Art. 21. The Scourge, a Satire. Part I. 4to. Is. 6d. Almos. The Author fets out with lamenting the death of Churchill, who, he tells us, left him his SCOURGE, as a legacy; and he feems determined not to let it lie unemployed: but whether the lafh will be plied with all its wonted force, this fpecimen, alone, will not, perhaps, enable the Reader abfolutely to determine. Yet this we may venture to pronounce, that the living dog may at least prove as terrible as the dead lion. The prefent objects of the Author's poetic fury, are the great men whofe names are numbered among the outs while, on the other hand, his pa negyrics are lavished on the inns: but, as a specimen, we shall give some lines from the Satirift's account of himself: I am a Man, Born a ftaunch Whig, and bred on Freedom's plan; Blunt in my manners, fimple in my fenfe, For I'm no Joker, and I hate a Lye; I can't, not ev'n in jeft, turn white to black; George a young King, and Bute-I well know what. I'm much too dull for metaphor, or trope, But think of S If Ranger talks of wedded dames made Punks, The name, that firft occurs to me, is D Lo! two clench'd fifts, which each a purfe contain! If Wis nam'd, I fay, perhaps I fwear, That certain ears should not be where they are'; I only ftroke my face, and scratch my ears. I cannot think, be who will out or in, Perhaps it will be deemed no great compliment to this Author, to fay that he poffeffes more than Churchill's Harmony; we wish we could • Born a whig! indeed!-fome philofophers might, perhaps, dif pute this fact with our Author; but, certainly, every gentleman knows best how he came by his own principles. fay Tay as much with regard to that vivacity of fentiment and ftrength of expreflion, which ferved to compenfate for all the defects of Churchill's numbers. THEATRICAL. Art. 22. The Summer's Tale. A Comedy of Three Acts. As it is performed at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden. 8vo. Is. 6d. Dodsley. By Cumberland To enter on a formal examen of the fing-fong ftage-trifles which have lately come into vogue among us, would be finking beneath the dignity of criticifm. This performance may take rank with the rest of the kind. There are fome things in the dialogue part, which may be endured; others, that are abfurd enough; and a few that are intolerable for their indelicacy: fuch as a footman's finging his master a fong, to prompt him to ravish his miftrefs; and another character coming in, fweating, pulling off his wig, and wiping his head, before the audience. As to the fongs, the fame may nearly be faid of them: fome are pastable, and others very indifferent, indeed! With regard to the mufic, we have not heard it; but we obferve the names of the greatest mafters, in the lift of compofers.- -That the Author, however, may not accufe us of ill-nature, we shall felect one or two of such as we take to be his best-written airs: AIR III. See how the genial god of day Salutes the warm, the blufhing year; Chear'd by his beams, how bright, how gay And hark! in yonder vocal bower And, tell me, do thefe fcenes impart Ah! why wou'd Nature make thee fair, And not to love, is to be blind. [Boyce.] Not quite fo roughly expreffed, indeed;-the following couplet is the paffage alluded to: If the damfel confents, take her strait in the mood, If not, gently force her, 'tis all for her good. REY. Dec. 1765. Kk AIR AIR XXVII. From clime to clime Let others run; From rifing to the fetting fun; To search for dear variety, And catch hort gleams of fluctuating taste. With cafe and plenty crown'd, Nor afk of heaven a fairer lot. Hardly obedient to the peafant's toil, Yet Nature with maternal hand A nobler dower has given; And liberty, the choiceft gift of heaven. [Arne.] Perhaps, after all, the fort of Rape above hinted at, means no more than a gentle force upon the lady, to make her pronounce the kind moofyllable yes. If fo, we afk the Author's pardon for putting fo rough a conftruction on the paffage cited in the Note.-But let the Reader judge between us. NOVELS. Art. 23. The Female Adventurers. 12mo. 2 Vols. 5s. Folingby. It is easy to perceive, through the disguise of a very bad translation, that the original of this little French romance is not deftitute of merit. There is nature in it; and the fentiments, had they been expreffed in good English, might have fecured the work from that contempt into which it muft inevitably fink, in the opinion of thofe few novel-readers who are competent judges of what they read. Art. 24. The Wanderer; or, Memoirs of Charles Searle, Efq; containing his Adventures by Sea and Land, with many remarkable Characters and interefling Situations in real Life; and a Variety of furprising Incidents. 12mo. 2 Vols. 6s: Lownds. The reader who accompanies this wanderer, in his various peregri nations, will be conducted through adventures which never could have happened, and brought into fituations in real life' which are to the highest degree unnatural and improbable, if not utterly impoflible. For the reft,- thefe memoirs are not very ill-written. The characters, fuck as they are, are numerous, and a world of bufinefs is to be dispatched, before we arrive at the conclufion: wherein, according to the cuffom, the heroes and heroines are brought before the parfon; who having faid grace. the fupper comes in; then every body goes to bed; and fo good icar! Art. 25. Art. 25. The Novellift, or Tea-table Mifcellany; containing the Select Novels of Dr. Croxall: With other polite Tales, and Pieces of modern Entertainment. 12mo. 2 Vols. 6s. Lownds. To a felection from the well-known fet of Novels published by the late ingenious Dr. Croxall, the prefent Editor hath added fome tales, &c. borrowed from the authors of the Rambler and the Adventurer ; and also from a variety of other modern writers: the whole forming a very entertaining Mifcellany, for young readers. MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 26. A Treatife of Agriculture. The fecond Edition, with large In our Twenty-eighth Vol. (p. 119 feq.) we gave some account of the first edition of this judicious treatife; which was then (1763) published without the Author's name.In this 2d edition, Mr. Dickson hath inferted feveral additions and illuftrations, both in the text and notes; and the last chapter of Book II. which treats of wheel-carriages, is entirely new. Art. 27. A Dialogue concerning the Subjection of Women to their Hufbands. Publifhed for the Benefit of all his Majesty's Married Subjects, in Great Britain, Ireland, and the Dominions thereunto belonging and appertaining. In which is interfperfed, fome Obfervations on Courtship, for the Ufe of the Batchelors. By a Friend to the Ladies.-MOTTO. "He fent Letters into all the King's "Provinces, into every Province according to the Writing thereof, "and to every People after their Language, that every Man fhould "bear Rule in his own Houfe." Efth. 8vo. 6d. Wilkie. From the motto to this pamphlet, the Reader will naturally infer which way the Author would determine the queftion concerning the dominion univerfally claimed by husbands over their wives. Nevertheless, as all general rules are liable to exceptions, we are not to make this rule abfolute, as the lawyers fay; for there are fuppofable cafes in which it would be the higheit abfurdity, and of ruinous confequence to many families, were the fenfible and capable wife, to fubmit implicitly to the mif-rule, and weak or wicked conduct of a foolish or worthlefs husband. In all fuch cafes, however, a prudent woman will take Mr. Pope's hint, And if the rules him, never fews the rules. We have, indeed, fo good an opinion of the fair fex, that we entirely acquiefce in the fentiments of Mr. Freeman, one of the interlocutors in this dialogue; where he obferves, that it is not nature, but the unmanly and irrefolute conduct of the men themfelves, in the government of their families, which is the principal caufe of the improper behaviour of the generality of married women.' And he very fenfibly adds, that the abfurd behaviour of men to women previous to marriage, con riK k z butes butes much towards making them afterwards fo ungovernable. A man feldom approaches the woman to whom he intends to make love, but with the moft fervile complaifance. He is not only her fervant, but her flave. He is obedient to her nod, and lives upon her fmiles. And can any man rationally expect, that the woman to whom he thus behaves, will ever make him a dutiful and obedient wife?" Lovers (fays Ofborne) place like ftupid idolaters, divinity in a filly creature, fet by the inflitutes of nature in a far inferior clafs of perfection, to that which makes it his bufinefs to worship and adore it ;-rendering thereby him fubject to flavery that was born free, and her to command, who ought in righter reason to ferve and obey." A woman muft undoubtedly think it very ftrange, that the man whofe former behaviour to her was characterized by nothing but fubmiffion, and the most undiftinguishing complaifance, fhould afterwards pretend to affume any fort of authority over her, or to controul her actions. And what adds to the abfurdity of that fort of behaviour, which is generally made ufe of in courtship, is, that it is by no means the best way for a man to recommend himself to a woman of fenfe, or indeed even to the generality of them. They may like the adoration that is paid to them, but they defpife those who make ufe of it; at leaft, they undoubtedly efteem them lefs, than if their behaviour had in it more manlinefs and dignity. It has been faid, that women prefer fools and coxcombs to men of fenfe; but in this remark, the women, I believe, have not justice done them. At least, it appears only to be true of thofe men of fenfe, whofe feverity of manners makes them abfolutely deftitute of any of the arts of pleafing. Let a man of fenfe, who is at the fame time a mafler of fome addrefs, (which the character of a man of fenfe furely does not exclude, though it does not neceffarily include it) pay his addreffes, as the phrafe is, to a woman, without the leaft fervility, and only with that manly complaifance and tenderness, which an amiable woman will naturally infpire in a man; and let his whole bebav our be free, fincere, fenfible, and manly; and I will venture to affert, that any woman (if she were not more deficient in point of understanding than the generality of women are) would prefer him to twenty fawning fps who might happen to be his rivals. Women are, in fact, fo far from being fond of men of a foft complying temper, that they do, generally, rather prefer those, who either by natural temper, or by the particular prevailing manners of their profeffion, are characterifed even by a blunt freedom of behaviour. And furely thefe are not the men whom they can reafonably expect to make the moft pliant hufbands.' We have obferved feveral other fer fible remarks in this little tract; but, on the whole, the fubje& is but flightly difcuffed; and the queftion not abfolutely and clearly decided at laft. Art. 28. An Efay towards establishing a Standard for an elegant and uniform Pronunciation of the English Language, throughout the Britif Dominions, as practifed by the most learned and polite Speakers. A Work entirely new; and whereby every one can be bis own private Teacher. Defigned for the Ufe of Schools, and of Foreigners as well as Natives; fpecially fuch whofe Profeffions engage |
