ABSTRACT
First published in The News, III, 26 April 1807, p. 135. This Theatricals section opens with a brief, whimsical response to a correspondent, which we include as a typical example of Hunt’s frequent interactions with readers and correspondents in his drama journalism for The News. Its dismissive approach to the tricks of pantomime, however, sets the tone for the sustained discussion of theatre’s social and aesthetic value in the exchange that follows. Hunt engages here in one of his many disputes with the popular theatre impresario and pantomime artist Thomas Dibdin (see below, p. 347, n. 4, and The Examiner, I, 10 April, 1808 pp. 234–5). Hunt’s claim that an excess of farce and burlesque has infected the social function of British drama, a recurring theme in his theatrical criticism of this period, receives further elaboration in his series of 1807 Theatricals essays ‘On The Appearance, Causes, And Consequences Of The Decline Of British Comedy’ (The News, III, 30 August 1807, pp. 279–80; 6 September 1807, p. 289; 13 September 1807, p. 297). See also Critical Essays, pp. 48–59.
