THE NEW-YORK REVIEW, AND ATHENEUM MAGAZINE. VOL. I. (MAY-NOVEMBER, 1825. NEW-YORK: E. BLISS & E. WHITE, 128 BROADWAY, Clayton & Van Norden, Printers. 1825 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. gait Brucat Aborigines of America, Traits of, Do, Da Ponte's Translation of, Lawrence's Address before the Acadeiny of Fine Arts, Mathison's Narrative of a Visit to Brazil, Rammohun Roy's Precepts of Jesus, Scott's Lives of the Novelists, Sherburne's Life of Paul Jones, Supplement to the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, United States Military System, United States Literary Gazette, Van Rensselaer's Lectures on Geology, Verplanck's Evidences of Revealed Religion, Wheaton's Reports, Bryant 219 26 142 214 203 Adrian Lubbersen, Letter of, 461 Author of the “ Miseries of Human Life,” 392 324 Dante, Critique on certain Passages in, 156. 241. 325 388 489 485 242 76 313 243 Fragment of a Poetical Epistle, 319 388 168 162 163 381 Law School at Northampton, - 822 74 Letter from Samuel Johnson to W. S. Johnson, Letters from a Young American, Letter from an artist in Italy, 396 400. 473 461 Lines Written on revisiting the Country, Note on the most probable value in admeasurements, &c. Objections to a Remark in Campbell's Lectures on Poetry, Poet, the 488 Recollections, 237 Skies, the 158 78 83 158 400. 473 245 THE NEW-YORK REVIEW. JUNE, 1825. Art. I.--Hadad, a Dramatic Poem. By JAMES A. HILLHOUSE, author of “ Percy's Masque,” and “ The Judgment. NewYork. Bliss & White. 1825. Pp. 208. Byr. e. Bryant Though the author of Hadad has chosen to give his work the more general denomination of a dramatic poem, it has all the incidents and characteristics of a tragedy. It is continued through the proper number of acts, is written with a sufficient regard to dramatic unities, and is furnished with a reasonable number and variety of characters. It has a regular plot and catastrophe, and the personages are all finally disposed of according to the fairest rules of poetical justice. Perhaps, however, the author was prevented from calling it a tragedy, by supposing that the nature of the subject, and the introduction of supernatural agents into the plot, would exclude it from the stage. Let it be a dramatic poem, then, since the author chooses to call it so-at all events, we are ready to acknowledge that it is a very good one. The story of this drama is founded on the rebellion of Absalom. This is a very interesting event in the annals of the Jewish nation, and the actors in it were some of the most important personages of scripture history. How far subjects drawn from the sacred writings are proper for narrative or dramatic poetry, is a question about which there has been much discussion. It has been urged, among other objections to this use of such subjects, that it is a sort of unhallowed mingling of fiction with the pure truth of the sacred records, the tendency of which is to impair our reverence for the history of our religion, and our respect for the lessons which that history was intended to inculcate. We must say, however, that, with all proper deference for these scruples, we cannot help thinking them entirely unnecessary. The human personages mentioned in sacred history must be considered as actual human beings, subject to the common passions and infirmities of our race, and, for the most part, to the ordinary influences of good and ill fortune. It cannot surely be VOL. I. 1 |