so idly the slender rents which the possession of these houses has still left me? Did you not hear how I petitioned last night for a pipe of tobacco, and a pot of porter. Samuel carried your mother to the playhouse; and I was obliged to send my appetite to sleep.' Were there any vigour of invention displayed in the other characters, even a passage like this might be excused: but, as Mr. Kotzebue has represented his worthy baronet as a driveller, and addicted. to low habits, so he has made his copy of the amiable ingenuousness of Coraly, and of Kelly's heroine, degenerate into a changeling. The only feeling distinctly expressed by the Frow Gurli is of too gross a nature to be tolerated on our theatre. We might have expected that some part of the offensive passages would have been retrenched by the translator: but he appears to be inattentive even to the appropriate meaning of phrases in our own language. He makes his fair Indian complain, for example, (p. 31.) that she could not help plucking a rose in the park. Very similar to this was the exclamation of John Quarles, son of the renowned author of the Emblems, in one of his elegies: "I cannot hold: the laws of nature break The laws of reason, and my cisterns leak." The unlucky demand for porter and tobacco comes upon us again, in the second act, and, strange to tell! wins the heart of the Nabob of Mysore. Kaberdar. (Aside.) This is noble of the girl, that she is not ashamed to work for her daily bread! this is noble! • Tom. I never saw so much money at once in my noble Sir. May God reward you. • Kaberdar. Whither art thou going? • Tom. Out. Kaberdar. But the money! "Tom. I have it in my pocket. life. Farewel, Kaberdar. And will you not carry it to Miss Liddy? Tom. No, noble Sir. Miss Liddy commanded me to bring a pound of tobacco from neighbour Williams, and a pot of porter from the nearest tavern. Kaberdar. What! does Miss Liddy smoke? • Tom. Lord! no Sir, I suppose it is for her father. The poor old man wishes sometimes to indulge himself a little; but his wife and son will not give him any thing. • Kaberdar. (Aside.) Excellent girl! excellent girl! (to Tom) Go now; go. (exit Tom) This is decisive. Such a heart must command happiness: were she even not beautiful, filial love would lend her celestial charms. At present she is poor; and yet she grudges not to labour five whole nights for her father. I am determined.' Et sic infinitum. Thus does the Thespian waggon rumble forwards, till the fatigued passenger arrives at the joyful conclusion. Courteous reader! if ever thou hast known the agony and cordolium of travelling five tedious stages, through sloughs and quagmires, with the dullest and most vulgar personages who ever were stuffed as agreeable companions into a stage-coach or post-chaise, then mayest thou form an adequate idea of our sufferings during the perusal of this most sentimental performance. Art. 35. Poems, written by E. S. J. 12mo. Jordan. PP. 47. Is. 6d. Poor Chatterton was soon detected when he attempted to impose his poems on the public as the works of Rowley, a Monk of the 15th century, because they were superior to any thing produced in the period to which he referred them: but, had the writer of the thimes before us chosen to have published them as from a MS. found in an old trunk belonging formerly to Thomas Sternhold or John Hopkins, it would not have been easy, from internal evidence, to have detected the forgery. Ex. gr. All day I bade in the thick wood My fearful soul, thou 'bodest ill, Were Edwin, Edwin, but come back She told it too with many a look Of innocence sincere ; That Goval taught of JESUS' death For mankind sinning here.' Shades of Sternhold and Hopkins! pardon us! We ought to have said that these verses were stolen from the Bellman's Christmas gift to his good masters and mistresses. Art. 36. The Writing Desk; or Youth in Danger. A Play in Four Acts. Literally translated from the German of Augustus Von Kotzebue. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Robinsons. 1799. The German dramatic loom, though celebrated for weaving a tissue of improbabilities and often of immoralities, continues to find importers and admirers of its productions. Like our Old Tapestry, it entertains, not so much from the accuracy of the drawing and perspective, as from its striking effect and the multitude of figures crouded together upon it. The play, of which a translation is before us, is from a celebrated manufacturer, who cannot be denied the merit of being very industrious. His Writing-Desk is calculated to excite interest, to keep up attention, and has withal no indifferent moral attached to it but the incidents are at strife with truth. The circumstance which gives name to the piece is not at all credible, any more than that which determines the catastrophe,-the marriage: <but the readers and frequenters of dramatic performances are not disposed to be offended at little improprieties and incongruities, provided that they are surprized, that a good sentiment or two is thrown in, and that the whole goes off tolerably well. The translation is so literal, as to be far removed from good English style. Art. 37. The Wise Man of the East. A Play, in Five Acts, performing at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. From the German of Kotzebue. By Mrs. Inchbald. 8vo. 2s. Robinsons. 1799. This drama is an alteration from "The Writing Desk" noticed in the preceding article. The characters are newly named, and some of the incidents are considerably varied: but, though this is done for the purpose of stage effect, we do not think that it improves the play in the closet. Claransforth is a less amiable man than Ditthelm, his prototype; and his intended seduction of Ellen does not interest us so much in his favour as the pure passion of the young German Banker, Ditthelm, for the amiable and noble-minded Sophia. The substitution of the Quaker family for Madame Luppnitz and Emily is no improvement of the piece, as they form a clumsy picture. That Ava Thoana should, at the end of the drama, prove to be the father of Claransforth, who was supposed to have been destroyed, is one of those improbable discoveries in which English. . audiences seem to take much delight; as if they thought that every play, like the marriage service, should end with "amazement :"—but these tricks, intended to excite strong emotions of surprize, will not on reflection be approved by any wise man,. either of the East or the West. The moral of Mrs. Inchbald's alteration is not so good as that of the German play. A man who attempts the seduction of a beauteous and virtuous fair one is not entitled to the honour of her hand,. nor should the stage inculcate so pernicious a lesson. Art. 38. The Shade of Alexander Pope on the Banks of the Thames. A Satirical Poem. With Notes. Occasioned chiefly, but not wholly, by the residence of Henry Grattan, Ex-Representative in Parliament for the City of Dublin, at Twickenham, in November, 1798. By the Author of the Pursuits of Literature. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Becket. 1799. The celebrated author of the Pursuits of Literature makes the indignant shade of Port give a very discourteous and inhospitablereception to the famous Ex-Patriot of Ireland, on his late visit to a temporary residence in the pleasant purlieus of "Twit'nam." Hear our redoubted Satirist's reasons for his choice of such a subject: This poem was chiefly occasioned by the perusal of Dr. Patrick Duigenan's Answer to the Address of Mr. Grattan to his Fellow Citizens of Dublin. I considered the Address and the Answer with that attention, earnestness, and zeal which the importance of such a Cause, at this present hour, requires and demands. I considered: it in this manner, because whatever affects Ireland, must affect the existence and safety of Great Britain, and of all the dependencies, territories, and possessions annexed to the Crown. I think Dr. Duigenan might have adopted the very words of Cicero against Antony. That Orator requested indulgence and attention when he spoke of himself; but as to the enemy of his. country, he exclaimed with confidence; "Cum de illo loquor, faciam ut attente audiatis." A more masterly, just, and irresistible piece of. of argument has seldom appeared; and if the eloquence suffers any abatement, it is from the admission of some expressions which might, and should, have been avoided. But a mind intent on great and national matters, urgent in their nature and allowing of no delay, cannot always attend to the minuter elegancies and graces of diction. In Dr. Duigenan's Answer, there is the vigour, the manliness, the courage, the impetuosity, the indignation, and the thunder of an orator, feeling for the wrongs of his country and the horrors of rebellion, against a Man, whose political conduct and character have ranked him among the domestic enemies of Ireland. Against a man, who appears to have imposed himself upon his credulous country, under the pretence of brilliant talents and rhetorical exertions. Against a man, who boasts that in the hour of distress, he EXTORTED from the timid and feeble Minister of the day, and from an improvident British Parliament, such concessions, as have been since proved to be inconvenient, and sometimes in direct opposition to the essential welfare of Ireland. Against a man, who received the most extravagant and disproportioned rewards for very equivocal services, and who has now fled to England from his own country, from that hue and cry of every loyal subject, which pursued him from the Castle, to the shop and to the cottage. I have nothing to do with Mr. Grattan, but in his publick capacity, as his actions, his writings, and his speeches have demonstrated and declared it to the world. He has signed with his own hand all the doctrines, which have been discussed, exposed, and confuted. In Mr. Grattan's Address we find, as I think, false facts, even of the day, false history, false reasoning, false premises, and false conclusions. There is inanity of sound, and shallowness of argument. We observe the glosses of the sophist, and all the purple patches in the rhetorician's cloak. It is such a tissue of the most unfounded assertions, rebellious doctrines, and treasonable sentiments, as have discovered, and proved to the loyal subjects of Great Britain and Ireland, WHO AND WHAT MR. GRATTAN is. But I refer to the caustick discussions of Dr. Duigenan, whose answer, I hope, will be read in this country; for it does not concern Ireland alone.' As a specimen of the poem, we may quote the following lines from the exordium: • What accents, murmur'd o'er this hallow'd tomb, * fly. E'en now my long-lov'd, grateful Country's cause, And as they glide, unhallow'd vapours shed Whence, and what art thou, GRATTAN? has the shock, And terror low'ring o'er the sable rock, Hurl'd thee astounded with tumultuous fears, From Ireland's mutter'd curse, from Ireland's tears? For thee no vistos ope, no friendly glade, No Muse invites thee to my sacred shade; Hoarse through the leafless branches howl around, Mr. Grattan is thus furiously pursued and assailed by the offended Shade through the rest of this long poem, of seventy six pages, the Mr. Pope generally spelt the word in this manner.' + The Right Hon. Welbore Ellis, Baron Mendip, the present possessor of Mr. Pope's villa at Twitnam.' Richard Owen Cambridge, Esq. a distinguished veteran in His poem entitled "The Scribleriad” literature and the polite arts. is a work of great fancy, just composition, and poetical elegance; but above all, of mature judgment conspicuous throughout. should be read as well for instruction, as amusement. is entitled to much attention.' It The preface f George Hardinge, Esq. a ma of genius and eloquence, M. P. the present possessor of the one of the Welsh Judges. He villa called "Ragman's Častle" at Twitnam, by the banks of the Thames.' copious |