this treatment is infanity. The diftemper, however, only feizes her at intervals, and fometimes leaves her for years fenfible and collected. Upon the execution of Effex, fhe becomes an incurable maniac. Breaking, in one inftance, from her keepers, fhe forces her way to the prefence of Elizabeth. In the subsequent narrative, the well known and deplorable incidents, attending the concluding fcenes of this incomparable princefs, are happily interwoven with the fiction of our author.

The queen, wholly funk in the chilling melancholy of incurable defpair, and hopeless age, refigned herself up to the influence of thofe evils. Her ladies were often employed in reading to her, which was the only amusement her chagrin admitted.. One memorable night it was my turn. Elizabeth difmiffed every other attendant, in the vain hope of finding a repose of which fhe had for ever deprived herfelf. I purfued my task a long while, when the time conspired with the orders of the queen to produce a filence fo profound, that had not her ftarts now and then recalled my fenfes, hardly could my halfclosed eyes have difcerned the pages over which they wandered. The door flew fuddenly open-a form fo fair-fo fragile-fo calamitous, appeared there, that hardly durft my beating heart call it Ellinor. The queen ftarted up with a feeble quickness, but had only power to faulter out a convulfive ejaculation. I instantly remembered that Elizabeth believed her dead, and imagined this her fpectre. The beauteous phantom (for furely never mortal looked fo like an inhabitant of another world) funk on one knee; and, while her long garments of black flowed gracefully over the floor, fhe lifted up her eyes toward heaven, with that nameless fweetness, that wild, ineffable benignity madness alone can give, then meekly bowed before Elizabeth.- The queen, heart-ftruck, fell back into her feat, without voice to pronounce a fyllable. Ellinor arofe, and approached ftill nearer; ftanding a few moments choaked and filent. I once was proud, was paffionate, indignant," faid the fweet unfortunate at laft, in the low and broken voice of inexpreffible anguish; Heaven forbids me now to be fo.-O! you who was furely born only to chaftife my unhappy race, forgive me I have no longer any fente but that of forrow.". Again the funk upon the floor, and gave way to fobbings fhe struggled in vain to fupprefs. The queen dragged me convulfively to her, and, burying her face in my bofom, exclaimed indiftin&ly, "fave me, fave me,-O! Pembroke, fave me from this ghaftly fpectre !"- - Effex-Effex-Effex!" groaned forth the proftrate Ellinor, expreffively raifing her white hand at each touching repetition The violent fhudderings of the queen marked the deep effect that fatal name took on her. Somebody told me,' continued the lovely wanderer, "that he was in the Tower; but I have looked there for him till I am weary is there a colder, tafer prifon, then? But is a prifon a place for your favourite? and can you condemn him to the grave?-Ah, gracious Heaven! ftrike off his head-his beauteous head! feal up thofe fparkling eyes for ever!-O, no! I thought not," faid the, with an altered voice." So you hid him bere, after all, only to torment me. But Effex will not

66

"but

fee me fuffer-will you, my lord? So-fo-fo"-the flow progress of her eyes round the room fhewed, fhe in imagination followed his fteps." Yes-yes," added fhe, with revived fpirits, "I thought. that voice would prevail; for who could ever refift it?-and only I need die, then; well! I do not mind that-I will fteal into his pri fon, and fuffer in his place; but be fure you don't tell him fo, for he loves me-ah! dearly does he love me; but I alone need figh at that, you know." And figh she did, indeed. O! what a world of woe was drawn up in a fingle breath! The long filence which followed induced the queen once more to raise her head-the fame fad object met her eyes, with this difference, that the fweet creature now ftood up again, and, putting one white hand to her forehead, fhe half raised the other, as earnestly demanding fill to be heard, though her vague eyes fhewed her purpose had efcaped her. "O! now I remember," resumed the; " I do not mind how you have me murdered, but let me be buried in Fotheringay; and be fure I have women to attend me; be fure of that-you know the reason." This incoherent reference to the unprecedented fate of her royal mother affected Elizabeth deeply.- "But could not you let me once more fee him before I die?" refumed the dear wanderer. "O! what pleasure would it give me to view him on the throne! O! I do fee him there!" exclaimed fhe, in the voice of furprise and tranfport. "Benign, majestic! Ah! how glorious in his beauty! Who would not die for thee, my Effex!". 66 Alas! never, never, never, fhall I fee him!" groaned forth the agonized Elizabeth.- "Me married to him!" refumed our friend, replying to fome imaginary fpeech"O, no! I took warning by my fifter! I will have no more bloody marriages you fee I have no ring," wildly difplaying her hands, 66 except a black one; a black one, indeed, if you knew all; but I need not tell you that; have I, my lord ?-look up here is my love -he himself fhall tell you.' She caught the hand terror had caufed Elizabeth to extend; but, faintly fhrieking, drew back her own, furveying it with inexpreffible horror. "O! you have dipt mine in blood!" exclaimed the; "a mother's blood! I am all contaminated

it runs cold to my very heart. Ah! no-it is-it is the blood of Effex! and have you murdered him at laft, in spite of your dotage, and your promises ? murdered the most noble of mankind! and all because he could not love you. Fye on your wrinkles! - can one love age and uglinefs? O! how thofe artificial locks, and all your paintings, fickened him!-How have we laughed at fuch prepofterous folly! - But I have done with laughing now-we will talk of graves, and shrouds, and churchyards.- Methinks I would fain know where my poor fifter lies buried-you will fay, in my heart, perhaps -it has, indeed, entombed all I love yet there must be fome little unknown corner in this world one might call her grave, if one could but tell where to find it: there fhe refts, at laft, with her Leicefterhe was your favourite too - a bloody, bloody distinction !"—— The queen, who had with difficulty preferved her fentes till this cutting period, now funk back in a deep fwoon.

The diftrets of my fituation cannot be expreffed. Fearful left any attempt to fummon a fingle being fhould irritate the injured Ellinor

to

to execute any dire revenge, for which I knew not how fhe was pre pared, had not Elizabeth, at this juncture, loft her fenfes, I really think mine would have failed me. I recollected that the queen, by every teftimony, was convinced the unhappy object, thus fearfully brought before her, died in the country long fince; nor was it wife or fafe, for those who had imposed on her, now to acknowledge the deception. "So-fo-fo," cried Ellinor, with a ftart, "would one have thought it poffible to break that hard heart, after all? and yet I have done it. She is gone to-no; not gone to Effex."

Let

us retire, my sweet Ellen," faid I, eager to get her out of the room, " left the queen fhould fuffer for want of affiftance."-" Hush!” cried fhe, with increasing wildness, " they will fay we have beheaded her alfo. But who are you?" fixing her hollow eyes wiftfully on me; "I have seen you fomewhere ere now; but I forget all faces in gazing on his pale one. I know not where I am, nor where you would have me go," added the, foftly fighing; "but you look like an angel of light; and may be, you will carry me with you to heaven." I feized the bleffed minute of compliance, and, drawing her mourning hood over her face, led her to the little court, where my fervants waited my difmiffion; when, committing her to their charge, I returned to wake the ladies in the antichamber, through whofe inadvertent flumbers alone, Ellinor had been enabled to pass to the clofet of the queen; a circumftance which combined with a variety of others, to give this ftrange vifitation the appearance of being fuper natural.

6

Every common means were tried in vain to recover the queen, and the applications of the faculty alone could recal her fenfes; but the terror he had endured has fhook them for ever. Shuddering with apprehenfions, for which only I can account, fhe often holds incomprehenfible conferences; complains of an ideal vifitor; commands every door to be fhut; yet ftill fancies fhe fees her, and orders her to be kept out in vain. The fuppofed difregard of thofe in waiting incenfes a temper fo many caufes concur to render peevish, and her unmerited anger produces the very difregard the complains of. "Rage and fear unite thus to harrafs her feeble age, and accelerate the decay of nature. When these acute fenfations fubfide, grief and defpair take poffeffion of her whole foul; nor does the fuffer lefs from the fenfe of her decaying power. Unwilling to refign a good the is unable to enjoy, fhe thinks every hand that approaches is eager to fnatch a fceptre, she will not even in dying bequeath. O, fweet Matilda! if yet indeed thou furviveft to witness this divine vengeance,. thy gentle tears would embalm even thy moft mortal enemy! thou couldit not, without pity, behold the imperial Elizabeth, loft to the common comforts of light, air, nourishment, and pleasure. That mighty mind, which will be the object of future, as it has been of palt, wonder, prefenting now but a breathing memento of the frailty of humanity. Ah! that around her were affembled all those aspiring fouls, whole wishes center in dominion; were they once to behold this diftinguifhed victim of ungoverned paffion, able to rule every being but herself, how would they feel the potent example! Ah! that to them were added the many, who, fcorning focial love, confine to ENG. REY, Vol. VI. March 1786. N felf

felf the bleffed affections which alone can fweeten the tears we all are born to fhed! Gathering round the weary couch where the emaciated queen withers in royal folitude, they might at once learn ure banity, and correct, in time, errors, which, when indulged, but too feverely punish themselves.'

In the structure of her novel, Mifs Lee is palpably the imitator of the celebrated St. Real. We know not how this fpecies of romance has efcaped with fo little cenfure from the critics. For ourselves, we believe, that Addifon's excellent ri dicule of Nicolini failing in a real boat upon a fea of pafte"board," never was more applicable than to this species of compofition. There are two excellencies of which the productions of human genius are capable, one more important than the other, but both highly worthy of our attention and applaufe. One of thefe is, properly confidered, nature accomplished by art; the other, art affifted by nature. To the first clafs belong the fublime and the pathetic. The fecond is the only proper province of precept and system, from the poetics of Ariftotle to the differtations of Boffu. The principal feature in this fecond clafs is unity. That great and venerable art, which points every incident to the accomplishment of one grand defign, that admits not of a word, nor, we had almoft faid, of a letter, that obftructs or diminishes it, can scarcely be too much cultivated and commended. But of all the kinds of incompactnefs and difunion, the most ridicu lous and contemptible, as it appears to us, is that which forces into contact the historical and the fabulous.

This may either be effected with the extreme of art and ingenuity, or it may be performed with all the clumfinefs and botching of a cobler. The latter kind of performance will, we apprehend, meet but with a small number of advocates. But even when this jarring concord is attempted with the utmost historical skill, as is the cafe with St. Real, it can never afford pleasure to a man of real tafte. The great incidents of ancient and modern ftory form the firft and favoured object of contemplation to a man of letters. When they come to him a fecond time, however artfully disfigured, he must neceffarily receive them with difguft. The characters of an Otho and a Nero, whatever they are, are to be deduced from their actions. The unity of thefe great hiftorical pieces, if we may venture the idea, has been formed by the hand of God. All the trappings, all the artificial additions of human invention, add just as much to the grace and effect of the original, as the fashionable drefs of the year 1786 would to the Venus de Medicis, or the Apollo Belvidere. St. Real, however, has been fomething more fortunate, in the choice of his fcene,

than

than Mifs Lee. The memories of few are impreffed with more than the outlines of the hiftory of the Roman emperors, while the moft trifling and minute events of the reign of Elizabeth are as familiar to us as our letters.

Our author has befide encountered another misfortune in the delineation of her plan. While we read St. Real, though acquainted with the fictitiousness of his incidents, we forcibly perceive, that Nero, Agrippina, and Tigellinus, had they been placed in his fituations, would have acted and fpoke exactly as he has represented them. But in Mifs Lee, truth and falfehood, virtue and vice, are confounded with a master's hand. We can scarcely diftinguifh, in her narrative, the cold, blooded, and murderous Earl of Leicester, from the ingenuous, the manly, and engaging Effex; and even the detefted Somerset appears, at leaft for a time, agreeable and virtuous. Nor can we, by any means, approve of the inclination Mifs Lee difplays to blacken and calumniate the character of Elizabeth. She had undoubtedly her faults, her foibles, and her vices; but a more comprehenfive and penetrating mind, a more confummate statesman, a greater genius in the science of politics, never exifted. And this country is indebted to her in the moft lafting obligations. Hume has difcovered the true secret of her character, when he tells us, that, if we would form an estimate of her merits, we must think of her foul, and forget her fex.

From the particular defign of the prefent novel, we turn to the general merits of our author. To whatever they amount, they appear to us to be the gift of Nature, and not of art. She is unhappy, in our opinion, in the invention of her incidents; and fhe is the furtheft in the world from fkill and effect in arranging them. The fcenes, for example, to which we have alluded, in the houfe of Lord Burleigh, are, in themselves, ftriking and pitiable in the extreme; but they are huddled with fo much indiftinctnefs, as to deprive them of half their operation on our feelings. Incapable of giving proper fcope and energy to fingle misfortunes, our author has heaped up calamity on calamity with a lavishness hitherto unequalled. Her ftile is loofe, uncultivated, and ungrammatical. Its ellipfes, in particular, are to the laft degree violent and uncouth. And so much of alloy has Mifs Lee, even in her happiest efforts, that the fcene we have extracted, between Ellinor and Elizabeth, has blended, in the most extraordinary manner, all the exquifite touches of the pathetic with the weakest and most absurd imitation of madness we have ever feen.

We do not mean, however, by the freedom of these strictures, to imply, that Mifs Lee has no merit, and deferves to