1040 svetro/pedd of Domeftic Literature... Novels and Romances. 
named it, a whim, in which the jokes 
and freaks of that witty and licentious 
monarch Charles I]. are dramatifed. The 
cant words and phrafes of the prefent_ 
day are clumfily mingled with the trite 
fay ings of that age. 
“ The Caftle of Montva Bas 
Rev. I. S. WHALLEY, is a tragedy 
which, owing to the incomparable acting 
of Mrs. Siddons, - was eel received at 
Drury#Lane theatre, and has fince been 
publithed. The ttory on which this play 
3s founded is‘a very ‘interefting one, but 
the author has no claim to praife for its 
invention, as he acquaints us that the un- 
natural event actually occurred in France 
fo late as 1783. it very much refembles 
a part of the ftory of the Robbers, for it 
confifts in the imprifonment of an old’ 
count by his fonin a fubterraneous dun- 
geon for feveral years; yet this deteft- 
able parricide, 
feious that he is murdering by plece- 
meal the author of his days, is made a 
fufficiently amiable charaéter to win the 
affections of a woman of extraordinary 
difcernment and judgment. This is furely 
very unnatural. 
raéters which Mr. Whalley has crowded 
imto his drama are unmeaning and in- 
fipid: thé language is in the Heonige 
feeble and languid; it, however, rifes 
with the progreis of the drama ; but even 
im the pathetic fcene, which conelndes the ' 
piece, we could point out tome objection- 
able pafiages. 
In noticing the numerous produ€tions 
of the prolific KoTZEBUE, which his in- 
defatigable tranflators hee .prefented to 
the public during the laft half year, we 
thall begin with the “ Virgin of the 
Sun,” and ‘ The Death oo Rolla,’’ 
which are rendered important by their 
connexion with Mr. Sheridan’s Pizarro. 
Having in our laft retrofpeét noticed the 
fir of thefe, we have here only to ob- 
ferve that, befides the two Englith tran{- 
latiens there ment ioned, another has 
fince epee’ by James LAWRENCE 
Eiga. <7 ihe Death of Rolla” wes Sas 
tended by its author as-a fequel. to the 
“ Virgin of the Sun.’ In the firft play 
we faw Rolla proffering to give up his 
paffion for Cora becaute fhe preferred 
Alonzo; in the prefent drama we find 
the Peruvian hero ftill aétuated by his 
love for Cora, in the firft inftance offer- 
ing to facrifice his life for the fafety of 
ae hufband, and in the end aétua!ly fa- 
erificing it, hile refcuing her child eee 
the hands of the mercilefs_ Pizarro. - Both 
thefe pieces contaim great beauties and 
by the 
who is every moment con- 
At lea half of the cha- .mantic and exalted. imaginations. 
great faults: the “‘ Death of Rolla” we 
think the preferable drama. 
Three tranflations of it have made tele, 
appearance; one by Mifs PLUMPTRE 
another, and a more fplendid one, ae 
Mr. Lewis; and athird by Mr. Durt- 
TON. On this laft tranflator we, have to 
remark, that although he may be more 
competent to tranflate from the German 
than any of the perfons whom he fo 
rudely attacks, yet that the ccarfe ri- 
baldry and indelicate allufions contained 
in his notes are very contemptible and 
difgufting. This drama, “ The Death 
of Rolla,’ which excited unbounded ap= 
plaufe at Vienna, Mr. SHERIDAN has 
adapted to the Englith ftage under the 
title of ‘‘ Pizarro,’ and the great emo- 
lument which this piece produced to his 
‘theatre may, in fome degree, compen- 
fate for the fmallnefs of the addition it 
has made to his literary reputation. No- 
thing could be more unfortunate than the 
change of heroes which Mr. Sheridan has 
made. The refined and almoft fpiritual 
love of Rolla makes him the natural 
hero of a drama, calculated to delight ro- 
- Pie 
zarro and the Spaniard: are but inferior 
agents, and ought not to have been made. 
the moft prominent figures on the can- 
vals. For the fake of this abfurd alter- 
ation, the intereft of the drama is leffened, 
and the truth of hiftory violated in the 
moft flagrant manner. It was not un- 
natural to fuppofe, with Kotzebue, that 
the Spaniards might meet with a repulfe 
before they atrained their final objeét ; but 
to murder the conqueror of Peru, and to 
make the Pe ruyians triumphant, is too 
grofs a perverfion of facts to be tolerated. 
Notwithftanding this grand -error, it 
would be unfair not to ackn nowledge that 
Mr. Sheridan has frequently improved 
arts of this drama. Confidering the 
political obloquy with which he has lately 
been overwhelmed, we admire the dex- 
terity with which he has engrafted his 
loyal elas traps. The celebrated. fpeech 
which he has pe into the mouth of 
Rolla is a mafter-piece of eloquence, but 
we phe not we ell adapted to the general 
the alan per Ataliba. ‘THe particular 
eee tances of the times — perhaps, 
tolerate this excreicence on the ftage, but 
it ought not to have been inferted in the 
printed play WiC is intended for pofte- 
rity. The beautiful fonnet which Cora 
‘fings, when watch! ning over her fleeing 
child, cannot fa:l of delighting every 
mind, awake to the charms of poetry and 
feeling. 
Kotzebue’s 
