few inftances of faulty measure; the effects, we prefume, of inadvertency. We must do him the juftice of obferving that many of the indecencies, which contaminated the original, are laudibly foftened, with little, if any, lofs of the valuable fpirit of the Roman poet: but we must add that, if these instances of his improvement on Martial had been more frequent, we fhould have been better pleafed.-The chafter eye of the modern reader turns with difguft from the page of obfcenity or filth, however fparkling with wit, or enlivened by humour. Right forry fhould we be to find the library of a gentleman difgraced by the licentious labours of an Aretine. We enjoy the playful corrufcations of innocent pleasantry, but we defpife even wit, however brilliant, when made the vehicle of immorality; as it then becomes the lightning of destruction. ART. XV. Love's Frailties, a Comedy in Five Acts, as performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. By T. Holcroft. 8vo. 25. Shepperson and Co. 1794. BURSTS URSTS of theatrical applaufe or cenfure have at all times. been confidered as very critical marks of popular opinion. Sir Gelley Merrick, who was executed for treafon in 1601, was indicted, among other things, for giving money to players to perform an old tragedy of Richard the Second. Under George the Second, it was expected from a loyal fubject to mark certain paffages in Guftavus Vafa; and that monarch, having one night been received at the theatre with murmurs of difapprobation, fhook, as he inquired the cause from his attendants: -but, learning that the people were displeased only because he had kept them waiting, he took out his watch, looked at it with marks of concern, made them a bow of apology, and received at once the accustomed thunders of their glee. No wonder, then, that theatrical plaudits fhould not always be left. to their natural courfe: that at Brighton, at Salisbury, at Lynn, coercion fhould have been thought neceflary to obtain the abfence of those who diflike the public repetition of the hymn of God fave the King; and that fome pains fhould alfo have been taken to interrupt the reprefentation of Mr. Holcroft's comedy of Love's Frailties: for it certainly contains many fentiments which are not juft now in full fashion. Bating this objection, it is a very entertaining performance, prefenting scenes delineated with great energy and fkill, and exhibiting touches of beautiful pathos and natural feeling. Some features of the plot and of the dialogue are taken from the German Haufvater; which play, in its turn, was borrowed, with fuch alterations as might ferve to domefticate the incidents and and characters, from that mafter-piece of the French theatre, Diderot's Pere de Famille. By means of these fucceffive changes, there remains no very strong resemblance between the prototype and the imitation; and the whole preferves completely the appearance of a native and original drama. The character of the high-minded artist came recommended by NOVELTY, (a rare circumstance!) to an English audience. Works of this kind, which every one reads, it is rather neceffary to announce than to analyze: but we shall present the reader with a scene,-of the lighter kind: • Lady L. Well, well; if you are certain you are not jealous Mufc. Oh very certain-But, now, tell me, seriously, Lady Louifa -Do you think Charles is-a favourite? Lady L. With Lady Fancourt? Mufc. Yes. Lady L. Nay, Mr. Mufcadel, I appeal to your own penetration. You are a man of wit and difcernment. Mufc. Why-I own-Ha, ha, ha! What foolish thing, now, am I going to own? Sir Greg. A thousand Mufc. Sir? Sir Greg. You may own; and have a thousand to spare. Mufc. No-No-I, of all others, I am the-the man of her Lady L. Seriously. Mufc. No-No-'Tis impoffible-Let us forget it. Lady L. Do; if you can. Mufc. Can! Ha, ha, ha! That is very good! Hay, Sir Gregory? Sir Greg. Ay, ay; vapour away. Your character is pretty well understood. • Mufc. So much the better. People of merit lofe nothing by being known. Day-light or Dark, a diamond will sparkle. Lady L. And you, Mr. Mufcadel, always fhine. Like a lampreflector, you abfolutely blaze us blind. Mufc. Sitting or fanding, riding or walking, I do every thing with a grace. See me take out my handkerchief, put on my gloves, pick up a fan, prefent a bouquet, dangle in my chair, loll in my chariot; the moft trifling actions are made interesting by my manner. Nay, I even fleep like a gentleman. "Sir Greg. I think, Mr. Mufcadel, it is now fix years came to your estate? fince you "Mufc. You are right. It was a great epocha! My father died in the morning, I was in full poffeffion before noon, in the evening I had an affignation with a beautiful woman, was caught by the hufband in her bedchamber, appointed to exchange a fhot with him at five the next morning, loft half my fortune at White's in the interim, met my man, lodged a bullet in his body, fent an attefted account of the affair to the papers, took poft for Dover, and enjoyed a hearty fupper, my bottle Hh 4 bottle of Burgundy, a French chanfon d'amour, and a found fleep, the next night at Calais. "Sir Greg. While your father and the man you had wronged lay ftretched on their bier! "Mufc. Um-No: as it happened, the gentleman mended, in fpite of me and the doctors: the news was fent me, we became the beft of friends, and in fix weeks I had the pleasure to wish him joy of his recovery. "Sir Greg. After feducing his wife, and "Mufc. Was it my fault that fhe was handfome, and I irresistible?” Sir Greg. Ha! You may well be a favourite with the ladies! Mufc. Oh, yes: I can't help it. No more can they. I have a fmile for one, a nod for another, a wink for a third, a hem and a how do you do for a fourth, and the who gets a squeeze of the hand from me thinks herself in heaven! Lady L. And you really have no fear of a rival, with Lady Fancourt? Mufc. A rival? Ha, ha, ha! Rival?-Charles is gallant-Her ladyfhip is polite-but-Oh, no: fhe is too fond of me. Sir Greg. Indeed! Mufc. Paft doubt. Lady L. How do you know? Mufc. She told me fo. Lady L. What, herself? Mufc. Herfelf, Sir Greg. With her own lips? Mufc. Lips? Ha, ha, ha! No; the lips often deceive; the eyes never, Mufc. Ha, ha, ha! No? Sir Greg. You are a modern man of fashion; a beau, whose characteristic it is to babble; though you know little of what you say, and lefs of what you mean. Mafe And you are a bully, of the old school: a kind of walking machine, to grind down beef. Sir Greg. (Afide) Baboon! Mufc. You are an old batchelor, too; and have been all your life preaching continence, and practicing Sir Greg. (Suddenly) Sir, I must beg you will not, any more, make free with my moral character. Lady L. Fie, Mr. Mufcadel! There is nothing of which Sir Gregory is fo chary as his moral character. Sir Greg. Niece! Mufc. Egad, it is very true: a fair character, like a fair skin, if clofely infpected, has a thoufand irregularities. Lady L. (Significantly) Ay, like the purple bloom on a fresh gathered plum, it must be admired, not touched; if you handle it, you deftroy its beauty-Don't you, uncle? Mufe. Your character and mine, baronet, are certainly very opposite. • Sir • Sir Greg. Or I would hang myfelf! You pretend to wit: but, like booksellers, you deal in what you don't understand. Mufc. Ha, ha, ha! You are an eight day clock, wound up once a week; a fixed ftar, that every fool knows where to find; an evergreen, always of one colour: a parish clerk, whofe whole vocabulary begins and ends in amen. I am a camelion; an English April-day; a comet, that always appears in a blaze, is the talk of the town, the terror of married men, and the admiration of the whole world! While everybody is enquiring whence it comes, how long it flays, where it goes, and when it returns? Lady L. You affect fingularity, Mr. Mufcadel. Mufc. No: it is natural to me. We men of fashion are always leading the canaille into abfurdities, purpofely to laugh at them. We are a kind of Will with the wifp; we glitter and entice the gazer into a bog, and there leave him. Lady L. Come, come; I muft begone, to drefs. Sir Greg. Ah! you are rare animals! • Mufc. Meteors, Sir Gregory; which you terreftrials may gaze at, but cannot reach: a kind of rainbow, the fplendor of which everybody admires, but nobody can equal.' [Exeunt. On the fuppofition that this comedy, as we have already faid, will be generally perufed, we refrain from giving an outline of its plot, and from entering into a particular examination of its parts: only farther remarking that we think it very interesting and impreffive in the library, and that, we underftand, it was equally fo on the ftage. We lament that any hafty zeal or prejudice on the part of the audience, or any inadvertent expreffions from the author's pen, fhould have driven it from public representation, after having been performed only fix times. MONTHLY For CATALOGUE, APRIL, 1794. POLITICAL and COMMERCIAL. Art. 16. A Letter to the Right Hon. Earl Stanhope, in which the Neceffity of the War is confidered, and the Conduct and Views of Great Britain and her Allies vindicated. 8vo. pp. 89. 2s. 6d. Miller. 1794. WE can scarcely conceive what it was that induced this author, when he first refolved to confider the neceffity of the war, and vindicate the conduct and views of the powers confederated against France, to address his letter to Lord Stanhope; for he tells us, in his 3d page, that, among the many eminent perfons either in the phalanxes of government or of oppofition, to whofe opinions on the present interefting crifis the people looked up with anxious impatience, no one thought of ranking this noble Earl, though poffibly fome few fanatics, whofe imagination and prejudices, had long fince ran away with their judgment and difcretion, did, probably, anticipate the day when, from a British peer, they should receive a fanction for their chimeras, and fome food for their hopes.' If the author entertained an idea that he might perhaps have made the noble Lord a profelyte to his opinions, he must have had a very high notion of his own talents; as fo many able writers, who have treated the fame fubject, have failed to operate a political converfion in his Lordship. Perhaps it was this very failure of other great men that fpurred him on to pursue an object which they had abandoned as unattainable. The more defperate the attempt, the greater the glory of fuccefs: it is in the removal of diforders which are deemed by others incurable, that a phyfician fhines most; and it muft crown his fame to cure a head pronounced by his learned brethren to be tribus Anticyris infanabile. If it were on this ground that the writer proceeded when he refolved to addrefs Lord Stanhope, we must applaud his spirit, though we cannot praise his judgment. With respect to the performance itself, abftracted from the confideration of the perfon to whom it is addreffed, truth compels us to fpeak of it in terms of approbation; and thofe who moft ftrenuously condemn the policy of the prefent war muft confefs that the author maintains its juftice and neceffity with great ability, and in many inftances with fuccefs. Those who have heard Lord Stanhope fpeak, as a public orator, will be glad to fee a picture of him in a few lines, which gives a trong idea of his Lordship's manner : Those who are acquainted with your Lordship must be fenfible that a coolness of judgment is by no means the most prominent feature in your character.-Thofe fudden and irregular flashes, which are occafionally bursting from the crater of your understanding, afford a pretty clear idea of the contents, and a full illustration of every part of the Volcanic mountain.' LETTER, &c. p. 3, 4. Art. 17. Confiderations on the French War, in which the Circumftances leading to it, its Object, and the Resources of Britain for carrying it on, are examined, in a Letter to the Right Honourable William Pitt. By a British Merchant. 8vo. pp. 66. 1s. 6d. Eaton. 1794 Though profeffing to carry thefe confiderations no farther than the prefent war, the circumftances leading to it, and the resources of this country for fupporting it, the British Merchant allows himself a very wide range, and travels far beyond his felf-prescribed limits at the beginning of his journey. He examines the title of Mr. Pitt to the character of a statesman and of a financier, and he undertakes to fhew that he has no fair pretepsons to either. Mr. P.'s open oppofition to Mr. Fox's India bill, and his covert adoption of its provifions. His production of a ftring of propofitions for regulating the commercial intercourse between this kingdom and Ireland, not a fingle word of which, he faid, could be altered, though he afterward concurred in alterations of fo effential a nature that the minifters of Ireland did not dare to prefs them on the parliament of that country-His declaration that, without fome arrangement, it was impofible that the commerce of the two kingdoms could |