of all the wild young fellows about town, amongst whom, in a fhort time, he diffipated a handfome fortune with no great degree of repu-, tation. He was, however, generous and tender hearted; for I never heard of his doing one illnatured thing, though he has faid a great many. After the fequeftration of his goods and chattels, he had recourfe to that receptacle of unfortunate princes of all denominations who rule imaginary worlds for bread, the playhoufe. There his friends flattered him, from the fpecimens he had given them of his theatrical abilities, that he would fine forth in all his glory, and rival even Rofcius in fame. Put O! what a falling off was there! providence never intended him for an actor. His mind was too wavering and inconfiftent to fupport any character thro' one aft; and he wanted fome very material requifites, fuch as elocution, deportment, and propriety of action. In fhort it was to no purpofe to ftrive against the ftream, it would not do; fo our young comedian was obliged to make ufe of the talents God had given him, which was that of mimicry and buffoonery. To carry on this trade he opened shop in the Haymarket, where he took off (as it was called) noit of the principal actors; and feveral other refpectable characters were made ridculous, to the great fatisfaction of the audience, and to crouded houfes. Encouraged by this falfe taste in the people, or rather by the favour of the great who patronized him on account of his family, he turned author and produced feveral new pieces which were well received. One or two of them had a good deal of merit, for which he may thank my father, whom his friend HUMOUR got to touch upon them. Some of them were afterwards performed at the theatres royal, but they had not the fame effect there; like certain exoticks that dont thrive out of their native foil, thefe pieces would not flourish but in the hot bed of the Haymarket, under the funthine of their creator.' Johnfon and Smollett are fketched out as literary characters of note; and then comes an account of a masquerade, at which the Family, even Prudence herself being over perfuaded, were prefent. Of this fpecies of amufement we have a lively defcription; but mafquerades are finally difproved and renounced by WISDOM, TRUTH, GENIUS, WIT, HUMOUR, COMMON SENSE, and PRUDENCE. There are fome epifodical parts in this work, particularly the hiftory of Sir John Blucot and his daughter, the learned Lady, who is married to Squire Smatter: but for thefe, and the droll account of the birth and chriftening of Mr. Smatter's fon and heir, we refer to the work itself. In one part of this volume the Writer pays his compliments to the Reviewers, whofe productions he ranks with the Magzines, and ftigmatizes both as mifreprefenters of the works of genius. How far this charge is juft, with refpect to the former, Whether or not the Author points at any real character, under the extraordinary one of Mifs Bucot, we are at fome lofs to guefs, and shall hazard no conjectures on the fubject. 8 the the public will judge for itself: with the latter we have no concern.Whether Mr. Common Senfe hath had any particular provocation for the cenfure he hath paffed on Reviews and Magazines, we know not; and whether he fpeaks merely the dictates of his impartial judgment, or from his private feelings, is best known to himself.-To fhew him, however, what kind of resentment we harbour on this occafion, we fhall take leave of his performance by thanking him for the pleasure it hath afforded us in the perufal;-at the fame time declaring our opinion, that, though the work is wholly written in the name and perfon of COMMON SENSE, his very refpectable kinfman GOOD SENSE hath certainly had a confiderable fhare in the production; notwithstanding the oftenfible Author hath not had the candor to acknowledge it. MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For FEBRUARY, 1770. POETICA L. Art. 12. A Monody. Written by an abfent Husband. 4to. 18. 6d. Griffin, 1769. T has been a general opinion, that paffion naturally flows into I verfe: it is well known that men have written verfes when they were in love, who never wrote verfes before nor afterward: we have great authority for the notion that indignation produces the fame effect; and innumerable examples of complaints becoming melodious under the influence of forrow. This Writer, however, is of an opinion contrary to that which these examples fupport. He fays that paffionate verses are beft written by thofe that are not impaffioned. To fpeak of other's griefs beft fuits the bard, Whofe placid mind with warmer fancies glows; But ah! how hard, how exquifitely hard The mourners talk, to melodize his woes! That a placid mind fhould exprefs forrow forcibly, in confequence of warm fancies, is certainly very strange; it is equally strange that a mind ftrongly impreffed with forrow, fhould find the expreffion of it exquifitely hard. Exquifite hardness, or exquifite difficulty, is indeed feldom heard of; but uncommon fentiments require uncommon language. But though in the ftanza which we have juft tranfcribed, the Author fays that a placid mind is best fitted to complain, he seems to have adopted another opinion in the next ftanza but one, for there he fays, that No fwain complains whom cold indiff'rence moves. This apparent oppofition of fentiment is certainly a strong inducement to conclude, that the Author" means not, but blunders round about a meaning." His meaning, if meaning he has, is, if poflible, fill more obfcure in the following defcription of another character, that cannot complain: Not one whom intereft with ambition feeds, Who feals his cold affection with his deeds, This transformation of ambition into victuals, and intereft into a nurfe, at leaft furprizes, if it does not elevate. The falfe grammar in the fecond verfe must be imputed to the impetuofity of the poet s genius, which driving forward, overturned poor Prifcian in the way, and broke his head. What pageant pulfes may indicate cannot eably be determined, because they are pulies of a new fpecies, but a beating pulfe of a common kind certainly does not indicate cold affections. What it is to feal cold affections with a deed we shall not prefume fo much as to guefs; this we fhall refer to our Readers, who are never better pleased than when fomething is left to their own judgment and imagination. Art. 13. An Elegy on the unexpected Death of an excellent Phyfician, the justly admired John Martin Butt, M. D. Infcribed to his afflicted Family. By a fincere Mourner. Folio. 1 S. Walter. This is a moft doleful elegy indeed! The unfeeling clay, that late contain'd The favourite fon of fcience' is to be washed with copper-coloured tears : Creolian tears fhall ftream, &c.' and poor Dr. Butt, we are told, being taken by the hand by a lady called (hemia, took fuch immenfe ftrides, that, in fhort, there was an end of him: .Next Chemia came, Her docile fcholar by the hand But heaven, that certainty to man denies, That there was no trufting him any longer here! Art. 14. An Elegy on a moft excellent Man. and much lamented Friend. Folio. I S. Walter. The plague of this elegy is, that it neither makes one laugh nor cry. It is a moft lamentable piece of work, and feems to be the production of Dr. Butt's undertaker. Art. 15. Appendix II. to Opufcula. A farewel Oration, to the Chair of the College of Phyficians, London, Spoken in the Comitia the Day after St. Michael 1797, appointed for renewing the College idminiftration, and fortified by a Fire Engine against the incendiary Licentiates. By Sir William Browne, M. D. Tranflated from the Latin. 4to. 1 S. Owen. Sir William Browne! Courteous Reader, make way for the magnificent Sir William Browne and his retinue *! Sir William Browne and a split-brained eagle, fix magpyies, fix jack daws, fix bearpaws, a tyger, a wild boar, Sir Ifaac Newton, Hippocrates, and a dunghill fnake-Huzza! for Sir William Browne! the armigerent and belligerent Sir William Browne! who made a caftle of the col The Knight's arms, always engraved under his name on the title-page of his Opufcula. lege lege of phyficians in Warwick-Lane ;-Warwick caftle, as he now How is my fcorn and jeft provok'd by you! To end below, in a black fifh's tail! The prefident of the college of phyficians afraid of the rebef licentiates, moftly Scots! O horrible monfter!'-Huzza! for Sir William Browne! the puiffant Knight of Warwick caftle! Huzza!*. Art. 16. Appendix altera ad Opufcula. Oratiuncula Collegii Medicorum Londinenfis Cathedra Valedicens in Comitiis, poftridie Divi Michaelis 1767, ad Collegii Adminiftrationem Renovandam Defignatis, Machina incendiis extinguendis apta contra permiffos Rebelles munitis, babita, a D. Gulielmo Browne, Equite Aurato, Præfide. 4to. Solidi unius Pretio. Owen. Ohe! jam fatis eft! Art. 17. An Epifle to Lord Holland. 4to. I s. Brown. 1769. This incenfe is worth burning. Art. 18, The Temple of Corruption. A Poem. By W. Churchill. to. 2s. 6d. Flexney. 1770. The Author of this poem is faid in the advertisements to be a brother of the late Charles Churchill; and, indeed, there is some refemblance in their verfe. Thus he addreffes a late minister: Canft thou unmov'd, and with a fteady eye, The mirror view, when Confcience brings it nigh, In the conclufion, he calls upon us to employ Our ev'ry power to pour the grateful trains, Since, bleft with all, great George o'er Britain reigns." He has the modefty, too, to charge only half a crown for twentythree pages of this very extraordinary poetry! Art. 19. Poems, confifting of Tales, Fables, Epigrams, &c. By Nobody. Izmo. 2s. 6d. Robinfon and Roberts, &c. 1770. This Author belongs to the fchool of Tom Brown. In wit, indeed, he is inferior, but not in indelicacy. In his verfes, written on the grave of a very beautiful lady who died of the fmall-pox,' there is fomething moit abominably fhocking. This and the following piece of Sir William's are both dated, in their title pages, 1768; but we were ignorant of their existence, till we faw them both advertifed within thefe two months. Art. Art. 20. The Dialogue, addreffed to John Wilkes, Efqi 4to. 15. 6d. Wilkie. 1770. The Author of this Dialogue has lighted his poetical fire at the torch of Tiiphone, and abufed, with the most outrageous fcurrility, the friends and fupporters of the popular queftion.-In fome places he discovers a talent for poetry, and parts that deferve to be better employed. Art. 21. Poems on feveral Occafions. 4to. 2 s. 6 d. Longman. 1769. It is faid, thefe poems are the productions of a young clergyman, and that most of them were written when he was about 20 years of age. We fincerely wish that authors could be prevailed upon to fupprefs their juvenile productions, and that they would not listen to the request of friends, to whom they have almost always afterwards reafon to fay, with Horace's madman, "Pol! me occidiftis, amici!” By this means they would fave themselves much mortification, and us the trouble of invidious criticism. However, thefe are not the wort juvenile poems we have seen. DRAMATIC. Art. 22. Lionel and Clariffa; or, a School for Fathers: A Comie Opera. As it is performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. 8vo. Is. 6d. Griffin. 1770. When this piece firft appeared, about two years ago, it was performed at the Theatre Royal in Covent-Garden: See Review for March, 1768, p. 245.-Of its removal to the old houfe, and the alterations now made, both in the opera itself, and in the title, Mr. Bickerstaffe gives the following account, in a prefatory adver tisement : When Mr. Garrick thought of performing this piece at DruryLane Theatre he had a new finger to bring out, and every thing poffible for her advantage was to be done; this neceffarily occafioned fome new fongs and airs to be introduced; and other fingers, with voices of a different compafs from thofe who originally acted the parts, occafioned ftill more; by which means the greatest part of the mufic unavoidably became new. This is the chief, and indeed the only alteration made in the opera; and even to that, I should, in many places, have been forced, much against my will, had it not given a fresh opportunity to Mr. Dibdin to difplay his admirable talents as a musical compofer. And I will be bold to fay, that his airs, ferious and comic, in this opera, will appear to no difadvantage by being heard with thofe of fome of the greatest mafters. The School for Fathers is added to the title, because the plot is evis dently double, and that of Lionel and Clariffa alluded to but one part of it, as the readers and fpectators will eafily perceive." Art. 23. A Trip to Scotland, as it is acted at the Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane. 8vo. 1 s. Dodfley. 1770. The fubject of this little entertainment would, in our opinion, have admitted of many more diverting incidents, and a greater di verfity of characters, than the Author has introduced. The characters that appear, however, are well enough fupported; and, though the plot is too contracted, the dialogue is not dull. Rev. Feb. 1779. |