tary banishment. He finds his friend Leo, the Marfian hero, who had also been banished by these republicans. Each recounts his adventures; and they determine to retire to the cottage where Leo had paffed his infancy. They meet, in the Appenines, with an old man and his daughter, whom they discover to be adorers of fire, and in whose cottage they are received with hofpitality. They proceed to the ancient habitation of Leo, where the latter finds his. beloved Camilla; they are married, and return with Numa to the abode of the old man and his daughter, whom they refcue from the hands of robbers. They are impreffed with awe and veneration when this venerable fage discovers himself to be the great Zoroafter; and the joy of Leo is inconceiveable when, from fome circumftances of the ftory, he beholds in him his father. Numa conceives the moft ardent paffion for Anaïs, the daughter of Zoroafter, but finds the father, from religious motives, unpropitious to his wishes. But at laft, overcome by his intreaties, and those of Leo, he consents to their union, and every thing is preparing for the happy day, when Metius, and other ambaffadors, arrive from Rome, informing Numa that Romulus is dead, and that he is elected king by the unanimous fuffrages of the Romans and Sabines. He refufes the throne to pafs his days in retirement with his dear Anaïs. In vain does fhe, with her father and his friend Leo, implore him to alter his refolution; he remains unfhaken. The ghoft of Tatius appears to him in a dream, announcing that it is the will of the gods he fhould reign. In the morning, instead of finding Zoroafter and Anaïs, he difcovers only a letter, which informs him, that, for his own glory, and the happiness of a great people, they had quitted him for ever. In defpair, he wishes inftantly to fet out in fearch of Anaïs, when a voice like thunder is heard from the fkies, pronouncing, "Numa, think on Tatius."

Overcome by this unifon of heaven and earth, he at last confents to reign, and is received in Rome with the accla mations and tranfports of a happy people. Before he carries into execution any of the plans he had formed for the regulation of his kingdom, he goes to the wood of Egeria, to implore the affiftance of Minerva. There a voice addreffes him in the name of Egeria, promifing her advice whenever he wished to confult her. Guided by the counfels of this tutelary voice, he enacts juft and equal laws, and becomes happy in beftowing happiness on his subjects.

In the meanwhile, the fierce and implacable Herfilia ftirs up the greatest part of Italy against him, and lays siege to

Kome

Rome with a numerous army. But this ftorm is diffipated without bloodshed; the confederates, by the prudence of Numa, are detached from the cause of Herfilia, and that wretched princess perifhes, by her own hands, in the fight of both armies. Henceforward no cloud obfcured the happinefs of Numa; he paffed his days bleffed in the friendship of Leo and Camilla, and doubly bleffed by difcovering, in the nymph Egeria, his beloved Anaïs.

Such is the fkeleton of the work. The writer has been much more fparing of machinery than the author of Telemachus; and, in other refpects, has not fo frequently imitated the epic muse.

MONTHLY

CATALOGUE.

[ For FEBRUARY 1787. ]

POETRY.

ART. 18. Harold; a Tragedy. By Thomas Boyce, A. M. Rector of Worlingham, in the County of Suffolk, and Chaplain to the Right Hon. the Earl of Suffolk. 4to. 3s. Becket. London, 1786.

TH

HIS drama, as we are informed in the preface, was finished before Mr. Cumberland's tragedy on the fame fubject was performed at Drury Lane. Wishing to avoid a comparison with a dramatic veteran, Mr. Boyce withheld his piece from the public for fome years. Mr. Cumberland's "Battle of Haftings" is certainly one of the worft tragedies in the English language. The Norman conquest of England in the reign of the unfortunate and criminal Harold forms a bad fubject for a tragedy; and Mr. Boyce has alfo failed. From the two firit fpeeches in this tragedy the reader may judge of its me

rits.

GURT H.

• From yonder tented plain, how gracefully
The green lawn rifes to this ample wood!
Deep in whofe fhades the venerable tow'rs
And lofty fpires, crown'd with the sacred cross,
Uprear their heads-Religion's awful reign.
Hail, holy folitudes!-would I could bid
Peace be among you!-but fair Peace is fled.

Beneath

Beneath the broad fhade of the branching oak,
That fpreads around an hundred arms to fhield her,
Oft would fhe fit, delighting still to hear
The fhepherd's pipe upon the plain below;
While ever and anon the folemn found

Of pealing organ, or the fhriller voice
Of choral virgins, from thofe hallow'd walls
Burst on the fenfe, and rais'd the raptur'd mind
From earth to heaven.

LEWI N.

Such mufings are no more.
The lofty clarion breathes a louder strain ;
And Contemplation, starting from her trance,
Wildly beholds the threat'ning world in arms.
High on a radiant car, his fteeds of fire
Guided by Destiny, comes glorious War:
Beneath the terror-nodding plume he moves,
Lovelily dreadful – and with giant arm

Scatters his lightnings round: his march is thunder :
Creation feems to fhrink at his approach:

The mountains yield to his refiftless course,
And rivers roll obedient to his bidding.'

This is the dialogue of two vifionary poets under the agency of inspiration or possession; but is not the difcourfe of "men of this world." The quaintnets and affectation of Mason, who is our author's model, are ill adapted to the drama, which ought to speak the language of nature, not of fancy and conceit. There are, however, many poetical lines in this performance.

ART. 19. The Patriot's Vifion; or, The Triumph of Oppofition. A Poem. 4to. is. Stockdale. London, 1786.

This poem is a fevere fatire against fome of the leading members of oppofition. It is more deficient in political than in poetical merit. From ignorance or partiality the author has produced fuch caricaturas of Mr. Burke, Mr. Fox, and Lord North, that no reader would have recognized the originals unless he had prefixed their names to their portraits, like the painter who wrote below the mifhapen manufacture of his hand, "This is a Bear." When he compares Mr. Burke to Belial, accuses Mr. Fox of avarice, and imputes the reftleffness of Lord North in oppofition to the ungratified defire of completing the ruin of his country, he adds to the many melancholy proofs with which perpetual obfervation prefents us, that party-fpirit, when carried to excefs, not only deflroys the natural candour of men, but impairs their understanding. His attack on Peter Pindar is rude and indelicate. The fatyrift that laughs will always get the better of the fatyrift that rails. Notwithstanding these faults, the conclufion of the poem is elegant and fpirited in no common degree; and the addrefs to the Prince of Wales is one of the happiest efforts of political poetry that we have met with in modern times.

Then

Then, Irony's thin femblance laid afide,
Let the bold Mufe, with independent pride,
Pour Truth's strong dictates in a Prince's ear,
Which Kings of Freemen, muft from Freemen hear,
Teach, that howe'er Britain's annals fhew,

A Prince in early youth decorum's foe.
Shine forth, matur'd by manhood's ripening age,
The brighteft ftar of her hiftoric page;

Yet ftill in Diffipation's wildeft hours,
Would in-born worth by turns difplay its powers,
And Shrewsbury's infant trophies brought to fight,
A dawn of Agincourt's immortal fight.

O royal youth! think not my cynic mufe
The joy's of Life's gay feafon would refuse.
No; give to scenes of focial mirth thy foul;
Woo the kind fair, and drain the genial bowk
If Oppofition's fons with arts are stor'd,
To grace the converfe of the feftive board,
With the convivial band delighted fit;
Avoid their faction, but enjoy their wit:
Prince Hal for pleasure loofe companions chofe,
But join'd not Percy and his Father's foes.
And O! if Beauty's charms triumphant shine,
Of power to tempt a colder heart than thine,
Yet, howfoe'er the foft enchantment draws,
Revere a jealous people's facred laws;
Nor fport with rights, for whofe defence alone
Thy ancestors were call'd to Britain's throne.
Be Paffion's rage by Reafon's fway' reprefs'd,
And spare, ah fpare! a mother's tortur'd breast."

When an author fpeaks the language of good fenfe, and appeals to the feelings of the nation, he will always meet with applause. ART. 20. Ode prefented to the King at Blenheim, &c. 4to. Is. Kearsley.

In the real Ode prefented to the king at Blenheim, panegyric was perhaps carried to excefs from the natural effufions of loyalty on the recent escape of the fovereign from the knife of an affaffin. But this does not justify the low and malignant attempt to turn into ridicule the private life of an amiable fovereign, and the feelings of a loyal people. The School of the Rolliad," from which this fpurious production originates, difplays a monftrous mixture of ribbaldry and ingenuity, of malignity and elegance, of the groffeft fentiments of the vulgar expreffed in claffical language. This, however, is not without an example. At Athens, before its downfal, Euripides and Aristophanes addreffed themselves to the fame audience, and were equally well received,

ART:

ART. 21. The Triumph of Benevolence; occafioned by the National Defign of erecting a Monument to John Howard, Efq. 4to. is. 6d. Dodfley, Robfon, Cadell, Elmfly, and Dilly, London; Prince, Ox- ford; Merrill, Cambridge. 1786.

The publication before us, independent of the subject, and the ocfion on which it was written, is entitled to a favourable reception from its own intrinfic merit. It rifes above the mediocrity of common performances; the author poffeffes reputable talents; and his warmth and goodness of heart deferve every praife that can be bestowed. We are therefore happy to mention him with approbation, both as a poet and a man. The following fhørt extract will exhibit both these characters in no difadvantageous point of view.

• By Heaven commiffion'd, now our Patriot flies
Where Nature fcourges with her worst disease,
Where plague-devoted Turkey's victim lies,

Where spotted deaths load every tainted breeze,
With love unbounded, love that knows not fear,
Wherever pain or forrow dwells he goes,
Kindly as dew, and bounteous as the sphere,
His focial heart no poor distinction knows.

Ah! what is friend or foe to Him, whose foul,
Girding creation in one warm embrace,
Extends the faviour arm from pole to pole,
And feels akin to all the human race!

To all the human; all the brutal too;

Bird, beaft, and infect, blefs his gentle power,
From the worn fteed repofing in his view,
To the tame redbreast warbling in his bower.

Well may the Spirit of the Ifle arife,

With loud accord its beft good man to grace;
Well may the ftatue point to yonder fkies,

And call on Cherubim to guard the place."

To this poem are fubjoined a fonnet to Dr. Lettfom, and pieces relative to the progrefs of the defign of paying a public grateful tribute to the character of Mr. Howard.

Da

ART. 22. Saint Peter's Lodge; a Serio-comi legendary Tale. In Hudie braffic Verfe. By the Author of the Regifter-Office. 8vo. Is. vis, Egerton, and Bew. London, 1786.

An old ftory, told in very indifferent Hudibraftics. An addition to the mafs of publications, without contributing to the amusement of the public.

ART. 23. Poems on feveral Occafions. By the late Edward Lovibond, Efq. 12mo. 3s. Dodfley. London, 1785.

This is a mighty ingenious gentleman, who, it feems, has entertained the world with his poetry for twenty years together. His

friends,