FORMOSA.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 4, 11 October 1871, Page 3

FORMOSA.

To the Editor of the THAMES GUARDIAN. Sir, —A great deal is just now being saicl about this play, and many people are saying that it is not a fit piece to be produced before ladies and children. I certainly cannot altogether coincide with this opinion. The moral is, at all events, a good one, and there is nothing gross in the language. Formosa is credited with having many qualms of conscience at her ill-spent life, and her repentance is depicted as genuine. The great popularity of the play generally is a great testimony to its merits, and the good taste of the people everywhere, of the majority of them, at all events, would never countenance an immoral play. It has been admired and patronised in the old country by persons of cultivated taste, and it has received at the hands of the Press, a large amount of commendation. I cannot conceive any young person being made worse by seeing the play. It is eminently apicture of life, as it is, and it is the reality of the various situations represented, which is one of its greatest charms. It is perhaps a play not destined to live for ages, for it depicts the manners of the day and the modes of thinking and acting in the upper Bohemian World, and as time progresses, fashions may change, and Formosa may not then be a fair example of the morals of the age. To paint truth on the stage is one of its greatest objects and attractions, and “ Formosa ” is true to life. It is in my humble opinion, exceedingly well put upon the stage here, and thoroughly well acted. Any individual who feels his or her morals shocked by seeing “ Formosa ” must, I think, be very thin-skinned. I hope, sir, you will induce all yours readers who have not already seen the piece to go and see it, and those who have already seen it to go again.—l am, &e., Fair Play. Tararu Road, October 10, 1871. [Letters on the proposed concert will appear to-morrow.]