"A village plundered by the infurgent peafantry, Shrieks and tumult, women, old men, and children fly across the stage.

Old Man. Away! away! fly from the murdering dogs!

Woman.

rifing fun! Another.

Sacred heaven! How blood-red is the heaven! How blood-red the

'Tis fire!

Link. Look round; you are in at the death.From whence ?

Mezler. From Weinsberg.-There was a feast!

Link. How?

Mezler. We ftabb'd them all in fuch heaps, it was a joy to fee it!
Link. All whom?

Mezler. Ditrich Von Weiler led up the dance. There was fport for thee! We were all in a raging heap round the church steeple. He looked out and wifhed to treat with us. Bat! a ball through his head.-Up we rufhed like a tempeft, and the fellow foon made his exit by the window. Then we brought out thirteen of the nobility-in all eighty. What a shouting and jubilee among our boys, as they broke loose upon the long row of miferable rich finners. Heaven and earth! how they ftruggled and stared on each other! We furrounded them, and killed every foul with pikes. Hadft thou feen how the fellows writhed in a heap, and croaked like frogs! It warm'd my heart like a cup of brandy."

Would that this picture were only just as a representation of the feudal days of Germany. It muft bring to every one's mind, the outrages of the French regicides and of the Irish infurgents.

The painting of a comet fpeaks the hand of a maiter. "Mezler. Haft thou feen the great comet ?

Link. Yes, it is a dreadful ghaftly fign! As we marched by night, we saw it well. It went towards Ains

Mezler. And was vifible for an hour and a quarter, like an arm brandishing a fword, and bloody red!

Link. Didst thou mark the three stars at the sword's hilt and point?

Mezler. And the broad black clouds, illuminated by a thousand thousand streamers like lances and like fwords?

Link. I faw it well-and beneath a pale white; crofs'd with fiery ruddy flames, and among them grifly figures with fhaggy hair and beards.

Mezler. Did you fee them, too? And how they all fwam about as if in a fea of blood, and struggled all in confufion enough to drive me mad!"

The gipfey fcene has a terrific wildness.

"Front of a giffey hut in a wild foreft.-Night A fire before the hut, at which fit the mother of the gipfies and a girl-It rains and thunders.

Mother. Throw fome fresh ffraw up the thaten, daughter. It iains fearfully. Enter a Gipley-boy.

Bey. A dormouse, mother! and here, two field mice!

Mother. Skin them and roast them, and thou shalt have a cap of their skins.— Thou bleedeft!

Boy. Dormouse bit me.

Mother. Gather fome thorns, that the fire may burn bright; when thy father comes, he will be wet through and through.

Other gipfey-women enter, with children at their backs.

First Woman. Halt thou fared well?

Second Woman. Ill enough. The whole country is in an uproar : One's life is not fafe a moment. Two villages are in a light flame.

First Woman. So it was the fire that glared in the sky.—I looked at it long, for flaming meteors have been fo common.

The captain of the gipfies enters with three of his gang.

Captain. Heard ye the wild huntsman ?

First Woman. He pafs'd by us but this minute.

Captain. How the hounds gave tongue!-Wow! wow!
Second Man. How the whips clang!

1

Third Man. And the huntfrman cheered them! Hollo-ho!
Mother. 'Tis the devil's chace.

Captain. Hark; a horfe! go fee who it is.

Enter Goetz on horseback.

Goetz. I thank thee, God! I fee fire-They are gipfies. My wounds bleed. forely-my foes close behind! Great God! thou endeft dreadfully with me. Captain. Is it in peace thou comeft?

Goetz. I crave help from you. My wounds are stiff with cold.—Affil me from my horse,

Captain. Help him a gallant warrior in appearance and language.

Wolf. (afide) Tis Goetz of Berlichingen!

Captain. Welcome! welcome! what we have is yours,

Goetz. I thank you!

Captain. Come to my hut!

(Exeunt to the hut.)

Infide of the hut, Captain, Gipfies, and Goetz.

Captain. Call our mother let her bring bloodwort and bandages. (Gertz un arms himself) Here is my holiday doublet."

Goetz. God reward you! (the mothe, binds his wounds.)

Captain. I rejoice from my heart you are here.

Goetz. Do you know me?

Captain. Who does not know you, Goetz? Our lives and heart's blood an

yours.

Enter Gipfey men.

Gipfey. Horfemen come through the wood.-They are confederates.

Captain. Your purfuers! they fhall not reach you.-Away. (Shrieks) call the others. We know the palles better than they-We fhall bring them down ere they are aware of us. (Exeunt Captain and men gipfies with their guns.)

Goetz (alone.) Oemperor! emperor! robbers protect thy chilldren! (a fharp fi ning of mufquetry is heard.) The wild forefters! steady and true.

Enter Women.

Women. Save yourself!-The enemy have overpowered us.

Goetz. Where is my horse?

Woman. Here!

Goetz (girds his horfe and mounts without his armour.) For the laft time you fhall feel my arm.-) -Never was it fo weak. (Exit. Tumult.)

H'oman.

He gallops to join our party. (firing.)

Enter Wolf.

Wolf Away! away all is loft. The captain fhot dead!-Goetz a prisoner.➡➡ (The women (cream and fly into the wood.)

We here perceive fome of the ftrong and rapid ftrokes of Goethe's pencil. The above, alfo, may convey to the reader fome notion of the conduct of the piece, which is all buftle and activity. The author, indeed, hurries us from place to place, with too great a degree of ra. pidity.-Modo me Thebis, modo ponit Athenis. To Dr. Johnfon's opinion of the unities, however, we have long fubfcribed from a con. viction of its juftness.

With the invifible tribunal" the members and executioners of which were unknown, and met in fecret to condemn to death fuch criminals as other courts of juftice could not reach, we have already been made acquainted by feveral translations from the German, particularly the romance called Herman of Unna. With a fcene founded upon this extraordinary inftitution, we fhall conclude our extracts.

“A narrow vault dimly illuminated. The judges of the fecret tribunal discovered feated all muffled in black cloaks and filent.

Elde

·Eld. Fudge. Judges of the fecret tribunal, fworn by the cord and the steel, to be unpitying in juftice, to judge in fecret, and to avenge in fecret, like the deity, Are your hands clean and hearts pure? Raise then to heaven and cry, Woe upon Mildoers?

All. Woc! Woe!

Eldef Judge. Cryer, begin the diet of judgement.

Cryer. I cry for accusation against misdoers !—Whose heart is pure, whose hand is clean, let him accuse and call upon the fleel and the cord for vengeance! vengeance! verigeance!

Accufer. (comes forward) My heart is pure from mifdeed, and my hand clean from innocent blood: God pardon my fins of ignorance, and frame my fteps to his way! -I raise my hand aloft and cry, Vengeance! Vengeance! Vengeance!

Eldeft Judge Vengeance upon whom?

Accufer. I call upon the cord and upon the feel for vengeance, against Adela Von Weiflingen.-She has committed adultery and murder. She has poifoned her husband by the hands of her fervant.The fervant hath flain himself.-The husband is dead.

Eldef Judge. Sweareft thou by the God of truth, that thy accufation is true? Accufer. Ifwear.

Eldeft Judge. Doft thou take upon thy own head the punishment of murder and adultery, thould it be found falle?

Accufer. I take it.

Eldeft Judge. Your voices? (They converse a minute in low whispers.)

Accufer. Judges of the Secret Tribunal, what is your doom upon Adela Von Weiflingen, accused of murder and adultery?

Eldef Judge. She fhall die! Shall die a bitter and double death! By the double doom of the steel and the cord, fhall the expiate the double mifdeed. Rafe your hands to heaven and cry, Woc unto her!-Be fhe given to the hand of the avenger.

All. Woe! Woe!

Eldeft Judge. Come forth, avenger. (A man advances.)

Eldest Fudge. There haft thou the cord and the fteel-Within eight days muft thou take her from the face of heaven. Wherever thou findest her, let her no longer cumber the ground. Judges, ye that judge in fecret, and avenge in secret, like the deity, God keep your hearts from wickedness, and your hands from innocent blood!"

(The Scene clofes.)

The tranflator informs us that "fome liberties have been taken with the original, in omitting two occafional difquifitions upon the civil law as practifed in Germany--that literal accuracy has been lefs ftu. died in the tranflation, than an attempt to convey the fpirit and gene ral effect of the piece," and that he is little "distrustful of the fidelity of the verfion, owing to the friendship of a gentleman, of high literary eminence, who has obligingly taken the trouble of fuperiatending the publication.”

ART. XIV. The Votary of Wealth, a Comedy, in Five Acts; as performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. By J. G. Hol man, Author of "Abroad and At Home." Second Edition. 8vo. Pp. 87. Price zs. Longman. London. 1799.

THOUGH "the Votary of Wealth" may fcarcely be entitled to a place among our first-rate plays, fuch as The Heiress," of Bur-; goyne, or "The School for Scandal," of Sheridan; yet we can fafely pronounce it fuperior to the Spe&res or the Bluebeards that have amufed, of late, the children of dilipation.

In this comedy, the dialogue is by no means a tissue of proverbial vulgarities and tragical declamation. Obfervations, it is true, are here and there interfperfed, which are unmeaning or fuperfluous. But in general, few paffages occur, which have not a tendency to the acceleration of the main defign.

The characters, we believe, are justly imitated from nature. That old Viforly and his fon have their prototypes in real life, we affert from our own obfervation and experience.

The laws of poetical juftice are here strictly obferved, and the moral is clear and obvious, not shrouded in mystery, as it often hap pens in our modern dramas; where, from the fentiment and conduct of the hero or principal perfonages, as well as the obfcure application of the fable, we fufpect that the author is a fecret friend to fome impofing fashion or tenet of the day, which at the touch of reason must start up in its native deformity.

The features of the weak and covetous Old Viferly, and his bafer fon Leonard, will at once appear in the following scene:

"Old Viforly. Well, my dear boy, what news-what news?

Leonard. Very important, Sir;-Cleveland is no more.

Old Vif. Dear me! dear me!

Leon. By this I learn, that the veffel that brought him from Bengal, is wrecked, and he has perished.

Old Vif Poor man! poor man! alas! he was a good twenty years younger than I am. Only to think that I should outlive him! Ah! there is no knowing who is to go to the grave firft. Mayhap, I may outlive you, Leonard. (weeping)

Leon. Oh! Sir, don't indulge fuch melancholy ideas. His death, though, to be fure, very dreadful, and likely to awaken fenfibility in the breafts of his relations, yet carries with it to us a kind of confolation.

Old Vif. How do you mean, Leonard ?

Leon. You know my wish to be united to his daughter, and, perhaps, he might have had in his mind a different alliance for her.

Old Vif. Very true.

Leon. Now my attainment of that object is infinitely more fecure; the mother and the girl being both under our roof and likely to continue fo.

Old Vif. Very true. Lord, what a blockhead was I, to fall a blubbering, and for a man too, who, though he was my first coufin, I should not have known from Adam. But I have a very tender heart.

Leon. Yes; and a very foft head (Afide.) But now, Sir, to break these dismal tidings to his wife and daughter. That must be my mother's business.

Old Vif. Yes; we will go and prepare her to make the melancholy difcovery. You have the way, my dear Leonard, of placing things in a right point of view. It is really quite a weakness, my being fo tender-hearted."

We prefer the faithful Oakworth, of "the Votary of Wealth," to the Jack Buller, of "the Birth-day," and are willing to entertain the flattering idea, that in the good old honest domeftic, there is fomething characteristically English.

"Leonard. You are welcome, Sir.

Oakworth. Thank you, Sir;-thank you. So I be got to you, at laft. You great folks take a plaguy time coming at. Ma'am, your humble fervant. Mayhap I fhould fay, your ladylhip.-Pray excufe all faults.

Leon. Never mind. Lady Jemima does n't stand on ceremony.

Oakw. Don't he? Why then, lady Jemima is a lady juft after my own heart. Old Vif. Well, Sir.-You come concerning Mr. Cleveland.

Oak

Why, yes, Sir, yes. You must know, Sir, that I am an odd fellow that

remember

remember Mrs. Cleveland, (heaven, blefs her!) when she was not the height of my knee. Often and often is the time, that I have danc'd her o' top of it. Well, that is neither here nor there. When her father died-Ah! I fhall never forget it-He has not left a better man behind him. There was not a dry eye in the village except the undertaker's; and folks do fay, he cried a bit. Well, her father, good foul! had met with fo many loffes and croffes, that there was little enough left for his daughter, to live like a lady on, fo the was perfuaded by her friends to take a voyage to India, with a cousm of her's who had retired, and was going to fettle there.

Leon. Mr. Cleveland has acquainted me with the reft; there he married her, and from thence, by the feverity of his father, he was forced to fend her.

Oakw. Ah, poor dear! home the came again, miferable enough, to be fure. Well, mayhap, all for the beft. Now she will be as happy as the days are long.

Leon. What delight, Sir, you must feel at the happiness of this family, to whom you have fhewed fo much attachment! What gratitude do they not owe you!

Oukw. Gratitude to me! That is a great miflake of yours, and it behoves me to let you right. Mrs. Cleveland's father faved me from ruin ;-me and my family from beggary; and, I think, he must have a bad notion of the value of a kindness done him, who, if he could live long enough, would not strive to repay it down to the fiftieth generation.

Leon. What a noble heart!

Oake. Noble heart! Pfha! pfha! fure the world is not fo bad, that a man need be prais'd for not being a monster.

Leon. I am proud of the happiness of being known to you.

Old Vif. And fo am I, most fincerely.

Oakw. Why, to be fure, a mighty matter to be proud of, Gentlemen, being known to an old ftupid country bumpkin. Surely you be jeering a body-but if you be, I can't find in my heart to be angry; for as long as you are fo good and fo kind to the dear creatures I love, you may flout and jeer at me, as much as you please.

Leon. We feel the value of fuch integrity as yours; and be affured, we shall atways fay lefs of your merit than we think you deferve.

Old Vif. Always lefs than you deferve.

Oakw. Do you know I fhall take that very kind of you. For if you are fo good as to fancy I have any deferts at all, you must in confcience think they be very little; and if fo be you keep your word and fay lefs than you think, I shall be mighty happy, because then you will just fay nothing at all. So, Gentlemen, as in duty bound, I am your most humble fervant."

The prologue, written by G. W. T. Fitzgerald, Efq. and the epilogue, by John Taylor, Efq. though not in the beft ftyle of thofe wri. ters, and, confequently, not gems of the firft water, have intrinfic worth when compared with the Bristol Stone of Miles Peter Andrews.

POLITICS.

ART. XV. Subftance of the Speech of the Right Honourable Henry Addington, Speaker of the House of Commons, on the 12th of February, 1799. In the Committee of the whole Houft, to whom His Majesty's met gracious Meffage of the 22d of January, relative to Ireland, was referred. Second Edition. Sve. Pp. 44. Price Is. Wright. London. 1799.