LILLO, GEORGE, was born in 1693, and carried on the trade of a jeweller near Moorgate in London. Though educated in the strict principles of the Protestant Dissenters, he produced seven dramas, three of which are printed in every collection of acting plays. Ho died in 1739.
In the three plays, 'George Barnwell,' Arden of Faversham,' and Fatal Curiosity,' the author evidently has but one purpose in view, to exhibit the progress from smaller to greater crimes. Thus the impure l anion of Barnwell, the ill-suppressed attachment of Arden's wife for the lover of her youth, and the impatience under poverty of the Wilmots (in 'Fatal Curiosity '), are the three beginnings of vice, all of which terminate in murder. Not only is the purpose of these playa the same, but the same measures are adopted in all for its attainment. In all there is a tempter and a tempted ; the first deter mined in vice, the latter rather weak than intrinsically vicious : thus Barnwell is led on by Milwood ; Arden's wife by her paramour Mealy ; and Wilmot by his wife Agnes. Now Lille having au emi nently tragic idea, and one only, it might easily be inferred that he could write one and only one good drama; and this was actually the case. His 'Fatal Curiosity' stands as a masterpiece of simple dramatic construction, and the catastrophe is eminently appalling and tragic. The following is the subject : A man and his wife, who have formerly been wealthy, but are now sunk to a deplorable state of poverty, receive a stranger who asks for a lodging. Finding that he has wealth about him, they murder him, and afterwards discover that he is their own son, who has been absent many years, and who has concealed his name that he may give his parents a joyful surprise.
This simple story is arranged with consummate art, being scarcely inferior in construction to the qEdipus Tyrannus ' of Sophocles, with which Harris, in his 'Philological Enquiries,' has compared it. He observes that in both, the means apparently tending to happiness (namely, (Edipus sending to the oracle, and Wilmot's son returning) in reality produce misery. The language however is by no means equal to the construction, but is often inflated, and disfigured by con ventional similes and expressions, which destroy every possibility of enunciating true feeling : characters under the most acute mental agonies seem, strangely enough, to be building elaborate and affected phrases. Still there are passages and touches in the ' Fatal Curiosity' which show that, had it not been for a defect in taste, Lille could have taken a high position by this one drama, and revealed many secrets of the human heart. With respect, to his other two playa, though the construction of George Barnwell' is skilful, and the situation in the fifth act of 'Arden' most powerful, they stand at an immeasurable distance below ' Fatal Curiosity.' There are several anecdotes relative to the effect produced by George Barnwell' ou young men who have pursued vicious courses and have been reclaimed by this tragedy. It was once usually acted at some of the theatres in London on the night after Christmas, and on Easter Monday, nominally for moral purposes, but really in mere pursuance of an old custom, but the custom is now pretty well worn out.
A collection of Lillo's works was published in 2 vats. 8vo, in 1775.