ART. X. Diverfity. A Poem. By Della Crufca. 4to. 37 Pages. 2s. 6d. Bell. 1788. ON N the altar of Modern Poetry, Della Crufca has prefented feveral elegant offerings, which have been graciously accepted by the English Mufe. He is certainly a very pleasing writer of verfe; and if not entitled to the fplendid praife of fhining among his cotemporaries, velut inter ignes Luna minores, he muft, nevertheless, be allowed to poffefs thofe talents which authorife a writer in enacting his own laws. Great geniuses are to be confidered as fovereign princes, enjoying independent jurifdiction, and not to be fhackled and reftrained by the ordinances and decrees of each other. The creative mind is a law to itself, and fhould be permitted to mark its own way, and direct its own courfe. A fervile adherence to prescribed rules, efpecially in poetry, regardless of the circumstances which gave rife to them and the ends which they were to answer, is highly ridiculous, as well as inimical to improvement. In a multitude of inftances, we fhew our judgment by imitating the ancients; but imitation, even here, might be pushed too far; and our extreme partiality for their writings induces us to regard the laws, which they appeared to obferve, as nothing less than abfolute; and hence to enforce their observance in fuch a manner as muft damp genius and prevent originality of compofition. We therefore are as unwilling as Della Crufca (alias Mr. Merry) can be, to adopt Mr. Mafon's opinion of the regularity of Lyric poetry conflituting its merit; and, further, we think with him that the use of the STROPHE, ANTISTROPHE, and EPODE, might do very well formerly at Athens and at. Thebes, but having no analogy to our customs and manners, need furely never be introduced; unlefs in fome birth-day fong, when the accompaniment of dancing might be the means of exhibiting in a fair point of view the activity and grace of the lovely MAIDS OF HONOUR.' Thefe, therefore, are difcarded by him, and, in the poem before us, affuming a Pindaric privilege, Numerifque fertur Through the whole, we have accompanied him with pleasure ; and we venture to pronounce it, notwithstanding fome little faults, the production of a true poet. Our readers must not conclude, either from the title or the motto, that DIVERSITY is a wild rhapfodical effufion. It is a regu larly diverfified poem; in which POETRY (the vivifying Maid') is boldly sketched, under the influence and direction of Genius, With a defcription of GENIUS the poem commences: • 'Twas on a mountain's airy fpire, With eye that flash'd celeftial fire, That quench'd the dawn's expanding ray, Immortal GENIUS flood. Anon, his fapphire wings unfold With ample spread, and ftarr'd with beamy gold; A quiv'ring fhade of deeper blue. "Where Contemplation joys to trace "The claffic feature, and the form of sense, "And hail the MUSE SUBLIME, and PATRIOT ELOQUENCE, "O'er these white cliffs the wanders free, "His jet locks dripping with the vap'ry fhow'r, In the above, maniac RAPTURE, and jet locks, may be objected to; but, on the whole, the lines are beautiful; as, likewife, is the fucceeding defcription of POETRY: Lured by the voice, from folemn glade The vivifying Maid, Extatic POETRY, was feen To pace the upland green With many a curl luxuriant flowing, Cheeks with light purpureal glowing, That VARYING PASSION's force displays, HER SACRED SOUL'S ETERNAL LORD. That frolic PLEASURE fmiled to hear, WITH NAKED BREAST DEFIED THE WORLD!' 531 Nor is the painting of the scenery inferior to that of the Dras matis Perfona. Scarce was the myftic ftrain begun, When from his eaftern tent, the SUN And rear'd his creft fublime, THE PROTOTYPE OF TIME! How lovely then were NATURE'S CHARMS! Glitt'ring OCEAN never ending, Ruby ROCKS, and FORESTS bending, Bending to the lawns below, Where countless flow'rets countless tints beftow; Wide LAKES their lucid mirrors spread, Upon whofe banks the white flocks fed, Was her rival pow'r difplaying; O'er the fleek wave fhe bade a NUM'ROUS SAIL And tow'rs and column'd domes ufurp the skies ;- Hence the Muse regularly proceeds to exhibit her various powers, SIR JOHN HENRY MORE, Bart. who died in the year 1780, at about the age of twenty-five. His true poetical powers cannot be better proved than by the following lines, which he wrote to a Lady, a few months before his death, being then in an evident decay: "If in that breast, so good, fo purë, The cause I must not-dare not tell. Pity the forrows I endure, The grief that on my quiet preys, That rends my heart, that checks my tongue, I fear will last me all my days, But feel-it will not last me long." The defcription of Affectation has great merit; and there are fome lines in it which Pope would have been glad to own; but we do not approve of Affectation being mafculine, nor of the following line: And then the witty wink, and he he! he!' Toward the end, we are obliged to adopt a reading of Peter Pindar's (Pozzi for Piozzi) to get rid of a redundant fyllable; but these are spots which are fo loft in the light of the whole, that, perhaps, they will not be obferved unless viewed through the fmoaked glass of criticism. Moo-y. ART. XI. Mary, Queen of Scots, a Tragedy: as performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. By the Honourable John St. John. 8vo. pp. 76. 1s. 6d. Debrett. 1789. T HE Prologue to this Tragedy concludes with these four lines: Too long hath virtue blush'd at Mary's name, The play exhibits an evident partiality to the character of Mary, yet never attempts to impeach the received history of the reign of Elizabeth; fo that the expectation raised, is by no means fatisfied and indeed the Prologue and Epilogue, though, in point of writing, each has merit, both proceed on a falfe principle. English audiences have never been adverfe to hiftorical dramas, nor impatient of a violation of the unities. Without thinking of Horace, they demand that the characters fhall be fuch as tradition has taught them to expect; and the fuccefs of the piece refts on the choice of the fubject, and the manner in which it is treated. The ftory of Mary Queen of Scots is not new to our ftage; and we will not fcruple to pronounce that it has been more happily treated by Banks in his Albion Queens*, than by the author of the tragedy now before us. The incidents are more judiciously felected and arranged, the characters are delineated with more variety and spirit, and the language is, with all its faults, more warm and animated. Banks, it is true, often indulges himself in extravagant fallies of rhyme and fuftian; yet there are in his dialogue many happy fpeeches, and many touches of true poetry. The conflicts of nature and politics in the breaft of Elizabeth, He was author likewife of the well-known tragedy of The Earl of Effex. the the emotions of love and royalty in the bofom of Mary, as well as the affections of the Duke of Norfolk, together with the difcovery of the confpiracy of Babington, and the figning of the death warrant by Elizabeth, are fo well imagined and executed, that we are tempted to believe that an able alteration of the play of Banks would produce a valuable addition to our dramatic catalogue. The fubje&t has engaged us in a comparison between the rival efforts of Banks and the Hon. Mr. St. John; and that the reader may, in fome meafure, judge for himself, we will lay before him parallel fcenes from each writer. In the first Act of The Albion Queens the following fpeeches compofe part of the series of dialogue between Elizabeth and the Duke of Norfolk : "Q Eliz. Nay, were you Duke of all your fancy'd world, Your head as high as your afpiring thoughts Confefs 'tis frenzy, fo go home and fleep, But take this caution, Sir, along with you- Nor. If to proclaim the innocence of her Who has no liberty to do't herself, Be fuch a crime, take then this life and honours, But while I live, I'll fhout it to the skies, Whilst echo anfwers from this ball of earth, Queen Mary's wrong'd, Queen Mary's innocent. Hence from my fight be gone, be barish'd ever. You'll hear my meffage firt from the fad Princess. Nor. Here is a letter from that guilty fair one; 2 Eliz. Before I read it you may speak, my Lord. Her dearest fifter Queen Elizabeth! 2. Eliz. It is. Nor. But had you feen her write it, with what love, 2. Eliz Alas! what mean'ft thou, Norfolk? Go to the Queen, perhaps upon her throne, For |