the catastrophe, it appeared altogether unfit for the stage. In this rude ftate the Editor prefented it to the Manager of Covent-Garden Theatre, who received it with candour, and at a convenient opportunity read the play with him, and agreed to bring it on the ftage, when the neceffary alterations, to fit it for the scene, should be made. In confequence of this agreement, the Editor confulted his literary friends, under whofe advice, and by whofe affiftance, he has been enabled to give it to the world in its prefent form.

"He is aware that, as the Tragedy now ftands, it is still liable to critical objections. He is confident, however, that every reader of taste will find infinitely more room for praife than cenfure. The alterations have been made with the greateft deference to the Manufcript of the Author; additions were avoided as much as poffible, and it has been the chief aim of the Editor, by neceffary tranfpofitions and abridgments, to make Savage mend himself.

"The approbation Sir Thomas Overbury has received in the Theatre, is the best proof that the Editor and his friends were not mittaken when they thought the Tragedy bore strong marks of genius."

That this tragedy bears the marks of genius, we do not deny; but we cannot help conceiving that thofe marks are horribly marred by our Editor and his literary friends. It would have been fome fatisfaction to us, alfo, in being thus pofitively affured, that this play is written by Savage, to know by whom, and on what authority, this affurance is made; the author of the above advertisement, as well as the Editor, being here hainelefs. It is true, that in the dedication to Mr. Colman, this fame anonymous editor rejoices at having an opportunity to boast a circumftance fo flattering to his vanity, as the honour of his, the faid Mr. Colman's, friendship. It is an aukward way of complimenting a patron, however, for a man to boast his friendfhip, while he conceals his own name. It looks as if the poet was either afhamed of the patron, or the patron of the poet. But be this as it will, we conceive the public have a right to farther fatisfaction in this point; the authority of Mr. Colman's fhame-faced friends not beifig fufficient, with ns, to ftigmatize the memory of Savage with fuch a miterable mutilation of his firft play.

This modeft Editor is "confident, however, that every reader of tafte will find infinitely more room for praife than cenfure." But if this be the cafe, we muft give up all our pretenfions to taffe, as we find it quite otherwife. Not that we think Savage fpoiled his own play; but we conceive, that our Editor and his literary friends (the more cooks the worfe broth!) have, by their alterations, tranfpofitions, and abridgements, totally failed in endeavouring to make him, as they fay, mend himfelf. Such a botching, cobbling piece of work, indeed, we hardly remember to have met with, except in Colman's alte

ration

ration of King Lear; in which he has attempted, in like manner, to make Shakespear mend himfelf. The prefent Editor, indeed, is juft as little able to draw the bow of Savage, as his patron that of our immortal dramatist.

Savage, it is true, was not the greatest play-wright of his time; he had however fome dramatic genius, and his ftile was animated and poetical. Of this there are many beautiful and fpirited inftances in the play of Sir Thomas Overbury, printed in Savage's works; whereas, in the piece before us, moft of thofe poetical allufions are omitted, while the lines retained or fubftituted are mean, flat, and profaic.

Of the bufinefs of the piece we fay little, as its effect is beft judged of from the theatrical reprefentation. Some fcenes of the former play, however, are rejected, and fome tranfpofitions made, which to us appear improper and unartful; but whether these things are to be imputed to Savage or his' menders, we cannot fay. Our readers will probably fimile at a fpecimen or two of the mending of thefe theatrical botchers. In the third act of Savage's firft play, Overbury, in his altercation with the counteis of Somerfet, makes ufe of the following fimile:

Oh! that my words, like the fun's powerful rays,
Were with attraction arm'd-'till, from your break,
This flood of frailty rofe, exhal'd in fighs,

Or flow'd away in ftreams of foft repentance.

We do not altogether approve of the allegorical continuation of the above metaphor in the original; but what shall we fay to the Editors and Emendators, who leave out entirely the natural image which gave propriety to it, viz. the fun. In the new play, therefore, the allufion becomes obscure, and the whole little better than ftark nonfenfe!

"Oh! that my words were with attraction arm'd,
'Till from a confcious breaft and confcious eye,
The flood of frailty rofe exhal'd in fighs,

Or flow'd away in streams of foft repentance.

In the expoftulation between Overbury and Somerset in the laft act, Savage's firft play, the following fimple and pathetic declaration comes from the latter:

"Over. Why-dost thou repent it?

Som. Repent it, faid you?

Oh! I could rave!-but, 'tis too late a penitence, For I have wrong'd thy friendship and undone thee. Now mark the mending:

"Som.

Repent it, faid you?

I must a tale unfold-no-spare my tongue, I dare not-
Confiding friendship turns me into dread,

Unmanly dread! In you, alas! 'twill change

T.

To wrath, rebuke, to distance, to distrust;

To hate, revenge, or worse-to just contempt.

At the clofe of Somerfet's conference with Northampton, in the third act, on the approach of Overbury, Somerset, in Savage's play, makes the following_fhort foliloquy:

Som. 'Tis death to meet him!-yet I cannot ftir.

Behold how his poetical Emendators have mended or have made him mend hiinfelf here:

“Som, folus. My angry breaft, like wounds that ach at air, Sore-fhrinking at his lightest breath, will fmart; While he, unconscious of my hate, has peace.

'Till then I fuffer what I mean, his doom,

And feel, felf-punifh'd, all the pangs he merits.

And yet the Emendators could leave out the following beautiful fimile, borrowed from Dryden, in the countess of Somerfet's reprehenfion of Northampton:

Thus while a lover talk'd my Somerset,

His words fell Joft like bov'ring flakes of fnow,
And in cold tremblings melted on my boom.

But now, alas!

The character of Overbury is, in Savage, thus concifely and mafterly delineated by Somerfet :

"Som. Greatly you wrong him! I have found him tender

As first-made mothers to their erring infarts.

Firm to his prince and faithful to his country;

A braver fubject England never boasted,

Nor man a nobler friend than Overbury.

This delineation of character is feebly fpun out in a number of flimzy lines, in the following dialogue in the new

play:

"To my Overbury's breaft, my foul

Can in the private or public fcene,

Pour out her frail or better part; to him
As free and fate as to the lonely rock

Or defart plain.

His friendship ne'er indulged one fav'rite fault;

It shares, it heightens ev'ry virtuous pleasure,

And ministers to every care a comfort.

Northamp. We foon may fee him reach the Statefman's fphere;

But rather, I fufpect that one like him,

Whofe genius runs imaginary rounds,
May, in the Mufe's fairy land, erect
Romantic schemes, but in the State, bewilder.
Son. Who most bewilder there, are who abstract
Their felfish int'refts from the gen'ral good.
Not thus the man the Mufes call their own:
Him no mean lucre bribes to partial views,
He knows from nature's equitable rules,
To temper jultice and enforce the laws;

Knows

Knows for the public fafety, feats of arms;
Gives gen'rous arts and fciences to bloom:
Tells commerce how to circulate her streams,
And how to fence 'em from invading foes.
'Tis bis to boast from elevated fpirit,
Freedom of thought to form enquiring candour,
Freedom of fpeech to check encroaching pow'r,
And kindle glorious jealousy of rights.

The welfare of mankind is firft his aim;
Next of his country; laft of all, his own*.
Northamp. But in fuch men, could eminence of virtue,

If fuch be his, create fo many foes?

She's honour'd;

Som. Yes, eminence of virtue draws more foes
Than eminence of vice. Virtue is oft
Unhappy, therefore friendlefs; vice holds fortune;
And fortune, when 'tis ber's has friends.
This object of difdain has homage-vest
Virtue with opulence and por: each juft,
Each great, each frugal, libʼral act of goodness,
Envy mifconfirues finifter intent,

"Till private malice fpread in general clamour,
And end in excellence difgrac'd or murder'd.

We do not pretend that Savage's original play can boaft great excellence; if it could, it were here moft inhumanly difgraced and murdered indeed! We, therefore, think it but juftice to his memory, that the prefent Editor and his literary friends fhould publish not only their own names, but the play of Savage, as it came into their hands. Not but that this may be imperfect enough. It is well known, that, towards the clofe of his life, the Poet's judgement, as well as genius, was confiderably impaired. Granting, therefore, that he did leave a re-written copy of this play, this revival of it argues very little judgement or genius in those who have taken the trouble to dig it out of its merited obfcurity. W.

A short account of the prefent Epidemic Cough and Fever. In a Letter to Dr. De la Cour. at Bath. By William Grant, M. D. 8vo. 6d. Cadell.

Dr. Grant conceives the cough and fever, here treated of, to have been fo completely difcuffed by Sydenham, that he does little more than repeat that phyfician's defcription and mode of treatment.

**

*A kind of retrograde order, if, as the Poet fays, felf-love and focial be the fame; the greateft cofmopolite being the firft and best friend to himfcif. Friend, parent, neighbour, firft he will embrace

His country next, and next all human race. Rev.

An Efay on the Peftilential Fever of Sydenham, commonly called the Gaol, Hofpital, Ship, and Camp Fever. By William Grant, M. D. Author of the Obfervations on Fevers. 8vo. 3s. fewed. Cadell.

Dr. Grant defcribes this fever much in the fame manner as Huxham does the putrid and malignant fever; confidering it firft as fimple, and afterwards as it is complicated with inflammation, putridly, &c. He diftinguishes, hower, the putrid from the gaol fever; which fome writers will have to be one and the fame.

**

De Arthritide Primigenia & Regulari, Gulielmi Musgrave, M. D. apud Exonienfes olim Practici, Opus Pofthumum, quod nune primum publici juris facit Samuel Mufgrave, M. D. Authoris Pronepos. Svo. 2s. 6d. Londini, Elmfly. Oxonii,

Prince.

Dr. Mufgrave, the author of this treatife, has been dead upwards of fifty years. Some time after his deceafe, we learn, this tract was printed at the Clarendon prefs: though, from various accidents, its earlier publication has been prevented. The author hath treated his fubject in a manner, by no means derogatory to his reputation in the medical world; although we conceive that many of his brethren of the faculty will not readily give into his affection, that the Gout is frequently communicated by coition.

*

The Genius of Britain, to General Howe, the night before the Battle at Long-Ifland. An Ode.

4to. 6d. Sewell. This ode reprefents the Genius of Britain repairing to Gencral Howe's tent

"With eyes that wept, and cheek of clay” to wish him fuccefs and fing him a war-fong on the eve of the aforefaid battle. Our Genius is remarkable for nothing fo much as his loyalty; which is better by half than his being merely poetical. One piece of information, however, he gives us; which is, Lord Chatham was

"Once a Sun, now scarce a Star,
"By whofe mean ambition fed

"Roars the brazen throat of War."

May the brazen throat of war feed on fuch flender diet till it be ftarved, fay the Reviewers: not that they very clearly con ceive what kind of provender the mean ambition of a ftar is; unless indeed the poet means one of thofe failing stars, which are mere vapours not a whit better than a difh of blanc-mange, or Mrs. Glais's moonshine,