THE Lady's Magazine; For APRIL, 1796. ACCOUNT of the PLAY of VORTIGERN, reprefented at the THEA TRE ROYAL, DRURY LANE, oz SATURDAY April 2. HIS piece was faid to have been fcripts in the poffeffion of Mr. Ireland, and fuppofed to have been written by the immortal Shakespeare. The attention of the public could not therefore fail to be greatly excited by the difcovery, and interefted in the question of its authenticity. It has at length been left to a British audience, fond even to enthufiafm of their national poet, to decide, from their feelings, whether, as a drama, it was conceived in the energetic fpirit of our Shakespeare,whether it was a pofthumous garland to be hung over his facred grave, or a baftard fcion, which impofture would fain graft on the stock of credulity. The verdict of a numerous and difcriminating audience was decidedly against its legitimacy. They heard with candour, and expected with ungratified attention. Their decifion was in the end as abfolute as it must be irrevocable. ́ Conftantius, an aged king of the Of a production to which the pub- Britons, weary of the cares of golic notice has been long and arti-vernment of his kingdom, in an afcially attracted, it will be expected fembly of the barons, furrenders a moiety U 2 of the Britons and Saxons. Hengift is flain-Rowena poifons herfelf; and Vortigern, engaging in fingle combat with Aurelius, is difarmed, and faved by the interpofition of Flavia. Aurelius efpoufes Flavia; and thus the piece concludes. From this sketch it will appear, moiety of his crown to Vortigern, one of his favourite chieftains. Vortigern, with feigned reluctance, yields to his commands, but is no fooner inducted into power, than, giving a loose to his ambition, he refolves on the death of Conftantius, and employs two wretches to effect his purpofe. Imputing the mur-that the writer of the piece, whoder to fome Scots then at court, he caufes them to be apprehended, and dispatches meffengers to Aurelius and his brother, then at Rome, urging their return, to ease him off the anxious task of ruling; fending at the fame time his hired bravoes to affaffinate them on their return. The adherents of the late king, violently fufpe&ing Vortigern to have been guilty of his murder, convey intelligence of this defign to the two young princes, who land in Scotland. Their caufe is there warm. ly efpoufed, and a large force marched against Vortigern, who applies to Hengift king of the Saxons. Hengift, with a confiderable body of Saxons, comes to his affiftance. Aurelius is violently in love with Flavia, the daughter of Vortigern, who, with her brother Pafcentius, efcapes to the Scottish army on the borders. A battle is fought. Vortigern is victorious.-Hengift conceives the defign of becoming maiter of the kingdom by means of his beautiful daughter Rowena, whom he introduces to Vortigern at a banquet in celebration of the victory. ever he may be, has ufed all the licence which Shakespeare himself could claim. The unities of time and place are difregarded; the scene is now in Britain and then at Rome; but the breach of rule is made without atonement. The fcenes are changed, it is true, but all are equally barren. The writer travels to no purpofe, and is accompanied by no intereft. There is nothing like creative fancy, nothing of fervid defcription, nothing of that "lacid order" which the mind of Shakefpeare could impart even to the moft chaotic fcenes. There is nothing, in fact, but what either the infancy or dotage of Shakespeare must have difdained-there is nothing like himself. We are reminded, it is true, of the fcenes and language of Shake fpeare; but the recollection is excited only by approximate fituations, and by a bald imitation of his dia lect. Thus, Vortigern, in the first act, and after the murder of the king, is no other than Macbeth.— Flavia, her brother, and the fool, are taken from "As you like it;" Vortigern becomes violently eua- and Vortigern in the laft act is Richmoured; and though his queen wasard III. itimulated by his conftill living, who had been driven to fcience, and weighed down by his madness by his ill treatment, he in-defpair. If every other evidence Gantly declares her queen of England. This irritates his own fons, as well as the barons: and Vortigern having ordered confiderable largeffes to be given to the foldiers, in the donation of which the latter affert right to have been confulted, they go over to the party of the princes, who are enabled, in their turn, to atrack and defeat the combined forces could never have defcended to repro a were as ftrongly in favour of this play, as it is decifively against it, we could never believethat Shakespeare could borrow fo vilely from himfelf!-He, who "Exhaufted worlds, and then crc duce duce the creatures of his own fancy under a thin and flimfy difguife. But it is the defects and not the beauties of Shakespeare, which have been caught up by the falfe taste of his imitator.-Many a page has been wafted to vindicate the line in Macbeth, "His filver skin laced with his golden blood." Mr. Ireland, or Mr. Ireland's journeyman, improves on the falfehood and abfurdity of this metaphor. When Vortigern hands his fword to his friend, and orders him to plunge it in his heart, a fituation inftantly taken from that of Antony and Ventidius, the latter replies in terms like the following: "Were every drop to fall a gem, When we comment on fome other abstract paffages in this play, we do it with full recollection of an ingenious critique which appeared fome years fince on Othello, uppofing it to be produced as a modern play. It intimates, that the burft of indignation, "Oh damn "Oh damn her! damn her!" would outweigh and fink the other merits of that piece. But however plaufible this fuppofition may be and though the falfe refinement of this day may reject what is in nature, and therefore admiffible at all times-there is a line to be drawn between the yulgar and the abfurd. The former is as variable as tafte;-the latter is as determinable as truth. As inftances of the vulgar, it is poffible that Shakespeare might have fait that his hero "would not budge" or that he would not die in-a-doors full ftomach'd" or even defire "his enemics to follow him to bell."-This Shakespeare might have done, though he certainly did The modernisms," if fo they may be termed, are innumerable. The word "crifis" occurs more than once,- -a word, we will boldly affirm, never ufed by Shakespeare. The phrafe of liquid forrows" is not lefs evidently of the modera fchool.-It, would be endlefs to recite the anachronisms of this defcription. The play had every aid from acting and decoration. There were fongs to relieve the dreadful tedium of the fcene, by Mrs. Jordan and Mifs Leake. But the contempt and ridicule of the audience was fo ftrongly manifefted during the two laft acts, that Mr. Kemble was compelled to come forward and beg an hearing to the end. The hearing was given, and the piece almoft unanimously condemned. An attempt was made to announce it for Monday |