an invafion was expected from the united powers of France and Spain; but the managers, it feems, thought that this country might be defended by other means. The play is now published at the request of friends. The first act reprefents the Danes, flushed with victory, and in poffeffion of the kingdom of Weffex. Alfred's queen, Elvida, is their prifoner. Haldane, the Danish king, is enamoured of her beauty. Gunhilda, queen of Denmark, hears the tale, and is of course inflamed with jealoufy. So far the plot begins to thicken. Alfred, foon after, is feen making his efcape through devious paths; but he is not introduced with that fublimity of fentiment and diction with which Thom fon has adorned him; he finks, in this play, to the level of Mr. John Home's Alfred. In the fecond act, we have the epifodic love of Emma for Edwin, a young Saxon nobleman. The time for this is ill chofen; and the introduction of invisible spirits feems an imitation of Thomfon. Encouraged by celeftial ftrains, Elvida rejects the fuit of the Danish king. Gunhilda is roufed, by the perfidy of her husband, to a plan of vengeance and deftruction. Alfred is feen carrying logs of wood into a cottage. Elvida meets her father, Ethelred, a Saxon earl; and afterwards defends herself from Haldane, the Dane, by the stage trick of taking up the dagger which he lets fall. In the mean time a Saxon army begins to affemble, and, to favour their defigns, we are conveyed to Norway, where we are prefented with mountains of fnow and ice. Magicians and preternatural beings are introduced; but Shakespeare's magic cannot be copied. By the help of magic however we get back to England, and behold Alfred fhaping a bow at a cottage door. In a fhort time he joins the Saxon leaders. After this he feeks Elvida in the Danish camp, and there plays on his harp. Gunhilda, ftill burning with jealoufy, tampers with a witch. Alfred attacks the Danish camp, and kills Haldane. Gunhilda offers a poisoned bowl to Elvida, but in that moment Alfred enters. His queen is refcued; Gunhilda drinks the poifon and dies. In this manner, Alfred redeems his country. Such is the bufinefs of this play. The diction is not fo quaint as in fome late productions, but it does not any where rife to that dignified fimplicity which tragedy requires. A pretty engraving is given by way of frontispiece. Art. 31. The Conftant Maid; or, Poll of Plympton. A Mufical Entertainment, in two Parts. By the Author of the Birth-day. 8vo. Is. Bew. 1787. Most of our readers will remember this piece, as it was performed latt Summer at the Royalty Theatre. Mr. Bannister, Mr. Sedgwick, and Mifs George, contributed their joint affistance, and made it a favourite entertainment. It gave offence, however, to the managers of the winter theatres, and fome of the actors were profecuted as rogues and vagabonds. But legal objections are now removed, and Poll of Plympton may once more give delight to the Tower-Hamlets. Art. 32. A Match for a Widow; or, the Frolics of Fancy. A Comic Opera, in Three Acts. As performed at the Theatre-Royal, Dublin. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Dilly, in London. 1788. Whether this opera is the production of any of the very extraordinary geniufes who cater for the public tafte in London, we cannot say. fay. If not written on this fide of the water, the influence of fashion is rapid and extenfive; for, on opening the book, the first thing that occurred was the following fong, by an intriguing corporal in the character of a conjuror : Hocus, pocus, l'agremento, Rory tory, rantum fcantum, This certainly equals rigdum jigdum, haily gaily gamberailly, and the reft of the kind, with which the town has been of late years regaled at Covent-Garden theatre. Dean Swift used to advise the people of Ireland, to burn every thing that went from England, except the coals: if they adopt the hint, we would advise the wits of the country, to add all English farces and comic operas to the heap. To imitate trash and nonfenfe is too low a degradation. POETRY. Art. 33. The Ruffian Prophecy. A Poem, occafioned by a remark. able Phenomenon in the Heavens, obferved in Ruffia, Feb. 19, 1785. 4to. Is. 6d. Robinsons. 1787. These verses can answer no imaginable purpose, that we can conceive, except it be to encourage fuperftition. Art. 34. Peter's Penfion. A folemn Epiftle to a fublime Perfonage; with an Engraving, &c. By Peter Pindar, Efq. 4to. 3s. Kearsley. 1788. The report of the author's having accepted a penfion, although there was nothing in it, has furnished him with a fresh subject for a poem. With this prolific genius, a hint is fufficient, and he never lets the iron cool upon the anvil. 66 It should feem as though Squire Peter thought his My had not been done enough before, and therefore he now gives him another dreffing, nor do we fee any appearance of an end to this cookery-royal; yet furely the public will at length be cloyed with fo ftale a dish, roafted, broiled, ftewed, hafhed, and ferved up again and again-aye, and again and again! But is there nothing else about the court, nothing in the city, the fenate, the church, or the state, that will furnish a proper fucceffion of fubjects, and give more variety to the compofitions of this excentric fon of farcafm? Variety!" our fatirift will, perhaps, exclaim," is there any want of variety in my productions? is there a dearth of it even in this Solemn Epifile? have I not, in this fingle publication, beside the penfion business, given you a number of gentle fonnets, to prove that I have not a bard heart? and have I not entertained you with the ftories of farmer George's worried fheep, and alderman Skinner; of the K-g's hunting with parfon Young; of the dead dog and the orthodox divine ? and all to make you as merry in reading as I was in writing them then why the p- this complaint of the want of variety?" Cry your mercy, mafter Peter, your plea must be allowed: you have, it is confeffed, given, in this individual poem, various fpecimens of your poetic talents Talents in different kinds of compofition, and fome of them perfectly harmless we are, likewife, farther obliged to you for the humorous etching of a Great Perfonage offering a penfion to P. P. who turns from the gracious profferer, with a countenance of fuch comical indignation*, as cannot fail of adding another laugh to the number of those which the perufal of the verfes will certainly excite, if the reader has any rifibility in his compofition. After all, however, with refpect to the matter of penfion, Peter Pindar, Efquire, leaves us to question the conftancy of his refufal: witnefs the following couplet: I will not fwear, point-blank, I fhall not alter A faint my namesake-e'en was known to faulter!' But here arifeth a dilemma! If our poet should alter, he will be a poet no longer, for fo he has declared in his Epiftle to Brother Tom + :' • I cannot do without crown'd heads. Bards must have fubjects that their genius fuit, And if I've not crown'd heads, I must be mute.' Never fear, Peter, there can be no danger of a fatirist growing dumb, while there are corrupt ftatesmen, rapacious lawyers, ignorant doctors, profligate parfons, infidious parafites, daubing painters, filly poets, mouthing actors, mock patriots, gamelters, fops, and fribbles, in the world. Art. 35 The King's Ode; in anfwer to Peter Pindar on the Sub. ject of his Penfion. 4to. 2s. 6d. Stalker. 1788. If Peter is flanderous, this opponent of Peter's goes a great way farther, in the fame licentious paths: for he makes his Mwrite verses, such as not only St. James's, but St. Giles's, would be afhamed of. Art. 36. The Hiftory of Peter Pindar; from that memorable Æra when he received a found Thrafhing, down to the present Time. By Tom Fact. 4to. 2s. Stalker. 1788. This profeffed history confifts of invectives, in verfe, defigned to reprefent the famous fatirist who affumes the name of Peter Pindar, Efq. as a malignant fabricator of Hellish Lies,' &c. &c. &c. As to the hiftorical circumftances, they inform us only of Mr. Pindar's having formerly figured at a market town, in Cornwall, in the capacity of an apothecary; which fituation he was obliged to quit, in confequence of his having lampooned his worship the mayor; who cudgelled him, in reward of his ingenuity. This difafter, we are farther told, drove the unfortunate poet to London; where he took up the trade of libelling the great: by which, as this hiftorian beautifully expreffes it, he has fome money made.' This is a meagre bufinefs. The meaneft anecdote retailer to a news-paper could have told us a great deal more of Peter's private hiftory, Mr. Fact does not feem to know that his hero ever was a clergyman. *His averted, angry look, feems to indicate a refufal, couched in the language of his namefake to Simon Magus, Acts viii. 24. ↑ For an account of which, fee Review for last month, p. 439. Art. Art. 37. Derwent; an Ode. 4to. 6d. Longman. 1787. Of this unimportant performance, the following apostrophe to two pairs of little gentlemen, who, we believe, were never before apoftrophized, fhall ferve as a fpecimen : Hope calls; man no longer delays, Tilf at length on his happier days, Out of breath he looks back with regret. Double ff, I alone was to blame, When your perfons, in learning to spell, Art. 38. Althan and Galvina. A poetic Tale. B. J. I. 4to. is. The babes and fucklings of literature will here meet with a kind of panado perfectly fuited to their tafte. This, however, is a food of which they ought to be fomewhat sparing, or crudities will enfue. Art. 39. Laura; or the Fall of Innocence. A Poem. 4to. Is. 6d. Macklew. 1787. A paltry tale of feduction, we had almoft faid without either rhyme or reafon; but we believe there are two or three good rhymes, among a multitude of bad ones; but which, like a few grains of wheat in a bufhel of chaff, nobody will be at the pains to pick out. Art. 40. The Mithodion; or, a Poetical Olio. By a young Gen. tleman. 12mo. 2s. 6d. fewed. Gardner. 1788. What a bold young man! to dare, at the age of feventeen, tổ throw out his fneers at her most gracious majefty's maids of honour, and contemptuously to attack even the reviewers! How thefe court ladies will approve of fuch a chicken's pecking at their virginity, we, not having the honour of their acquaintance, will not pretend to fay; but as to ourselves, we can affure him that we have not the leaft objection to his pecking at our brains as long as he pleases; but let him take care how he offends us, for till he can produce a brat lefs rickety than the Micthodion, he may ftand in need of our go-cart. Owing to the flattery of friends, perhaps, he is elated with a full confidence of fuccefs; this confidence, however, fhould have been more concealed expreffions of contempt for criticism, if at all allowable in an old writer, are certainly improper, not to fay indelicate, in the mouth of an author in his teens. Can fo young a writer have the vanity to think that he has reached perfection? and, if not, why defpife the criticifing pates of those who may contribute to help him on towards it? We flatter ourselves we could make fuch remarks on this poetical olio, as might improve the genius of the author (for genius he has), and contribute to render him in future a more cor rect and valuable poet; but as he is abundantly too old to be taught, we will not be fo impertinent as to affume the office of his preceptors, and that we may not incur the cenfure even of attempting to mangle his poetical -Child, the fruit of num'rous woes, we we shall give an extract from the beginning of the best poem in the collection, and leave the readers to judge for themselves: Trite's the remark-" The universal aim Of man is HAPPINESS."-And who can blaine? Avaunt, ye fruitlefs ftudents! off! and know With great propriety is this little work entitled an OLIO: here are odes, fonnets, parodies, epitaphs, epigrams, tranflations, &c.; here wit and ferioufnefs, love and religion, prayers and kiffes, are blended together; here are fome pages which contain twenty lines, others containing only four, and others, to make the variety as great as poffible-nothing! Art. 41. Excurfions to Parnaffus; or, the Entertainment of a Summer's Vacation. By a Gentleman of the University of Cambridge. 4to. 2s. 6d. fewed. Deighton. 1787. The Among the numerous adventurers who are now daily making Excurfions to Parnaffus, fmall indeed is the number who bring back with them any flips of thofe rare plants, which fome of our former poets cultivated with fo much fuccefs, wIT and HUMOUR. genuine fpecies is now become fo fcarce, that we are very glad to take up with a baftard fhrub, fomewhat refembling the true, particularly in the power of producing, on a proper application, a temporary dilatation of certain muscles of the face. Of this plant, which is diftinguished in the Parnafian fyftem by the name of Fun, and which is often mistaken by thofe who have not ftudied this branch of natural history fcientifically, for one of the more valuable plants above mentioned, the writer of thefe poems, in his rambles along the lower fkirts of the mountain (for it does not appear that he has ever as yet vifited the fummit), has gathered a few fprigs; of which we had a very agreeable proof, in the hearty laugh afforded us by his Family Fracas. The tale is too long to be inferted entire, and we cannot think of fpoiling it by mutilation; we must therefore refer thofe readers who wish to partake of the joke, to the poem itfelf; at the fame time affuring them, that they may alfo expect from these Excurfions other entertainment, of a more ferious kind. The Ode to 3 Fancy, |