ODE TO SLEEP. BY ARTHUR OWEN, ESQ. Ah! kindly on this drooping head And soothe its pains to rest. How often have I woo'd thy charms! But thou, in airy chariot borne, E'er leav'st a breast with anguish torn, And since it is no crime to pine For once let sorrow claim thy care, For once throw off thy distant air, These eye-lids press with leaden wand, This body, by thy pinions fann'd, To softest dreams compose. Richmond, July 1803. THE APOTHEOSIS OF MISS MELLOR, Who died a short time since at Nottingham, Aged five Years, three Months, and sixteen Days. · BY VALENTINE GREEN, ESQ. "Of such is the kingdom of Heaven." HER doom was fix'd-nor tears nor prayers could save The lovely victim from an early grave. Her sister-spirits, of immortal frame, To guide her flight to heav'nly raptures came, They bade her view the paths the just have trod, Mark, how the great, the good, obey Death's call, That erst have crowded earth's extended space; Pours o'er the parent couch th' impassion'd sigh; And dire disease dissolv'd the human clay; Of all belov❜d, and of thy parents blest:- Thus sang the min'string Angels in her ear, Resign'd and placid, mild, devoid of fear, That wait life's journey t'wards the peaceful dead. She thus sigh'd forth her long,--her last adieu ! "The bosom of thy father and thy God." V. G. PARODY; ON THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE. France, Italy§, and England did adorn; • Her last words were these: "I am sure to die is you I love. Oh! let me live! Pray God let me live! speak again." ↑ Grays Elegy. Heloise. Laura de Sades. ADMIRATOR. God bless you all !---Papa, it ELEGY ON THOMAS DERMODY. WHERE frowns yon hill with beetling brow,* And mark the wild, deserted ground. There is a hill not far from Sydenham, from whence may be seen the burial place of the poet; and near his grave, buried among trees, is a slow-winding river, which cannot be seen unless pointed out. H-VOL. XVI. Shall weep-till, rushing on the wind, True Poesy's majestic queen Shall stalk around thy holy clay, MEMORANDA DRAMATICA. HAYMARKET. JULY 15.-Mr. Taylor, from the Bath stage, appeared in Lubin, in the Quaker. In figure, countenance, in style of singing and acting, this gentleman is the very counterpart of Mr. Incledon---alter et idem. In compass, strength, and melody of voice the resemblance is not so perfect; but he is, nevertheless, ■ most agreeable singer, and his pretensions, as an actor, are far from inconsiderable. It would be almost worth while to turn Dryden's Amphytrion into an opera, for the sake of bringing forward this first and second APOLLO in the two SOSIAS. Nature has done so much towards the likeness, that it would be unfair to charge Mr. Taylor with being a mere imitator; his admiration of Mr. Incledon's talents may have led him to adopt, without premeditated effort, many of those peculiarities which, assisted by personal resemblance, bring our absent favourite so forcibly to recollection. Mr. Incledon, however, has no reason to be ashamed of his double. Mr. Taylor sang the airs of Lubin, and especially the Laughing song, in a very finished and effective manner. Mathews, in Solomon, with his Bundle of Proverbs, gave new life and humour to a piece which, of late, has seldom escaped disapprobation at the dropping of the curtain. 16.-A lady, named Mrs. Kingston, made her first appearance on any stage in Louisa, in the Deserter, but her fears were so very predominant as totally to prevent us from forming any judgment of her capabilities. 25.---Love laughs at Locksmiths.---A musical farce, adapted to our stage, by Mr. Colman, from a French piece by J. N. Bouilly, acted in Paris, under the title of "Une Folie." The plot of this piece is similar to that of the Midnight Hour, Spanish Barber, Lock and Key, Padlock, and innumerable other dramatic entertainments, familiar to the English audience. The contrivances of an enterprising young lover to rescue a pretty ward out of the power of a jealous old guardian, are materials that are inexhaustible, and can never tire. "For ever seen, and yet for ever new." We seek for the merit of the performance in the ingenuity of the stratagems by which the lover's impediments are removed. In this respect Love laughs at Locksmiths need not give way to any preceding exhibitions. Neatness is coinbined with novelty, and interest with humour. The schemes of Captain Beldare (a) and his servant Risk (b), to elude the caution of old Vigil (c), are frustrated only to be renewed with additional ardour and dexterity: when they are (b) Mr. Mathews. (c) Mr. Denman. (a) Mr. Elliston. |