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MISCELLANIES.

ART. XXVIII. Critical Remarks on Pizarro, a Tragedy, taken from the German Drama of Kotzebue, and adapted to the English Stage, by Richard Brinley Sheridan. With incidental Obfervations on the Subject of the Drama. By Samuel Argent Bardfley, M. D. 8vo. PP. 48. Cadell and Davies. London. 1800.

THESE een the well-written "Critique on Pizarro,"

HESE remarks, we are affured by the author, were written

reviewed in our Number for Nov. 1799, and we recommend it to every purchafer of Mr. Sheridan's play, to bind up the two tracts with it, that the Reader may fay, with Cato, "The bane and antidote are both before me." Dr. Bardfley enters into a regular analyfis of this unjuftly-celebrated drama, in the following order. 1. The fable; and the compofition, or arrangement, of the incidents. 2. The characters and manners. 3. The fentiments. 4. The style. 5. The moral. Each of these subjects is difcuffed with much critical ability, with great judgment, and with the ut most candour. As we confider the laft as the most important of the whole, we shall extract his observations on the moral.

"It certainly would be uncandid, if not unjust, to impute to the author of this drama, a fixed defign of exalting natural, to an equality with revealed, religion. But I am convinced, from his manner of contrafting the characters, and conduct of the Peruvians and Spaniards, that fuch an effect is likely to be produced. The exalted notions of religion and morality, fo uniformly characterizing the manners and conduct of the Peruvians, and which are fo ftudioufly placed in oppofition to the bafe, bloody, and atrocious actions and fentiments of the principal characters of the Spaniards, confirm the truth of this remark. There lurks fomething infidious in that fentiment of Rolla in his Addrefs to Pizarro. I thought forgiveness of injuries had been the Chriftian's precept, thou seest it is the Peruvian's practice." For it has been proved that the Peruvians were tainted with grofs fuperftitions of a barbarous nature; and hiftory farther bears teftimony, that the life of a brother was facrificed by Ataliba, from motives of ambition and supposed perfonal fafety. When the Peruvian Cacique intreats Heaven to par don and turn his murderers' hearts, he not only borrows Christian precepts, but follows the Chriftian example. Why thus violate hiftoric probability? What motive can we afflign for the attempt to demonftrate, that the religion and morality of the Peruvians were equal, if not fuperior, to the lights of revealed religion? But it may be faid, that the virtues of Las Cafas and Alonzo exhibit such exalted proofs of the excellence of the Chriftian doctrines, as to juftify this author in fo ftrongly contrafting his characters. It is true they form a fplendid exception to the general charge: Yet, fomething like distributive justice should have been observed in his con

duct

duct towards the two nations. The Peruvians are elevated above the rest of mankind: the Spaniards degraded below the scale of humanity.

"If any nation (in other respects nearly barbarous) had attained fuch juft and refined notions of piety and morals, as the Peruvians are represented to be endowed with; it would have been right and even inftructive to have pourtrayed fuch striking and important facts. But a people fo circumftanced have not appeared upon our globe. It is, therefore, to falfify the hiftory of the human mind and character, to represent such phænomena as having had exiftence. The frequent and folemn appeals to the Deity introduced in this play, deserve fevere reprehenfion. They tend to leffen that habitual reverence for the fupreme Being, which ought always to be cherished, and they are opposed to all the principles of good writing and taste. It is an easy matter to fupply the want of fentiment, and force of expreffion, by invoking the name of the Deity. Our cuftomary affociation of every thing striking and awful with that name excites a powerful emotion in the mind, and thus elevates and impreffes a fentiment which would otherwise have fallen lifeless from the fpeaker's lips. But let it be remembered, that habit deftroys the force of this affociation; and that when the affociated idea becomes familiar, the fentiment finks into its own infignificancy, and ceases to affect even vulgar minds, though it ftill continues to disgust those of the more rational and enlightened.

"The character of Elvira is calculated to attract more admiration and esteem, than is confiftent with a just sense of female decorum and virtuous fenfibility. She is not qualified for a tragic heorine. Her departure from the ftrict rules of female chastity and refined delicacy, is too grofs to be palliated by a fhew of half-ftifled repentance, lofty fentiment, and energy of character. The heroic actions of Rolla arife from motives fo romantic, and are fraught with fo much danger to found morals, as to be better calculated to excite admiration than to ferve for example. A platonic affection for youth and beauty in the other fex may not be problematic with many; but I will venture to maintain, that the open avowal of Rolla's paffion, (however fublime) for Cora, who was become a wife and mother, (characters facred in the estimation of all who reverence the most important inftitution of civilized life) is a profanation of legitimate fentiment, and ought not to have been affigned as the great exciting cause of all that hero's atchievements.

"To fum up the character of the drama.-It must be confidered as poffeffing many faults, with fome beauties. When compared with the excellent dramatic works of our beft writers, its pretenfions are too feeble to be worthy of notice. It fuffers even by comparison with some of modern date. Its chief defects are, a violation of all historic probability; a want of connection and coincidence in the plot; a diction unfuitable to the genius of tragic compofition in our language; little attention to the prefervation of confiftency in the characters and manners; and, finally, the moral is tarnished by unjust views of human nature. Its beauties confift

chiefly

chiefly in pathetic fentiment, and energetic declamation; an attention to dramatic fituation and stage effect; and, last, though not leaft, a difplay of theatrical pomp in the adventitious decorations of fong, proceffions, and fcenery.*

ART. XXIX. The Lisbon Guide; containing Directions to Invalids who vifit Lifbon; with a Defcription of the City, and Tables of the Corn, Weights, and Meafures of Portugal. 8vo. PP. 68.

Johnfon. 1800.

2s.

THIS Guide contains nothing that is new, much that is fuperfluous, and little that is ufeful. The ufeful part of it, indeed, occupies but a third part of the book, and might, very easily, have been compreffed into a fix-penny pamphlet. We are told, that, notwithstanding the precautions adopted by the Portugueze government to prevent the introduction of French principles into the country, there is reafon to believe that the modern opinions of that nation have long fince found their way to the university of Coimbra, from which copious fource they have been diffused to (over) all parts of the kingdom. The works of Rouffeau, Voltaire, and Mirabeau, have been circulated in manufcript, and are now familiar to moft of the students." If this be true, it only adds one to the numerous proofs which Europe has had of the indefatigable perfeverance and unceasing activity of the Jacobins.

12mo.

ART. XXX. Amusing and inftructive Conversations for Children of five Years. From the French of the Abbé Gaultier. PP. 180. 2s. Weft and Hughes. 1800.

THE difficult end of blending amusement with inftruction is here happily attained, and thanks are due to the translator for giving an English drefs to this useful production of the Abbé Gaultier, who is himself entitled to great commendation for having devoted his talents to fo falutary a purpose. The novelty of the very ingenious plan devised for the amufement of children, is well calculated to excite in them a defire to learn, and to accelerate their progress in the acquifition of grammatical knowledge. More need not be faid in its favour.

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* "Yet this play appears to me, with regard to mufic and scenic decoration, fplendidly infipid. We may poffefs, (as was obferved by a critic thirty years ago on the dramatic productions of that period) the robes and proceffions of tragedy, but want her roufing and animated fpirit. Indeed, as Foote has obferved in his occafional prologue, Tailors are deemed the only poets now,' and we may add, that Carpenters and scene painters are the only actors for bringing full houses; but this will ever be the cafe till public tafte and fpirit throw juft and neceflary contempt on fuch frippery exhibitions as nature and reafon mutually blush at." DRAMATIC CENSOR.

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ART.

ART. XXXI. The Art of teaching the Orthography, Accent, and Pronunciation of the English Language by Imitation. Containing a great Variety of illuftrative Remarks: with prefatory Obfervations on Syllabication, or the Divifion of Words into Syllables in which that Syftem, as taught by the ancient, and fome modern, Grammarians, is proved to be founded on erroneous Principles, which entirely defeat their own object. By John Robinson. 12mo. Pr. '60. 1s. Vernor and Hood. 1800.

THE mode prescribed, by Mr. Robinson for facilitating the means of teaching youth the orthography, accent, and pronunciation of the language, is the adoption of a different divifion of words into fyllables from that now in use, by regulating the divi fion by the pronunciation; as, for inftance, inftead of dividing the word balance, as we now divide it, thus, ba-lance, he propofes to divide it thus, bal-ance, as it is pronounced; and fo with all other words. The reasons which he adduces for this propofed alteration are certainly cogent; the principle on which he proceeds is fimple and juft, and, as he has had an opportunity of fubmitting his theory to the teft of experience, which has demonftrated its advantages, it may fafely be recommended to general use.

ART. XXXII. The Angler's Pocket-Book, or Complete Angler= containing every thing neceffary in that Art. To which is prefixed Nobbs's celebrated Treatife on the Art of Trolling. 8vo. Pr. 108. Weft and Hughes. 1800.

THIS book, as far as we can judge of it, who are no anglers, appears to contain every neceffary direction for those who are fond of the amusement of angling.

OUR

REVIEWERS REVIEWED.

ART. XXXIII. Pratt's Gleanings in England.

(Concluded from P. 80. Vol. V.)

UR mode of travelling, and the accommodation at our inns, are happily contrafted with those of foreign countries, in the fourth and fifth letters. "How fhall I gain credit from my Con. tinental friends in general, though you, I know, will rely upon the fidelity of my report, when I delire those who have been accuftom. ed to the fickly movements of the reluctant wheel over German leagues of absorbing fand, where man, beaft, and machine, to heavily are they moved along, appear to be alike torpid: pardon me, my friend, how fhall I dare even to ask fuch to believe, that an Englifhman may take his feat at nine o'clock in the evening, in a common public vehicle of this country, profoundly atmospherical and conftitutionally.

conftitutionally faturnine as we have been deemed, and be rolled, boundingly, over the almoft velvet furface of one hundred miles by the corresponding hour of the morning? And that, in comparison of the Dutch, Perfian or German ftages, almoft without being fenfible of any motion at all? The warmth, the neatness, the attention, the attendance at an English inn; the propreté of the apartments, the cleanliness of the food, the polish of the furniture, of the plates, and of the glaffes, thefe will always ftrike you, and not unfrequently, the elegance of the rooms and the fplendor of the accommodation. Englishmen are so much in the habit of seeing these things in all parts of this country, with very few exceptions indeed, that they are fcarcely feen at all; or noticed only by the indignant manner in which we mark the exceptions: a dirty, difgufting inn, fitted up for les gens comme il faut, being as rare to be met on English ground, as it is common on the Continent. There, indeed, we occafionally fee a difmantled castle, or dilapidated chateau degraded to a cheerleis roadfide public-house, where men, horfes, hogs, and other cattle, stable, stall, and ftye, on the fame floor; and, to fay truth, the beaft has often the beft birth. Huge rooms, beds fhabbily fumptuous, a kind of majesty in tatters, long chill paffages, damp floors, high dingy cielings, and unwieldy figures in tapestry, where the fpider, as in mockery, drawing Kings and warriors into his web, fits brooding his venom in the ruined face of a Princefs, or makes his den on the bofom of a Queen in decay."

We read the fixth letter with very great pleafure; though, when we confider that the portrait of the beautiful Sophia is that of a child, we incline to think that the painter has too highly coloured it. Still the letter which contains this highly-coloured picture, is unquestionably one of the best written in the volume. Yet is it one of those which the arch-critic afferts " any person might write who would take the trouble of tranflating common thoughts into a roundabout, fentimental, book language." Query, Is this fheer ignorance or determined malignity?

But the Hydra PARTY! Ah," there's the rub." Our author defcants with the enthusiasm of fenfibility, and of a lover of his country, on the various benefits and beauties of his native land! The English gleaner has formed a golden fheaf upon English ground; and, therefore, the democratical critic fets forth that "Mr. Pratt gleans every thing, weeds as well as corn, to make up his 'bundle." Immediately after which remark, the faid cenfor tells us, "A brief hiftory of Norfolk is followed by a long barangue on the peculiar happiness of being born an Englishman!" and immediately preceding this fine republican taunt, we are given to understand a panegyric upon English Inns, contributes to fwell the volume." The "head and front" of our author's offence, then, is obviously the very thing which will recommend him to every loyal and liberal heart! but how fhall the defenders and believers of the new political creed forgive the writer whofe popularity would be likely to diffuse over the island sentiments like those which follow?

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