1828.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



425 



had ingenuity enough to cover defects, and 

 give a plausible appearance even to absur- 

 dity. According to him, Moses was the 

 author of Job which is about as probable 

 as that Adam was. 



Notwithstanding all that we have been 

 detailing, he has left behind him transla- 

 tions of the Proverbs and the Psalms quite 

 ready for the press and even with direc- 

 tions for the printers. The volume before 

 us contains some scores of specimens of his 

 poetry, written on all sorts of occasions 

 generally in the worst taste possible, some 

 of which, however, Dr. Nathan Drake, we 

 think it is, considers " excellent imitations 

 of the Horatian Epistolary style and man- 

 ner" God wot ! 



We have just discovered a note more 

 labours. He was, it seems, the author of the 

 Millenium, in three cantos, a satirical poem. 

 For some years he contributed largely to 

 Dodsley's Annual Register, taking, Dr. G. 

 believes, the entire department of natural 

 history and philosophy, of general literature, 

 and of poetry and belles-lettres. He also 

 assisted Mr. Woodfall in the arrangement 



of the materials in his edition of Junius's, 

 Letters, 1812, and in investigating and 

 balancing the claims of different "indivi- 

 duals to the authorship of those extraordi- 

 nary productions." 



So much for Dr. Mason Good; if we 

 underrate him, let him have the benefit of 

 Olinthus Gregory's wind up 



In short had he published nothing but hia 

 Translation of Lucretius, he would have acquired 

 a high character for free, varied, and elegant 

 versification, for exalted acquisitions as a philoso- 

 pher and as a linguist, and for singular felicity in 

 the choice and exhibition of materials, in a rich 

 state of critical and tasteful illustration. 



Had he published nothing but his Translation 

 of the Book of Job, he would have obtained an 

 eminent station amongst Hebrew scholars, and the 

 promoters of brilliant criticism. 



And had he published nothing but his Study of 

 Medicine, his name would, in the opinion of one 

 of his ablest professional correspondents, have 

 " gone down to posterity, associated with the 

 science of medicine itself, as one of its most skil- 

 ful practitioners, and one of its most learned pro- 

 moters." 



MONTHLY THEATRICAL REPORT. 



THE fortune of physicians was said by 

 Johnson to be so curiously capricious, "that 

 their history would make an excellent book." 

 But what is the fortune of physicians to that 

 of actors the fortune of men who take 

 years to rise, or be ruined to that of men 

 who may do either in a month ? The close 

 of the last Drury Lane season saw Kean on 

 the verge of being undone. Unpopularity, 

 in every shape, was hanging over him, 

 pressing under him, crushing round him, 

 like the fields of ice round the polar expedition. 

 Unlucky newspaper correspondences, family 

 quarrels, public avowals, and official speeches 

 from the stage, consigning him to the very 

 Hopital des Fous, seemed to have put an 

 end to this clever and very singular person. 

 When, lo ! within a little month, or ere 

 those shoes were old in which he walked out 

 of Drury Lane to exile and oblivion, he 

 starts upon the world again, fresh and fierce 

 as ever a young serpent, with his old 

 slough cast off, and rearing his new crest, 

 and shining in his new colours a giant, 

 refreshed with wine a racer, sleek and 

 strong, to carry off every plate Kean, every 

 inch Kean, again. 



We are extremely glad of this turn of 

 affairs, for his sake, that of the public, and 

 that of the theatres. He is a powerful actor, 

 whose place could not be filled up hastily. 

 The public have not so many attractions on 

 the theatrical boards that they can dispense 

 with any ; and Covent Garden, indepen- 

 dently of the vast personal interests con- 

 nected with its permanency, our old attach- 

 ment to this admirable place of scenic 



M.M. New Series VOL. V. No. 28. 



beauty and skill, and the public gratifica- 

 tion, for which it has so long and so largely 

 provided, is essential to the well-being of 

 the whole profession of the drama. Mono- 

 poly, odious in all things, is ruinous in the 

 theatre ; and humble as the stage now is, 

 it would be down in the dust the day that 

 saw either of the winter theatres without a 

 check and a rival. 



Kean's performances, during the season, 

 have grown in popularity ; and his last has 

 been his most popular. But what a work 

 is that last! " Othello" the richest, most 

 poetical, and most empassioned piece of 

 writing that ever came from human genius ! 

 " Macbeth" has more dramatic activity, 

 splendour, and variousness of character ; 

 " Hamlet" more of that solemn depth of 

 thought that wraps the man like midnight, 

 and gives its living agents something of the 

 supernatural and mysterious dignity of beings 

 belonging to another world ; " Lear" has 

 more of the fiery eloquence and daring gran- 

 deur of human nature, exasperated to the 

 highest pitch of noble wrath, scorn, and in- 

 dignation ; but " Othello" lays open the 

 solitary heart as it was never laid open be- 

 fore. It strips every fibre, shews it to us 

 palpitating, and penetrates, from depth to 

 depth, into the startling wonders of our 

 frame. 



It is high praise to the actor to be able to 

 give any representation that can personify 

 this marvellous embodying of our nature in 

 agony ; and it is Kean's highest praise that 

 the Moor is his best part. But, by adding 

 to his performance those of Kemble's Cassio, 



3 I 



