Art. 10. The Amorous Friars; or, the Intrigues of a Convent. 12mo. 3s. Fleming. . This appears (as far as we can truft to our recollection of books we have not feen for many years) to be patched up from the well known Mafer-Key to Popery, the Intrigues of Priefts and Nuns, the Frauds of Monks, and fuch like anonymous trafh; of which many impreffions have been impofed on the credulity of the Public. Art. 11. The South-Sea Fortune; or, the Chaplain advanced to the Saddle. Containing the genuine private mentoirs of a worthy family in Glocestershire, from the fatal year 1720, to the year 1748. Written by Mrs. Richwould, one of the most interested parties. 12mo. 2 vols. 6s. Wren. This feems to be the mere caput mortuum of the whole tribe of the Devil Dicks, the Apparitions, the Peter Wilkins's, the John Daniel's, the Dog birds, and all that endless train of Memoirs, Adventures, and Hiftories, of which the teeming preffes of our modern Curls have been fo extremely fruitful, for fome years past. Art. 12. The Cloister; or, the Amours of Sainfroid, a Jesuit, and Eulalia, a Nun. 12mo. 3s. No Publisher's name. A Tranflation, from the French, of a narrative, which, in our apprehenfion, has neither truth nor genius to recommend it. Art. 13. The London Pocket-Book, for the year 1759. In twe parts. Part I. A Compendicus Memorandum-Book, properly divided, to answer the most common purposes in business for every day throughout the year. After which follow feveral ufeful tables, and an approved recipe for making writing-ink. Part II. A Common-place Book, with an Index, after the plan laid down by the celebrated Mr. Locke. Very useful for registering, in a methodical manner, any miscellaneous hints and obfervations which may occur to the mind, or are to be met with in reading, and which are often loft for want of a proper repofitory. The whole equally adapted to the purposes of the Gentleman and Tradefman. 8vo. Is. 6d. Henderfon, &c. The above needs no explanation. Art. 14. Angelica; or, Quixote in petticoats. A Comedy, in two acts. 8vo. 1 s. Printed for the Author. A wretched farce, borrowed from Mrs. Lenox's Female Quixote. But as the Author intimates, that his circumstances are as wre.ched as his writing, we fhall add no more, except an honest hint to this Quixote in literature, to betake himfelf to fome employment which PP 3 his his talents may be better adapted to, than they are for procuring a fubfiftence by the trade of book-making. Art. 15. An Account of the Tragedy of Cleone. 8vo. 6d. Cooper. It is customary for little fcribblers to catch at fuch opportunities as the exhibition of a new play; and they never fail to come out with fix pennyworth of fomething, bow and about the tragedy, or the comedy in hopes to pick up a few of the fuperfluous pence which the town is ufually difpofed to fcatter, with liberal hands, on thefe occafions. Of this fort is the account of Cleone, and it therefore deserves no farther mention. Art. 16. Cleone, a Tragedy. As it is acted at the Theatre-Royal, in Covent-garden. Written by R. Dodsley. 8vo. 1s. 6 d. Dodfley. This tragedy, which had been refufed by Mr. Garrick, one of the patentees of Drury-lane Theatre, was this month acted with great fuccefs, at the other Houfe; whence fome have been led to question the judgment of the great Actor and Manager who declined it. But as it is not our business to attempt a difcuffion of that point, we shall only obferve, that Mr. Dodfley's piece is not, upon the whole, in our opinion, inferior to any that have been brought upon either Stage, for fome years paft. At the fame time, however, impartiality obliges us to add, that we imagine Cleone is greatly indebted for its fuccefs, to the exquifite performance of Mrs. Bellamy, who played the character which gives name to the tragedy. Mr. Rich's corps is not at prefent very strong; and till the prefent performance was brought on, it was generally thought impoffible for a new play to meet with a fair chance at his Theatre. But, to the furprize of moft people, the event, in the present inftance, has fhewn, that the connoiffeurs were mistaken and now the ice is broke, it is probable, that other poetical adventurers may bring their cargoes to the fame port, Cleone is ushered in by a prologue, written by the ingenious Mr. Melmoth, Author of a justly admired tranflation of Pliny, and fuppofed Writer of a volume of excellent letters, published under the feigned name of Fitzofborne. The epilogue is faid to be the production of Mr. Shenftone, whofe poetical performances have entitled him to a place in the firft rank of the few British bards who do honour to the present time. The tragedy itself is founded on the old legend of St. Genevieve' written originally in French, and tranflated into English, about 100 years ago, by Sir William Lower, For this information we are obJiged to the Author's advertisement; wherein he alfo tells us, that he thewed his firft plan to Mr. Pope, fo long ago as two or three years before the death of that great Poet, who told him, that in his very Vid. DodЛley's Mifcellanies. early early youth, he attempted a tragedy on the fame fubject, which he afterwards burnt; and that it was Mr. Pope who advised Mr. Dodfley to extend his plan to five acts. The fuffrage of this great man was certainly enough to give a fanction to the defign; and we are therefore not to wonder that the Author of Cleone, who is really a modest man, should think fo well of his performance, after it had received his utmoft finishing, as to prefume it worthy of public exhibition; and so it undoubtedly is, as modern plays go. It will not, however, ftand in competition with thofe of Otway, Hughes, Smith, and other tragic writers of the 17th and the beginning of the prefent century not to mention higher names, which would be a kind of prophanation. Cleone is, in fhort, a decent performance. It is equally free from the bombaft and rant of a Barbaroffa, and from the flowery whine and romantic foftnefs of a Philoclea; but at the fame time it wants the majesty of diction, and high reach of thought, (as the ingenious Author of VIRTUE, a poem, expreffes it) effential to the dignity of a perfect tragedy. The plot is too thin, the scenes are too barren of incidents, (at least of important ones) and the language, in general, too much, though not altogether, deftitute of poetry. Nevertheless, we have obferved fome happy expreffions, and ftriking fentiments, which do honour to the Author, and, we believe, faved his play. In a word, take it for all in all, we have not feen its like for fome winters paft, and probably shall not see it excelled for fome. feafons to come. Art. 17. The Rout. The Rout. A Farce of two acts, as it is performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury-lane. 8vo. Is. Cooper. The fillieft and moft abfurd of all farces. What the Author, and the Manager, could mean, by prefuming to bring fuch ribaldry before an audience, we are at a lofs to conceive. The former, indeed, who advertises himself a person of honour, may, perhaps, be thought fomewhat excufable, as not being bred to the trade of writing; but we fhould be glad to hear what can be urged in excufe for the latter's thus daring to affront the understanding and taste of the public! We' do not find that he has yet offered any apology for himself; but surely every person who paid for feeing this nonfenfe, (if we may use the expreffion) has a right to expect it. Art. 18. A Letter of Confolation to Dr. Shebbeare. 8vo. Is. Cabe. Some friend to the government has here collected various inftances of the severity with which state-libellers were punished, in the reigns of Dr. Shebbeare's favourites, the Stuarts; in order, by a comparative view, to shew the Doctor, how much reafon he has to congratulate himself, that he lives in the milder and happier days of a Brunfwick; under whom he has been fo tenderly dealt with, for infinitely more heinous offences than thofe for which Lilburn, Leighton, Prynne, Batwick, and Burton, (with many others, whofe ftories are here enumerated) fo dreadfully fuffered. PP 4 O Shebbeare! fays the Letter-writer,thank God, that the times are altered, and that thou liveft not in the times thou fo highly commendet; but in that reign thou fo bitterly revileft,' p.11And again, p. 12. after enumerating the enormous cruelty of Mr. Leighton's fentence for writing against epifcopacy, he thus apoftrophifes: Rejoice, O Shebbeare! that thou liveft in a reign, in which fuch cruelty is unknown. If thou prefereft fuch an admi. niftration to the mild, the gentle government under which we live, thy nose unflit, thy face undeformed,-thy ears which still remain on thy head, and thy back ftill untern by cruel ftripes, will witnefs thine ingratitude. He thus concludes Rejoice then in the lenity of thy fate, and be not caft down, O Shebbeare! Give way to the joy of thine heart, and be filled with confolation. Put away bigotry, a love of flavery, and of flave-makers. Deteft the memory of thofe ty⚫rants who have ruled with a rod of iron, and love those princes who have been, and those who are still, the patrons of liberty, the fa⚫thers of their country, and the friends of mankind. May thy breast be filled with wifdom and integrity, and may truth and candour, fweeter than honey or the honey-comb, flow from thy lips and thy pen; then fhall thy breath be as fragrant as the spicy breezes of • Arabia, and the odious fmell of flander, defamation, and falfhood fhall be forgotten. Then fhall fafety and peace compafs thy steps, and all thy difgraces, and all thy follies, be hid in oblivion." He was fined 10,000l. befides whipping, branding, nofe flitting, ear-cropping, and perpetual imprisonment. Shebbeare's fine was but 51. with only three years imprisonment. Art. 19. An Account of a Stone, in the poffeffion of the right banourable the earl of Stafford; which, on being watered, produces excellent mushrooms. With the hiftory of the folithos, or violet flone of the Germans. By John Hill, M.D. Illuftrated with Figures. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Baldwin. The Lapis Fungifer, or mushroom-fione, of which we have hitherto, according to Dr. Hill, had but an imperfect account, is most frequently produced among the Piedmont hills. That in the poffeffion of lady Stafford, from which the Doctor borrows his description, is a hard heavy mafs, of an irregular fhape, and granulated furface, like fhagreen leather: on examination, it appears to be composed of a loole, gritty, talky fubftance, the interfices of which are every where penetrated, and its outfide covered with a tough, fungous production. This production is the perennial root of a peculiar fpecies of mushrooms, different from, and greatly fuperior to, the common kind: it is permanent and full of vegetable life, and requires this porous ftone as a nidus, or place of growth, as others do the ftumps of trees, whence it is ready to shoot up perfect mushrooms by the affiftance of moisture. This account of the mushroom ftone, which is extremely probable, the Doctor illuftrates and confirms with analogous inftances, drawn from other vegetable productions, particularly the Agarics.The mushroom produced from the ftone here defcribed weighed no lefs than one pound two ounces, and measured fix inches and a quarter on the head. The Dotor alfo takes notice of the violet-ftone, or Lapis Violaceus of the German naturalifts, and which he fuppofes a fimilar production with the foregoing. There are fcattered throughout this piece fome obfervations on mushrooms in general, and on fome of the particular fpecies, which, to readers who delight in fuch kind of fubjects, may perhaps prove not unentertaining. The whole is illuftrated by two engravings; the firft reprefents, the mushroomftone, with a piece of it magnified, and alfo the violet-flone.-In the other is exhibited a figure of the mushroom itself. Art. 20. An Effay on the art of preaching, addreffed to the clergy. By Anthony Moore, A. B. Vicar of Stratton in Cornwall. 8vo. I s. 6d. Cave. It is somewhat odd, that this teacher of teachers should crave the courtesy of his readers, who may be supposed to be his pupils, by intreating their favourable judgment of this effay,-the work of a "young divine; and, therefore to be read with fome grains of allowance, as he expreffes himself in his preface. If he has a claim to indulgence, on account of his youth, that very plea difqualifies him for the high office he has affumed. At first fight, it appeared to us extremely abfurd, for a man to fet up as a mafter, a judge, a dictator, with the fneaking air of a Tyro; and we could not help fufpecting from thence, that the apologist himself might be yet to learn 1 the art in which he undertakes the inftruction of others. Confiftently with what was to be expected from this fumble at the threshold, we find the poem itself, in the main, an injudicious affemblage of incoherent fentiments, ill judged precepts, and indifferent poetry. Not but that Mr. Moore has fome jufl thoughts, and paffable verfes; but his defects are fo difproportionately numerous, that we are at a lofs to conceive how the Author had the courage to attempt fo exalted a fubject, and to publish with fo bold and felf-fufficient a title. However, that our readers may be able, in fome measure, to judge for themselves, concerning the merits of this young preceptor, we fhall give them an extract from that part of his performance, in which he characterises those divines whom he propofes as models for the imitation of young preachers. Great Stillingfleet is copious, clear, and full, In pious minds, devotion and delight. Collier is ftrong, and his expreffion warm, Norris is full, and his conception clear, Fleetwood's |