Freedom, like happiness, difdains to reft L. 19, 20.- Alas! too late; for, deep within my heart Irremediable is at best but an aukward word; and it is not the ?Fore heav'n has a ludicrous air; it comes fuddenly on the reader, very much like a petty oath; and, when he has difcovered its true import, he finds the fentiment grievously lowered by the next line, which is a genuine fpecimen of the bathos. L. 215. And plunge their profpects in eternal night.' We very much doubt whether plunging a profpect is not too incongruous a metaphor. Would not hade their profpects have been, at leaft, more correct? L. 277.-It is furely high treafon against the fublime to ftyle meteors, earthquakes, and comets, Nature's banbles. We obferve that art is the correfpondent rhyme to heart in no lefs than five feveral inftances in the courfe of the poen; and that fcene is faultily introduced as rhyming with vain. We are fenfible that these minutiae of criticifm are fometimes very provoking to the genus irritabile vatum; but we humbly prefume they may be useful. It is not impofiible that the author of this epiftle may profit by these and similar strictures in the preparation of a fecond edition; and we affure him we should not have taken the trouble to ftate them, had not we thought his poem poffeffed a confiderable degree of merit. Pleafures of Solitude, a Poem. By P. Courtier. Svo. Cawthorn. 1800. 25. 6d. This poem difplays evident traces of a philofophic mind, and of pious and amiable difpofitions. Its plan is good, and its topics are well chofen; but the author does not feem to be gifted with the nicety of ear neceffary to the conftruction of melodious verse, nor is he infpired by the ardour of poetical enthufiafm, which irrefiftibly raises the mind to the higher regions of fancy. We do not think him fortunate in the choice of his meafure, which, requiring the concurrence of fimilar rhymes, often betrays him into the lame nefs and infipidity occafioned by the infertion of lines whofe only ufe is to fill up the verse; a kind of poetical make weights, or invalids, introduced merely for the purpose of muftering with the company. As a fair fpecimen, we fhalk quote the introduction to the first book: 'Some beft mad diffonance fhall entertain, In thefe is tumult or ambition rife; Again there are whom both its ceaseless strife And idle vacancies alike difguft; And some who hourly dread th' affaffin's knife, For ever ftruggling in the toil unjuft; These hate the eye of man, and mourn beneath the duft. "No exile I, from focial converse driven, Who fing of Nature, Fancy, Solitude ;- To fhroud where fympathies dare not intrude. O man, how often thine to mould thy fate! By whofe bleft beam to frame thy pilgrimage aright,' P. 3. DRAM A. Theodora; or the Spanish Daughter: a Tragedy. Dedicated, by Permiffion, to the Duchefs of Devonshire. 8vo. Leigh and Sotheby. 1800. Theodora, the heroine of this tragedy, bewails the lofs of her lover Alphonfo, who the imagines has perifhed in a storm, and vows eternal fidelity to his memory. But when he is folicited by Don Garcia, a merciless creditor, who holds Guzman, her father, in ftrict cuftody for debt, her refolution gives way, and her filial piety induces her to wed the bitter enemy of her family. Soon after the marriage, Alphonfo, who had in fact been detained for several years in captivity at Tunis, arrives in Madrid. The diftrefs occafioned By the communication of the news of his arrival to Theodora, the jealoufy of Garcia, and the confequent catastrophe, compose the ef fence of this tragedy. Here are the materials of an interefting drama; but the author of Theodora has arranged them moft inartificially. He paffes, without ceremony, the bounds of space and time. In the compass of a fingle act we find Alphonfo at Tunis and at Madrid: Theodora vifits her father in his dungeon, and is diftracted by his fufferings; fhe takes her leave of him; and Carlos, the fervant of Guzman, attempts to alleviate his woes by mufic; and lo! whilft he is ftill touching his lute, arrives the annunciation of Theodora's wedding. Truly our heroine posts to the nuptial bed with admirable dexterity! One of the principal circumstances of the play hinges on Garcia's ignorance of the exiftence of his wife's coufin Antonio; and, though this monster of cruelty is ftimulated to vengeance by the ftings of jealoufy, we find in the denouement, that, when he was about to fally forth to murder his wife's fuppofed paramour Antonio, he kindly made his will, bequeathing to her all his property, only reftricting her from marrying Antonio. We must confefs that this incident does not very strictly concur with common ideas of the temper of a Spanish coco imaginaire. It is alfo oc The diction of this tragedy is diffuse and feeble. cafionally difgraced by vulgar inelegancies; for inftance, Yes in my bofom fhall the fecret lay.' The fecond act clofes thus coarfely : • And while I live I never can forget How much Antonio is in Selim's debt. In the following paffages, by aiming at originality, the author degenerates into conceit. • Chafte moon! thou shou'dst withdraw Thy beams from me, and those fiderial orbs, Yes! with my latest breath, I will acquaint the foreft with my woes, P. 74. A 2s. 6d. Play of Five As.. Robinsons. 1800. Streanfhall Abbey: or, the Danish Invafion, The ancient Greeks wifely availed themfelves of the ftage, in order to awaken patriotic enthufiafm in the breafts of their country men. Efchylus did good fervice to the Athenian republic by his fword; but he, perhaps, ferved his country no less effectually by the compofition of his immortal tragedy, entitled Perfæ. Mr. Gibfon, (who, we understand, is major-commandant of the Whitby volunteers) emulates this great example, and manifefts his zeal for his country's caufe by wielding the pen as well as the truncheon. In the invasion of the Danes we fee a type of the once-threatened invafion of this country by the French. The feud, which he fuppofes to have fubfifted between the families of Raymond, Lord of Streanfhall, and Maulay, Baron of Mulgrave, is, we prefume, iatended as a fhadow of the political differences which have of late years agitated the British empire; and we doubt not that, had the enemy effected a landing, the denouement which he has imagined, would have been verified by the fact, and that ministerialists and oppofitionists would have cordially co-operated in repelling the foe. Mr. Gibson has interwoven into the fabric of his ftory a tale of love. Edgar, the fon of Maulay, has long entertained a paflion for Everilda, daughter of lord Raymond. His paflion is returned by the lady with equal ardour: but the completion of their happ nefs is prevented by the difcord which prevails between the heads of their refpective houses. The loves of Edwina and Grofmont, who is fuppofed to be flain in foreign lands, but who unexpecedly returns. to save his mistress from the ravishing gripe of his own brother, who had doomed him to death by the hands of an affaffin, compofe an under,plot. The ftory of the drama is fkilfully brought to a clofe by the reconciliation of the contending barons, confequent on their joint endeavours against the common enemy, which are crowned with complete fuccefs. This reconcilement naturally clears away every obstruction to the union of Everilda and Edgar, which is as naturally accompanied by that of Grofmont and Edwina. The story is developed with fkill; and the ftyle is frequently not inelegant. The writer is particularly happy in defcription and fentiment; but he is lefs fuccefsful in the delineation of paffion. We were furprised to obferve, that he has in fome inftances adopted the obfolete cuftom of ending acts and fcenes with a fet of rhyming couplets. He ought to have entertained a ft onger confcioufnefs of his powers. His drama poffeffes too much intrinfic merit to require thefe empty applaufe-traps. It gives us great fatisfaction to remark, that, though the invading Danes are evidently the representatives of the modern French, he has not adopted the vulgar topics of abufe. We shall close our review of this publication by a few extracts.— The following paffage may ferve as a fpecimen of Mr. Gibfon's powers of defcription. Anf. Your caufe is that of juftice, theirs of blood. CRIT. REY. VOL. XXX. September, 1800. I Loud howl the winds amongst the shatter'd towers; The deadly nightshade and the ivy cling; An undisturb'd abode; while fad remembrance P. 73. In the first scene of the fifth act we have a pleasing picture of the emotions of a compaffionate mind on the deftruction of enemies. 'ACT V. SCENE I. A Hall in Lord Raymond's Palace. 'EVERILDA and EDWINA. Edw. O Everilda! what a night was last! And hear the favage blaft, that howls around Edw. The clouds, in horrible convulfions rent, Bright rife the morn upon your gentle wishes! • Eve. The dead, inclosed in the filent vault, While on the ocean tenfold horrors reign'd. Grof. The tempeft that has fhook our loftieft towers, |