Sol. You came-you conquer'd: Nay more-have tow'rd beyond triumphal palms, Scarce parallel'd, upon the vanquish'd head Nad. By Heav'ns I'm charm'd! Though wounded to the quick, my bofom glows. For this juft deed The bright recording angel of the skies Shall half thy guilt expunge. And what remains And, crown'd with laurels and renown, return ? Nad. Secure in beauty's fhining panoply, 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 Some frantic fhriek, or groan of deep defpair Is wafted through her vales. The lab'ring hind, Or dragg'd to inftant death. Millions of looms, Sel. A victor I can bear, but in that form W 2 And 1 And favage in my love;-Would't thou provoke Sol. Undifmay'd, And not unarm'd, in either cafe I bid Nad. Stern and fierce As war has made me to my foes appear, I have a heart that in the fofteft flame Sol. The heart that knows with love's foft fires to glow, 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, 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. And back to Perfia our whole force command. I only afk one flender boon--thy love. Sol. My love I cannot grant; but act thyself In my poor pow'r to grant my ceaseless pray'rs ; 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, Nad. Nad. Rafh in his fpeech, and furious in his gestures, Zum. To nobleft hopes Of bold ambition train'd, his high-born foul And by thy own brave mind his feelings judge. 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, Those tears shall fave him from her itern demand, As with our fafety fhall be found confiftent. (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. 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. U 4 Among |