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MONTHLY MISCELLANY.

INCLUDING

VARIETIES, CRITICAL, LITERARY, AND HISTORICAL.

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. COVENT-GARDEN-A new Dramatic Ex. hibition, arranged by Mr Farley, was represented for the first time, at this theatre, eu titled "The Free Knights; or, The Edict of Charlemagne."-The story is as follows:

means by which she may escape, which she in consequence effects, and flies for sanctuary to Corbey Abbey-she is there protected by the Abbot (Bellarmin), who finding her accused as the daughter of Manfredi, and that her accuser is the Prince Palatine, is convinced of her inAgnes, the infant daughter of the late Prince nocence-He dispatches Ravensburg to his Palatine, upon her father's death, being at father for information respecting the fugisome distance, Count Manfredi is dispatched tive, and, by the intelligence he receives, by her uncle to escort her to Court, but with finds his sovereign under his protection. The seer-f instructions to destroy her, and thus Prince Palatine, thus foiled, attacks the Abbey, make way for his usurpation. The Count forces its gates, commands Agnes to be dragged seemingly consented, the better to preserve the || from the sanctuary, and is on the point of Princess, and on their journey he dismissed sacrificing the Princess, when the Abbot proher train, to bear her secretly to some foreign claims her his lawful sovereign.-The Prince, friendly court-in this attempt they are at- appalled, drops his sword, and stung with retacked by a banditti, and Manfredi, believing morse of conscience, acknowledges his guilt. Agnes was slain, fled. The young Princess be- The Princess accepts the hand of Ravensburg, ing supposed dead, her uncle usurps the throne, and the drama concludes with the ceremony and, to destroy Manfredi's evidence, aims at of the installation of the Abbot. his destruction; but the Count, in disguise, and under the assumed name of Bellarmin, sought and obtained protection in Corbey Abbey, built by Charlemagne, to commemo rate his victories, and by him endowed with gift or sanctuary, and its Abbots with the prerogative of pardon.--At Baron Ravensberg's Castle, where the Prince is on a visit, to be present at the celebration of young Ravens berg's nuptials, he sees, and recognises in the person of Agnes Lindorf, his niece, whom he long thonght dead. He conceals his knowledge of her, demands of the Baron her history, and is by him informed, that about fourteen years back he had found her exposed on the banks of the Danube, that he had adopted her, and from that time brought her up as his daughter. The Prince appears satisfied, but secretly dispatches Walbowg to the court of the Free Knights, who soon returns, accompanied by some of its members, summoning Agnes Lindorf to appear before them. Young Ravensberg, who had just been elected a Free Knight, and had witnessed, with dismay, the horrid proceedings of a court which spread terror throughout Germany, would openly have protected the Princess, but is preyented by the Prince Palatine, who threatens him with the vengeance of the brotherhood, should he persist.

The youth (between whom and Agnes, a mutual inclination subsists) has recourse to stratagem, and at the trial of the Princess for an attempt to poison the usurper, he is one of the most forward to accuse her, by which means he stifles suspicion, and is chosen to convey to Agnes the warrant for her execution, and to see ber sentence put in force. Instead of the warrant, Ravensberg delivers to her a paper, explaining his designs, and pointing out the

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This play, which is the production of Mr. Reynolds, is full of much interesting action in the serious parts, but is perfectly destitute of merit in that portion which pretends to coanedy. It is, like the other pieces of this writer, a mere canvass for stage scenery; so many wooden pegs to produce all the silk and velvet and tinsel of the house. We have always strenuously resisted the introduction of any thing of this kind, which tends to bring Pantomime and Spectacle in their wrong place. Let Blue Beard and Mother Goose have as much magnificence as the managers can afford them; but let Comedy stand upon its own legs, upon its dialogue, character, and natural fable.

The audience were very favourable to this piece, and the public will doubtless, from the powerful attractions of the scenery, go in crowds to see it.

A new Farce has been produced at this Theatre, entitled " A Budget of Blunders."

This whimsical trifle opens with a view of a country ale-house, the sign of the Bell, where Dr. Smag face is discovered discoursing with a waiter: we are soon taught to understand that he is the suitor of Sophia, who is secretly euamoured with Captain Belgrave. A servant delivers a letter to Dr. Le Blanc cour, who keeps a house for the reception of lunatics, situated near the Bell.

Old Growley and his ward Sophia are discovered at a table, where the proposed union between Sophia and Dr. Smugface is mentioned by Growley, and opposed by the Maid.

When Growley leaves the chamber, a sound of drums and fifes is heard in the street, and the Maid intimates that a regiment is march. in throught the street, to which it is probable that Captain Belgrave may belong. In her trepidation she drops some utensil out of the

window, which is supposed to have struck the Captain, who enters the chamber in anger, but is immediately soothed, on beholding his beloved Sophia. A noise is heard, and the Captain, to avoid being discovered, puts on the cap and robe de chambre of Growley. Old Deborah now enters, and announces the approach of a gentleman, who proves to be Dr. Smugface. He addresses the presumed guardian of his Sophia with a letter of introduction, but not receiving an articulate answer, supposes Mr.' Growley to be in an apoplexy, and runs out for a surgeon. In this interval Captain Belgrave escapes, and Growley enters, and puts on his cap and gown, but he is scarcely seated in his chair, when Dr. Smugface comes in, attended by Dr. Le Blanccour, and they proceed to bleed Growley, when Le Blanccour discovers his mistake. In the consternation that ensues, Growley suggests to Dr. Le Blanccour that Smugface must be a patient of his, who had recently jumped out of the Doctor's window-a circumstance which the French physician had previously made known.

formed, for the first time, "Riches; or, the LYCEUM-Early in the month was perWife and Brother," a Play in Five Acts, founded on Massinger. The following is a sketch of Massenger, a very eminent dramatic writer of the play, it was originally the production of his day, but it has, in the present instance, been entirely re-modelled by Sir James Blaud Burgess, a gentleman of unquestionable literary talent and judgment.

The scene of action lies in the beginning of the seventeenth century. wealthy merchant, had married a young second Sir John Traffic, a wife, having by his former marriage two grown ing dissipated his patrimony, had been reup daughters; and a brother Luke, who, havceived by Sir John as an humble dependantHere the play commences:

Hartwell and Lacy, two country gentlemen, objected to by Lady Traffic, who can think of are introduced to the girls as suitors; but are here her character is developed, the lovers are nothing but an elevation to the Peerage, and insulted and quit the house.

The violence of her Ladyship's temper and conduct awakeus Sir John to a seuse of his own weakness, and, with the aid of Sir Maurice, he enters into a project at once to punish and reform her. Sir John absents himself, and Sir Maurice, informs Lady Traffic of her husband's death, presenting her at the same time with bis will, by which the whole of his property is bequeathed to his brother (of whose probity he has been recently induced to think well.) The Lady is at first thrown into the utmost

A plan is now laid to surprize Smugface, which produces some merriment in the audience. After a variety of comic incidents, Smug face is discovered sleeping in a chair, having had a soporific administered to him by Le Blanccour, with the Frenchman and Growley cautiously watching his symptoms. At length he recovers his senses, and frightens his companions, but eventually escapes from the window into a garden, where he is much alarmed on bearing Captain Belgrave scaling the wall to meet Sophia. Here the Captain mistakes Smug-despair, but becomes reconciled to her fate by face, in the dark, for his servant who had neglected to obey his orders, and chastizes him; then the Captain and his mistress escape through the garden gate, and the Maid euters with a bonnet and shawl, and puts them on the unfortunate Doctor.

Growley, on hearing a tumult, comes into the garden, and is alarmed at the appearance of Smugface, when the Captain and Sophia en. ter, and an eclaircissement takes place, by which Smugface resigns his claims, and the lovers are rendered happy.

There were some symptoms of disapproba- || tion manifested by some persons towards the conclusion of the piece; but we cannot avoid thinking this resistance a little fastidious, as we have witnessed a cloud of absurdities in a first piece, that have been swallowed in the wholesale, without any signs of public nausea; and why they should be averse to admitting absurdity by retail in a farce, is what creates our surprise.

We understand the The Budget of Blunders is the production of a commercial gentleman in the city, who is the author of "Is he a Prince?" On the occasion of his receiving one hundred pounds from the treasury of Covent-Garden Theatre, as his portion of the profits, he generously presented it to the fund established for decayed actors. This was a liberal and kind proceeding, and as charity covereth a multitude of sins, in the moral world, let us not deny its just influence in a dramatic point of contemplation.

the apparent generosity and nobleness of Luke, confidence. Sir Maurice apprises Sir John of in whom she is induced to place unbounded the levity of his wife, and the integrity and generosity of Luke.

The sudden accession of wealth, however, soon overturns Luke's assumed sanctity and humility, which are converted into tyranny, ther's poor debtors to their destruction, rerevenge, and avarice:-he persecutes his broduces his sister-in-law and nieces to the situation of menial servants, while indulging himself in every species of luxury. He even insults Sir Maurice; and introducing Lady Traffe and her daughters in a wretched dress, wishes it were possible that his deceased brother could venge for their former insolence. be permitted to witness the fullness of his reAt this chair, and humbling himself before his brother moment Sir John enters; Luke staggers to a supplicates for pardon. Finding bis entreaties ineffectual, he resumes all the ferocity of his character, increased by despair; and on his quitting the stage the piece concludes with the union of the lovers, and the reconciliation of Sir John and Lady Traffic.

The play was extremely well received by a genteel and respectable one. very numerous audience, and certainly a very The comedy is, of itself, as written by Massinger, an excellent production, possessing all the advantages of fable, incident, conduct, and language, we were almost tempted to say; and it displays a very intimate or very discerning knowledge of

human nature. It does not often happen that || Moslim Sovereignties, prior to the æra of Mahratta independence.

The Rev. Thomas Comber is compiling from unpublished Manuscripts, and other authentic sources, the History of the Parisian Massacre of St. Bartholomew, in which all the minute circumstances of that sanguinary event are faithfully pourtrayed.

the alteration of our old dramatic writers is attended with success, any more than our attempts to modernize ancient architecture. Merely to have expunged a little grossuess in the language of this play, with some compression of its exuberancies, would fully have answered all that has been done by SirJ. B. Burgess on the present occasion. Still we Dr. Watson has nearly ready for publication must say, that the Comedy is strongly interest- a Theoretical and Practical View of the Ining, as a picture of human life and mauners, struction of the Deaf and Dumb, containing uncircumscribed by time or place. hints for the correction of impediments in We wish that we could compliment the per-speech, and illustrated by numerous plates formers more highly than it is now in our power; but the prescut drama is a dead weight on their shoulders.

WORKS IN THE PRESS.

Dr. Scott, late Professor at the Royal East Judia College, has in the press an edition of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, to be embellished with engravings from designs by Smirke. The last edition of the translation from Galland's French version, received considerable additions from the pen of Mr. Gough, of Enfield. This edition Dr. Scott adopts as his basis, carefully revising and occasionally correcting it from the Arabian original. To this he has added a new volume, comprising thirty-five Tales, now first trauslated form the Arabic copy of the Que Thousand and One Nights, brought to Europe by Edward Wortley Montague, and deposited in the Bodleian Library; and also an Introduction and Notes, illustrative of the religion, manners, customs, and domestic habits of the Mahommedans.

Robert Steele, Esq. of the Royal Marines, is preparing for the press a Tour through the Atlantic, or Recollections from Madeira, the Azores, and Newfoundland, including the period of discovery, produce, manners, and customs of each; with memorandums from the convents visited in 1809, in his Majesty's ship Vestal.

Miss Rundell, of Percy-luse, Bath, has just completed a Grammar of Stered History, including the Old and New Testament, with

maps.

Dr. Binns, of Lancaster, formerly Headmaster of Ackworth School, has lately finished a new English Grammar, upon which he has been engaged, at intervals, for many years.

Mr. Ticken intends to publish an Historical Atlas, ancient and modern, to consist of six beautiful Charts.

Mr. Pratt has in great forwardnes, a Poem, entitled the Lower World, occasioned by the speech of Lord Erskine in the House of Peers, on reading the Bill for preventing wanton and malicious cruelty to animals.

Mr. Thomas Haynes, an experienced propagator of trees, shrubs, and plants, is about to publish New and Interesting Discoveries in Horticulture, in an improved System of propagating Fruit-tices, hardy American and other Evergreens and deciduous orna. mental Trees and Shrubs.

Fashionale Anecdote.-The following anerdote, it is said, has been lately realised in high life: The Duke of Guise was married to a princess of Cleves, a woman of great beauty, who was suspected to favour the passion of a certain person named St Mairin, about the Court of Catherine De Mcdicis. The Queen had invited, on a particular day, the

A Tour through the central counties of Eng-principal ladies of the Court, who were to be land, namely, Worcester, Stafford, Leicester, and Warwick, including their topography and biography, will shortly appear, in a royal quarto volume, with twenty-four engravings. Mr Hamilton's Travels in Syria and Egypt || may very soon be expected to appear

A Translation of M. de Luc's Travels in the North of Europe, will be published in a few weeks.

Mr. Hutton, of Birmingham, is printing an Account of his Trip to Coatham, a wateringplace on the Yorkshire coast.

The Rev. Dr. Davies, of Milford, Derbyshire, is engaged upon a new Historical and Descriptive View of the Town and County of Derby, in one large volume octavo. He invites communications respecting antiquities, natural history, and recent improvements.

Edward Scott Waring, Esq. has just completed a History of the Mahrattas, prefaced by an Historical Sketch of the Decan, containing a short account of the rise and fall of the

dressed in the liveries of their mistress. The Duke of Guise begged his Duchess not to go, arging, that although he did not doubt ber virtue, her attendance would only increase calumuy and slander. The Duchess pleaded the "Queen's invitation,"&e. She succeeded, and weat to the entertainment, which lasted till five in the morning, when she returned home and went to bed. She had scarcely lain down, when the Duke entered her room, followed by an old servant, who carried in his hand a small bason of broth. The Duke locked the door and approached the bed, saying, very deliberately and resolutely, "Madam, al though you would not follow my counsel last night, you shall follow it now. Your dancing has heated you; you must immediately drink this broth." The Duchess suspecting poison, refused She cried, intreated, begged, and prayed. The Duke was brm. She then solicited for five minutes interview with her confessor. The Duke was

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not to be moved. She drank the broth. Immediately the Duke withdrew, locking the door, and taking the key. In about four hos, alter, the Duke paid her another visit, and with an affected smile, said, Madam, I fear you have now passed some very unhappy hours since I left you; I guess you have been in constant dread of the effects of what I had administered to you: judge then of all the unhappy hours which you have made me pass, in similar doubts and fears. However,, take comfort: you have nothing to fear; nor, I will hope, have 1. Let us both, in future, ayoid such tricks, and cousuit each other's peace."

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An English traveller, after describing the fire given at Paris in honour of the last peace with this country, concludes with the following anecdote:-A lusty young Frenchman, who, from his head-dress à la Titus, I shall distinguish by that name, escorting a lady, whom, on account of her beautiful hair, I shall style Berenice, stood on one of the hindmost benches. The belle, habited in a tunic &la Grecque, with a species of sandals which displayed the elegant form of her leg, was nfortunately not of stature sufficiently commanding to see over the people's heads. was to no purpose that the gentleman called oat, "a bas les chapeaux." When the hats were off the lady still saw no better. What will not gallantry suggest to a man of fa abionable education? Our considerate youth perceived, at no great distance, some persons Standing on a plank supported by a couple of casks. Confiding the fair Berenice to my care, he vanished; but almost in an instant he re appeared, followed by two men, bearing an empty hogshead, which, it seems, he procured from the tavern at the west entrance of the Thuilleries. To place the cask near the feet of the lady, pay for it, and fix her on it, was the business of a moment. Here then she was, like a statue on its pedestal, enjoying the double gratification of seeing and being Seep. But, for enjoyment to be complete, we unst share it with those we love. amining the space where she stood, the lady saw there was room for two, and accordingly invited the gentleman to place himself beside her. In vain he resisted her entreaties; in vain he feared to incommode her. She commanded; he could do no less than obey. Stepping up on the bench, he thence nimbly sprang to the cask; but, Oh fatal catastrophe! while, by the light of neighbouring clusters of lamps, every one around was admiring the mutual attention of this sympathizing pair, in went the head of the hogshead. Our tili then envied couple fell suddenly up to the middle of the leg in wine-lees left in the cask, by which they were bespattered up to their very eyes. Nor was this all; being too eager to extricate themselves, they overset the cask, and came to the ground, roiling in it and its offensive contents. It would be no easy mafter to picture the ludicrous situation of Citizen Titus and Madam Berenice. This being the only evil resulting from their fall, an

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universal burst of laughter seized the surrounding spectators, in which I took so considerable a share, that i could not immediately afford any assistance.

Anecdote —Mrs. Stokes, a lady now resident iu England, was at school with the repudiated Empress Josephine; during the short interval of peace in 1801, she visited France, and Madame Bonaparte having expressed a wish to have a private interview with her early friend, Mrs. S. was introduced After the usual congratulations, they began to discourse with freedom on the occurrences of their youthful days, and Madame B. anxiously enquired of Mrs. Stokes if she recollected hearing her future destiny predicted by a fortune-teller while she was at school? Mrs. Stokes replied in the affirmative.-" Aud pray, my dear Madam, what, as nearly as you can remember, were his words?"" He said that you should sit upon a throne!""Was that all?" eagerly asked Madame B. Mrs. Stokes, who knew the sequel of the prophecy to be unfavourable, hesitated, and said she did not recollect any thing else." Alas! I do," exclaimed Madame B.; "he said that I should sit upon a throne, but that I should die in a work house; and since the first part of his prediction has been nearly accomplished, I have most auxiously dreaded the fulfillment of the rest."-This anecdote is well known in the fashionable world. Those who contemplate her recent degradation, must allow there is every probability that the unfortunate Josephine's apprehensions will finally be fulfilled.

The new East India College at Haileybury, Hertfordshire, is now completed. It is a very neat and handsome structure, composed entirely on the Grecian model, after the designs of Mr Wilkins, jun. It consists of four sides, forming a quadrangle, with a well-proportioned square in the centre. The principal front, of freestone, faces the east, and commands a distant view of the high north road, from which it has a very beautiful ap¡pearance. In this front are the chapel, the dining-hall, and library; the kitchen and offices composing oue wing, and the Principal's apartments the other. The other three sides contain separate apartments for one hundred and twenty students, having a recess for a bed and a closet for books in each; so that every student has a commodious apartment to himself. The centre and wings of these three sides of the quadrangle also contain houses for the Professors, and several lecture-rooms, besides the various offices ne cessary for the college servants, &c. The grounds belonging to the College are now laying out agreeably to the plan of Mr. Reptont, and, when completed, will, together with the building, be a great improvement to this part of the country. The nomination of students is invested in the Directors of the East India Company, and is in fact a virtual appointment as a writer. The terms of admission are one hundred guineas per annum. The students wear an academical habit, and are

subject to College discipline and restric tions.

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by its perfect transparency when melted: at the temperature of boiling water neither bubbles nor clouds are discernible" This tallow, it is affirmed, tnay be kept without any discolouration or rancidity for two years. The candles made of it are cxtremely white, their light is very pure, they emit little or no smoke, they do not gutter or run, and requirė snuffing less frequently than others. They are about five per cent. dearer than those of common manufacture.

The following circumstance, related on the authority of an officer of his Majesty's ship Dædalus, occurred while that vessel was lying at Samana, St. Domingo:-Early in the forenoon of the 20th of November, 1908, several sharks were seen swimming about the ship, in expectation of prey. A hook and bait were put overboard, which one of them immediately seized with the greatest voracity. A rope being passed over its fins, it required About eighteen months ago, a detachment no less than twenty men to hoist it on board. set out from the Cape of Good Hope, consistIn its maw was found a calf that had beening of Captain Donovan, of the 33d, a Surgeon, thrown overboard a few hours before. Its and some Hottentot soldiers; but the object length from the snout to the extremity of || of their mission was for a long time kept sethe tail was ten feet, and the circumference of cret. These travellers, after meeting many of the body proportionate. Three others of those accidents which usually retard the proequal size were successively caught; in the gress of a dangerous and difficult enterprize, last were found sixty two living young ones, a had been traced as far as Leetako, a very couturkey, and a live hawk's-bill turtle, two feet siderable village, which had been discovered six inches in length, and one foot uine inches some years ago, and which is fully described broad, which, immediately after its release, in Mr. Barrow's Travels to China. Since their swam about in a tub of water, apparently not departure from that village the fate of the misin the least injured by its confinement. sion was unknown, and its success despaired A remarkably large burning glass was re- of, when the news of its arrival in the vicinity cently purchased at Vienna for the French of the Portuguese settlements on the Musame Government. It was made at Gratz, iubique coast arrived at the Cape. Those tre Styria, by Ruspini, a celebrated mechanist,¦¦vellers have not in the course of their proceedfor some alchemists. It was not cast, but ing of more than a thousand leagues, discoversoftened by heat, and bent over a mould. Se- ed veral pieces were broken before it succeeded, so that it cost originally from eight hundred to twelve hundred guineas. It is three feet. three inches in diameter, and eight feet four inches focus; it is composed of two pieces of glass united together by an iron hook, so as to form a hollow vessel, capable of holding eighty or ninety quarts of spirit of wine. M. Jacquin, of Vienna, and several men of science, who witnessed the experiments, declare that it burned a diamond in a few seconds, and fused platina in a few minutes. A batton of platina, weighing twenty-nine grains, was melted by it and made in part to boil. The diameter of the focus does not appear to exceed four lines. It weighs five hundred and fifty pounds avoirdupoise.

M. Vauquelin, of Paris, has lately reported to the Committee of Chemical Arts, on a manufacture of tallow for candles, professed to be parified from all animal substances of an injurious nature, to be free from all moisture, and not at all discoloured. "The tallow," says he, which I carefully examined, is semi-transparent, perfectly dry and sonorons. It is indeed so very dry, that when a blade of iron is passed over it, only slightly touching,|| it gives an extremely lively phosphoric light, occasioned, according to all appearance, by an electric motion; for when this tallow is recently melted, and the surrounding air is extremely dry, the mere passing of the hand on it is sufficient to produce sparks. The dryness of this tallow is still farther demonstrated

any real savages, except the Dutch inhabitants of the frontier provinces of the colony. Every where else they were received with kinds uess; they have found wild camels and cames lopards, and have observed very singular arrangements in the establishments of the na tives, their property, the furniture of their houses, and the system of slavery which existe throughout the interior of Africa; and they will probably give the public, one day, the very curious details of their journey in a country where no other Europeau had ever penetrated. They were procceding to the town of Mosambique, where it was intended to send a ship to bring them back to the Cape. Captain Donovan is the son of a gentleman of considerable fortune in Ireland. He is abont twenty-five years of age, is full six feet high, of a robust constitution, and is an excellent draftsman.

A new way of curing epileptic fits has been discovered in France. It consists in causing the person attacked with this dreadful malady to spend a sufficient number of days and nights in a con. -house, to inhale the breath of cows. Many patients have in this manner been recovered during the course of last year, in several departments of France.

A clergyman of the name of HAILSTONE, was lately the substitute of a Mr. KAIN, H preaching a scrmon; and what renders this fact the more extraordinary, he preached from the text," And he gave them hadstones for rain."

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