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Conjoin'd with a Williams, their trash yields no

fewel;

Bereft of Sel Attic, 'tis mere water-gruel:

Their mind's cacoëthes dramatic pursuit,
In collecting aught else but proficients acute.

figured as shopman at an oil warehouse, of which firm he afterwards became a partner, and from that epoch dedicated his mind to the study of theatricals; when, conceiving that as a critic he was gifted with two ingredients to be purchased in his own shop, viz. oil and vinegar, he suddenly emerged from obscurity, and stood forth the editor of the Monthly Mirror. Since that period, however, the pepper of poverty subdued the verjuice firm, and the Mirror no longer reflected the censor's lucubrations: still, in defiance of fate, he once more ascends Hill difficulty, and appears the Sunday Champion, wherein the public are favoured with such leading articles-[Vide Sunday Paper for Jan. 14th, 1814]—as never before appeared for the amusement and instruction of the public. I shall now bid mine hero farewell, wishing him success, in order that he may long indulge in quaffing his favourite wines, Champagne and Burgundy.

Ah me! that some pen-true theatrical plough,

As it turn'd the soil erst, would show what it is now : In style of a Churchill impartially show

Of tragic and comic Muse eke friend and foe.

And whereas we are told that each scenic display
To each auditor's hearing should moral convey,
Let dramatists also with vigour be greeted,
And, as their works merit, be candidly treated.
From some sterling Muse we require such a flight;
There's scope
both for censure and praise to unite.
That this hint may be taken is all I demand;

Our soil needs the culture of satire's bold hand.

Dramatists.

Πολλοί μεν γαρ θηκοφόροι παυροι δε τε βακχοι.

There are many prate of Robin Hood who never yet shot in his

bow.

O! Now for Melpomene's buskins to strut in,
And sock of Thalia my trotters to put in ;

That so I the writers dramatic may quote well,

Defaulters condemn, and the praise-worthy note

well:

For since 'tis allow'd that the stage is a glass, (r)
Diffusing its lessons through every class;

(1) Plays, novels, and farces, tend more to hand down to succeeding generations a just picture of the times and manners in which they were composed than any branch of literature; since none but the authors of such pieces will deem it requisite to describe, with minuteness, the customs of their contemporaries, as a narration of that kind would be insipid, and of no utility whatsoever. On the contrary, should the dramatic writer err in the delineation of his portraits, the production would he scouted, and his piece tend only to burden the shelves of the publisher. It is to Terence, Plautus, Aristophanes, Apuleius, Thucydides, Livy, and Cæsar, that we are indebted for our insight into the manners, fashions, and customs of the Greeks and Romans; while it is pitiable to remark the extreme distress to which our ablest antiquarians are reduced, when desirous of making the present generation acquainted with the minutiae of those of our ancestors who lived before the stage or the press existed to elucidate posterior writers. Nay, if we even refer to an epoch subsequent to the invention of the art of printing, how much are the most prominent features of the time enveloped in darkness. Instance the short reign of Richard III., many of whose actions, as handed down to posterity, even by the ancient chro

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