638 
faid year, between the coalefced armies 
and thoie of the French Republic; to 
which are added, the battles that pre- 
ceded the blockade of the city of Ge- 
noa. 
This pian includes all that portion of 
Italy between the gulph of Venice and 
the city of Turin on one fide, and from 
the neighbourhood of Sargano to that 
of Genoa on the other. 
DRAMA. 
“‘ Tes Moeurs du Jour, cu !|’Ecole des 
Jeunes Femmes, &c.’—The Manners of 
a Day, or the Schcol for Young Women, 
a comedy in five acts, in verfe, by 
CoLin d@HaRLEVILLE. 
To write an indifferent comedy is ftill 
more difficult than to compofe an indif- 
ferent romance; a good one, therefore, 
muit poficfs no fmall fhare of merit. 
The ‘* Manners of a Day’’ not only 
deferves, but has already obtained great 
applaufe. The fiyle is pure and elegant, 
the verfification correét, the incidents are 
Interefling, and in fhort worthy of the 
author of ‘“ L’Optimifte, et le vieux Ce- 
Jebitaire.”’ 
The following is an account of the 
plot. Madame Derval, the wife of a 
militery officer, detained a prifoner with 
the enemy, leaves the country feat of her 
brother on purpofe to pay a.vifit to one 
of her uncies who had become fuddenly 
rich. and whofe houfe was the rendezvous 
of all the fafhionable people in town. 
The daily fight of the frivolity, the dif- 
fipation, and the bad morals that pre- 
vailed every where around her, foon 
began to weaken thofe notions of honour 
and virtue with which the had been im- 
prefied during her infancy. After a 
ihort refidence there, {he is on the very 
point of being feduced by d’Hericourt, a 
gay dilipated young man, who hopes to 
catch her in the fnares whith he had 
{pread for her innocence. 
Happily for Madame Derval, there 
were others more attentive to her honour 
than, herfelf’ Madame Euler, a young 
widow, who lived by the exercile of thofe 
talents which had embellifhed her bet- 
ter days, gives her much good advice, 
which makes but little impreffion. For- 
tunaiely, however, at this period, For- 
mond, her brother, arrives, and ex- 
hibits a fixed determination to carry 
Madame Derval back to the country. She 
is at firft greatly affeéted by his difcourfe 
and his attachment, but fhe foon dif- 
covers a decided ayerfion to the idea of 
Retrofpeci of French Literature.—Draima. 
interring berfelf, as fhe terms it, onte 
more in the country, ‘* Paris being the” 
moft {uitable to her age and her inclina- 
tions.” Having faid this, fhe retires to 
crefs for the Bagatelle, where fhe is to 
meet her lover, and in the evening lofes a 
fum of money, which fhe finds herfelf 
unable to pay, but which he readily ad- 
vances, with the hope of being able to 
bend her to his purpofe, in confequence 
of the gratitude likely to refult from fo 
generous and difinterefted an aétion. 
The cataftrophe now approaches, and 
there is every appearance that the virtue 
of the heroine is about to give way, 
when her brother, hearing of her late 
difirefs, difcharges the debt incurred 
at the gaming-table, and her hufband en- 
tering at this critical moment, the re« 
pentant wife, convinced of her errors, 
renounces Paris and all its allurements, 
and retires with her family to enjoy the 
pleafures arifing from the innocence of a 
country life, 
The chara&ter of Madame Euler is 
exceedingly interefting ; but the frank 
and open conduét of Fermond, who is a 
kind of French country fquire, is fome- 
thing entirely new on the theatre of 
Paris. 
This piece, to ufe the language of the 
flage, was got up in a fplendid manner 3 
and being performed by firft-rate aétors, 
notwithftanding its morality, was greatly 
applauded. 
“Pinto, Comedie hiftorique, &c.’’— 
Pinto, an hiftorical Comedy, in five aéts. 
This comedy, the produétion of Mer- 
cier, fo well known in the republic of 
letters, was performed at the Theatre 
de la République, on the 1ft of Germinal 
(March 22, 1800), without, however, 
experiencing thatfuccefs which the name 
and celebrity of the author gave room to 
spect. The fubje&t is borrowed from 
the revolution of Portugal that changed 
the dynafty of its fovereigns, and if 
treated by the pen of a Shakefpeare, 
or a Schiller, would undoubtedly have 
produced a grand efteét. 
Vafconcelles, the Spanifh fecretary, 
governed Portugal in the name of the 
vice-queen with an intolerable degree of 
oppreifion. His enaétions at length be- 
came fo cruel, that the dominion of Spain 
appeared odious, and the fpirit of revolt 
occupied every head and heart in the 
kingdom. At this critical junéture, Pinto, 
the fecretary of the duke of Braganza, 
concelves the daring project of ie 
is 
