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Art. 22. The Flitch of Bacon; a Comic Opera, in Two Acts: As it is performed at the Theatre Royal in the Haymarket. By the Rev. Henry Bate. 8vc. I s. Evans. 1779.

This comic opera might poffibly amufe in the theatre, but the Reader mult fel difappointed at the manner in which the fubject is treated. The exhibition of the feveral claimants of the Flitch afforded scope for a diverity of character, of which the Writer has not taken the least advantage, though it feemed almoft impofible for a poet not to avail himself of fo obvious a circumftance. The fable has little relation to the famous Dunmow Flitch of Bacon, and the dialogue is coarfe and inelegant.

POETICA L.

Art. 23. Select Satires of Horace, tranflated into English Verse, and, for the molt part, adapted to the present 'Times and Manners. By Alexander Geddes. 4to. 5 s. Cadell. 1779.

However juft Mr. Geddes's obfervations may be, that concifenefs, perfpicuity, and an elegant fimplicity are the great and leading characters of H race as a fatirift, yet we can by no means agree with him that these excellencies are likelieft to be retained by adopting the Hudibraftic measure, in preference to that of ten fyllables with legitimate rhymes.

However well adapted Hudibraftics may be to fubjects that are ludicrous and low, yet, furely, the jingle and quaintnefs of doggrel verfe must be totally incompatible with every idea of fo exquiûtely graceful a writer as Horace, whofe wit is always elegant, and whofe very pleafantry is philofophical.

With respect to the tranflation itself, though the verfification in general be easy and familiar, it is too frequently, feeble, inelegant, and vulgar.

In those parts which are adapted to the prefent times and manmers we meet with nothing peculiarly ftriking, except, indeed, it be in the application of the following paffage :

Quidam notus homo, cum exiret fornice: Mate
Virtute efto, inquit, fententia dia Catonis, &c.

When, late, a rev'rend prelate faw

A priest from Drury's haunts withdraw ;
"Courage! (he cry'd) fince wh-re you must,
"Far better there to quench your luft,

"Than form wild projects in your head

"How o profane your neighbour's bed."

A former tranflator, in commenting upon the above-quoted paffage in the original, remarks how defective must be the fyftem of Heathen morality, when a philofopher could encourage a man in the commiffion of one vice, merely that he might avoid the chance of falling into another. Mr. Geddes feems to have viewed the paffage in a different light, otherwise, in adapting it to the prefent times and manners, he would fcarcely have applied it to a reverend prelate. Were it poffible to fuppofe that a thought fo fubverfive of that purity which Chriftianity injoins, could by any means gain admittance into the breaft of a reverend prelate, he mult certainly be loft to all propriety and decency of character who could utter it. But thas it

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will

will ever be those who, ftudying mankind only in their closets, attempt to describe manners they have never feen, are certain in the end to betray their ignorance and prefumption.

Art. 24. A Poetic Epistle to the Author of a Paraphrafe of a celebrated Chapter of St. Paul. Fol. I s. Faulder. 1779.

On the fuppofition that Mr. Anitey, the humorous Author of The New Bath Guide, could not write feriously, our Author imagined (when he faw the Paraphrafe on the 13th Chapter to the Corinthians advertised) that this fon of pleafantry must mean a burlesque ; and having read the poem, he ftill thinks that it is a ludicrous performance.-What a conftruction!

On this idea, the Author of the pamphlet before us has given Mr. Anstey a friendly admonition; of which a fingle line,

Renounce thy errors, and repent in time,'

may be a fufficient fpecimen.

Art. 25. The Divorce. A Poem. 4to. I s. 6 d. Bishop.

1779.

The Author tells us in his preface he is refolved, with his eyes open, to join the fcribbling tribe.' Of this rah refolution take the following proof:

We, who fcorn the mufty rules
That ftern religion taught her fools,
Have fet at length the matter right,
And prov'd it as a jufter rite,

To find a flaw-and kindly fever

Whom fate unkindly yok'd together.'

Art. 26. An Effay on Man, in his State of Policy; in a Series of Twelve Epiftles. By Thomas Delamayne, Efq. 4to. 2 s. 6 d. Harrifon and Co.

Of the Twelve Epistles, announced in the title-page, the prefent publication contains only Three. When Mr. Delamayne has completed his defign, we fhall give an account of the whole perform

ance.

Art. 27. The Guardians; a Poem. By a young Lady of Portf mouth. 4to. 6 d. Robinson, &c. 1779.

The young Lady of Portsmouth, with fingular diffidence and modefty, requests, if this little poem fhould become an object of the Reviewer's notice, that the worst lines may be selected as a specimen of the Author's performance.

We are forry that a task fhould be impofed upon us, especially by a Lady, which, we must confefs, our abilities are in no degree equal to. For how can we prefume to point out the worst lines, when all are equally good?

The poem is intended as a compliment to Admiral Keppel. Art. 28. Friendship the derniere Resource. A Poem, addreffed to a Gentleman late of Cambridge. By a young Gentleman of the Middle Temple. 4to. 1 s. 6d. Evans.

For the fake of this young Gentleman's acquaintance, we will hope that Pope's obfervation is not true,

That each bad author is as bad a friend.

For an account of this performance, fee Review for June, 1779.

Art.

Art. 29. Bagnigge-Wells: A Poem. In which are pourtrayed the Characters of the most eminent Filles de joye. With Notes and Illuftrations, critical, historical, and explanatory. 4to. 1 s. 6d. Hawkins, in Paternofter-Row. 1779.

Thy arbours, Bagnigge, and the gay alcove, Where the frail nymphs in amorous dalliance rove, Where 'prentic'd youths enjoy the Sunday feaft, And city matrons boaft their Sabbath's reft; Where unfledg'd Templars firit as fops parade, And new-made Enfigns Sport their first cockade; Sing Mufe, converfant in the various ftyles Which deck St. James's, or adorn St. Giles.'Thus fings the Mufe of Bagnigge-Wells; and the poem proves the Author happily converfant with his noble fubject. Ode to the Genius of Great Britain.

Art. 30.

Dodiley.

A Pigmy bestriding the Pegafus of Pindar.

4to. I S.

Art. 31. The Modish Wife. A Poem. Infcribed to the reigning Ton. 4to. I s. Dixwell.

A general fatire on modern female diffipation, and fashionable vice.-The fubject and the verfe equally contemptible.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 32. Thoughts on the Conduct of Admiral Keppel; together with Reasons for reftoring Sir Hugh Pallifer into the full Confidence and good Opinion of his Country. 8vo. 3 d. Richardfon and Urquhart. 1779:

A fober and fenfible vindication of Admiral Pallifer, under fourteen diftinct heads,-the last of which being a general conclufion from the whole, may be here extracted. If a man, who in the heat of action behaved with the greatest gallantry, and in the most exemplary and meritorious manner, who fought his fhip till fhe was reduced to a perfect wreck, who was the last in action, fuffered the moft in the action, and did not defift while fighting was permitted him ;-if fuch a man, to whom the more generous fpirit of the ancients would have decreed public honours and rewards, were to fall a facrifice to party rage, and to be treated as an enemy to the ftate, who was the moft anxious to ferve the ftate,-the navy of England, which was heretofore its glory and its boaft, must be haftening with quick steps to inevitable ruin.'

Art. 33. A Treatise on the Cuftom of counting Nofes. 8vo. Is. Kearfly. 1779:

This humorous Writer is of opinion that the Custom of counting Nefes will appear to the fagacious reader a fubject of the greatest import; being, fays he, no less than that upon which every movement of the ftate depends: During this nafal ceremony, reafon and argument attend in fufpence, and are often difmiffed without a power of appeal.-Life, liberty, and property, is here under a moft absoJute controul: Is it not then incumbent on us to inquire into the nature of that upon which every thing fo dear to us depends?'

After examining into the caufes and effects of this custom, he proceeds to inquire into its conveniency.

tore this inftitution, member of fociety;

In the first place, then, the nose was. (allowing me to fpeak in metaphor) the and therefore certainly now the mon proper to be employed. It partook of the fmallest share ir atorming the functions of the human frame. Its peculiar fenfe is, comparatively fpeaking, trifling, and that too is freq.lv destroyed, by the almoft continual colds which we labour under in this climate.

Again it is, in fome cafes, from the habiliments of office, and a peculiarity of fhape, in fact, the only point of the man that can be got at. For example, my Lord Bathurst, when a little while ago Lord Chancellor, could not, I contend for it, be told, upon a stateday, by any other evidence in nature. A meagre Bishop, in his lawn (though I confefs it would be a very new appearance), comes within the fame cafe; as do Judges, Peers, gentlemen of the Bar in the House of Commons, and the Speaker in general. The prefent one happening to have fo much forehead, does not overturn the rule, for exceptio probat regulam, cum multis aliis; fo that, but for this, in fome of the inflances I have given, as that of my Lords the Bishops (whofe taciturnity is not, from long and immemorial ufage, now a matter of remark), an enterprising Minister might, like Bayes, foift in a bench of buckram upon any urgent occasion, and thus carry a queftion against the most leading principle of the conftitution."

After expatiating with much pleafantry on the policy of the cuf tom, he concludes with a COMPLIMENT to Dr. Johufon, on the clearness of his definition of the nofe, which first opened and gave a fcope to his comprehenfion of the subject. Art. 34. A fhort Appeal to the Public. By the Gentleman who is particularly addreffed in the Poftfcript of the Vindication of some Pallages in the fifteenth and fixteenth Chapters of the Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Svo. Is. Robfon, In the Poftfcript to his Vindication Mr. Gibbon makes a few obfervations on an anonymous pamphlet, under the title of A few Remarks, &c. By a GENTLEMAN. Most of the inftances, fays Mr. Gib. bon, which are here produced, are of fo brittle a fubitance, that they fall in pieces as foon as they are touched: and I fearched for fome time before I was able to discover an example of fome moment where the Gentleman had fairly faked his veracity against fome po fitive fact afferted in the two last chapters of my History. At last I perceived that he has abfolutely denied that any thing can be gathered from the Epiftles of St. Cyprian, or from his treatife de unitate Ecclefie, to which I had referred, to juftify my account of the fpiritual pride and licentious manners of fome of the Confeffors.'

The Gentleman, in this Appeal to the Public, replies in the following manner As I profefs truth to be the only object of all my inquiries, fo, when found, I mean ever to make it the fole rule of all my words and actions. I shall not therefore attempt to justify, or even to palliate, the apparent error, otherwife than that the Author's period impreffed a very different idea on me than the words of St.

"The prominence on the face, which is the organ of fcent, and the emunctory of the brain."

Cyprian

Cyprian, as referred to, then did, or ftill do; and that very idea, through almost unpardonable inattention, I expreffed with the utmoft inaccuracy. But as the very best excufes may not prove fatiffactory to all readers, I readily give it up, as I would any other error or errors pointed out to me, which I think it is the indifpenfable duty of every man of honour to do. I fhould moreover have acknowledged my obligations to the Author himself, for pointing out my error, had he done it with becoming decency and good manners.' The Gentleman acquaints us that there are feveral remarks both before and after the paffage Mr. Gibbon has condescended to take notice of, in which he had fairly flaked his veracity againft fome pofitive fact afferted in his hiftory; and he appeals to the Public, if they had not a right to be fatisfied on feveral other articles to which he has chofen to be utterly filent. He mentions fome few objections which a complete vindication, he fays, fhould have cleared up.-But we refer our Readers to the Appeal itself.

For our account of the Gentleman's former Remarks, fee Review, vol. lix. p. 231.

Art. 35. Examen Philofophique et Politique des Loix relatives aux
Mariage, Repudiation, Divorce et Separation. Par un Citoyen du
Monde.-A Philofophical and Political Examination of the Laws
concerning Marriage, Divorce, Separation, &c. Svo.
Elmfley. 1779:

2 s. 6 d. The unknown Author of this Examination writes like a philofopher, a man of fenfe, and a good citizen. His tract is addreffed to the parliament of England, which he looks upon as the wifeft legiflative body in Europe, and to which, together with the study of our free conflitution, he acknowledges himfelf indebted for whatever ideas he has on the subject of legiflation. He further tells us, that if there is a state on earth which has given to laws their true direction, where man is in poffeffion of his native dignity, and enjoys all the advantages of fociety, without giving up too many of the prerogatives which he derives from nature, it is undoubtedly ENGLAND. The beft political conflitution, however, he justly ob ferves, has fill too many defects; and, indeed, every work of man bears upon it evident and friking marks of his weakness, his paffions, and his errors. It is incumbent, therefore, upon every good citizen, to point out, with modefty and decency, whatever he confiders as a defect in that fyftem of laws to which he is fubject, and to contribute every thing in his power towards carrying it to as great a degree of perfection as the prefent condition of humanity can admit.

The fubject of our Author's Examination is one of the most im portant that can engage the attention of a legislator; marriage being one of the principal pillars of fociety, one of the branches of legiflation which has the greatest influence upon the peace and order of fociety, and the happiness of individuals. Every abufe, indeed, in relation to it, mult neceffarily be attended with pernicious confequences to the body politic, and to its members.

It is to be regretted that our Author, who feems to be well ac quainted with human nature, and to have confidered his fubject very attentively, fhould have confined himself to fuch narrow limits; and fatisfied himself with a tranfient glance at a variety of topics, many

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