• Lord Mel. Well ladies, you perceive how fportfully Mr. Fancy difcourfes, he has a mind to give you a fpecimen of his manner of entertaining his company, when they are fitting to him.

Lady Plin. But I think, before we come to any determination about the dress, it would be proper to confult the attic taste of Lady Bellair.

Mr. Fancy. Moft affuredly, you may fhew her these miniatures which I have lately finished. This is the portrait of Mifs Harelip, gives the miniatures) which attracted the public eye the last exhibition. This is only a profile of Mifs Woolfack, the Judge's daughter.

Lady Plin. I will not delay you any longer at present.

Mr. Fancy. I will wait upon your Ladyship, whenever you will favour me with your commands. (Exit. Mr. FANCY.

Mifs Plin. But why does your Lordship wish so much to have my picture, fince I am to live with you? do you want me duplicated? don't усл think one Mifs Plinlimmon will be enough for you?

Lord Mel. The mutual exchange of pictures, is one of the etiquettes of modern marriages.

Lady Plin. Marriage itfelf may be faid to be a mutual exchange of attention, indulgence, and affection.

Mifs Plin. In this mutual exchange, pray, my Lord, inform me Awhich of us two will be the gainer?

Lord Mel. If there is any calculation to be made, I am undoubtedly the gainer.

Mifs Plin. Give me leave to calculate my loffes; in marrying your Lordship I lose my name-I lofe the fociety of papa and mamma -I fhall, perhaps, lofe my fhape-and perhaps, in time, lofe my reputation.

Lady Plin. Peace to that flippant tongue of yours, you are trying his Lordship's patience before the time. As I must carry these miniatures to Lady Bellair, your Lordship will excufe my leaving youIfabella go to your papa

(Exeunt Lady PLINLIMMON and Mifs PLINLIMMON. 'Lord Mel. Heaven and earth! What a family am I going to be connected with! But I must not paufe upon that thought, it would aimoft lead me to diftraction. (Exit Lord MELCOURT.'

Much of the wit of this fcene is lively and pleafant, but not faultlefs. The lockjaw is apt, but inelegant; the down-caft look is pointless; and Lady Frizle-rump, with her moles and bald buff forehead, is coarfe and almost disgusting. The little influence which the fcene has on the plot offends. After the acuteness and fancy displayed by Mifs Plinlimmon, the reader is aftonished at Lord Melcourt's fhort foliloquy. It at once infults the feelings, and violates probability. On the whole, we do not greatly wonder that this play did not fucceed on the stage.

Art. 51.
The Restoration of the Jews: a Poem. By the Rev. Francis
Wrangham, M. A. Member of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and
Curate of Cobham, Surry. 4to. 15. Dilly, &c.

Of the numerous votaries of poefy who have fhared the powerful infpiration of Mr. Seaton's legacy, Mr. Wrangham is not one of the leaft fuccessful. In treating his fubject, he has taken a wide compass, commencing with the first exodus of the children of Ifrael from Egypt, and following them through all their wanderings to their final return to Jerufalem. The ftory is narrated in poetical diction and harmo nious numbers; and the hiftorical allufions, which are numerous, are illuftrated by pertinent notes, chiefly refpecting the accomplishment of the prophecies. In these notes, the writer's erudition keeps an equal pace with his poetical talents in the text.

Art. 52. A Letter from Dr. Snubdevil in London to his Friend at Bath, 1794. 4to. 1S. Bell. 1795.

The writer of this tame and feeble fatire on the general vices and follies of the time pleads hafte as an excufe for inaccuracies, and the request of a friend [the old ftory] as an apology for publication Could we discover in the verfes any marks of genius which might encourage us to expect better things when the author is more at leifure to digeft and correct, or which could lead us to prefume that his friend has had better reafons for prompting the publication than appear on the face of the performance, we should be difpofed to fuffer the poem to pals uncensured: but we will not finish the fentence.

Art. 53. The Travels of Cyllenius: a Poem. The 38th and 40th Cantos. 4to.

15. each. R. White.

As the author

Of this political fquib, thrown out at random among the multitude, we cannot fay whence it comes, or whither it tends. begins at the 38th canto, he probably means to publish backwards. Iffo, we may perhaps difcover more of his drift, when we shall have arrived at the first line of the poem. In the mean time, it may be fufficient to inform our readers that the poet places his hero on the continent, to deplore the miferies of anarchy and the horrors of war, and brings him back to England, to witnefs the power of a British Minister's prefence in the great fenate of the nation; where, after rebounding doors and turgid rhapsodies,'

Through all the ranks a death-like calm fucceeds,

When, fraught with public cares and glorious deeds,
The Minifter his youthful form uprears.'

In the fubfequert rhimes, the Minifter fpeaks out fo plainly in juftification of corruption, and against reforms, that we are rather inclined to think the poet means to lampoon administration: but we fhall probably know more of the matter hereafter, if this attempt at fomething like fatire fhould be continued.

Art. 54. The Cap. A Satiric Poem. Including most of the Dra-. matic Writers of the prefent Day; with Notes, &c. By Peter Pindar, Efq. Dedicated to Richard Brinfley Sheridan, Efq. 4to. 25. Ridgway, &c.

This fatirilt may boaft his art, if not his genius. He judged perhaps, fhrewdly enough, that his Caps might fell under the notion that they came from the manufactory of the renowned Peter Pindar, but not if fairly brought to market under the real name of the maker.→ The defign is, FOLLY offering her cap and bells as a PRIZE to

fuch

fach of her votaries as fhould thew themfelves best qualified to obtain
and wear it :- a hacknied and worn out device! - The prefent race of
dramatic poets, with fome others, are the candidates; and, in the
cap-maker's abule of them and their works, by way of displaying
their pretensions to the favour of the goddefs, confiits the ill natured
fatire of a writer, in comparifon with whom (if we rightly conjecture)
the meanest object of his abufe may be confidered as PINDAR himself!
Art. 55. The Comic Adventures of Satan and Peter Pindar, in Epiftles.
from Aunt Rachel to Aunt Trebitha. Dedicated to the worthy
Inhabitants of Cornwall. By an Ex-ETONIAN. 8vo.
15. AL

len and Co. 1795.

The ingenious author, belike, taking the Cornish Pindar, for the king of fatirits, deemed it fair to treat him as he treats other fovereigus. Such hoftile notices of P. P. are, of late, become very common: but his affailants are by no means equipped for the talk. They have the inclination to abufe, and they have the ribaldry: but where is the humour-where is the POETRY-Peter cannot fay, with Shakspeare's fat knight, that he not only has wit himfelf, but is

the cause of wit in other men.

NOVELS.

Art. 56. Memoirs of Madame de Barneveldt. Tranflated from the
French by Mifs Gunning. 2 Vols.
Boards. Booker. 1795.
8vo. pp. 353. 325. 125.

The natural partiality of an author will often induce him to usher into the world performances that are unworthy of meeting the public eye, but which, as the productions of his own genius, he is not capable of eftimating according to their real value. however, cannot operate in favour of the work of another, it may As this bias, reaforably be expected that no book thould be tranflated, which does rot poffels confiderable intrinfic merit; yet it has happened that the depravity of public tafte, or the defective judgment of individuals, has confiderably augmented our native ftock of indifferent performances, by importations of foreign works which feldom prove to be valuable acquifitions, even to the circulating libraries. On the production before us we fhall leave the reader to form his own opinion, in fome measure, by a brief outline of the general ftory.

Madame de Barneveldt, the heroine of the tale, begins by informing the reader that fhe was born in the foreft of Ardennes, and educated by a hermit, but in fuch a way that at the age of twelve the remained ignorant of fexual diftinétions; from this period the hermit employed himfelf in ftoring the mind of his pupil with the knowlege of manners, politics, and in short all the tranfactions of civil fociety. When the reached the age of eighteen years, her preceptor died, and from the wilds of the foreft our heroine emerged into civilized life: alone and unprotected as the was, the affumed for fecurity the dress of a man, went to refide in Flanders, and is engaged in a variety of intrigues with the women; till, tired of this way of life, the goes to Paris, Still retaining her mafculine garb. At Paris, the becomes acquainted with Signora Florina, an Italian lady; a mutual attachment takes place, when, the Signora proving to be the Count Rofino, they quit

Paris together; and on their arrival at Florence, the refidence of the Count's parents, they are married. Their happiness, however, is of fhort duration; for, on a voyage to Smyrna, the fhip in which they em barked is attacked by a Corfair; and an action enfues which ends in the death of the Count and the captivity of his wife. Imminent was the danger to her chaflity while immured in a feraglio at Tunis; but, being at length ranfomed, and fet on fhore in Spain, he meets with a fon of the celebrated Barneveldt, and a mutual affection is the confequence; in their journey, however, from Spain to Holland, they are intercepted by a party of robbers, and Madame de Barneveldt is thus prematurely deprived of her lover. She proceeds to Amfterdam, and thence to Dunkirk; where, meeting with an old monk, fhe is informed of the fecret of her birth, and the fad flory of her mother, in fearch of whom she again departs at Bruffels, the hears that Barneveldt is alive in Holland, and in high favour with the States General; a messenger fent by her to the Hague confirms the joyful tidings, by returning accompanied by Barneveldt, who, though cruelly treated, had recovered froin the wounds of the robbers; fhe alfo here meets with her long loft mother, and her marriage with Barneveldt concludes the flory.

Our limits will not allow us to notice the various digreffions, confifting of the hiftory of the Barneveldts, and many fictitious stories, fome conducing to elucidate the main fable, and others entirely unconnected with it: thefe we omit, in order to give room for a few words on the merit of the tranflation. In the first place, there is a great want of a table of errata; for we can hardly imagine that the numerous infances of vicious orthography, fuch as affimulate, combatting, unlofe for unloofe, and many others of the fame kind, are any thing elfe than errors of the prefs; we could hope alfo that the frequent ufe of who instead of whom, of the nominative I for the objective me, and of the fingular number for the plural, may have arifen from a flip of the pen, or fome other inadvertency. We cannot however, avoid remarking that to witness to the triumphs' and to fign to the deftruction' are by no means ftrict idiomatical expreffions; that veiling themfelves under the fuffrage of difappointment' is a phrafe quite beyond our comprehenfion; and that carrying devoirs to the feet of a lady,' and not leaving her till he had fixed the day of our Hymen,' though very literal verfions from the French, are very miferable fpecimens of English.

Art. 57. The Ghost-Seer; or Apparitionist. An interefting Fragment, found among the Papers of Count O

From the

German of Schiller. 12mQ. 35. Vernor and Hood. 1795. Frederick Schiller is by this time a popular writer with the British, and his name is fufficient to introduce even a fecond-rate work to general attention. The Ghoft-Seer is a novel of great originality. It has pointed out a new fource of the TERRIBLE,-the parfuit of an influence over the invisible world, and has given birth to imitations nearly as contemptible as they are multifarious. The extraordinary popularity of this tale in Germany was much favoured by the allons which it contains to thofe machinations of the myftics at Berlin, of which fome mention occurs in the 52d and other letters of the Se

cret

eret Memoirs by Mirabeau. This fingular fect, which difperfed with affiduity the writings of Swedenborg, and the leaders of which laid claim to fupernatural illuminations and even to an intercoufe with departed fpirits, was fuppofed to be under the management of certain ex jefuits; who afpired, through their known influence over perfons of the firft confequence in Berlin, to re-establish catholicism in Pruffia; for which event the diffufion of fuperftitious books had a natural tendency to prepare the multitude. This influence, whether the refult of a contemptible credulity, or of a deliberate plan to encourage those religious tenets which feem the most favourable to paffive obedience, naturally became obnoxious to the philofophical party, who, in writings of every form, endeavoured to render the purfuits of the mystics ridiculous and odious. They have probably fucceeded; and they have rewarded Schiller for the welcome aid derived to their cause from this novel, by an applaufe which over-rates its merit. The story is left half-told, but it has been conducted by the author much farther than by his tranflator, who does not bring the reader acquainted with Civitella, with the infinuating Biondello, nor with the beautiful Greek unknown. The tranflation is, however, with refpect to language, well executed; and the work is interefting.

EDUCATION, SCHOOL BOOKS,

Art. 58. Rudiments of Conftructive Etymology and Syntax.

PP. 148. Is. fewed. Knott.

12m0,

This little manual of English Grammar is drawn up with judgment, and is neatly printed. It is not intended to fuperfede, but to introduce, or accompany, more complete works on this fubject. The firft rudiments both of etymology and fyntax are clearly laid down: those parts which are to be committed to memory are diftinctly printed on a large letter; the examples for exercife are chofen with tafte, and properly arranged; and the work is well fuited to anfwer the purpose of leading the young fcholar, by easy fteps, to a knowlege of the English language.

1795.

Art. 59. Juvenile Anecdotes; founded on Facts, collected for the Amusement of Children. By Prifcilla Wakefield, Author of Mental Improvement, Leifure Hours, &c. 12mo. pp. 140. 1s. 6d. Boards. Allen and West. We have not unfrequently of late years heard objections advanced against that ufual, natural, and very antient vehicle of virtuous inftruction, the moral tale and fable. The real propriety and folidity of the objections are with us at least problematical; though any mode of information may be ill-conducted, or carried to excels. The argument, however, has certainly been ufeful, if, as this lady intimates, it gave rife to the pretty little volume before us. Perhaps, it may give the reader fome idea of its nature to infert a few of the titles:→ The child who did not know its own mind.-Edward Seymour, or a model for little boys to imitate.-The tureen of foup.-The evening walk.-The jar of fweet-meats.-The little girl who loved praise. The triumph of reafon.-The hare.--The fool's cap.-The advan❤ tage of confelling a fault.-The Museum-ticket, or virtue never lofes

13