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men.

Gyp. Wo. That's nae lie; for wha's no discontented noo a-days?

Friar. The two have plotted ;-strata-
gems and spoil

Were in the gesture of the choleric count,
What time we spoke together, and his look
Told me the prelate was with him con-
cern'd

To work some dire and woeful overthrow;
Would that I ne'er had parted with that
phial

To the proud metropolitan.

Gyp. Wo. Eh, megsty! he's gi'en the bottle to the Archbishop!

1 Fem. Cit. See ye that poor doited monk? he's been mumbling to himsel, and never looking at the show.

Fem. Cit. And the tinkler wife has been harkening to every word he said.

1 Fem. Cit. But look, oh, there's the Archbishop carrying the holy doo and see Count Butero with the crown Ohme! what a grand like thing it is.

Cit. Noo, lads, be ready-the King's minister's coming.-Tune your pipes for a gude hiss to him for the new tax on kail pots and amries.

As the prime minister passes, the mob all

hiss and howl.]

Friar. The prelate look'd at me as he pass'd by, And there was meaning in his scowling glance.

Gyp. Wo. I'll gie the King warning o' the plot, and may be he'll help me to another ass and creels.

1 Fem. Cit. Ah, me! what a lovely lovely gown the Queen's got on.

Cit. Now, three cheers for the King. [The King and Queen enter under a cloth of state, supported by Bashaws, and the People sing a verse of "God save the King," at the end of which the Gypsey Woman rushes forward.]

Gyp. Halt, King, and list-beware, be

ware,

For traitors' hands have laid a snare. Queen. Come in, my liege, 'tis but a crazy hag,

That makes her living by predicting woe.
King. Her voice is most portentous, it
hath cow'd

The manhood of my bosom, dearest chuck;
And I would fain, till some more happy

omen,

Defer the coronation.
Queen.
Heed her not,
But let us in, and on the seat of power
Be consecrated with the holy unction.

King. Alas, my heart misgives !—An unaccustom'd load

Doth hang on my stuff'd stomach, and forbids

All cheer to enter with my boding fancies Would that most ominous wretch were well away;

Avaunt! thou raving Pythia hie thee hence!

1 Fem. Cit. Eh me! how the spae-wife has terrified the King!

Cit. Down wi' the auld radical jaud, she's no canny.

[The mob seize the Gypsey Woman and carry her off, and then the second verse of God save the King" is sung, and the Procession passes."}

"It is a law of our nature" to have oppressive presentiments on those occasions when we have prepared ourselves to enjoy the greatest pleasure; and our author has, in the foregoing scene, handled this with a free and delicate pencil, happily representing Carlo Aurenzebe, in the very high and palmy state of his coronation, afflicted with thick coming fancies. The undaunted confidence of the Queen, and her contempt of the omens, is impressively illustrative of the blindness of mankind to impending misfortunes. We do not recollect that "this law of our nature" has ever been illustrated in poetry or the drama before. The action, too, of the spectators, is singularly felicitous in this scene. Nothing can be more natural, than that in a crowd people should tread on one another's toes; and the various shades of popu lar feeling are exhibited with great address. The first lord of the treasury is hissed for having levied a new tax; but the universal respect for the character and office of the monarch, is finely displayed in the burst of indignation with which the populace seize the sybil, and drag her to immediate panishment. They do not, however, put her to death, as might be supposed from what takes place, and by which the interest of the plot, now hastening rapidly to an issue, is so much augmented, for she is afterwards seen dripping wet in the grand assemblage of all the dramatis persone at the catastrophe, having only, as her condition implies, been pumped upon.

The second scene presents the interior of the cathedral, and the cereinony of the coronation going forward. The archbishop prepares to anoint, and he looks pale and agitated. The friar, who had followed him closely, observes his agitation, and also the interest and

anxiety with which Count Butero watches the action.

Friar. Why should his hand so shake? -that iv'ry dove,

Framed guileless from the Afric beast's huge tooth,

Can have no harm in it.-He takes the spoon

What spell of witchery is in that spoon, To make his hand so palsied as with dread? He pours the oil into its golden mouth; And now he sets the pigeon on the altar, And 'gins to drop the unction on the head. Ye gods, why should his majesty so start, As if the ointment were the oil of vitriol ? King. Hold, my Lord Archbishop, I pray thee hold,

Thou droppest fire upon me. Treason, he! I burn, I burn!—Ō for some quenching engine

To lave my kindled head-O ! water, water !

My love, Splendora, I am scorch'd with something

Hotter than fire!-Do'st see if my head

flames?

[A great commotion takes place in the church; the Queen faints as Carlo Aurenzebe rushes distracted off the stage.] Archb. He's mad!-the man is cursed

by heaven with craze, And fate has will'd Butero for our king. Friar. "Twas you that did it !-0 thou wicked prelate!— Noble Sicilians, draw your swords, and

seize

This holy traitor.Here I do accuse him Of highest treason, blood, and sacrilege; And Count Butero art and part with him, In the dread action that appals you all.Ladies, look to the Queen.

Secretary, Alas! good priest, Now do I rue how I rejected thee, And scorn'd the warning that thou would'st have given.

Friar. Ah, wise too late!-But where's his Majesty?

Fled in distraction-let us see to him.

[Exit Friar, and the Secretary of State. The Ladies carry off the Queen, and the Nobles seize the Archbishop and Count Butero.]

Archb. I'll speak no more, from this

accursed hour.

O, Count Butero, partner of my crime,
My lips are seal'd in adamantine silence;
Yon marble statue of departed worth,
Is not more silent on its pedestal,
Than from this time am I.

Count B.
Take me away;
Since I have miss'd the guerdon of my pur-
pose,

I am grown reckless of all penalties.
Hew me in pieces, lop my limbs away,
With pincers rive my quivering flesh, and
pluck

These visionary orbs from out their sockets;

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fire.

Ha! thou foreboding owl, thou gypsey hag, Why didst thou warn me of this woeful chance,

And charm me to despise the admonition?"

"The law of our nature," which thus induces her majesty at once to acknowledge the truth of the gypsey's predictions, and to accuse the old woman of having rendered her incredulous, every man who has had any experience of himself must have felt, and cannot but be alive to the simplicity and beauty of Splendora's address to the Doctor's Cassandra. But we must come to a conclusion; the extracts which we have so largely given, will enable the public to appreciate the merits of this extraordinary performance, and we trust and hope the sale will be such as to induce the author to favour the world soon again with some new effort of his impressive talent. Whether "The Fatal Unction" is calculated to succeed in representation, we cannot undertake to determine; but we do not think that

any sound critic will admit the objection as valid, which Miss Dance made to it when it was proposed to her to undertake the part of the gypsey, namely, that no lady would consent to stain her complexion with umber, and therefore the piece never could be properly performed. We think, however the experiment might have been made, and Miss Dance, in the part of Splendora, would have been a most lovely and interesting representative, partícularly in the mad scene, for, to use the words of an eloquent theatrical critic in the Edinburgh Correspondent, "Who, that saw Miss Dance in Belvidera, can for a moment hesitate in allowing her pathos and fine feeling? and so true were they both to nature, that we shall venture to say, her's were not feigned tears-who, that beheld her in that arduous part, will deny that she had

a voice of great extent and compass? The mad scene was terrific and heartrending in the highest degree ; and the ineffable smile of insanity which she gave, while she fancied that she had Jaffier in her arms, and the strangely changed tone of her voice on that occasion, were certainly never more happily conceived, or executed with more distracting effect." By the way we should here mention, that the other day, in a certain bookseller's shop, we heard a professor in a university, not a hundred miles from the college, say to a gentleman who was speaking in raptures of Miss Dance's poor Belvidera's smile, "What did she go mad for?" To think of any man in this enlightened age asking, "What Belvidera went mad for ?" and that man, too, not a professor of divinity!!

"FIFEANA."
No. I.

SIR, A change in the established form of religious worship in this country, has supplied us with many a ruined cathedral and desolated abbacy; and the transference of the seat of Scottish royalty from Holyrood to St James's, has been proportionally productive of palace ruins. In whatever direction you take your annual trip, whether you travel by the power of steam or of the lever, by land or by sea, on foot or en horseback, you cannot fail, provided your course is over your native soil, to discover, at the opening up of every bay, and at the weathering of every head-land, at the entrance of every stráth, or on the apron of every eminence, some arresting shapeof Ruin, melting down, under the silent but irresistible influence of time, into the earth, yet still continuing to connect, by all the ties of association, the past with the present, the mitre and the crown of Scotland with the less elevated apprehensions of modern times. A Scotsman who has never travelled beyond the precincts of his native country, who has never crossed the Tweed on the one hand, nor the region of "Skua-gulls" on the other, can have no adequate notion of the advantages of which Scotland, as a thea

tre of travel, is possessed. He would be apt to suppose, that through whatever land he might chance to direct his course, he would still, amidst all the modern exhibition of steam and smoke, and manufacturing, and husbandry,-amidst all that feathering of trade and traffic, by which our sea-ward vallies and navigable rivers are skirted, discover, at reasonable intervals, the more hallowed forms of antiquity, the lingering features of chivalry, the broken arch and the mouldering turret, the genius of a former and more poetical age-hovering over, and still greeting with a parting valediction, the present. In this expectation, however, he would be disappointed. St Paul's, and Windsor, are still the abodes of religion and royalty, whilst St Andrew's Cathedral and Falkland Palace are in ruins. The same happy revolution in church and state, which removed from us the superstitious observances of Rome, and the seat of our government, has left us, in addition to more substantial benefits, the reversion of a most romantic and interesting land, rendered still more interesting and romantic by the mouldering remains of our former royal and religious establishments.

• Shetland-Vide Dr Fleming.

I am not so smit with antiquarian mania, as to imagine, or to atteinpt to persuade others to imagine, that a "Ruin" is preferable, as an object of pleasurable contemplation, to an entire and a sublime edifice; but I assured ly think, that when these floating wrecks on the ocean of time are associated not only with the mere display of architectural design and execution, but with the ancient spirit and moral energies of our country, with much that it has now lost, but which once rendered it dignified in its internal character, and imposing in its external relations, our patriotism must be of a very suspicious description indeed, if it is not awakened and strengthened by the contemplation of them. There is nothing, in my opinion which is more truly salutary to our national health and prosperity, than this reverence for, and frequent conversation with, the "Mighty Past." And, should the time ever arrive when a Scotsman can travel over the land of his fathers, hallowed as it is in almost every direction with reminiscences of their public character or domestic life, without taking any interest in such recollections, he will then be ripe for a state of rebellion or of vassalage. He will either have actually forfeited his claims to independence, or be prepared to do so. Were I desirous of reducing our national character, whether considered in reference to loyalty or to patriotism, to all that binds our hearts to the throne, or that attaches us to our national constitution and privileges; from the plenitude of authority, or rather from the insidious covert of design, I would issue forth my mandate, that all the monuments of our ancient history should be erased-that with the ruins of the cathedral, as well as with the tomb-stones of the martyrs, men should build offices, and construct fences-and that the fast mouldering palaces of the race of Stuart should yield up their last foundation-stone to grace the lintels of some modern villa, or figure from the snug parlour chimney of some burgh magistrate. I would become a second Edward, and efface not only from paper and parchment, but even

from the face of the earth itself, every intimation, every record of antiquity; and thus I would train up a young, and a bustling, and a trifling generation, to consider pleasure and pudding as all in all !

My reflections have assumed this cast, in consequence of a visit, or pleasure excursion rather, which, a few days ago, I was induced to make, in company with a highly respectable and intelligent friend, to the ruins of Falkland Palace. Understanding that the present proprietor of these "Royal Ruins," and of the extensive grounds around them, (J. Bruce, Esq.) had, with a great deal of good sense and proper feeling, ordered the Palace to be enclosed by a sufficient wall, and thus protected from that dilapidation under which, in the course of ages, it had suffered so much, and by means of which (if permitted to be proceeded in) not a vestige would in a few years remain, I was anxious, ere the inclosure should be completed, and the former aspect of the ruins, by the opening up of some new views,* in some measure altered, to saunter over, under the conduct of a well-informed and intelligent guide, the venerable, and time-hallowed precincts. It was a June day, and worthy of Juno herself. The wind, which had long resisted every southern tendency, and which had regularly at night-fall checked round in sullen obstinacy to the east, had at last yielded up the point," and came over our faces, as we advanced upon our expedition, in all the blandishment and softness of an Italian atmosphere. The sun, which had obtained sufficient elevation to overshoot the highest parts of the Lomond hills, yet not to irradiate the northern aspect, flooded down his beams upon us, over a dark and still sunless background, through which trees, and turrets, and cottage-smoke were beginning to penetrate into light. There was a freshness and a hilarity over the whole face of nature, according well with that lightness of heart, and buoyancy of spirit, which generally accompanies, as well as suggests, such careless, and, as the busy world deem it,

The alterations here alluded to, are towards the north side of the Palace, by means of which the northern aspect, which was formerly concealed by trees and some rising grounds, will be opened up, and travellers upon the Cupar and Perth roads, by Auchtermuchty, will have an excellent view of the ruins.

aimless excursions; and as we trotted and walked our horses onwards, in an easy jogging tête-a-tête way, I felt assured that this day's enjoyment was not at the mercy of chance; and that, being pleased with, and happy in ourselves, we should find the objects we went to visit fully equal to our expectations. As we halted for an instant in passing through the ancient and most beautifully situated burgh of Auchtermuchty, in order to water our horses at a small, but clear and rapid stream, which divides the town, my friend took occasion to remark, that, according to tradition, we were now upon classic ground, rendered so by the exceedingly graphic and humorous description of country life and manners, which the "Guidewife of Auchtermuchty," said to have been written by King James the First, contains. "There," said he, pointing to a green bank, on the farther side of the stream, "fed the honest woman's gaislines, of which the gudeman made so poor an account; and upon that very stone, perhaps, were the foul sheets' laid, which the spait thought proper to carry along with it."* In the course of conversation, I learned that "Christ's Kirk on the Green," likewise supposed to have been celebrated by the royal author above mentioned, lay upon the banks of the river Leven, at no great distance, and was in fact none other than the church and the green of Lesly; the dancing and deray," making part of an annual revel, which, under the sanction of royal authority, and even example, was there exhibited. "Weel,† Bally-Mill," said my friend, as we began to cross over the valley towards Falkland, to a respectable looking figure who was riding past us, in an opposite direction, "how's a' wi'ye the day, Bally-Mill?" Mutual conversation ensued, from question answer flowed,' during which, as I had not the good fortune to be acquainted with Bally-Mill, I had drifted a considerable space in advance.

• Vide No. 1. Vol. I. of this Magazine.

When my friend overtook me, he made me acquainted with the following anecdote, respecting the manner in which the property of Bally-Mill, which lies a little way farther east, upon the banks of the Eden, was originally obtained from King James the Fifth, of facetious, and princely, and, alas, unfortunate memory!

The king, who was fond of seeing human nature under every modifica tion of circumstance, and in the absence of all ceremony and constraint, a taste which a court was but indifferently calculated to gratify, was in the habit, whilst he resided at Falkland, of making excursions in disguise into the adjoining country. In one of these frolics, he entered, rather late in the evening, a miller's house, which was situated on Falkland muir, at the confluence of the Daft-water with the Eden. As the royal presence did not appear to her any ways imposing, the miller's wife stoutly opposed the entrance of her Guest; and at last, finding that words had but little weight with him, she brought up, as she had frequently in the course of expostulation threatened to do, the more weighty argument of her husband's presence upon the carle's obstinacy. The Miller, who chanced to be a man of some humour, and of great good nature, though miserably ruled by his wife, was prevailed upon to consent to the stranger's request; and having adjusted his milllabour for the night, returned to his Guest with a tongue loaded with inquiries, and a heart light as air. The stranger was intelligent, and facetious; the landlord became gleesome and open-hearted, till at last, with a most friendly and familiar salutation betwixt the carle's shoulders, and a hearty, and vigorous, and protracted shake of his hand, the gudeman declared he was the "ae best fallow he had met with since the death o' the auld parson o' Cult, who was aye fou six days out of the seven, and ended his life at last ae drifty night amang the snaw."

+ It is customary in Fife, as well as in several counties of Scotland, to address farmers, and even small proprietors, by the familiar appellation which belongs to their property or farm. Thus we have " Drone," "Strone," "Cuff-about," and "Tailabout," "Cockairnie," "Rumgally," ," "Craigfoodie," &c. &c.

66

It is reported of this "drouthy brother," that, having through life frequently expressed a wish for a white "hinner end," in allusion to the sweet milk with which he was in the habit of washing down the lagging remains of a parrich-çog-his death, in the manner stated, became proverbial.

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