SCENE III. NEPTUNE, HERCULES, PEISTHETERUS, TRIBALLIAN, CHORUS. (Various birds are seen suspended by the legs. In the back ground are servants making preparations for a feast. Peisthetarus superintends.) Peis. Who attends there the fires? let him quicken the flame: Briskly, lads Her. Worthy sir, three immortals attend, And such greetings as fit them, their presence commend. Peis. (without looking up.) I am busy-excuse These spices I scrape, and when scraped I infuse. Her. (sniffing.) Under favour allow me-this flesh smells not illWhat's the meat? Peis. "Tis a few bird-reformists we kill; Some varlets who needs must remodel our state ;- Peis. Her. Who in accents thus bland The soft question puts forth? (looking up) ha! Alcides, your hand! Say your business with us? From the skies we are come :— Our object a truce; war has pinch'd us full home. Her. To roast birds without basting... And 'twere very ill-bred .... (softly to Peis.) For, sir, as I said, War to us is all loss; and, I err, or to you- Then your days, halcyon-like, shall be soft, calm and still. Peis. For myself and the Birds, to your words I reply :-- Peace is dear to our hearts, and if peace the gods please, The sceptre they held-Jove those rights must restore. I.... make.... feast-and messieurs-(looking steadfastly at * This is pleasant enough. Peisthetærus, himself a reformer upon the largest scale, has no sooner the reins of power fully in his hands, than he lays all the moderate refor mists by the heels. Her. Her. (aside.) He sees friends then to-day: (aloud,) To the terms I agree; Voice, interest and vote--count on all, sir, from me. Nept. Hold your peace, shameless wretch, nor such gluttony own! See you not, such assent costs your father his throne? Peis. There-your pardon-you err: let the birds hold command He perjures, and crouches, and thinks him unseen. Nept. By myself this is good, and well said-(to Her.)-what think you? Peis. (to the Trib.) And, sir, your opinion is Trib. (nodding his head.) Na bæ sa treu. Peis. Good! his voice goes with yours-other vantage we bring: Nept. Peis. Resolve me, which way While pleasure or business engrosses his mind, ? The quick-stirring Hawk ;-sly the purse-strings he draws, Her. Live the birds once again, and the sceptre be theirs! Nept. What is your will is mine. Her. Your demands have been weighed-we the sceptre allow. To great Jove as before, leave we Juno's lov'd bed;- GG 2 Nept. Nept. All is false-we're deceived, and no longer I treat; Peis. As you please.-(aloud)—Cook, you'll season that meat; Let the sauces be spiced and the jellies made sweet. Her. (to Nept.) My dear little sea-god-plague-prithee-now-fie! Must we still be at war?-why what wind's in your eye ?— For a woman, too! What's to do? Would you endanger our weal? Nept. And defunct;-both his throne and his chattels are yours. Sugar'd words these in faith! but their sweetness I fear(To Her.) Harkye, child, come this way-I've a word for your Peis. ear You're bamboozled-gull'd-cheated-what's further, child, know, "Tis your uncle, 'tis Neptune, that deals the sly blow. Put the case that Jove die; think you, simple, to you (Whispers.) You're a bye blow, and born, as we say, the left side. I a bye blow! Her. Peis. Her. Peis. E'en so it may not be denied. Lawless love gave you birth: wherefore else, d'ye divine, Well, well; this I grant.— But the personals, sir :-Jove will not see me want— Hold the law no such testament knows; If no issue be left,-but of spurious blood, Let the next of kin claim; and his claim be held good." (Looks in Peis. Peis. Her. I'll make you a king-and, a word to the wise- I abandon the skies: Your claim is well urg'd-all its justice I see Just the converse we hold. Peis. The Triballian decides then, (to the Trib.) if it be not too bold .. Trib. This Virg'um so lofty, this mamsel so bright, Let the Bird wed and wivet Her. (to Nept. slapping him on the back.) Peis. Bully rock, said I right? Hold-I bar the intent; He twitters;-excuse me, that marks no assent. How wouldst have him, man, speak? When swallows are link'd, must the banns run pure Greek? Nept. Let the pair please themselves, Neptune's functions here cease: Sign and seal; I stand by, and .... Aught more? Peis. Her. What! abandon your friends? "Twill improve your good cheer: I can roast, boil or fry;-but my uncle makes words; Peis. (laughing.) With a glance at the birds.' (exeunt omnes.) * Bird's milk ranked, in Athenian imaginations, with the utmost extent of human luxury, and consequently furnished a very appropriate enticement for persuading the coarse-minded Hercules to settle among the feathered race. Persons of more delicate taste would need no other inducement for domestication among these happy beings, than the little songs, which the poet, as free and as tuneful as themselves, continually puts into their mouths. Were we not so nearly arrived at the conclusion of our article, we should scarcely be able to resist the temptation of inserting one or two of them. + Wieland, wishing to give a proper substitute for the Triballian's barbarous Greek, and not feeling his own language equal to it, has recourse to a very singular remedy. He inserts a literal English translation in the text, and for the sake of those readers 'who do not think the English language so Triballish and twittering as himself,' he adds a barbarous German version in a note. Much must be mutually forgiven by nations on this point: we remember ourselves, that in passing one of the frontier villages in Germany, and seeing a great part of the inhabitants without their fair proportion of teeth, we immediately ascribed it to the nature of the words which were in the habit of passing through them. ART. IX. The Works of the Reverend William Huntington, S. S. Minister of the Gospel, at Providence Chapel, Gray's Inn Lane, completed to the close of the Year 1806. 1820. In 20 volumes 8vo. TWE WENTY volumes! says the reader. Yes; twenty of the handsomest octavos that have ever issued from Mr. Bensley's press. Who then is William Huntington? Some persons may recognize him as the preacher who, when the unnamed part of his apparel was worn out, used to pray for a supply, and receive a new pair, as he represented it, by the special interposition of Providence. Few will know any thing more of him, and perhaps no person, who is not of his congregation, will have thought it worth while to inspect, much less to peruse his voluminous writings. But an account of him, composed with care and fidelity from those writings, may perhaps be found neither uninteresting nor incurious. The Coalheaver who, by virtue of his preaching, came to ride in his coach and marry the titled widow of a Lord Mayor, could be no ordinary man. At The S. S. was born in the year 1774, and has described the place of his nativity in the Weald of Kent with curious minuteness, for the use of those who may be disposed to make a pilgrimage thither. The house in which I was born,' says he, lies between Goudhurst and Cranbrook, about the midway between the two parishes, but in the parish of Cranbrook. If a person walks from Goudhurst to Cranbrook on the main road, he comes to a little green, with what is called the Old Park on the left, and Glassenbury House, once the seat of Sir Walter Robarts, on the right hand. On that green is a road that turns to the left, and leads through the woods to Cranbrook. About a quarter of a mile from that green on the high road, is a place called the Four Wents, where four roads or ways meet. that place are three houses: a farm-house on the left hand, and two small houses on the right: in the first of those small houses, on the right hand, is the place where my mother brought me forth to see many an evil day.' His nominal father was a day-labourer, who worked for seven or eight shillings a week in the winter, and nine in the summer:-' a poor, quiet, honest God-fearing man,' says the S. S. who was shut out of his own bed for years by a wretch that defiled both his wife and his bed.'-' I am a bastard,' he says, in another place, begotten by another woman's husband, and conceived in the womb of another man's wife, the offspring of double adultery.' Barnabas Russel, the real father, secretly owned this boy for his child, and put him to a day school; where he learnt to read and to write a little, but nothing more. The nominal father who, however honest and God-fearing he may have 6 been, |