"His father fure was brave, and fed his fon

With blood of conquer'd foes;"--and fo I did;
When, streaming warm, it dy'd thy little lips,
And thou didst, grimly fmiling, give a promise
Of manly fiercenefs. But if thou be weak,

His father taught him," will they fay," to lie,
***Stretch'd in the fun, and drink the Chriftian liquor,
"That makes a man a beast!"-But, hark, my fon!
The foe's at hand, -begone,- thy brethren call thee
Forth, to the fight of justice, tarry not;-
Rush to the battle, and preferve thine infants;
That one day they may fight, and deck their belts
With the ufurping Chriftian's fcalp, and train
Their children's children, to the cry of battle!
But firft ftrike here; leave not thine aged father,
To feel their rage, whose kindred he has mangled;
Nor let his tortur'd members feast the fight
Of thofe that hate him and his tribe!-Farewell,
Be kind and quick.--Thy lance be sharp ás now,
Thine arm as strong, my fon, in all thy warfare!'

The tragedies are entitled- The Saxon Princes,' which is a fresh contribution towards a dramatic hiftory of England; • Meffene freed,' of which the story is Grecian; and Rofmunda,' which is founded on a remarkable transaction in the annals of Lombardy. As vague and general criticism, unfupported by reafons and references, is uninftructive, and as we cannot afford fpace for the analyfis of all thefe plays, we fhall confine our comments to the fecond, which has interefted us more than the others. It will be neceffary to fpeak of its fable. The Spartans, once in alliance with Meffene, found pretences for a rupture, in order to fubjugate this territory. They have over-run the country, and are endeavouring to take poffeffion of the heights of Ithome, effential to its effectual reduction. In this extremity, Euphaes the king confults the oracle at Delphi.

"The priests (fays the Abbé Barthelemi, in his Travels of Anacharfis,) and not the gods, dictated the answer. The fafety of Meffene, faid they, depends on the facrifice of a youthful maiden drawn by lot from the reigning family. Ancient prejudices blinded all eyes, to the atrocious crime of obeying fuch an injunction. The fatal urn was brought, and the lot condemned to death the daughter of Lyfifcus; but her father, fuddenly withdrawing her from every eye, fled with her to Lacedemon. The warrior Ariftodemus inftantly advanced, and in despite of the tender affection, which remonstrated in his heart against the act, offered his own to the altar. She had been affianced to one of the favourites of the king, who ran to protect her. He went farther; to fave her, he ventured oven to caft an imputation on her innocence, and declared that the rites of Hymen had already been confummated. The horror of fuch a falfehood, the dread of difhonour, paternal love, the fanctity of his word, a multitude of conREV. FEB. 1795.

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trary

trary emotions, agitated, with fuch violence, the mind of Aristodemus, that the stroke of despair was neceffary to afford him relief. He feized a ponyard, and his daughter fell dead at his feet, in the view of the fhuddering fpectators."

There is a fundamental deficiency in the plot that is built on this fable by our author: it is incomplete. The spectator is never informed whether the Meffenians conquered, or the Spartans; and it is only in as much as he believes the gods, and not the priests, to have dictated the oracle, that he can suppose Meffene freed. Neither has it all the requifite unity: it tends much to divide the folicitude of the audience that the lots drawn in the temple fhould name Anthemoe as the victim, and that when her fuppofed parents have declared her illegitimate and have withdrawn her from the town, Dione is fubftituted. If the lots of the gods may err and be neglected, why not their oracles? Moreover, there is no fufficient reason for which Ariftodemus fhould voluntarily devote his daughter, when eighty-eight others equally correfpond with the defcription of Tifis, the person who had been fent to confult the oracle at Delphos.

The opening of the play has some resemblance to that of the dipus of Sophocles:-The king and people in council: a peftilence among the public dangers: the anfwer of an oracle expected. Ariftodemus and Lyfifcus take part in the deliberation. Now, as Ariftodemus was heroically to devote his daughter to facrifice, and Lyfifcus by ftratagem to preferve his, in defiance of the will of the gods and of the requitition of the people, the former character ought furely to be more ftrongly tinctured with religion than the latter; yet we find Ariftodemus uttering fuch fentiments as that the manly mind from itself alone derives its auguries;' whereas Lyfifcus holds fuperftitious opinions, fuch as, Even the elements are leagued with Sparta.' in a word, there is nothing in the dialogue which can fo difcriminate these two men, as that their fubfequent condu& should appear to be the neceffary refult of their previous habits and opinions. The fpeeches of either might be affigned to the other. This inattention to probability of character is indeed common in the tragedies of the French, and even in thofe of Euripides, but is not excufable in the country of Shakspeare.

To the hymn in the third scene, it may be objected that Diana is there repeatedly invoked by her love for Laconia and the banks of the Eurotas, which, however conformable to claffical authority, becomes improper where her aid against the Laconians is befought. The fourth fcene has merit; the attention of the patriot Ariftodemus to employ even the amorous paffions of

10

Philocles,

Philocles, in exalting and strengthening his valour, is characteriftic.

In the dialogue between the two female friends, which opens the fecond act, we find much tenderness and elegance, particularly in Dione's speech:

Say, my Anthemoe, fhall the happy days
Of childhood-fports and charming indolence
Again return-when we have led the dance
Near crystal Pamisus, and bath'd our limbs
In the foft yielding lymph, or cropt the flow'rs
That with their lively hues diverfify'd

His bank; our archetypes, which, emulous,
The loom should rival, while in festive song
The hours uncounted flew ?-&c.

The renewed converfations of Ariftodemus with Philocles are mere repetitions of the former.

There is much to praife in the third act. We are told, however, that the defcendants of Æpytus are very numerous : furely the anxiety of their parents, which is here the chief source of intereft, would have more propriety if they were few.

The scene in the fourth act, in which Ariftodemus acquaints Dione with his intention of devoting her, poffeffes great merit. His Call me not father,' would be completely admirable, were it not followed by unmeaning and cold amplifications: but the fucceeding fcene between Philocles and Dione, which should naturally have surpassed this in tendernefs and pathos, (Philocles being wholly deftitute of sense of dignity which fubdues the expreffion of violent emotion,) disappoints us.

In the fifth act, the hymn to Artemis, which precedes the facrifice, is too full of placid imagery for the occafion. The catastrophe may serve as a farther fpecimen of the author's

manner:

Phil. Oh forgive

The blafphemous afperfions of my love,

And vain defire, that fondly caught at hope
Of wrefting thee, by falfehood, from thy fate.
Not the Caftalian fprings, that bathe the lips
Of the Pierian maids; not snows, that rest
Unfunn'd on Rhodope, are clear and spotless
As thy pure nature. The malignant founds
My flanderous tongue hath utter'd back recoil
On my own head, like bold impieties
Against th' immortal gods.

Arif. My darling child,

I thank thee, that with nobleness of mind,
A fortitude divine, thou canft forgive

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The

The cruelty that vindicates thy fame.

I love thee more than life. Th' all-feeing gods,
To whom thy faultlefs spirit soon shall wing
Its bleffed way, know, what my fpirit feels
In lofing thee. The blow, my fatal hand
Aim'd at thy bofom, thrills thy father's heart,
With sharper pang than thine. My days to come
Will prove a blank, a dream of parted blifs.
Thy pallid form, thus bleeding at my feet,
Shall evermore be prefent. Sweetest bud,
That promis'd golden fruit, and, had the gods
Indulg'd thee length of days, hadst dignified
The foil that gave thee birth. Oh, loft for ever!
Dio. Ye guardian gods, that o'er Meflene reign,
Accept this free libation of my blood;

I feel, it is the price of victory.

I

pour it on the laurels that adorn

Our warriors brows, and never fhall they fade.

And chief, my father, on thy rev'rend head,
Immortal shall they bloom. The gods, the gods
With care peculiar, guard thee. Philocles,
Weep not; nor turn afide thy face, nor droop,
O'erwhelm'd with fhame; the gods have thus decreed,
The camp expects thee; haften to the palms
Referv'd for thee. Sparta fhall bite the dust.
'Tis past, 'tis done. From woody Mænalus,
To meet thy vot'ry, come, thou virgin huntress;
I rise from earth. - Oh father!- Philocles!

Phil. O ftay, chafte virgin, I will follow thee!

In death allied, ennobled, and complete;
Concord harmonious of our fates. One foul,
One love, one forrow, one untimely tomb.'

[She dies..

The reader will perceive that the ftyle has neither the fimplicity nor the pregnant fententioufnefs of the antient. drama; although it is far from wanting beauty. The Greek manner seems neither to have been attained nor attempted. On the whole, however, this tragedy is by no means one of the leaft fuccessful English attempts to work up a Grecian ftory.

The author promifes a third volume, in which will be contained a new edition of his Democratic Rage,' a tragedy; an account of which occurs in our xiiith volume, New Series, p. 308. This Political Tragedy did not meet with our unqualified applaufe: but, if we difcovered in it fomething to blame, we found more to commend.

The critical obfervations, as fuggefted by the moft confiderable pieces contained in this collection, evince the general learning, good taste, and judgment of Mr. Preston.

ART. XIV. Methods propofed for decreafing the Confumption of Timber in the Navy, by Means of prolonging the Duration of our Ships of War; with Obfervations on faftening Ships with Iron Knees: To which are added, fome General Remarks on the prefent Timbered State of the Kingdom; in a Letter addreffed to the Right Hon. John Earl of Chatham, Firft Lord Commiffioner of the Admiralty. Together with a Letter addreffed to the Honorable Commiffioners of the Navy, on the Way of keeping, feafoning, and converting Timber, before it is ufed in Ship-building. With Obfervations on the Sap of Oak Trees. By Tho. Nichols, Purveyor of the Navy for Portsmouth Dock-yard. 8vo. pp. 76. Is. 6d. Sewell.

WE WE are ftrongly attached to profeffional knowlege, arifing from extenfive and long practice; and we are frequently led to bestow, on productions refulting from fuch acquirements, more attention than they may at first fight seem to require.

Mr. Nichols, in traverfing the kingdom as Purveyor for Portfmouth dock-yard, in fearch of timber to fupply the extravagant demands of that arfenal, muft neceffarily have acquired a ftore of information, and a degree of judgment, respecting what he calls the timbered fate of the kingdom, which few other men can poffefs. In his former letter to Lord Chatham, we found much good fenfe and practical information*; and the prefent is equally fatisfactory; though the information which it conveys is not of a pleafing nature.

The letter commences with a gloomy profpect of the probable fcarcity of fhip timber, in times not far diftant. This being a ferious concern to every member of the community, we are induced to lay before our readers Mr. Nichols's ftrong reprefentation of this important matter: though we hope and truft, from the fpirit of planting and preferving woodlands which has lately gone forth, that the real fcarcity, should it take place, will not be of long continuance :

From having by long experience obtained fome knowledge of the timbered state of this country, and the supply of timber which is neceffary to fupport the fhipping of our navy and commerce, I am thoroughly convinced that the demand very much exceeds the growth; and if fome effectual means are not immediately taken, either to leffen the confumption of oak timber or to increase its growth, I fear that the time is not far diftant when we shall be greatly diftreffed for the want of this useful article.

From the account published by the Commiffioners of the land revenue, in their eleventh report, there appeared to be, at the end of the year 1788, no less than 413,667 tons of fhipping in the navy, which must be built over, at furtheft, in every fifteen years, to maintain that quantity of tons; as it is found that the medium duration of our men of war, which (as ftated by the navy board) are built in the

See Review, New Series, vol. vii. ^p. 161.
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