and he might ih his towering ambition and iron dominant will have reached tb estate of Prime Minister and held the fatb 6i nations in hitf hand A vast majority of the world’s great? ihen have been and very seldom and are and will be of his type — no" batter ' so strong in character The ccfmterplot ot Massinger’s play is peculiar Likd the’ which Sir Giles holds it has a double quality- It1 major partakes somewhat of the character of the principal plot of the play but is the counter and checkmate of the plot atitf action that has gone before and which is still continued hi the action to tbe last scene “ A New Way to Fay 01 Debts wrestles for the principal plot and action but it is evident throughout that it is but a sequel— an undoing— and even the catastrophy in the death of Sir Giles’ is in the miscarriage of the issues of that bold wicked man’s Fife In this peculiarity' it differs so far as we know from every other play In spite' of the fact that A New Way to Fay Old Debts is its title and one of its issues yet Sir Giles Overreach is the represent taiive name and Sir GilC3 and not Wellborn its principal character His powerful spirit and iron will dominates to the last over all but death lie alone dies hut tbe play expires in him Lear Macb’eth Richard and Othello ends with them for in them is the principal action but had they remained Wcllflorn lived’ yet in Sir the action would have continued Giles tbe play dies which proves that he anduot Wellborn represented the principal plot and action Wellborn is well conceived and sustained He is a destined ive type of character Too proud to throw off lib? rags or receive assistance he originates ‘A New Way to Fay Old Debts’ In his original audacious conception and consummation of his scheme he is a tiue nephew of the' arch plotter Sir Giles though Jiis transfe:iiation toairAM rerleeiuedbln fortunes and charuclCivirraker him much more loveable thafc pt |