June, 29, table method of confuming it, where it is to be kept very late, is, I am ftill convinced, to cut off the tops with a scythe or fickle, when from one foot to eighteen inches high, to induce it to send out fresh ftems, that willcontinue foft and fucculent to the end; whereas, without this process, the stems would become sticky and useless. I cannot, however, recommend this kind of turnip, from what I have yet feen, as a general crop, because I think it probable, that unless in particular circumftances, the common field turnips grow to a much larger fize, and afford, upon the whole, a more weighty crop. These, therefore, should fili continue to be cultivated for winter use, the other being re ferved only for fpring confumption. Experiments are ftill wanting to afcertain with certainty the peculiar foil and culture that beft agree with this plant; but from the few obfervations I have hitherto had an opportunity of making upon it, it seems to me probable, that it thrives better, and grows to a larger fize on damp clayey foil, than on light fandy land. But I would not wish to be underftood as here fpeaking pofitively; I merely throw it out as a hint for future obfervation; on fpungy foil it profpers. Though the ufes of this as a garden plant, are of much fmaller confequence than thofe above-specified, it may not be improper to remark, that its leaves form a very fweet kind of greens at any time; and, merely for the fake of the experiment, I caused fome of these to be picked off the ftems of the plants coming to feed, on the 4th of June, the King's birth-day, which, on being readied, were found perfectly fweet, without the smallest tendency to bitternefs, which moft, if not all other kinds of greens that have been hitherto cultivated are known to acquire, after their ftems are confiderably advanced; no family, therefore, can ever be at a loss for greens when they have any of this plant in feed. A root of this kind of turnip was taken up this day (June 15th); the feed ftalks were firm and woody, the pods full formed, and in some of them the feeds were nearly ripe. The root, however, was as foft and fucculent as at any former period of its growth; nor was the skin, as I expected, hard or woody. It was made ready and brought to the table; fome perfons there thought the taste as good, if not better, than at any former period of its growth; but I myself, perhaps through prejudice, thought it had not quite so high a relish as in winter: At any rate, however, there can be no doubt that, if ever it could be neceffary, it might, even now, be employ, ed very properly as a feeding for cattle. J. A. Remarks on fore English Plays, continued from Ximena, or the Heroic Daughter; a Tragedy, by Cibber. Tuis play is below criticism. Bufiris King of Egypt, a Tragedy, by Young. THIS, I do think, is the most abfurd and ridiculous tragedy in the whole of Monfieur Bell's Collection of the beft English Plays; and it is written by the great (as they call him) Doctor Young. It is, however, hardly more eminently extravagant and outré, than another tragedy, much admired by the many, and written by the fame author, viz. The Revenge . What an audience! that failed to damn this play at the first hearing: Yet it lives to this day, at the diftance of half a century, in Bell's Collection of Choice English Plays. And we are told, is yet acted with applaufe on the London ftage. The epilogue has some merit. The Drummer, a Comedy, by Addison. I intend to have this piece taken into a volume of bad plays by good authors, in which Sir Richard Steele's Tender Hufband should have a place, if I can find it. Amphitryton, or the Two Sofias; a Comedy, altered from Dryden, by Hawkefworth. THIS I fhall have bound up with Addifon's Drummer, as a bad play by a good author; with allowance, in this case, that the modern reformer has made it worse ¶. Eurydice, a Tragedy, by Mallet. ARTIFICIAL poetry, laboured language, and romantic love, are too remote from nature and Shakespeare to please me; yet they commonly gain a temporary applause from the fond many, and uninformed igno *To this lift, our critic might have added THE BROTHERS. In one fcene, Dr. Y. introduces Perfeus imitating a paffage in Macbeth; but the imitation is attended with fome very ridiculous circumftances., If Hawkefworth falls behind Dryden, the latter is at leaft as much inferior to Plautus. In the original Latin, there is a long and very pleasing prologue, and the defcription of a battle, in the very first feene of the play, has little to fear by a comparifon with Epic poetry. Of Plautus, a tran flation has been published, under the name of the late Mr. Bonnel Thornton, and another gentlman. It fills no less than five large octavo volumes, Had their book retained the bold and lively text, it must have been of value. The pretended verfiou is in blank verfe, and intolerable. rance continues to admire. The epilogue was no doubt received with great applaufe. "We are fuch stuff "As dreams are made of.". The Merry Wives of Windfor, a Comedy. Ir there was nothing in Falstaff's character, as our critics defcribe it, but "rodomantades, lies, and jollity," "Queen Elizabeth would never have defired a continuation of it. But her judgment difcerned higher qualities in it, a great measure of fhrewd fenfe, and incomparable humour. A continuation of the fame identical character in this play, without flattening in the least, is an amazing proof of the frength of Shakespeare's genius. Aureng-Zebe, a Trajedy, by Dryden. This is by far the beft rhyming play in the English language; yet though it has beauties, it has many abfurdities. I give great credit to Dryden for the elegant encomium upon Shakefpeare, and his full confeffion of great inferiority in his own dramatic talents. The lines which I refer to, are in the prologue, and are fo just and beautiful, that I fhall take leave to infert them. "But spite of all his pride, a fecret fhame "Invades his breast at Shakespeare's facred name: "The firft of this, and hindmoft of the laft." The poetry is fine, cafy, and agreeable; but there is fomething ab furd, romantic, and fantastical, in a great part of the love, that is to jay, in a great part of the play. Shakespeare never thought of love in this extravagant fashion. "And from the dregs of life think to receive Such as the following couplet: Dara, the eldeft, bears à GEN'ROUS mind, "But to implacable revenge INCLIN'D."、 The lines that follow, are worthy of a place in the fublimeft page of Lucretius or Juvena "When I confider life, 'tis all a cheat; Yet fool'd with hope, men favour the deceit; 1 «"I'm tir'd with waiting for this chymic gold, Which fools us young, and beggars us when old. It is a pity that Dryden could not have feen the third volume of Colonel Dow's work, as that volume is, perhaps, the most pathetic and interefting histerical com, fition now extant, The fate of this very Dara is, in particular, irrefiftibly affecting. There is another book, intitled, Memoirs of Eradut Khan, tranflated by Captain Jonathan Scott, and printed in 1786, which contains an account of the last year of the reign of Aureng-Zebe. Some letters written by that great monarch, a fhort time before his death, are inferted, and contain a noft humiliating leffon to the masters of mankind. Thefe works have not acquired, ia almost any degree, the approbation they deferve; and Mr. Gibbon has gone out of his way, to incer at Colonel Dow. But if Mr. Dryden had ever feen either of them, he would at, once have difcovered the richest materials for tragic poetry. Ifabella, or the Fatal Marriage; a Tragedy, altered from Southerne, by Hopkins. ALL. or great part that is original of this play, is admirable. The fable is fimple, probable, and very interefting. The language is pure and proper; the characters well diftinguished and maintained, and the poetry is in fome paffages delightful. I fee no modern quaintnefs, affectation, raving, or bombaft; but there are fo many laboured abfurdities in the last act, that I fufpect the modern managers have tampered with it." 1 Creufa Queen of Athens, a Tragedy, by William Whitehead, Efq. THERE is fomething very singular in this play. The poetry is good, the language is pure and proper. There are in it no extravagant unnatural flights, no romantic love, no modern bombaft. I can hardly find fault with any particular part of it, yet I cannot much appland the whole. Plays written for a Private Theatre, by W. Davies. News, The Malady; a Comedy, in three As. The Generous Counterfeit, a Comedy, in five As. I have fome favour for this author, on account of his good intentions to reform a taftelefs age, and entertain us with fpecimens of genuine comedy. I read on till my patience failed, and till I was quite convinced of his inability to furpass other modern dramatic writers. He talks of Moliere as a pattern of excellence, without any measure of his happy genius. He damns, and justly, our modern dramatic writers, without difcovering fuperior talents. In place of a pleasant and eafy imitation, he falls, like other modern comic writers, into a ftudied affectation of nature. He is as fantastical in his inftructions to the players, as either Mr. Bayes or General Burgoyne. Where he means to be either witty or pathetic, he is utterly infipid; and particularly in the abfurdity of invented names to his Dramatis Perfonæ, he outdoes even our modern farce writers. Of this 1 fhould fet down fome inftances for a monument, but indeed every one of them is remarkably foolish and affected. To do him juftice, he has not much of the quaintnefs and outré which predominate and pafs for wit and fpirit in this age, and perhaps for that reafon, he has failed in the favour of the managers of our public theatres. Travellers may find amusement in a tranfient perufal of his novelties. The Gameflers, a Comedy, by Shirley. THIS, upon the whole, is an excellent comedy. Though the characters, in general, are loofe, there is no indecency in it. The plot is interefting, well wrought, and the catastrophe is highly moral. The dialogue is proper and unaffected. The characters are judiciously distinguifhed and fupported. There is no forced wit, the bane of modern comedy and taste; and the humour is natural, characteristic, and entertaining. The evident falling off in fome parts, I afcribe to modern alteration; but I cannot exactly determine, till I have compared it with the original, which I am very curious and inpatient to do. ON the adjournment of Parliament, it was the Editor's intention to have begun the account of the proceedings of that auguft body, according to the plan he had adopted: But perceiving that there were only a few numbers wanting to finish the prefent volume, it was judged more advifeable to delay it till the commencement of the next volume.-In the first number of that volume, therefore, that account will be begun, and continued through the fucceeding numbers, till it shall be completed. Some of the bufinefs that was begun at a very early period of the Seffion having not concluded till the adjournment, war the reafon why this department could not fooner be over taken. |
