1832.] The Amphitryon, ofPlaulus. 331 



Mercury now tells Amphitryon that Amphitryon is in doors with Alc- 

 mena. The baffled general cannot understand the matter at all, and at 

 last grows quite wild and frantic, and exclaims 



Ye gods ! what madness has possessed our house ! 



Jupiter and Amphitryon are at last confronted, and the result is such 

 as we have detailed in the account of the plot. 



The original play of Plautus would, we think, suffer little, if at all, 

 from a comparison with its more famous antitypes. Those scenes, on 

 which it would have been indecorous to enlarge, Plautus has managed 

 with considerable delicacy and grace, while his English imitator has been 

 far from scrupulous as to the extent to which he has carried the subject. 

 Moliere is much more polished and refined than Dryden in those parts 

 where polish and refinement are most difficult to attain. These are 

 qualities that would hardly be expected from the rugged Plautus ; who, 

 however, notwithstanding his antiquity, has been called " the glory 

 of the Latin language ;" and has obtained, by the simplicity of 

 his style, and the pointedness of his wit, the name of " a tenth muse, 

 a sort of law in the Roman language ; the garden of the muses and of 

 the graces ; the most excellent master of elocution; the most ingenious 

 and most polished of poets ; the Latin syren ; the author of elegance ; 

 and the father of jests, of sports, and of fine pleasantry." 



These four plays the Latin of Plautus ; the Italian of Lodovico 

 Dolce ; the English of Dryden ; and the French of Moliere, may be 

 considered as a sort of barometer of the character of the different ages 

 and nations in which they were written. In Plautus, we see the early 

 rudeness and warlike zeal of the ancient Romans in Dolce, the dark 

 intrigues of the Italians, and the perpetual intermeddling of priests and 

 sacerdotal functionaries in private affairs in Dryden, the lasciviousness 

 and libertinism which disgraced the reign of the second Charles and 

 in Moliere, the polish and finesse of the luxurious court of Louis le 

 Grand. 



NATURE AND BOOKS. 

 A REFLECTION, WRITTEN AFTER LOOKING ON A BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPE. 



FROM spots like these the mind at length returns, 

 Laden with truth and images serene, 

 Into itself ; and the quick spirit learns 

 To hive the honied pleasure of the scene, 

 Turning its own sad waste to pathways green, 

 With varying visions chequered and o'erhung 

 Bright Memories of some immortal Mien, 

 Where earlier Art her richest hues had flung, 

 Or by the Minstrel's lyre in purest praises sung. 



The Beings of our Books ! to these we turn, 

 The bright magicians of our mortal years ; 

 Stars of the soul, when clouds its light inurn 

 Glimpses of joy amid o'ershadowing fears ; 

 Ethereal exorcists of earthly tears 

 That gush not from our clay, but spring like dew 

 Forth from the spirit's fount whose water clears 

 The sullied Life and strengens it anew, 

 Tinging the proudest heart with Pity's heavenly hue. 



B. 



Z2 



