cess in this particular. Albeit that we love music even to enthusiasm, we do hold that the fashionable practice of cramming the plays of Shakspeare brimful of it is not an improvement. We like a song or two in a comedy; but we do wish the distinction between comedy and comic-opera to be preserved. The author of "Pride shall have a Fall" appears to be deficient in the vis-comica. We do not mean to say that he never will attain it, but certainly he has not attained it in the present comedy. Torrento's humour consists of little more than some pleasant exaggeration. The hussars speak a Babel-like language, which, if it excite a smile at all, it must be of the same kind that we bestow on Punch and his associates; a smile provoked by seeing human nature "imitated so abominably." Spado, in the first scene, promises some amusement, but turns out as dull a varlet as ever was entrusted to deliver a message. It must strike every one who reads the play, that all the pleasantry, except that which is produced by Torrento, consists in a great number of very indifferent puns, and which moreover we are assured by a friend, who is a punster par excellence, and consequently an authority on the subject, are all old ones. The numerous anachronisms evince a degree either of carelessness or of wantonness, for which it is difficult to suggest an excuse. The officers of "the Twentieth" are not at home at Palermo; and we suspect that they bear a stronger resemblance to some hussars in a more northern latitude than to any that are to be found in Sicily. These officers are represented as reading in an evening paper, among other articles, intelligence of a boxing. match; from which we must conclude, that boxing is a favourite amusement in the South. Torrento is well acquainted with blue-stocking ladies, Doctors' Commons, and the novels of the Great Unknown. These things are equalled only by Lords Beefingen and Puddingfield reading in the Daily Advertizer an account of the signing of Magna Charta by King John. It is useless to say that anachronisms are to be found in the elder dramatists; they are so; but they are not such as shock probability. It is of no consequence to the spectator or the reader whether Bohemia be a maritime or an inland State, or whether certain events are not referred to by the speakers, which took place after the times in which they are supposed to live. As Schlegel has observed, we do not go to the theatre to learn geography or chronology; but we have a right to require that the probability of the scene shall not be totally destroyed by the introduction of allusions, which immediately strike us as unnatural, and out of place, allusions by the inhabitants of a distant country to the peculiar and passing topics of the day in our own,

One other observation, and we have done with this ungracious part of our subject. There is an inequality in the language, not only in the course of the play,-not only within an act, but within a single scene, and even in the compass of a few lines, which strikes offensively upon the ear, and is utterly inconsistent with propriety. "There is but one step," said Buonaparte, "from the sublime to the ridiculous ;" and, with our author, there is frequently but one step from the familiar to the sublime: his speakers deliver themselves one moment in the plainest possible prose, and the next in the most lofty verse: and, indeed, though the play abounds with rich poetical passages, they rarely seem to arise naturally from the events which are passing on the stage; they appear to be introduced by effort, as if, after the author had composed the scene, he had extracted the poetical speeches from some other of his unpublished manuscripts, and stuck them in as well as he could.

But, with all the defects which we have noticed, the production of the play will constitute an epoch in the history of the English stage. A great portion of its defects, we apprehend, to be those of haste and inattention: its excellencies are such as can only be attained by genius of a very high order. We have selected some vigorous and beautiful passages, evincing a delicacy of observation, and a power of expression, which justify us in denominating the author eminently and emphatically a poet. If common fame be right, we had not indeed to learn this from his present performance. A correct moral taste is apparent in the work, and it does not contain a single line that can

"Swell with honest scorn a female breast."

The sentiments are such as are creditable to the author's feelings; but there is one, which he seems peculiarly earnest in inculcating, that "virtue is true nobility:" thus, Lorenzo, in the first act,

"No motley coat is daub'd upon my shield;

I cheat no rabble, like your Charletans,

By flinging dead men's dust in idiot's eyes;

I work no miracles with buried bones;

I belt no broken and distemper'd shape

With shrivell'd parchments, pluck'd from mouldy shelves;

Yet, if I stoop'd to talk of ancestry,

I had an ancestor, as old and noble

As all their quarterings reckon,-mine was Adam!"

Again, in the fifth act,

"Can birth bequeath

Mind to the mindless; spirit to the vile;

Valour to dastards; virtue to the knave ?—
'Tis nobler to stand forth the architect
Of our own fame, than lodge i' the dusty halls
Of ancestry!-To shine before the world,
Like sunrise from the dusk, than twinkle on
In far and feeble starlight!

This be all,

Early or late, Lorenzo's epitaph:

That he had deem'd it nobler, to go forth
Steering his sad and solitary prow
Across the ocean of adventurous deeds,
Than creep the lazy track of ancestry:
They be the last of theirs, I first of mine."

These sentiments are natural enough in Lorenzo's situation; but they are repeated so frequently, that we are led to suspect that the author would have them understood as his own, Now, while we detest the absurdities of aristocratical distinction as they prevail in some countries, we cannot help thinking that, next to that of talent, the pride of ancestry is the most harmless and inoffensive species of this quality: it is infinitely less insufferable than the odious and disgusting pride of bloated wealth: where the privileges which noble ancestry confers are merely honorary, we cannot conceive what mischief can arise from them. No one ever affected to despise the advantage of high birth, but he who was without it; and, whether we will admit the fact or not, we do regard its possessors with a peculiar feeling; and, if possible, would place ourselves in their situation. It is idle, then, to argue for the total suppression of this feeling; it may and ought to he regulated, but it is a part of our nature, and cannot be destroyed.

We quit the comedy of "Pride shall have a Fall," with a deep impression of the poetical power of the author. We have freely noticed his defects; but he may be assured, that there are very few writers who could afford to have half as many; and, had his pages been less strongly marked by genius, the title of his work would never have appeared in our Review. The poetical extracts which we have made in the course of our analysis of the comedy, have seldom been accompanied by any comment, because we felt that they required none to carry them to the hearts of our readers. We know not whether we are to consider the acceptance of this comedy as a pledge, that a better system is about to be adopted in at least one of our Winter theatres: if it be so, we shall rejoice; and still more, if the manager will occupy the ensuing vacation in reducing his theatre to such a size as will

allow the audience to hear the wit and poetry which, we trust, he has in store for the next season. One admonition we must also give him, and we should be culpably negligent, were we to close an article on such a subject, without bestowing it. Let him banish from the lobbies and saloons the disgusting profligacy which disgraces them, and which "has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished;" that females may pass to the interior of the house without being compelled to witness scenes, which sensibility cannot contemplate without pain, nor purity without contamination.

Memoirs of India, comprising a brief Geographical Account of the East Indies; a succinct History of Hindostun, from the most early Ages to the End of the Marquis of Hastings' Administration in 1823; designed for the Use of Young Men going out to India. By R. G. Wallace, Esq. Author of Fifteen Years in India." London, 1824.

THAT a country of traders visiting a remote country for the purpose of gain, and with difficulty obtaining a small spot on which to collect and deposit their wares, should become, in the course of two centuries, the sovereign lords of its soil, and the arbitrary dispensers of good and evil to one hundred millions of its inhabitants is an anomaly in political science, which would afford an interesting subject of inquiry, even were we totally unconnected with a phenomenon, which, though it has been paralleled in kind, has never been equalled in degree. British interests are, however, so deeply involved in the prosperity of the Peninsula of India, that any work, professing to treat of its affairs, has a peculiar claim upon our attention. It is somewhat remarkable, that the most indefatigable investigators of the geography and history of this valuable portion of the globe, from Major Rennel to Christie and Pottinger, have belonged to a profession generally, though perhaps, unjustly considered, but little inclined to labour in the departments of literature and philosophy. Science has advanced amidst the ravages of war, and the arms of Britain have contributed, not only to extend the boundaries of her empire, but to increase the stores of her knowledge.

The work before us commences, properly enough, with a geographical outline of India; in which, however, the author contrives to inform us, that the borders are attached to the shawls of Cashmere, after fabrication!-a happy association

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between the borders of Cashmere and those of its shawls. The "Indian Islands," next come under review, and the subject is well treated. The first book concludes with a description of India, its situation on the surface of the globe, climate, natural history, inhabitants, and productions. Book the second contains a history of India, from the earliest ages to the present time; an account of the religious institutions of Brahma, and those of Budha; the code of Menn and the Vidas; and notices the Seiks, who owe their origin to Nanac, about the middle of the fifteenth century: they are a numerous sect, deists in religion, and republicans in politics. We meet with an historical sketch of the Portuguese settlements, as well as of the East India Companies of Holland, France, Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, and Russia; which is an interesting part of the work. A view is next taken of the conquests of Great Britain in India, from our first establishment there to the present time; divided into two parts, the first of which terminates with the administration of the Marquis Wellesley; the course of events is traced with accuracy, and is not deficient in arrangement.

The following chapter treats of the three presidencies :--The area of country, subject to the presidency of Calcutta, is estimated at 200,000 square miles;-the gross produce of the soil is about 43 millions sterling;-six of which come into the Company's treasury; the population of the city of Calcutta, the capital of British India, consists of 600,000 souls;-Europeans are numerous, their appearance splendid in the extreme, and their habits of living, convivial and luxurious. Here, in a city which has sprung up with a rapidity that may be compared with the luxuriant vegetation of its soil, Pride has reared her head, "has grown with its growth, and strengthened with its strength," and has "separated general society into circles, whose centers are like the heads of casts by which they are surrounded."

"In Calcutta, a civilian's lady considers herself a superior being to the wife of a military officer; the latter looks down with contempt on the partner of a country captain, who, in her turn, despises the shopkeeper, and frets, if neglected, by the merchant's wife. To hand a lady to table, or to her carriage,' says Tennant, is an affair which requires deep cogitation, if it be aspired to by a gentleman whose rank is unequal to the office; instead of paying a compliment, he is guilty of rudeness, and commits an unpardonable offence. When the ladies take the floor to dance, the most perfect acquaintance with all that has ever been written upon heraldry would not enable you to make a satisfactory arrangement, either of the ladies themselves or of their partners.' The Countess of Loudon discountenanced this fastidiousness; it is to be hoped effectually."

We are glad of it.