402 
Adraft, His uncle Arafpes, who has pe- 
cuniary Claims onthe fpendthrift, arrives ; 
Theophan intercepts the demand, and ge- 
neroufly deftroys a bond, the exaétion of 
which might have ruined the credit of his 
riva!. Adraft has been attempting to 
borrow money with a view to fatisfy Araf- 
pes : Theophan fecretly offers a fecurity, 
without which the loan would have been 
refufed. Thefe noble proceedings fubdue 
the prejudices of the infidel: he throws 
himfelf with gratefel admiration round 
the neck of the prieft, This may be call- 
ed the ethic plot of the play ; that part 
of the fable which hinges on the contraft 
of character. It is in this refpect faulty, 
that the prejudices of Adraft are too 
ftrong and inexorable for a man of fo ma- 
ny virtues ; with a miftruft fo rooted and 
fo vile, he is unworthy of the eventual at- 
tainment of all his withes. 
plot is more ingenious. Theophan has 
infenfibly attached himfelf to Henrietta, 
whom the father intended for Adrat ; 
and the two filters, by defending againtt 
each other their refpeétive fuitors, have 
become defirous of an interchange of lo- 
vers. Much delicate embarraffinent arifes 
from this fituation of the quartetto. Theo- 
phan having made his offer and been ac- 
cepted, fhuns from honour to recede ; the 
woman from modefty. At Jength Adraft 
cuts the knot, by applying to the enga- 
ged Juliana. Lifidor confents to the new 
diftribution of his daughters, and all par- 
tiesare madehappy. Of this comedy the 
fkeleton furpaffes the filling-up: the dia- 
logue wants grace, vivacity, and wit : the 
valets, who caricature the libertinifm and 
religiofity of their re{pective mafters, are 
coarle epifodical perfonages. To fome 
future dramatifts this play is adapted to 
afford available hints. 
The Treafure is modernized from Plau- 
tus. It is without a female charaéter, 
and was fo much the more adapted for 
performance by the Proffian officers in 
garrifon at Leipzig, with whom it was de- 
lervediy a favourite piece. The ftory is 
not in modern life ; but the dialogue is 
droller, wittier, and more condenfed, and 
the fituations more crofs and ftimulant, 
than in any original comedy of Leffing’s., 
The reader is confcious of a higher in{pi- 
ration. 
To the fecond co'le&ion of Leffing’s 
comedies was fuperadded Minna von Barn- 
heim, the finithed work of a maturer 
writer : it fuceceded on the London the- 
atre under the title of the Baronefs of 
Brachial, and is-too well known fo require 
analylishere. “The fentimental drama was 
Critical Survey of the Works of Leffing. 
Thedramatic , 
{June 1, 
Jeaft unnatural to Leffing’s bent and 
force. 
The epigrams and connected differta- 
tions fill four duodecimos. We have al-. 
.Yeady given in our 8th volume, p. 805, 
a tranflation of the more prominent : they 
are chiefly modernized from Martial ; a 
few are compofed in Latin. 
Remarks on the Epigram, and on the 
leading Epigrammatilts, form critical dif 
quifitions of high value. The word epi- 
gram originally meant an infcription, and 
has gradually been applied to thofe poem- 
ets which by their apt brevity are formed 
for infcriptions. Leffling contends, that 
for an epigram to be a complete and inde- 
pendent work of art, it ought to define 
the monument as well as the fuperfcription, 
and not to entruft this definition to the 
title. He agrees therefore with Vavafor, 
that the epigram fhould confift of two 
parts, expofitio rei, and couclufio epigram- 
matis, and approves that ftruéture which 
_is obierved in the following diftich : 
Infelix Dido ! nulli bene nupta marito: 
Hoc pereunte fugis ! hoc fugiente peris ! 
Here Dido is given as an inftance of ma- 
trimonial misfortune, and: the peculiarity 
of her fate is defcribed with pointed preci- 
fion: the firft verfe is as it were the ftatue, 
and the fecond the infcription. He difap- 
proves, on the contrary, thofe epigrams 
where the expofition is wanting, as in the 
following inftance, which would lofe all 
its effeét unleis fuperfcribed. 
Ox a Woody Ifland. 
Hic Cytherea tuo poteras cum Marte jacerey 
Vulcanus prohibetur aquis, Sol pellitur um- 
bris. 
And he difapproves ftill more thofe epi- 
grams where the conclufion, the acumen, 
or point, is wanting, which is often the 
cafe with thofe in the Greek Anthology. 
See for inftance Ayeov Mavodavnss &c.5 
L. ii., c. 7, ep. 3.3 and alfo in Martial’s 
De pratoricia folium mihi Paulle, &c. 
To the general matter fucceeds a chap- 
ter on Catullus, in which feveral of his 
epigrammatic compofitions are criticifed. 
A longer commentary is allotted to Mar- 
tial : a few words to the Priapeia : and 
many to the Greek Anthology. There 
is no department of literature in which 
Leffing appears to greater advantage than 
in the critical. " The delicacy of his tafte, 
the reafonablenefs of his judgments, the 
fagacity of his conjeCtures, and the erudi . 
tion of his illuflrations, are alike praile- 
\ worthy ; but he wants the imagination, 
the invention, the vehemence, which are 
requifite 
