No foe would he fight, and no friend would he fpare, But had ruin'd full many a score; His oaths and his curfes would make a mall stare That had never seen him before. His name it was Frank, and he daily would fin With ought in a woman's shape; [hand in, He made fhift with plain work to keep his But of all things he lov'd a rape. By cheating and pimping he gold would procure, And in law and in gaming would trick; But in fpite of his art justice hit him as fure As feven and eleven a nick. A damfel was found by this worthy Esquire, His will for to gain, he stopp'd her mouth hard, But he did not fo well ftop her mouth afterward, For as foon as this lafs from his clutches got: free For when back he was come he was had to the bar, The Recorder the crimes of poor rogues did report, Now, tho' Francis was fentenc'd, ftill further he tried, For his bribes would prevail he knew. "It is good to be taking," the Scottman he cried, And the Englishman cried fo too. When the 'fquire went to Newgate the prifon it rung, Of mourning for his fake. The gallows did make as comely a sight For by Francis Efquire, a knight errant there stood, A namefake he was to the bold Robinhood, The gallants to him were no better than fools That rob under the Greenwood tree. No door in the kingdom was fate from his tools, Nor cheft from his picklocks free. For right and for wrong not a foufe did he care, Of his betters if he got rid, And would handle a bishop more roughly by far, Than ever his namefake did. He would plunder the rich, and the poor would opprefs, Whofoever his will gainfaid; But the wrongs of a damfel would never redress, A boon, O my liege, a boon I crave, It is that your highnefs's grace would fave He deferves well a halter, the King then he faid, A good word in his life time he never yet had, "Tis no matter for that, quoth Sir Knighthood fo bold, For if that a rule fhould be, There are fome that your highnefs full dear doth hold, Might be hang'd as well as he. And blew three blafts with (peed, The loons of the North from fair Scotland they hied, As nimble as loons might be; And knights of all forts they were foon by his fide, And nobles of high degree. The baldricks of fome were of reddish hue, Full gorgeous for to be feen, And the colours of fome as the ikie was blue, These merry men foon to their business did fall, A pardon, a pardon, they cried one and all, A pardon, a pardon, our liege then he said, But now, tho' poor Frank had his life thus obtain❜d, So Bob gives a petition up with his own hand, A boon, O my liege, a boon once more, It is that your highnefs to Frank would reftore, Thy poems; and as far as we know it has never appeared in print. The heroes of the tale were Sir RoBERT WALPOLE, and the notorious FRANCIS CHARTRES who hath been “damn'd to fame" by Pope and Arbuthnot. CHARTRES was tried for a rape and found guilty; but received a pardon from George the Second. Sir Robert was accufed of having interfered in this unworthy business in a manner not to his credit. How far the accufation was right is not easily to be determined. It at leaft afforded a handle to the Tories and Jacobites to load that minifter with additional calumny; of which this ballad is a fufficient proof. We were favoured with the original manufcript of this fong, in the hand writing of SAM. WESLEY, from a correfpondent, whofe productions have frequently entertained our readers. Bishop Atterbury. Thy requeft, fays the King, it is worse and worse, Frank did not deferve to live, [purfe, Would thou have me be picking another man's The goods are not mine to give. "Tis no matter for that, quoth Sir Bob, I suppose→→→ Many precedents may be shown, I have purchas'd my grandeur, as all the world knows By giving what was not my own. Tho' my enemies fwear I should die by a string, I value them not of a straw. Yet methinks on my fide in this cafe, fays the King, The law, by my honour, quoth Bob, I forgot, For the lawyers fo learned muft judge what is what; At Robin's third whiftle the lawyers they flew Their hearts and their tongues were as honeft and true As lawyers are wont to be. Quoth Frank, a strange fcruple as man did e'er fee That he cannot restore my goods unto me ODE On the death of a Lady's Canary bird. Paffer deliciæ meæ puellæ. CATULLUS G O, gentle fongfter, and repeat Thy notes amid the Elylian bow'r, On thee, would lovely Chloe tend: She deeply mourn'd thy hapless end. May'ft thou, fweet favourite, ever find The blifs that flows from joy ferene: Some future miftrefs halt as kind, With balmy cafe in every scene. Know, warblers of the feather'd train, And ye, whofe plume each tint fupplies, Though like Amphion's were your train, Though like the rainbow's were your dyes; Know, every boaft too foon will fail, Nor proudly hope fuch charms can fave, When Chloe's fighs could nought avail, To fnatch her favourite from the grave! On feeing Mr. SIDDONS in the characters of ISABELLA and the GRECIAN DAUGHTER. By the Rev. Mr. PULLEIN. Quoth the council full grave, to the beft of our skill, IN vain through SIDDONS powers we strive to Thy caufe is as good as thy fee; And his highness may rob whomfoever he will, Provided he give it to thee. But which got the better, the wrong or the right, Our ballad no further doth fing, Tho' if it be wrong you muft thank the blue knight, And if it be right the King. Ad Celeberrimum SAMUELEM JOHNSONUM, LL. D. Criticorum facile Principem, nec non Poetarum Angliæ Annalium, Operis præter exemplum tum utilis tum elegantis AUCTOREM. LIM ut Longinus provecta ætate virefcens Suftinuit Vatis vim, Criticique vices: Sic tibi, docte fenex, almæ virtutis amice, Judicium eft critici, vatis et ufque furor. Arbiter ingenii, morum vindexque fidelis, Victor, ut Entellus, jam vetus, arma geris' More aquila, Solem tu carminis afpicis audax, Fulgores inter fufca notare potens. Obductas nubes nati eripiebat ocellis Alma Venus, clarum reftituitque diem: Mufarum a nebulis fic purgas regna malignis: Et tenebræ mentis, te radiante volant. Numine, tu facis, ut Phoebus propiore fecundet, Pieridumque chorus ferveat igne novo. Te duce, multa levat juvenum furfum aura poetam, Unde puer lucis fumina pura bibat. Lectis lector ovat-vires qui carminis auctas Et veneres fentit, te retegente, novas. Aternent alios Vates-fed tu optime judex Vatibus æternum fcis aperire decus *. trace, The actor's craft, the falfe or borrow'd grace, When fond affection views its pledge of love, But foon, distracting scenes alarm her heart- Still nobly foaring in dramatic fame, Hail Nature's artift-born to bear controu The reader may fee the original verfts of Mr. Tafker, in our Magazine for 1781, page 545 + See page 228. Well tried through many a varying year,` See LEVET to the grave defcend! Officious, innocent, fincere, Of every friendless name the friend. Yet still he fills affection's eye, Obfcurely wife, and coarfely kind: Nor letter'd arrogance deny Thy praife to merit unrefin'd. When fainting nature call'd for aid, And hovering death prepar'd the blow, His vigorous remedy difplay'd The power of art, without the show. In Mifery's darkest caverns known, The toil of every day supplied. His virtues walk'd their narrow round, The fingle talent well employ'd, The bufy day, the peaceful night, Unfelt, uncounted, glided by: His frame was firm, his powers were bright, Then with no throbs of fiery pain: STANZAS ON FRIENDSHIP. Occafioned by the Author's receiving a Poetical Epiftle from a Friend. In the manner of Shenftone's Paftoral Ballad. W How refreshing the breath of the morn! THEN night difappears in the west, By zephyr's foft pinion embrac'd, How fragrant the dew-fpangled thorn! How tuneful the nightingale's ftrain He leaves ev'ry toil of the day! So delightful the numbers that flow From Friendship's affectionate heart: So pleafing her bloifoms that blow Spontaneous, and blamelefs of art. O Friendship, behold I prefume With my Delon to vifit thy fane: Our fouls with thy fpirit illume; Nor let us invoke thee in vain. We will come to thine altar, and bring LOND. MAG. Sept. 1783. "May they love thee, and feel thee beguile "May thy bold exhortation infpire "They will love thee, and with thee abide, "Thine elect; and thy holy behefts "Are their law: and thy truth is their guide; "And thy tenderness reigns in their breasts." N. INSCRIPTION on a chamber flove in the Shape of an urn, invented by Dr. Franklin, and fo contrived that the flame, instead of afcending, defcended. a Newton fublimely he foar'd To a fummit before unattained; With a fpark that he caught from the skies And we faw with delight and furprise Oh! had he been wife to purfue The path which his talents defign'd, But to covet political fame Was in him a degrading ambition; A fpark which from Luciter came, And kindled the blaze of fedition. 234 LITERARY REVIEW. ARTICLE XVI. FATAL Curiofity: A true Tragedy. Written by George Lillo, 1736. With Alterations, as revived at the Theatre-Royal, Haymarket, 1782. 8vo. Cadell. 1783. THIS tragedy has long been cele brated as a model of dramatic excelfence. Mr. Harris, in his Philological Inquiries, difplayed its merits with great critical abilities; and to the juftnefs of his account readers of every Mr. Colman, clafs have fubfcribed. however, whofe acumen afforded us fuch ample scope for commendation, in his tranflation of Horace's Epifle to the Pijos, now fteps forth again, as a critic; and, with his ufual candour and penetration, points out a material ertor in Mr. Harris's fentence with regard to this tragedy. 'The correction of this mistake by Mr. Colman forms part of a puftfcript, which is fubjoined to this play; and as it gives the original ftory, from which Lillo derived his plot, we fhall tranfcribe it, for the entertainment of our readers. POSTSCRIPT. Though the Fatal Curiofity of LILLO has received the applaufe of many found critics, and been accounted worthy of the Græcian ftage, and (what is, perhaps, ftill higher merit) worthy of Shakespeare! yet the long exclufion of this drama from the theatre had in fome measure obfcured the fame of a tragedy, whofe uncommon excellence challenged more celebrity. The late Mr. Harris, of Salisbury, has endeavoured, in his PHILOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, to display the beauties, the terrible graces, of the picce, and to do juftice to the memory of LILLO. His comment is in general juft; yet he feems to have given a sketch of the fable from an imperfect recollection of the circumftances, without the book before him. He appears to have conceived that the tragedy derived its title from the curiofity of Agnes to know the contents of the casket: but that LILLO meant to mark by the title the FATAL CURIOSITY OF Young Wilmot, is evi dent from the whole fcene between him "The comment of Mr. Harris, is, If any one read this tragedy, the author of thefe Inquiries has a requeft or two to make, for which he hopes a candid reader will forgive him-One is, not to cavil at minute inaccuracies, but look to the fuperior merit of the whole taken together-Another is, totally to expunge thofe wretched rhimes, which conclude many of the fcenes; and which, 'tis probable, are not from LILLO, but from fome other hand, willing to conform to an abfurd fafhion, then practifed, but now laid afide, the fashion (I mean) of a rhiming conclufion.'-Philological Inquiries, vol. i. p. 174. "The prefent Editor thought it his duty to remove, as far as he was able, the blemishes here noticed by Mr. Harris; and he, therefore, expunged the rhiming conclufions of acts and scenes, except in one inftance, where he thought the couplet too beautiful to be difplaced. Some mim to inaccuracies of ̧ language he alfo hazarded an attempt to correct; and even in fome measure to mitigate the horror of the cataftrophe, hy the omiffion of fome expreffions rather too favage, and by one or two touches of remoife and tendernefs. Agnes is most happily drawn after Lady Macbeth; in whofe character there is not perhaps a finer trait, than her faying, during the murder of Duncan, Had he not refembled My father as he flept, I had don't!' "The story on which this tragedy is founded, is, I believe, at prefent no where extant, except in a folio volume, printed in the year 1681, and entitled The Annals of King JAMES and King CHARLES the First. Both of happy memory. The period included in thefe Annals is from the tenth of James, to the eighteenth of Charles. They are published anonymously, yet are generally known by the name of Frankland's Annals. The author places this tragical event in the Annals of the year 1618, and relates it in thefe words: The miferable condition of finfui man, in fundry examples of thefe prefent and of former times, fhould mind us hourly to beg of God preventing grace, left we fall into temptations of fin and Satan; fuch have been the caJamities of ages paft, at prefent are, and will be to come; hiftories of theft, rapine, murther, and fuch like. One of wondrous note happened at Perinin in Cornwall, in September, a bloody and unexampled murther, by a father and mother upon their own fon, and then upon themselves. He had been bleffed with ample poffeffions, and fruitful iffue, unhappy only in a younger fon; who taking liberty from his father's bounty, and with a crew of like condition, that were wearied on land, they went roving to fea; and in a fmall veffel fouthward, took booty from all whom they could master, and fo increafing force and wealth, ventured on a Turks-man in the Straits; but by mifchance their own powder fired themselves; and our gallant, truiting to his fkilful fwimming, got afhore upon Rhodes, with the best of his jewels about him, where offering fome to fale to a Jew, who knew them to be the Governor's of Algier, he was apprehended, and as a pirate fentenced to the gallies amongst other Christians, whofe miferable flavery made them all ftudious of freedom; and with wit and valour took opportunity and means to murther fome officers, got aboard of an English fhip, and came fafe to London, where his Majefty and fome fkill made him fervant to a chyrurgion, and fudden preferment to the Eaft-Indies; there by this means he got money, with which returning back, he defigned himself for his native county, Cornwall; and in a small ship from London, failed to the weft, was caft away upon the coaft; but his excellent kill in fwimming, and former fate to boot, brought him fafe to fhore; where fince his fifteen years abfence, his father's former fortunes much decayed, now retired him not far off to a country habitation, in debt and danger. "His fifter he finds married to a mercer, a meaner match than her birth promifed; to her at first appears a poor ftranger, but in private reveals himself, and withal what jewels and gold he had concealed in a bow-cafe about him: and concluded that the next day he intended to appear to his parents, and to keep his difguife till the and her husband should meet, and make their common joy compleat. Being come to his parents, his humble behaviour, fuitable to his fuit of cloaths, melted the old couple to fo much compaffion, as to give him covering from the cold feafon under their outward roof; and by degrees his travelling tales told with paffion to the aged people, made him their gueft fo long by the kitchen fire, that the hufband took leave and went to bed, and foon after his true stories working compallion in the weaker veffel, the wept, and fo did he; but, compaffionate of her tears, he comforted her with a piece of gold, which gave affurance that he deferved a lodging, to which he brought him, and being in bed fhewed her his girdled wealth, which he faid was fufficient to relieve her husband's wants, to fpare for himfelf; and, being very weary, fell faft afleep. The wife, tempted with the golden bait of what the had, and eager of enjoving all, awaked her hulband with this news, and her contrivance what to do; and though with horrid apprehenfion he oft refufed, yet her puling fondnefs (Eve's inchantments) moved him to confent, and rife to be master of all; and both of them to murder the man, which inftantly they did, covering the corpfe under the clothes, till Hh 2 oppor |