Captive, remarkable for a gentle beauty, refinement, and pathos. He has also produced a domestic drama, The Massacre of Glencoe, but it is much inferior to his other productions. 'Ion' was acted with great success, and published in 1835. It seems an embodiment of the simplicity and grandeur of the Greek drama, and its plot is founded on the old Grecian notion of destiny, apart from all moral agencies. The oracle of Delphi had announced that the vengeance which the misrule of the race of Argos had brought on the people, in the form of a pestilence, could only be disarmed by the extirpation of the guilty race, and Ion, the hero of the play, at length offers himself a sacrifice. The character of Ion-the discovery of his birth, as son of the kinghis love and patriotism, are drawn with great power and effect. The style of Mr Talfourd is chaste and clear, yet full of imagery. Take, for example, the delineation of the character of Ion : Ion, our sometime darling, whom we prized Hath his clear spirit vanquished-Love, the germ [Extracts from 'Ion.'] [Ion being declared the rightful heir of the throne, is waited upon by Clemanthe, daughter of the high priest of the temple, wherein Ion had been reared in obscurity.] Ion. What wouldst thou with me, lady? Nothing, my lord, save to implore thy pardon, Clem. To forget it! Indeed, my lord, I will not wish to lose All I shall live for; do not grudge me this, Ion. Speak not, fair one, In tone so mournful, for it makes me feel Too sensibly the hapless wretch I am, That troubled the deep quiet of thy soul Esteem it rapture, then? My foolish heart, Ion. It must separate us! Clem. Thou dost accuse And shall we never see each other? Ion. [After a pause.] Yes! I have asked that dreadful question of the hills I feel the love that kindles through its beauty Clem. Bless thee for that name; Pray, call me so again; thy words sound strangely, Ion. No; thou must live, my fair one: To ruffle it; and daily duties paid Hardly at first, at length will bring repose Clem. O, I do! I do! Ion. If for thy brother's and thy father's sake Thou art content to live, the healer Time Will reconcile thee to the lovely things Of this delightful world-and if another, A happier-no, I cannot bid thee love Another!-I did think I could have said it, But 'tis in vain. Clem. Thou art my own, then, still ? Then he has cast me off! no-'tis not so ; Ion. Nay, I will promise 'tis my last request; Grant me thy help till this distracted state Rise tranquil from her griefs-'twill not be long, If the great gods smile on us now. Remember, Meanwhile, thou hast all power my word can give, Whether I live or die. Agenor. Die! Ere that hour, May even the old man's epitaph be moss-grown! Crythes. I kneel to crave Humbly the favour which thy sire bestowed Ion. I cannot mark thee, That wakest the memory of my father's weakness, Crythes. Dost intend In our own honest hearts and chainless hands I would not grieve thee; but thy valiant troop- Ere night. Crythes. My Lord Ion. No more my word hath passed. Medon, there is no office I can add To those thou hast grown old in; thou wilt guard The shrine of Phoebus, and within thy homeThy too delightful home-befriend the stranger As thou didst me; there sometimes waste a thought On thy spoiled inmate. Medon. Think of thee, my lord? Long shall we triumph in thy glorious reign. Ion. Prithee no more. Argives! I have a boon To crave of you. Whene'er I shall rejoin In death the father from whose heart in life Stern fate divided me, think gently of him! Think that beneath his panoply of pride Were fair affections crushed by bitter wrongs Which fretted him to madness; what he did, Alas! ye know; could you know what he suffered, Ye would not curse his name. Yet never more Let the great interests of the state depend Upon the thousand chances that may sway A piece of human frailty; swear to me That ye will seek hereafter in yourselves The means of sovereignty: our country's space, So happy in its smallness, so compact, Needs not the magic of a single name Which wider regions may require to draw Their interest into one; but, circled thus, Like a blest family, by simple laws May tenderly be governed-all degrees, Not placed in dexterous balance, not combined By bonds of parchment, or by iron clasps, But blended into one-a single form Of nymph-like loveliness, which finest chords Of sympathy pervading, shall endow With vital beauty; tint with roseate bloom In times of happy peace, and bid to flash With one brave impulse, if ambitious bands Of foreign power should threaten. Swear to me That ye will do this! Medon. Wherefore ask this now? Thou shalt live long; the paleness of thy face, Which late seemed death-like, is grown radiant now, And thine eyes kindle with the prophecy Of glorious years. Ion. The gods approve me then! Yet I will use the function of a king, And claim obedience. Swear, that if I die, And leave no issue, ye will seek the power To govern in the free-born people's choice, Medon and others. We swear it! Ion. Hear and record the oath, immortal powers! In whose mild service my glad youth was spent, As at this solemn time I feel there is, In earth and heaven; to ye I offer up Ion. This is a joy I did not hope for-this is sweet indeed. Clem. And for this it was Thou wouldst have weaned me from thee! I would be so divorced? Ion. Thou art right, Clemanthe It was a shallow and an idle thought; Clem. I will treasure all. Baillie's plays. The following Christian sentiment is finely expressed : Joy is a weak and giddy thing that laughs We shall now turn to the comic muse of the drama, which, in the earlier years of this period, produced some works of genuine humour and inte HENRY TAYLOR-J. BROWNING-LEIGH HUNT WILLIAM SMITH. Two dramatic poems have been produced by HENRY TAYLOR, Esq., which, though not popular, evince high genius and careful preparation. The first, Philip van Artevelde, was published in 1834, and the scene is laid in Flanders, at the close of the fourteenth century. The second, Edwin the Fair (1843), relates to early English history. Though somewhat too measured and reflective for the stage, the plays of Mr Taylor contain excellent scenes and dialogues. The blended dignity of thought, and a sedate moral habit, invests Mr Taylor's poetry with a stateliness in which the drama is generally deficient, and makes his writings illustrate, in some degree, a new form of the art-such a form, indeed, as we might expect the written drama naturally to assume if it were to revive in the nineteenth century, and maintain itself as a branch of literature apart from the stage.'* Strafford, a tragedy by J. BROWNING, was brought out in 1837, and acted with success. It is the work of a young poet, but is well conceived and arranged for effect, while its relation to a deeply interesting and stirring period of British history gives it a peculiar attraction to an English audience. MR LEIGH HUNT, in 1840, came before the public as a dramatic writer. His work was a mixture of romance and comedy, entitled, A Legend of Florence: it was acted at Covent Garden theatre with some success, but is too sketchy in its materials, and too extravagant in plot, to be a popular acting play. Athelwold, a tragedy by WILLIAM SMITH (1842), is a drama also for the closet; it wants variety and scenic effect for the stage, and in style and sentiment is not unlike one of Miss * Quarterly Review. George Caman. the author of the Jealous Wife and Clandestine Marriage, Colman had a hereditary attachment to the drama. He was educated at Westminster school, and afterwards entered of Christ's Church college, Oxford; but his idleness and dissipation at the uriversity led his father to withdraw him from Oxford, and banish him to Aberdeen. Here he was distinguished for his eccentric dress and folly, but he als applied himself to his classical and other studies. * Colman added 'the younger to his name after the en demnation of his play, The Iron Chest. Lest my father's memory,' he says, may be injured by mistakes, and in the confusion of after-time the translator of Terence, and the author of the Jealous Wife, should be supposed guilty of The Iron Chest, I shall, were I to reach the patriarchal longevity of Methuselah, continue (in all my dramatic publications) subscribe myself George Colman, the younger. At Aberdeen he published a poem on Charles James take of the falsetto of German pathos. But the Fox, entitled The Man of the People, and wrote a piece is both humorous and affecting; and we readily musical farce, The Female Dramatist, which his father excuse its obvious imperfections in consideration brought out at the Haymarket theatre, but it was of its exciting our laughter and our tears.' The condemned. A second dramatic attempt, entitled whimsical character of Ollapod in the Poor GentleTwo to One, brought out in 1784, enjoyed consider-man' is one of Colman's most original and laughable able success. This seems to have fixed his literary conceptions; Pangloss, in the Heir at Law,' is also taste and inclinations; for though his father intended an excellent satirical portrait of a pedant (proud of him for the bar, and entered him of Lincoln's Inn, being an LL.D., and, moreover, an A. double S.); the drama engrossed his attention. In 1784 he and his Irishmen, Yorkshiremen, and country rustics contracted a thoughtless marriage with a Miss (all admirably performed at the time), are highly Catherine Morris, with whom he eloped to Gretna entertaining, though overcharged portraits. A tenGreen, and next year brought out a second musical dency to farce is indeed the besetting sin of Colman's comedy, Turk and no Turk. His father becoming comedies; and in his more serious plays, there is a incapacitated from attacks of paralysis, the younger curious mixture of prose and verse, high-toned senColman undertook the management of the theatre timent and low humour. Their effect on the stage in Haymarket, and was thus fairly united to the is, however, irresistible. We have quoted Joanna stage and the drama. Various pieces proceeded Baillie's description of Jane de Montfort as a porfrom his pen: Inkle and Yarico, a musical opera, trait of Mrs Siddons; and Colman's Octavian in brought out with success in 1787; Ways and Means, The Mountaineers' is an equally faithful likeness a comedy, 1788; The Battle of Hexham, 1789; The of John Kemble:Surrender of Calais, 1791; The Mountaineers, 1793; The Iron Chest (founded on Godwin's novel of Caleb Williams), 1796; The Heir at Law, 1797; Blue Beard (a mere piece of scenic display and music), 1798; The Review, or the Wags of Windsor, an excellent farce, 1798; The Poor Gentleman, a comedy, 1802; Love Laughs at Locksmiths, a farce, 1803; Gay Deceivers, a farce, 1804; John Bull, a comedy, 1805; Who Wants a Guinea? 1805; We Fly by Night, a farce, 1806; The Africans, a play, 1808; X. Y. Z., a farce, 1810; The Law of Java, a musical drama, 1822, &c. No modern dramatist has added so many stock-pieces to the theatre as Colman, or imparted so much genuine mirth and humour to all playgoers. His society was also much courted; he was a favourite with George IV., and, in conjunction with Sheridan, was wont to set the royal table in a roar. His gaiety, however, was not always allied to prudence, and theatrical property is a very precarious possession. As a manager, Colman got entangled in lawsuits, and was forced to reside in the King's Bench. Lovely as day he was-but envious clouds Would charm the towering eagle in her flight, [Scene from the 'Heir at Law.'] [Daniel Dowlas, an old Gosport shopkeeper, from the supposed loss of the son of Lord Duberly, succeeds to the peerage and an estate worth £15,000 per annum. He engages Dr Panglossa poor pedant just created by the Society of Arts, Artium Socictatis Socius-as tutor to his son, with a salary of £300 A Room in the Blue Boar Inn. Pang. Let the chariot turn about. Dr Pangloss in a lord's chariot! 'Curru portatur eodem.'-Juvenal -Hem! Waiter! Waiter. Sir. Pang. Have you any gentleman here who arrived this morning? Waiter. There's one in the house now, sir. Waiter. No, sir; he's Derbyshire. Pang. He he he! Of what appearance is the gentleman! Waiter. Why, plaguy poor, sir. Pang. I hold him rich, al had he not a sherte.' a-year.] The king stept forward to relieve him, by appointing him to the situation of licenser and examiner of plays, an office worth from £300 to £400 a-year. In this situation Colman incurred the enmity of several dramatic authors by the rigour with which he scrutinised their productions. His own plays are far from being strictly correct or moral, but not an oath or double entendre was suffered to escape his expurgatorial pen as licenser, and he was peculiarly keen-scented in detecting all political allusions. Besides his numerous plays, Colman wrote some poetical travesties and pieces of levity, published under the title of My Nightgown and Sippers (1797), which were afterwards republished (1802) with additions, and named Broad Grins; also Poetical Vagaries, Vagaries Vindicated, and Eccentricities for Edinburgh. In these, delicacy and decorum are often sacrificed to broad mirth and humour. The last work of the lively author was memoirs of his own early life and times, entitled Random Records, and published in 1830. He died in London on the 26th October 1836. The comedies of Colman abound in witty and ludicrous delineations of character, interspersed with bursts of tenderness and feeling, somewhat in the style of Sterne, whom, indeed, he has closely copied in his 'Poor Gentleman.' Sir Walter Scott has praised his 'John Bull' as by far the best effort of our late comic drama. 'The scenes of broad humour are executed in the best possible taste; and the whimsical, yet native characters, reflect the manners of real life. The sentimental parts, although one of them includes a finely wrought-up scene of paternal distress, par Mr Dowlas! Waiter. Honourable! He left his name plain Dowlas at the bar, sir. Pang. Plain Dowlas, did he? that will do. "For all the rest is leather Waiter. Leather, sir! Pang. And prunello.'-Pope-Hem! Tell Mr Dowlas a gentleman requests the honour of an interview. Waiter. This is his room, sir. He is but just stept into our parcel warehouse-he'll be with you directly. [Exit. Pang. Never before did honour and affluence let fall such a shower on the head of Doctor Pangloss! Fortune, I thank thee! Propitious goddess, I am grateful! I, thy favoured child, who commenced his career in the loftiest apartment of a muffin maker in Milk-alley. Little did I think-good easy man'Shakspeare-Hem!-of the riches and literary dignities which now My pupil ! Enter DICK DOWLAS. Dick. [Speaking while entering.] Well, where is the man that wants-oh! you are he I supposePang. I am the man, young gentleman! Homo sum.'-Terence-Hem! Sir, the person who now presumes to address you is Peter Pangloss; to whose name, in the college of Aberdeen, is subjoined LL.D. signifying Doctor of Laws; to which has been recently added the distinction of A. double S.; the Roman initials for a Fellow of the Society of Arts. Dick. Sir, I am your most obedient, Richard Dowlas; to whose name, in his tailor's bill, is subjoined D. R., signifying Debtor; to which are added L.S.D.; the Roman initials for pounds, shillings, and pence. Pang. Ha! this youth was doubtless designed by destiny to move in the circles of fashion; for he's dipt in debt, and makes a merit of telling it. [Aside. Dick. But what are your commands with me, doctor? Pang. I have the honour, young gentleman, of being deputed an ambassador to you from your father. Dick. Then you have the honour to be ambassador of as good-natured an old fellow as ever sold a ha'porth of cheese in a chandler's shop. Pang. Pardon me, if, on the subject of your father's cheese, I advise you to be as mute as a mouse in one for the future. "Twere better to keep that 'altâ mente repostum.'-Virgil-Hem ! Dick. I send my carrot.'-Carrot! Pang. That's me. Dick. Respect him, for he's an LL.D., and, moreover, an A. double S.' [They bor. Pang. His lordship kindly condescended to insert that at my request. Dick. And I have made him your tutorer, to mend your cakelology. Pang. Cacology; from Kakos, malus,' and Logos, verbum.'-Vide Lexicon-Hem! Dick. "Come with the doctor to my house in Hanover Square.'-Hanover Square!I remain your affeetionate father, to command.-DUBERLY.' Pang. That's his lordship's title. Dick. It is? Pang. It is. Dick. Say sir to a lord's son. manners than a bear! You have no more Pang. Bear!-under favour, young gentleman, I am the bear-leader; being appointed your tutor. Dick. And what can you teach me? Pang. Prudence. Don't forget yourself in sudden success. 'Tecum habita.'-Persius-Hem! Dick. Prudence to a nobleman's son with fifteen thousand a-year! Pang. Don't give way to your passions. Dick. Give way! Zounds!-I'm wild-mad! You teach me !-Pooh!-I have been in London before, and know it requires no teaching to be a modern fine gentleman. Why, it all lies in a nutshell-sport a curricle-walk Bond Street-play at Faro-get drunk Dick. Why, what's the matter? Any misfortune?-dance reels-go to the opera-cut off your tail-Broke, I fear? Pang. No, not broke; but his name, as 'tis customary in these cases, has appeared in the Gazette. Dick. Not broke, but gazetted! Why, zounds and the devil! Pang. Check your passions-learn philosophy. When the wife of the great Socrates threw a-hum! -threw a teapot at his erudite head, he was as cool as a cucumber. When Plato Dick. Damn Plato! What of my father? Pang. Don't damn Plato. The bees swarmed round his mellifluous mouth as soon as he was swaddled. Cum in cunis apes in labellis consedissent.'-Cicero -Hem! Dick. I wish you had a swarm round yours, with all my heart. Come to the point. Ira Pang. In due time. But calin your choler. furor brevis est.'-Horace-Hem! Read this. [Gives a letter. Dick. [Snatches the letter, breaks it open, and reads.] 'Dear Dick-This comes to inform you I am in a perfect state of health, hoping you are the sameay, that's the old beginning- It was my lot, last week, to be made'-ay, a bankrupt, I suppose?-to be made a'-what?- to be made a P, E, A, R;'-a pear! -to be made a pear! What the devil does he inean by that? Pany. A peer!-a peer of the realm. His lordship's orthography is a little loose, but several of his equals countenance the custom. Lord Loggerhead always spells physician with an F. Dick. A peer-what, my father?-I'm electrified! Old Daniel Dowlas made a peer! But let me see; [Reads on.]-A pear of the realm. Lawyer Ferret got me my tittle-titt-oh, title!-' and an estate of fifteen thousand per ann.-by making me out next of kin to old Lord Duberly, because he died without -without hair'-'Tis an odd reason, by the by, to be next of kin to a nobleman because he died bald. Pang. His lordship means heir-heir to his estate. We shall meliorate his style speedily. Reform it altogether.'-Shakspeare-Hem! pull on your pantaloons-and there's a buck of the first fashion in town for you. D'ye think I don't know what's going? Pang. Mercy on me! I shall have a very refractory pupil! Dick. Not at all. We'll be hand and glove together, my little doctor. I'll drive you down to all the races, with my little terrier between your legs, in a tandem. Pang. Doctor Pangloss, the philosopher, with a terrier between his legs, in a tandem! Dick. I'll tell you what, doctor. I'll make you my long-stop at cricket-you shall draw corks when I'm president-laugh at my jokes before company-squeeze lemons for punch-cast up the reckoning-and wo betide you if you don't keep sober enough to see me safe home after a jollification! Pang. Make me a long-stop, and a squeezer of lemons! Zounds! this is more fatiguing than walking out with the lap-dogs! And are these the qualifications for a tutor, young gentleman! Dick. To be sure they are. 'Tis the way that half the prig parsons, who educate us honourables, jump into fat livings. Pang. 'Tis well they jump into something fat at last, for they must wear all the flesh off their bones in the process. Dick. Come now, tutor, go you and call the waiter. Pang. Go and call! Sir-sir! I'd have you to understand, Mr Dowlas Dick. Ay, let us understand one another, doctor. My father, I take it, comes down handsomely to you for your management of me? Pang. My lord has been liberal. Dick. But 'tis I must manage you, doctor. Acknowledge this, and, between ourselves, I'll find means to double your pay. Pang. Double my Dick. Do you hesitate! Why, man, you have set up for a modern tutor without knowing your trade! Pang. Double my pay! Say no more-done. Ac |