Novel-writing, in fhort, does not appear to be the gentleman's talent; but he is a good moralift, and a man of fenfe.-We therefore hope he will, for the future, make a more proper use of his literary abilities.

POLITICAL.

Art. 40. The Free-Briton's Memorial, to all the Freeholders, Citizens, and Rurgeffes, who elect the Members of the British Parliament, prefented in order to the effectual Defence of their injured Right of Election. 4to. I S. Williams.

Adminiftration is not only arraigned in this Memorial, on account of the Middlefex election, but for the late unfortunate proceedings with regard to the colonies. This is a warm writer; but he has fome obfervations which deferve the Reader's cool reflection.

Art. 41. The True Intention of Dr. Mufgrave's Addrefs to the FreeI S. Kobinson and Roberts. bolders of Devonshire. 8vo. Represents the affair of Mufgrave's Addrefs, as all a vile plot-the wicked machination of a daring and defperate party,-and that there has been a fecret understanding between D'Eon and the Doctor, who have acted in concert, in order to amufe the credulous public, and ferve the purposes of a diabolical faction. This does not, at prefent, feem very probable.

Art. 42. Pafquin, a new allegorical Romance on the Times: with the Fortyfivead, a burlefque Poem. Published by the Editor, Thomas 2 Vols. Rowe, Efq; 12mo. 5 s. fewed. Bladon.

A fatirical reprefentation of the conduct of Wilkes and the Wilkites; written in a strange fultian style, and breathing a most rancorous fpirit against the popular party. Wilkes a Devil! Churchill a Devil! Horne a Devil!-BUTE, WEYMOUTH, GRAFTON, &c. Angels of Light!For the Author, let his Readers pronounce.

Art. 43. A Letter from a Member of Parliament to one of his Conflituents, on the late Proceedings of the Houfe of Commons in the Middlefex Elec66 1 he tions. With a Poftfcript, containing fome Obfervations on Cafe of the late Election for the County of Middlesex confidered.” 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Hingefton.

We confider this as the most argumentative piece that hath yet appeared on the popular fide of this very important question. If the minifterial writers cannot invalidate the Author's reafoning, they must give up the point; and the conftitutional rights of the collective body of the people will for ever remain triumphant.

The animadverfions in the poftfcript, on the pamphlet entitled The Cafe*, &c. highly merit the attention of the ingenious writer of the -last-mentioned performance.

Art. 44. Vox Populi Vox Dei. Lord Weymouth's Appeal to a General Court of India Proprietors confidered.

and Urquhart.

4to. 6d. Richardfon

Contains fome very ftriking remarks on the probable ill confequences of admitting the king's officers to interfere in the proceedings of the East India company. In the greater national view, likewife, he ftrongly intimates the danger of opening the treasures of the eastern world to the crown [i. e. the miniftry] of Great Britain.-It is the work of a fenfible and folid Writer, (to us utterly unknown) whofe experience in the conduct of the company's affairs in the Eaft, appears to have enabled him to form a right judgment of their true interefts.

POETICA L.

Art. 45. Hymns, adapted to Divine Worship: In two Books. Book I. Derived from feled Paffages of Holy Scriptures. Book II. Written on facred Subjects and particular Occafions. Partly collected from various Authors, but principally compofed by Thomas Gibbons, D. D. 12mo. 3 s. Buckland, 1769.

Of the numerous compofitions of this kind, by writers of different perfuafions among us, thefe, by Dr. Gibbons, are not the meanest, —though we cannot rank them with the hymns of Addison or Watts.

SHAKESPEARE'S JUBILE E.

Art. 46. An Ode upon de icating a Building, and erecting a Statue, to Shakespeare, at Stratford upon Avon. By D. G. 4to. 15. 6d.

Becket.

This ode, though not intended as a mere vehicle for mufic, fhould not be brought to the test of fevere criticifm, as a literary performance intended for the difpaffionate leifure of the clofet.

The Author wrote part of it for his own elocution, and part for mufic; for thofe parts which, in compofitions of the like kind, have been condemned to be neither fung nor faid, in what is called Recitative, he fpoke; which, as may easily be imagined, produced a very great effect.

He is known to be peculiarly happy in catching and improving hints from local and temporary circumstances, and, perhaps, the ode before us is the greateft example of this rare felicity that he ever gave; fo that, taking it for all in all, it may be the best that could poffibly have been produced upon the occafion.

One inftance of the Author's kill appears in the beginning of this performance. Shakespeare is not named till the 30th verse, yet every preceding line contributes to his being there named with advantage.

To what Genius' fays he, fhall Gratitude erect the temple and the ftatue? does not the heart confefs its lord! It is he who trod the flowery margin of the Avon, while Nature directed his path, and fportive Fancy, in wanton circles, flew round him: but before our joy breaks out in the fafcinating ftrains of mufic, let Silence, for a moment, hold us in awful fufpence; then let Rapture fweep the firings,

and

and Fame, with all her tongues, pronounce SHAKESPEARE! SHAKESPEARE! SHAKESPEARE !'

The repetition of the name, fo long deferred, and the immediate joining in of other voices and mufic, produced the effect he intended, and gratified his utmost hope.

In the prologue which Mr. Garrick fpoke when he firft became a patentee, and which was written by his celebrated friend Mr. Samuel Johnson, are these verses:

"Each scene of many-colour'd life he drew,
Exhaufted worlds and then imagin'd new,
Exiftence faw him fcorn her bounded reign,

And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.

This thought is happily adopted in the ode, and is in fome meafure made new by contrafting Shakespeare with Alexander:

Tho' Philip's fam'd unconquer'd fon,
Had ev'ry blood-ftain'd laurel won ;
He figh'd-that his creative word,
(Like that which rules the fkies,)
Could not bid other nations rife,
To glut his yet unfated fword:

But when our Shakespeare's matchless pen,
Like Alexander's sword, had done with men ;

He heav'd no figh, he made no moan,

Not limited to human kind,

He fir'd his wonder- teeming mind,

Rais'd other worlds, and beings of his own!

The Author then wishes for one fpark of Shakespear's 'mufe of fire,"

that he might tell

How fitting on his magic throne,

Unaided and alone,

In dreadful ftate,

The fubject paffions round him wait;

Who tho' unchain'd, and raging there,

He checks, inflames, or turns their mad career;

With that fuperior skill,

Which winds the fiery fteed at will,

He gives the awful word—

And they, all foaming, trembling, own him for their lord.

With thefe, his flaves, he can controul,

Or charm the foul;

So realiz'd are all his golden dreams,

Of terror, pity, love, and grief,

Tho' confcious that the vifion only feems,

The woe-ftruck mind finds no relief.

In these lines there is great ardour of imagination; and the Author was not at leifure to confider that he attributed to all the paffions what could be proper or true only with refpect to fome; or that the. paffions which fhould have been exhibited on this occafion, are those which the Poet excites, rather than thofe he reprefents. Raging, is a fit word to fignify the excefs of jealoufy, hatred, or indignation; but

not

not of pity, or forrow, or love: as thefe paffions cannot with propriety be faid to rage, much lefs can they with propriety be faid to foam. The paflions which Shakespeare commands are principally terror and pity, and thefe fhould not have been confounded, by an indifcrimate imputation of the fame attributes. This ardour has alfo betrayed him into the impropriety of giving the epithet of golden to the dreams of Terror as well as to thofe of Love, and reprefenting the mind as woeftruck by a golden dream of love, as well as by a golden dream of grief. Perhaps, however, the epithet golden might be used to exprefs the excellence of Shakespeare's fictions, and not their fpecies. It may alfo be remarked, that there is no proper oppofition between the words controul and charm. To charm is to controul by power more than natural; it is alfo to delight, but, taken in that fenfe, the mind that is charmed is controuled by the power of the charmer; and the foul that is delighted in this verfe, is woe-ftruck in the next but three.

The following air is very poetical, efpecially the thought in the fourth verfe, which is repeated in the laft:

Though crimes from death and torture fly,
The fwifter mufe,

Their flight pursues,

Guilty mortals more than die!
They live indeed, but live to feel
The fcourge and wheel,

"On the torture of the mind they lie;

Should harrafs'd nature fink to reit,

The poet wakes the fcorpion in the breaft,
Guilty mortals more than die!

In the next ftanza, Shakespeare is reprefented as a magician, fired by charms, and spells, and incantations; but there is fome incongruity in this image; a magician is not the fubject of charms and fpells, and incantations, but the agent that employs them.

The Author then, by a natural and pleafing transition, exhibits the comic powers of Shakespeare; and, in this instance, he has almoft rivalled the humour of the great mafter he celebrates.

His reprefentation of the birth of Falstaff from the brain of Shakefpeare, his calling him first a Mountain, as a contrast to the Moufe which a Mountain was faid to bring forth, and then a World, and his illuftration, by obferving that Falstaff and the World are both of them round and wicked, would do honour to any imagination.

While Fancy, Wit, and Humour spread
Their wings, and hover round his head,
Impregnating his mind,

Which teeming foon, as foon brought forth,
Not a tiny fpurious birth,

But out a mountain came,

A mountain of delight!

Laughter roar'd out to fee the fight,

And Falftaff was his name!

With fword and fhield he, puffing, ftrides;

The joyous revel-rout

Receive him with a fhout,

And

And modest Nature holds her fides:
No fingle pow'r the deed had done,
But great and fmall,

Wit, Fancy, Humour, Whim, and jeft,
The huge, mifshapen heap imprefs'd;
And lo-SIR JOHN!
A compound of 'em all,

A comic world in ONE.

A I R.

A world where all pleafures abound,
So fruitful the earth,

So quick to bring forth,

And the world too is wicked and round.

As the well-teeming earth,,
With rivers and fhow'rs,
Will fmiling bring forth
Her fruits and her flow'rs;
So Falstaff will never decline;
Still fruitful and gay,

He moiftens his clay,

And his rain and his rivers are wine;
Of the world he has all, but its care;
No load, but of flesh, will he bear;
He laughs off his pack,

Takes a cup of old fack,

And away with all forrow and care.

Upon this occafion it may be obferved, that the advantage of speaking his own compofition, much more than counterbalanced any fuperiority in correctness or beauty that might have been found in the compofition of another.

A man always has images and conceptions antecedent to terms; the exhibiting thefe images and conceptions forcibly and precifely, in another mind, is what he labours to effect, not by the terms only, but by that pronunciation and manner which faithful Nature always fuggefts, when the images and fentiments are first conceived, and which Garrick preferves till the repetition: but a man who speaks the compofition of another, very often fubftitutes no image under the terms; perhaps feldom, perhaps never, the very fame, with all its circumftances, which the term was intended to convey; he therefore can be prompted to no aid of the term, as expreflive of that image, by tone, gefture, or afpect. Every man has a peculiar manner, always natural and expreflive, of conveying, jointly, by word, afpec, and gesture, fuch ideas as he is able to conceive; but no man can have acquired a peculiar manner of expreffing ideas which he is not able to conceive: when therefore he is to exprefs fuch ideas, he must become a mere creature of imitation, and adopt the manner peculiar to fome other, or attempt a fantastic and imaginary excellence, by the rules that have been abfurdly given for producing what no rules can produce.

To this Ode are added feveral teftimonies to the genius and merit of Shakespeare, from the writings of Ben Johnfon, Milton, Dryden,

Pope,