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And Literary Museum:

OR, WEEKLY MISCELLANY OF FINE ARTS, ANTIQUITIES, AND LITERARY CHIT CHAT. By Ephraim Hardcastle.

No. XXXIV.]

A stamped Edition for Country Circulation, postage free, Price Tenpence.

EXHIBITION OF THE WORKS OF THE ITALIAN,
FLEMISH, DUTCH, AND ENGLISH SCHOOL,
BRITISH INSTITUTION.

[SIXPENCE.

In this collection are some splendid Rembrandts, a few choice cabinet sea pieces, by Vandevelde; some esteemed whole lengths by Velasquez and Vandyke, some splendid; two or three Ruysdaels, and a few well VARIOUS have been the opinions as to the motives known and deservedly prized specimens of other maswhich have influenced the governors of this Institution ters; but estimating the whole collection, in compato make their annual display of the paintings by the rison with others which we have seen occupying the old masters, during the exhibition of the works of the same spaces, we cannot say that this is by any means living masters at the Royal Academy. Some have of the first order either in interest or value. Indeed not hesitated to insist that the plan originated in a there are many pictures which have scarcely a claim desire to excite invidious comparisons at the expence upon our admiration, or that would do credit to any of modern art. Others, ascribe it to the pompous gallery. We noticed several that owe more to a ambition of certain individuals to make a public dis-mysterious effect acquired by time, by repeated cleanplay of their treasures in art, whilst there have beening, and frequent varnishing, than to their superior those who from the first, applauded the scheme, under merit; and others, which having been fretted and rubbed the conviction that it arose purely from a desire to im- into a state of blackness and obscurity, pass with the prove public taste. We are decidedly of the latter opinion. prejudiced for marvellous productions, in proportion Whatever may have moved the original promoters as they are not understood. In short, although there is of the scheme, of this we feel assured, that the general much that surpasses all praise, there is as usual a much interests of artists and the arts, have increased from greater display of accomplished execution than high the period of the opening of the first collection, even feeling-and nothing to induce us to draw general to the present hour. comparisons to the disadvantage of the best labours of our own school.

We attended with our accustomed fervor, the private view of this gallery, on Tuesday last, and as usual were delighted on finding ourselves again surrounded with pictures of the celebrated schools of old. The mental banquet provided within these walls, is a feast which never tires. We took a hasty survey aroundand felt a renewal of our veneration for all the great names, thus recorded by their own surpassing hands.

It was our intention to have entered into a critical examen of some of the features of this collection, but we must postpone it, for want of room, to a future opportunity.

Wrapt in admiration as we were in being thus surrounded by the various excellencies of this display of the talents of so many great artists of old, yet we could We entered the gallery with veneration for genius not avoid indulging in our reflections upon the unacdeparted-we quitted it with feelings of congratulation countable predilection which our nobility and people on the thought, that we have contemporary genius, of of rank evince, for thus accumulating these ancient which we may justly be proud,-and could not but paintings, almost to the exclusion of every picture contemplate the times to come, when future genera-wrought by a living hand, however great may be their tions shall behold some of the works now displayed on the walls of the Royal Academy-when age has done as much for them, as for these, that shall excite equal veneration and delight!

Time clothes things of the past with a poetic charm, entirely abstracted of the value or merit of the object we admire. A temple in ruins, is far more sublime, to those who gaze upon it now, than it could have appeared to those coeval with its pristine beauty; and that costume, and locality of circumstance which af fects us not in the pictures of our own day, shall be contemplated hereafter, with all the interesting associations inseparable from antiquity, and when the pictures which we now behold fresh from the artist's study, shall be meliorated, and toned down by the growing improvements of an hundred and fifty years.

VOL. II.

merits abstractedly, or even in comparison with these justly esteemed works.

These reflections obtrude themselves upon Our thoughts, on reading the long list of names of their respective proprietors, as printed in the catalogue, from the certain knowledge, that almost every contributor to this collection, possesses a gallery of these works-and that many hundreds of thousands of pounds within a very few years have been expended in procuring them, during a period when the annual productions of our own school, supplied by contemporary talent, afforded so much that had equal claims upon the admiration of the collector of works of art.

We are enthusiastic admirers of these great masters, but our admiration is untainted with that fanaticism, which shuts out of its prescribed pale, all that is wor

LONDON, MAY 29, 1824.

thy, great, and excellent, because it is not clothed in
the garb of antiquity. We freely confess that antiquity
has a powerful charm upon our taste that we love
antiquity for its own sake, and that our predilections
run strong in this current; but we should feel shaine
indeed, could we discover that our prejudice in favor
of these examples of the genius of olden times, should
render us indifferent to similar emanations of genius,
because they were contemporaneous. Yet, on perceiv-
ing, as we do, that so much is constantly expended on
these old paintings, and so little on those which are of ||
recent date, and yet in truth no less estimable, we can-
not refrain from an expression of our surprise, at such
a prevailing spirit of unjust retribution, in an age
which so universally boasts its superior sense of moral
obligation.

Were the same spirit opposed to modern literature, which has so long prevailed against the pursuits of this art, how different had been the fate of our living authors! Were it the fashion to read none but black letter books, what would it avail the genius of the living to write? Who would buy the modern volume? Yet with our illustrious collectors of pictures, the comparison has a bearing; for, for every thousand pounds that has been bestowed on the encouragement of living talent from the period when the art of painting in many departments had attained to a rivalry in our own school, with those of the past, fifty or even an hundred thousand has been supplied for the importation of ancient works!

who behold his sylvan compositions in ecstacy, was reduced to quit the genial pursuits of landscape, to supply vanity with a likeness of itself!

Romney, whose Birth of Shakspeare-to use the cant of dilletantiship, is now immortalizing the painter with the mighty poet-was beholden to a print-seller, for this developement of a talent, obscured by portrait || painting—and which in the more inventive department of art, would have raised him to the skies!

So with Reynolds, the pride of the English school; had he not sagaciously chosen the path he did to fortune, he might, perhaps, have laboured on in poetic poverty, and starved himself into future fame. Yet did their contemporaries, as do their posterity, affect to contemn portrait painting, and talk loudly to the professors of the great and grand in art!

It is now the fashionable theme with those who would be thought to preside in the direction of the interests of art, to enlarge upon the great plans for a national gallery. Mr. Richard Payne Knight, say these enlightened personages, has left a collection to add to this proposed gallery, to the value of sixty thousand pounds! This magnificent bequest, and Mr. Angerstein's collectionand Sir George Beaumont's contribution-and what His Most Gracious Majesty will supply, will doubtless be followed up by augmentations from others influenced by these splendid examples. But what then? We look forward, as well as these great personages to the glorious display, with rich anticipations of a treat. We wish to see a national gallery still more grand than that of the famed Louvre, in its boasted day-but not to the exclusion of the English school, nor at the expence of that living talent, which is daily adding so much to the honours it has already achieved, by the joint exertions of its members.

One apartment in this display is appropriated to the works of the English school. In this we behold many fine compositions, by our native artists, yet but a small portion of what could be gathered together of equal worth, which are now equally esteemed, valued, and sought by the collector, as treasures of art: but their ingenious authors are no more. Those noble peers, That the formation of a national gallery of the the progenitors of our noble peers, who have contri. paintings of the old masters would greatly tend to buted to stock this gallery,-were the contemporaries improve the public taste, no one, at all conversant with of those great artists, but they too were collectors of art, would attempt to dispute; for it is only to the gethe works of those that had lived before, and gene-neral diffusion of knowledge in these elegant pursuits, rously left their successors to appreciate-what they had not sense enough to feel, or virtue enough to reward-the living genius of their day.

that the vast increase of professors in all the fine arts can look for support. But if age is to succeed age, in paying none but posthumous honors to genius, of what col-benefit will be the general knowledge thus acquired, to those ingenious men, who whatever excellence they may display in their various pictorial compositions, shall address their talent to those who are determined to appreciate pictures only for their age, for qualities not within the scope of genius to give.

We heard certain noble peers, and others, great lectors, enthusiastic in their admiration of Hogarth, Wilson, Gainsborough, Reynolds, and Romney. Wilson they compared to Claude. That Wilson, whose noble mind upheld his hand to paint for the applause of posterity, in an age that suffered him to pine neglected-without a patron, and to die in obscurity and want!

To those who are not sufficiently learned in art, to be superior to prejudice, the old pictures will always Hogarth too, he of whom all would boast, and whom seem to inherit certain qualities without which a paintnone would serve, was constrained to sell, to one who ing cannot be of sterling value; although these qualiknew naught of art, his incomparable series of paint-ties be fallacious tests of excellence. That solemnity of ings of the Marriage a-la-Mode-for one hundred tone which pervades many of the Italian, and even pounds! Flemish pictures—such as we occasionally behold in the Gainsborough, whose landscapes are the daily theme landscapes of Dominichino, Poussin, Ruysdael, and of a thousand new coined eulogies, from the great-Claude, as if seen through the medium of old green

glass; or that glowing splendour that is spread over the lights, in the mysterious effects of Rembrandt, and some others, as though viewed through a transparent golden varnish; or that vitrified appearance, and admired thinness, that peculiar texture to which custom has affixed so high a value, are the effects of time and accident, and are not uncommonly as remote from the intentions of, and were as unforeseen by the painters, to whose works they have added so much excellence in the eyes of certain connoisseurs, as they are contrary to nature, or those views of art, which it was the object of these esteemed painters to display. Could the old masters behold many of their best labours, thus changed by time, we venture to assert they would not know them, and were they to witness the rapture with which they were admired by many of the cognoscenti, with all that time and smoke, repeated cleaning, and varnishing, glazing and picture doctoring, had taken from, or added to their pristine state, they would feel indignant at the artifices of picturecraft, and smile at the ignorance of those to whom it had been so successfully addressed.

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What is really estimable in certain works of the old schools, is too well established to leave a doubt of the superior genius and talent of many of the great masters, who will be venerated by posterity, as long as time shall spare even a glimmering of their compositions upon canvas, which their wondrous pencils adorned: but that blind bigotry which receives every incoherent legend from these schools, for the true gospel of art,|| should be exposed, as it tends to pervert, rather than to create good taste, and impedes the legitimate study of painting by misleading the student, in his endeavour to imitate what is vague, questionable, and imperfect, on the fallacious authority of an illustrious name, instead of studying nature from his own perceptions of art, by which the really illustrious men of old acquired their well-earned fame.

Nothing in practice can be more erroneous than to labour to make a newly painted picture assume the obscurity of effect, and pitchiness of tone, which is so prevalent in many works painted two centuries ago. There are certain effects of colouring, too, on many pictures in this and other collections of celebrity which could be pointed out, that have been wrought by the arts of picture craft, namely, by the secret application of glazing with transparent pigments upon various masses, darkened by time, which had lost their original glazings by repeated cleaning, and which by modern substitution, adds that deep, gem-like character, which neither existed in the pristine state of the picture, nor can be deemed compatible with the true principles

of art.

Such practice, however, cannot be urged but by prejudice and presumption; for the deeply skilled in the philosophy of painting know, that the finest works of the greatest colourists of old, however gorgeous in tone, assumed no more than a representation of nature, on

that glowing autumnal scale, which is rich and deep enough for all the highest purposes of this delectable art! There are some cabinet sea-pieces by our favourite Vandevelde in this collection, which are pleasing specimens of his pure and masterly imitations of nature. These are wrought from so simple a palette, that with his clean and beautiful execution, they have the appearance of being as easily accomplished as though he had been drawing on paper with sepia or Indian-ink. There is a coolness and a freshness pervading the works of this master, so much of daylight, that notwithstanding their general grey hue, the most splendid coloured pictures may surround them without the least detracting from their merits: for in whatever collection his best works appear, the eye is delighted in searching them out. Indeed they convey the same pleasure to the senses which is felt on opening a window and inhaling the exhilarating freshness of a breeze from the sea. Teniers and Vandevelde diffuse a cheerfulness to every picture gallery. These masters must have been most careful in the preparation of their pigments, and have been choice in the selection of their tools. To talk of vehicles no longer known, which enabled the Dutch and Flemish masters to execute so delicately, and masterly withal, is naught but an apology for idleness. The entire secret lay in the careful preparation of their pigments: they were levigated to a smoothness, and consequent freedom of working, in comparison with, which the colours used by the generality of our contemporaries, is as shingle to sea sand, or sand to wheaten flour. Were these incomparable masters living in our time, they could not copy their own works half equal to their own execution, with our miserably prepared colours. Backhuysen's "Thunder Storm" makes an imposing feature in this exhibition. The compositions of this admirable marine painter, though much more studied than those of Vandevelde, are yet not so faultless: there is generally something to be found in his pictures which will not bear the test of severe criticism, although every one of his finest works display the highest powers, either in execution, chiaro-scuro, or design. Nothing that we remember to have seen in this class of painting ever united the grand and the awful without an effort of the poetic in composition, more effectively than this. The clouds have so much the appearance of reality, that we cannot but feel the study for the sky of this picture was a complete imitation of nature. The vessels appear in actual motion, and the waves are composed with such identity of form, and are wrought with such a commanding style of execution, that we are surprised at the powers that could thus describe so magnificent a scene. Yet, when this vigorous composition is considered with reference to the true principles of art, we find that it is mannered in its way. The boldness of the design, the truth with which each object is drawn, the felicitous execution stand confessed in every part; but the colouring is not equally true to nature, the tout ensemble of the picture is black.

"A man of War, in a Gale;" a View of Amsterdam, in the distance, is another capital piece by this master. The shipping well grouped, and the water, in which he excelled, represented with great truth. This, and the preceding composition, are on a large scale, and may be esteemed amongst the finest productions of the master.

"The three Portraits," No. 53, 54, and 55, on the west side of the north room, by Vilasquez, are grand specimens of the style of this great artist. The dogs are worthy of

Rubens or Snyders.

"Landscape and Figures," by Gaspar Poussin, is a composition, so rich in herbage, so sequestered, and so well felt, that it would serve as a school in itself, for the study of the picturesque. Landscape, with a Fall of Water," No. 59, by Ruysdael, is equally pictorial. It is nature pourtrayed with the hand

66

of a master, and an excellent subject for the contemplation of the student in landscape.

"Landscape, with a Corn Field," by the same, is a delightful peep at the back of a village; one of those scenes which captivates from its rural charm. This picture is an illustration of what we have observed in a former paper, that the vicinity of every homestead, or humble farm, remote from a great city, affords ample scope for the landscape painter. He need not seek for rocks and mountains, deep woods, and expansive lakes, for the exercise of his pencil. The most humble, the most artless scene is sufficient theme for imitation, provided he has a due knowledge of his art, and feeling to represent nature, as she appears in her own garb. Philip, the Fourth of Spain, on Horseback," No. 32, by Vilasquez, cannot fail to delight all those, who are sensible to the charms of colouring and effect. There is an intensity of tone in this little picture, a gem-like, inherent rich- || ness, which cannot be described in words. It must be seen to be duly felt.

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"Moonlight," by Vanderneer, No. 23, is enchanting in effect. The moon reflected in the water is bright and luminous, and yet as pure in colour, as the orb thus seen in nature dancing on the wave.

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who cannot ima zine any other motive for our visits to that country, than a preparation for hostile invasion, or a search after treasures among the ruins of antiquity, and whose suspicions of this nature are of course most strong in the provinces which, like Asia Minor, are the least frequented by us. If the traveller's prudence or good fortune should obviate all these difficulties, and should protect him from plague, banditti, and other perils of a semibarbarous state of society, he has still to dread the loss of health, arising from the combined effects of climate, fatigue, and privation; which seldom fails to check his career before he has completed his projected tour. Asia Minor is still in that state in which a disguised dress, an assumption of the medical character, great patience and perseverance, the sacrifice of all European comforts, and the concealment of pecuniary means, are necessary to enable the traveller thoroughly to investigate the country, when otherwise qualified for the task by literary and scientific attainments, and by an intimate knowledge of the language and manners of the people.”

Colonel Leake has brought together in the volume before us, the results of his own travels, together with all that is correct and useful in the volumes of former travellers. The preface contains a notice of the different works which he has placed under contribution, and also the aids which have been furnished him in the construction of the very elaborate matter which accompanies his volume.

"The Water Doctor," by Teniers, No. 67. The great Johnson regretted that his illustrious friend Reynolds should have been constrained to trust the record of his genius, to the frail memorial of painting. Had the philosopher seen the works of Teniers, he might have spared himself the reflection. In this admirable little picture, we have the thoughts of the painter, as fresh as they emanated from Colonel Leake's travels date as far back as the year his mind, and were thus transmitted to the canvas. Teniers 1800. We are not aware that the character of the peowas master of the arcana of the palette. So was Wouver-ple, or the appearance of the country has undergone mans, and many others of the old Flemish and Dutch any material change, and his account of both therefore schools. When the pigments are carefully combined with that pure menstruum, which is no secret with the painters of will even now be perused with interest. Not far from the present day, we should aver, considering the thinness Constantinople, he met a Mollah, whose mode of traof the covering surface, that nothing was more imperishable velling appears to be pleasant enough:than paint. This picture is as vivid, and pure as the hour it came from the easel.

(To be continued.)

REVIEWS.

Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor, with comparative Re-
marks on the Ancient and Modern Geography of that
Country. By WILLIAM MARTIN LEAKE, F. R. S. &c.
London: Murray. 8vo. 1824.

COLONEL LEAKE is already known for a treatise on the language, and some sketches of the topography of Modern Greece. The present is a more comprehensive and useful work on another quarter of the Eastern regions. We have no complete description of Asia Minor. The difficulties in the way of travelling in that country, have hitherto prevented any one from giving a full and accurate account of it. These difficulties are thus detailed :

"In Asia Minor, among the impediments to a traveller's success, may be especially reckoned the deserted state of the country, which often puts the common necessaries and conveniences of travelling out of his reach; the continual disputes and wars among the persons in power; the precarious authority of the government of Constantinople, which rendering its protection ineffectual, makes the traveller's success depend upon the personal character of the governor of each district; and the ignorance and the suspicious temper of the Turks, who have no idea of scientific travelling;

"We met a Mollah travelling in a Taktrevan, lounging upon soft cushions, smoking his Narghile, and accompanied by splendidly-dressed attendants on horseback. His baggage horses were loaded with mattresses and coverings for his sofas; with valises containing his clothes; alarge assortment of pipes; tables of copper, cauldrons, saucepans, and a complete batterie de cuisine. Such a mode of travelling is undoubtedly very different from that which was in use among the Turks of Osman, and Orkhan. The articles of the Mollah's baggage are, probably, for the most part, of Greek origin, adopted from the conquered nation in the same manner as the Latins borrowed the arts of the Greeks of a better age. In fact, it is in a great degree to Greek luxuries, with the addition of coffee and tobacco, that the present imbecile condition of these barbarians is to be ascribed; and Græcia capta ferum victorem cepit," applies as well to the Turk as it once did to the Roman; for though Grecian art in its perfection may be degraded by a comparison with the arts of the Byzantine Greeks, yet in the

scale of civilization, the Turks did not bear a higher proportion to these than the Romans did to the ancient

Greeks."

The descriptions of the towns and country are almost too antiquarian and learned for general perusal. Some of them are drawn up with great variety and extent of research, and must be studied rather than read. Occasionally a less classical manner is adopted, and as these occasions are very rare, we will give one extract as a specimen :

"At Konia we are comfortably accommodated in the house of a Christian belonging to the Greek church, but who is ignorant of the language, which is not even used in the

church service: they have the four Gospels and the Prayers printed in Turkish. At the head of the Greek community is a Metropolitan bishop, who has several dependent churches in the adjacent towns. As it is now the moon Ramazan, when the Turks neither take nourishment nor receive visits till after sunset, we are obliged to defer our visit to the Governor of Konia till the evening. He is a Pasha of three tails, but inferior in rank to the Governor of Kutaya, who has the title of Anadol-Beglerbeg, or Ana- || dol-Valesi, and who has the chief command of all the Anatolian troops when they join the Imperial camp. Our visit, as usual among the Turks, was first to the Kiaya, or Deputy, and afterwards to the Pasha. The entrance into court of the Serai was striking; portable fires of pine-wood placed in a grating fixed upon a pole, and stuck into the ground, were burning in every part of the court-yard; a long line of horses stood ready saddled; attendants in their gala-clothes were seen moving about in all directions, and trains of servants, with covered dishes in their hands, showed that the night of a Turkish fast is a feast. The building had little in unison with these appearances of gaiety and magnificence, being a low shabby wooden edifice,|| with ruinous galleries and half-broken window frames; but it stands upon the site of the palace of the ancient sultans of Iconium, and contains some few remains of massy and elegant Arabic architecture, of an early date. The inside || of the building seemed not much better than the exterior, with the exception of the Pasha's audience-chamber, which was splendidly furnished with carpets and sofas, and filled with a great number of attendants in costly dresses. The Pasha, as well as his deputy in the previous visit, received us with haughtiness and formality, though with civility. The Pasha promised to send forward to Karaman for horses to be ready to carry us to the coast, and to give us a travelling order for konaks upon the road. After passing through the usual ceremony of coffee, sweetmeats, sherbet, and perfumes, which in a Turkish visit of ceremony, are well known to follow in the order here mentioned, we return to our lodging. Nothing can exceed the greediness of the Pasha's attendants for Bakshish. Some accompany us home with mashallahs, (the torches above-mentioned,) and others with silver wands. Soon after our return to our lodgings, we are visited by a set of the Pasha's musicians, who seemed very well to understand that after our fatigues we shall be glad to purchase their absence at a handsome price; but no sooner are they gone than another set make their appearance; the Kahweji, the Tutunji, and a long train of Tchokadars: and these being succeeded by the people of the town, who come simply to gratify their curiosity, it is not till a late hour that we are at liberty to retire

to rest.

The circumference of the walls of Konia is between two and three miles, beyond which are suburbs not much less populous than the town itself. The walls strong and lofty, and flanked with square towers, which at the gates are built close together, are of the time of the Seljukian kings, who seem to have taken considerable pains to exhibit the Greek inscriptions, and the remains of architecture and sculpture belonging to the ancient Iconium, which they made use of in building their walls. We perceived a reat number of Greek altars, inscribed stones, columns, and other fragments inserted into the frabric, which is still in tolerable preservation throughout the whole extent. None of the Greek remains that I saw seemed to be of a very remote period, even of the Roman Empire. We observed in several places Greek crosses, and figures of lions, of a rude sculpture; and on all the conspicuous parts of the walls and towers, Arabic inscriptions, apparently of a very early date. The town, suburbs, and gardens around are plentifully supplied with water from streams, which flow from some hills to the westward, and which to the north-east join a lake, varying in size according to the season of the year. We are informed, that in the winter and

after the melting of the snows upon the surrounding mountains, the lake is swollen with immense inundations, which spread over the great plains to the eastward for nearly fifty miles. At present there is not the least appearance of any such inundation, the usual autumnal rains having failed, and the whole country labouring under a severe drought. The gardens of Konia abound with the same variety of fruit-trees which we remarked in those of Isaklu and Ak-shehr; and the country around supplies grain and flax in great abundance. In the town carpets are manufactured, and they tan and dye blue and yellow leather. Cotton, wool, hides, and a few of the other raw materials which enrich the superior industry and skill of the manufacturers of Europe, are sent to Smyrna by the caravans. The low situation of the town and the vicinity of the lake seem not to promise much for the salubrity of Konia; but we heard no complaint on this head; and as it has in all ages been well inhabited, these apparent disadvantages are probably corrected by the dryness of the soil, and the free action of the winds over the surrounding levels. The most remarkable building in Konia is the tomb of a saint, highly revered throughout Turkey, called Hazret Mevlana, the founder of the Mevlevi Dervishes. His sepulchre, which is the object of a Mussulman pilgrimage, is surmounted by a dome, standing upon a cylindrical tower of a bright green colour. The city, like all those renowned for superior sanctity, abounds with Dervishes, who meet the passengers at every turning of the streets, and demand paras with the greatest clamour and insolence. Some of them pretend to be idiots, and are hence considered as entitled to peculiar respect, or at least indulgence. The bazaars and houses have little to recommend them to notice."

The third chapter contains an elaborate illustration of the ancient geography of the central part of Asia Minor. The other chapters are devoted to the consideration of the geography of the rest of Asia Minor, and are absolutely crammed with quotations and references. None but a professional student can manage to get through them. As a matter of course there is a profound investigation into the site of Troy, and Colonel Leake agrees with Chevalier, Gell, Hawkins and others, that what is now Burnabashi was formerly Troy. The notes are equally learned and unreadable.

Colonel Leake's volume is in many respects a valuable one, but its value must be confined principally to the estimation of scholars. To all other readers it is a sealed book.

The Brides of Florence; a Play, in Five Acts, illustrative of the Manners of the Middle Ages; with Historical Notes, and Minor Poems. By RANDOLPH FITZ-EUSTACE. London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. 1824.

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THE author of this play informs us, in the preface, that is an effort at the renovation of the ancient drama." This is not a very precise expression, and we have not been able to understand it any better, even after perusing the work. To the ancient classical drama, it has no sort of resemblance, neither in form, materials, nor manner; and to the modern ancient-that is, the drama of Elizabeth's age-it is unlike in every thing but quaintness of phrase, and irregularity of plot. How far the "renovation" of these two qualities may be de

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