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marokow to observe that the public scarcely noticed the first dramatic essays of that writer, and that they were soon consigned to oblivion.

Sumarokow has likewise written a great number of comedies, in which the manner of Moliere is discoverable. In spite of their original, and sometimes rather low humour, they were not much liked, The principal are, The Rival Mother and her Daughter; The Imaginary Cuckold; The Malicious Man, &c. He has composed some operas; among others, Cephalus and Procris, set to music by D'Araja, master of the imperial chapel, and represented for the first time at Petersburg, during the carnival of 1755. The performers of both sexes were children under the age of fourteen years.

The reader will probably be pleased to find here the names of some of the tragic and comic writers of Russia, and the titles of their principal works.

To Kniaschin the Russians are indebted for the comedy of The Boaster. It is written in verse, in a very pure style, and is still performed with applause. This author, however, owes all his reputa, tion to his operas, the most celebrated of which are the Shiten schtschik (the dealer in hot liquor called sbiten); The Misfortune of a Carriage; The Miser, &c. A new edition of his works has recently appeared.

Denis van Wiesen would have been an accomplished comic writer, had he but bestowed more pains on his compositions. His comedy of The Spoiled Child affords a sufficient proof of his genius and talents. It still continues to give great satisfaction. Its tendency is highly moral; and the character of a young profligate, named Mitrofan, who is totally destitute of education, is delineated with such spirit and truth, that it has been proverbial in Russia, where a young man of that description is now called a Mitrofan. The Brigadier is likewise one of the good pieces of the Russian stage,

VOL. VI. NO. XXXIV.

Van Wiesen possessed an admirable talent for seizing and exposing the absurdity of a variety of customs.

His

Kopieu is not inferior to him in the truth of his characters. Fair of Lebedian is received with great satisfaction during the carni. val. The characters seem to have been drawn on the scene of action; their burlesque manners and language command the loud applause of the populace. This author is still living.

Ablesimow was the first who wrote in the manner of the preceding dramatist. His plays are replete with comic sallies and sarcastic humour. The principal are, The Writer's Shop; Departure from Winter Quarters; and Luck in the Lottery; but his opera of The Miller has conferred on him more celebrity than all the rest of his compositions. It is one of the favourite pieces of the Russians, and as it delineates the manners of their country, it will always be seen with pleasure. In 1799, it was performed before the court, and twenty-seven times successively at the theatre of Knieper, and the applause of the audience proved that even then they were not tired of it.

The Corruptible Man is the only comedy written by Bibikow; it is considered as one of the best pieces of the Russian stage, and far superior to that published by Sumarokow with the same title.

Alexis Wolchow composed two good comedies, Filial Love, and SelfLove Deluded.

To

The Irresolute Man; Democritus; and The Lunatic, are by Iwan Dmitrewsky, who has approached to the present taste, and has likewise translated into Russian the English tragedy of Beverley. his talents as an author he added those of an excellent actor. He was the pupil of the celebrated Garrick, The public with concern beheld this veteran appear for the last time in the drama of Albert, in 1797.

Jelagin has translated several French tragedies and comedies, and has exhibited Jean de Molle on the

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theatre, in a manner highly instructive to parents.

The comedy of The Lover in Debt was from the pen of prince Fedor Alexiowitz Kolowsky. Death prevented him from completing the tragedy of Sumbeka, the subject of which is extracted from the history of Casan.

Prince Kolowsky loved the arts, was a sincere friend, and a brave soldier. In 1769, he was sent to Italy as a courier to count Alexis Orlow. On this occasion he went to see Voltaire. He fought at the battle of Tschesme, in the St. Eustace, and was unfortunately blown up with that ship. Cheraskow, in a poem on the battle, applies the following words to this prince :"Child of the muses! why didst thou turn aside to Bellona, when thy path conducted thee towards Apollo?"

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Lukin has written two plays, The Prodigal amended by Love, and The Silly Chatterer.

Magnizky, a serf of count Jaguschinsky, was sent to Italy by his master to improve his talents for music. Having made considerable progress in that art, he wrote and set to music The Inn, a highly esteemed opera, which has been represented fifteen times successively. Russia likewise reckons among her dramatic authors many others, as Werewkin, Jelstenaninow, Karin, Cheraskow, who wrote Moscow Preserved. We might likewise mention Prokudin, Sokolow, an author and actor, Titow, Tschertkow, Trofilnetyn, whose productions, performed at Kiow, have never been printed.

With the exception of majorgeneral Kopiew and the privy-counsellor Cheraskow, all the writers mentioned above are dead; but various authors are labouring to augment the riches of the Russian the atre. The tragedy of Thamas Kuli Khan, by Glewiltschikow, who is likewise an actor, has been several times represented. He has also made an attempt at comedy. Jljin, the author of Life, or the Triumph

of Gratitude, is a young man of great promise; as is Federow, whose Love and Virtue, and Russian Soldier, have recently been very favourably received.

The taste of the Russians is daily improving. They protect the arts and sciences, which they are worthy of inviting among them. Catherine set them the example. We ought to have placed that great princess at the head of the authors of whom Russia boasts. To her the nation was indebted for the opera of Iwan Tsarewitsch, Gore Bogatyr, and Fedul; and for various comedies, among the rest, The Presumptuous Philosopher. Catherine knew how to unite on her head crowns of many widely different kinds.

M.

For the Literary Magazine.

ON THE ORATIONS OF THE APOSTLES.

By Mr. Marsh.

IN general, St. Luke's style, in the Acts of the Apostles, is much purer than that of most other books of the New Testament, especially in the speeches delivered by St. Paul at Åthens and before the Roman governors. These contain passages superior to any thing even in the Epistle to the Hebrews, though the language of this epistle is preferable in other respects to that of any other book in the New Testament. But the Acts of the Apostles are by no means free from Hebraisms; and even in the purest parts, which are the speeches of St. Paul, we still find the language of a native Jew.

It deserves particularly to be remarked, that St. Luke has well sup ported the character of each person whom he has introduced as delivering a public harangue, and has very faithfully and happily preserved the manner of speaking which was peculiar to each of his orators. The

speeches of St. Peter are recorded by St. Luke with the same simplicity with which they were delivered, and they are devoid of all those ornaments which we usually find in the orations of the Greeks and Romans.

The speeches of St. Paul, delivered before a Jewish assembly, are not very different in their manner from those of St. Peter; and they are wholly dissimilar to such as the same apostle delivered before a gentile audience, especially in Acts xiii, 16-41, where St. Paul introduces the principal subject of his discourse by a long periphrasis, which would have been neither instructive nor entertaining in any other place than a Jewish synagogue.

The speech delivered by the martyr Stephen, in the seventh chapter of the Acts, is again of a different kind. It is a learned discourse pronounced by a speaker totally unacquainted with the art of oratory. Stephen spake without any preparation, and though he had certainly a particular object in view, to which the several parts of his discourse tended, yet it is difficult to discover this object, because his materials are not regularly disposed. It is true, that he was interrupted, and thus prevented from finishing his harangue; but an orator accustomed to speak in public, and who has learnt methodical arrangement, will discover even at the commencement of his oration the purport of his dis course. In Stephen's speech we meet with numerous digressions, and literary remarks of which we cannot perceive the tendency. For instance, he has a remark which is at variance with the Hebrew text, and favours another reading, or, if not, it favours a mystical exposition of the common reading, that Abraham did not depart from Haran till after his father's death; and he differs from the seventy in interpreting the Hebrew word not by lambs, but by a silver coin. The same character appears throughout the whole of Stephen's discourse.

Since, then, the various speakers introduced in the Acts of the Apos tles uniformly preserve their pro per characters, St. Luke must have received very accurate information. Yet many of these speeches were delivered, not in the Greek language, as recorded by St. Luke, but in Chaldee, the language of Palestine. Nor is it probable that any one present, when they were delivered, committed them to writing, if we except the speech of Stephen. I think it probable that St. Luke had a copy of Stephen's speech, because it contains some mistakes of memory, and some inaccurate expositions, which St. Luke himself must have known to be such, but which he retained because found in his copy. Perhaps he received this copy from St. Paul, who was not only present at Stephen's speech, but was at that time a zealous adversary of the christians; and being at the same time learned in the law, was able as well as willing to detect whatever mistakes might be made by the speaker.

Lastly, the speeches delivered by St. Paul before assemblies accustomed to Grecian oratory are of a totally different kind from any of the preceding. It is true, they are neither adorned with the flowers of rhetoric, nor are exempt from such expressions as betray a native Jew: but the language is pointed and energetic, and the materials are not only well selected, but judiciously arranged. The speech which St. Paul delivered at Athens, and the two which he held before the Roman governors of Judæa, are proofs of this assertion. Yet St. Luke appears to have given only an abstract, and not the whole of St. Paul's speeches; for the apostle, in the defence which he made before Felix, must certainly have said more than is recorded by St. Luke, chap. xxiv, 12, 13, unless we suppose that he merely denied the charge which had been laid to him, without confuting it. However, he has certainly shown great judgment in these

extracts: for, if he has not always retained the very words of St. Paul, he has adopted such as well suited the polished audience before which the apostle spake.

For the Literary Magazine.

THE ROMANCE OF REAL LIFE.

THERE are some circumstances in the life of the late marquis of Exeter which deserve commemoration. In his youth, while Mr. Cecil (his uncle being then earl of Exeter), he married a lady of very large for tune. In a few years, having suffered two of the deepest wounds which the severity of fortune can inflict, the loss of his property by gaming, and of his wife by divorce, he determined to abandon the fashionable world, and retired under the name of Jones to a village in Shropshire. There he at first occupied a lodging, but soom built a small cottage; and continued for some years in such profound obscurity, that hardly a trace of him could be discovered by his friends, while the inhabitants of the village formed the wildest conjectures concerning the solitary stranger. His agreeable manners, however, soon rendered him an acceptable neighbour. One evening, at the table of the rector of the parish, he displayed so much knowledge of the world, and such a degree of classical information, that his host told him, his education and manners were too conspicuously superior to those of the character which he assumed (viz. that of a servant who had gained a small independence in the family of a noble man), not to excite considerable doubts, both of the name which he bore, and the account which he gave of himself. This remark induced Mr. Cecil, after the strictest injunction of secrecy, to disclose his real history.

Amongst the farmers, whom he occasionally visited, was one of the

name of Hoggins. This person had a daughter, about eighteen years of age, so beautiful and amiable that Mr. Cecil made her an offer of his hand. She referred him to her father, who, on account of the mystery involving his character, objected to the match. To this he replied, that the offer was much more advantageous than either the father or the daughter could reasonably expect. The farmer then consulted the clergyman, who told him he was not at liberty to give him the desired information: but he probably expressed himself upon the occasion so as to convince the inquirer that he ought not to withhold his consent: for the marriage was soon after solemnized (in the year 1791), and Mr. and Mrs. Jones retired to their cottage.

Lord Exeter being at the point of death, the steward was dispatched in search of the heir, whom he found at Bolas with a wife and two chil dren. Mr. Cecil, having contrived still to remain unknown, proposed to his lady a journey to Stamford in the stage-coach. Before their arrival, the uncle was no more. To Burleigh they were conveyed in a chaise; and, as they proceeded through the park, Mr. Cecil, now earl of Exeter, repeatedly asked his fair companion, how she liked the grounds and the situation of the mansion; he then proposed that they should “see the house;" and, while the cottager was gazing with astonishment at the novel scene of so much magnificence, told her that these objects of her admiration, together with many which he would afterwards show her, were her own, and that she was the countess of Exeter. The sudden communication of this unexpected grandeur was too powerful for her to sustain, and she was carried motionless into her apartment.

The remark, however, that great and sudden elevations seldom contribute much to happiness, was here fully exemplified. Admired for her beauty and early attainment of elegant manners, beloved for her humility and amiable conduct, amidst

those scenes of splendour lady Exeter appeared unhappy. Her perpetual solicitude to acquire those accomplishments, which she thought requisite for her new station, probably preyed upon her spirits, and accelerated her death. She died in the bloom of life, at the age of 24, in January, 1797, leaving two sons and a daughter, the present marquis, lord Thomas, and lady Sophia Cecil.

For the Literary Magazine.

FEMALE LOQUACITY.

IT is a very ancient adage, that Nature does nothing in vain. To women she has given the talent of talking more frequently, as well as more fluently, than men she has likewise endowed them with a greater quantity of animation, or what is commonly called animal spirits.Why, it may be asked, has Nature, in this article, so eminently distinguished women from men? For the best and wisest of purposes. The principal destination of all women is to be mothers. Hence some qualities peculiar to such a destination must necessarily have been bestowed upon them. These qualities are numerous: a superior degree of patience, of affection, of minute but useful attentions, joined to a facility of almost incessant speaking.

Here, however, I must confine my observations to the last conspicuous and eminent accomplishment. To be occupied with laborious offices, which demand either bodily or mental exertions, and not unfrequently both, is allotted to the men. These causes, beside their comparative natural taciturnity, totally incapacitate them for that loquacity which is requisite for amusing and teaching young children to speak. But the employments of women are of a more domestic kind. Household affairs, and particularly the nursing and training of children, are fully sufficient to engross their attention,

and to call forth all their ingenuity and active powers. The loquacity of women is too often considered, by poets, historians, and by unthinking men, as a reproach upon the sex. Men of this description know not what they say. When they blame women for speaking much, they blame Nature for one of her wisest institutions. Women speak much; they ought to speak much; Nature compels them to speak much; and, when they do so, they are complying religiously with one of her most sacred and useful laws. It may be said, that some men talk as much as women. Granted. But beings of this kind I deny to be men. Nature seems to have originally meant them to be women; but, by some cross accident, as happens in the production of monsters, the external male form has been superinduced upon a female stock.

For the Literary Magazine.

SPECIMEN OF A NOCTURNAL.

THE first night I found myself in a most tremendous situation. Alarmed by a sudden shock, attended with a hollow subterraneous noise, I ran out to the streets of this populous city, in order to discover the cause. A dreadful prospect presented itself to view. The ground began to undulate like the waves of the sea; sheets of fire dazzled the eye; peals of thunder stunned the ears; the buildings split in a thousand directions; and had not the native horrors of the scene soon restored me to reason, I should infallibly have been crushed to atoms.

The second night's entertainment, though not so alarming, was much more extravagant and ludicrous. I was for some time diverted with a furious dispute between Dr. Monro and Dr. Whytt concerning the uses of the deltoid muscle! The combatants at length become so hot, that they were just proceed

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