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ftyle (particularly Mifs Sophia's) is fometienes turgid, and even obfcure, from being overloaded with ornament, proceeding from a paffion for fine writing. We truft they will bear in mind, in future, that real beauty.confifts in fimplicity.

We are forry that Mr. WILLIAM WENNINGTON fhould have given himfelf the trouble of tranflating from the German, MILTENBERG's "Man of Nature." Its extravagance, improbability, and, in many inftances, indelicacy, render it a very unworthy prefent for the English public.

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A tranflation has appeared of Madame de GENLIS" Young Exiles, or Correfpondence of fome juvenile Emigrants,' which will highly intereft young readers, and may be fafely put into their hands, being unexceptionable in point of morality.

We should have fcarcely have been induced to mention Mr. PROBY's "Myfterious Seal," but to exprefs our furprife, that a perfon who wrote fo refpectable a pamphlet as was this gentleman's anfwer to Mr. Godwin fhould have produced fo contemptible a novel.

Mifs GUNNING's "Gipfey Countess" is an interefting and well told tale of domeftic manners. The character of Julia is well drawn. The language throughout is fpirited, and generally correct, and many of the fentiments are original, and happily applied.

We hall conclude this article with "The Travels of St. Leon," a novel, by WILLIAM GODWIN, which will probably excite the public attention in a very high degree. Mr. Godwin's grand object has been novelty, and this he has certainly attained; but at the expence, not merely of probability, but of poffibility itfelf. The chimerical dreams of alchemy are here fuppofed to be realifed, and even exceeded; for the hero poffcffes the power, not only of fetting old age at defiance, but of creating gold. The alchemifts never profeffed to do more than to tranfmute other metals into gold; but St. Leon, in circumftances in which no other metal is at hand, creates heaps of gold fufficient to gratify the rapacity of avarice itself. However, if it be pothble for the reader to forget the impoffibility of the principal events on which the hiftory hinges, he will find parts of this novel of the moft ftriking and interefting kind. If he is poffeffed of a fpark of feeling, he cannot fail to contemplate with delight the exquifite character of Marguerite, and to experience a glow

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of admiration at the high tone of fentiment and noble conduct of Charles. Difapproving, as we have done in the moft decided manner, thofe parts of Mr. Godwin's Political Juftice which facrificed the private affections on the altar of univerfal philanthropy, we cannot help rejoicing that his candid mind has experi enced fome change on this fubject, and admiring the frankness with which he avows the alteration. Moft cordially do we agree with him, "that philanthropy is a godlike virtue, and can never be too loudly commended, or too ardently enjoined," but "natural affection winds itfelf in fo many folds about the heart, and is the parent of fo complicated, of fo various, and fo exquifite emotions, that he who fhould attempt to diveft himfelf of it will find that he is divefting himfelf of all that is moft to be coveted in exiftence." Sentiments of fimilar tendency occur in various parts of the novel, and will, we truft, tend to arreft that flood of obloquy with which the author of "Political Juftice" has of late been overwhelmed. It is not new to defcrice the evils attending gaming; but we never recollect to have feen its pernicious effects exemplified in fo ftriking and fo mafterly a manner as in this novel. We were particularly ftruck with the final scene of St. Leon's gaming career, though we think his wandering about Paris afterwards an obvious imitation of Emilius, after the difcovery of Sophia's infidelity. The principal moral of the work, which fhows that the poffeffion of boundless wealth produces, inftead of happiness, the moft exquifite mifery, is unexceptionable; but we highly difapprove Mr. Godwin's putting his peculiar fentiments on religion in the mouth of St. Leon. They are as unnatural in a catholic nobleman of the fixteenth century as they are untrue and pernicious in themfelves. With refpect to the literary merit of this novel, it appears to us various and unequal. There are many paffages of the most glowing eloquence, Marguerite's expoftuiation with her husband; St. Leon's extafy when firft put in poffeffion of the fatal fecret; the defcription of his fenfations when he first drinks the elixir of life, and finds his body, broken down by his confinement in the prifons of the Inquifition, again "animated with the glow of youth; are mafter-pieces. But, in general, St. Leon is but Caleb Williams in new circumftances; or, ra ther, it is the folemn, fententious, verbole Mr. Godwin, throughout. We did not

expect

expect to have found in an author, who, in his 66 Effay on English Style," examined the works of others with fo critical and microfcopic an eye as to detect faults where others faw beauties, the inaccuracies which have forced themselves upon us, even when we were in great meafure abforbed by the intereft of the ftory. We have likewife been compelled to obferve fome curious inconfiftencies and contradictions. St. Leon enters not into a detail of the ftranger's fecrets, because he was forbidden-he was equally for. bidden even to mention the stranger. Vol. II. p. 103, he says, "It is no matter that these pages fhall never be furveyed by other eyes than mine;" and at page 243 he talks of his readers, and anticipates their objections. The immortal St. Leon talks of being fubjected to ignominious death, of his whole fpecies combining to murder him! We appre hend that these trifling blemishes in what is upon the whole a masterly work are the confequence of too great hurry for publication. An author of Mr. Godwin's genius and talents ought to write more for pofterity than for the exifting generation.

THE DRAMA.

In this department, as in that of novels and romances, our patriotifm has to regret that the works of foreigners have excited much more of the public attention than thofe of our own nation. At no period has the English ftage been at fo low an ebb as during the last few years. Inftead of the happily-imagined and wellconnected fable, the brilliant and witty dialogue, the vis comica and the original and highly-finished characters which once were to be met with in English comedy, we have now nothing but worn-out ftories, trite incidents, unmeaning buftle, miferable puns, cant phrafes, and hackneyed characters, whofe infipidity is infupportable. Even that great dramatift, whofe efforts, few though they have been, will enfure him a brilliant and eternal reputation, feems to give up the cause, either from defpair of equalling his former works, or from difguft at the want of tate in the public, and condefcends to borrow the production of a foreign author which, as we shall have occafion to observe in the course of this department of our review, he has not at all improved. With refpect to this fuppoled want of tafte in the public, we cannot help thinking that it is merely an excufe made by authors for their own inability to offer any thing worthy of the approbation of good tafte. The English

public difcerned the beauties, and felt the pathos of the "Stranger;" and the great fuccefs of this piece is fufficient to exculpate them from the ill-grounded charge of want of tafte. But even if this deficiency did exist, it would be no excufe for dramatic writers; it is their place to form, to cultivate, and to improve the tafte of their Countrymen.

It

"What is She?" is a comedy which did not fucceed on the ftage: we know not why, for it is certainly fuperior to many which have had their run. lafhes feverely fome fashionable follics follies which our pofterity will fcarcely credit, fhould indeed this play reach poft erity. If it thould keep its place on the fhelf of our libraries, it will be on the fame principle that we keep pic tures painted in Queen Elizabeth's time, for the fake of wondering at the abfurd dreffes of our ancestors.

Mr. HOLMAN'S "Votary of Wealth," if confidered as one of the great mafs of English comedies, hardly reaches medi ocrity, but holds a high rank among the productions of the day. The ftory is interefting, the characters, though not new, well fupported, and the moral unexceptionable and highly neceffary to be inculcated at the prefent day, when the temple of Plutus is fo thronged with afpirants, that we find men of confiderable fortune making neck-or-nothing fpeculations for the fake of increafing their wealth: but the language is flat and fpiritlefs, and is very deficient in wit, though not in attempts at this scarce article.

Mr. COLMAN has published "Feudal Times," a drama in two acts, which was performed during laft winter. Not having been prefent at the exhibition, we cannot fay what effect the mufic and the Speclacle may have produced: if they are good, we are forry they were not accompanied by a better drama.

Mr. REYNOLDS' " Laugh when you can," whatever it may do on the ftage, produces very little laughter in the closet.

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Sighs, or the Daughter," a comedy which met with deferved fuccefs on the Haymarket theatre, is altered from a drama of Kotzebue, by Mr. PRINCE HOARE, who has, in most instances, difplayed judgment and tafte in his alterations. In this age of anti-jacobinism, it is clear, from his preface, what were Mr. Hoare's motives in the alterations of Von Snarl's character,

"The Peckham Frolick, or Nell Gwynn" is, as the author has juftly

named

na med it, a whim, in which the jokes and freaks of that witty and licentious monarch Charles II. are dramatifed. The cant words and phrafes of the prefent day are clumfily mingled with the trite fayings of that age.

"The Caftle of Montval," by the Rev. I. S. WHALLEY, is a tragedy which, owing to the incomparable acting of Mrs. Siddons, was well received at Drury-Lane theatre, and has fince been pablished. The ftory on which this play is. founded is a very interefting one, but the author has no claim to praise for its invention, as he acquaints us that the unnatural event actually occurred in France fo late as 1783. It very much refembles a part of the ftory of the Robbers, for it confifts in the imprisonment of an old count by his fon in a fubterraneous dungeon for feveral years; yet this deteftable parricide, who is every moment confcious that he is murdering by piecemeal the author of his days, is made a fufficiently aniable character to win the affections of a woman of extraordinary difcernment and judgment. This is furely very unnatural. At least half of the characters which Mr, Whalley has crowded into his drama are unmeaning and infipid: the language is in the beginning feeble and languid; it, however, rifes with the progrefs of the drama; but even in the pathetic scene, which concludes the piece, we could point out some objectionable paffages.

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In noticing the numerous productions of the prolific KOTZEBUE, which his indefatigable tranflators have prefented to the public during the laft half year, we fhall begin with the Virgin of the Sun," and "The Death of Rolla," which are rendered important by their connexion with Mr. Sheridan's Pizarro. Having in our last retrospect noticed the firft of thefe, we have here only to obferve that, befides the two English translations there mentioned, another has fince appeared by JAMES LAWRENCE, Efq. The Death of Rolla" was intended by its author as a fequel to the Virgin of the Sun." In the first play we faw Rolla proffering to give up his paffion for Cora because the preferred Alonzo ; in the prefent drama we find the Peruvian hero ftill actuated by his love for Cora, in the firft inftance offer ing to facrifice his life for the fafety of her husband, and in the end actually facrificing it, while refcuing her child from the hands of the mercilefs Pizarro. Both thefe pieces contain great beauties and

great faults: the "Death of Rolla” we think the preferable drama.

Three tranflations of it have made their appearance; one by Mifs PLUMPTRE; another, and a more fplendid one, by Mr. Lewis; and a third by Mr. DUTTON. On this laft tranflator we have to remark, that although he may be more competent to tranflate from the German than any of the perfons whom he fo rudely attacks, yet that the coarfe ri baldry and indelicate allufions contained in his notes are very contemptible and difgufting. This drama, "The Death of Rolla, which excited unbounded applaufe at Vienna, Mr. SHERIDAN has adapted to the English ftage under the title of "Pizarro," and the great emolument which this piece produced to his theatre may, in fome degree, compen fate for the fmallness of the addition it has made to his literary reputation. No. thing could be more unfortunate than the change of heroes which Mr. Sheridan has made. The refined and almoft fpiritual love of Rolla makes him the natural hero of a drama, calculated to delight romantic and exalted imaginations. Pizarro and the Spaniards are but inferior agents, and ought not to have been made the most prominent figures on the canvafs. For the fake of this abfurd alteration, the intereft of the drama is leffened, and the truth of history violated in the moft flagrant manner. natural to fuppofe, with Kotzebue, that the Spaniards might meet with a repulfe before they attained their final object; but to murder the conqueror of Peru, and to make the Peruvians triumphant, is too grofs a perverfion of facts to be tolerated. Notwithstanding this grand error, it would be unfair not to acknowledge that Mr. Sheridan has frequently improved parts of this drama. Confidering the political obloquy with which he has lately been overwhelmed, we admire the dexterity with which he has engrafted his loyal clap traps. The celebrated fpeech which he has put into the mouth of Rolla is a mafter-piece of eloquence, but we think not well adapted to the general of the ufurper Ataliba. The particular circumftances of the times may, perhaps, tolerate this excrefcence on the ftage, but it ought not to have been inferted in the printed play which is intended for pofterity. The beautiful fonnet which Cora fings, when watching over her fleeping child, cannot fail of delighting every mind, awake to the charms of poetry and feeling.

It was not un

Kotzebue's

Kotzebue's "Self Immolation" has been tranflated by HENRY NEWMAN, Efq. and is one of the author's moft in terefting dramas: it is well calculated for the modern ftage, and has been adapted to ours under the title of "Family Diftrefs."

Mifs PLUMPTRE has published a tranflation of Kotzebue's "Force of Calumny," which, though it may not act upon the feelings fo ftrongly as fome of his productions, bears the characteristic marks of his genius, and excites a power ful though a calm intereft. Its morality is excellent, fince its chief object is to prove that happiness is not to be attained amid the glare of courts, and the fordid buftle of moft active employments, but in the domeftic peace and domeftic comforts of thofe bleft with a decent mediocrity of fortune.

Kotzebue's "Widow and the Horfe" has been tranflated by Mils PLUMPTRE, and adapted to our fage by Mr. Dibdin, we think in both inftances needlefsly, as it appears to us to be a drama of very inferior merit.

"The Falfe Shame" of Kotzebue, which has been prefented to the English public by an anonymous tranflator, abounds in a more ufeful and more generally applicable morality than any of his productions. We with there had been lefs complexity, and that Flaxland's falfe fame, the fhame of retrenching expences to a level with his circumftances, had been the only one attacked. The fcene in which he gives up his falle fhame at the inftance of his amiable wife is excellent. We wish that thofe perfons who are continually denouncing Kotzebue as an immoral writer would read this play. We fhall content ourselves with barely enumerating the other plays of Kotzebue, which have been tranflated during the last half year. The Corficans.' "Poverty and Nobleness of Mind," by Maria Geifweiler.-"Peevish Man," by C. Ludger, Efq.-"La Peyroufe," by Mifs Plumptre, and by Mr. Thompfon. But it is not to Kotzebue alone that our tranflators have corfined themfelves: Leffing, Goethe, and Ifland, three other German dramatifts, have alfo been made to contribute to amufement." The School for Honour, or the Chance of War," is a comedy by the first of thefe; it was formerly tranflated in English, with the title of the Baronefs of Bruchfal, or the Disbanded - Officer, and has now been again tranflated: it poffeffes much merit. MONTHLY MAG. LIV.

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"Goetz of Berlichingen with the Iron Hand," is a tragedy, by GOETHE, the celebrated author of the Sorrows of Werter. This drama, which is faid to be written in imitation of Shakspeare, is admired with enthufiafm by the Germans, who regard the principal characters as one of their national heroes. It has the common fault of all German productions, that of diffufenefs and expanfion, even to tedioufnefs; but it abounds in thofe true ftrokes of nature, in thofe fcintillations of genius which might be expected in the piece of fo great a mafter. The fublime and poetical defcription of a comet, the terrific wildness of the gipfey fcene, the terrible juftice of the fecret tribunal, and the tender pathos of the conclufion, will be read with the highest degree of intereft. We think this one of the mcft ftriking plavs of the German school.

Two of IFFLAND's plays have made their appearance in an English drefs; "The Lawyers," tranflated by Mr. LUDGER; and the "Forresters," by Mifs BELL PLUMPTRE, fifter to the lady who has tranflated to many of Kotzebue's dra

mas.

We cannot fpeak very highly of either of these as dramatic performances: they are very moral, rational, good kind of pieces, but are tame and fpiritlefs when compared with thofe of Kotzebue. There are, however, one or two scenes in the Forresters extremely pathetic. Not only the German but the Danish drama has been resorted to by our induftrious tranflators.

"Poverty and Wealth," a comedy by P. A. HEIBERG, has been tranflated by Mr. WILSON: the plot of this drama is extravagant, but the morality is unexceptionable.

True Patriotifm, or Poverty ennobled by Virtue," and "Neither's the Man," by Mr. HOLFORD, are two Englih dramas which do not rife above mediocrity.

Mr. POLIDORI, an Italian mafter in London, has published two dramas in his own language, "Ifabella" and "Gernando," which have have fome merit.

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their taftes. But even the whole of this merit, fuch as it is, does not belong to the author, as he has laid many preceding writers, Voltaire in particular, under contribution. No book can be put with more advantage into the hands of young perfons than the Travels of Anacharfis, but thofe of Antenor contain fome licentious paffages, which render it unfit to be entrusted to them.

"A Mifcellany by S. WHYTE and his fon E. A. WHYTE:" the principal article in this collection is a vindication of the character of the late Mr. Sheridan, from an attack made on him by Dr. Johnfon, probably never meant to be made public; but which the indifcreet garrulity of Mr. Bofwell had refcued from oblivion.

Mrs. SHERIDAN'S "Ode to Patience" has confiderable merit. This mifcellany also contains an attempt to trace the ftory on which the Myfterious Mother was founded, to its origin, which appears to us very unimportant; and proves, what every body knew before, that Burger's Leonora refembles an old English ballad. There are many other articles which evince the authors to be men of reading and ingenuity, but which we think hardly of fufficient confequence to entitle them to publication.

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"The Royal Tribes of Wales," by PHILIP YORKE, Efq. of Erthig: this is a very fenfible and judicious work; and although parts of it are neceffarily dry, it is occafionally enlivened by anecdotes and hiftorical information, which will intereft the general reader. rious article of this work is the genealogy of his prefent majefty George the Third, which is traced through all its ftages, up to Cadwalader, the laft king of the Bri tons, by which it appears that he is the right heir in lineal fucceffion to the Britilh, Cambro-British, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, English and Scottish kings "The Works of Sir WM. JONES" occupy fix quarto volumés, and are publifhed by his widow, who appears to have been entrusted with his manufcripts for the purpose of publication. Befides thefe MSS. the pretent collection comprehends all the works which were pubfifhed in the life-time of the author, and Lord Teignmouth's difcourfe, delivered before the Afiatic Society in Calcutta, in May 1794, which gives a very full ac

count of his enlarged views and literary labours. It was our intention to have taken an ample notice of this most splendid publication: but in turning over the pages we have already written, the num ber of them alarms us, and we yield reluc tantly to the fummons which commands us to retire. It is fcarcely neceffary to add, that these volumes contain an invaluable treasure of eastern science, philology, and hiftory, and that few can read them without interest and advantage.

The "Walpoliana" form two elegant little volumes: thefe anecdotes, &c. collected by a gentleman of the first tafte and talents, have, many of them, contributed to enrich the pages of our journal. To the number, the editor has now added others, together with various fragments of original letters, chiefly on fcientific or literary fubjects, from the pen of HORACE WALPOLE, of whom "a biographical sketch" is given "in fugitive crayons," which, if we may form a judgment from the refemblance, was certainly drawn from life. Two vignettes, one of Strawberry-Hill, and the other of its noble owner, adorn the title pages of these volumes, which contain, moreover, fac-fimilies of the hand-writing of the Earl of Orford and of Mr. Gray the poet.

We are very glad to find that Major OUSELEY goes on with his "Oriental Collections:" four more numbers are published, which bring the work down to December 1797. They contain much curious and interefting matter.

The laft publication which we have to notice is "Pantographia," by EDMUND FRY, Letter Founder: this fingular work contains copies of all the known alphabets in the world, with an explanation in English of the peculiar force of each letter. In order to avoid swelling the book to too great a fize, the author confines himself to thofe forms alone which are in common ufe, omitting those minute variations which are only found in particular infcriptions. He treats very little of the hiftory of the different alphabets, referring to thofe authors who had before treated of this point; this barrenness we very much lament. In other refpects the work is well executed, and must have coft Mr. Fry great labour and no inconfiderable expence.

FRENCH

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