The four-footed beafts being routed, our fouls And, sweating and fwearing not quite half an hour, • A dozen of Ducks, in the flower of their age, (Each as fat and as plump as a bird in a cage) Came waddling to fuccour their chief, in the war; But, their courage and ftrength being near on a par, Their fuccour was naught-Them twelve ftriplings affail'd, And, wond'rous to mention, the ftriplings prevail'd. Three Turkies, (who formerly, in the baffe court, With the fenfe of a foldier and zeal of a priest: To infidel nations no mercy to fhew; Our forks with our left hands We therefore embrace, And plunge in the hearts of this infidel race; Whilft our bright-burnifh'd blades (in our right-hands of courfe) • Of Cocks and of Capons a numberless throng, I fay nothing of Partridges, Throfles and Larks, The fea-faring fishes came, next, into play; But, But, dragg'd from the waves, by fuperiour command, A Lobfler alone, in his panopoly fheath'd, I burn to encounter this infolent foe. Then wrapping my fift in a napkin, I rear'd Then ftruck at the Lobfter-and, at the fourth ftroke, Thus endede battle-but how fhall I tell What, after the battle was ended, befel? Not content with the plenteous provifions, that lay Bread, butter, potatoes, cole, cabbages, roots, Pears, oranges, apples, and all forts of fruits; . } Art. 30. A Sonnet, fuppofed to have been written by Mary Queen of Scots, to the Earl of Bothwell; previous to her Marriage with that Nobleman. Tranflated into Englifh. To which is fubjoined, a Copy of the French Sonnet, written, as it is faid, with the Queen's own Hand, and found in a Cafket, with other fecret Papers. 8vo. pp. 28. Is. Robinfons. 1790. The fonnet, of which a free verfion is here given, has been a fubject of much controverfy. Hume and Robertfon, with most of the hiftorians who preceded them, are of opinion, that it was compofed by the Queen, and written with her own hand. Mr. Whitaker confidently afcribes it to Buchanan, and afferts that it was compofed for the purpofe of corroborating Mary's fuppofed letters. The tranflator acknowleges he has little doubt of its being forged, but, at the fame اء fame time, he thinks it has fufficient merit, as a poetical production, to justify the labour that he has bestowed on it. The verses are certainly elegant and pathetic; and the tranflator, Mr. Shillito, has done juftice to them, by clothing the original ideas in harmonious English verfe. E. Art. 31. Juvenile Poems, with Remarks on Poetry, and a Differtation on the beft Method of punishing and preventing Crimes. By John Armstrong, Student in the University of Edinburgh. 12mo. PP.231. 2s. 6d. fewed. Johnfon. 1789. Thefe verfes were compofed between the thirteenth and eighteenth year of the author's age. The laft-mentioned period he completed only in the month in which he now writes.'This is, perhaps, a fufficient character of thefe trifles; which, confidered as exercifes, have fome merit: but to come before the public, is the part of an artist, not of a student. How fhould we laugh at a young painter, who should call us to an exhibition of his first rude sketches, before his hand was accustomed to the pencil! Ꮕ Art. 32. Sunday, a Poem. 4to. pp. 22. 1s. Dilly. 1790. Whether this be a fubject which is favourable to poetic embellishments, we will not decide: we are obliged, however, to fay, that in the prefent hands, it poffeffes nothing which can intereft us. NOVELS. Art. 33. Saint Julian's Abbey: in a Series of Letters. 12mo. A more agreeable familiar tale than the preceding: but worked fewed. Stalker. To give us variety, characters and fituations are here ftrained to extravagance and abfurdity. It is a moft piteous tale of two friends, each engaged in criminal amours, who communicate their proceed ings, ings, ftep by step; and at the fame time reprove and admonish each other to relinquish them, on moral principles. A vile woman, to whom one of them is an egregious dupe, at the fame time communicates her artifices, to her vicious affociates; and fhe fortifies herfelf in them, in a ftyle that fuch characters cannot use with confitency: for perfons in the career of profligacy and guilt, are not fo fentimental and fyftematical, as to write down their proceedings to diftant friends, and to argue with mental coolness: but this female is exhibited to us as a MONSTER in petticoats. At length, however, the principal characters of the drama are brought together, no matter how; and like the heroes in Tom Thumb, all fall by each other's hands, no matter why; and thus ends diftrefs upon distress! Art. 36. Charles Henley: or, the Fugitive Restored. 2 Vols. 55. fewed. Lane. N. 12mo. The restoration of this fugitive is much worfe than his first setting out. We would advise the manufacturers of novels to keep their heroes and heroines fafe on English ground; and not to venture them abroad, excepting to fome place where they have happened to travel themfelves, and with the country, manners, and cuftoms of which, they have fome little acquaintance: left they ex> pofe their ignorance to better informed readers. After all the labour which the writer has bestowed on the style of a jumble of improbabilities, he has worked it up, the latter part especially, into an affected kind of measured profe, that will be admired by no one but himfelf. It is not without the utmost disguft, alfo, that we view the prophanenefs of fome of thefe dealers in fiction, who prostitute the name of the Deity fo wantonly in their trifling compofitions. N. Art. 37. The Follies of St. James's Street. 12mo. 2 Vols. 55, fewed. Lane. This title does not fully exprefs the complexion of a performance, which is a natural fentimental tale, related in a pleafing manner, that certainly diftinguishes it from the before-mentioned groupe. The writer, who profeffes to be of the feminine gender, knows how to intereft, and to infinuate herfelf into her reader's good opinion, without having recourfe to those wonderful turns of good or ill luck, which novelifts always have ready at their elbows to introduce just when they are wanted; and which lofe all effect, excepting with giddy readers, who furrender their understanding to the flights of fancy. We bestow this commendation with fome reluctance, as we should be forry to encourage a pen, whether guided by a male or a female hand, to wander and fpend its ftrength in the wilds of ima gination, that might furely find more worthy employment: but if the author has introduced her own character into the work, under the name of Mifs Mortimer, and if novel writing is the only fpecies of literature that she has cultivated, we are induced to hope, either that the nabob whom the mentions, or fome other favourable turn, may rescue the pen which has pathetically traced the confequences of profligacy, from being worn down fo as to incur the animadverfion due to the fwarms of pernicious, or at beft, filly volumes, that load the fhelves of a circulating library. Art. N. Art. 38. Elegant Tales, Hiftories, and Epiftles of a Moral Tendency; on Love, Friendship, Matrimony, Conjugai Felicity, Jealousy, Conftancy, Magnanimity, Chearfulness, and other important Subjects. By the Author of Woman *; or Hiftorical Sketches of the Fair Sex. 12mo. PP. 480. 4s. fewed. Kearsley. 1791. This is a whofefale compiler, who cuts novels down to a proper hize, and then bundles them into a faggot, to warm the imaginations of his readers. As a meer collection for idle reading, this might pafs without farther notice: but when the pretenfions of this faggot maker rife higher, they claim a little examination. With due fentimental formality, he ufhers in his elegant tales,' in the following manner: • Productions of imagination, and genuine ftories, which tend to inculcate and illuftrate, as well as to exemplify morality, have always been well received by the public; while compofitions of a tontrary tendency, have been generally looked upon with juft indignation.' This is affirming too much; for a story may have a moral tendency, and be too worthless as a story, to bear reading on the credit of its moral or it may be very entertaining as a ftory, though cool reafon may difapprove its tendency. Add to this, agreeable tales have most frequently an equivocal tendency, depending on the temper and difpofition of the reader; the good picking out the good, and the bad selecting the bad, from every story; and the bad commonly fupplies the amusement. The greater part of the stories in this moral collection, turn, as most novels do, on the inclinations of children oppofing the views of their parents and guardians; and the entertainment arifes from the tricks which they practife to outwit and triumph over the old people. Have fuch tales a moral tendency, or have they not? That parents and guardians may fometimes be influenced by improper motives, is very true: but are fuch occafional instances to be accepted as a rule, or to be coufidered as exceptions to a rule? Is it moral thus to encourage children in oppofition to their parents, and best friends? The paflions need no fpur, and the turn of the scale ought to be given in favour of prudence, founded on experience and knowlege of the world: but to exhibit parents as always ftimulated by avarice, ambition, vanity, pique, and unfeeling obduracy, and children as prompted by laudable feelings, and virtuous fympathy, as is generally attempted, this may be most acceptable to youthful imaginations, but can never pass for moral inftruction. Novel writers may perhaps fay," thefe cynical critics tie us down fo "friftly, that we dopot know how to please them; what are we to do ?” To fuch a question, we shall reply, go, and fin no more; turn to more useful employment, and let not the rare fuccefs of two or three mafters in this fpecies of compofition, tempt you to fink into the lowest class of literary drudges, for poor pay, and public contempt. See Rev. for October last, p. 227. N. POLITICAL. |