MONTHLY

CATALOGUE

For JULY 1788.

MISCELLANEOUS.

ART. 22. The Travellers; a Comedy, in Three Acts. As read with Applaufe at the English Readings. By Lieutenant Harrison, of the Marines. 8vo. 1s. 6d. ftitched. Robinfons. London, 1788.

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HIS comedy appears not to have been offered to the theatre, nor perhaps intended for it. The principal humour contained in it is of a kind which could never yet be made to fucceed on the English stage, for an obvious reafon, because it is too little connected with the great paffions and univerfal feelings of human nature. The paffion for virtue is too obfcure and circumfcribed in its operation ever to intereft a mixed audience. In fuch an attempt the united powers of Arbuthnot, Pope, and Gay, failed of fuccefs.

Mr. Harrison, however, has contrived to make feveral laughable fcenes in ridicule of this paffion. We felect the following fhort one, written perhaps with a distant view to Smollet's celebrated Banquet, in the manner of the ancients. Foffil is the virtuofo; Margery his fifter, and Maria his daughter:

Fofil. Pfhaw, pfhaw-tell me of ragouts and barbacues, mockturtle, and mutton-broth.. -Have not your French cooks, I fay, fubverted the elegant fimplicity of the ancients?

Margery. Ancients, truly.-No more of your hot-baths, brother; I have had enough of Mr. Squabble and you flouncing in the great wafhing-tub, fprawling like two frogs in a ditch in the month of April;and I protest our best beds fhall not be spoiled and made couches of.

Fofil. Mercy on us!-thefe prejudices, fifter, of yours are derived from the barbarifm of the Goths and Vandals. You have no idea of Syracufian luxury.

Margery. And is it not a fhame to make me and your daughter He upon your couches with the young 'fquire and Mr. Squabble.-A fin, brother!And to think too of your fending for Tom Twangdillo, the blind fiddler, for your bard, who every body knows is a vile scrape; but truly, you fuppofed he played divinely on the lyre, as you call it.

Fofil. Any thing more, fifter Margery?

Maria. Papa, I beg you would difpenfe with the perfumes of the ancients.

Margery. Yes, perfumes. Have you forgot the lamp oil which you, the parfon, 'fquire, and Mr. Squabble, rubbed yourselves by mistake with, as was the way, you faid, with the ancients?You know the parfon was a nuifance to the parish a week after; the 'fquire no better than a herring, and his hounds run in full cry at

his heels, fo that he could not kill a hare for almoft the whole feafon; whilst poor Mr. Squabble, a mere hottentot, every body avoiding him as he went up the village; and you, brother, almoft fretted yourself to death because you could not exhibit your museum.

Fofil. Any thing more, maiden fifter?

Margery. Yes, indeed.-How did every body laugh when you killed our old boar, the only one in the parish, and dreffed his chine to feast like Homer's heroes.-You know he was fo tough you left two teeth in his hide; and the paríon was fadly difpleafed becaufe he had not a tythe pig that year. But I tell you, brother, I'll prepare a good fubftantial dinner, I warrant you, and whip up fome trifles, according to poor mamma's receipts.

Fofil. Trifles, indeed. Here's gratitude to antiquity for the good things it has handed down to us.

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Margery. Yes, I have an excellent receipt of hers for a madedish, which I found yesterday amongst others, for the gripes in children-a sprain in the ankle-an infallible cure for the rheumatifm -and a wash for the face; indeed it is the moft efficacious I ever made ufe of.

Fofil. Pox on't, old women's receipts preferred to the celeftial cookery of Homer.'

The incidents of this little piece are few, and can lay no strong claim to originality.

ART. 23. The King's Ode, in Anfwer to Peter Pindar, on the Subject of his Penfion; with a poetical Preface, and Four Original Cantatas, by the fame Hand. 4to. 2s. 6d. Stalker. London, 1788.

This manufacturer of rhyme imitates Peter Pindar juft as aukwardly as the fool at Aftley's or Sadlers-Wells imitates the agility of an ele gant vaulter.

ART. 24. Vulcan's Rebuke. Submissively addreffed to the Worshipful Peter Pindar, Efq. by his affectionate Coufin Paul Juvenal, Gent. To which is added, a short but very pathetic Prayer to the divine Reviewers; with an original Vifion. 4to. 3s. Scatchard and Whitaker. London, 1788.

Another imitator, ftill worse than the former. The following are a few of his rhymes: "nine, fublime; divine, rhyme; distempers, adventures; sisters, whiskers; nine, rhime; cramm'd, hand,” &c. &c. His reafon is no where to be found; but, in its stead, we discovered a fpecies of grammar which is all his own; ecce fignum :

It seems a perfect chart of Bot'ny Bay,
Where Cluer Dicey all his arts difplay.'

A paltry fungus, in whofe brain each mufe
Revels at large, and plays what pranks they choose.".

In fhort, Vulcan is a mere blacksmith.

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ART. 25. The Cottagers; a Comic Opera, in Two Acts. By Mifs A. Rofs (aged Fifteen Years), Daughter of Mrs. Brown, of the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Printed for the Author. London, 1788.

If the age of the writer of this performance be truly ftated, and of that we have no reason to doubt, her production is certainly entitled to refpect and commendation. We have frequently had occafion to remark that genius and invention are not the accompaniments of early youth; but the Cottagers contains every thing that could reafonably be demanded from it. The language is neat and grammatical, the characters are regularly fuftained, the dialogue is lively and amufing; and we occafionally find inftances of a knowledge of the world greatly beyond what could have been expected from so young

a writer.

ART. 26. An Irregular Ode to General Elliot. By Henry Francis Cary. 4to. Is. Piercy, Birmingham. No Year.

The author of this performance is but fifteen years old; and, having acquitted himself pretty well for that age, we would recommend to him a ten years course of reading, observation, and study, before he appears again in public as an author.

ART. 27. Petrarch to Laura; a Poetical Epifle. By Mr. C. James. 4to. 2s. 6d. Walter. London, 1786.

Mr. C. James informs us, in his preface and notes, that this poem was completed, with the exception of fome few lines, in fix fucceffive mornings; a piece of information which can neither enhance its beauties, nor extenuate its faults. Whether a poem be good or bad, is the grand queftion, not whether it was quickly or flowly produced. For, in truth, those rhymes are not always the best which are poured forth with the greateft rapidity; and Mr. James, perhaps, might have fpent a feventh morning not unprofitably in the correction and amendment of his work. He would not then have given a repetition of the fame found for a rhyme:

‹ What are its mansions of eternal light,
Seraphic founds, or raptures of delight !

And again:

• Too well this heart the bitter truth avows,

Whence conscience tears me from its guilty vows??

Nor would he have allowed fo many expreffions to remain which convey no ideas, at least no diftinct ones, to the reader's mind.

ART. 28. The Country Book Club; a Poem. 4to. 2s. 6d. Lowndes. London, 1788.

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There is a pleasantry in the conduct and versification of this formance, and the subject is well supported. Burlesque feems to be the author's forte.

ART. 29. Poems on feveral Occafions. By the late Edward Lovibond, Efq. 35. fewed. Dodfley. London, 1788.

An advertisement prefixed to these poems informs us that their au thor was a gentleman of fortune, who paffed the greater part of his years in the neighbourhood of Hampton, in Middlefex, where he lived greatly beloved by thote who best knew him; that he was an admirable fcholar, of very amiable manners, and of univerfal benevolence; and that the little pieces which compof this volume were chiefly written on fuch incidents as occafionally arofe in those focieties which he most frequented.

They are accordingly the poems of an indolent man, not destitute of genius, but little capable of continued exertion; and though none of them rife to excellence, yet many of them are pleasing.

ART. 30. The Beauties of the Rambler, Adventurer, Connoiffeur, World, and Idler. In Two Volumes. 12mo. 6s. Kearfley. Lon:don, 1787.

The editors of fuch compilations are to be commended for their induftry, though we are really incapable of discovering what utility they poffefs. Cheapnefs cannot be an object, fince an equal quantity of the works of thefe authors might be bought for the fame money, ungarbled, at any of the fecondhand bookfellers. If the ufe of fchools was intended, we think the editor has been unfortunate in his choice; fince, of all the works which are here extracted, only one is in any fort calculated for the perufal of youth. The Rambler and the Idler are too ferious for his tafte, and too elevated for his comprehenfion. The World is too frivolous and nugatory; and the Connoiffeur is too fatirical and comic, and depends too much in its reader upon a certain knowledge of the ceremonies and established forms of human life. Perhaps, then, he imagines that the works of a Johnfon and a Hawkefworth will perish in the viciffitude of human things, and is willing, in his immortal page, to preferve a memorial of thefe writers, as we have fragments of Alcaus, Philemon, and Menander.

ART. 31. Familiar Letters from a Gentleman to a few felect Friends; with fome original Poems on various Subjects. Svo. 4s. White, London, 1788.

Thefe familiar letters may be thought very entertaining by the gentleman who wrote them, and by his Jelect friends, to whom they are written; but the generality of readers will, in many parts. find them unintelligible, and in all, infipid. The poetry is not inferior to the profe in thofe qualities which have been mentioned.

ART. 32. Eliza Cieland; a Novel. 2 vols. 12mo. 5s. Lane. Lon-don, 1788.

This novel has two heroines to reprefent the happy and unhappy. ftates of marriage. Eliza Cleland, or rather Eliza Johnson, is the unfortunate wife; by the beneficence of the god hufbaud fhe is finally relieved; but what becomes of her during her widowhood, is

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no where divulged. The ftyle is pompous; but neither characters nor incidents have any claim to originality.

ART. 33. Original Letters of the late Rev. Mr. Laurence Sterne; never before published. 12mo. 3s. fewed. Longman. London, 1788. Some of thefe letters might have been the production of Sterne; but a poverty of language, and vulgarity of phrafe, convince us that they are not all his. There are befides feveral attempts at wit, which are very inferior to Triftram Shandy's. It may. however be faid that these letters, being chiefly on private fubjects, were written by Sterne in his hafty moments: but where is the introduċtion or preface to inform us how they were discovered and preserved? This, it seems, was deemed unneceffary; for if the letters were written by Sterne, we could not doubt it; and if not, the dead can tell no tales. The author deserves praise for a few imitations.

ART. 24. The Principles of British Policy contrafted with a French Alliance. In Five Letters from a Whig Member of Parliament to a Country Gentleman. 8vo. Is. 6d. Debrett. London, 1787.

The author of these letters is decidedly against entering into any commercial treaty with France, as being detrimental to our political interefts, which, fays he, were never more oppofite to those of France than they are now. Her views have been conftantly directed against the common liberties of mankind. Her power never was fo great; her inclinations to annihilate our importance in the fcale of nations never was fo manifeft. It is no new axiom, he adds, in politics that a ftate may lose its importance with the prefervation, nay the extenfion, of its commerce. Great-Britain and France are both very great commercial countries; but mere commercial profits are in neither the fole end of their local inftitution. There is a certain rank and dignity which every great empire muft neceflarily fupport among its neighbours, The wealth of a nation is justly faid to confift in the number of induftrious poor it employs; but the ftrength of a nation is a different thing, and depends upon the nature of their employments. Holland is, beyond all proportion, the wealthiest and the most induftrious country in the world, confifting. of an equal number of inhabitants; but their fyllem, for these last fifty years, has rendered them juft as indifputably the weakeft. GreatBritain is undoubtedly more a commercial country than France. But if this fuperiority be to our advantage, it involves a confequence that, pushed to its extent, may be of the greatest mischief by bringing us into precifely the fame fituation with Holland.

Such are the arguments offered by this writer against a treaty of commerce with France, which he confiders as fet on foot with a view to lull us afleep by its commercial benefits; while the French are purfuing their old plan of univerfil monarchy, which he endeavours to prove in his letters they have been aiming at for these two cenjuries past.

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