68 | Theatrical Retrofpeé? for “Fanuary 1800. 
famous Table of Ifis, a monument of 
bronze, fo called from being believed to re- 
prefent many of the ceremonies performed 
in honour of Ifis. It was originally di- 
covered at Rome by labourers employed 
in digging in the gardens of the houfe of: 
Cafarelli. The learned Cardinal Bembo 
purchafed. it, and on his death bequeathed 
it to the Duchefs of Mantua, in whofe 
poffeffion it remained until Mantua was 
taken by the Germans ; when the foldiers 
who feized it as their booty, endeavoured 
to tear from it the filver threads of which 
the figures are compoled; but finding that 
impracticable, they refolved to fell the 
table by the pound to the Piedmontefe, and 
by them it was purchafed, and afterwards 
prefented to the Duke of Savoy. For very 
many years it was thrown by neglected in 
a corner of the hall in the ducal palace at 
‘Turin, and confidered as a common piece 
of furniture, until it was happily feen by 
the learned Montfaucon, who, infpecting 
it with the eye of genius and tafte, difco- 
vered its beauties; and, by defcribing them, 
gave it fuch value to the proprietor, that 
he caufed it to be removed to a more re- 
f{pefiable fituation in the palace, where, 
with the fanétion of fo great a name as 
..[ Feb. 1, 
that of Montfaucon, it attracted fo much 
attention, aud acquired fuch confequence, 
that feveral Englith travellers) who faw it 
wifhed to purchafe it, and at almoft any 
price: if is even afferted that offers were 
more than once made of an equal weight in 
gold. The time when it was made has 
not yet been afcertained. 
The Madona of Loretto (Our Lady of — 
Loretto) has changed the Cafa fanta for a 
place upon a table in the cabinet of antiques 
at Paris, and is defcribed by a traveller, who 
lately faw her in her new refidence, as a very 
fhapelefs figure, with fingers prepofteroufly 
long, black with fmoak,and mutilated and 
damaged in feveral parts. 
The famous ftatue of Pallas, which was 
dug up in the vicinity of Veletr: in Italy, 
has Alfo been tranfported to Paris. By 
thofe travellers who have feen it (and 
many of them are men of judgment and — 
tafte) it is deferibed as equal to the beau- 
tiful Apollo of the Vatican ; it is uncom- 
monly well preferved, having loft only two 
fingers ; the head is exquifitely’ beautiful, — - 
and the general air in the very firft ftile of 
grandeur and elegance. Itis 14 Roman 
palms high. 

THEATRICAL RETROSPECT ror JANUARY 1800. 

NEW Play, of five atts, entitled 
Joanna of Montfaucon, was per- 
formed at Covent-garden Theatre on the 
17th of this month. It is a piece altered 
by Mr. Cumberland from an unpublithed 
Drama of Kotzebue; and, in the Pro- 
logue, it is ftated to be, with the exception 
of the plot, the entire work of the Englith 
writer. We do not know how much, or 
how little, is meant to be included in that 
term of the Plot. But if no more of this 
Play is Kotzebue’s than the mere out-line 
of the Fable, the German writer has not 
much to anfwer for. When the whole 
production is to be reviewed as fome fpe- 
cies of dranatic compofition, criticifm 
juttly difclaims it, as being a thing on 
which its rules cannot properly be exer- 
cifed. We may give an account of a mon- 
fter, compounded of various forms ; but to 
apply the rules of dramatic writing to it 
would be as abfurd as gravely to criticife 
the impertinence of a man who, profeffling 
to make a garden for his employer, fhould 
_ cover his ground with baby-houfes filled 
with many forts of children’s toys. When 
the writer of this play gave the public an 
enteitainment of this mixed charaéter, it 
would have been fome compenfation to 
have occupied curiofity with a little no- 
velty in its detached parts, and amufed the 
feeling with the delights of imagination. 
But this play, when it is a tragedy, re- 
minds us of other tragedies ; when a pan- 
tomime, of other pantomimes ; and fo on 
through all its members : nor are the ori- 
ginals always remote ; for in the main cir- 
cumftances, thofe of the pageantry, it is a 
fickly reprefentative of a play performing 
at the fame time, in the very fame hour, at 
the other theatre. i 
With defeé&ts that pervade this piece 
almoft wholly, there is one f{cene in it of fuch 
exquifite beauty, that we readily exprefs 
our unfeigned forrow for the tafk of touch- 
ing upon its faults. ‘This is the laft fcene » 
of the third a&t. Here we find moft faith- 
fully executed one of the noble offices of 
dramatic art; here we fee the conflict of 
generous and powerful paffions, in a cha- 
wracter of a degree of ‘elevation highly in- 
terrefting. The character of Philip of 
Belmont, to which we allude, is at once 
chaftely and forcibly drawn; and it vee 
