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who would form a clear conception of the nature of taste, and of it's alliance with criticism. The author has divested his subject of much of it's metaphysical abstractedness, by a happiness of manner, almost peculiar to him

self; and as a model of elegant and classical literature, we doubt not, but that his "Dissertation on Taste," will soon rank among the first productions of the age.

The Martyr of Antioch: a Dramatic Poem. By the Rev. H. H. Milman. Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford. London, 1822, 8vo. pp. 168.

Ir has been the fashion, or the custom, call it what one will, to assert or to insinuate, that, in this our day, we are unable to produce in dramatic composition any thing at all rivalling, or even competing with, the magnificent display of other and buried days; and when we hear the deserved eulogies which are lavished, we do not say in super-abundance, upon those master-spirits of song who have long since ceased to dazzle the world by any present coruscations, the opinion that we ne'er shall look upon their like again usually accompanies the canonization. It cannot be contested, much less denied, but that for a very long period our acting Drama has been but the sickly offspring of it's legitimate parent, (we are referring to the time of "Master William Shakespeare," or, what is worse, but the walking shadow, the baseless, visionary fabric, of the substantial and beautiful proportions that marked the stage in the golden age of dramatic legitimacy. Nor do the few more recent happy exceptions, which, like water-drops in the desart, have now and then refreshed our fainting spirits, take away the general reproach which, leech like, has clung so long to the rich blood of genius, so that it presents to us, now, in it's most wholesome days, but an enervated stamina, and as unwholesome an appearance. To say, that the very best of our recent offerings to Melpomene are of pinion sufficient to reach the eyrie, where, eagle-like, our ancestors sit enthroned in unattainable grandeur, would be but to affirm that the Cupid, and the Phryne, of the Grecian sculptor, Praxitěles, magnificent as they were as works of art, and worthy as the one was of a situation in the Delphic Temple, and the other of the notice of Caius Cæsar, were endowed with the essences, the attributes, and the nature, of their beautiful and all subduing originals.

Το γαρ γέρας εστι θανόντων,-having paid this tribute to the departed, we can admit no more. If more be attempted, we stand in the gap, in behalf of the moderns, and, like Jehu, will shout aloud, "Who is on our side,-who?" for with such auxiliaries as Baillie, and Barry Cornwall, and Lyndsay, and Coleridge, and, certainly not the least of these, Milman, we need neither the invulnerability of the son of Peleus, nor the endowment of the earth invigorated Antæus, to protect us from the arrows, or the Herculean attack, of those, who would contend that the offerings which our dramatic writers have made to the scholar and to the student, to the closet, or the library, are not equal to almost any thing which the Augustan æra afforded it's participators, Admitting, then, that the ancients might be they,

"Qui sanguine nostrum Nomen in astra ferunt ;"

yet might we, with equal propriety, exclaim, in the words of the same Roman Poet,

"Et nos tela,—ferrumque haud debile dextra Spargimus."

There are but few we should fancy who have not long since made themselves acquainted with the former productions of the author, whose recent offering to the maids of Helicon it is now our acceptable task, for "the labour we delight in physics pain," to present to our patrons. We remember when we were but "a little boy," our admiration at a prize poem of Mr. Milman's;-the subject of which was, the Belvidere Apollo. But, good as it was, it proved the mere model to after great imaginings; and, like the pilot boat, served only as the fortunate and well timed means of careering his stronger ribbed ventures upon a wider expanse and a plenitude of space, more befitting the swelling ambition of his subsequent

enterprizes. And they have been multos et felices, many and happy enterprizes, and are still fresh and fragrant, like the evergreens of the forest which the winds of heaven and the anger of the seasons may beat against and bend, but cannot dis-naturalise nor destroy.

The character of the present pocm, like that of the "Fall of Jerusalem,” is of a decidedly serious and religious cast; and consequently of too high an origin for dramatic representation; for we are almost inclined to believe that such subjects are degraded, from the associations thereby created, by being exhibited beneath the trappings and the scenery of the drama. Adding, therefore, that this work is written to be read, and not acted, we proceed to observe, that it's history is founded on part of the legend of St. Margaret, as detailed by Gibbon, and records the meek and religious endurance under suffering, of the daughter of Callias, a heathen priest, for the sake of Christianity. The Prefect Olybius, to speak a little of it's simple story, is enamoured of her beauty, and she returns the warm affection of the Emperor's representative. Their hour of happiness, however, is soon blackened by a day of misery, and Olybius is commanded, and compelled, to persecute even unto death those who espoused the cross of the Redeemer. His Margarita was one of these. She is thrown into prison with other martyrs to the same faith; but having taken His cross upon her, thinks the burthen light; and not the abandonment of the world, the severings of affection, nor even the surrender of life itself, aught avails to shake her holy purpose. And although the funeral pyre was the purchase and it's price her blood, the riches and the grandeur and the pomps and vanities of the world were esteemed but as dust in the balance, when competing with that eternal weight of glory to which she perseveringly aspired. Her faith and hope continue firm unto the end, and she suffers with the other converts. But scarcely are her dried and scattered ashes the property of the winds of Heaven, ere the people of Antioch, roused as it were from their dream of heathenism by the persecutions around them, embrace the ereed for which she died, a meek and suffering Martyr, and so prove to the Eur. Mag. Vol. 81. March, 1822.

world that truth is mighty and will prevail.

Having thus given a rapid sketch of the character and incidents of Mr. Milman's poem, it behoves us now to give some specimens of the power exhibited in it's execution. Passing over the long and somewhat tedious hymn to Apollo, with which the drama commences, we find the following delightful description of the heroine of the theme.

"Macor. Second Priest.

What then is wanting? What but the crown and palm-like grace of all, The sacred virgin, on whose footsteps Beauty

Waits like a handmaid; whose most peerless form,

Light as embodied air, and pure as ivory Thrice polish'd by the skilful statuary, Moves in the priestess' long and flowing robes,

While our scarce-erring worship doth adore The servant rather than the God.

Third Priest. The maid Whose living lyre so eloquently speaks From the deserted grove, the silent birds Hang hovering o'er her, and we human

hearers

Stand breathless as the marbles on the

walls;

That even themselves seem touch'd to listening life,

All animate with the inspiring ecstacy. First Roman. Thou mean'st the daughter of the holy Callias;

I

once beheld her, when the thronging people

Prest round, yet parted still to give her way,

Even as the blue enamour'd waves, when first

The sea-born Goddess in her rosy shell
Sail'd the calm ocean.

Second Priest. Margarita, come, Come in thy zoneless grace, thy flowing locks

Crown'd with the laurel of the God; the lyre

Accordant to thy slow and musical steps, As grateful 'twould return the harmony, That from thy touch it wins."

We next turn to the scene in which

Olybius, after having in vain endeavoured to weaken her resolves by tenderer means, sets before Margarita the is armed. The whole passage is conterrors and the strength with which he ceived and written up with great power and beauty.

"Olyb. Fond maiden, know'st thou not That I am cloth'd with power? my word, my sigp, M m

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to me.

Olyb. Thou strivest still to leave me; go, then, go,"

My soul disdains to force what it would win

With the soft violence of favour'd love. But ah! to-day,-to-day,-what meant thine absence

From the proud worship of thy God? what mean

Thy wild and mournful looks, thy bursting eyes

Sp full of tears, that weep not?-Margarita,

Thou wilt not speak,-farewell, then, and forgive

That I have dared mistrust thee:-No, even now,

Even thus I'll not believe but thou art

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Grows loftier; and the roof, the quaking pavement,

The shadowy pillars, all the temple feels
The offended God! I dare not look
again,
Dar'st thou ?

Margarita. I see a silent shape of stone,
In which the majesty of human passion
Is to the life express'd. A noble image,
But wrought by mortal hands upon a
model

As mortal as themselves.
Callias.
Ha! look again, then.
There in the East. Mark how the purple

clonds

Throng to pavilion him: the officious winds

Pant forth to purify his azure path From night's dun vapours, and fast scattering mists.

The glad earth wakes in adoration; all The voices of all animate things lift up Tumultuous orisons; the spacious world Lives but in him, that is it's life. But he, Disdainful of the universal homage, Holds his calm way, and vindicates for his

own

Th' illimitable heavens, in solitude
Of peerless glory unapproachable.
What means thy proud undazzled look, to
adore
Or mock, ungracious?
Margarita.

On you burning orb

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After this magnificent display of the very soul of poetry, unmixed, too, as it is with baser matter, we must refer our readers to the volume itself for further gratification; not doubting, but that, like the prince in the fairy tale, having found one relic of exquisite beauty, they will be most anxious to obtain the whole array of perfection of which it was only a part.

"Sunt mala,"-there are faults, which in a measure disfigure this, for the most part, meritorious production. Independent of the subject itself not being highly dramatic, the poem is wire-drawn out by unnecessary matter,, and artificial means, to an infinitely too extended a length; so much so,-that listlessness and tedium frequently approached

us during it's perusal. The extreme length, and frequency, also, of the lyrical pieces are in our eyes blots or deformities, that injure the general effect. We quite agree with the correct sentiments expressed elsewhere on these Hymns and Chorusses, and nine stanzas after the passionate think that Margarita's long hymn of scene given above, and the Heathen and Christian's long creed-expounding verses, just previous to the execution of the believers, are almost as ill-timed as Nero's frivolity, when Rome was in flames around him.

Having thus enabled our readers to form their own opinions of the

66

Martyr of Antioch," it merely remains for us, before we make our last adieux, generally to observe, that it were well, did all those who rival Mr. Milman in the brilliancy of their poetry, follow him also in pureness of principle and moral feeling. Neither in this, nor in his former works, have we been offended by a magnificence of description glossing over demoralising principles, like paint upon the face of the wanton, or flowers plucked, only to cover the putridity of death; but the rather, virtue and principle are linked together with the spirit of poetry and the strength of genius. Resignation under the severest of trials and temptations, those of life and love, have been inculcated as it were through the lips of a Calypso, without her art and wantonness; - and like the garden of Eden, freed of the serpent, the flowers of song have interested our feelings, without destroying that innocence which should still cling about them.

The Martyr of Antioch," then, fully "shows the impression" of our author's "former instances;" and bearing such impression, it will, like our own gold when stamped with the brow of royalty, pass eagerly and currently through the various haunts of man, and be most welcome to them who can the best and most fully appreciate it.

NEW PUBLICATIONS,
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LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

SHORTLY will be Published, in three volumes, 8vo. Specimens of the Living Poets; with Biographical and Critical Prefaces, and an Appendix, containing Notices of such Poetical Writers as have deceased during the last Twenty Years, by Alaric A. Watts, Esq.

We are informed that Mr. Charles Dubois, of King-street, Covent Garden, will have to submit by Auction, in the course of the present Season, an unpublished collection of Poems, by the Author of the Seasons, in his own hand writing; amongst them are the version of the 104th Psalm, so much commended by his Divinity Tutor, Mr. Hamilton; a curious elegy in the Scottish Dialect, the only known specimen of Thomson having written in that style; and a Poetical Epistle to Sir William Bennet, of Grubbat, his early patron. The Manuscript was presented to Mallet by Thomson, soon after his arrival in London, when he was tutor to Lord George Graham, to whom Thomson had letters of introduction. Earl Buchan has verified the hand-writing by a comparison with those pieces in his possession, and has kindly sent a facsimile of the song, beginning with "For ever Fortune wilt thou prove."

To be published by Subscription, A New and Impartial History of Ireland, from the earliest Accounts to the present Time, by Martin M‘Dermöt, Author of

"A Critical Dissertation on the Nature and Principles of Taste," &c. in 7 vols. 8vo.

The forthcoming publication by the Author of Calthorpe, entitled the Lollards, is a Tale founded on the persecutions which marked the opening of the fifteenth century, when the subjects of this country, who presumed to read the Bible in their vernacular tongue, were liable to be hanged as traitors to the King, or burned as heretics to God. It is stated, that it will furnish some local curiosities, des cribing London as it then was, with Sketches of the Manners, Customs, and Mode of Living of it's Inhabitants; and that a minute Description of the Pageant on the return of Henry the Fifth after the battle of Agincourt, a singular penance performed at St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street, and authentic pictures of old English Fare, Amusements, and Prices, with a detailed representation of the splendid Spectacle near Melun, where King Henry the First met his future consort, are among it's contents.

Captain Manby, Author of the Means of Saving Persons from Shipwreck, is about to publish with Graphic Illustrations, The Journal of a Voyage to Greenland in 1821.

A work by Sir Walter Scott is mentioned in the Scottish Capital: it is from the Notes of a Distinguished Personage of the 17th Century, and is likely to contain

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