It may be proper to add a few words refpecting the ftyle and diction that prevails throughout the piece. In juftice to Mr. Jodrell it must be faid that he writes like a scholar, and that his verfification is fplendid and harmonious. He aims, in general, at glowing colours of language: he is fond of the verbum ardens, and a rich metaphorical expreffion. But vices are always in the confines of virtue. A few inftances of what we think faulty expreffions will fhew what is here intended, and, perhaps, may lead the Author, in a future edition, to make fome alterations for the better. In page 4 of the quarto edition we find This boneft beart has not its cafket void" is that natural? Page 6, Love in fympathetic bofoms lights the torch: a flame in the bofom has been the ufual language; the place for the torch is the altar. Page 14, Born to ferve, and not to reign, I fee my far inclin'd: was it the or the ftar that was born? In many places the heroine is called nymph, which feems to be mere pastoral language: we do not remember it in tragedy. Page 16, This fiery nymph glows like the flow'r, that op'ning flames at Sol's meridian ray: Similies are always dangerous, but especially in tragedy, when they neither illuftrate nor amufe with novelty. Page 17, the fun is called the harbinger of the moon; but why fhould Au rora be difplaced? And fix my adamantine empire on its bafe. The bafe might be adamantine; but why fhould the empire be fo? The fun rolls his star-befpangled car: the ftars do not shine in the day-light, and Pindar tells us that the fun in its glory makes a defart in the fky. Page 18, And harrowed deep fufpicion the foul may be harrowed by fufpicion. Page 19, Pallene calls Mafiftes "my dear:" the familiar language of comedy. Page 20, Strike then the poignard home, I'll wing the shaft: how comes a poignard to be fo foon turned into a dart? Page 21, Rock'd me to flumber in your cradled arms: the might be cradled in his arms, but the cradle cannot be cradled. Page 29, Ameftris fays, fhe afks for no necklace: does not that border upon comedy? Page 28, Xerxes from his royal cheft iffues three thousand daricks: words that can be understood by antiquaries only, have no bufinefs in tragedy. Page 13, Ameftris is faid to brood revenge within her murky breaft: murky air, and murky cell have been heard of; but a murky breast is new. Page 40, the lover means to talk of difcovering his miftrefs; but he fays, difcover that refulgent ftar of my celeftial fair? Page 43, Who would quit the radiant beams of vivifying Sol for the cold chambers of oblivion's night? Quare SOL in tragedy. The author means the fun, and why not fay fo? Page 45, the doom of rigid Tyta: a new religious cuftom is here intended, but it may be doubted whether fo ill-founding a word as Tya should be hazarded in tragedy: the Author might have referved it for the notes annexed to his piece. Page 49, a hero weeps, and calis his tears the wat❜ry wat'ry rheum from these felf-moving orbs: this feems to be feeking for beauty, and finding what is unnatural. The words paragon and adamantine occur too often. Page 60, we find purl. ing tears, an affected phrafe; and in page 62, Narbal is faid to be elop'd from prifon, and to talk at random; and to purloin a victim. If the Author likes 'tis wondrous pitiful, and fland the hazard of the die, he has a right to his caprice, but hackneyed phrafes are beneath a writer who feems to have a copious command of language. Page 72, If repentance can atone for mercy: repentance may atone for guilt. Peace to her manes should not be faid by Mr. Jodrell. Having thus pointed out the defects of the fable and the diction, it may be expected that an extract of the beauties fhould follow. Beauties there certainly are, but for these we refer to the piece itself, this article being already of fufficient length. We fhall only fay, that the play has many happy paffages, often fublime, and at times pathetic. We may add, that the Author of the Perfian Heroine, whether the play was to be acted or not, was intitled to more politeness than he feems to have received. If Dr. Ford is to tell the authors of the age that the theatre is his property, and he will do as he pleafes in his own houfe, he reminds us of Parfon TRULLIBER: adieu to the Damatic Mufe! The notes that follow the play are proofs of Mr. Jodrell's. industry and learning. To the generality of readers they will convey information; and those who were previously acquainted with the authors of antiquity will be pleafed with a review of their knowledge. It may be the fault of the notes that they draw off the attention from the pathos in the tragedy. ART. XII. The Captives, a Tragedy, as performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. By the Author of the Royal Suppliants *. 8vo. Is. 6d. Cadell. 1786. IT T was not the good fortune of this Tragedy to please in the representation; it died, it feems, on the third night: The Author, Dr. Delap (who is known to be a clergyman of reputation, and a scholar), tells us, in a short advertisement, that it was his intention, throughout his piece, to make experiment of a flyle and diction, different from what are ufual in modern tragedy. Overwrought ornaments, and pompous verfification, he thought ill fuited to the manners of thofe early times, in which the action of his tragedy is fuppofed to have paffed.' The attempt was certainly laudable: nothing can be more difgufting than the tumour of blank verse, and, to use Mr. Pope's expreffion, that painful equality of fustian, which our modern play-wrights feem to think the eflential * See Review, Vol. LXIV. p. 278. beauties beauties of the drama. The poet, who has with labour expreffed a common fentiment in a forced style of unnatural metaphor, fuppofes that he has written the language and the true dialogue of tragedy. Dr. Delap feems to have the merit of all that he arrogates to himself, namely, a plain, intelligible, and unaffected ftyle. After the defeat he met with, he retires, as it should feem, in good humour, and not ungracefully. Whether the language of fimplicity would be acceptable to the public taste, he fays, he had ftill to learn. He adds, the experiment has been made; and the author retires with the fatisfaction of having, at least, intended well. What Dr. Delap intended, he feems to have executed. Quaint language and strained phrafeology very rarely occur. He dares to be intelligible; and in juftice to him, we must say, that his ftyle, in general, is adapted to the characters and the man-. ners. Whether he did well in fixing upon the period of Offianmanners, may be doubted. The diction ufed by Mr. Macpherson's heroes and heroines, though pleafing in an epic poem, would, perhaps, found but ill on the ftage. The ideas, the customs, the religion, and the allufions are too remote from the common conceptions of an audience who require a picture of life. By not confidering this point in due time, Dr. Delap encountered difficulties not eafily to be furmounted. Of the fable it will not now be neceffary to give a detail. The play was acted, and it has been for several months in the reader's clofet. In the conduct of the plot, the Author has aimed at that complication of incidents which produce furprize, and ftriking fituations. Some fituations, dramatic in their kind, he has been able to attain, but it must be owned, that when with his beft art he has reached the point, he there does not make a proper ftand, and rouze the paffions with that force which might be expected. This we fay with regret, because we often find a pleafing fimplicity, and the language of the heart, The ode in the 2d act may be given as a fpecimen of the Author's manner. Malvina has taken refuge in a fepulchral monument; and to entice her from thence, the tyrant causes the following lines to be fung,-with lute and lyre.' O D Sweet tenant of the tomb! E. Who, on thy fnow-white arm reclin'd, Ah why, in youth's gay bloom, Shroud that fair form, which might difplay In this fepulchral gloom! II. Mufic's enchanting lyre, Of power t' unbind the midnight spell; To melt with soft defire, She heeds not. From your cloud above, Oh, flafh it through the gloom In The catastrophe seems to be the rock on which the Author ftrikes. This has been the misfortune of many poets. An audience expects to fee a piece, after all its turns and revolutions of fortune, conducted to its final period by probable means. the play before us the event is romantic. ERRAGON, the injured hufband of MALVINA, meets CONNAL, the oppreffor; after fome bitter reproaches, they engage, and go off fighting. Malvina is left in all the agony of diftrefs. Expectation is raised for the event, when we are told by HIDALLAN, the follower of ERRAGON-" My royal master's dead."-Dead!-Erragon and Connal both are dead:-Furious they met, they fought, and both together fell, a mutual facrifice to mortal ire." This borders too much upon the improbable and the ludicrous. Dr. Trapp, in his tragedy of Abramule, tried the fame expedient, and he had the misfortune to make it pafs in fight of the audience. The Author of the Captives was not fo daring: he remembered his Horace; Segnius irritant animos demiffa per aurem, &c. But the fubterfuge did not avail. Laughter enfued, and laughter is a fatal enemy to the pathos of tragedy. But let it be remembered, that the diftrefs of Malvina, occafioned by this incident, is touched with a delicate hand. She is thus defcribed : Minla. All at once, Ere I beheld her near, with trembling hand Ne'er to rife more. On her dead husband. Bleft had been her fate No No team falls down her cheek; her eyes are fix'd And almost of a piece. Of this tragedy we fhalf only add, that if Dr. Delap had been affifted by a good critic at the rehearsal, the fault in the plot, that occafioned the downfal of his play, might have been avoided. A Garrick would have enfured fuccefs. The prologue and epilogue are both the production of Thomas Vaughan, Efq. In the former he does not seem to have exerted his talents. He thought it, perhaps, one of those pieces. that might depend upon the execution of a comic actor. The epilogue, fpoken by Mrs. Siddons, feems to be written com amore: It is an allegory well imagined, and in every line confiftent; the expreffion is neat, and the whole fo finished, that we hall prefent it to our readers : • At length our bark has reached the wifh'd-for fhore, • Dangers indeed-for who, in times like thefe, • Critics, like monfters, on each fide appear, To feize, to burn, to fink, and to destroy. 'What wond'rous chance our author should survive, Your partial favour ftill may fwell his fails, Though |