On the first of the words printed in italic, our Editor's note is • P. reads fhiver; but he takes no notice of Hanmer's reading, fiver which we wonder at, in fo minute a collector! On the word material he has the following note: T. H. and I. read maternal for material; to fupport which latter reading, in the ufual fenfe of the word, W. has a long note; but after all confeffes that material may fignify maternal; and quotes the title of an old English book to prove that material has been used in that fenfe: the title is as follows-" Syr John Froiffart's Chronicle tranflated out of the Frenche into our material Englifh tongue by John Bouchier, printed 1525." But a few words, fays our Editor, will determine the reading to be material in the ufual fenfe; for the force of Albany's argument to prove that a branch torn from a tree muft infallibly wither and die, lies in this, that it is feparated from a communication with that which fupplies it with the very identical matter + by, which it (the branch) lives, and of which it is compofed.' We fhall conclude this article in the Editor's own words, as they will ferve to remind the public, what acknowledgment is due to the undertaker of a work which demands fo much patience and perfeverance; to fay nothing of the other requifites for the execution of fuch a defign:- Tis no doubt a flavish bufinefs to proceed through fo voluminous à writer, in the flow and exact manner this Editor hath done in King Lear, and propofes to do in the reft of Shakespeare's plays: and though it is a work that feemed abfolutely neceffary, yet nothing but the merit of the Author, and the approbation of his admirers, could infpire one with patience to undergo fo laborious a task.' ART. XIII. Clementina; a Tragedy: As performed, with univerfal Applaufe, at the Theatre in Covent Garden. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Dilly, &c. 1771. THU THIS piece does not languifh in narrative and declamation; it is full of action, and event; but the events are brought about not improbably only, but inconfiftently: they If we may be allowed to add one conjecture to the thousands that have been offered by the expounders of this dramatic Bible, we think it most probable that fever is the word that Shakespeare wrote; for it is the word that makes the beft fenfe of the paffage: and, furely, it is no affront to the memory of this admirable poet, to fuppofe him to have chofen the best. Here, too, we differ from the Editor; maternal, we think, is mot likely to be the word ufed by Shakespeare, as being not only more poetical than material, but more expreffive of the intended allufion to the cafe of Gonerill, who had fo unnaturally eftranged (fever'd her felf from her parent. arife from perpetual violation of character, and extravagance of conduct. The fame perfon is represented as wife and foolifh, as kind and cruel, candid and arbitrary, to produce incidents of distress which could not arife from nature and uniformity; and though it is true that the fame perfon may, in different fituations, appear to act from different principles, it is also true that thefe apparent inconfiftencies are always refolvable into that predominant paffion, or difpofition, that marks the character, into which the inconfiftencies of conduct in this performance cannot be refolved. Clementina, the daughter of Anfelmo, Duke of Venice, having privately married Rinaldo, between whofe houfe and her father's there was an irreconcilable enmity, fuppofes him to have been flair in the defence of his country against Ferdinand, the fucceflor of Charles the Fifth. Six months after this fuppofed death, her father infifts that the fhould marry Palermo: this fhe obftinately refuses: but neither feems to have a fufficient motive for fuch conduct. She, indeed, calls upon the fpirit of her husband to fee How, faithful to her vows, She braves a fure deftruction for his fake. But it is prefumed that he had not vowed to be his wife after he was dead; and the father implores the daughter to confent, that he might not, in the close of life, be expofed to dishonour, and urges her Nobly to fave him from the guilt of falsehood. But whatever may be the caufe of guilt and difbonour in Tragedy, it is certain that a daughter's refufing to take for a husband, à man to whom a father has promised her, can bring neither guilt nor difhonour upon him in life. Anfelmo is reprefented as a man of kind and liberal fentiments, as inflexibly juft, and maintaining the point of honour even to fuperftition; yet he perfifts in a refolution of fubjecting his daughter to a legal rape, after the following expoftulation: Venerable Sir, if e'er my peace, My foul's dear peace, was tender to your thoughts, And call as much for favour as Palermo. That fuch claim fhould not be admitted by fuch a father, is certainly very improbable, fuppofing Palermo's happiness to be equal to the lady's mifery; but the father is thus determined to R 3 make make his daughter wretched, even without procuring happiness to Palermo. Palermo has just told him that He never merited a worthy heart Who meanly stoop'd contented with a cold one. Yet a cold heart was all that Anfelmo could give to his friend, by the utmost exertion of authority to outrage nature and curfe his child. An authority which he perfeveres to exert. He tells his daughter indeed that A little time Will charm her gentle bofom into rest, But he does not appear to believe this abfurdity, even while he with infinite regret Your fcorn, your fix'd averfion to Palermo. This man loves his daughter more than his dearest friend ; he declares that the distress of a friend fhould make us more active in his behalf, yet to give a friend what that friend declares is not worth having, he not only deferts his daughter in diftrefs, but brings the diftrefs upon her. Is this lefs abfurd than Prince Prettyman's forfaking his mistress and marrying the fisherman's daughter, in gratitude for having faved his life? A promife, however, having been extorted from Clementina that he will marry Palermo, though in the utmoft agony of grief, abhorrence, and defpair, the good father falls immediately into an extacy of joy, and he cries out My transport grows too mighty to be borne! And raife him from defpondency to rapture. Clementina however fuppofes that her father would at once defift from his fuit if the fhould tell him that he had married Rinaldo, though Rinaldo was dead, which is not a very probable fuppofition; but the fuppofes alfo that this man of punctilious honour, and inflexible rectitude, would exert his power, as temporary governor of Venice, to ruin Rinaldo's family, in revenge for his having married his daughter, and for that reafon ftill keeps the fecret to her own ruin, which revealed would fet her at eafe. It foon appears that Rinaldo is alive: he was carried off wounded from the field, and fuppofed to be dead; but a noble Frenchman, who had taken notice of him in the battle, recolleting his features, made an attempt to recover him, and fuc ceeded: ceeded he likewife fo warmly recommended him to the King of France, that he is appointed ambaffador to Venice, with proposals that if the Venetians will acknowledge themselves fubject to France, their own form of government fhall be efta. blifhed, and they protected from their enemies: but the offer of a foreign ruler' to Venice by a Venetian, is a capital offence; therefore Rinaldo having been created Lord of Granville by the French King, propofes not to difcover who he is while he is treating if his propofals are accepted indeed, he intends to claim his wife; if not, to carry her off privately. In confequence of this notable project, the following events are fuppofed to take place. Rinaldo, a noble Venetian, whom every body in the army knew when he fell, for concurring multitudes beheld him fall,' and reported that he was dead; nobody knows, when he returns in a public character to his country: he is fo happily tranfformed into a French man, by his French title, that no Venetian difcovers him to be his countryman; and though Palermo had been his fellow-foldier, and Anfelmo quarrelled with his family, neither of them have the leaft knowledge of his perfon, and he appears in public without referve, the event juftifying his prefumption. Within less than an hour after the arrival of Rinaldo, Palermo difcovers Clementina embracing him in an arbour. He tells her father what he has feen, but the old man gives him a hearty fcolding for believing his eyes. He then directs him where he alfo may fee the lovers tête-a-tête: he goes to make the experiment, but without any other emotion than contempt and anger at the fuppofed folly of the report. His own eyes foon convince him that Palermo was not miftaken. Here then is a very extraordinary fituation: the father finds his daughter embracing a Frenchman, who had not been an hour in the country, and whom he is fuppofed never to have seen before: yet, in the general tenor of the dialogue that enfues, there are no traces of this peculiarity; it is just such as might have happened if the lover had been a person with whom the lady had been long privately familiar: he appears to be well acquainted with her fituation, and juftifies his paffion by boafting that he is as good as Palermo, who had been capriciously preferred, and the her's, by afferting her right of choice. It would furely have been more natural for Palermo, who has fo warmly declared against a connection with a cold heart, to have broke off all connection with an alienated one yet he talks as if he was compelled to marry Clementina by a spell which could not be broken. Hear him exclaim: What though her error is ideal yet, And actual guilt has ftamp'd no fable on her; Is not her mind, that all in-all of virtue, It ftabs-it tears-On love's luxurious pillow The diftress of the piece is to arife from a forced match, and therefore in violation of all nature: Anfelmo is to facrifice his child to Palermo, because he has promised; and Palermo is to take her against her will, to the total fubverfion of his own happiness as well as her's, rather than absolve An. felmo from so abfurd and fatal an obligation. It is ftrange that no fpark of fufpicion fhould kindle in Anfelmo's breaft, that the person whom he had feen in his daughter's arms was not wholly unknown to her; and it is ftranger that when the intimates that he is not, he fhould treat the intimation as an artifice. Conceal your name and quality with care,' fays fhe to Rinaldo in her father's prefence; and her father replies, What fhallow air of mystery is this? He orders guards to feize the ambassador of France and force bim aboard his fhip: the lovers, as ufual, lay hold on each other; he is pulled one way, the another, an order is given to hew them afunder, and they are forced out feparately; an incident that always produces a fine effect. In the first act Clementina exclaims against parental tyranny, and at the end of the third juftifies it: What claim, what right, misjudging Elizara, Doom his fad race to wretchedness for ever? Why do I exclaim? His caufe for rage After |