your scorn would not perform the cure: it might indeed take off the edge of hope, but damned despair will gnaw my heart for ever. If then I am not odious to your eyes, if you have charity enough to value the well-being of a man that holds you dearer than you can the child your bowels are most fond of,

By that sweet pledge of your first softest love,

I charm and here conjure you

To pity the distracting pangs of mine; pity my unquiet days and restless nights; pity the frenzy that has half possest my brain already, and makes me write to you thus ravingly: the wretch in Bedlam is more at peace than I am! And if I must never possess the heaven I wish for, my next desire is, (and sooner the better) a clean-swept cell, a merciful keeper, and your compassion when you find me there.

Think and be generous.

Vol. iii. pp. 317, 318. The first passage, which is printed m Italics, may be compared with another in Venice Preserved:

Jaff. tell me why, good heav'n, Thou mad'st me what I am; with all the spirit,

Aspiring thoughts and elegant desires, That fill the happiest man? Ah! rather why

Didst thou not form me sordid as my fate, Base-minded, dull, and fit to carry burdens? [on me?

Why have I sense to know the curse that's Is this just dealing, Nature? vol. iii. Ven. Pr. p. 22.

The second powerfully reminds us of Monimia's pathetic appeal to her brother, in the Orphan:

Oh, shouldst thou know the cause of my lamenting, [scorn me; I'm satisfied, Chamont, that thou would'st Thou would'st despise the abject lost Monimia, [beauty; but, No more would'st praise this hated When in some cell, distracted, as I shall [locks these unregarded

be,

Thou see'st me lie

limbs

Matted like furies' tresses-my poor [delights Chain'd to the ground, and, 'stead of the Which happy lovers taste, my keeper's stripes, [dish

A bed of straw, and a coarse wooden Of wretched sustenance-when thus thou see'st me,

Prythee have charity and pity for me:
Let me enjoy this thought.

vol. ii. Orphan, p. 261.

The most remarkable of Otway's prose-writings are these letters to Mrs. Barry, and his Dedications. The latter are in general disgraced by that servility which was a characteristic of the age. The prologues and epilogues are mostly indifferent productions; but the prologue prefixed to Caius Marius has, on the whole, more of the attributes of poetry. We cannot pass much approbation upon the minor poems; but The Complaint, a song, vol. iii. p. 306. is pretty, simple, and interesting.

Respecting the superintendence of this edition, Mr. Thornton speaks thus at the commencement of vol. i.

When dramatic amusements are pursued with so much avidity as at present, and the works of our chief benefactors to the stage are so extensively diffused, it is somewhat surprising, that those of Otway, whose powers in tragedy are of such acknowledged excellence, should be less conspicuous. The most correct edition of Otway's Works is that of 1757, in 3 vols. 12mo. but in this several of his poems are omitted, and it discovers, besides, many errors which a proper attention to the early copies would have prevented. It has also become extremely scarce. To remedy this inconvenience, and to present to the public an accurate and complete collection of the works of this eminent author, have been the objects for which this edition has been

undertaken. The editor has bestowed no inconsiderable pains upon the text, which has been collated with the quarto copies and earliest editions. He

has followed the modern example, of prefixing a short critical introduction to each work; and where the lapse of time, political allusions, or the revolutions in manners and customs, have obscured the text, explanatory notes are introduced. In some places, resemblances between the author and other writers have been pointed out; not that the editor considers every instance of this kind to be a plagiarism, but because it is interesting to observe the peculiar form which a thought assumes, when produced by the same train of reflection, or generated by the same object, in different minds. To the whole is appended an extract from a scarce novel, which is an object of no small curiosity, since it was the mine from whence Otway drew so rich a treasure as "The Orphan."-pp. i.-iii.

We do not always approve of the punctuation or the division of the blank verse in these volumes; but in observing thus much, as no two persons will, in these respects, exactly agree, we cannot intend to convey any censure of the editor. The notes of Mr. Thornton, although apposite, are few; and we should have been gratified to see them in more abundance from the same able hand.

We shall now state the apparent imitations of other writers, which have passed unnoticed by the editor; or coincidencies of sentiment in the juvenile plays of Otway, and his matured productions. Some passages we may also refer to, imitated from Otway by later authors.

Kind heav'n, let heavy curses
Gall his old age; cramps, aches, rack his
bones!
Ven. Pr. p. 28.

should recommend a slight alteration in the Tempest, which might preserve the sense of the line, without injuring its metre. The playhouse editions of Shakspeare have exercised such freedoms with his drama, that an inviolable adherence to the text, which must here prove offensive either to the ears of critics, or to the majority of the audience, can only proceed from the stubborn affectation of pedantry. Why not insert the copulative and, and pronounce aches as one syllable?

Their bloody ensigns all display'd appear,
And hold an am'rous combat with the air:
Loosely they fly, and with a wanton play,
Seem to salute the sun-beams in their
way.
Alcib. vol. i. p. 26.

So, in Shakspeare's King John: Mocking the air with colors idly spread."

As stars in a dim senate rule the night, But vanish at the sun's more potent light. Alcib. vol. i. p. 27.

Mr. Thornton quotes some verses of Sir H. Wootton: we may also produce the well-known lines of Lucretius on Epicurus:

The opponents of Mr. Kemble's dissyllable aches should be referred to this author, of later date than Shakspeare. But as the jus et norma loquendi refuses to acquiesce in the pronunciation of antiquity, we VOL. I.

T

How often, on the brink of some discovery [our ground, Have we stood tottering, yet still kept So well, the busiest searchers ne'er could follow [picion. Those subtle tracks which puzzled ail susVen. Pr. p. 54.

Shakspeare has ascribed a similar speech to Brutus, in Julius Cæsar, on the subject of conspiracy; and Addison, in Cato, has followed the traces of his predecessors.

Oh think what dreadful moments pass between [period! The birth of plots and their last fatal Oh, 'tis a dreadful interval of time, Fill'd up with horror all, and big with death!

Although Otway is chiefly known as a dramatic poet, by his writings in blank verse, these volumes contain various essays in the heroic couplet; as, Alcibiades, Don Carlos, and Titus and Berenice.

In versification, our poet is of course unable to contest the palm with Dryden. His works abound with triplets, which are very offensive to a correct ear, unless sparingly introduced; or if the third line do not possess some point, or other merit in composition, to atone for its irregular intrusion. But if employed with judgment in the heroic plays, we think that they may be at times better adapted (as in D. Carlos, A. 4. vol. i. p. 122.) to represent the grave and stately march of tragic sorrow than the more regular chime of successive couplets. The love pourtrayed in Otway's heroic tragedies is a passion distinct from the experience of life and nature. We borrow the words of Mr. Thornton, in his strictures upon Don Carlos:

Like all the rhyming, or heroic, plays of that age, this tragedy varies from historical truth, for the sake of introducing that romantic and metaphysical love which, at that period,

lorded it over the stage, and although highly applauded for its sublimity and majesty, appears now, even in its happiest representation, almost a burlesque upon the passion.-Vol. i. p. 79.

We do not think it necessary to give an elaborate abstract of dramas so universally known and admired as those of Otway; and we are compelled to restrict our observations within very confined limits.

The chef d'œuvre of Otway is Venice Preserved. Its pathos, equally impressive, is not of so tender a description as that of The Orphan; and there are some masculine features in the character of Belvidera, which render her less the object of sympathy than Monimia, the gentle, the helpless, and the injured. The strong taint of sensuality that infects the dialogue between Belvidera and her husband, was no doubt the consequence of Otway's habitual licentiousness; and rather presents to our minds the idea of a wedded mistress than an affectionate matron. It is this circumstance which, in reading the play, tempts us to regard her sorrows as flowing from the principle of selfishness; but, in the representation, most of these offensive passages are omitted. We must, however, confess that Belvidera's claims to approbation, although she does not entirely conform to our model of female perfection, are certainly of a high order: and the scene of her death is perhaps the most effective in the play.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MELANCHOLY; a Poem in four parts, with a Mythological Ode. By T. L. PEACOCK. Hookham. 1812. royal 4to, pp. 125. Pr.

18s.

CONTENTS.

The Philosophy of Melancholy. Part I-II-III-IV.-Notes on the Philosophy of Melancholy.-The spirit of fire. -Notes on the spirit of fire.

GENERAL ANALYSIS. I. The contemplation of the universal mutability of things prepares the mind to encounter the vicissitudes of life. The spirit of philosophical melancholy, which delights in that contemplation, is the most copious source of virtue, of and of genius. The pleacourage, sures arising from it are the most pure and permanent that man is capable of enjoying. It is felt in every scene and sound of nature; more especially, in the solemn grandeur of mountainscenery, and in the ruined magnificence of former times.

II. The finest efforts of art, in painting, music, poetry, and romance, derive their principal charms from melancholy.

III. The social affections derive from this sentiment their most endearing ties. It reigns in the interchanged consolations of love; in the sympathetic charity, which seeks out, and relieves, affliction; in the retrospective attachment, which dwells on the scenes of our childhood, and on the memory of departed friends.

IV. The mind, familiarised to the contemplation of vicissitudes, rises superior to calamity; perceives, that the existence of a certain portion of evil is indispensable to the general system of nature, and to the enlargement of the human faculties; and ascends, from the observation of apparently discordant particulars, to the knowledge of that all-perfect wisdom, which arranges the whole in harmony.