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Shou'd I reveal the fource of ev'ry grief,
If foft humanity e'er touch'd your breafts,
Your hands wou'd not withhold the kind relief,
And tears of pity could not be repreft.

• Heav'n fends misfortunes-why fhould we repine ?
'Tis Heav'n has brought me to the ftate you fee:
And your condition may be foon like mine,
-The child of forrow-and of mifery.

A little farm was my paternal lot,
Then like the lark I fprightly hail'd the morn
But ah! oppreffion forc'd me from my cot,
My cattle dy'd, and blighted was my corn.

My daughter-once the comfort of my age!
Lur'd by a villain from her native home,
Is caft abandon'd on the world's wide stage,
And doom'd in fcanty poverty to roam.

My tender wife-sweet soother of my care!
Struck with fad anguish at the stern decree,
Fell-ling'ring fell a victim to despair,
And left the world to wretchedness and me.

• Pity the forrows of a poor old man!
Whofe trembling limbs have borne him to your door,
Whofe days are dwindled to the shortest span,

Oh! give relief-and Heav'n will bless your store.'

Whether it is confiftent or not with the character of a beggar, to bewail his miferies in refined language and harmonious numbers, may be a queftion with fome readers: but the candid and the benevolent, who pay no regard to fuch a point of critical nicety, may perceive in this poetical lamentation an agreeable fimplicity, and an air of melancholy, which will please the imagination, and excite the tender fentiments of humanity.

The fubfequent pieces in this colle&ion are, an Epistle to a Female Friend, on the Death of her Father; a Tale; an Invitation to a Brother Collegian; an Epiftle to Lorenzo on Compaflion; the Sparrow and Hawk, a Fable; Offian's Addrefs to the Sun, in blank Verse; an Addrefs which was spoken by one of the Charity Children at the Anniversary Meeting at W. Chearfulness, a Poem; a Caution to a Debauchee; an Epistle to Mifs - ; another to a married Lady of injured Character; a third on the Death of the Author's Sifter; and an Ode in Imitation of Anacreo..

VIII. Ti

VIII. Timanthes: a Tragedy. As it is performed at the Theatres Royal in Covent Garden. By John Hoole. 8vo. Pr. 1s. 6d. Becket and De Hondt.

DEmophoon, king of Thrace, was commanded by the oracle of Delphi to facrifice annually a virgin to Apollo, till the true heir to his crown fhould be found and acknowledged, who was fupplanted by a falfe one. Timanthes, his fon, had privately married Ifmena, the daughter of Mathufius, the king's old friend, and experienced general, who had trained Timanthes to the art of war; because it was a capital crime in Thrace for a fubject to marry one of the blood royal. Demophoon, with the arbitrary policy of Thrace, kept his daughter Arfinoe in retirement, that he might not run the risk of being one of the annual victims which were drawn by lot; and that, by her prefence, the injuftice of her exemption from the fate of the other virgins might not be more ftrongly obtruded upon the minds of the people. Mathufius, the father of Ifmena, warmly remonftrates to Demophoon against this tyranny. The king refents the freedom of Mathufius with indignation; and to punish his temerity, deftines Ifmena to be the propitiatory victim, and allows her not the ufual chance of the lots. Timanthes comes home victorious over the enemies of the Thracian state; and his younger brother Cherinthus, Demophoon's fon by his fecond queen, Serena, arrives with Cephifa, the daughter of Nicanor, king of Phrygia. The two kings had entered into a treaty of affinity, and Cephifa was fent to Thrace to be married to Timanthes. Cherinthus, and this princess, had conceived a strong paffion for each other during the voyage. Mathufius refolves to fly from Thrace with his daughter, in a veffel prepared by him for the purpofe; Timanthes oppofes the flight of Ifmena, and in the warmth of his difpute with Mathufius, he afferts the right he had to her perfon, and difcovers their marriage, hitherto kept a profound fecret. During their altercation, the guards enter, and feize Ifmena. Timanthes, enraged at this violence, is determined at whatever hazard, to rescue his wife, and fly the country with her and her father. In the mean time Ifmena, the destined victim, iş conducted to the temple: Timanthes meets her in the way, is agitated with the ftrongeft emotions of grief and rage, and flies, to call together a band of chofen friends to deliver her from the holy inhumanity. He returns; drives the priests from the temple; is furprised by Demophoon, whofe paternal reproaches difarm the fon. He owns to his father that he is married to Ifmena; their tender and difinterested vindication of each other, feconded by the intreaties of Cherinthus, make VOL. XXIX. March, 1770. P him

him fufpend his refolution. They are committed separately to prifon. By the interceffion of Cephifa, Ifmena's fon Olinthus is fent to her while fhe is in the prifon : Cephifa prevails upon Demophoon to go along with her to vifit Ifmena. By the tender fupplications of Cephifa and Ifmena, the heart of the old king is melted; he promises forgiveness to the husband and the wife. Cherinthus acquaints his brother Timanthes with his father's reconciliation: his joy is foon changed into grief and horror by Mathufius, who brings him a paper, which by Argea, his former queen, was committed to the care of Barcene, the late wife of Mathufius. This paper discovers that Ifmena is not the daughter of Mathufius, but of Demophoon; it was to be discovered when Ifmena's fafety required it; and it referred to another paper to be found in the household temple, which explained why Ifmena was to pass for the daughter of Mathufius. This was a contrivance of Argea, who had no male children, and wanted an heir to the crown. Mathufius finds the other paper, and Demophoon reads its contents; it informs them, that Timanthes is the fon of Mathufius. Thus is the whole knot fortunately unravelled: Timanthes, and the princefs Ifmena, are at last happy; Cherinthus is declared lawful heir to the crown of Thrace, and marries Cephifa.

Mr. Hoole has conftructed his Timanthes on the Demophoon of Metaftafio. In forming this tragedy, if, indeed, the word tragedy may with any propriety be applied to the piece by an Englishman, the author must have had nothing but immediate intereft in view. It may gratify the prevailing paffion for novelty, and it may reward the labour of the writer, but it will not be honoured with lasting fame. If an Italian opera deferves to be called a tragedy, we may apply that title to Timanthes. Nor can we allow a dramatic performance to be either a comedy or a tragedy, merely because it is, according to Horace's rule-Neu minor, neu-quintâ produc tior actû. We are willing to give up, in favour of the piece now under examination, many of the other more internal, and minute old rules, as equally immaterial and abfurd: but certainly the man who has reputation in view, must endeavour to adapt his plan and his fentiments to the custom, the taste, and the genius of the country in which he writes. The famous Metastasio, whose whole works are not worth a fingle speech that might be produced from Shakespeare or Otway, wrote as much to the gamut as to the heart. The Italian drama is a conftant and prepofterous war with nature; its object is, to feaft the ear and the eye, not to move, invigorate, and im

prove the heart. Its heroes and patriots are eunuchs: its kings not only warble out their love, but their refentment; the thunder of their majefty; and, to ufe a fuperlative antithefis of Mr. Colman,

They roar-but roar like any nightingale.

But these who yet retain a true English tafte, expect in an English tragedy, variety of characters, elevated fentiments, the prominent and ftriking features of nature, a number of unexpected and great incidents, and the fignal punishment of vice. In thefe effentials Timanthes, it must be owned, is deficient. Horace faid formerly,

Mediocribus effe Poetis

Non Dii, non bomines, non conceffere columna.

The idea of mediocrity here should be confined to mere verfifiers, to mere turners of verses. There are degrees of excellence in poetry as well as in the other fine arts. Parnel and Gay are true poets, and are likely to live, though they are very far inferior to Pope and Dryden.

Mr. Hoole's verses are very easy and harmonious; and his imagination is just and tender. When Demophoon, in the first act, proposes a bride to his fon Timanthes, on his return from war, the fucceffion of love to arms, the decline of life, and the old man's recollection of paft pleasures, are well imagined and expreffed in the speech of the king.

• Demophoon.

Thou canst not tell

How dear I hold thee-to the toil of arms

Loves gives its foft relief, and beauty beft

Smooths the rough front of war: tho' now my years

Roll forward, and the fummer of my life

Yields to declining autumn, well I know

What youth has been, and what befits the age

When jocund fpring leads up the laughing hours."

Timanthes, in the fame act inquires of Ifmena after the welfare of their fon Olinthus. In Ifmena's anfwer, the tendernefs of the mother, and the wife, are beautifully pictured.

Ifm. Some God, that watches o'er this pledge of love,
Sure crowns his tender age with growing beauty,
Or the fond mother with imagin'd grace

Has deck'd his infancy; his looks already
Affume thy manly fternnefs; when he smiles,
He's all thyfelf; and oft as I can steal

A wish'd for look, I gaze with rapture on him,
And think I view Timanthes, till deceiv'd

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With the dear thought, I ftrain him to my breast,

And in the fon embrace the absent father.

The fecret workings of love are naturally and expreffively painted by Cherinthus, where he thus addreffes Cephifa, in the fecond act.

Cherin. And yet fometimes I felt a flattering hope:
Methought I oft obferv'd a tender figh

Steal from thy breaft, view'd in thy eyes a softness
That feem'd much more than friendship'-

When Timanthes reveals the fecret of his marriage, to Mathufius, Ifmena pathetically deprecates his refentment, in the following lines,

Ifm. Here proftrate at your feet, permit me now To own the fault excess of love infpir'd:·

And yet you can forgive; for if I read

Those looks aright, refentment dwells not there :

Nor will I plead the virtues of the prince,

Tho' thefe, my lord, were oft your lip's fond theme,
While under covert of yon' arching shade,

I drank, with greedy ears, his grateful praife.'

The fpeech of Ifmena, when the guards take her off, is very picturefque, and expreffive of her ftrong emotions.

Ifm.
Think not, Mathufius,
Though black adverfity now folds me round,
That aught of anguifh for myself can fhake
Thy daughter's mind-No! I could bear it all!
But when we view the pangs of those we love,
The firmeft temper fhrinks, and even the tear
Of weakness then is virtue-Gracious heaven!
Protect, defend-I would, but must not speak--
Ye powers! who read my thoughts, supply the prayer
I cannot utter, and, whate'er her doom,

At least, in those fhe loves, preferve Ismena !?

Timanthes begs of Demophoon the life of Ifmena with very affecting and forcible eloquence; we owe this speech to the mufe of Metaftafio.

• Timan.

Alas! my father,

I cannot now obey you-O! if ever

I have deferv'd a parent's tenderness,
If with a bofom feam'd with honest scars,
I have return'd a conqueror to your arms,
If e'er my triumphs in the glorious field,
Have drawn the tear of pleafure from your eyes,
Releafe, forgive Ifmena-loft, unhappy,

She

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