deserve it, we shall feel an apparent inconfiftency. Again, we hear of foldiers, and thoufands fuddenly crowding round the favourite 'general', circumftances which but ill accord with a feudal chief and his scattered vaffals. The reader alfo, who has just closed his Offian, hears with disgust of the bodyguards of the kings of Morven. Greater improprieties have, however, been overlooked in fuccessful plays. The fources of the author's failure are not eafily traced from the tragedy itself. A melancholy conclufion is not indeed fashionable; there are few minds fufficiently refined to delight in the pleafing sadness which an unfortunate catastrophe often leaves. Our author too, though he occafionally foars on the wings of Offian, though the fituations are fometimes pathetic and interesting, is not borne on equal pinions,' nor is he long fupported, without falling to the ground. The characters are the ufual ones of tragedy; a fullen unrelenting tyrant, a fond lover, a generous friend, a faithless confident. They are the fame unmeaning faces, which we daily fee, without the leaft mark to discriminate them from the general herd. The language is neat and correct, frequently elegant, and fometimes poetical, particularly where it is enlightened by a spark from Mr. Macpherson's version of the northern bard. But in general it is tame, infipid, and uninterefting. The following fcene is more animated and better fupported than any other. Erragon is introduced to Malvina, to affure her of the death of her husband: Enter Virgin. Virg. A ftranger, juft arrived from Lochlin, lady, Intreats an interview. 'Malvina. Minla! 'tis he! His tongue would tell the tidings of that murder, Which his hands perpetrated.--Hence, hence with him! More dreadful than the glare of midnight-ghoft, His prefence would appal me! ftop, forbid His fatal entrance. • Minla. Vain were the attempt. Commiffioned by the king, th' affaffin comes; • Malv. Inhuman! would'st thou have my eyes meet his. Behold the barbarous hand that did the deed, Red with my husband's blood? firft fhall his fword His fword? Yet, yet a moment's paufe. • Minla. Must be dispatched. • Malv. Some anfwer His fword!-ah, whither drives Con The tranfport of that thought?-I'll fee th' affaffin, Confront him; fearch his fecret foul; and then- And give thee blood for blood! • Enter Erragon. Erragon. Be ftill, my foul-. • Μαίν. Infernal monster ! [Offering to ftab him, she starts back. [to Erragon. -Ah! fupport me! lave me! Tremendous power of Loda!-if thou comeft The fpirit of my husband, from the tomb Thy Erragon. My Erragon! earth open, And hide me from his fight! Errag. Down, dreadful thoughts! That make my blood run chill. While I have power Warm thee to life and love. Malv. Not till thus humbled, I have implored forgiveness for th' attempt 'Gainft thy dear life, and called the fpirits of earth Murder'd, alas! and at thy murderer aim'd, Miftaking, the rafh fword. • Errag. From lips like those, Breathing fincerity, and truth, and love, Wants there another word to win conviction ? Marriage with thee. But never would Malvina Wed fuch a wretch, whom every human heart Malv. Wed him! oh, Lived there no man but he; to fhun his arms, Fearless I'd plunge myfelf from the steep rock To the wild ocean's monsters.' We will not go farther: indeed we have no temptation; for the hero and heroine fink into pure, domeftic chit-chat, which appears more than ufually infipid from the storms of paffion just raised by their peculiar fituation. That That the author has ftudied in the school of Offian, the following paffages will evince: • And thou mournful flood, Strumon whofe fullen waves gloom round the rock, Again, • The darken'd moon, 'Mongst meteors of the night, looks not more gloomy, Ye miniftering pow'rs, Who, on your dim clouds riding'. Then to thee, Spirit of Loda! my fole guardian now, Burits my fad foul: if at thy ftone of power Rife, terrible shade !' There are fome fpeeches highly poetical and picturesque. which are more properly the author's own; yet as they occur only in detached paffages, have the effect which he has described in the following beautiful lines : • Ah, beware Thefe fudden tranfports of intemperate paffion! They're flashes from black clouds; and the more fierce Amidst cold unpoetical paffages, there are fome words, which are neither elegant or proper; but they are few. He knows his power oppofeless." Strike, Symphonious strike But we need not enumerate errors. On the whole, we have stated the merits and defects of the Captives' with impartiality; and we think that the author has been treated harshly, when we recollect that many worfe plays have been heard with candour, many more imperfect ones have been applauded. The style of tragedy, which the author has attempted to introduce, will not, we fear, be successful: cautious of a storm, he has too generally crept on the ground; and, in many inftances, has mistaken tameness for fimplicity; a profaic coldnefs for an intelligible, unaffected ftyle. We have, on many occafions, expreffed our disapprobation of glaring metaphors, incongruous images, and turgid description; but tragedy always requires an elevated, an ornamented language. It should be in every part a poem, raifed above common common life; and it has been even contended, by the first critics, that where the intereft of the plot is leffened, the vacuity fhould be fupplied, the imagination engaged, by the most polished lines. If Dr. Delap reflects on this fubject, we believe that he will fee the force of these remarks; and we hope that, with the merit of his plays, the candour and goodhumour of his audiences will increase. The Peruvian, a Comic Opera, in Three Acts; as performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent-Garden. 8vo. Is. 6d. Bell. THE ftory of this opera is confeffedly borrowed from Mar montel's Teft of Friendship', with a flight underplot of a common kind. In many refpects it is properly conducted. The artless fimplicity and unaffected tenderness of Coraly are well preserved; and the integrity of Belville, who undefignedly makes an impreffion on the heart of his ward, is drawn with affecting, though not glaring colours. The principal error of the author, and it is a material one, because it diminishes the intereft of the play, confifts in the appearance of Blandford being too long delayed: if he had been introduced in the fecond act, the embarraffment would have been increased; but it is common for an author, who borrows a plot, to follow it too closely. As the opera now appears, the fecond part, which is very dextrously connected with the principal plot, is most interesting. An uncle, whofe chief pleasure is eating, and whofe chief pain the gout, has promifed to marry his niece to an old baronet, who is afflicted with the fame complaint. Her lover, Frankly, by bribing his rival's fteward, procures his cloaths, and is introduced as fir Harry Cripplegait. A pleasant confufion enfues when the real fir Harry arrives; but these difficulties have been varied on the ftage fo often, that they have loft their power of entertainment. The event may be eafily gueffed at. The termination, however, reminds us too much of the burlesque conclufion of Piety in Pattens.' · There is nothing particularly ftriking in the fituations; that at the landing of Blandford is most interesting, though at the expence of a little probability. Dry, the steward of fir Harry, feems intended as a new character; but he is brought forward fo little, that we fcarcely perceive the author's intention: the reft are old acquaintance. The dialogue is easy and elegant, rather than animated or witty: the fongs In the Dramatis Perfonæ he is called fir Gregory Craveall'; in the play, Famish,' are are pleafing, but not highly poetical. The whole, by the affiftance of mufic, affords an agreeable entertainment on the ftage in the clofet, it seems rather to be free from faults, than to rife to any great excellence. We find nothing fufficiently attractive to induce us to transcribe any part of it. The Works of Mr. Le Chevalier de Florian. Tranflated by Mr. Robinson. In Two Volumes. Small 8vo. 55. ferved. Becket. TH HE tranflator has executed his task in a pleafing manner : we converse with the chevalier in language fo suitable and appropriated, that, as with some excellent copies of ancient pictures, we are fcarcely lefs affected than with the original design. The first of these volumes contains the Galatea, a paftoral romance; and this fpecies of writing, to which, in England, we have not been lately accustomed, has occafioned an Essay to be prefixed, addreffed, we prefume, to mifs Thurlow, to whom the tranflation is dedicated. • Paftoral romance ftands in the fame degree of affinity to the fimple eclogue, as epic poetry does to dramatic dialogue. Each fhould diftinctly form one compleat whole. However interfperfed with episodes, or chequered with ornaments, still there fhould be held out one principal and main object throughout the work. The extent of the fubject is of no confideration in this rule, that Nature herfelf feems to point out to us: for tragedy has its aim as well as epopee, and while a fhepherd chaunts over his reed, there may be as much preconceived purport in his fong, as if it made up a story of fome volumes.' Paftorals have more than once been called artificial modes of compofition: we cannot refer them to any state of manners with which we are acquainted; and, when compared with that which feems most nearly to approach them, we are difgufted with a contrast to what the poets had led us to expect. If, from Mr. Robinson's decifions, we confider the pastoral romance as related to the eclogue, we can allow only the fcenery and the perfonages to be of the rural kind; for the subject digresses sometimes into the regions of philosophy, or of religion. Our tranflator has, therefore, confined it within limits too narrow. Even when he allows of additional ornament, and different subjects, he thinks they fhould be thrown into episodes, though, on the authority of the Bucolics, &c we may probably introduce them fometimes into the work itself. In every other refpect we agree with the translator, and think his Effay both concife, agreeable, and elegant. The first volume contains the Galatea, a romance of the pastoral kind, calculated to amufe the fancy, and to amend the heart. We are not, however, well pleafed with the con duct |