Though hard to be restrained, defeats itself.- To the last hour that thon didst keep the child. PRIS. Fear not my faith, though I must speak my shame. Within the cradle where the infant lay Was stowed a mighty store of gold and jewels; Bought flocks and herds, and gradually brought forth For nature will break ont: mild with the mild, O sovereign mercy! "Twas my child I saw ! ANNA. Just are your transports: ne'er was woman's heart By servile eyes; your gestures may be seen Impassioned, strange; perhaps your words o'erheard. LADY R. Well dost thou counsel, Anna; Heaven bestow On me that wisdom which my state requires ! And soon you must resolve. This useful man PRIS. If 1, amidst astonishment and fear, LADY R. With thee dissimulation now were vain. I am indeed the daughter of Sir Malcolm ; The child thou rescuedst from the flood is mine. PRIS. Blest be the hour that made me a poor man! My poverty hath saved my master's house. LADY R. Thy words surprise me; sure thou dost not feign! The tear stands in thine eye: such love from thee Sir Malcolm's house deserved not, if aright Thou told'st the story of thy own distress. PRIS. Sir Malcolm of our barons was the flower; The fastest friend, the best, the kindest master; But ah! he knew not of my sad estate. After that battle, where his gallant son, And God so love me as I love his race! LADY R. His race shall yet reward thee. On thy faith That like a holy hermitage appears PRIS. I remember The cottage of the cliffs. LADY R. 'Tis that I mean: There dwells a man of venerable age, Who in my father's service spent his youth: Before the king and nobles, what thou now JOHN HOME, author of 'Douglas,' was by birth connected with the family of the Earl of Home; his father was town-clerk of Leith, where the poet was born in 1722. He entered the church, and succeeded Blair, author of The Grave,' as minister of Athelstaneford. Previous to this, however, he had taken up arms as a volunteer in 1745 against the Chevalier, and after the defeat at Falkirk, was imprisoned in the old castle of Doune, whence he effected his escape, with some of his associates, by cutting their blankets into shreds, and letting themselves down on the ground. The romantic poet soon found the church as severe and tyrannical as the army of Charles Edward. So violent a storm was raised by the fact that a Presbyterian minister had written a play, that Home was forced to succumb to the presbytery, and resign his living. Lord Bute rewarded him with the sinecure office of conservator of Scots privileges at Campvere, and on the accession of George III. in 1760, when the influence of Bute was paramount, the poet received a pension of £300 per annum. He wrote various other tragedies, which soon passed into oblivion; but with an income of about £600 per annum, with an easy, cheerful, and benevolent disposition, and enjoying the friendship of David Hume, Blair, Robertson, and all the most distinguished for rank or talents, John Home's life glided on in happy tranquillity. He survived all his literary associates, and died in 1803, aged eighty-six. We subjoin some fragments from the tragic dramas mentioned above: Against the Crusades. I here attend him In expeditions which I ne'er approved, In holy wars. Your pardon, reverend father, I must declare I think such wars the fruit Sure I am, 'tis madness, I venerate this land. Those sacred hills, Those vales, those cities, trod by saints and prophets, But the same God, my friend, pervades, sustains, And every land, where spreads his vital presence, I meant alone to say, I think these wars Love. THOMSON'S Edward and Eleonora. Why should we kill the best of passions, Love? To nobler heights, inspires immortal deeds, Miscalculations of Old Men. THOMSON'S Sophonisba. Those old men, those plodding grave state pedants, THOMSON'S Tancred and Sigismunda. Awfulness of a Scene of Pagan Rites. This is the secret centre of the isle : Here, Romans, pause, and let the eye of wonder How stern he frowns, and with his broad brown arms The dark streain brawling round its rugged base; As if the very genius of the place Himself appeared, and with terrific dread Stalked through his drear domain. And yet, my friends, Surely there is a hidden power that reigns 'Mid the lone majesty of untamed nature, Controlling sober reason; tell me else, Why do these haunts of barbarous superstition O'ercome me thus ? I scorn them; yet they awe me. Forgiveness. So prone to error is our mortal frame, Time could not step without a trace of horror, Had not impressed a soft and yielding sense, The seeds of mutual mercy and forgiveness. MASON'S Caractacus. GLOVER'S Boadicea. GEORGE COLMAN-ARTHUR MURPHY-HUGH KELLY. GEORGE COLMAN (1733–1794), manager of Covent Garden Theatre, was an excellent comic writer, and produced above thirty pieces, a few of which deservedly keep possession of the stage. His 'Jealous Wife,' founded on Fielding's Tom Jones,' has some highly effective scenes and well-drawn characters. It was produced in 1761; five years afterwards, Colman joined with Garrick and brought out The Clandestine Marriage,' in which the character of an aged beau affecting gaiety and youth is strikingly personified in Lord Ogleby. Colman translated the comedies of Terence (1764) and Horace's 'Art of Poetry' (1783). He also wrote some excellent light humorous essays. -ARTHUR MURPHY (1727-1805), a voluminous and miscellaneous writer, added comedies as well as tragedies to the stage, and his Way to Keep Him' is still occasionally performed.-HUGH KELLY (1739-1777), an Irish dramatic poet and a scurrilous newspaper writer, surprised the public by producing, in 1768, a comedy, False Delicacy,' which had remarkable success both on the fortunes and character of the author; the profits of his first third night realised £150-the largest sum of money he had ever before seen-'and_from a low, petulant, absurd, aud ill-bred censurer,' says Davies, Kelly was transformed to the humane, affable, good-natured, well-bred man.' RICHARD CUMBERLAND-OLIVER GOLDSMITH. The marked success of Kelly's sentimental style gave the tone to a much abler dramatist, RICHARD CUMBERLAND (1732-1811), who, after two or three unsuccessful pieces, in 1771 brought out The West Indian,' one of the best stage-plays which English comedy can yet boast. The plot, incidents, and characters-including the first draught of an Irish gentleman which the theatre had witnessed-are all well sustained. Other dramas of Cumberland, as 'The Wheel of Fortune,' "The Fashionable Lover,' &c. were also acted with applause, though now too stiff and sentimental for our audiences.-GOLDSMITH thought that Cumberland had carried the refinement of comedy to excess, and he set himself to correct the fault. His first dramatic performance, 'The Good-natured Man,' presents one of the happiest of his delineations in the character of Croaker; but as a whole, the play wants point and sprightliness. His second drama, 'She Stoops to Conquer,' performed in 1773, has all the requisites for interesting and amusing an audience; and Johnson said, he knew of no comedy for many years that had answered so much the great end of comedy-making an audience merry.' The plot turns on what may be termed a farcical incident-two parties mistaking a gentleman's house for an inn. Such an adventure, however, is said to have occurred to Goldsmith himself. He was returning to school after the holidays on a borrowed hack, and being overtaken by night in the streets of Ardagh, he inquired with a lofty confident air---having a guinea in his pocket-for the best house of entertainment in the town. A wag pointed to the house of the squire, a Mr. Featherston, and Goldsmith entering, ordered supper and a bottle of wine, with a hot cake for breakfast in the morning! It was not till he had despatched this latter meal, and was looking at his guinea with pathetic aspect of farewell, that the truth was told him by the goodnatured squire.'-(Forster's Life.) This was a good foundation for a series of comic mistakes. But the excellent discrimination of character, and the humour and vivacity of the dialogue throughout the play, render this piece one of the richest contributions which has been made to modern comedy. The native pleasantry and originality of Goldsmith were never more happily displayed, and his success, as Davies records, 'revived fancy, wit, gaiety, humour, incident, and character, in the place of sentiment and moral preachment.' A Deception.-From 'She Stoops to Conquer.' LANDLORD of the Three Jolly Pigeons' and TONY LUMPKIN. LANDLORD. There be two gentlemen in a post-chaise at the door. They've lost their way upo' the forest, and they are talking something about Mr. Hardcastle. TONY. As sure as can be, one of them must be the gentleman that's coming down to court my sister. Do they seem to be Londoners? LAND. I believe they may. They look woundily like Frenchmen. TONY. Then desire them to step this way, and I'll set them right in a twinkling. [Exit Landlord.] Gentlemen, as they mayn't be good enough company for you, step down for a moment, and I'll be with you in the squeezing of a lemon. [Exeunt Mob from the Alehouse.] Father-in-law has been calling me a whelp and hound this halfyear. Now, if I pleased, I could be so revenged upon the old grumbletonian. But then I am afraid-afraid of what? I shall soon be worth fifteen hundred a year, and let him frighten me out of that if he can. Enter LANDLORD, conducting MARLOW and HASTINGS. MARLOW. What a tedious uncomfortable day have we had of it! We were told it was but forty miles across the country, and we have come above threescore. TONY. No offence, gentlemen; but I am told you have been inquiring for one Mr. Hardcastle in these parts. Do you know what part of the country you are in ? HAST. Not in the least, sir; but should thank you for information. TONY. Nor the way you came? HAST. No, sir; but if you can inform us TONY. Why, gentlemen, if you know neither the road you are going, nor where you are, nor the road you came, the first thing I have to inform you is that-you have lost your way. |