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les moyens de ranimer en France l'étude de la langue Grecque?" What are the beft means for reviving the fudy of the Greek language in France? This fubject immediately after the first burst of the Revolution, appears to have engaged the attention, not only of the Directory and the confuls, but also of all the learned men in the nation.

The author of the prefent epiftle, M. BELIN DE BAILLIE, is an accomplished Greek fcholar, and has often distinguished himfelf as a man of letters. He was former ly a member of the Academy of Infcrip tions, and it is not improbable, that this poem, which contains many eloquent paflages, will place him on the list of candidates for the National Inftitute.

After a high and inflated eulogium, on the virtues, political, civil, and warlike, of the invincible hero, whofe genius and victory have placed him at the head of the French nation," he exclaims mournfully as follows:

"Les Mufes s'occupoient à tracer ces tableaux,

Lorsqu'un bruit fe répand et trouble leur

Et

repos :

On leur dit que des Grecs la langue révérée
A tes jeunes Français ne fera point montrée;
que chaque Lycée ouvert à nos enfans,
Du chantre des combats fupprime les accens:
Eschine, Démosthène, et leur mâle éloquence,
Etrangers, inconnus, y gardent le filence;
Et Plutarque, et Platon, exilés de ces lieux,
Cefferont d'y ravir notre âme jufqu'aux cieux:
Par les graves leçons de leur philofophie
Ils n'y montreront plus les routes de la vie:
La langue des héros et des grand écrivains,
La langue qui forma tant d'illuftres Romains,
Dans un honteux oubli se trouveroit plongée,
Et par Bonaparte fe verroit négligée !

Non, ton vafte génie en connoit trop le prix.
Eh! qui pourroit donner du luftre à nos écrits ?
Comment chanterons-nous tes exploits et ta
gloire,

Si nous nous éloignons des Filles de Mémoire ? Mais, dit-on, les Romains ont, par de heureux efforts,

A vos Grecs dérobé leurs plus riches trêfors; Ils peuvent nous fervir de maîtres, de modèle. Quoi! Rome fans les Grecs feroit-elle immor

telle?

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Le Seducteur Amoureux; Comédie en trois Actes, en Vers, repréfentée, pour la première Fois, par les Comédiens Sociétaires du Théâtre Française de la Répub

que, le 4 Pluviôfe, An XI; par LONCHAMPS. Paris, Barba, Palais du Tribunat. Br. 8°. Prix 1 fr. 50 cent." The Seducer himself in Love; a Comedy in three A&ts, and in Verfe, represented for the first Time by the affociated Comedians of the Theatre Française de la République, &c. by Lonchamps.

Cezanne, a young man at once rich and handfome, is the hero of the piece. He is endowed with many good and amiable qualities; but as he has been rendered prefumptuous, in confequence of his fuccefs with the fair fex, thefe are of course clouded, and he becomes a finished coxcomb. At length, however, the feducer is himself in love, and that too with his own coufin, Adela D'Ernanges, who, aware of his numerous gallantries, and fufpecting that he intended to add her to the lift of his victims, is of courfe exceedingly diftrustful of all his fine proteftations of attachment, adoration, &c. &c. It is in vain that he talks of the violence and fincerity of his paffion: fhe accufes him of deceit, and never replies to his declarations but either by the most bitter farcafms or an ironical fmile.

Cezanne, the hitherto triumphant Cezanne, now finds all his attempts to obtain confidence, rejected with fufpicion. When he prefents himself to the father of the heroine, in order to demand the hand of the lady he adores, he finds the old gentleman alfo prejudiced against him; for the latter fuppofes all his honourable propofitions to be nothing more than a ftratagem, by means of which he intended to escape remained for him to endeavour to convert from fufpicion. In this dilemma, it either the whole into a jeft, or to fly for ever from the prefence of his mitrefs. He has accordingly recourfe to the latter of thefe, and prepares to depart fecretly; but his valet, who imagines that the journey is nothing more than a feint, by the affected mystery with which he makes the neceffary preparations, foon betrays the fecret,

5 A 2

while

while M. de Varenne and Adela confider the whole as a new proof of the arts of this formidable feducer.

conformable to the reigning tafte as poffible, without disfiguring fuch vaJuable productions.

« Rendre enfin au public, de nouveautés trop las,

t

"Un vieux bien qu'il possède et dont il n'ufe pas.

At length, a refufal to continue an intrigue with Madame St. Bertin, and a duel in which he engages, on purpose to vindicate the honour of his fair relative, convince the family that he is in earnest,“ and all doubts being now removed relative to the loyalty of Cezanne, he is of courfe rendered happy by an union with the object of his affections.

This comedy of three acts was perform ed by actors who affect to play no other theatrical pieces than thofe which reprefent the manners of what they term (la bonne fociété) genteel company!

The following fentiments are applauded:

"Il ne voit qu'elle (fon amante) au monde,

il l'adore et l'ennuye.

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Year. 8vo.

It was in Italian farces that M. Moliere found a number of the moft ingenious fallies to be met with in his comedies; and before his time, the great Corneille had already laid foreign authors under contribution. The Spanish theatre furnished him with the fubject of his admirable tragedy of the Cid, and it was from the fame fource that he derived the principal materials of Le Menteur (the Liar), the first regular comedy of which the French ftage had any reafon to boast.

The editor, M. Andrieux, has made feveral alterations, both in the text and the scenes, and has endeavoured, upon this occafion, to obliterate fome faults, fuch as the trivial pleasantries of Cliton, &c. He has perhaps been fwayed by a hint from Voltaire, who propofed, towards the latter end of his life, to retouch the ancient French poets, to correct their verfions, and, in fhort, to render them as nearly

D'un champ abandoné, c'eft faire un champ fertile."

The above three lines are taken from

the new prologue, by M. Andrieux, which is fuppofed, after that of Amphitrion, to be one of the moft keen and poignant ever fpoken on the French stage.

"Une Folie: Comedie, en deux Actes; mêlée de Chants," &c.-A Fol ly: a Comedy, in two Acts; interfperfed with Songs: the Words by J. N. BoUILLY, a Member of the Philotechnical Society; the Mufic by MEHUL. Reprefented for the firft Time on the Theatre of the Opera Comique National, 15 Germinal, 10th Year. Second Edition.

The plot of this piece is, as ufual, confecrated to the tratagems of love. A captain of Huffars, fees and becomes defperately enamoured with a young orphan, who happens to be left under the care of an Italian painter, at once Cunning, jealous, and malignant. The lady herself, who is often employed as the model of her guardian, evinces the moft fincere defire to enfranchife herfelf from his tyranny; and the, with the aid of her lover, is at length enabled to effect her deliverance. The tricks

and intrigues of two valets, belonging most ample fcope for laughter. to the principal perfonages, afford the

NOVELS, ROMANCES, &C. "Mémoires d'Athanaïfe, par Madame GUENARD," &c.- Memoirs of Athanaïfe, by Madame Guénard, Author of Irma, &c.

vol. 12mo.

Madame Guénard, the author of this novel, has already diftinguished herfelf by her "Irma," and her " Memoirs of the Princefs de Lamballe."

The following is a brief fketch of the plot: Lord Walmore, an Englifhman by birth, tranfmits a letter from London to a female of rank and fashion, whom he had formerly known in France; telling her, that he had been fecretly married, about two years before, to a lady of fixteen years of age, endowed with beauty, talents, the graces, and a well cultivated mind. He further states, that he is obliged to

fail

fail for America, in confequence of orders just received from his court; and that he could not think of leaving a woman at once fo handfome and fo young behind him in the capital of Great Britain, where the would be expofed to all the dangers of feduction.

It was his wifh, he faid, to confide fuch a treasure to the care of a confidential friend, like his correfpondent Madame de Grandprez; and he fupplicated this lady, in the name of their ancient attachment, to permit Laiy Walmore to occupy half her hotel, to fuperintend her conduct, and form her manners, in the fame manner as if the were her own daughter; but, above all things, to be particular in the choice of her company, in order that the might preferve not only the purity of her morals, but that candour and openness of foul which rendered her, in his eyes, the most perfect of mortais. Madame de Grandprez is much furprized, and even difconcerted, in confequence of not being previously confulted by this nobleman, when he had determined on entering into an engagement for life. She at firft hefitates refpecting the answer the ought to return; but he is determined to acqui. efce, when the reflects on the importance of the commiffion with which the was to be entrusted, more especially as it would enable her to gratify her vanity, by figuring away in fociety, giving the ton to her acquaintance, deciding on every thing, and rendering her house, what is fo defirable for every French woman of condition, the general rendezvous of good company. In addition to all this, there was a new inducement in the prefumed birth and dignity of Lady Walmore, for fhe could not fuppofe even for a moment, that a nobleman defcended from fuch an illuftrious stock, would mingle his blood with that of any family lefs pure and lefs illuftrious than his own.

Madame de Grandprez accordingly repairs to Calais, on purpose to receive from the hands of her old friend, the pupil to whom he was to be entrusted with the direction of. This journey afforded her an opportunity of beholding a perfon whom the formerly loved with great tenderness, but to whom, on account of her devotion and her age (having by this time attained her fiftieth year) the could grant nothing more than a conditional esteem, in con

formity to the counfels of her ghoftly

director, and the extraordinary piety which the herself had for fome time affected.

In the mean time, Lady Walmore, after having bid adieu to a fond hufband, fet out for Paris, in company with a female, whom the foon discovered to poffefs the most haughty preten fions, under the veil of extreme fimplicity; while fhe at the fame time con cealed a ridiculous pride behind a ftu died modefty, and a devotion which confifted chiefly in etiquette. In addition to this, the united a decided talent for fcandal, with all the rigidity of a female who profeffes the pureft principles of the gospel. Such was Madame de Grandprez, and fuch for the most part, were all the individuals who compofed the familiar circle with which he was every evening furrounded.

Lady Walmore, who is far from being fatisfied with her new fituation, now addreffes a letter to her friend, Mifs Belton, in London, in which the confeffes her chagrin at being married to a man three times her own age, and entrusted to the care of fuch a fantaftical woman as Madame de Grandprez. Her own character is at the fame time fully developed in the detail of her magnificent carriage, the grandeur of her apartments, which have been furnished in the newest taste, and the number of her retinue, all of which are with difficuity maintained at the expence of 3600 guineas a year.

While environed with this fplendour, the renews a former acquaintance with the Chevalier d'Ac, "whofe fine eyes and fuperb teeth" are carefully, as well as minutely, defcribed; and we learn foon after, that his aind is as deformed as his perfon is agreeable. Unable to ucceed in his attempts on her honour, he gives out that the heroine is only the miltrels of a nobleman, on which Madame de Grandprez, affecting great indignation at fuch a base deception, immediately forces Lady Walmore to leave her hôtel.

While repofing in hired lodgings, amidit the charming groves of St. Cloud, the fair Englishwoman learns from the Count d'Ormont, a French of ficer, just returned from Canada, that her husband had died fuddenly of a fever in that province.

After giving way to her grief, and mourning for a decent time, the widow fees and becomes enraptured with Celicour, a charming young man, who

fhe

she has reafon foon after to fuppofe was no other than her own brother! On this, he earnestly befeeches him to marry a young lady to whom he had been before betrothed, and on whofe death, which occurs foon after, it is at length discovered that the two lovers, notwithstanding fome fpecious appearances, are not allied! The danger and the dread of inceft being now removed, they are immediately united in the bonds of wedlock, and of courfe enjoy all that felicity, which a writer of novels knows how to bestow with a few daches of the pen.

This work abounds with romantic sketches, and depicts all the warmth of the author's ina; but the Memoirs of Athanaïfe are written with negligence, and the ftyle has been greatly neglected. Nor ought it to be concealed, that the leffons conveyed are but little advantageous to morals, although it must be owned, that the recital of the particulars accompanying the death of Madame de Clercé, niece to Madame de Grandprez, is not badly calculated to depict the tragic end of a woman equally deftitute of delicacy and principles.

THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH VOLUME,

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Antiquaries, Proceedings of the fociety of 264 | Bedfordean gold medal, fubject of

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