Among the productions of Anfelmo Faidit, one of the most celebrated of the early troubadours, are enumerated both comedies and tragedies, one of which, entitled, "L'Heregia dels Preyres," (a ridicule on the council which condemned the Albigenfes) he wrote during his refidence in the court of the marquis of Montferrato, where he is faid to have received for his ingenious productions, (ingegnofe invenzioni) rich and beautiful gifts, in horses, veftments, and other articles of value." P. 7. In imitation of these authors, Petrarch, in very early youth, made fome dramatic sketches, a comedy called Philologia, a drama on the ftory of Medea, and one on a temporary fubject; the expulfion of Cardinal Albornoz from Celena, in 1357. But the firft regular dramas attempted in Italy, were imitations of the ancients, and were written accordingly in Latin. Albertino Muffato, the hiftorian of Padua, who flourished about 1300, wrote two Latin trage. dies, in imitation of Seneca, the Eccerinis and Achilleis; of which specimens are given by Mr. W. Other authors took up the imitation of Plautus and Terence, and wrote therefore Latin comedies. One of the first of these was Leo Battifta Alberti, equally celebrated as a painter, a fculptor, and an architect, who yet found time to become a comic poet. "Nature, fometimes, in a sportive mood," fays M. Tenhove, "makes a prodigal difplay of all her powers, and unites her rarest and most precious gifts in a fingle individual." Such was Alberti. This extraordinary man wrote (1418), in the twentieth year of his age, a comedy, called "Philodoxeos," which he undertook with a view to beguiling the languor of convalefcence, and diverting the painful recollection of the unkind and unmerited neglect of his own family. This piece, on its firft appearance, he handed about amongft his friends, as the production of Lepidus, an ancient Roman poet; but he foon after avowed it, in a dedication to a revised copy which he prefented to Leonello da Este, marquis of Ferrara, one of the moft munificent patrons of lite rature of that age. This copy, it may be prefumed, never found its way to the prefs: for, deceived by the purity of the latinity, and the artful difguife under which the name of the real author was, for fome time, concealed, the younger Aldus printed it from a manufcript, in 1588, as a precious remnant of antiquity, under the title of "Lepidi comici veteris Fabula." "It first appeared about the year 1425," fays Mr. Roscoe, "when the rage for ancient manufcripts was at its height; and Lepidus for a while took his rank with Plautus and with Terence." P. 32. Another Italian writer of Latin comedies was Ugolino Pifani, of Parma, one of whofe pieces, mentioned by Sign, Signorelli Signorelli as having been seen in the Royal Library of Parma, we are happy to mention, is extant alfo in the Harleian Collection in the British Museum, No. 3828. It is a comedy in Latin, entitled "Ephigenia;" and the very fame argument is prefixed to it, which is given by Mr. W. from Signorelli: fo that no doubt can remain of its identity. Cardinal Riaro, or rather, as we think, Riari, is juftly celebrated as an early encourager of the Drama; and the dedication of Sulpitius to the first edition of Vitruvius, is quoted as afferting this fact. He is there called Riarius, and the dedication is addreffed to him. As this edition is extremely fcarce, Mr. W. has done well to cite, in his notes, the very words of Sulpitius to his patron. We cannot follow this pleafing author ftep by step, in the progress of the Italian drama; but fhall content ourfelves with giving a fpecimen of his poetical talents, in a translation of an Italian canzona, taken from the "Fefta di Orpheo, a paftoral drama, written by the celebrated Angelo Politiano. "O hear, ye woods; my tender strains; For, ah! my nymph the lay difdains; The beauteous nymph, who fcorns to heed My fond complaint, my tuneful reed. "My horned herds bewail her pride; They ceafe to crop the graffy plains; They cease to fip th' unfullied tide, In pity of their fhepherd's pains. O hear, ye woods! my tender ftrains, &c. "The flock can for its fhepherd care; The beauteous fair whofe heart is rock, As from the wolf retreats the flock, O hear, ye woods! my tender ftrains, &c. "Tell her, my pipe, that beauty gay O hear, ye woods! my tender ftrains, &c. "O hear, ye winds! this tuneful lay, And bid her cease to be fevere: Tell Tell her, my life confumes away, Hear, oh ye woods! my tender ftrains, ** P. 115 In the fpecimens which Mr. W. has taken from various dramas, he has difplayed good tafte and judgment, and his book forms, on the whole, a moft pleafing companion to the other works, which have lately been written on the revival of literature in modern Europe, and particularly in Italy, the great inftru&tress of the other European nations. ART. XII. Sir William Forbes's Life of Dr. Beattie. WE (Concluded from our laft, p. 120.) E have already hinted, that Dr. Beattie had been folicited by the late Archbishop of York, to enter into the church of England, and had declined it. At a fubfequent period, however, he received another very flattering propofition of the fame kind, through the hands of Dr. Porteus. Dr. Porteus had been requested by one of the epifcopal bench to afk Dr. Beattie whether he had any ob. jections to taking orders in the church of England; and if he had not, to intimate that a living of 5001. a year was then at his fervice. Dr. Beattie's anfwer to this application is an important document on a fubject of peculiar delicacy. DR. BEATTIE TO THE REV. DR. PORTEUS. Peterhead, 4th Auguft, 1774. "I have made many efforts to exprefs, in fomething like ade. quate language, my grateful fenfe of the honour done me by the Right Reverend Prelate, who makes the offer conveyed to me in your most friendly letter of the 24th July. But every new effort ferves only to convince me, more and more, how unequal I am 10 the task. "When I confider the extraordinary reception which my weak endeavours in the cause of truth have met with, and compare the greatness of my fuccefs, with the infignificance of my merit, what reafons have I not to be thankful and humble! to be ashamed that I have done fo little public fervice, and to regret that fo little is in my power! to roufe every power of my nature to purposes of benevolent tendency, in order to justify, by my inten tions at leaft, the unexampled generofity of my benefactors! "My "My religious opinions would, no doubt, if I were to declare them, fufficiently account for, and vindicate, my becoming a member of the church of England and I flatter myfelf, that my ftudies, way of life, and habits of thinking, have always been fuch, as would not difqualify me for an ecclefiaftical profeffion. If I were to become a clergyman, the church of England would certainly be my choice; as I think, that, in regard to church. government, and church-fervice, it has many great and peculiar advantages. And I am fo far from having any natural difincli. nation to holy orders, that I have feveral times, at different periods of my life, been difpofed to enter into them, and have directed my ftudies accordingly. Various accidents, however, prevented me; fome of them pretty remarkable, and fuch as I think I might, without prefumption, afcribe to a particular interpofition of providence. The offer, now made me, is great and generous beyond all expectation. I am well aware of all the advantages and honours that would attend my accepting, and yet, I find myfelf obliged, in confcience, to decline it; as I lately did another of the fame kind (though not so confiderable) that was made me, on the part of another English gentleman. The reafons which did then, and do now, determine me, I beg leave, Sir, briefly to lay before you. "I wrote the "Effay on Truth," with the certain prospect of raifing many enemies, with very faint hopes of attracting the public attention, and without any views of advancing my for. tune. I published it, however, because I thought it might probably do a little good, by bringing to nought, or at leaft leffening the reputation of, that wretched fyftem of fceptical philofophy, which had made a moft alarming progrefs, and done incredible mifchief to this country. My enemics have been at great pains to reprefent my views, in that publication, as very different and that my principal, or only motive was, to make a book, and, if poffible, to raife myself higher in the world. So that, if I were now to accept preferment in the church, I should be apprehenfive, that I might ftrengthen the hands of the gainfayer, and give the world fome ground to believe, that my love of truth was not quite fo ardent, or fo pure, as I had pretended. "Befides, might it not have the appearance of levity and infincerity, and, by fome, be conftrued into a want of principle, if I were at thefe years, (for I am now thirty-eight) to make fuch an important change in my way of life, and to quit, with no other apparent motive than that of bettering my circumftances, that church of which I have hitherto been a member? If my book has any tendency to do good, as I flatter myself it has, I would not, for the wealth of the Indies, do any thing to coun "See his letter to Lady Mayne, p. 336.” teract teract that tendency; and I am afraid, that tendency might in fome measure be counteracted, (at least in this country) if I were to give the adverfary the leaft ground to charge me with inconfiftency. It is true, that the force of my reafonings cannot be really affected by my character; truth is truth, whoever be the fpeaker but even truth itself becomes lefs refpectable, when fpoken, or supposed to be spoken, by infincere lips. man. "It has alfo been hinted to me, by feveral persons of very found judgment, that what I have written, or may hereafter write, in favour of religion, has à chance of being more attended to, if I continue a layman, than if I were to become a clergyNor am I without apprehenfions, (though fome of my friends think them ill-founded) that, from entering fo late in life, and from fo remote a province, into the church of England, fome degree of ungracefulness, particularly in pronunciation, might adhere to my performances in public, fufficient to render them lefs pleafing, and confequently lefs useful. "Moft of thefe reafons were repeatedly urged upon me, during my flay in England, last fummer; and I freely own, that, the more I confider them, the more weight they seem to have. And from the peculiar manner in which the King has been graciously pleafed to diftinguifh me, and from other circumftances, I have fome ground to prefume, that it is his Majefty's pleasure, that I fhould continue where I am, and employ my leifure hours in profecuting the ftudies I have begun. This I can find time to do more effectually in Scotland than in England, and in Aberdeen than in Edinburgh; which, by the bye, was one of my chief reafons for declining the Edinburgh profefforfhip. The bufinefs of my profefforfhip here is indeed toilfome: but I have, by fourteen years practice, made myself so much mafter of it, that it now requires little mental labour; and our long fummer vacation, of feven months, leaves me at my own difpofal, for the greatest and best part of the year: a fituation favourable to literary projects, and now become necessary to my health. "Soon after my return home, in autumn laft, I had occafion to write to the Archbishop of York, on this fubject. Ispecified my reasons for giving up all thoughts of church- preferment; and his Grace was pleased to approve of them; nay, he condescended fo far as to fay, they did me honour. I told his Grace, more. over, that I had already given a great deal of trouble to my noble and generous patrons in England, and could not think of being any longer a burden to them, now that his Majefty had fo graciously and fo generously made for me a provifion equal to my wifhes, and fuch as puts it in my power to obtain, in Scotland, every convenience of life, to which I have any title, or any inclination to afpire. "I muft, therefore, make it my requeft to you, that you would prefent my humble refpects, and most thankful acknow. ledgments, to the eminent perfon, at whofe defire you wrote your laft |