صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

But when the fecret is difclofed, and he hears of Lord Arlington's death, he quits Ireland, leaving the command of the troops he had been entrusted with to the care of Southampton, and arrives at St. Vincent's Abbey, the place of Ellinor's confinement. After an affecting interview, he requests her departure with him; which the refolutely refuses, because in the attempt his life would be endangered, and her own reputation irreparably injured. By a fingular artifice, however, the escapes the vigilance of her keepers, and follows Lord Effex; but is intercepted by a body of the rebellious Irish, and committed to the charge of Tiroen. When Effex receives the information of this event, he difregards his military reputation, and exerts all his skill and power for her redemption. But what he found himself incapable of obtaining by his own efforts, was at length effected by the addrefs of Ellinor. Tiroen having requested to pledge her with a glass of wine and water, the dexterously throws a quantity of liquid laudanum' into it; and, as foon as ftupefaction hath locked up his fenfes, the affumes a masculine habit, throws Tiroen's cloak over it, and in this difguife makes her efcape to the English camp.

[ocr errors]

But Effex having difpleafed the Queen by his inactivity, he returns home to justify his conduct, notwithstanding the intreaty of Ellinor to the contrary. His return only baftens his ruin, and `affords fresh occafion to the Cecil family to plot his deftruction. Almoft immediately on his return, he is committed to the charge of the Lord Keeper, whofe houfe is in effect his prifon. He is, however, at length releafed; but his own difgrace, and the lofs of his popularity, urge him on to treasonable practices; which being proved againft him, he is condemned to the block. Thus falls the generous and gallant Effex, in the vigour of life, a facrifice to the impatience of his own difpofition. The information of his death confirms the frenzy, which had often afflicted Ellinor, into a fettled madness.

Matilda's return to her native country affords her not the confolation the expected; fhe finds in it no refuge from affliction, no relief from the ftings of adverfity. She beholds a much-loved fifter the victim of the most dreadful calamity to which human nature can be expofed. She beholds an unnatural brother feated on the throne, who would not allow her the honours of kindred; and nothing but the fondness she entertains for her daughter could foften the diftrefs, or fupport her beneath such a load of accumulated misfortunes. But the kindnefs and affability of the Prince of Wales, in fome measure atoned for the ingratitude of his father. An accident having thrown him in the way of Matilda and her daughter Mary, he is fuddenly fmitten with the charms of the latter, and would have married her; but Mary (who had conceived a paffion for the Earl of Somerfet) not returning the ardour of his love, becomes the innocent caufe of the Prince's

K 3

being

being feized with a malignant diftemper, which speedily puts a period to his life. Some time after his death, a report is maliciously propagated that the Prince had been poifoned by Matilda. To free herself from fo odious a calumny, the haftens to the King; who having afforded her an audience, feems convinced of her innocence; acknowledges her as a fifter; and artfully infinuates, that on the morrow he would fend for her and her daughter at a feat of the Earl of Somerfet, and would then announce the day for proclaiming her birth, with all poffible reverence to his mother's honour. The coach arrives at the time appointed'; but, inflead of going to a feat of Somerfet, it proceeds to Windfor, under an armed guard, where they are shut up in prifon by the command of the King; but Somerfet fpeedily finding means to feparate Mary from her mother, conveys her to an apartment he had prepared for her, and meditates the means to divorce his wife, and marry the daughter of Matilda.

But the wife of Somerfet, receiving information refpecting the object that had alienated her husband's affections from her, meditates revenge, and bribes the attendants of Mary to give her poifon. Matilda, feeking every poffible means to find admittance to her daughter, efcapes from her confinement; but it is only to behold a more dreadful fpectacle, a beloved child expiring by poifon !

This is the general outline of the RECESS ;-a novel in which fiction is indeed too lavifhly employed to heighten and embellish fome well-known and diftinguished facts in the English hiftory; -we fay too lavishly, because the mind is ever divided and diftracted when the fact fo little accords with the fiction, and Romance and History are at perpetual variance with one ano

ther.

This, however, will be confidered as a defect arifing from, and even in a great measure effential to the original plot; and which could not have been remedied without injuring the whole texture, or deranging the beft parts of it.

There are also a few defects which arife from a want of skill, or at least of attention, in the writer. The arrangement is frequently inartificial, and often obfcure and embarraffed. The Reader is fometimes perplexed, and now and then fatigued.

In fome inftances, there is a manifeft departure from nature and verifimilitude in the conduct of the piece; and the perfons who figure in the fcene deliver speeches in a ftyle and manner that cannot be reconciled to their fituations.

Mrs. Marlow, almoft at the inftant of expiring, hath fufficient ftrength and recollection to enter into a long and minute detail of fome of the more ftriking incidents of her own life, and thofe of the Queen of Scots and the Duke of Norfolk, as far as they had any immediate relation to the orphan princeffes.

We

We cannot reconcile to truth and nature the account that Mary gives her mother, almoft in the agony of death, of her fecret attachment to the Earl of Somerfet, and the effect which the fuppofed the difcovery of that attachment had on the Prince of Wales.

The continual exhibition of fcenes of diftrefs-diftiefs of the deepest kind-is, in our opinion, a material objection to the moral tendency of this work. The mind requires fome cheerful and enlivening objects to recover from the ftretch of fympathetic anguifh. But here we have no breathing from calamity and ill fortune. The gloom of the Recefs gathers a deeper and still deeper fhade, till the heart finks under the oppreflion of melancholy.

But, with all its faults, the Recefs is a very ingenious and pathetic novel. The Author poffeffes a copious fund of imagination. Her powers of defcription are very great; and there is a richness in her style which shows that her genius is ardent and vigorous. Perhaps the language is fometimes overcharged; it is too glaring, too poetical.

The Author difcovers a very confiderable acquaintance with the human heart; fhe traces it through all the labyrinths of deceit, and opens the fources of its moft hidden and disguised feelings.

As a fpecimen of her ftyle and manner, we will present our readers with an extract from the fecond volume; where Matilda relates the melancholy cataftrophe of her friend, Mifs Cecil:

The

While my eager eyes gazed unwearied on my new-born cherub, and traced in her infant lineaments her father's matchlefs beauty, even till they ached with fondnefs, fancy pierced through the vale of futurity to unite each grace of perfon and of mind, and enduing her with all, every human claim upon my feelings feemed condenfed, and revived in this new one. Oh, hope! fweet fubftitute for happinefs, whofe mental gildings dawn periodically upon the foul, like light upon creation, awakening and invigorating every active principle of being; recalled by this irrefiftible influence even from the dark, the dreary grave, each troubled heart arifes, and fhaking off the heavy dews of forrow, flowly refumes its wonted habits. pale converts of experience no longer dare appropriate the darling object of their wishes, but meekly then receive the appointed pleafure, prepared alike either to enjoy or to refign it. As thus the maternal tie engrafted itfelf in my foul, I perpetually endeavoured to imprefs that of my dear unfortunate friend with the fame train of ideas. Alas, in vain!-Rather furprised at finding me fenfible of confolation than difpofed to receive it, fhe gradually withdrew a confidence I did not eafily mifs, and delivered herself up to that cold and fullen despair which unfettles every principle. Intreaties and arguments foon loft all effect on her. Starting at times from an impenetrable reverie, a broken figh would overturn all I could urge, while continued adjurations produced too often a marked difguft. Obliged at intervals to quit the cabin (left even my present fituation fhould fail to protect it from intruders) and liften to the hateful addresses of her

K 4

boisterous

boisterous lover, often did the feat of reafon appear fhaken in this dear unfortunate on her return, and a vague and extravagant gaiety would fuddenly give place to the deepest gloom and inanity. I faw thefe fluctuations with horror, and dreaded the moment when a rude demand of marriage fhould bring her fate to a climax. Ah, not without reafon did I dread it! One evening, after a conversation of this kind, Į perceived her more than ufually difturbed. Neither my prayers nor the pouring rain could bring her from the balcony, where for hours fhe told her weary fteps. Iftarted at laft from a momentary flumber on her re-entering the cabin. The dim lamp burning in it, fhewed her with a flow and tottering pace approaching the laft afylum of Lord Leicester; finking by this repofitory of her breaking heart, the clafped her hands upon her bofom with a moft fpeaking fenfe of woe, while over it her fair locks fell wild and difhevelled, heavy with the midnight rain, and fhivering to its beatings. The wet drapery of her white garments fpread far over the floor, and combined to form fo perfect an image of defolation, as froze up all my faculties. I fruggled for articulation. A feeble cry alone escaped me. She started at the found from her icy ftupor, and glanced her eyes every where, with that acutenefs of perception which marks a disturbed imagination; then with a long figh funk once more into herfelf. A fecond cry, followed by her name, my bounding eager heart pronounced. She half arofe; the motion of her lips feemed contending with the drear filence of the moment, but not a murmur broke it.-Amazement, horror, the wrings of death transfixed me. Springing up with etherial lightnefs, even while her feeble frame fhivered with agony and affection, the fixed on my convulfed features a long, long look; then waving majeftically a lait adieu, rufhed again into the balcony. Unable to move a limb, my harrowed foul feemed, through the jar of the elements, to distinguish her dreadful plunge into the world of waters. A fomething too mighty to defcribe or endure came over me, and fenfe fled before it.'

What follows is excellent; and the judicious Reader (who is here referred to the work itself) will immediately perceive that the Author had ftudied Shakespear's Lear with much attention, and copied that admirable model with great fuccefs. B-A

ART. XIII. Inferior Politics: or, Confiderations on the Wretchednefs and Profligacy of the Poor, efpecially in London and its Vicinity. On the Defects in the prefent Syftem of Parochial and Penal Laws. On the confequent Increase of Robbery and other Crimes. And on the Means of redreffing thefe Public Grievances, &c. &c. By Hewling Lufon, of the Navy Office. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Bladon. 1786.

A

FTER fome ingenious, but, we think, difputable obfervations on the various ftructures of governments and the natural equality of mankind, Mr. Lufon fays, That equality and independence are no less the rights than the choice of every human being that the uncontrouled operation of the juft and rational principles which are united in our excellent conftitution, would

compenfate,

compenfate, as far as any inftitution of government poffibly can, for the equality of a ftate of nature' that if the fpirit of the conftitution were allowed to operate with unrestrained energy, the right of voting, among other glorious privileges, would be extended to every Briton; and that the limitation of this right, and the partial privileges annexed to it, are the difgraceful remains of feudal tyranny.' He confeffes, however, that if principles of integrity had their due operation on the conduct of the people, the right of chufing reprefentatives (limited as it is) would fecure to them the poffeffion of thofe liberties which the conftitution, coinciding with the unalterable laws of nature and juftice, declares to be their right!'

We commend the candour of this paffage; and as to its feeming want of confiftency with those which precede, we fay of Mr. Lufon what may be faid with Anthonio in the Tempeft, and many other projectors, "The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning.'

The fentiments of Mr Lufon on the politics of the day may be collected from his fplendid panegyric on the hereditary virtues of the minifter, and the exemplary morals of the King and Queen. Far the better and the greater part of this work is employed in the following manner :

He afcribes the vices which prevail in the capital to the idlenefs and wretchedness of the poor; he condemns the heavy ex. actions and grofs abuse of the poors' rates; he exposes the frauds and abufes of parifh-officers; he laments the fufferings of the poor in their removal from one parish to another; and, as a re medy for those fufferings, propofes that every parish should be obliged to maintain all the poor in it. In terms of marked and juft indignation, he cenfures the undiftinguishing feverity of our penal laws. He recommends, in behalf of those who are legally acquitted of the crimes imputed to them, not only compenfation, for their lofs of time and liberty, but fuch a degree of redress as fhould enable them to refume their employments and recover their characters. In respect to those who are even convicted, he contends, that fome legal provifion fhould be made for alleviating the diftreffes of their families, and preferving the morals of their children.

The Appendix contains a plan for the reduction of the na tional debt. The theory is fimple, but the practice may be very difficult; for Mr. Lufon's project, like thofe of his predeceffors, difplays more the exactness of the calculator than the fagacity of a politician.

This work is, upon the whole, the production of a benevolent and enlightened mind. The ftyle is always correct, often elegant, and fometimes energetic and dignified. We must at the fame time acknowledge, that the arrangement is not fufficiently

regular;

« السابقةمتابعة »