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Sol. You came-you conquer'd:

Nay more-have tow'rd beyond triumphal palms,
And, with heroic noblenefs of foul

Scarce parallel'd, upon the vanquish'd head
Replac'd the forfeit crown.

Nad. By Heav'ns I'm charm'd!

Though wounded to the quick, my bofom glows.
Sol. 'Twas gloriously refolv'd.

For this juft deed

The bright recording angel of the skies

Shall half thy guilt expunge. And what remains
But to purfue high honour's radiant track,

And, crown'd with laurels and renown, return ?
Nor ftain the luftre of this godlike act
By rapine and enfanguin'd violence.

Nad. Secure in beauty's fhining panoply,
Say on-But did not thofe celeftial charms
Give thee refiftlefs influence o'er my heart,
It ill would brook this forward petulance;
Not Aurengzebe himself fhould thus have dared
With bold impunity---

Sol. And yet I dare,

Arm'd with his fpirit, to thy view unfold

The unnumber'd woes which war's wild rage hath heap'd
On bleeding Hindoftan.-In ev'ry breeze

Some frantic fhriek, or groan of deep defpair

Is wafted through her vales. The lab'ring hind,
In India's happier day, from war's rude toils
By holiest laws releas'd, is forc'd to arms,

Or dragg'd to inftant death. Millions of looms,
The rich refources of her wealth, stand still;
While all the trophies of her antient pow'r
Are dash'd to earth by your enrag'd barbarians!
Nad. By Heav'n, too far my patience you infult!
Prefume no longer on your beauty's pow'r,
But drop the theme, and let us talk of love.
Sol. Such love as animates the tiger's breast,
Or drives the hungry panther on his prey-
Zam. Forbear, my Solima, with ill-tim'd zeal
To urge to rage the victor's foften'd mind.
And thou, most noble chief, defift thy fuit
Till the high tumult of her blood fubfides,
And the unbounded spirit of her race
Has better learnt to bear a victor's prefence,

Sel. A victor I can bear, but in that form
Difdain a fuitor; ev'n though fceptres wait
The hand, no pow'r on earth fhall make me yield.
Nad. Stay, lovely Solima, nor rafhly plunge
In woes that never may have bound or pause.
Your language paints me tyrant in my nature,

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And favage in my love;-Would't thou provoke
A tyrant to revenge, and from his flumber
Rouse the reluctant savage?

Sol. Undifmay'd,

And not unarm'd, in either cafe I bid
A tyrant's rage defiance.

Nad. Stern and fierce

As war has made me to my foes appear,

I have a heart that in the fofteft flame
Of tender love can melt; a heart that feels
Thy beauty's animating warmth, and burns
To lay both life and empire at thy feet.

Sol. The heart that knows with love's foft fires to glow,
Delights in mercy; generous and benign,

It plots no mifchief, as it fears no ill.

Afk the departed fhades of thofe that fell

On Karnal's crimfon'd plains, or those who now,
The victims of thy boundless avarice,

Stretch'd on our Jumna's fhores unburied lie,

If mercy be thy darling attribute?

Nad. The victims of their headlong rage they fell.

But on this fubject I no parley hold.

Sol. Nor I on one fo hateful as thy love.

Farewell!

Nad. Once more let me entreat thine ear.
Won by thy charms, I own the victor vanquished.
The delegated pow'r which fortune gives,
To thee I'll yield. Reverfe, if thus difpos'd,
The ftern decrees of war; refume its spoils;
Releafe the noble youths, our hostages,

And back to Perfia our whole force command.
For this unlimited extent of fway,

I only afk one flender boon--thy love.

Sol. My love I cannot grant; but act thyself
Thus nobly generous, and depend on all

In my poor pow'r to grant my ceaseless pray'rs ;
And gratitude, to end with life alone.

Nad. Thefe are too cold, too barren a return

To fatisfy the cravings of a foul

Pining with love, and ardent for fruition.

Zum. Oh, gen'rous chief, while mercy is the theme,
A mother's plaints attend: amidst the train
Of Indian hoftages, one youth remains―
The hope and folace of his doting parents:
I will not ask his freedom till the terms
Of ranfom are fulfill'd; but fame reports
The prince is with unufual rigour guarded,
The object of thy mark'd feverity.

Nad.

Nad. Rafh in his fpeech, and furious in his gestures,
His conduct juftifies lefs lenient treatment;
Nor dare we yet relax, fo bold his menace,
Our cautious vigilance.

Zum. To nobleft hopes

Of bold ambition train'd, his high-born foul
With anguish keener than his comrades feels
Confinement's irkfome gloom. Oh, gracious prince,
Pardon the darings of impetuous youth,

And by thy own brave mind his feelings judge.
Sol. If aught my pray'rs or grateful vows avail,

Oh, for a prince of fuch heroic virtue

Let me your royal clemency implore!

Nad. Thou't heard what terms may gain him inftant freedom; And know, his future treatment fhall depend

On thy acceptance, princefs, or rejection,

Of thefe my proffer'd vows.

Sol. Affift me, Heav'n!

Nad. Nay, more: from hence, upon thy fmile or frown His fate, his being hang.

Sol. Stern, barbarous man!

Nad. Ha! have I touch'd at last the tender ftring Whose least vibration throws thy foul in tumult ? Revenge and Death! Is Hamed, then, my rival? Better that man had never seen the light

Who dares with me for Beauty's prize contend.

Zum. Oh, dauntlefs chieftain, by thefe gufhing tears, By ev'ry facred tie that binds mankind,

Show mercy to my fon!

Nad. Zumani, mark me;

Though rigid Juftice claim him for her victim,
Not unavailing fhall thy forrows prove;

Those tears shall fave him from her itern demand,
And gain of liberty as wide a range

As with our fafety fhall be found confiftent.
This to thy tears is due; but if those lips
Should ever more prefume his cause to plead,
Her words are fatal, and his doom is feal'd."

(to Solima.)

P. 69.

The above publication is rendered further valuable by a remarkably well-written introduction of more than twenty pages, explanatory of the fubject of the poem, and the peculiar mythology of the Hindoos. There is fubjoined an elegant poem on the Lotos of Egypt, which was fpecifically written to accompany Dr. Thornton's fplendid Botanical work. The reader will alfo find the poem on the Errors and Eccentricities of Genius, to which allufion was made above.

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Mr. Maurice is at this moment exercifing his talents in a defcriptive poem, the fubject of which is Richmond Hill, and the various and beautiful fcenery which furrounds that delightful fpot. It will in all refpects be an important work, and be impreffed with the full vigour of the author's maturer talents. It is alfo to be accompanied with fuperb engravings, and from the fpecimen which has been placed before us, we are inclined to exprefs our anxious wifhes that Mr. Maurice may receive the encouragement he fo obviously merits. It will be publifhed by fubfcription.

ART. XI. An Hiftorical and Critical Effay on the Revival of the Drama in Italy. By Jofeph Cooper Walker, M. R. I. A. Honorary Member of the Societies of Perth and Dublin, and of the Academies of Cortona, Rome, and Florence. Svo. 336 pp. 7s. Longman and Co. 1805.

FOR the elegant amufement affo:ded by this volume, we owe many acknowledgements to the author, who, in his Hiftorical Memoir on Italian Tragedy *, had already fhown his taste and talents for this fpecies of research. But if we commended his Memoir, we are still more inclined to praife this" Hiftorical and critical Effay," in which many valuable materials are collected, and much interesting information brought together.

Though Mr. Walker adopts the opinion of Riccoboni, that" the fall of the majestic fabric of the Roman empire did not totally crush the ftage in Italy;" yet he allows that its remains were very infignificant. The hiftriones or players, were merely ftrolling jefters or buffoons, of whom the arlecchino of the modern flage is the reprefentative; but to whom the regular Italian drama has little or no obligation. They were the defcendants indeed of the ancient Mimi, but their parts were merely extemporaneous effufions, for the fake of raifing a coarfe and tranfient merriment. To the Troubadours Mr. W. afcribes the revival of the drama in Italy, in a paffage which we will here infert.

"When a rapid fucceffion of barbarous nations, rufhing like a mighty torrent from the bleak regions of the north, had fubverted the Roman empire, the affrighted Mufes fled with preci,

See Brit, Crit, vol. xiii. p. 346.

pitation

pitation to the vine-clad hills and olive groves of Provence. Here they lay trembling and filent till the beginning of the eleventh century, when, animated by the foothing voice of peace, they ventured forth, and warbled a few wild but fweet trains to the accompaniment of the lute and harp. About this time arofe an order of itinerant bards, diftinguished in history by the name of troubadours, to whose rude effufions the revival of the drama in Italy may perhaps, in a great degree, be afcribed. Such of the chieftains as had efcaped the perils of the crufades, and returned to their caftles, affected the cuftoms as well as the magnificence of the east; and "no high fcene of feftivity was efteemed complete that was not fet off with the fong of the bard." Poetry now became a profeffion; and troubadours might be feen wandering from caftle to caftle, and from court to court, to fill the office of the ancient rhapfodift. From France they paffed occafionally into Italy, and enlivened the convivial meetings in the respective courts of the petty ftates of that enchanting country. The marquis Montferrato, and Can Grande of Verona, were among their most munificent patrons. Nor were the other Italian princes lefs anxious to induce them to affift in heightening the feftive joys of their hofpitable halls; and with that view they held forth the alluring hope of liberal remuneration: an hope which they feldom failed to realize. The allurement fuc. ceeded. "I could name,' fays a French writer, "fome trou badours of the Venetian ftate, of Lombardy properly fo called, of Tuscany, of Piedmont, and of Savoy: I could prove, that thefe of our provinces were affembled in all the courts of Italy." And it appears from the learned researches of the abbè Millot, that when, in thofe ages, the marquiffes of Efte gave a folemn fête, or held a court at Ferrara, the troubadours not only prof fered their fervices, but that they, and fuch of their attendant jougleurs as understood the language of Provençe, were invited to affift. Choofing for their fubjects the fictions of romance, or the no less marvellous feats of chivalry, thefe itinerant bards first composed their metrical tales for folo recitation, and fung them individually, to the accompaniment of the prevailing inftruments of the day. As their numbers increased, they intro duced interlocutors into their tales, which thus gradually affumed a dramatic form. Muffato alludes to thefe exhibitions in the prologue to the tenth book of his "Gefta Italicorum." "Lectures," he fays, "ware delivered in the thirteenth century, in the lingua volgare; and modulated verses were recited in theatres, and upon temporary ftages." And in a chronicle compiled in the twelfth century it is faid, the praises of Orlando and Oli. viero were fung by hiftriones in the ancient theatre of Milan, and the entertainment ufually concluded with inftrumental mufic and mimickry, (or, to use the words of the chroniclers, decenti motu corporis, appropriate gefticulation), by mimi and buffoons.

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