Many a comedy, where the scene is placed in Spain, owes its success to the splendid fashion of Spanish dresses, to the bustling spirit of hide and seek in chamber-maids and valets, or to the paroxysms of frantic jealousy between lovers.

The present comedy has claim to public favour upon superior advantages. Here is a good fable, variety of occurrence, and, above all, some excellently drawn characters.

The English, in bringing Spaniards upon the stage, have always given them a great deal to do, and scarcely any thing to say; at least all they have said has generally amounted to nothing. But in "Love makes a Man," the dramatis personæ talk as well as act; and speak to a right purpose.

That there should be mind, as well as manners, attached to the characters of this play, will no longer appear extraordinary, when it is considered, that the production owes its origin to Beaumont and Fletcher.²

A third author, of no mean repute, exerted his skill in uniting and adorning the ancient foundation of this work, (the dramas of "The Elder[Page 4] Brother," and "The Custom of the Country,") according to the modern taste, in 1700; and introduced the whole composition to the public under the present title; with the additional name affixed, of Colley Cibber.

Whilst many a judicious critic boasted of knowing what kind of drama the public ought to like; Cibber was the lucky dramatist generally to know what they would like, whether they ought or not. If he secured their interest, he defied their understanding; and here, in the following scenes, so far he engages the heart in every event, that the head does not once reflect upon the improbabilities, or even impossibilities, with which the senses are delighted.

To atone for incident somewhat too extravagant and surprising, the author has brought on the stage many very rational and most natural personages.

The love of learning in the illiterate Don Lewis, is a just trait of disposition, though it appears a paradoxical one—and the endowing of a licentious coxcomb, as in Clodio,³ with frankness and valour, has been an impartial distribution of virtues and vices, which few authors have justice, or rather judgment, enough to bestow upon their copies of mankind.

The creatures of a writer's brain are much oftener monsters than men; for the wicked are seldom more deformed by every ill quality, than the virtuous are out of human shape by every good one; and thus both parties are equally irregular, in not agreeing with the common order of things.

But lest from this observation, Carlos should be[Page 5] liable to objection, from his wisdom and goodness, it is proper to allow,—that in him, perfection has been so naturally accounted for by the poet, in the description of his youth and passion for study, that he appears like one whom temptations have yet never reached, rather than like that supernatural being, who can always be proof against them.

This young student, just from college, argues, reasons, and even preaches without either cant or affectation: and the long lessons which he gives to Louisa, in the fourth act,⁴ are so many short sermons addressed to all females: which, combined with Louisa's character, will infallibly teach them—that, though love may sometimes make a man; too frequently—it undoes a woman.