The life of him whose lawless arm would seize
The sceptre of our kingdom; and requires
Thee to resign him to his destin'd dole;
Nor to reveal what thou hast seen, or heard,
Till Vengeance have her fill.

Agand.

Ha! can I move?

And breathe?-I've suffer'd change! I'm fashion'd now,

By thy volition, a mere passive engine,

Doom'd to perform thy pleasure. Yet, ye powers!
Who rule the destinies of human life,

If ye require me to defile my soul

With perfidy, and base inhuman guilt,

I will not deem you powerful, but compell'd

Yourselves by dire necessity.

High Priest.

Beware,

Well I know

Rash maid, of impious utterance!

• Agand.

That heaven, in mercy, and for our amendment,
Tries us with sore affliction: but will heaven

To be the ruin of our land, and whelm

Thy father with despair, whose dying breath

Will blast thee. Yet thou might'st have proved the stay
And prop of Lochlin, and have risen the guardian
Of Odin's holy worship. Now, approach,

Thou most afflicted, ill-requited father!
And to preserve thy nation, and thyself,
From woes unutterable, here pronounce
A solemn ban on thy rebellious child.

Re-enter Starno.

Agand. Forbear! my honour'd father, O forbear! Ye holy ministers of heaven, that cleave

The sky with livid lightning, pierce this bosom,

Before my

father tear me from his heart.

I am no more the thing I was, I'm model'd

To move by your direction: I am reft

Of reason, will, and inclination!-Oh!

That I were reft of them!-But I obey.

"High Priest. And now the solemn cov'nant is enroll'd In fate's immutable, eternal record.' P. 26.

Act III. All things are prepared for the marriage ceremony. Fingal, alarmed at the evident disquietude of Agandecca, expresses his suspicion of treachery: his bard Ullin pours a song of prophetic fear. Agandecca however is led in by her father, and the priest commands her to present the poisoned cup.

High Priest. Illustrious pair! Morven and Lochlin's pride! May Odin, with his heavenly host, regard

This covenant with complacency, and shower

Celestial influence on this fair alliance!
Fingal, to thy betroth'd, selected bride,
Present that garland, interwoven with flowers
Of sovran virtue, as an emblem meet

Of honour and esteem. Thou, royal virgin,
Loveliest of northern maidens, to thy consort
Present this cup, in token of thy fealty,
And kind endeavour to allay his cares.
O may that precious liquor yield composure,
And gentle comfort from the toils of life!

Agand. (trembling, and receiving the cup.) And of that comfort may not I partake?

Have I no need of solace?

The sacred mystery with thy reckless deed.

Agand. Believe me, holy seer! if this contain

Soft antidote, or medicine for the pangs

Of heart-felt anguish, I am much in need
Of the refreshing beverage.

High Priest,

Peace! beware!

Become insensible? Shall I be free

From anguish and my heart no longer throb
With direful horror? Come, thou rapid flame!
And rescue me from suff'rance; and I'll hail theç
A minister of mercy!

High Priest.

Woes, and pains,

The miseries that fancy, when the rage
Of fever fires the wild'ring brain, presents
With fiend-like visages, shall in thy lot
Be realised, if now, with heinous insult,

Thou dare incense the wrath of heavenly power.
Proffer the precious beverage; it implies

The vow of fealty and sincere obedience. :

Agand. Fealty to thee, and to thy will obedience?

High Priest. Nay! to thy faithful and illustrious bridegroom Whom, by this solemn deed, thou wilt espouse

Thy husband, and thy lord.

Fealty to him!

Agand. (Throwing away the cup.)
Down to the ground, perfidious potion! down!
Now let the levin flash, and Odin thunder,
And the deep cavern'd earth gape to receive me!
No dread of punishment, and no reward
Shall ever force, or lure me, to commit
A deed that the pure spirit of my soul
With condemnation and abhorrence spurns.

High Priest. What awful profanation! hapless maid! What cause impell'd thee to this impious act?

Agand. Ask the cause? 'tis a tremendous cause! you It is, alas! that I am doom'd to sorrow! Doom'd by your wisdom! not, I trust, by those Who govern and have pity on mankind.

[Exeunt Agandecca, Queen, and their attendants. P. 47.

The fourth act opens with a song of Ullin the bard. He urges Fingal to quit the country. Agandecca also, labouring with the secret that she dares not disclose, entreats him to fly :-her character is well supported.

• Agand.

Fingal, thou know'st That not a wish or thought were ever harbour'd Within this bosom, that would shrink abash'd

From the severest scrutiny of truth.

Fingal. I know thee pure, even as the light of heaven!
Agand. Nor am I sham'd to tell thee, that my heart,

Which never glow'd with any flame but that

Imparted by thine own, prays and implores thee
To speed thy parting hence. Thy generous bosom
Will long remember me !-Nay! no embrace!
I know thy tenderness; but, from this hour,
I hold all tenderness of love an alien,
And banish'd from my bosom. For my soul
Is arm'd for higher purposes; has duties
Of awful import to perform: and these
Duly discharg'd, as honour, and the power,
That in my breast informs me; shall I die?
No; I will act as th' inmate of my soul,
The beam that issues from the throne of heaven
To light my road of trial, shall direct me.

[Exit.' P. 64.

Starno, understanding that the king of Morven is resolved to depart, requests that at least they may separate with an appearance of friendship, and therefore invites him to hunt the boar on the following morning: he has prepared an ambush, and in his anger he discloses his purposed vengeance to Agandecca, telling her that the sound of the clarion will be the signal for her lover's death.

Act V. Agandecca discovers the treason to Fingal, first obtaining from him an oath to spare her father's life. The clarion sounds the troops of Morven are in readiness, and

An engagement, as here described, passes along the back part of

the scene.

Agand. See! to deal immediate death,

Flies the falchion from the sheath!
And along the woody glade

Flashes the pursuing blade.

CRIT. REV. Vol. 34. Feb. 1802.

N

J

Louder yet the furious roar !

Now the forest streams with gore.
Cruel, cruel men, assuage
Timely your inhuman rage.
Turn on me th' avenging sword!
Let me perish undeplor'd:
Me, the cause of vengeful hate!
In my heart your fury sate.

The shouting ceases: the disastrous fates
Are ratified! and now an awful pause
Succeeds; and now what dismal doom awaits

Me, of this feud the miserable cause!' P. 86.

This song is very absurdly introduced-we cannot conceive any thing more ridiculous. In the event, Agandecca, running to save her father is stabbed by him. Starno, repenting too late, kills the high priest: he himself is saved from the sword of Fingal by the dying prayer of his daughter.

Professor Richardson will rank higher among critics than among poets. We remember his Essays upon Shakspeare with a feeling that renders it painful to censure a name so respectable. The lyric parts are even more feeble than the dramatic. A few short pieces fill up the remainder of the volume.

ART. VII.—A Tour from Downing to Alston Moor. By Thomas Pennant, Esq. 4to. 17. 11s. 6d. Boards. Harding. 1801.

THIS Tour is introductory to the author's Scottish Journey; for the latter commences at Alston Moor: and its termination, by Hackfall and Fountains Abbey to Harrowgate and Bramham Craggs may, it is said, be expected in future. Our author's own account of his progress we shall transcribe from his 'Literary Life,' as quoted in the advertisement.

The subject of part of this journey will be found among my Posthumous Works, illustrated with drawings by Moses Griffith. This will take in the space from Downing to Orford; from thence to Knowsley, Sefton, Ormskirk, Latham, and (crossing the country) to Blackburn, Whalley-abbey, Ribchester, Mitton, Waddington-hall, and Clithero, most of them in the county of Lancashire. In that of York I visited Salley-abbey, Bolton-hall, Malham Coves, Settle, Giggleswick, and Ingleton. I then crossed the Lune to Kirkby-Lonsdale, and visited all the parts of Westmoreland and Cumberland omitted in my printed Tours of 1769 and 1772; and, finally, I finished this MS. volume at Alston, near the borders of Durham.'

Our respect for Mr. Pennant,-for we think we have fully proved that we possess no inconsiderable regard for his memory

by checking the forward injudicious zeal of his panegyrist,—our respect, we say, has carried us to the extreme verge, and we must deprecate any farther publication of these antiquated accounts. The country through which he passed is now essentially changed; and though it may be alleged that his narrative in general relates to very distant æras, and the events of other centuries, yet in a tour we have a right to expect a description of the present state of the districts through which his course is directed. The drawings of Moses Griffith, also, are no very valuable additions; though, in his delineation of ancient remains, he succeeds far better than in that of natural objects. Some of his picturesque drawings from nature, in Mr. Pennant's other Tours, burlesque the accounts they were intended to illustrate. The present unreasonably splendid and expensive volume is full of the representations of the remains of former times; and many of these, we repeat, are well executed. One or two are added from a different artist, and may have been introduced by the editor.

Our readers will perceive that the traveler proceeds from Downing northward, deviating somewhat to the west, to Ormskirk, and thence north-east to the borders of Yorkshire; but he seems to have advanced no farther into Yorkshire than Malham. He thence returns westward to Kendal in Westmoreland, and continues nearly in a northerly direction to Appleby. He enters Cumberland at Penrith. From Penrith he takes a circuit a little to the east, and proceeds to Longtown, on the borders of Scotland, through Brampton, visiting Askerton hall and some of the neighbouring spots, to Alston Moor. We shall add the

LIST OF PLATES.

• Painted glass at Warrington; Orford-hall; tomb of sir Thomas Boteler; Edward earl of Derby; Charlotte countess of Derby; Sefton church; Lydiate chapel; Houghton tower; sir Edward Osbadiston; Clithero castle; ancient altar at Ribchester; KirkbyLonsdale bridge; Dr. Shaw; Overton church; Tomb of sir de Musgrave, &c.; Wharton-hall; Philip duke of Wharton; Lamerside-hall; Pendragon castle; Brough church; Appleby castle; tomb of the countess of Cumberland; Three-brother tree; Anne Clifford's column; Naworth castle; Llanercost priory; Beu castle.' P. viii.

We find it difficult to copy any adequate specimens of the present volume. To the antiquarian it will be sometimes interesting; but to the general reader, to the admirer of nature, either in her simplest or most ornamented dress, there is little to attract. It is our business, however, to enable the reader to judge for himself; and we shall select passages of different kinds for this purpose.

We meet very early with a description of a distinct class in