Puslapio vaizdai
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ric. In the unimpassioned scenes his arms hung stiff and lifeless, like those of a coat upon a dyer's pole, and when he took his soldiers to task for deserting their post, he elevated his hands with such a windmill motion, that I thought he was about to throw a somerset into the pit, and actually shifted my quarters to avoid the impending calamity. The drama had now arrived at a climax of distress. The Peruvian hero made love to his friend's wife, to which she expressed an aversion altogether unaccountable, considering that her husband was completely out of the way. The cousin to the king of the golden mines then goodnaturedly determined to bring man and wife together: the audience were hushed in mute attention, and the valiant captain had every prospect of a brilliant campaign. But alas, as the dictionary-maker says, What are the hopes of man? A certain fashionable tailor, in whose books Beau Higgins had dipped far deeper than in the classics, becoming im patient for his money, had employed two journeymen, named John Doe and Richard Roe, to manufacture one suit more than Higgins had ordered. Those two worthies having been treated with proper contempt, had called one Fierifacius to their aid, and poor Gregory's cold ham, chickens, syllabub and champagne, were enlisted into the service of an ignoble botcher of broad cloth. The evil news spread through the house like the dry rot. The audience who had endured bad acting in hopes of a good supper, were immediately in motion: back rolled the fashionable tide with a rapidity that carried every thing before it. A series of other engagements were straightway recollected, which could not be violated with any appearance of decorum. Sir Daniel Discount was upon his honour expected at Tom's Coffee-House, Lady Bridget Sidebottom, had a sick aunt at Chelsea, and moreover must positively finish her lilac ridicule by the morning. Her three brothers had a wager to decide about one of our native tumblers at the Opera-House. The Misses Pope and Georgiana Snarl, pleaded a game at Cassino: Sir Samuel and Lady Weazle, sneaked off to a methodist meeting, and the two ensigns called it a complete hoax. The poor captain redoubled his efforts which were drowned in the noise of rattling benches, and before the commencement of the fifth act, he had ranted himself bare to the very fiddlers. Nor were his misfortunes destined to stop here. One of his domestics, who had been drilled to convey his master's remains to a Peruvian grave, had made rather too free with a bowl of gratuitous negus which stood in the window of the green room. The consequence was, that while he was carrying the dilettanti corpse on his uplifted hands,, stiffened with all its might, and as proud of its elevated leg, as a dead gentleman's body should always be, the unfortunate carrier reeled and fell, and the deceased Peruvian descended head foremost on his right shoulder, with a force which has since occasioned him to parade Bond Street, with his right arm in a sling.

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Captain Gregory Higgins, adieu! thy career was short but glorious. Like a Vauxhall rocket thou didst for a little moment outshine the established luminary of the night; and if a sheriff's officer cut short thy glories, why should Captain Higgins repine at what Captain Macheath was forced to endure? Be comforted-the Morning Post has registered thy dinners: Endymion the Exile has recorded thy theatricals, and the poet Ovid has penned thy prophetic epitaph

Hic situs est Phaëton currûs auriga paterni,

Quem si non tenuit, magnis tamen excidit ausis.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

SIR W. BROWNE's two medals, value five guineas each, were adjudged, the first, to Mr. E. BLOOMFIELD, of Caius, Cambridge, for the best Greek ode in Sapphics; subject—Desiderium Porsoni; and the second to Mr. LONSDALE of King's, for the best Horatian ode, subjectLusitania liberata. Desiderium Porsoni! O, well-timed love!Heu sterilem cantum, BLOOMFIELD, Leudeσσ xgiola! Most prepos

terous affectation!

Sir RICHARD PHILLIPS is always before the public in some amiable shape. On the 1st of July, Sir Samuel Romilly moved the Court of Chancery for an injunction to restrain our great popular knight and bookseller from printing and selling a spurious edition of another man's property. Mr. Parke, a man of learning, had written The Chemical Catechism, and sold it at twelve shillings. Its success induced Sir Richard, ' merely for the love of trade, and through public spirit, to make up a thing from it at the easy rate of three shillings. To this publication he put the name of BLIGH, and Sir Samuel had an affidavit that there was no such person in existence. At the end of Mr. Parke's work there is a chemical dictionary-at the end of Sir Richard's book there is a chemical vocabulary, in which even the errors of the press in the former, are copied. The CHANCELLOR ordered the injunction to issue.

PERCONTATOR, a correspondent, puts three queries-" Whether the Icon Basilike is now a scarce book, and its value? Whether there exists any collective edition of all Sir John Suckling's poems? And when, and by whom the common almond-tree was first cultivated in England?"

He adds a

"P. S.-Let me take the opportunity of this letter to suggest to Mr. Mark Noble, that an investigation into the Downing family, and

the recent transactions respecting Downing College, might prove interesting, and worthy of his researches."

The second number of Architectural Reliques, containing views of Tintern Abbey, Monmouthshire, by Mr. Cooper, of Clifford-Street, Bond-Street, was published in the course of last month.

LORD VALENTIA has, in his Travels, taken occasion to complain of certain charts of Messrs. LAURIE and WHITTLE. This hasty and illiberal charge has in a printed circular been ably met by these popular map-sellers, and very satisfactorily explained.

LONGMAN and Co. proprietors of the Court Calendar, have obtained a rule to shew cause why an injunction should not issue to restrain the sale of The Imperial Calendar, which appears to be a pirated edition of the former. Amongst other errors copied, the words, the wives of, are left out of a passage, which now runs thus in both-" Lying-in-Hospital for the soldiers of the life-guards.”

A poem from the pen of a lady, intitled, “Brighton,” descriptive of the place and its amusements, will shortly appear, dedicated to the Prince of Wales. .

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SIR ROBERT KER PORTER.

WE did not promise an engraved portrait of SIR ROBERT, until we had procured a Memoir, and seen, through a friend, a very polite note from MISS J. PORTER, enclosing one from the Rev. J. THOMAs, of Epsom, which gave us, in a very gentlemanly manner, (as we foolishly thought!) the most unreserved permission to avail ourselves of a picture done for Mr. Thomas by Mr. Harlowe. According to the direction of the owner, we sent, early in the mouth, to Mr. Thompson, printseller, for the painting; when, to our surprise, we were told that it was at EpThe reverend THOMAS had conveyed it away, and when Miss Porter, with a proper feeling, wrote to him, "that the permission was now past recall," he replied, with infinite coolness, that he had since taken it into his head to have the picture engraved in some other way. As we could lose no honour by breaking a word, which it was impossible for us to keep, the necessity of the foregoing statement has been all the concern we have felt about this paltry affair. Our subscribers will, however, in return for their disappointment, enjoy one advantage from our experience.-We shall borrow a little prudence from this reverend person's namesake, and for the future, like SAINT THOMAS, not believe, until we feel!

MONTHLY MIRROR,

FOR

AUGUST, 1809.

Embellished with

A PORTRAIT OF MR. JONES, ENGRAVED BY FREEMAN, FROM AN ORIGINAL PAINTING.

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PRINTED FOR THE PROPRIETORS,

By Harding and Wright, No. 38, St. John's Square, Clerkenwell;
And published by Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe, in the Poultry;

J. Murray, Fleet-Street; A. Constable and Co.

Edinburgh;

and sold by all the Booksellers

in the United Kingdom.

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OUR poetical friends are requested to read the following extract from E. C. an ingenious fellow-labourer, and to admire and copy her patience and resignation. Anticipating a warm reception, she says, I suppose my poor epigram will suffer in the general devastation. You critics have an occasional auto da fé, at which, after a severe inquisition of your humble disciples, you fancy you discover something heterodox, and then burn, rack, and destroy, without a single compunctious visiting.' You ought to exercise your mercy on us minor wits, who labour with such mountainous exertions, to bring forth our respective mice; we are the children of your bounty, who ask alms of praise to feed the famished appetite of vanity-'tis, an appetite that sustains the vitality of the mental machine, and stimulates its creative powers. Most of the modern jingle, from the epic poem to the epigram, owe their origin to it, and you, who partly live by its gleanings, should encourage the harvest by the sun-shine of your approbation. Excuse this long letter of tropes and figures; and, believe me, though I have murmured at the severity of your verdict, my better judgment admits of its justice, and even should you in future sign the death-warrant to my Parodies-pass over my Epigrams in silent contempt, and even consign my Birth-day Odes to bottomless perdition, I shall remain the disinterested admirer of your very excellent and Reflecting Mirror.”

Mr. Hutt, Gray's Inn, makes this earnest enquiry after his poems"Is there any hope? Say, When shall I see them out in print, as fresh as farthings from the Mint?" We refer the query to time.

C. M. G. on a Dream; Levardo's Odes are received.

Newcastle, and Worthing Theatres; and

"A Friend of Mr. Larpent" wishes us to inform Mr. T. Hook, that "his own brother has three or four livings, as well as Mr. L. his three or four places." Surely this can be no news to Mr. Hook.

The remarks of Z. Z. Q. on our work, will, when judicious, never be lost upon us. Originality in such prose articles as Scrapiana, or Anecdotes from Bracciolini Poggio, is of course out of the question. Being so every where else is the greatest eulogium that Z. Z. Q. could have pronounced on us. As to blushing-it's quite out of our way-we leave it to him.

Mr. Lofft on Rousseau, and The Cambridge Prize Poems; "Answer to a Correspondent's Remarks on JOHNSON'S Opinions of Players, by Carlos; "Deer Stealing;" War and Love; Lord Duberley's Consort; and "The singular piece of Wit," by Catamaran, next month.

The Rev. M. Noble, and A. F. G. in answer to PERCONTATOR, and Mr. Valentine Green on his Birth-Place, in our next.

ERRATA.-Vol. V. p. 342. 1. 39. read Widow.-At p. 345, l. 14. Minstrelsy; and at p. 348. 1. 23. Ferrers.

Vol. VI. p. 8. 1. 36. read Parlby; and p.45. 1. 9. in her head.

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