A Congratulatory Epifile to his Grace the Duke of Portland, on his Know! fhould for ev'ry hair profusely spread Their great diftrefs has ftomach for them all.' New Defcription of Blenheim, the Seat of his Grace the Duke of Marlborough. To which is prefixed, Blenheim, a Poem. A new, and much improved Edition. 8vo. 35. 6d. in Boards. Cadell. We gave a favourable account of this poem in vol. LXIII. p. 218. It is now revifed and enlarged, as is the defcription of Blenheim and its environs. The latter is too much in the high flown panegyric ftyle:' but will afford entertainment, and prove of service to those who choose to vifit that noble monument, notwithstanding all its defects, of national gratitude. The Guinea Voyage. A Poem, in three Books. By James Field Stanfield. 4to. 25. Phillips. More feeling than genius or judgment is difcoverable in this poem. Some paffages are not devoid of poetic fire, but it in general either emits a dim uncertain light, or flashes at intervals through furrounding clouds of fuftian and bombaft. The following lines, in which these marks are extremely difcernible, are characteristic of the whole performance: O could the verfe but to my wishes move, No fpicy zephy's borne on wings of love, No gentle pinions, fanning fpring-tide air, Should give one image, or be mentioned here. Thy black Tornado, ill-ar'd Afric-thineShould be the model of my varied line! On the ftill diction of the mournful strain, The rifing darknets fhould profufely reign: The fable cloud fhould wrap the fullen fong, And in grand melancholy tweep along: Then, by degrees, with gath'ring horror fraught, Tempestuous numbers, and the electric thought,. Shake the big thunder-dart th' indignant beamTill the full torrent pour'd the headlong ftream, Whelm'd ev'ry burfting breaft in tw..fold ire, Grief's melting fhow'r-and indignation's fire.' The first book confiders the voyage to Africa: the fecond the tranfictions M 4 transactions there, and the third the return of the vessel to the British colonies. The plan is fomewhat fimilar to that of Mr. Jamiefon's, mentioned in our Review for last June, p. 468, but The incidents are different: we have, however, in general, had the principal part of the fubject and most interciting circumftances over and over again, both in profe and poetry. Expoftulatory Odes to a great Duke, and a little Lord. By Peter Pindar, Efq. 4to. 2s. 6d. Kearfley." We fear that Peter's genius is repreffed by the terrors of the law, and he fings with Hob, The terrible law, when it faftens its paw,' &c. for the Expoftulatory Odes to a little Lord and a great Duke," who are faid to have examined his poems, with a defign of proving fome parts of them a libel, are evidently written with unufual constraint. The greater number are trifling and infipid, though Peter's fpirit occafionally emerges with fome luftre, We are forry to obferve, that we do not find it fo difficult as ufual to felect a fpecimen; there are but three paffages adapted for our purpofe; we fhall prefer what appears to us the best. It is part of his Apology; Tomine, Charles Churchill's rage was downright rancour, He was a first-rate man of war to me, Thund'ring amidst a high tempeftuous fea; I'm a fmall cockboat bobbing at an anchor; Playing with patereroes that alarm, Yet feorn to do a bit of harm. My fatire's blunt-his boafted a keen edge A fugar hammer mine-but his a blackfmith's fledge! My humour of a very diff'rent fort is They two enormous jugs of aqua fortis. - He tickles only-how can he do more, Whofe only inftrument's a feather?' We hope he will foon recover from this panic; for genius like his fhould not be kept in fetters, DRA DRAMATIC. Falfe Appearances, a Comedy, altered from the French; and performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury-laue. By the Right Hon. General Conway. 8vo. Is. 6d. Debrett. This comedy is a tranflation of the Dehors Trompeurs' of M. Boiffy with the addition of an under-plot. It was originally acted at Richmond-houfe; and afterwards, with the fcenes which relate to the abbé, at Drury-lane. The play, like other very genteel comedies, is infipid; and, even the new fcenes, from the character of an abbé being fo little understood, lofe much of their poignancy. It is an exotic which bears not our climate, and will fcarcely flourish in our fhort northern fummers. The Farm Houfe, a Comedy, in Three As, as altered by J. P. Kemble, and firft acted at the Theatre Royal, Drury-lane, May 1, 1789. Svo. Is. Debrett. Mr.Kemble fhould have told us that this pleafing little afterpiece confifted of the rural fcenes of that excellent comedy, the Country Laffes, or the Custom of the Manor; but there is fo much comic humour in the other parts, fo little (a few indecorums excepted) we could wish to blot, that we cannot eafily reconcile ourselves to this mutilation. As three farces are now often in the evening's bill of fare, perhaps Mr. Kemble found the stock-lift infufficient, and as he is now engaged in the employment of his fciffars, it may be of ufe to obferve, that King Lear and Hamlet, by only omitting the tragic parts, might furnifh, The Cavern, or the Humours of Mad Tom,' and a pleafant entertainment of "The Grave Diggers.' The Married Man. A Comedy, in Three Acts. From Le Philofophe Marié of M. Nericault Deftouchés. As performed at the Theatre Royal, Hay-Market, By Mrs. Inchbald. Svo. 15. 6d. Robinfo. This play is faid to be taken from the Philofophe Marié of M. Deftouches; but, in its plot and many of its minuter incidents, it greatly refembles The Married Philofopher, a comedy by a gentleman of the Temple (perhaps Henry Fielding), of which the fecond edition, that now lies before us, was print ed in 1732. The Married Philofopher was taken, it is remarked, from the Gallic stage,' where, as we fufpect from the prologue, it had the additional ornaments of mufic and fongs; to fill up the space, the gentleman of the Temple seems to have added the characters of Pinwell and Bruf, meagre copics of Tom and Phillis. If M. Deftouches' play is modern, as we fufpect, Mrs. Inchbald has become, though innocently, the receiver of ftolen goods. It is enough, however, for us to obferve, that the Married Man' is pleafing and interesting in its conduct, while, from its length and uniform tenor, it is well fuited to the fhort evenings and the warm weather of the Haymarket feafon. The The Sentimental Mother, a Comedy, in Five Als: the Legacy of an Old Friend, and his laft Moral Leon to Mrs. Hefter Lynch Thrale, now Mrs. Piozzi. 8vo. 35. Ridgway. It is not difficult to divine, even from the title, who the Sentimental Mother' is; but, if the infinuations are true, we pity the lady; if falfe, we deteft the calumniator. At any rate, the public is an improper tribunal to be appealed to in this form, and we are always more ready to fuppofe that private malice dictates the scandal, than that it flows from a genuine love of virtue. Don Juan; or, The Libertine Deftroyed: a Tragic Pantomimical Entertainment, in two Acts, as performed at the Royalty Theatre. Svo. 6d. Stalker. A tale which, whether true or falfe, fact or fable, has furnished every Chriftian country in the world, I believe, with fome fubject of reprefentation.' This is Mrs. Piozzi's account of Don Juan in Italy, and we fhall inlift the lady into our corps, by not adding a word to what he has advanced in the enfuing paragraph. It makes me no fport, however; the idea of an impertinent finger going to hell is too feriously terrifying to make amufement out of it. Let mythology, which is now grown good for little elfe, be danced upon the ftage; where Mr. Veftris may bounce and struggle in the character of Alcides on his funeral pile, with no very glaring impropriety; and fuch baubles ferve befide to keep old claffical flories in the heads of our young people; who, if they must have torches to blaze in their eyes, may divert themfelves with Pluto catching up Ceres's daughter, and diving her away to Tartarus; but let Don Juan alone. I have at least half a notion that the horrible history is half true; if fo, it is furely very grofs to reprefent it by dancing. Should fuch falfe foolish tafte prevail in England (but I hope it will not), we might perhaps go happily through the whole book of God's Revenge againit Murder, or the Annals of Newgate, on the stage, as a variety of pretty ftories may be found there of the fame caft; while ftatues of Hercules and Minerva, with their infignia as heathen deiies, might be placed, with equal attention to religion, coftume, and general fitnefs, as decorations for the monuments of Westminster Abby.' Remarks on the Nature of Pantomime, or imitative Dance, an• cient and modern; with a particular Account of a favourite Ballet, and of a very curious Allegory. 8vo. 15. 6d. Stock dale. The ferious pantomime was not uncommon on the Roman ftage, where the reciter and the actor were often two diftinét perfons. Even fopus and Rofcius, the tragic and comic heroes of antiquity, were fuppofed chiefly to excel in gefticulation. ་ Que gravis Efopus, quæ dotus Rofcius egit.' Perhaps Pope, in his dry encomium on Betterton, had a fim.lar qualification in view: Which Betterton's grave action dignified.' Our own Garrick, when he defcribed the fudden grief and terror of the father (whofe child had sprung from his arms and was immediately drowned), by action, to thofe who did not underftand his language, appeared to be a master in that art. We have been also informed, that he fometimes fent away difagreeable petitioners, by affuming the terrific in its most violent degree. But we are wandering from the subject, viz. the Ballet of Cupid and Pfyche, which, with a little ingenuity, might be turned into the fail of Adam; while a fpiritual allegorifer must in the conclufion fee the restoration of mankind. For our own parts, we perceive an elegant fable, whofe outline is obvious, but whose particular and ifoteric meaning we fhall perhaps never underftand. The work feems to have been written to recommend this dance, which has now yielded to other novelties. The introductory obfervations, which fhow learning and tafte, are connected a little unaccountably with the recommendation of a stage-dance. The author of the first would, we should have thought, fcarcely have condefcended to become the puffer of M. Noverre. Alfred, an Hiftorical Tragedy. To which is added, a Collection of Mifcellaneous Poems. By the fame Author. Robinfons. 800. 45. The tragedy of Alfred abounds with abfurdities; at which, as we have been led to fuppofe that it is the performance of an 'untaught mufe,' we were not much furprifed. We confess, however, that we were greatly fo at perceiving an elegance. and neatness in fome of the leffer poems, which would have done no difcredit to a writer of the greatest eminence. They are not indeed strictly correct. Rudely' and unhided' in the following little jeu d'efprit may be objected to: the first rather conveys a wrong idea, the fecond is an aukward word; yet the thought and expreffion in moft other refpects ftrike us as equallv happy. The lines are addreffed to a lady called Maria, on reading to her Sterne's beautiful flory of that name. As Sterne's pathetic tale you hear, Does |