and failed to win the public consent. Come, and behold !-methought a startThe Vision opens with the following

ling voice from the twilight lines, which

any
“ reader of poetry

Answer'd; will find little difficulty in managing The Trance, the Vault, the Awaken-the only requisite being breath. ing, and the Gate of Heaven, (which are 'Twas at that sober hour when the light of the titles of the first four chapters) day is receding,

are then rapidly presented at the And from surrounding things the hue latter an angel stoodwherewith day has adorn'd them

Ho! he exclaim'd, King George of EngFade, like the hopes of youth, till the

land cometh to judgment ! beauty of earth is departed ; Pensive, though not in thought, I stood at « The accusers" who come from the window, beholding

- the blackness of darkness," are, we Mountain and lake and vale; the valley suppose, Wilkes and Junius (for Mr.

disrobed of its verdure; Derwent retaining yet from eve a glassy re

Southey gives the names of the soflection

vereigns,” “ the elder worthies," “ the Where his expanded breast, then still and

worthies of the Georgian age," and smooth as a mirror,

“the young spirits” alone, and chaUnder the woods reposed; the hills that ritably leaves the bad to conjectural calm and majestic,

baptism ;) the first from (among other Lifted their heads in the silent sky, from marks) " the cast of his eye oblique,” far Glaramara,

and the latter, because Bleacrag and Maidenmaur, to Grizedal and westermost Withop.

Mask'd had he been in his life, and now a Dark and distinct they rose. The clouds

visor of iron had gather'd above them

Rivetted round his head had abolish'd his High in the middle air, kuge, purple, Speechless the slanderer stood,

and turn’d

features for ever. pillowy masses, While in the west beyond was the last pale

his face from the monarch tint of the twilight;

Iron-bound as it was,--so insupportably Green as a stream in the glen whose pure Soon or late to conscious guilt is the eye of

dreadful and chrysolite waters Flow o'er a schistous bed, and serene as

the injur'd. the age of the righteous.

After the discomfiture of the acEarth was hush'd and still : all motion and

cusers,

« The Absolvers' are sumsound vere suspended : Neither man was heard, bird, beast, nor

moned in the persons of those who the humming of insect,

on earth had arraigned him'--these Only the voice of the Greta, heard only

also are nameless, with the exception when all is in stillness.

of Washington, who, though the Pensive I stood and alone, the hour and slowest to absolve, is, however,

the scene had subdued me, compelled, somewhat reluctantly to And as I gazed in the west, where infinity attest, that the king had acted as seem'd to be open,

befitted a sovereign.' The beatificaYearn'd to be free from time, and felt that tion’ follows of course, and the rethis life is a thraldom.

mainder of the poem is consecrated Thrus as I stood, thc bell which awhile by the calendar of saints, who greetfrom its warning had rested,

ed the monarch and his laureate on Sent forth its note again, toll! toll! through their admission, and were thereafter

the silence of evening. 'Tis a deep dull sound that is heavy and

to be associated with the former. mournful at all times,

Alfred, Charles I, Nassau the DeFor it tells of mortality always. But heavier liverer,' Elizabeth, the Duke of Marlthis day

borough, Perceval, Cranmer, Wesley, Fell on the conscious ear its deeper and are among the foremost-and Chaimournfuller import,

cer, Shakspeare, Milton, and SpenYea in the heart it sunk; for this was the ser are likewise presented on this day when the herald

occasion, probably in compliment to Breaking his wand should proclaim, that the poet-for the King cared, we si:

George our king was departed; Thou art released! I cried : thy soul is de spect, very little about them. This liver'd from bondage !

conjecture is strengthened by the inThou who hast lain so long in mental and troduction of Cowper, Kirké White, visual darkness,

Bampfylde, and one or two others, Thou art in yonder heaven! thy place is in who would not be the very first objects light and in glory.

of research, in a place so abundant

with the noblest in renown,' to earth, where he (and his language is many even among the poets, but who that of complaint) might be well conceded to Mr. Sou

instead of the rapturous sound of they's known partiality for their com

hosannahs, pany. The poem concludes with the Heard the bell from the tower, toll! toll ! author's precipitate return to the through the silence of evening.

PARIS, SECOND PART. BY THE REV. GEO. CROLY, AM. This beautiful poem appeared too When twilight o'er Cythera's wave of green late in the month to allow of its Drew her rich curtain, and his uptum'd eye being included in our criticisms.- Was burning with the pomps of earth, and The author has adopted an idea, sea, and sky. that the overthrow of Napoleon was Anon, upon him rush'd the ecstasy, the consummation of one of the great And from the lilied vale, the myrtle wood, periods of the world, and the seal The mountain's coronet,—Músic's soul and evidence of a decided and pro

breath'd by ; vidential change, by which the ci- White meteors shot along the distant flood, vilized world is to be henceforth led And now sail'd on, like an advancing cloud, from happiness to happiness. We Chariots of pearl, and proud sea horses

curb'd, hope the poet may be a prophet

also.

That with their breasts the green to silver The second part of “ Paris" contains

plough'd, descriptions of the most memorable And nymphs and tritons lifting trumpets circumstances comected with the fall

orbid, of the French empire. We have Young Venus ! round thy throne, in its thus, “ The Retreat of the French own light absorb'd. from Moscow,Napoleon's Exile at St. Helena—a general View

of the The shore is reach'd ; and fear, bewitching

fear, atrocities of Jacobinism—the Execu- Is in her bending form, and glancing eye, tion of Louis XVI.” &c. &c.- Even And veiling hand, and timid-turning ear; the restoration of the pictures and she listens ;-'twas but Eve's enamour'd statues of the museum is touched

sigh ! with this general colour of a great Yet has it heav'd her bosom's ivory; restitution of principle. We give Yet has it on the shore her footstep spellid the stanzas which represent the Flo- 'Tis past.–The rustling rose alone is nigh, rentine Venus, a subject of renowned She smiles, and in that smile is all revealá beauty. Our next publication shall The charm, to which so soon the living

world shall yield. enter more into detail.

Venus, thou'rt lovely, but on other feet The Venus de' Medici.

Was press'd of old the kiss of guilty fire. And have I then forgot thee, loveliest far Thy look is grace, too deeply, purely sweet Of all, enchanting image of Love's queen? To tell of passion that could change or tire. Or did I linger till yon blue star,

From those rich lips no fatal dreams respire, Thy star shonld crown thee with its light There lives no evil splendor in that eye serene?

To dart the flame on failing virtue's pyre, There stands the goddess by the Grecian Dark thoughts before thy sacred beauty die,

Queen of the soul, thy charm of charms is In the mind's lonely, deep idolatry :

modesty.

MR. MATURIN. We noticed last month a new four volumes of a fresh romance, are poem announced to be in the press, also forthcoming. By the by-we from the pen of Mr. Maturin, en- promised to say something about his titled The Universe. If he goes on wild, fantastic, and,- no, not natuthus he must soon “ imagine a new ral-but legitimate child of genius, one.-A new tragedy, of which we Melmoth. We shall endeavour to hope soon to give some account, and keep our word in May.

MR. BOWYER'S PRINT. A very highly embellished account of Lords, by Stephanoff—it is quite of events connected with the late illusion - Mr. Brougham rubbed his memorable trial, is about to issue from eyes that he might be sure he was the hands of Mr. Bowyer of Pall- in Pall-Mall after viewing it. No Mall. We have been favoured with less than seventy peers have sat to, a sight of the picture of the House Jr. Bowyer for their likenesses.

seen

ROBERT BLOOMFIELD. We learn with pleasure that the Bloomfield entirely dependant "for Muse of our rural poct, after a seces- support on the produce of his former sion of some years, is about to step poems; and as his hand has ever forth again; and, we trust, with been open to the demands of those undiminished attractions. An infirm dear to him, that resource has been state of health, and an almost total extremely limited. loss of sight, have rendered Mr.

DR. REED ON HYPOCHONDRIASIS, &c. A book on this disorder is also losopher, as well as a physician might in the press.

We do not know do something in this matter, at in what way this subject is treat- least, in tracing the causes of this ed, but it is one obviously of great physical error. One-who is a phiand painful interest; to literary men; losopher as well as a poet, tells us, and men of sedentary habits, it is that people of imagination are liable more particularly of importance to to the malady, and that, though full know in what way this curse of of gladness and buoyancy at first, study may be obviated or allayed': yet in the end comes despondency it seems to us, indeed, (but, per- and madness." haps, we talk ignorantly) that a phi

TABLE-TALK BY MR. HAZLITT.

A volume of essays, under this they would rather consult the struc title, is, we understand, in the press. ture of their neighbours' minds than We quote, from memory, the heads their own, and they are consequently of some of the chapters. • The content to sit down with but half of past and the future, _Character the knowledge which they might of Cobbett, — People with one idea,', otherwise acquire. Had Mr. God

- The Indian Jugglers,' — On livá win forbore in this manner, when he ing to one's self,'— On Country The- wrote • St. Leon' and Fleetwood, atres,'—-On Sir Joshua Reynolds’s he would never have developed the discourses,' and various others.— strange and fluctuating characters That Mr. Hazlitt is a man of un- of his heroes with the magnificent doubted and original mind, no one effect that we know he has done. who has read any of his books can A good deal of this fearless and well refuse to acknowledge. Peró profound self-investigation is, we haps there is no living writer who think, discernible in the writings of combines so much fancy and occa- Mr. Hazlitt, though it is necessarily sional pathos with qualities of a more less apparent in a book made up of stern and logical cast as he does; and essays on various subjects, than in we believe, that no one ever ventured the biography, or rather in that anato consult his own nature more close- tomy of character which Mr. Godly than himself, or to display with win has exhibited in almost all his greater truth the treasures derived works of fiction. We shall take an from such investigation. The vanity early opportunity of noticing Mr. of men in general prevents their Hazlitt's volume. • looking at home' for information:

MR. SOANE's MUSEUM. The gallery which the Professor which it contains, and to the valuable has now completed, at his residence studies which it presents. The colin Lincoln's Inn Fields, cannot fail lection is distributed through four to excite great interest among the principal rooms; and the effect of the admirers of architecture ; and we general arrangement, and the erdoubt not, but that the liberality of semble, is very striking, owing to Mr. Soane will, under proper limita- the tasteful decorations of the aparttions, allow professional men and ments, and the judicious manner in amateurs to have access to the stores which the light is introduced. Bto

sides the valuable architectural mo- Certain we are, that whaterer dels and fragments, the Vases, Cine- may have been his occasional errors rary Urns, and specimens of Etrus- and delinquencies in matters of taste, can art, the walls of one of the rooms no one has displayed greater energy, are covered with architectural paint- zeal, and perseverance in the cause ings, and drawings, by Canaletti, of architecture, or has more warmly Clerisseau, and the Professor him- advocated its interests. His best self. The library too presents a rich works present many elegant embelassemblage of every architectural lishments, and a delicacy of dework of importance, several of which coration that deserves to be stuare exceedingly rare and costly. died by his successors. His lec: 'It is gratifýing to see an artist tures, but we do not intend to write thus unequivocally displaying that a panegyric-our only object was disinterested enthusiasm for his art, to point out to the admirers of which ought ever to distinguish the the Fine Arts, a private museum professors of a liberal and elegant which reflects honour on the liberascience. We admire Mr. Soane’s lity and zeal of its possessor, and zeal, we commend his taste, and we which deserves to obtain a place on farther hope that the example which the list of the objects of attraction in he has here given, may incite others our metropolis. to an honourable emulation.

THE CHALCOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION. In addition to the usual exhibi- palette, because the shop of the printtions, forming so prominent a fea- seller has formed, as it were, a per

а ture among the amusements of the manent and interesting gallery, pre inetropolis during spring, and visit- senting a constant succession of noed from such opposite motives by velties, whether to the glance of the the indolent and the sedulous, the in- profuner passenger at the window, telligent and the vacant, the men of or to the gaze of those initiated into taste and the mere men of ton, the the adytum of the fane. Still the bees and the butterflies of society- adoption of the present plan appears there is announced an Exhibition of highly commendable and judicious : Engravings by living artists, which it will annually concentrate upon one is intended to be opened about the spot all the finest and most exquimiddle of the present month, at a site productions. We hail it too as gallery now fitting up in Soho- an indication' of zeal and effective square.

energy, for it originates, we are per: For the accomplishment of this de- suaded, in feelings more connected sirable project, which would otherwise with art than with trade. While upon have been abandoned in an early this subject, we will notice an obstage, the public are, we under- vious desideratum that is capable of stand, indebted to the exertions of being easily supplied, viz. a complete an individual artist, who is willing and correct list, published periodically to incur the whole risk of the under- (like those of books, in the Magataking, not, however, with any view zines) and noticing every new print, to private emolument, but with the of whatever description it may be, hope that it may prove ultimately togeti:er with its size and price. beneficial to the profession at large. The inconvenience arising from the It is somewhat extraordinary that want of some such intelligence is this class of artists should not have not strikingly felt by the residents before resorted to so obviously be- of the metropolis, but it is by the neficial a mode of displaying their distant amateur and collector, who works: perhaps they have hitherto frequently continue ignorant of the deemed it less necessary for them existence of what they would others than for their graphic brethren of the wise introduce into their portfolios.

COVENT GARDEN.

THE DRAMA.
No. XV.

velopement of the characters, or the Richard the Third-(according to expression of the passions." the text of Shakspeare.) The resto- * This rule" Mr. Hazlitt is now ration of Shakspeare to the stage, speaking of the altered play by Cihis an event worthy of commemora- ber This rule has not been adtion. He had been maltreated, and hered to in the present instance. deposed, for many years; and, though Some of the most important: and the • mob of gentlemen' were con- striking passages, in the principal

tent with his gloomy successor, the character, have been omitted, to few,' whose opinions are worth hav- make room for idle and misplaced ing, pretty generally lamented the extracts from other plays; the only usurpation of Cibber; and some were intention of which seems to have been, even bold enough to avow it.- Mr. to make the character of Richard as Charles Lamb many years ago ob- odious and disgusting as possible.” jected strongly to the interpolations (Hazlitt's Character of Shakspeare's of Tate and Cibber, in the tragedies Plays, p. 231.) of Richard the Third, and Lear. The public are indebted for the (See his works, vol. ii. p. 20, et seq.) play of Richard, as it is now acting, Among other excellent things, he to Mr. Macready. Whether the sug-says truly, when speaking of Cibber's gestion of Mr. Hazlitt, or the anialterations, that “ the poetry of the madversions of Mr. Charles Lamb, part” is gone ; “ the buoyant spirit, instigated him to this good work, we the vast insight into human charac- do not profess to know, nor is it mater” is no where perceptible. “No- terial. The introduction of Shaksthing but his crimes, his actions, is peare to the theatre merits our hest visible: they are prominent, and approbation, whether done from prestaring; the murderer stands out, - vious hint or not. The plan adopted but where is the lofty genius, the by Mr. Macready, however, is not man of vast capacity,—the profound, precisely the same as that suggested the witty, the accomplished Rin by Mr. Hazlitt ; for some material chard ?”

transpositions have been made, and Nor is Mr. Charles Lamb the only some of the language of Cibber has eminent writer who has opposed the been retained. We could have wished, innovations of Cibber; for Mr. Haz- certainly, that the whole of what litt, in his “ Characters of Shaks- Cibber introduced, had been omitted; peare's Plays,” has done the same for it is rather hard that he should thing, and has even suggested a plan suffer, while any advantage is made for the revival of the original tragedy. by the matter which he himself wrote, As his observations are much to the or collected: but, perhaps, it was not point, we shall take leave to tran- easy to avoid this. There are certain scribe them here.-" The character points, in an old established play, of his hero is almost every where which an audience is wont to look predominant, and marks its lurid forward to ; and the omission of which track throughout.— The original play, it will not easily permit. There are however, is too long for representa- things, indeed, for the sake of which tion; and there are some few scenes people put up with a good deal of .which might be better spared than tediousness at times; and it might preserved, and by omitting which it be perilous to omit them. Such, for would remain a complete whole. The instance, is the “ Chop off his head: only rule, indeed, for altering Shaks- so much for Buckingham.” . Our peare, is to retrench çertain passages friends in the gallery would not tamely which may be considered as super- endure that this should be lost to fluous, or obsolete ; but not to add them. If a soliloquy, or a fine piece or transpose any thing. The arrange- of poetry, were omitted, they might ment and developement of the story, feel themselves resigned, and cry, and the mutual contrast and combina- “ coulcnt:" but an effect, as it is tion of the dramatis personæ, are in called on the stage, is material to general as finely managed as the des both actor and auditor; and must

)