While gay Thalia's luckless votary, LAMBE*, 510 « As he himself was damned, shall try to damn. « Known by the name! unbounded be thy sway! << Thy HOLLAND's banquets shall each toil repay; « While grateful Britain yields the praise she owes, « TO HOLLAND's hirelings, and to Learning's foes. << Yet mark one caution, ere thy next Review << Spread its light wings of Saffron and of Blue, << Beware lest blundering BROUGHAM ** destroy the sale,

520

a Turn Beef to Bannocks, Cauliflowers to Kail. >> Thus having said, the kilted Goddess kist Her son, and vanished in a Soottish mist***.

The honourable G. LAMBE reviewed « BERESFORD'S Miseries, and is moreover Author of a Farce enacted with much applause at the Priory, Stanmore; and damned with great expedition at the late Theatre, Covent-Garden. It was entitled « Whistle for it. >>

** Mr. BROUGHAM, in No. XXV. of the Edinburgh Review, throughout the article concerning Don Pedro de Cevallos, has displayed more politics than policy: many of the worthy Burgesses of Edinburgh being so incensed at the infamous principles it evinces, as to have withdrawn their subscriptions.

It seems that Mr. BROUGHAM is not a Pict, as I supposed, but a Borderer, and his name is pronounced Broom, from Trent to Tay;---So be it.

*** I ought to apologise to the worthy Deities for introducing

carouse!

Illustrious HOLLAND!-hard would be his lot,
His hirelings mentioned, and himself forgot!
HOLLAND, with HENRY PETTY at his back,
The whipper-in and huntsman of the pack.
Blest be the banquets spread at Holland House,
Where Scotchmen feed, and Critics may
Long, long beneath that hospitable roof,
Shall Grub-street dine, while duns are kept aloof.
See honest HALLAM lay aside his fork,
Resume his pen, review his Lordship's work,
And grateful to the founder of the feast,
Declare his landlord can translate, at least*!

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a new Goddess with short petticoats to their notice: but, alas! what was to be doue? I could not say Caledonia's Genius, it being well known there is no Genius to be found from Clackmannan to Caithness, yet without supernatural agency, how was Jeffrey to be saved? The national « Kelpies, » etc. are too unpoetical, and the « Brownies » and « gude neighbours, (spirits of a good disposition) refused to extricate him, A Goddess therefore has been called for the purpose, and great ought to be the gratitude of Jeffrey, seeing it is the only communication he ever held, or is likely to hold, with any thing heavenly.

Lord H. has translated some specimens of Lope de Vega, inserted in his life of the Author; both are bepraised by his disinterested guests.

Dunedin! view thy children with delight
They write for food, and feed because they write:
And lest when heated with th' unusual grape,
Some glowing thoughts should to the press escape,
And tinge with red the female reader's cheek,
My lady skims the cream of each critique ;
Breathes o'er the page her purity of soul,
Reforms each error, and refines the whole*.

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Now to the Drama turn-oh! motley sight!
What precious scenes the wondering eyes invite!
Puns, and a Prince within a barrel pent**!
And Dibdin's nonsense yield complete content.
Though now, thank Heaven! the Rosciomania's
o'er,

And full-grown actors are endured once more;
Yet, what avails their vain attempts to please,
While British critics suffer scenes like these?

* Certain it is, her Ladyship is suspected of having displayed her matchless wit in the Edinburgh Review; however that may be, we know from good authority, that the manuscripts are submitted to her perusal---no doubt for correction.

** In the melo-drame of Tekeli, the heroic prince is clap into a barrel on the stage, a new asylum for distressed

beroes.

While REYNOLDS vents his « dammes, poohs,» and

<< zounds*, >>

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And common place, and common sense confounds?
While KENNY's World just suffered to preceed,
Proclaims the audience very kind indeed!
And BEAUMONT's pilfered Caratach affords
A tragedy complete in all but words **?
Who but must mourn, while these are all the rage,
The degradation of our vaunted stage?
Heavens! is all sense of shame, and talent gone?
Have we no living Bard of merit ?-none?
Awake, GEORGE COLMAN, CUMBERLAND, awake! 560
Ring the alarum bell, let folly quake!
Oh! SHERIDAN! if aught can move thy pen,
Let comedy resume her throne again,
Abjure the mummery of German schools,
Leave new Pizarros to translating fools;
Give as thy last memorial to the age,
One classic drama, and reform the stage.

* All these are favourite expressions of Mr, R. and prominent in his Comedies, living and defunct.

** Mr. T. Sheridan, the new Manager of Drury-Lane Theatre, stripped the Tragedy of Bonduca of the Dialogue, and exhibited the scenes as the spectacles of Caractacus.--Was this worthy of his sire? or of himself?

Gods! o'er those boards shall Folly rear her head
Where GARRICK trod, and KEMBLE lives to tread?
On those shall Farce display buffoonery's mask, 570
And Hook conceal his heroes in a cask?

Shall sapient managers new scenes produce
From CHERRY, SKEFFINGTON, and Mother GOOSE?
While SHAKESPEARE, OTWAY, MASSINGER, forgot,
On stalls must moulder or in closets rot?
Lo! with what pomp the daily prints proclaim,
The rival candidates for Attic fame!
In grim array though LEWIS' spectres rise,
Still SKEFFINGTON and Goose divide the prize.
And sure great SKEFFINGTON must claim our praise,
For skirtless coats, and skeletons of plays, 581
Renowned alike; whose genius ne'er confines
Her flight to garnish GREENWOOD's gay designs*;
Nor sleeps with «Sleeping Beauties. » but anon
In five facetious acts comes thundering on **,
While poor
John Bull, bewildered with the scene,
Stares, wondering what the devil it can mean;

* Mr. GREENWOOD is, we believe, Scene-Painter to DruryLane Theatre---as such Mr, S. is much indebted to him.

** Mr. S. is the illustrious author of the « Sleeping Beauty,» and some Comedies, particularly « Maids and Bachelors,> Baccalaurei baculo magis quam lauro digni.