ter.

every misfortune of the year 1800, is too great an exaggeration even for poetry, and relates to fubjects rather too fericus for irony and banFrom the Laureat, however, the fatirift foon turns to the Emperor Paul, who has long been beyond the reach of his lash, if he was ever within it. Having depicted his character, and ridiculed his conduct, the poet proceeds to other effects of the Laureat's "unhallowed rhyme," fuch as the war, the fcarcity, the general corruption of manners, the foppery and affectation of fcience, the stage, &c. &c. On thefe fubjects he is fometimes affected and rather obicure, fometimes too minute in his remarks; but, in general, he does not want energy of language, or melody of verfification. The following paffage, in particular, does credit, in our opinion, both to his talents and principles.

"Are thefe alone the vices of the stage,

That half reflects and half corrupts the age ?
Say ye who moft its moral fong admire,
And afk inftruction of the comic lyre,
Do modeft blushes ne'er condemn the Pit,
Whofe laugh applauds obfcenity for wit!
Or can your daughters feek the mimic school,
Brav'd by the infult of each ribald fool,
Whofe drunken folly feeks to give offence,
And prove his fashion by his want of fenfe?
Vain all the boaft of morals on the stage,
While round the benches Vice prefumes to rage,
There are, whofe daughters, with their bofoms bare,
Defy the decent Pit's indignant ftare,

Or, like the Paris amazonian troop,

To fhew their garters, ape Thalestris' loop.
Oh! would fuch mothers know the public weal,
And what the people for their lineage feel!

In vain their offspring boaft of wealth and birth;
Thefe Chance beftows; but Education worth;
This renders each an ornament of life,

A tender mother, and a virtuous wife.

As yet untainted, grant, their early youth
Beams with the dawn of Virtue and of Truth,
With charms unconfcious, fweet as rifing day,
With fmiles of pleafure innocently gay;
But early train'd each beauty to difclofe,
Roll the eye's languifh, bare the bofom's throes;
Each gentle limb of Nature's fairest mould
Shew thro' light muflin's close and flimfy fold;
When riper age expands their growing charms,
And with new fires the heaving bofom warms,
Say, will they check infidious Paffion's art,
That bribes the fenfes to corrupt the heart?
The flow'ret fades to Noon's broad beams difplay'd,
That blooms far longer, fweeter in the fhade;
And the gay beauty who attracts all eyes,

With Art's falfe glare, and Fashion's varying dyes,

Mourns,

Mourns, when too late, with burning anguifh test,

For tranfient fplendour, peace and honour loft." P. 32.

In the latter part of the poem there is little to observe, except that, in his remarks on the ftate of literature, the author commits, in our opinion, a great injuftice, by claffing Mr. Pye with Blackmore and the author of The Sovereign, and condemning the poem of Alfred before he had feen it; as he admits in a note that it was then only advertised.

Svo.

By Mafon Chamberlin, Au-
Clarke. 1801.

Is. 6d.

ART. 17. Ocean, a Poem, in Two Parts.
thor of " Equanimity, a Poem."
This Poem is, at least, conceived with a true fpirit of patriotism,
and the characteristic feelings of a Briton. The fubjects of the com-
pofition are well felected and arranged, and epifodes introduced with
confiderable effect. The following will be thought no unfavourable
fpecimen of the author's talent.

"The air yet freshens, and the bufy crew
Attend the mafter's fummons, brace with care
Each ftraining fail, and due precaution use
To keep the veffel to her bearing true;
For now in frequent gufts the potent gale
Sweeps o'er the fwelling furges, while a train
Of vapours thick contract the folar beams:
In wider circles, lo! they gather fast
Around the fick'ning orb, which freely ftrives
To penetrate th' accumulated gloom.

Th' experienced feaman marks the threat'ning change,
While in the eaftern quarter of the heavens,
'Gainft which the feagull fpreads his level wing,
The brooding tempeft mufters all its force;
And diftant light'nings, with portentous gleam,
Break from the deep'ning fhade that wider fpreads
As the declining day comes near a close.

Hark! how the folemn thunder's gradual fwell
Burts on th' expecting car. One farewel ray
Th'evning fun emits, of angry hus,

Then finks beneath the agitated waves;

While flufh'd with many a fiery ftreak, the sky

Gives certain warning of th' unruly night,

Now clofing faft upon the dreary view."

A Poem, by the fame author, was noticed in our Review for Auguft, p. 195.

ART. 18. Ancient Ballads, from the Civil Wars of Granada; and the
Twelve Peers of France; dedicated, by Permiffion, to the Right Hon.
Lady Georgina Cavendish. By Thomas Rodd.
Vernor and Hood. 1801.

12mo.

3s. 6d.

Whether thefe are translations or imitations of the Morefco, we are not informed; but they are very pleafing fpecimens of that fort of

3

poetry

poetry, which has many readers and friends, and of which the Bishop of Dromore has given an elegant example, in his Gentle River, Gentle River. They are termed Ballads, of which the following is not perhaps the beft.

"Lamentations of a Moor, for the Lofs of Granada.
Softly flow thou pleasant river,

Stream that ev'ry Moor reveres;
Let thy murmurs footh thy forrows,
Whilft I fwell thee with my tears,
For Granada am I weeping,

For Granada far renowned;
Lo! her choiceft fons lie flaughter'd,

And her ftreets in blood are drown'd!

All her tow'rs and fairest cities,
By the Moors eftcem'd fo high;
Strong built forts, and lofty caftles,
Now in fcatter'd ruins lie.

All her flow'ry fields and gardens,
Gardens form'd with matchless tafte,
Where the pendent fruit hung fhining,
Now remain a defert wafte.

Mofques fo pure, and Lately manfions,
Seem diffolv'd in clouds of fmoke;
Pleasant woods, and lofty pine-trees,
Bow beneath th' axe's ftroke.
Where the joyful fports were acted
Stalks the meagre fiend, Defpair;
Where the fofteft mufic founded
Shrieks of horror rend the air.

For her spouse, the frantic widow
Tears her air, and beats her breast,
At her cruel fate exclaiming,
With diftracting thoughts opprefs'd,

And the tender piteous orphan,
In each hopeful pleasure croft,
Clinging round its helpless mother,
Mourns a fire untimely lost.

Chang'd with grief, the lovely damfel
Tells the empty wind her pain,
And her hands in anguifh wringing
Weeps a faithful lover flain.

Red like blood the fun appearing
Sheds a fanguinary gloom,
And convulfive nature trembling
Seems to wait a final doom.

Softly

Softly flow thou pleasant river,

Stream that every Moor reveres;
Let thy murmurs footh my forrows,
Whilft I fwell thee with my tears.

No more on thy verdant borders
Shall the tender lovers stray,
And in sweet enchanting converfe
País the happy hours away.
No more fhail the bark fo fmoothly
Float along thy trembling wave,
Nor the youths, with heat all weary,
In thy crystal current lave.

On thy banks, where op'ning flowrets
Spread their beauties to the day,
Oft at night the Moor fhall wander,
To the Chriftian doom'd a prey.
Christians that, in war long practis'd,
Every peaceful thought forego,
Chriftians that, in blood delighting,
Taught Granada's tears to flow,

Softly flow thou pleasant river,
Stream that ev'ry Moor reveres ;
Let thy murmurs foot my forrows,
Whilft I fwell thee with my tears.

ART. 19. Tears and Smiles, a Mifcellaneous Collection of Poems. By Peter Pindar, Efq. 12mo. 5s. Weft and Hughes, 1801. We had hoped that the advance of old age would have fuppreffed, in this writer, his rage for blafphemy, obfcenity, and falfehood. Alas! it has not yet; but the hour cannot be very far off, when he will feel that the remembrance of his ribaldry will not avail him. Orfon and Eller, the principal poem in this volume, is of the most contemptible contrivance, and has not the smallest portion of wit, humour, or ingenuity to recommend it.

DRAMATIC.

ART. 20. Deaf and Dumb; or, the Abbé de L'Epèe. An historical Play. In Five Acts. Tranflated from the French Edition. Autherticated by the Author, J. N. Bouilly, Member of the Philotechnic Society at Paris. To which is prefixed, fome Account of the Abbé de L'Epèe, and of his Inflitution for the Relief and Inftruction of the Deaf and Dumb. 8vo. 70 pp. 25. Longman and Rees. 1801.

By an Advertisement prefixed to this Play it would appear (though it is not brought forward as a complaint) that the tranflator has not received the moft liberal treatment at one of the theatres; for, after it had been shown to "a gentleman high in the management," and had been altered conformably to his advice, the tranflator (before he had

prefented

prefented the piece again) found it was "in rehearsal as altered by another author." Which of the two tranflations has moft dramatic merit, we do not undertake to decide. The story which forms the principal fubject of this drama, is that of a young man of rank and confiderable fortune, who, being deaf and dumb from his birth, had been left at the age of about eight years, in rags, in the streets of Paris by an uncle (who was his guardian) and thus robbed of his estate; his treacherous relation having obtained a falfe certificate of his death, and being himself the next heir. This unfortunate youth had been conducted to the Abbé de L'Epée, the benevolent protector and teacher of the deaf and dumb. Something in the youth's manner inducing the Abbé to fufpect that his birth and rank were very different from thofe which his wretched appearance imported, and his docility in learning, together with a very promifing difpofition, having highly endeared him to his kind preceptor, his name and real condition are at length, by a series of fortunate circumftances, discovered, his bafe uncle detected, and his property restored.

The objection to this piece, as a dramatic reprefentation, arifes from the natural infirmity of the chief perfonage, which no poffible change of circumstances can remove; fo that, befides the difadvantage of a reprefentation confifting in a great part of dumb fhow, the mind of a fpectator muft retain a melancholy impreffion, even after the fortunate conclufion of the piece. This is in fome degree remedied by making St. Alme, the fon of the treacherous guardian, an amiable interefting character, and much attached to his unfortunatè coufin. He, with much difficulty, prevails on his father to avoid the difgrace of a public expofure, by admitting the claim of his injured nephew; and the play concludes with a generous donation by the deaf and dumb youth, of half his property to his coufin, who alfo obtains the hand of a young lady the object of his wishes.

The piece, upon the whole, is interefting; but we think the last fcene, between St. Alme and his father, fhould have been represented, not merely related.

MEDICINE.

ART. 21. An Inquiry into the Nature and Caufe of that Savelling in one or both of the lower Extremities, which fometimes happens to Lyinginn Women. Part II. By Charles White, Efq. F. R. S. 8vo. 134 PP. 4s. 6d. Mawman. 1801.

In our account of Dr. Hall's Effay on Phlegmatia Dolens, fee P. 86 of the prefent volume of the British Critic, we promifed to refume the fubject, when examining the production before us, which was then juft published. We were by no means fatisfied that the cafes adduced by Dr. Hull, in fupport of his doctrine, were genuine fpecimens of the disease, or that he had made out his point, that phlegmatia dolens and peritonitis were the fame difeafe, only affecting different parts of the fyftem, or that it was a disease of fuch frequent occurrence, or fo frequently fatal, as he feemed to intimate; and our opinion on these heads is confirmed by the production before us.