Whate'er the scene, let this advice have weight:- To "hallooing Hotspur (2)" and the sceptred sire. If banish'd Romeo feign'd nor sigh nor tear, Versibus exponi tragicis res comica non vult; Non satis est pulchra esse poemata; dulcia sunto, (1) In Vanbrugh's comedy of the Provoked Hushand.-E. (2) "And in his ear I'll halloo, Mortimer!"-1 Henry IV. (3) See the Rehearsal: "Johnson. Pray, Mr. Bayes, who is that Drawcansir? To skilful writers it will much import, [court; A sage, or rakish youngster wild from school, Or follow common fame, or forge a plot: If some Drawcansir (3) you aspire to draw, And freely wander from the beaten way, 'Tis hard to venture where our betters fail, Or lend fresh interest to a twice-told tale; And yet, perchance, 't is wiser to prefer A hackney'd plot, than choose a new, and err; More justly, thought for thought than word for word; Nor trace your prototype through narrow ways, But only follow where he merits praise. For you, young bard! whom luckless fate may lead To tremble on the nod of all who read, Romani tollent equites peditesque cachinnum. Si quid inexpertum scenæ committis, et audes Unde pedem proferre pudor vetet, aut operis lex. "Bayes. Why, sir, a great hero, that frights his mistress, snub up kings, baffles armies, and does what he will, without regard to numbers, good sense, or justice."-E. (4) Difficile est proprie communia dicere."-Madame Dacier. Madame de Sévigné, Boileau, and others, have left their dispute on the meaning of this passage in a tract considerably longer than the poem of Horace. It is printed at the close of the eleventh volume of Madame de Sévigné's Letters, edited by Grouve!le, Paris, 1806. Presuming that all who can construe may venture an opinion on such subjects, particularly as so many who can not have taken the same liberty, I should have held my "farthing candle" as awkwardly as another, had not my respect for the wits of Louis the Fourteenth's Augustan siècle induced me to subjoin these illustrious authorities. 1st, Boileau: "Il est difficile de traiter des sujets qui sont à la portée de tout le monde, d'une manière qui vous les rende propres, ce qui s'appelle s'approprier un sujet par le tour qu'on y donne." 2dly, Batteux:"Mais il est bien difficile de donner des traits propres et individuels aux étres purement possibles." 3dly, Dacier: "Il est difficile de traiter convenablement ces caractères que tout le monde peut inventer." Mde. de Sévigné's opinion and translation, consisting of some thirty pages, I omit, particularly as M. Grouvelle observes, "La chose est bien remarquable, aucune de ces diverses interpretations ne paraît être la véritable." But, by way of comfort, it seems, fifty years afterwards, "Le lumineux Dumarsais" made his appearance, to set Horace on his legs again, "dissiper tous les nuages, et concilier tous les dissentimens ;" and some fifty years hence, somebody, still more luminous, will doubtless start up and demolish Dumarsais and his system on this weighty affair, as if he were no better than Ptolemy and Tycho, or his comments of no more consequence than astronomical calculations on the present comet. I am happy to say, "la longueur de la dissertation" of M. D. prevents M. G. from saying any more on the matter. A better poet than Boileau, and at least as good a scholar as Sévigné, has said, "A little learning is a dangerous thing." And, by this comparison of comments, it may be perceived how The London Review, set up in 1809, under Mr. Cumberland's editorial care, did not outlive many numbers. He spoke great things He sinks to Southey's level in a trice, Quid dignum tanto ferét hic promissor hiatu? translation is precisely that of this "fidus interpres." - E.] And fools rush in where angels fear to tread.' But I don't mean to cavil-only other folks will; and he may bring all the lambs of Jacob Behmen about his ears. However, I hope he will bring it to a conclusion, though Milton is in his way."All Lord Byron's anticipations, with regard to this poem, were realised to the very letter. To gratify the curiosity which bad been excited Mr. Townsend, in 1815, was induced to publish eight out of the twelve books of which it was to consist. "In the benevolence of his heart, Mr. Cumberland," he says, "bestowed praise on me, certainly too abundantly and prematurely; but I hope that any deficiency on my part may be imputed to the true cause-my own inability to support a subject, under which the greatest mental powers must inevitably sink. My talents were neither equal to my own ambition, nor his zeal to serve me."-E.] in the prospectus, about the distinguishing feature of the journal, viz. Its having the writer's name affixed to the articles. This plan has succeeded pretty well both in France and Germany, but has failed utterly as often as it has been tried in this country. It is needless, however, to go into any speculation on the principle here, for the London Review, whether sent into the world, with or without names, must soon have died of the original disease dulness. -E. Soft as the gentler breathing of the lute, Behold him Freshman! forced no more to groan Quanto rectius hic, qui nil molitur inepte! "Dic mihi, Musa, virum, captæ post tempóra Troja, (1) "There is more of poetry in these verses upon Milton than in any other passage throughout the paraphrase." Moore.-E. (2) Harvey, the circulator of the circulation of the blood, used to fling away Virgil in his ecstasy of admiration, and say, "the book bad a devil." Now, such a character as I am copying would probably fling it away also, but rather wish that the devil had the book; not from dislike to the poet, but a well-founded horror of exameters. Indeed, the public school penance of "Long and Short" is enough to beget an antipathy to poetry for the residue of Iman's life, and, perhaps, so far may be an advantage. Rough with his elders, with his equals rash, Launch'd into life, extinct his early fire, Manhood declines-age palsies every limb; Counts cent. per cent., and smiles, or vainly frels, But from the Drama let me not digress, Colligit ac ponit temere, et mutatur in horas. Multa senem circumveniunt incommoda; vel quod (3) "Infandum. regina, Jubes renovare dolorem." I dare say Mr. Tavell (to whom I mean no affront) will understand me; and is no matter whether any one else does or no.-To the above! events, "Quæque ipse miserrima vidi, et quorum pars magna fui," all times and terms bear testimony. (4) The Rev. G. F. Tavell was a fellow and tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge, during Lord Byron's residence, and owed this notice to the zeal with which he had protested against some juvenile vagaries, sufficiently explained in Mr. Moore's Life. — E. (5) "Hell," a gaming house so called, where you risk little, and - Though woman weep, and hardest hearts are stirr'd, And Lewis' self, with all his sprites, would quake Above all things, Dan Poet, if you can, Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem Quam quæ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et qua Ipse sibi tradit spectator. Non tamen intus Digna geri promes in scenam; multaque tolles Ex oculis, quæ mox narret facundia præsens. Nec pueros coram populo Medea trucidet; Aut humana palam coquat exta nefarius Atreus; are cheated a good deal. "Club," a pleasant purgatory, where you lose more, and are not supposed to be cheated at all. (1) "Irene had to speak two lines with the bowstring round her neck; but the audience cried out 'Murder!' and she was obliged to go off the stage alive." Boswell's Johnson.-These two lines were afterwards struck out, and Irene was carried off, to be put to death behind the scenes. "This shows," says Mr. Malone, "how ready modern audiences are to condemn, in a new play, what they have frequently endured very quietly in an old one. Rowe has made Moneses, in Tamerlane, die by the bowstring without offence." Davies assures us, in his Life of Garrick, that the strangling Irene, contrary to Horace's rule coram populo, was suggested by Garrick. See Croker's Boswell.-E. (2) In the postscript to the Castle Spectre, Mr. Lewis tells us, that though blacks were unknown in England at the period of his action, yet he has made the anachronism to set off the scene: and if he could have produced the effect "by making his heroine blue,"-I quote him-"blue he would have made her!" (3) In 1706, Dennis, the critic, wrote an Essay on the Operas after the Italian manner, which are about to be established on the English Stage; in which he endeavours to show, that it is a diversion of more pernicious consequence than the most licentious play that ever appeared upon the stage.-E. (4) "The first theatrical representations, entitled 'Mysteries and Moralities,' were generally enacted at Christmas, by monks (as the only persons who could read), and latterly by the clergy and students of the universities. The dramatis personæ were Nor call a ghost, unless some cursed scrape On whores, spies, singers wisely shipp'd away. It scorns amusements which are not of price. ease Till the dropp'd curtain gives a glad release: Why this, and more, he suffers-can ye guess ?— Because it costs him dear, and makes him dress! So prosper eunuchs from Etruscan schools; Give us but fiddlers, and they 'ere sure of fools! Erescenes were play'd by many a reverend clerk (4) (What harm, if David danced before the ark ?) (5) Aut in avem Progne vertatur, Cadmus in anguem. usually Adam, Pater Cœlestis, Faith, Vice," etc. etc.-See Warton's History of English Poetry. [These, to modern eyes, wi d, uncouth, and generally profane performances, were thought to contribute so much to the information and instruction of the people, that one of the popes granted a pardon of one thousand days to every person who resorted peaceably to the plays acted in the Whitsun-week at Chester, beginning with the Creation, and ending with the General Judgment. These were performed at the expense of the different trading companies of that city. The creation was performed by the Drapers; the Deluge by the dyers; Abraham, Melchisedec, and Lot by the barbers, the Purification by the blacksmiths; the Last Supper by the bakers; the Resurrection by the skinners; and the 48cension by the tailors. In Mr. Payne Collier's recent work on English Bramatic Poetry, the reader will find an abstract of the several collections of these mystery-plays, which is not only interesting for the light it throws on the early days of our drama, but instructive and valuable for the curious information it preserves with respect to the strangely debased notions of Scripture history that prevailed, almost universally, before translations of the Bible were in common use. See also the Quarterly Review, vol. xlvi. p. 477.-E.] (5) Here follows in the original MS. "Who did what Vestris-yet, at least,-cannot, And cut his kingly capers sans culotte."— E. In Christmas revels, simple country folks [jokes. We smile, perforce, when histrionic scenes (1) Benvolio does not bet; but every man who maintains racehorses is a promoter of all the concomitant evils of the turf. Avoiding to bet is a little pharisaical. Is it an exculpation? I think not. I never yet heard a bawd praised for chastity because she herself did not commit fornication. (2) For Benvolio we have, in the original MS., "Earl Grosvenor;" and for the next couplet : "Suppressing peer! to whom each vice gives place, But we cannot trace the exact propriety of the allusions. Lord Grosvenor, now Marquis of Westminster, no doubt distinguished himself by some attack on the Sunday newspapers, or the like, at the same time that he was known to keep a stud at Newmarket but why a long note on a subject certainly insignificant and perhaps mistaken?-E. (3) la dedicating the fourth canto of Childe Harold to his fellow-traveller, Lord Byron describes him as " one to whom he was indebted for the social advantages of enlightened friendship; one whom he had long known, and accompanied far, whom he had found wakeful over his sickness and kind in his sorrow, glad in his prosperity and firm in his adversity, true in counsel and trasty in peril:"-while Mr. Hobhouse, in describing a short tour to Negropont, in which his noble friend was unable to accompany him, regrets the absence of a companion, "who, to quickness of observation and ingenuity of remark, united that gay good humour which keeps alive the attention under the pressure of fatigue, and softens the aspect of every difficulty and danger." -E. (4) Under Plato's pillow a volume of the Mimes of Sophron was found the day he died.-Vide Barthélémi, De Pauw, or Diogenes Laërtius, if agreeable. De Pauw calls it a jest-book. Cumberland, in his Observer, terms it moral, like the sayings of Publius Syrus. (5) The following is a brief sketch of the origin of the Playhouse Bil:-In 1735, Sir John Barnard brought in a bill "to restrain the number of houses for playing of interludes, and for the better regulating of common players." The minister, Sir Robert Walpole, conceiving this to be a favourable opportunity of checking the abuse of theatrical representation, proposed to insert a clause to ratify and confirm, if not enlarge, the power of the Lord Chamberlain in licensing plays; and at the same time insinuated, that unless this addition was made the King would not pass it. But Sir John Barnard strongly objected to this clause; contending that the power of that officer was already too great, and had been often wantonly exercised. He therefore withdrew his bill, rather than establish by law a power in a single officer so much under the direction of the crown. In the course, however, of the session of 1737, an opportunity offered, which Sir Ro When "Chrononhotonthologos must die," And Arthur struts in mimic majesty. Moschus! with whom once more I hope to sit And smile at folly, if we can't at wit; Yes, friend! for thee I'll quit my cynic cell, And hear Swift's motto, "Vive la bagatelle!" Which charm'd our days in each Ægean clime, As oft at home, with revelry and rhyme. (3) Then may Euphrosyne, who sped the past, Soothe thy life's scenes, nor leave thee in the last; But find in thine, like pagan Plato's bed, (4) Some merry manuscript of mimes, when dead. Now to the Drama let us bend our eyes, Where fetter'd by whig Walpole low she lies; (5) Corruption foil'd her, for she fear'd her glance; Decorum left her for an opera dance! Yet Chesterfield, (6) whose polish'd pen inveighs 'Gainst laughter fought for freedom to our plays; bert did not fail to seize. The manager of Goodman's Fields Theatre baving brought to him a farce called The Golden Rump, which had been proffered for exhibition, the minister paid the profits which might have accrued from the performance, and detained the copy. He then made extracts of the most exceptionable passages, abounding in profaneness, sedition, and blasphemy, read them to the House, and obtained leave to bring in a bill to limit the number of playhouses; to subject all dramatic writings to the inspection of the Lord Chamberlain; and to compel the proprietors to take out a license for every production before it could appear on the stage.—E. (6) His speech on the Licensing Act is one of his most eloquent efforts.-[Though the Playhouse Bill is generally said to have been warmly opposed in both Houses, this speech of the Earl of Chesterfield is the only trace of that opposition to be found in the periodical publications of the times. The following passage, which relates to the powers of the Lord Chamberlain, will show the style of the oration:-"The bill is not only an encroachment upon liberty, but it is likewise an encroachment on property. Wit, my Lords, is a sort of property: it is the property of those who have it, and too often the only property they have to depend on. Thank God! my Lords, we have a dependence of another kind: we have a much less precarious support, and therefore cannot feel the inconveniences of the bill now before us: but it is our duty to encourage and protect wit, whosesoever's property it may be. Those gentlemen who have any such property are all, I hope, our friends : do not let us subject them to any unnecessary or arbitrary restraint. I must own, I cannot easily agree to the laying of any tax upon wit; but by this bill it is to be heavily taxed, it is to be excised: for, if this bill passes, it cannot be retailed in a proper way without a permit; and the Lord Chamberlain is to have the honour of being chief guager, supervisor, commissioner, judge and jury. But, what is still more hard, though the poor author,-the proprietor, I should say, — cannot, perhaps, dine till he has found out and agreed with a purchaser, yet, before he can propose to seek for a purchaser, he must patiently submit to have his goods rummaged at this new excise-office; where they may be detained for fourteen days, and even then he may find them returned as prohibited goods, by which his chief and best market will be for ever shut against him, without the least shadow of reason, either from the laws of his country or the laws of the stage. These hardships, this hazard, which every gentleman will be exposed to who writes any thing for the stage, must certainly prevent every man of a generous and free spirit from attempting any thing in that way; and as the stage has always been the proper channel for wit and humour, therefore, my Lords, when I speak against this bill, I must think I plead the cause of wit, I plead the cause of humour, I plead the cause of the British stage, and of |