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She has no friend but me to plead her cause!
And shall she perish!-think you view her now
In early bloom of life, who never knew

The thoughts of guilt, ftretch'd on the fatal altar
In all the pangs of fuffering-think you fee
The life-warm blood gufh from her tender breast,
Hear the laft accents from her trembling lips,
Behold her dying eyes-but thou art pale!
Why look'd thou thus upon me!-O! my father!
I fee, I fee the gracious figns of pity;
Do not repent, my lord-indulge it ftill,
For never will I quit thefe facred feet

Till thou haft given the word to spare Ifmena.'

Timanthes in the fourth act reveals his marriage to Demophoon. Ifmena's vindication of him, and his vindication of Imena, are happily imagined by Metaftafio, and well expreffed by Mr. Hoole.

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Im. O mighty king! before your facred feet
Behold the cause of all—then from Timanthes
Avert your wrath, and let Ifmena bear
The punishment; 'tis ì, and I alone

Am guilty-think that I, with artful wiles,
Seduc'd him first to love, that I enforc'd him
With frequent tears to thefe forbidden nuptials.'

• Timan. Believe it not-fhe did not-no, by heaven, The deed was mine alone-with all the warmth

Of unremitted love I still purfu'd her :

A thousand times the banish'd me her fight,
As often I return'd-I vow'd, intreated,
But all in vain, till frantic with despair

I menac'd with a defperate hand my life.'

The whole scene and the next are tender and affecting.

In the fifth act the foliloquy of Timanthes in the prison is very moral and poetical: it is Metaftafio's. There is not a more nervous paffage in the play.

‹ Timan. Why should we covet life? What are its charms,
Since all degrees are wretched? Every state
Partakes of mifery in infancy

We tremble at a frown; in ripening youth
We're made the fport of fortune and of love :
In age we groan beneath the weight of years:
Now we're tormented with the thirst of gain,
And now the fear of lofs: eternal war
The wicked with themselves maintain; the just

P 3

With

With fraud and envy: all our schemes are fhadow
Vain and illufive as a fick man's dream,

Mr. Hoole avails himself of Olinthus, and brings him upon the stage. The fight of the child is undoubtedly a very natural and strong perfuafive to the reconciliation of the grand-father but this part, we think, ought rather to have been related than reprefented. In the dignity of tragedy, nature is to be adhered to; but her operations are not indifcriminately to be exhibited. The mind, which, in its calmer ftate is highly pleased with the humbler fweets of domestick life, is apt to find them infipid, and impertinent, when it is actuated by ftrong paffions, elevated by important events, and only intent on great objects.

This circumftance, however, would not hurt Timanthes, the ftill ftate of mind confidered in which the spectators nowa-days fit at a play. We frequent not the theatre to open our hearts to the author, but to see a favourite player. We are too diffipated even to be at the pains to feel. A pompous proceffion will atone for the want of invention; and the majeftic deportment of Mrs. Yates is a full fubftitute for the fublimity of Shakespeare.

What a pity it is that the divine Otway, who died for want, in the iron age of Charles II. had not lived now, to procure himself affluence in the golden days of George III.!

IX. The Amyntas of Taffo. Tranflated from the original Italian by Percival Stockdale. 8vo. Pr. 3s. 6d. Davies. IN paftoral poetry, an ideal reprefentation of life has been the favourite amufeinent of all ages and of all nations. The fentiments and manners of this fpecies of writing are fo far removed from reality, that paftoral life may be compared to a perfect character of the drama, which all admire, and all equally defpair to attain. The picture is agreeable, not on account of exact resemblance, but because we wish to imitate it, and have fome faint hopes of drawing near to the original. After the mind has been fatigued with the continual repetition of the fame fcenes of bufinefs or pleafure; when it has been oppreffed with the anxiety arifing from the reftlefs cares of ambition, or the more fordid purfuits of avarice; it willingly repofes itself on the fofter pleasures of rural fimplicity, and harmless ruftic mirth.

Homer reprefents Jupiter himself tired with looking down from Olympus on the dreadful carnage made by the Greeks and Trojans. He turns his eyes from that horrid fcene of blood and laughter, to view with complacency a harmless race of

men

men, who delight in acts of justice, and who live with primeval innocence and temperance.

Jove turn'd to Thracia, from the field of fight,
Those eyes that shed insufferable light,
To where the far-fam'd Hippomolgian strays,
Renown'd for juftice and for length of days.
Thrice happy race! that innocent of blood,
From milk innoxious feek their fimple food;
He fees delighted, and avoids the scene
Of guilty Troy, of arms, and dying men.

Pope's Homer.

The great model of paftoral poetry, and which all fucceeding poets are supposed to have imitated, is to be found in the writings of Theocritus.-His Doric mufe pleafes, from the great fimplicity of manners, and the eafy and happy turn of expreffion to be found in his celebrated Idyllions. But if Arcadia be fairly pictured by Theocritus, we cannot fuppofe its inhabitants very innocent or very happy; fince they are oftentimes described as full of obfcene mirth, low fcurrility, and not feldom guilty of the most brutal luft.-In giving a review of the Amyntas of Taffo, it will not be expected we should write an elaborate effay on paftoral poetry, in general: we shall only observe, that among all the writers of eclogues, ancient and modern, Mr. Pope poffeffes the firft place for chaftity of manners, elegance of expreffion, and harmonious verfification. We fuppofe with the criticks, that Spencer approaches nearer to the ruftic fimplicity of Theocritus; but our old poet is in his eclogues ftill more obfolete than in his Fairy Queen, and we are not fond of poring over an author by the help of a gloffary.

Gay has much fimplicity, and describes rural sports and rural love in an artless and happy manner.

From paftoral in general, we come to that fpecies of writing which is the bufinefs of this criticism.

The paftoral comedy is entirely of Italian growth: it was unknown to the Greeks and Romans. The marquis of Villa attributes to Torquato Taffo the invention of this fpecies of the drama. The author of Paftor Fido, under the feigned name of Verati, afferts, that Signior Becari, a citizen of Ferrara, was the first who gave to Italy the paftoral comedy. It is a question of no great importance; for in all probability the Sacrificio of Becari was a contemptible performance; as we know, from the annotations of the learned Menage upon the Amyntas of Taffo, that he could not, with the moft diligent fearch, procure a fight of it. So fond were the Italians of this

new comedy, that Clement Bartoli of Urbino is faid to have no less than eighty of them in his poffeffion.

The Gentle Shepherd of Allan Ramfey is the only paftoral comedy Great Britain has to boast of. That is indeed a mafter piece in its kind. It has the true Doric fimplicity in manners, customs, language, and action.

Mr. Gay wrote a paftoral tragedy called Dione, formed upon the Amyntas of Taffo; but he has had no fucceffor in that way of writing. Many of the ballad operas lately exhibited at our theatres have had a very happy mixture of pastoral life, particularly Love in a Village, and the Maid of the

Mill.

The tranflator of Amyntas appears to be a man of gepius and learning; his imagination is warm, and his expreffion vigorous. Taffo could not have wished for a better judge of his fpirit, ftyle, and taste. In a very animated preface, he draws a very faithful and ftriking picture of his favourite author,

The poem is deemed, by all good judges, excellent in its kind. It was written by one of the greatest poets the world ever faw, when his mind was in the maturity of its vigour, He was well acquainted with the best models of paftoral writ, ing; his foul felt their beauties; and as his feelings were delicate and comprehenfive, he was not a fervile imitator; he revered the laws of his predeceffors, and he caught their beauties; but he enriched his work with fentiments and pictures of his own tender and warm imagination. The Amyntas, therefore, may, in juft metaphor, be ftiled, a garland compofed of the choiceft flowers of Arcadia.'

Mr. Stockdale's zeal for Taffo carries him to great lengths, We queftion whether the public will juftify him in his con temptuous behaviour to Boileau, who is characterised severely by the title of contemptible French rhymer. This general charge will include the beft of the French poets, whofe power of verfification is confeffed to be inferior to Boileau's. The angry critic himself, as if willing to make amends for this fudden fally of ill humour, quotes Boileau's fine picture of a pedant brifiled all over with Greek, and full of Ariftotelian criticism.

But the tranflator might have paffed on quietly, perhaps, with his contempt of the Frenchman, had he not thrown down bis gauntlet, and boldly challenged the critics in two very extraordinary affertions, viz. that Pope's tranflation of Homer is of more value to an Englishman of tafte, than the original itself; and that Taffo is a greater poet than Virgil. We give the reader the words of the tranflator.

Taffo is a greater poet than Virgil. Pope will be admired as long as the English language is understood; and as

long

long as the human breaft glows, while it imbibes the facred flame of poetry. An Englishman, who is fenfible to the charms of the Mufes, and free from prejudice, not bristled with Greek, however profound a Grecian he may be, would not so much regret the lofs of the original Iliad, as of Pope's tranflation of that poem.'

His opinion of Pope's tranflation of Homer may be very juft; but an examination of that poftulatum does not belong to our fubject. We fuppofe Mr. Stockdale prefers Taffo to Virgil on account of his invention; perhaps too he is more charmed with the fire of Taffo, than the correct fpirit of Vir gil. By fome the Roman poet is degraded to a mere commentator upon Homer, but furely with very great injustice, The story of Dido is certainly his own; fo are many noble parts of that divine poem. Virgil excels all authors in two things, in the pathetic, and in his power of language.

How beautifully are the horrors of any battle or circumftance contrafted and foftened by the most tender and familiar ftrokes! We shall mention only one instance out of many that might be produced. The harsh and dreadful found of Alecto's trumpet strikes all that hear it with horror and astonish. ment. The poet, to diverfify the fcene, contrives to throw in that beautiful picture of an affrighted mother preffing her infant to her bofom.

Et timida matres pressere ad ubera natos.

The utmost excellence that any author could arrive at in the power of language, has been given to Virgil. Language, without vigour of fentiment, would be mere found. Elegance, ftrength, propriety, and fublimity, unite in the compofition of this excellent writer. We are afraid that here even Taflo himself would decline the conteft, and modeftly say,

Non ita certandi cupidus, quam propter amorem

Quod te imitari aveo,

After all, when we examine the merits of the two poets in point of invention, it may not be altogether fo clear that Taffo bears away the palm. Has Mr. Stockdale vifited the fountains from whofe fources Taffo drew his poetical draughts? He that has read with care those authors, of whom Mr. Pope fays, And all fuch writers as are never read,'

can beft tell how much Taffo has borrowed, and what is the juft proportion of his own native stock.

The Knights of the Round Table, the Twelve Peers of France, and a thoufand other volumes of chivalry and knighterrantry, were the grand stores from whence the epic Italians were continually borrowing. Nay, the very poets that preceded Taffo might, probably, hold the torch to him when he wrote his Jerufalem Delivered.

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