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the moment, and without the advantages of after thought, and leisure corrections. In naming The Bride's Dirge, and The Funereal Wreath, we feel confident of our readers' acquiescence in our praises, and of their deserved estimation of those superior poems.

"A Truant from the Pencil to the Lyre," in the pamphlet now under review, Mr. Lewis has for awhile forsaken his homage of the Muse of Painting, for the worship of the Muse of Poetry, to pour his tributary lament over the bier, where Britain's Princess sleeps the sleep of death.-In selecting this as the only work of a similar nature for critical investigation, we have been actuated partly by a wish to make this public record of our sentiments, and partly influenced by the very unpresuming prologue of the author, in introducing the Poems themselves. * 1 was not nurs'd 'neath cla-sic domes,

Where Isis rolls or Camus glides, And the fair flower of learning blooms, Like Summer blossom on their sides."

We are, however, far from wishing our readers to infer that this offering at the shrine of royalty is without faults, or that it answers our ideas of what such an offering ought to be, tont au contraire, though the author's undissembled modesty would atone for errors less venial than those which here rise in judgment against its beauties. In the space of twenty-eight pages, there are nine Poems, all on the same distressful occasion; and from the fifth of these, entitled "An Irregular Ode," we give the following extract, as affording a favourable specimen of the poetic

talents of Mr. Lewis.

"Yet when we look'd towards Claremont's bower,

And thought upon that lovely flower,
We had forgotten the stern power
Which level's beauty's form:
As if we had believed that Death
Would surely spare so dear a breath,
With Youth and Beauty warmn."
"Whate'er we dream'd, we waked to know
The nation's loss,--the Prince's woe;
The tide of men in gloom array'd,
Britain's fair Daughter clad in shade,
While the deep sounds which meet our ear,
Seem'd mourning with a grief sincere."
"Where's the line of long succession,
Mingling with unnumber'd years?
Broken by one sad digression,-
Gone for ever with our tears!

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Many of the other lines are superior, and many are inferior to this quotation; but forming an opinion of those Funereal Poems, we have not seen, by those we have seen, it is our decided opinion that Mr. Lewis holds a very respectable rauk among those votaries of the muse, who have celebrated our national sor rows in the language of Parnassus, In the language of the heart those sorrows have a more durable inemorial; and memory itself must fail, before it yields the impression of what we so lately enjoyed, and what we now deplore. Every mention of her beloved name,-every allusion to her untimely fate, awakens afresh those agonising recollections, and those bitter regrets, which placing before our mental vision, the value of what we so vainly mourn, recalls us to the sad reality of that be reavement, which though our earthly trust,-Her eternal gain! loss, is, we fondly and confidently

"Encompass'd in an Angel's frame

An Angel's virtues lay,

Too soon did Heaven assert the claim,
And call its own away.

And Royal CHARLOTTE's peerless charms Can never more return! What now shall fill her LEOPOLD's arms? His buried CHARLOTTE's urn!" GENERAL BURGOYNE. With this partial, but sincere approval, we trust Mr. Lewis will feel satisfied. Upon such an occasion it would be invidious to point out defects, and we are persuaded, that he would not accept as a compliment, any praise which we could not honestly and conscientiously bestow.

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A Treatise on the Science of Ship-Building, together with Observations on the British Navy. By Isaac Blackburn, Ship-builder, Plymouth. In One Volume Quarto, illustrated with upwards of Ninety Figures. pp. 184. Price 11. 5s. in Boards.

A WORK upon so noble and complicated a department of machinery as is that of Ship-Building, must, independent of every national sensation, excite considerable interest, and claim the serious attention of every man of

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cience; and the investigation of the merits and defects of a work, embracing all the subject is capable of affording, must be an undertaking of no trivial difficulty.

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The exertion, however, of any great mathematical knowledge is not rendered necessary in reviewing the Treatise before us; for in place of a geometrical delineation of the curves and positions of the different parts of a vessel, with demonstrations of their fitness for overcoming the resistance of the medium in which it moves, by its usual impelling power, the Author has no further entered into the subject, than is sufficient, generally, to elucidate various experiments, that to have been conducted with great skill and accuracy, for determining the forms in which a vessel may be built, so as to procure it the greatest possible velocity; and, consequently, the investigation is more directed to the mode of building Ships of War, than to the construction of Merchant Vessels. These enquiries, in which there are many curious particulars, we regret we have not room to insert, occupy about two thirds of the volume; the remainder is filled up with a very elaborate enquiry into the causes of the Dry Rot, and other circumstances which have lately caused such great havoc in our Navy; and we certainly think that the great pains and ability with which Mr. Blackburn has attempted to arrest the progress of these terrible foes, entitle his work to every encouragement it can meet with, and himself to the best thanks of every lover of his country.

W. T.

Scripture
The Bible Class Book; or
Readings for every Day in the Year:
being Three Hundred and Sixty-five

Lessons, selected from the most in-
structive and improving Parts of the
Sacred Scriptures. Adapted to the
Use of Schools and Families.

pp. 544.

12mo.

IT has frequently occured to us, that a judicious selection from the Sacred Volume, might restore Scripture reading to that general use in schools, which, in former times, the BIBLE held, to the exclusion, almost, of all other books. Our ideas upon this subject appear to be so fully embodied in the work before us, that we most cordially wish for it that success, the im

portance of its object so justly de-
mands, and the execution of the plan
seems so fully to warrant.

The most pious, as well as the most
learned men, have successfully argued
against the indiscriminate reading of
the Scriptures by children, or by minds
wholly uninformed, though of maturer
age; and common observation must
have shewn us the languor and listless-
ness with which those classes of society
are found to wade through the heavy
chapters which they have accidentally
pitched upon, and eventually laying
down their Bible, without feeling any
of those sensations of comfort or im-
provement, which they would not have
failed to experience, had their atten-
tion been drawn to those parts that
were within their comprehension, and
more immediately interesting to their
minds This objection seems to be
wholly removed by the work before us:
the regular succession of the Bible,
through its various books and chapters
is followed: the four Gospels are
harmonized into one beautiful history,
and nothing left out, as far as our op
portunities of comparison have led us
to investigate, which could excite the
interest, or improve the mind of the
reader-the omissions being either of
parts that are redundant, or passages
that are objectionable or unessential.
We do therefore think that this volume
might be introduced in our Sunday
Schools, and other religious establish-
ments with the very best effect, and
put into the hands of artizans, and other
persons in the ordinary classes of life,
whether old or young, with the most
well-founded hopes of success; whilst
others, be their stations ever so ex-
alted, or their education ever so culti-
vated, might resort to this volume as a
manual, containing, in its fairest and
most inviting form, that which cannot
fail, if properly received, to excite our
conduct
attention, and guide our
through this life, and secure our sal-
vation in the life to come.

Errors of Pronunciation, and Improper Expressions, used frequenily and chiefly by the Inhabitants of London; to which are added those in similar Use, chiefly by the Inhabitants of Paris. Small Svo.

Our good friends the Cockneys expond many a three and sixpence much more uselessly than they would by the purchase of this small publication.

The author attributes the prevalence of most of those inaccuracies, which we hear in the general circle of society, not to the want of knowing belter, but from mere habit, from the fear of appearing pedantic, and from the necessary association and intercourse that takes place between us, and the inferior classes of society, to whom it would sometimes be difficult to make ourselves understood, were we not, in some degree, to assimilate our language to theirs we fear there is much truth in this, but we likewise think that the same pains taken to correct the language of our inferiors, that we thus bestow on vitiating our own, would be a very commendable improvement; and if the author of this neatly printed volume achieves this, even in a degree as he thinks he may, he will have deserved well of two classes of society-As to the obdurately vulgar, or the incorrigible Cockney, they must be left to their fate; the latter will doubtless be pleased to find that their neighbours on the other side of the water, are equally open to similar improprieties of speech. One half of the work being devoted to Parisian Cockneyisms, by which it appears, that our rivals in the polite, are no less so in the vulgar. It

ON

is impossible to read through this book without reproaching ourselves with many a failing, and the absurdity of them have excited a frequent smile, as we are herein reminded of them. Such, for instance, as I'm a coming, a going, &c., instead of I am coming, &c. Airy, for area; beadle, for beetle; bile, for boil; berren, for a funeral; common shore, for common sewer; drownded, for drowned; fainted away, for fainted; learn, for teach; necessiate, for néces sitale; sparrow-grass, and grass, for asparagus; winder, for window; and an innumerable list of others, which the author points out and explains with a pointed effect, In noting that chemise is now generally spoken for shift, he says, prudery and affectation first gave rise to the idea that it was improper for a lady to say shift: why should it be less decent than to talk of a shirt? It is ridiculous to suppose that by putting it into a foreign language the word is rendered more chaste. The mania of adopting French expressions has very much increased lately; and it is much to be feared, that our ladies may, in time, think themselves authorised to utter, in that language, which they would blush to hear the sound of in their own.

THEATRICAL JOURNAL.

DRURY-LANE.

N Monday, Dec. 15, the grand historical play of" Richard Dake of York," was performed at this Theatre, being a compilation from Shakespeare's Henry VI.; where the contention between York and Lancaster first bursts forth, until the defeat of the former by the Queen. The piece is overloaded with this mass of incident which bears it down; one plot comes close upon the heels of another, which are chiefly unfolded in narrative. Kean, as the Duke of York, sustained the principal weight of the play; we thought him, in many scenes, unusually great. May wood personated the King, with judgment and correctness, and gave to the soliloquy, upon the field of battle, a pathos which would have been creditable to an older and more experienced actor. Mrs. Glover, as Queen Margaret, shewed a just conception of the charac ter. Mr. Rae bad but little to do in

the restricted part of Suffolk, but that little was ably performed, particularly in the parting scene with Margaret, after his banishment had been pronounced by the King. The labours of Oxberry and Harley might be spared in a considerable degree, for neither Jack Cade nor Peter are very amasing characters. in the manner they are here introduced, but seem brought in for the purpose only of giving a smack of the original. The "acting" part of the Piece was well conducted throughout. The dresses were superb, and the performance was well received by a more crowded house than we have witnessed this season.

Dec. 26. A new Pantomimic Ro. mance, entitled "Harlequin Vision, or The Feast of the Statue"--succeeded® this evening, the tragedy of "George Barnwell." It is founded on the story of Don Juan, and comprises the leading adventures of that celebrated libertine;

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but it differs from the original in this, that the whole is supposed to be a dream, which Mercury has conjured up in order to warn Don Juan from his evil courses. The pantomime commences with a view of the council hall of Pluto, which is exceedingly well painted, and has a novel and striking effect. The father of Don Juan appears before the infernal tribunal-and in consequence of his earnest prayer, Mercury is dispatched to earth, and proceeds to Don Juan's garden, whom he discovers" in his flow r-woven arbour," sleeping away the fumes of his last debauch. He waves his caduceus over the head of Don Juan, and produces the extraordinary dream which forms the business of the pantomime. Don Juan, alias Harlequin in imagination, murders the Commandant-flies his countrymakes love to all the women he meetsand is finally surprised at a feast by the Commandant's ghost. He is taken across the Styx by that grim ferry man, whom poets talk of"—and is about to be consigned to the Tartarian gulf, when Mercury appears and dissolves the charm. The astonished Don Juan awakes, and finds 'twas but a dream." It has, however, such a powerful effect on his mind, that he repents. of his former follies--begs forgiveness of his wife, Donna Elvira, whom he had abandoned-and, accompanied by her, proceeds to the Palace of Pleasure, where all the Heathen Gods and Goddesses receive the happy pair with shouts of congratulation.- Much fancy is displayed in the arrangement of this pantomime. The scenery is beautiful, and the tricks amusing. Productions of this description are necessarily hurried forward, and to that hurry we attribute the want of celerity and accuracy in producing some of the transformations, in changing one or two of the scenes, which, for a moment, damped the pleasure of the audience. A very little practice will prevent the recurrence of sach aukward mistakes; and these being avoided, the pantomime must prove a source of considerable amusement to those who are fond of this species of exhibition. Amongst the best tricks in the piece was the transformaion of an old woman into a table and ascouple of chairs. It was cleverly managed, and created much laughter. The transformation of a chest into a sof, on which the Clown seats himseif, and which is immediately afterwads

converted into a kitchen grate, with a fire briskly burning in it, which gives the Clown an unpleasing hint, a posteriori, was also cleverly executed A tournament scene, in which the combatants are deprived of their heads and legs, displayed considerable ingenuity. The Clown formed a sort of army out of the disjoined materials, by placing a head on each pair of legs, and setting the trunks upright. This extraordinary battalion, one half consisting of heads and legs, the other of bodies and thighs, paddled off the stage with more gravity than grace. The puble were, on this occasion, gratified with two Harlequins and two Columbines. The former were represented by Mr. Ridgway and Mr. Hartland, the latter by Miss Tree and Miss Valancy. They displayed unwea ried activity throughout the eveningand entered into the spirit of the enter tainment so completely, that the bustle of the scene was never suffered to subside. Miss Valancy danced a lively pas seul in a very animated and graceful manner. Mr. Paulo's Clown is excel lent. He went through the various comic evolutions which form the ess sence of the character, with extraordinary vigour. The scenery is painted in a manner highly honourable to the talents of the artists employed in that department. The Palace and Gardens of Don Pedro-Don Juan's Villa-and the interior of a Banquet Saloon-are equal to any specimens we ever saw iu that branch of painting. The music, by Mr G. Lanza, is composed in a better style than generally characterises pantomime music. It is, we think, of too refined a description to please the lovers of pantomime-who are rarely contented unless the trumpet, bassoon, trombone and double-drum, are constantly in requisition. The pantomime was well received by a very crowded audience.

Dec. 29. Southern's tragedy of "Oroonoko" was represented at this theatre on Saturday. In the absence of Kean, the principal character was sustained by Mr. Wallack. The reputation which the former gentleman has carned in this part is certainly not so eminent as to render it hazardous for the latter to stand in competition with him. Oroonoko is too humble in his ambition, too weak in his love, too unsteady in his misfortunes, to associate with the ardent genius of Kean. The chain of slavery bows down his

ner that will never be surpassed in that, or in any other character, we saw Mr. Johnston to a great disadvantage. Nor did his style of acting remove our first impression. The energy was rather an exaggeration of force than the outbursting of strong passions ; and in the action and gesticulation there was more of theatrical melo-drame than of nature.

JAN. 20. The "Belle's Stratagem" was revived this evening, and a young Lady of the name of Smithson, from the Dublin Theatre, made her first ap

mind as well as his body, and though the aspirations of that mind are naturally noble, they yield to the dictates of his destiny with less reluctance than becomes a man who has once felt his right to liberty. Such a being can never find a faithful representative in Kean, whose peculiar power is to pourtray those mighty combats among the passions which wayward circumstances enkindle, and to exhibit not such a soul as Oronooko's, shrinking within the measure of its chains, but a soul resolved to burst them asunder. It happearance in London as Letitia Hardy. pens, therefore, fortunately for Mr. Wallack, that full possession of this character has not been yet engrossed by a popular actor, and the more so, because he seems destined to make it his own property if he please. His performance this evening was by far the most successful exertion we have yet seen him make. There was uniform propriety in his conception, and in his colouring copiousness without superfluity.

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DEC. 30. A Young Lady made her first curtesy, or rather bow, London audience, in the Widow Brady. This choice of a part for debut evinces at least one requisite for the stage-modest assurance; and we rejoice to say, that the young lady displayed, through out the piece, the most ample possession of this qualification, of which it is but justice to add, there is no deficiency among the female performers of Drury Lane. Her body is scarcely so well suited as her mind to exhibition in male attire, but with a pleasing countenance and voice (though the latter is rather faint and indistinct) she went tolerably spiritedly through the character. JAN. 16. This evening the "Children in the Wood" was revived, with Mr. H. Johnston as Walter. With a vivid recollection of the inimitable Bannister in this part, and especially on that night on which he took his leave of the stage, and, excited by his feelings on the occasion, performed it in a man

1917.

As far as we can decide, she promises to be an acquisition to the company. Her person is tall and well formed; her countenance is handsome. She is naturally graceful in her action, but perfectly capable of assuming the awkwardness which some of the situations required. The chief objection which we felt to her performance applies to that branch of the character, if we may be allowed the expression, which perhaps, upon the whole, she performed the best we allude to the broad comic part. This appeared to us, in some instances, a little overacted; it was, however, conceived and executed with spirit. The speaking voice is rather distinct than powerful, and she gave the song of "Where are you going my pretty Maid" in a style more remarkable for humour than sweetness. do not mention it as in either sense enhancing much the merit of her first undertaking. The Minuet de la Cour was substituted for the song at the masquerade, and her fine figure and graceful movements were displayed to advantage. A little more acquaintance with our Theatres, and confidence in herself, will probably encourage her to higher efforts, and qualify her to assume no inconsiderable rank in the profession she has selected. Mr. Dowton's Hardy was of course admirable, and the play was announced for repetition with applause.

PERFORMANCES.

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6. Lilipat-Tale of Mystery-Ditto.
7. Lilipot-Irish Widow-Ditto.

9. New Way to pay Old Debts-Ditto.

Europ. Mag. Vol. LXXIII. Jan. 1818.

1818.

We

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