MISCELLANEOUS. 



697 



which is the edition in my posses- 

 sion, extending to 153 essa3's. 

 The Observer, in six volumes, ap- 

 peared in 1798; in 1803, it was 

 incorporated with the British Es- 

 sayists; and in 1808 it was re- 

 printed in three vols. 12mo. 



The essays which compose 

 these interesting volumes, may be 

 classed under the appellations of 

 Literary, Critical, and Narrative ; 

 Humorous, Moral, and Religious. 



To the Literary papers, which 

 amount to about forty in number, 

 we are indebted for the most ori- 

 ginal feature in the work. These 

 include, together with some ac- 

 count of the civil history of 

 Greece, a compressed and con- 

 nected detail of Grecian poetry, 

 from the earliest era to the 

 death of Menander. The re- 

 search has been particularly di- 

 rected to the remains of the Greek 

 dramatists, and more especially 

 to the writers of the Old, the 

 Middle, and the New Comedy. 

 Of these, the fragments, which 

 the desolating hand of Time has 

 spared, have been translated with 

 uncommon felicity by Mr. Cum- 

 berland, and merit the eulogium 

 which Mr. Walpole has so happily 

 expressed. The easy and flowing 

 metrical style of Fletcher and 

 Massinger furnished Mr. Cum- 

 berland with an appropriate mo- 

 del for his version, which he has 

 imitated with fidelity and spirit. 

 The patience and persevering la- 

 bour required for the due execu- 

 tion of this task, may be esti- 

 mated from the declaration of the 

 Observer, that it was his ambition 

 to give the world " a complete 

 collection of the beauties of the 

 Greek stagey in our own lan- 



guage, from the remains of more 

 than fifty comic poets.'' 



The papers strictly Critical, in 

 the Observer, amount to seven- 

 teen, of which eleven are devoted 

 to the consideration of dramatic 

 character and conduct. Among 

 these, the contrast between the 

 characters of Macbeth and Ri- 

 chard ; the parallel between Ms- 

 chylus and Shakespeare ; the ob- 

 servations on FalstafF and his 

 group ; and the comparative re- 

 view of Rowe's Fair Penitent with 

 the Fatal Dowry of Massinger ; 

 are peculiarly interesting and con- 

 clusive. The essay on style, ia 

 No, 133, contains many just re- 

 marks on the diction of Addison 

 and Johnson ; with the judicious 

 recommendation of the former as 

 the safer model for the student. 

 The character of Mr. Cumber- 

 land's own style, indeed, partakes 

 much more of the elegant and 

 idiomatic simplicity of Addison, 

 than of the elaborate, though 

 splendid, composition of Johnson ; 

 with the exception of a few 

 phrases, which are too flat and 

 colloquial, it is easy, fluent, and 

 correct. 



Of the Narrative portion of the 

 Observer, which occupies no small 

 share of the work, it is impossible 

 not to speak highly. Powerful 

 invention, strong delineation of 

 character, and adherence to cos- 

 tume, distinguish the greater part 

 of our author's fictions. The sto- 

 ries of Abdullah and Zarima ; of 

 Chaubert, the Misanthrope ; of 

 the Portuguese Gentleman who 

 died by the rack ; of Ned Drowsy, 

 and of Nicholas Pedrosa, may be 

 instanced as fully supporting the 

 opinion that we have advanced : 



