A congratulatory Poem on the Escape of Sir Sydney Smith from France, and his happy Arrival in England. 4to. 25. Hatchard. 1798.

A high ftrain of panegyric pervades this poem, which is the production of one who is well acquainted with fir Sydney. The exploits of that gallant officer are recounted with spirit; and illuftrative notes are fubjoined.

The encomiaft thus fpeaks of the fame acquired by his hero in the Swedish fervice:

• Hark! how the Swedish fhrilling trumpets fwell
O'er Wyburg's and Biorko's blood-stain'd found,
And bid the genius of Gustavus tell

Their British champion's deeds, by vict'ry crown'd!
The grateful monarch, whofe congenial breast
Glow'd with heroic ardour for renown,

His tutelary hero's worth confeft,

And hail'd the guardian of his menac'd crown:
O'er his bright helm the plume of glory rais'd,

And Scandinavia's ftar upon his breast emblaz'd!' r. 5.

The confinement of fir Sydney in France leads the writer to some reflexions, not unpoetical, on the conduct of the rulers of that country.

How long, infatiate and remorfeless land!
For ever hoftile to the world's repofe,-
How long fhall difcord's all-confuming brand
The reign of order and of peace oppofe?
Deaf to each proftrate nation's piteous moan,
But vers'd in artifice and ferpent guile,
How long fhall violated freedom groan,

And curfe thy proffer'd friendship's hollow fmile?
Her heart with anguifh and with madness wrung,
Seduc'd by thy bafe wiles, thy flatt'ring fraudful tongue.
The tree of liberty !—behold its fruits,

On ev'ry reeking fubjugated thore,

Where'er its deleterious blood-fteep'd roots
Thy plund'ring legions in their inroads bore!
Beneath its leaves lurk anarchy and strife,
And rapine's brood ufurp the with'ring ground;
Spurning the gentle charities of life,

And mild religion's heav'n-erected mound,
With-frefl from gloomy fcepticism's school-
Delirious reafon's fect, wild riot, and mifrule!'"

P. 16. Various imitations appear in this poem: but most of them are acknowledged.

Ode to Lord Nelfon on his Conqueft in Egypt. By Harmodius. 4to. 15. Egerton. 1798.

This writer, while he pays a juft tribute of applause to the merits

of the noble admiral (noble in a double fenfe), laments the continuance of the calamities of war, and turns his eyes from scenes of carnage and difmay' to a profpect of peace. If that bleffing should speedily follow, the victory which he celebrates will not, he thinks, have been useless.

Then, not in vain will Nile's affrighted flood
Have blufh'd with torrents of heroic blood;
Then, not in vain will victory have crown'd
Her Nelfon's head with laurels, o'er whofe bloom
Sublimely graceful waves ev'n glory's brightest plume.'

P. II.

The termination of the ode is pious as well as energetic : If He but fpeak, War rushes forth, pale Fear Quakes in the van, Death thundering in the rear ! If He but fpeak, War's wildest rage shall cease, And all again be joy, and all again be peace!' Elegy on a much-loved Niece, with a Hymn, from the Ethiopic. By Eufebio. 4to. Is. Egerton. 1798.

P. 12.

The elegy is not without merit; and the hymn breathes all the fervour of piety.

DRAM A.

Arminius; a Tragedy. By Arthur Murphy, Efq.

Wright. 1798.

800. 25.

Arminius, the deliverer of Germany, has been made the subject of a contemptible epic poem in his own country, by baron Schöniach. This is another unfortunate attempt to celebrate the German hero, whofe fate it has been to meet with the best historian and the worst poets. The plan of the tragedy is as follows:

Segeftes, a German chief in the service of Rome, is befieged by Inguiomer and the Germans. Cæcina raifes the fiege, and, immediately after the victory, reftores Veleda to her husband Arminius, from whom the had been feparated by Segeftes her father. Arminius drives the Romans into a marfhy fituation, where he prepares to attack them by night. As a fpecimen of the poetry, we give the fong fung by the bards to animate the troops.

Hark, warriors, hark !-That voice again!

A warning voice! heard you the found?
To arms, it cries, to arms ye freeborn men ;
To arms the woods,

To arms the floods,

To arms, to arms, the echoing hills rebound.

The thunder rolls; the light'nings glare;
The gods are rufhing to the plain;

Their chariots glitter in the air;

*The Almighty.

CRIT. REV. VOL. XXIV. Nov. 1798.

Bb

The bards of Germany fhall found his praife.

The women come forward, finging; Veleda, in the centre.
Yes, go, ye gen'rous band,
Firm champions of the land,

O'er all the field

Your javelins wield;

Where'er you rush, ftill in the rear
Your wives and daughters you fhall hear;

Till

Our war-fongs, and our cries

Shall rend th' aftonish'd kies,

you unfluice a crimson flood,

And stretch th' invaders welt'ring in their blood.'

P. 61. Dumnorix, a Gaul in the German army, repairs to the camp of Cacina, and offers to affaffinate or poifon Arminius; but the Roman general rejects the propofal with indignation. In the attack, Segeftes is killed by his own fon, who deftroys himself on recognifing his father; and the Germans are repulfed. Cæcina fends to warn Arminius against the Gauls; but in vain; the poisoned arrow ftrikes him. The fcene that follows fums up the moral or political defign of the drama.

Veleda. Is there no help to fave fo dear a life?

Bring ev'ry aid- a pale, a livid hue

Spreads o'er his features;-fee,—his eyes are fix'd.

• Arminius. Raife me once again: Now, mark my words;

Should the ambition of afpiring Rome

Mufter her legions; fhould her arms prevail,
And leave no fpot, where freedom can refide;
Bear to my Saxon friends my laft advice.
Let them embark for Britain; there they'll find
A brave, a hardy race, who by their valour
Made Cæfar from their coaft unfurl his fails,
And fave his legions by inglorious flight.

• Inguipmer, Your orders fhall be faithfully perform'd.
• Arminius. Yet more;
when landed on that happy

fhore,

Let my friends join in union with the natives.
Britons and Saxons there may form one people;

And from the woods of Germany import
A form of government, a plan of laws
Wife, juft, and equitable; laws of force
To guard the gen'ral weal, and on the base
Of public liberty, of focial order,

And equal justice, raife the nobleft fabric
Of civil union, like their own proud cliffs
'Midst wild commotions ftill to ftand unfhaken,
'And be in time the envy of the world.

Veleda. My fpirits fink; I faint; fupport me-

• Inguiomer. Ev'n now,

[Leans on a woman's arm.

When futt'ring life is on the wing to leave him,

The fafety of his friends claims all his care.

Arminius. [Raifing himself.] Another word; it is my warning voice.

Let Britons guard their coaft against the Gauls,

And never,

never let that treach'rous race,

Nor their defcendants to the latest time,
Obtain a footing on their fea-girt ifle.
Let Britons feize the trident of the main,
And plunge th' invaders in the roaring furge;
A band of flaves, who would reduce mankind
To their own level, and enflave the world: ..
An horde of favages, freebooters, murderers,
Who trample on all laws; who own no gods; -
Whom in a mafs their country difembogues,
By depredations to lay wafte their neighbours,
And fpread rebellion, anarchy, and ruin..

Veleda. Alas! these strong exertions are too much;
They wafte his vital fpirit:-See-behold him;
He faints; he dies; and oh! muft I furvive him?

• Arminius. I burn; I burn; that pang; 'tis paft; and

yet,

Thus ling'ring on the margin of both worlds,
A ray of light perhaps breaks in upon me.

A time may come, when Germany hall fend

A royal race, allied to Britain's kings,
To reign in glory o'er a willing people.
-I fee the radiant æra dawn; I fee
The great event, when in a diftant age
A monarch sprung from that illustrious line
Shall guide the ftate, give energy to laws,
And guard the rights of man; his throne encircl'd,
Adorn'd, illumin'd by a train of virtues,
That win all hearts, and arm each honeft hand
In the great caufe of freedom, and the laws,

For which their ancestors in ev'ry age

Toil'd, fought, and bravely conquer'd; then bequeath'd
Seal'd with their blood a glorious legacy,

A facred truft to all fucceeding times. P. 87.

Thus, because Dumnorix, a Gaul, affaffinates Arminius, a Ger man, about eighteen hundred years ago, England ought always to hate France. With the fame reafon might a foreign critic defpife the plays of Shakspeare, because Mr. Murphy has written a bad one called Arminius. The dullness of the poet appears in the drama; and, in a political preface, the virulence of the partisan is equally difcernible.

Comus, a Mask prefented at Ludlow Castle 1634, before the Earl of Bridgewater, then Prefident of Wales. By John Milton. With Notes Critical and Explanatory by various Commentators, and with Preliminary Illuftrations. To which is added a Copy of the Mafk from a Manufcript belonging to his Grace the Duke of Bridgewater. By Henry John Todd, M. A. &c. 8vo. 65. Boards. Rivingtons. 1798.

In this re-publication of Milton's beautiful mafque, the critical erudition of the editor is confpicuous.

Deloraine. A Domeftic Tale. 2 Vols. 12mo. 75. fewed.

Lane. 1798.

We concur with the author of this novel in his remark, that it contains no intricate series of improbable incidents, no descriptions of impoffible paffions, no artful contrivances of iniquitous fraud (except in one inftance), and no deep-laid ftratagems of infatiable revenge. All this, and much more, might be faid of it negatively; but, pofitively, we have little to offer in its favour. It never rifes above mediocrity; the incidents are of the common kind; the characters are imperfectly and feebly fketched; and those from which we expected n:oft, are left unfinished.

Clermont.

A Tale. By Regina Maria Roche. 4 Vols. 12mo.

145. fewed. Lane. 1798.

This tale reminds us, without any great pleasure, of Mrs. Radcliffe's romances. In Clermont, myftery is heaped upon mystery, and murder upon murder, with little art, and great improbability. This writer, indeed, claims murders as her forte; for, not content with fuch as are connected with the story, fhe details three inftances at confiderable length as episodes. We have alfo the usual apparatus of dungeons, long galleries, clanking chains and ghosts, and a profusion of picturefque defcription which, though it difplays. fome merit, ferves only to interrupt the narrative.

The New Monk, a Romance. By R. S. Efq. 3 Vols. 12mo. 10s. 6d. fewed. Lane. 1798.

The Monk of Mr. Lewis has been affailed in various ways, and,