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ferent directions. Sir Sidney met colonel Phelipeaux at the appointed spot of rendezvous.

"The project was so ably planned and conducted, that no one but the party concerned was acquainted with the escape, until near a month had elapsed, when the inspector paid his next periodical visit. What pen can describe the sensations of two such men as Sir Sidney and Phelipeaux, when they first beheld each other in safety? Heaven befriended the generous and gallant exploit. Sir Sidney and his noble friend reached the French coast wholly unsuspected, and committing themselves to their God, and to the protective genius of brave men, put to sea in an open boat, and were soon afterwards discovered by an English cruising frigate, and brought in safety to the British shores.

"The gallant Philipeaux soon afterwards accompanied Sir Sidney in the Tigre to Acre, where, overwhelmed by the fatigue of that extraordinary campaign, in which he supported a distinguished part, and the noxious influence of a sultry climate, operating upon a delicate frame, he expired in the arms of his illustrious friend, who attended him to his grave, and shed the tears of gratitude and friendship over his honoured and lamented obsèquies.”

Poems, on various Subjects. By Mrs. Grant Laggan.

Edinburgh,

Moir. Longman and Rees, London. 8vo. pp. 446. 10s. 6d.

THE Volume before us displays a strength of fancy, and a versatility of talent, which reflect the highest credit on its fair authoress. It is, however, by no means, exempt from failings. Its diction (though sometimes splendid) is often incorrect; and the allusions to Highland scenery and manners, through so many of its pages, are apt to fatigue. The following lines, written on returning home, after a journey from Glasgow, are simple and pleasing.

Dear lowly cottage! o'er whose humble thatch
The dewy moss has velvet verdure spread;
Once more, with trem'lous hands, thy ready latch
I lift, and to thy lintel bow my head.
Dear are thy inmates! Beauty's roseate smile*,
And eye soft melting hail my wish'd return;
Loud clamours infant joy; around meanwhile
Maturer breasts with silent rapture burn.
Within these narrow bounds I reign secure,
And duteous love and prompt obedience find,
Nor sigh to view my destiny obscure,

(Where all his lowly, but each owners mind

Content) if pilgrims passing by our cell,

Say, "with her sister Peace, there Virtue loves to dwell."

Alluding to a young lady of uncommon beauty and elegance of person and mind, who then resided in the family.

The Sporting Dictionary, and Rural Repository of General Information, upon every Subject appertaining to the Sports of the Field, inscribed to the Right Honourable the Earl of Sandwich, Master of his Majesty's Stag Hounds. By William Taplin. 8vo. 2 Vols. Vernor and Hood.

The variety of publications, which annually issue from the press, under sporting titles, more generally the result of theoretic lucubration than of practical knowledge, or personal experience, have suggested to Mr. Taplin the plan of the present volumes, compris ing an aggregate of information which will render them in the highest degree useful to gentlemen who devote their leisure hours to field sports, and to the public in general.

The Decameron; or, Ten Days' Entertainment of Boccaccio. Translated from the Italian. In two Vols. Demy 8vo. 16s. Royal 8vo. 1l. 4s. The second Edition, corrected and improved. To which are prefixed, Remarks on the Life and Writings of Boccaccio, and an Advertisement, by the Author of Old Nick, a Pieçe of Family Biography, &c. Printed by Wright, for Vernor and Hood, &c.

BOCCACCIO, one of the most entertaining writers that Italy has produced, and so distinguished for the sweetness and elegance of his style, that he is allowed, almost equally with Dante and Petrarch*, to have extended and enriched the language of his country, has at length received that attention from the BRITISH PRESS, to which his reputation and his merits so justly entitle him.

The DECAMERON is his great work. Lorenzo de Medici has described it as containing a surprising 'diversity of subjects, sometimes serious or tragical; at others, humorous or ridiculous; exhibiting all the perturbations incident to mankind, of affection and of aversion, of hope and of fear; displaying, in the invention of its circumstances, all the peculiarities of our nature, and all the effects of our passions.' This is high praise, but not too high for the object of it. The variety and originality of the inventions are astonishing; and, if they have given so much delight, in perhaps every country of Europe, through the medium of translation, how must they be estimated by those who can discern and relish the peculiar

Fortunately for Italy, these illustrious writers flourished in the same age. "Quando Dante morì, Il Petrarca era di età di anni diecisette; e quando morì Petrarca, era Il Boccaccio di minore età di lui anni nove: e cosi per successione andarono le muse." Dante died in 1321; Petrarch in 1374; and Boccaccio in 1375.

REV.

graces of language with which they are acknowledged to be so richly embellished in the original!

To render the Decameron interesting to Englishmen, it is sufficient that, of our own writers, Chaucer and Shakespeare have been under obligations to it; the latter, indeed, in no great degree; but the FATHER OF ENGLISH POETRY formed the Plan of his Canterbury Tales in evident imitation of those of Boccaccio.

The best translation of the work, which has appeared in this country, was printed for Dodsley in 1741. That translation has been adopted as the basis of the present performance, which, though called only a second edition, has undergone so complete a revision, and so accurate a comparison with the Italian, that it must have cost the ingenious editor nearly as much trouble to correct and improve, as probably he would have had in re-translating the whole work. He has not confined his attention to the typographical and grammatical errors, but those of the translation he has also frequently rectified. He has adhered to the spirit of the original with more closeness; and the proper names, which the translator very capriciously varied and mutilated, the editor has, where he thought it material, restored to their right form and orthography.

"Constantly, without the authority of his author, the translator narrated, and made others narrate, speaking of a thing past, in the third person singular, of the present tense of the verb, which had a disagreeable effect; an abundance of old and obsolete spelling and language had also crept into this version; as well as no small number of inelegant modes of expression, viz. "Put her upon talking of her husband;" "Making of a treaty ""Without more to do;" "Fell to singing ;" His speech failed him, and he died out of hand;" &c. all of which have been drilled (if the figure may be used) according to the tactics of modern and more polite composition." EDITOR's Advertisement.

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To all these improvements, the Editor has added another of still greater importance. 'Many words and sentences that trenched on decency, although warranted by the original, he has metamorphosed or expunged, without ceremony or compunction;" and we concur with him, that it may now be safely affirmed, "that Boccaccio, in his present condition, is in no way calculated to make either the good bad, or the bad worse; but that, on the contrary, his wisdom and morality will improve both, while the freedom and levity of some of his tales will, into the virtuous mind

Come and go, and leave

No spot or blame behind."

MILTON

Not the least valuable part of the present elegant edition, are the Remarks on the Life and Writings of Boccaccio. The account which accompanied the former, afforded, in two pages, little further than a notice of the period of his birth and his decease. This is here very considerably enlarged, by compilations from Filippo di Matteo Villani, Girolamo Tiraboschi, Vincenzio Martinelli, M. Bayle, Warton, Tyrwhitt and Roscoe, and various other sources, which the Editor has been so diligent in tracing, that any future additions, either with respect to the Life or Writings of our Author, are scarcely either to be expected or desired. In short, he has discharged what Pope, with an affectation for which Dr. Johnson has very smartly reproved him, called the dull duty of an Editor, with so much fidelity and skill, that we do not believe the undertaking could so well have prospered in any other hands. It were, indeed, much to be wished that this dull duty were more frequently discharged by men of kindred taste and talent, who, possessing original genius themselves, are best able to appreciate it in others, and who are, at the same time, capable of setting a proper value on the laborious achievements of diligence and precision.

The volumes are printed with uncommon neatness and elegance; and a Head of Boccaccio, finely engraved by Ridley, from Titian's picture, appears as the frontispiece.

Latin Dialogues, collected from the best Latin Writers, for the Use of Schools. Second Edition. Reading, Smart and Cowslade. 1803. pp. 97.

London. Pridden, &c. 12mo.

The principal use of this little work is to supply the classical student with the best phrases on the common occurrences of life, from Plautus, Terence, Virgil, Cicero, Horace, Juvenal, &c. an object, which will be acknowledged to be of considerable importance in a Latin education. With a view of leading the scholar to a familiar knowledge of the purest writers, by storing his mind with elegant expressions, rather than furnishing him with the most proper style of conversation in the Latin language, the poets have been made to contribute a 'considerable share of the phrases. It has been a principal object, in the Latin part, to point the attention of the learner to classical allusions and customs, explained, in the English, by corresponding manners in modern times."

Two of the Colloquies of Erasmus, the Naufragium and the Diluculum, are added, with some necessary alterations to accommodate that simple and elegant, but severe writer, to the circumstances of the present times; and also a Table of the value of Ro man and Grecian coins.

These Dialogues are extremely well calculated to facilitate the

A A➡VOL. XVI.

study of the Latin language, and familiarize the scholar to an elegant phraseology.

Two Letters from Satan to Bonaparte, edited by Henry Whitfield, M. A. Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. 8vo. 3d. Highley. 1803.

SATAN seems to have taken a close survey of the transactions of the Life of this his bosom friend, and, to give the devil his due, he has stated the case very fairly. As an earnest of what he means to do for him, by and by, he has made him several handsome donations; viz.

"The cup from which Alexander the Great drank before he died; the sword of Dionysius, and his diary, bound in calf; the ring which Hannibal constantly carried about him, and from which he drank poison; the daggers of the conspi, rators who slew Julius Cæsar; the sword which terminated the existence of Nero that identical weapon the tribune used when he dispatched Caligula; the rope with which Elagabalus was dragged through the city over which he had reigned} the cross-bow and arrows of William Tell; the sword of Richmond, so fatal to Richard the Third; the pistols of Oliver Cromwell."

On these he enjoins his friend Napoleon to meditate both by night and by day, in the morning when he rises, at the sumptuous banquet, and at night when he lies down for the purpose of courting repose.

That he may not be ignorant of the manner in which some of Napoleon's worthy predecessors are employed, he tells him→→→

"Marat is still the butcher of swine. Robespierre is the intimate friend of Draco, that Grecian, who is said, figuratively, to have written his laws in human blood. Egalité, ci-devant Duc d'Orleans, climbs up a ladder, and vainly endeavours to reach the crown of his brother, for whose death he voted: an attendant, one of the party with whom he lived on earth, mocks him, and holds a pitcher to his thirsty lips, through whose porous bottom the waters of oblivion discharge themselves. The philosophic Condorcet raises airy bubbles from soap and water, through a tobacco-pipe..

From these epistolary specimens, it may be inferred, that the First Consul's correspondent is a deuced good writer; and from the friendly terms upon which they appear together, there can be little doubt, but that whenever they meet, the Corsican will receive from his diabolical admirer a very warm reception.

DRAMATIC.

Kembliana: being a Collection of the Jeu d'Esprits, &c. that have appeared respecting King John; including the preternatural Appearances of the Ghost of Covent Garden. 8vo. Sims. 1804. HAVING just parted with the Devil, we need not be much

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