POETRY.

Plays and Poems; by Mifs Hannah Brand. 8vo. 75. Boards. Rivingtons. 1798.

Of the three plays which appear in this volume, two are altered from the French, and the other was reprefented fome years ago with little fuccefs upon one of the London theatres. They contain little that deferves cenfure, and nothing that we can particularife with praise. The annexed poems are few in number; and the following is a favourable fpecimen.

'ODE TO YOUTH.

• Sweet morn of life! All hail, ye hours of ease!
When blooms the cheek with rofeate, varying dyes;
When modeft grace exerts each power to please,
And ftreaming luftre radiates in the eyes.
Thy paft hours, innocent; thy present, gay; :
Thy future, halcyon hope depicts without allay.

Day-fpring of life! oh, ftay thy fleeting hours!
Thou fairy reign of ev'ry pleafant thought!
Fancy, to cheer thy path, ftrews all her flowers,

And in her loom thy plan of years is wrought.
By thee for goodnefs is each heart carefs'd;
The world, untried, is judg'd by that within thy breast.

Sweet state of youth! O harmony of foul!
Now cheerful dawns the day; noon brightly beams;
And evening comes ferene, nor cares control;
And night approaches with foft, infant dreams.
Circling, the morn beholds th' accuftom'd round,
Life's fmiling charities awake, and joys abound.

Seafon of hope, and peace, and virtues, ftay!
And for our blifs let inexperience reft;
For what can prudent forefight's beam difplay?
Why the barb'd arrow pointed at our breaft!-
Teach to fufpect the heart we guileless trust,
And, ere we are betray'd, to think a friend unjust.

Thou candid age! with ardent friendship fraught,
That fearless confidence to none denies :
Better fometimes deceiv'd-and, artless, taught
By thy own griefs the wisdom of the wife.
For fad experience, with forrowing breath,
Sheds, weeping fheds, the priftine roles in hope's wreath.

Seafon belov'd! Ah, doom'd to pass away! With all thy freshnefs, all thy flatt'ring joys, With blooming beauty's envy'd, powerful fway, With laughing hours, the future ne'er annoys. Ah! be thou spent as virtue bids to spend ! Then, though we wish thy stay,-no fighs thy reign fhall end.' P. 416.

Matriculation. A Poem. 4to. 15. 6d. Cadell and Davies. 1798.

We here find a ludicrous fubject well treated in Miltonic verfe. The author appears to poffefs genius, which we fhall be glad to fee employed on better fubjects. We select the account of the freshman's initiation.

Severeft trials, conflicts fore sustain'd
with hardihood, and certain dangers met
with ready courage; fierce refiitance made
in honour's nice defence, befpeak the youth
the future college-hero. Thus begins
his ftrict novitiate, hard to be endur'd.
Behold him bidden to the fhatter'd rooms
of fome fly lurcher, oft employ'd before
the timid ftranger or to hunt, or foil
with bottle frequent-doubling. Thoughtless he
of federated foes, nor dreams the glafs
to him o'erflowing each fucceeding round
with buzz, or fconce or bumper-toaft, is pour'd
but with a motive generous as the juice.-
Too emulous he with veterans dares to cope,
oppofing art with courage; and himself
unpractis'd in deceit, marks not around
each hackney'd ftratagem fuccessful. This
feigns illness, and a mingled potion fips.
Another, vig'lant of averted looks,
his glafs foft-fliding 'neath the table pours,
and Turkey's richest manufacture, oft
diftain'd before, the purple juice distains.
Whilft glafs of finall dimenfions fome retain,
or fill unbrimming, others empty not,
or with a vain pretence, démand excufe.

Meanwhile the bottle circumambient,
replenifl'd oft, he temerarious bibs;
nor feels with rapid ftride the rebel foe
advance t' o'erfet the empire of the brain;
for wine betrays with confidence of strength,

and rolling eyeballs. Now they charge amain,
faft-vollying; and could he with retreat
inglorious, that were vain, hemm'd round by foes.

But he fuftains the heat of battle well; And e'en the veteran toafter half repents the fierce engagement; for his vacant bin fcarcely fends forth fupplies. But ftill enough remains; for now at length by wine fubdu'd, (whom will not wine fubdue ?) the hero falls." In the tenth page, we are forry to obferve a disgusting description and an indecent fimile.

P. 5.

Mary the Ofier-Peeler, a fimple but true Story. A Poem. By a Lady. Printed for the Benefit of the diftreffed Family defcribed in it. 4to. IS. White. 1798.

We will not criticise a poem pubirthed with fo benevolent an intention. The following ftanzas will fhow its merit, and explain the nature of thofe diftreffes which the purchasers will affift in relieving.

But of all the afflictions, that preft
Upon Mary, 'twas furely the worst,
To fuffer five moons with a breast,
That with anguifh was ready to burst.
As a lily oppreft with night dew,
She hung down her faint drooping head,
Her cheeks wore a deadly pale hue,
That once like twin rofes were red.
Her foul with fuch patience was fraught,
Not a plaint from her lips ever broke ;
Tho' with what the endur'd, you'd have thought,
That filence herself wou'd have spoke..
In her eye I have feen the tears stand,
I have seen them fall faft on the ground;
Whilst the gratefully bleft the hard hand,
That was carelessly probing her wound.
'Thro' forrows, that may not be told,
Ten children to William fhe bore;
Yet the fometimes in fecret made bold
Το
pray, that the might have no more?
But heaven, as if wrath with her wish,
Soon fent her two babes at a birth,
Which emptied their never-full dish,

And drain'd them of all they were worth.' P. 14.

Ode on the Fluctuations of Civil Society. To which is added, an Ode to Fortune. 8vo. IS. Debrett. 1797.

The author of thefe odes may perhaps write well at a future pe

riod; but he must learn to write more intelligibly. The following ftanza is not easily understood.

Oh Albion! ifsle,

Profp'rous that heard'ft beneath her tow'ring wing,
Blaz'ning thý fons, the foul-enkindling Nine;
Where now the fmile,

Confcious that crown'd the rapture-quiv'ring ftring
True to a flight of fame almoft divine?
Expectant of thy final doom,

Wear'ft thou a deep portentous gloom?
Ev'ry heart, vindictive beating,

Wait on Phrenzy's fweeping flight:
Error's maze, that mocks retreating,
Sears the angry balls of fight!

Valour, inglorious-doom'd, and Vict'ry vain,
And Honour, grief-inwrapp'd, with moody brow,
And preffure-fainting Commerce! fear-ftruck train;
Freedom a realin abjur'd by thee, avow.

Not that a bold ferocious band

Should tempt defeat on Albion's ftrand

Can give a Briton pause

but left the fire

That moulds the British heart, muft with thy flame expire!

Rofe-mount Cafile; or, Falfe Report. A Novel. By M. 1. Young. 3 Vols. 12mo. 10s. 6d. Boards. Lane. 1798.

We cannot recommend this work either for entertainment or inftruction. It is almoft deftitute of fable or of any excitement to curiofity, if we except the introduction of a gang of Irish defenders, who rob and murder in a very fentimental style, and one of whom becomes afterwards a perfonage of high confequence in the groupe of lords and dukes, having relinquished his youthful errors. Many characters are introduced, and coupled in love-matches, all which prove abundantly profperous; but there are no traits in their hiftory fo interesting as to compenfate their vapid and common-place conversation, which occupies the greater part of the work.

By Maria Hunter, Authoress
Board's, Lane. 1798.

Ella; or, He's always in the Way. of Fitzroy. 2 Vols. 12mo. 75. The plan of this novel has little regularity. It feems to have been intended only as a vehicle for the introduction of characters from what the authorefs calls nature. Some of thefe, as well as the incidents, are delineated with the pen of a caricaturift; and, with the exception of a few just though trite reflections on education and feduction, the moral tendency of the work is not very obvious. The character of one of the managers of our theatres is, we hope, a grofs mifrepresentation.

The Heir of Montague. A Novel. 3 Vols. 12mo. 195. 6d. Boards. Lane. 1798.

Although the characters in this novel are copies, and the incidents are of the common kind, it may be confidered as ufefully tending to expofe the errors of youthful indiscretion and vulgar prejudices. Much of this, as of moft modern novels, is thrown into the form of dialogue, probably from a fuppofition that it is easy to write in that way; but this, we are forry to add, has been feldom juftified by the fpecimens which have fallen in our way.

Octavia. By Anna Maria Porter. 3 Vols. 12mo. 10s. 6d. Beards. Longman. 1798.

There is a lamentable affectation in the language of this novel; witness this defcription of the heroine.

Octavia the youngest was as beautiful as fhe was young: the graces of her figure dwelt not fo much on the lovely roundness of her limbs, or the elegance of her height, as on the variety of its air, and the expreffion of its attitudes: every motion of her graceful neck and white arms were full of eloquence. Her form owned more softness than dignity, more winningness than attraction; and poffeffed alfo an air fo variable, and yet fo uniformly lovely, that the more fhe was feen, the more fhe was admired. Air is often the only fource of charm in form; for without it the finest limbs, the trueft features, are infipid and powerless: fashion and symmetry may make a figure correct; but it is like the copy of a fine picture, where every object is exactly refembled, but in which the magic, the illufive touch of the mafter, is not discernible. Octavia's figure defined air in every movement: yet this air was not one fixed character; it fhifted like her animated mind, from grave to gay, from fimplicity to elevation; from the grace of a goddefs, and the witcheries of fashion, to the retiring fweetnefs of an Arcadian girl but in all its changes it was irrefiftible; and Octavia was lovely.' Vol. i. p. 8.

If the authorefs however wishes to be elegant in her own language, he does not seem to think it neceffary that the converfation. of her characters fhould be fo.

The poetry contained in thefe volumes, though fometimes very incorrect, is fuperior to the profe.

Ah! native ftream, dear scene of former hours,
The thoughtless child, who lately on thy banks

Sang cheerily, returns most alter'd now

For infancy is gone, and life's fair flowers

Have long fince fhewn thofe thorns their blooms conccald.
Ah! as I país amid thefe thick trees' ranks,

Lifting the flow found of each yellowing bough,

I figh most heavily; recalling days