His chief strength obviously lies in the gay and ludicrous styles, and to those, therefore, we advise him to confine himself. Some of his Scraps, as he calls them, which consist of epigrams and burlesque pieces, are pointed and laughable. We will give two specimens: the point of the first is merely a pun; but the pun as not a bad one.

EPIGRAM.

“At tea with some ladies, a Newmarket "Squire

Rose to hand round the toast, which long stood at the fire-
The touch burnt his fingers -he stamped and he swore,
And quitting his hold, dropt the whole on the floor!
The ladies all laughed-but, young Turf cried, elate,
Well-the HEAT I have gained, tho' it seems lost the PLATE.”
"REVENGE, OK FATHERĻY KINDNESS.
"A vixen wife, who felt the horsewhip s sinart,
Ran to her father-begged he'd take her part,

What was your fault?" said he, come, state the case.
I threw some coffee in my husband's face,

For which he beat me!'- Beat you! did he! 'S'life!
He beat my daughter! Zounds! I'll beat his wife!
If, for such faults, he gives my dear child pain,
Come but his wife-I'll flog her home again!"

NOVEL

ART. 13. Alicia de Lacy; an historical Romance. By the Author of "The Loyalists," &c. 4 vols. 12mo. pp. 1380. Longman.

To begin to censure, before we have read further than the first page of a work, may, perhaps, be considered as manifesting a spirit of cavil and severity, by which, we flatter ourselves, we are not inspired. Yet, whatever may be said of it, we must begin in that manner; and plainly declare that, as soon as we looked at Mrs. West's title page, we found a cause for being displeased. Her work is denominated" an historical romance, and to that species of romance we have insuperabe objections. Qur dislike does not originate in caprice, but in principle. We consider the words "historical" and "romance" as at hostility with each other, and utterly irreconcileable. Indeed, we know not how they can well be looked on in any other light, except by those who are of Sir Robert Walpole's opinion, that history itself is a tissue of falshoods. From that opinion, however, we differ; and, therefore, must enter our protest against blending. and confounding together historical truth and romantic fiction each of which ought to be rigidly restrained within its own peculiar province. When they are mingled, it is almost impossible

on,

for

for any one, except the careless skimmers over of romances, to prevent the fictitious from, in some measure, involuntarily identifying itself in their memory with the real one, and thus

forming a confused and unfaithful Pistorical personages as at

we consider the choice

i

all advantageous to an author, whether considered with regard to himself, or to his readers. Such a choice necessarily operates as a heavy clog upon the fancy. In the fear of too far violating probability or recorded facts, it compels him to reject much which might excite a very powerful interest. On the reader it produces still more unfavourable effects. If he have not a previous knowledge of the personages, he proceeds with doubt and hesitation, anxious to refer to the originals, that he may learn how far their portraits resemble them: if he be already master of their history, the matter is still worse; he knows the catastrophe, and thus loses the delight of expecting and imagining it, and he is every moment shocked by some deviation from authentic documents, or some reasoning, which clashes with his own preconceived notions, as to motives and actions. In neither case can he surrender up his mind to that illusion, which, momentary though it be, must be submitted to, before any romantic story can be really attractive. The perusal of Alicia de Lacy has afforded us a fresh proof of the correctness of our reasoning. As soon as we

1.

anxiety with respect to his few the name of the hero, our

was at an end. We knew that, whatever he might suffer, and whatever he might dare, his doom was irrevocably fixed.

In her preface, Mrs. West, as might be expected, maintains a diametrically opposite doctrine to our own. But we must be allowed to say, that the ground which she has taken is quite untenable. At the same time, seemingly conscious of the impropriety of mixing with truth, she has added to her work a chapter, for the purpose of minutely pointing out her wanderings from history. This disenchanting chapter, into which probably not one reader in a hundred will ever look, is an aukward 'contrivance. It reminds us too strongly of the wise precautions of Bottom, in the Midsummer Night's Dream. "If you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life: No, I am no such thing; I am a man as other men are; and there, indeed, let him name his name; and tell them plainly, he is Snug the joiner."

Among other disagreeable changes, the heroine is at one stroke converted from a virtuous, though not strong-minded, character, to one of the most despicable of human beings. With respect to the eighth earl of Warren and Surrey, who acts a conspicuous part, we are informed that there is "no pretence for implicating him in the murder committed by the seventh

aud

and the reader must consider this as an adventitious exaggeration of an odious character which the author found convenient." Now, however odious may be the character of the eighth earl of Surrey, we have more than doubts as to the propriety of gratuitously attributing to him the crimes of his predecessors. This is neither poetical justice, nor any other kind of justice with which we are acquainted.

Two more objections we must make. The first objection is, to Mrs. West's introduction of extracts from Rapin; the second is, to her putting into the mouth of one of her heroes, language which every Englishman knows to have been used by a hero of later date. The words of the sublime signal given by Lord Nelson, previous to the battle of Trafalgar, are, with scarcely any variation, made a portion of a speech delivered by the Earl of Lancaster. There is something abhorrent to our feelings in Mrs. West's, thus appropriating the last spirit stirring exhortation of the glorious Nelson.

The principal characters are the Earl of Lancaster, and Alicia de Lacy, the heroine. The former is depicted as

"Blessed with great personal talents and accomplishments; educated at the university of Padua in all liberal learning; solemn yet prepossessing; a warrior and a patriot; dignified and courteous, rather than gay and gallant in his behaviour to ladies. in fine, a man on whom England turned a longing eye; and, glancing from him to their present sovereign, wished that it could be proved, that some night-tripping fairy had exchanged the children as they lay.""

Added to this, his figure was noble, his countenance expressive, and his air supereminently graceful.

Alicia is drawn with a skilful hand. Entirely devoted to an only son, her superstitious mother, we are told,

"Left her daughter to accompany her father in his field sports, or to waste her leisure in the dangerous society of mercenary, low-minded dependants, listening to their designing flattery, or studying those false allurements by which capricious beauty tries to improve the masterly work of nature, though the bounteous goddess, alike intelligent and revengeful, always contrives that the fantastic grace, thus surreptitiously introduced, shall obscure or destroy some portion of native lovelinesss. The beauty of Alicia de Lacy was of that description, which, whenever it appears, commands admiration. It was also accompanied by those intuitive graces which render a fine form irresistible, and every accomplishment the age afforded was her own. Native genius supplied the want of study, to which, in truth, her volatile genius would not have easily submitted; nor were the inherent qualities of her understanding and heart.inferior to the choice workmanship of

the

the external casket; and had the same pains been taken to cultia vate and improve, as were unfortunately employed to corrode and canker them, by vanity, caprice, and self-love; a poet would als most have been justified in rating her value at the price of a. world made up of one entire and perfect chrysolite.' Still she con tinued lovely; bewitchingly, though fantastically gay; the happy child of prosperous fortune; the darling of her doating father, who lavishly indulged all her desires; the theme of every travelling minstrel, and the amoret of every son of chivalry whom the Earl of Lincoln entertained in his castles."

These characters are kept up to the last with unabated spirit. Alicia, in particulas, is excellently supported, Her foibles, the sad consequences resulting from them; the gradual strengthening of her mind; her invincible constancy; her patience, and her fortitude, under the most trying difficulties and afflictions, are all admirably touched. Nor are the secondary characters less skillfully managed. Each character is marked by distinguishing features, and is consistently sustained. The story is well constructed, and the incidents, which are numerous, are within the bounds of probability, and produce their natural effects on the actors concerned in them. They are not brought in merely to fill a page, but to contribute to the winding up of the plot. That the morality is uniformly pure we need not say. On that head, the name of the writer is a sufficient security, The language, with a few exceptions, is correct and elegant; subject only to the drawback which we mentioned, in the commencement of our criticism: we think that the present work can, not fail to add to that justly acquired reputation which its estimable author already possesses.

MISCELLANIES,

ART. 14. Proverbs, chiefly taken from the Adagia of Eras mus; and further illustrated by corresponding Examples from the Spanish, Italian, French, and English Languages. By R. Bland, M.D.-F.S.A. 2 Vols. 12mo. 10s. 6d. Egerton, 1814.

To follow the footsteps of so great and learned a man as Erasmus, must ever be a work of int rest and of improvement. The Adagia of Erasmus have long been celebrated as a storehouse of wit, and repository of ancient learning. We are therefore happy to find that it forms the basis of such a publication as the present. The book with which Dr. Bland has presented us, is not merely a century or a ciast or proverbs, strong together by a literary Sancho, but it contains a moral amplification of each proverbial expression, ilustrated occasionally by an amusing anecdote, or

parallel

parallel saying, in modern languages. The expressions them selves are given in Latin, and as the author professes, appear to be chiefly taken from Erasmus. For a work of this kind, Dr. Bland appears to have many qualifications. He appears to be well versed in the stores of Spanish and Italian proverbs, and to be well read in that part of English literature, from which his subject might derive illustration and interest. The following, extract may serve as a specimen of the style of the work,

"Nec Qbolum habet, unde Restim emat.

"He has not a penny left to buy an halter, He has no property ne in pelle quidem,' not even in his skin. Ne obolus quidem relictus est,' he has totally dissipated and wasted his property, not a morsel, or the smallest particle of it remains. He is as poor as a church mouse.'

་

"Beg,' Gratiano says to Shylock, that thou mayest have leave to hang thyself;

And yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the state, Thou hast not left the value of a cord; Therefore thou must be hanged at the state's charge.' No le alcaça la sal al agua,' he is so poor,' the that he hath not salt enough to season his water.' his dialogues, makes one of the interlocutors say, much land as would furnish dust for the body of a wrestler.' ”

"De Laná caprinâ.

Spaniards say, Xenophon, in he had not sq

"Disputing about what is of no value, about goat's wool, which can be turned to no profit, and half the disputes in the world are of as little importance; at the least, the subjects of them are rarely of half the value of the trouble and expense incurred in the contest. Gf the same kind are, De fumo disceptare, vel de asini umbrâ.” Plutarch tells a ludicrous story, as giving origin to the latter adage, Demosthenes observing, that the judges before whom he was pleading, paid no attention to what he was saying, but were discoursing on matters that had no relation to the subject before them, said to them, 'If you will lend your attention a little, I have now a story to relate that will amuse you.' Finding they were turned to him, he said, 'A certain young man hired an ass, to carry provisions to a neighbouring town, but the day proving to be very hot, and there being no place on the road affording shelter, he stopped the ass, and sat kimself down on one side of him, so as to be shaded by the ass from the sun. On this, the driver insisted on his getting up, alleging that he had hired the ass to carry his load, not to afford him a shade. The man, on the other hand, contended, that having hired the ass for the journey, he had a right to use him as a screen from the sun, as well as to carry his goods; besides, he added, the goods on the back of the ass, which were his, afforded more than half the shade; and so a long dispute ensued, which came at length to blows.' Demosthenes, perceiving the judges were now fully intent on list