1809.] 
been more intent upon seizing the pictures 
of those images, which in the euthusiasm 
of genius crowded upon her mind, than 
in polishing what she had written, 
‘This objection, indeed, may be applied 
to most of her poems, and those passages 
which abound in animated, and impres- 
sive imagery, throw into stronger contrast 
the few lines which appear inharmonious 
and prosaic, 
It must still, however, be allowed, not- 
withstanding these objections, that no- 
thing can exceed the charms of the 
poetry, in many of the passages; thus in 
the Maid of Arragon, the Old Arragomian 
King, the Fair Osmida, the Moorish 
Prince, and the French De Couci, are 
so many distinct portraits, coloured by 
the vivid pen of genius; whilst in the 
tragedy of Albina, the characters of Old 
Westmoreland and Gondibert, are por- 
trayed in the grandest style, and display 
an intimate acquaintance with the age 
of chivalry. 
The wonderful facility of this lady’s 
pen, and the rapidity with which (Gf we 
may be allowed the term) the flashes of 
her genils were transferred to her paper, 
is not less remarkable than the, strength 
and variety of its powers; her produc- 
tions, indeed, from that sprightliness and 
ease, by which they are characterized, 
exhibit those spontaneous coruscations 
of genius, which all the laboured ex- 
ertions of art must despair to accom- 
plish. 
-_— Ipse volens facilisque sequetur, 
Si te Fata vocant ; aliter non viribus ullis 
Vincere, nec duro poteris convellere ferro. 
In all the walks of the legitimate 
drama, Mrs. Cowley has left ample spe- 
cimens, to entitle her to rank with the 
first dramatic authors of the day. 
Scorning to attempt ephemerai fame, to 
admiz .ter to the perverted taste of the 
times, to court the acclamation of the 
galleries, and implore the aid of the 
erimacer, the painter, or the machinist, 
Mrs. Cowley, like the veteran Cumber- 
land, has never deserted those banners 
of legitimate comedy, under which she 
first enlisted, 
Equally at home in the sublime and 
pathetic, as in the humorous, she entered 
at once into the feelings of a hero, or a 
monarch, with as much success as into 
those of a slopseller, or a coquette. 
Doiley, in the farce of, Who’s the Dupe, 
is perhaps unrivalled on the stage; 
whilst Gradus, Doricourt, Flutter, Hardy, 
Lord Sparkie, and the Pendragons, are 
Memoirs of the late Mrs. Hannah Cowley. | $57 
° 
all distinct, and highly coloured por- 
traits. 
We must also here, in justice to de- 
parted merit, notice her peculiar excel- 
lence in colouring the female character, 
for proof of this we can safely rest our 
appeal to her Miss Hardy in the Beiles 
Stratagzem, and Olivia in the Bold Stroke 
- for a Husband. 
The last hurried effort of this lady’s 
pen, was in unison with the excellence 
of her heart ; it was a little poem in aid 
of benevolence; an act of charity to one 
who moved in the humble sphere of 
sexton of the parish, and whose little 
property had been swallowed up by the 
late floods. 
This little poem gives a pathetic pice 
ture of the poor man’s efforts, whilst his 
cottage was overwhelmed ; describes his 
losses ; and delicately claims attention 
towards one, whose pride was in conflict 
with his poverty; one whose situation 
claimed that assistance, which he could 
not bring himself directly to beg. 
From her habits, Mrs. Cowley might 
truly be termed a most disinterested 
votary of the Muses; her pen was not 
guided by mercenary views: she wrote 
merely for the pleasure she felt in wri- 
ting. The poem of the Siege of Acre, 
was given to a respectable bookseller, 
who asked for it: she reserved none of 
her manuscripts, nor did she wait to cor- 
rect them: thus her newspaper poetry 
was written and sent off, frequently 
within. four and. twenty hours after the 
event which had given birth to it. 
Her dramatic habits, had given a dra- 
matic hue to all her compositions, and 
we find her occasionally assuming a fic- 
titious signature, and answering or ad- 
dressing some love-sick yéuth, or de- 
spairing maid, where existence to her 
was merely ideal. 
In this lady’s conversation, (and the 
writer of this article has had the pleasure 
of having been occasionally present) 
there was nothing of that proud supe- 
riority which persons, possibly of more 
learning, but less genius, sometimes 
assume to awe aid intimidate: easy and 
affable in her manners ; it was ever Mrs, 
Cowley’s endeavour to raise to a’ level 
with herself, those whose timidity would 
have placed below it. 
Sometimes, imdeed, she would en- 
liven the topic under discussion with 
some sprightly sallies; but these were 
bright without being dazzling, the 
spontancous effusions of genius, eina- 
nating 
