1823.] 



Literary and Critical Pro'emium, 



poet and the musician. The strain, if 

 not replete with excellence, possesses 

 a large portion of that quality, and (to 

 use its own opening words,) 'tis sweet 

 to hear. 



Fifth Fantasia, consisting of the most 

 favourite Airs from Mozart's Opera 

 ofLe Nozze di Figaro. Composed and 

 arranged for the Piano-Forte ; with 

 a Flute Accompaniment, by John 

 Piirkis. 3s. 



The work of which this is the fifth 

 number, forms one of those ptlblica- 

 tions which young piano-forte per- 

 formers practise with pleasure to their 

 ear, and improvement to their finger. 

 Without too much disturbing the ori- 

 ginal passages, Mr. Purkis (whose 

 performance of this piece on Flight 

 and Robson's stupendous organ, called 

 the Apolionicon, can alone give a just 

 idea of its excellence,) has thrown 

 many rich and beautiful heightenings, 

 which, while they evince his taste and 

 resources of imagination, indicate, not 

 darkly, his knowledge of the true cha- 

 racter of the instrument for which he 

 writes, and his manual powers as a 

 performer. 



THE DRAMA. 



Covent-Garden. — The general bill- 

 of-fare at this theatre, for the past month, 

 has been representations of Henry the 

 Eighth ; Love in a Village ; The Beg- 

 gar's Opera ; Romeo and Jhiliet ; and The 

 Comedy of Errors: in which dramas, 

 the talents of the company have been 

 powerfully displayed. The only posi- 

 tive novelty, however, has been that of 

 a farce, called The Duel, presented, for 

 the first time, on the 15th ult. ; the prin- 



163 



cipal characters in which were per- 

 formed by Messrs. Jones, Farren, and 

 Connor. The plot of this piece is so 

 humourously conceived, and some of 

 the characters are so original and 

 pleasant, that it only required the 

 previous aid of the pruning knife, to 

 have been as well redeived on its first 

 night, as it has uniformly been since. 



Drury-Lane. — At Drury-Lane,the 

 excellent performances of She Stoops 

 to Conquer ; The Halt of the Caravan ; 

 Richard the Third; Macbeth; The Mer- 

 chant of Venice; King Lear ; Guy Man- 

 nering ; Love in a Village ; Artaxerxes; 

 and Roh Roy Macgregor ; have at- 

 tracted crowded and brilliant audi- 

 ences ; and, aided by The Swiss Vil- 

 lagers ; The Agreeable Surprise ; Ex- 

 change no Robbery ; Old and Young ; 

 The Spoiled Child; and a new farce, 

 entitled. Deaf as a Post ; have sus- 

 tained the eclat and iiigh reputation 

 now enjoyed by this magnificent 

 concern. The company is the strong- 

 est ever known. Kean, Young, and 

 Cooper, in tragedy ; Elliston, Mun- 

 den. Knight, and Liston, in comedy ; 

 Braham, Stephens, Austin, and 

 Povey, in opera ; besides a fine Corps 

 de Ballet. 



The Oratorios of the present season 

 have commenced, under the manage- 

 ment of Bochsa and Smart. The prin- 

 cipal performers, Mrs. Salmon, Miss 

 Stephens, Mr. Braham, Madame Cam- 

 porese, Miss Hallande, Miss Goodall, 

 Miss Tree, and Signer Curioni, did am- 

 ple justice to the judiciously-selected 

 compositions brought together on the 

 occasion. 



NEW BOOKS PUBLISHED IN FEBRUARY : 



WITH AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL PROEMIUM. 



Authors or Publishers, desirous of seeing an early notice of their Works, are 

 requested to transmit copies befo7-e the \8th of the Month. 



"VJiT E would fain recommend to the atten- 

 ' ' tion of such of our readers as interest 

 themselves in the progress ot tlie improve- 

 ments that are making in the science and sys- 

 tems ofcducation, a thin octavo volume just 

 puhHshcd upon this subject, entitled, Plans 

 for the Oiirernmenl and Liberal Instruction 

 of Boys in large Numbers, drawn fiom Ex- 

 perience. The author has, in his preface, so 

 well and so concisely described both what 

 the object of his plan is, and what it is 

 not, that we cannot resist the temptation of 

 Iranscribing the entire pa»snge, " It it 



not to change the course of nature by 

 transmuting boys into little men. It is 

 not to enable our pupils to hide the 

 meagreness of their stock by the dexterity 

 with which they may display their wares ; 

 not to lead a boy to imagine that his edu- 

 cation is finished, because he has arrived 

 at a certain age ; not for him to suppose, 

 that to talk fluently caui be any excuse for 

 not thinking deeply ; or that manners may 

 be a succedaneum for conduct. We endea- 

 vour to teach our pupils the art of self-go- 

 vernment and self-education. So far from 

 luppoiing 



