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The just request of those that wish him well: You shall behold that peerlesse Dame of Greece,

No otherwise for pompe or majesty, Than when Sir Paris crost the seas with her, And brought the spoiles to rich Dardania." After the exhibition of Helen, who ravishes every beholder with her beauty, an old man enters, who tries to turn Faustus from his evil ways; and the magician seems inclined to follow his advice, and treats him with great tenderness. Mephostophilis however enters, and the terrible sound of his voice destroys all wise resolutions, and seems at once to change the very soul and nature of Faustus, who suddenly converts his fear into ferocity, and desires his familiar to tear into pieces that old man to whose kind advices he had just before so gratefully listened. “Torment, sweet friend, that hase and aged man,

That durst dissuade me from thy Lucifer, With greatest torments that our Hell affords."

This is one of those sublime strokes by which our old dramatists suddenly electrify the soul, and make us forget, as if we had never read them, the numerous pages of dulness and darkness before and after;-the effect of such passages is deep and lasting; they cling to our feelings and imagination; and the remembrance of one such gleam of light opens out to us the whole character and being of the person described, and raises him up, clearly and distinctly, a real, living, and

human existence.

Faustus has no sooner expressed his subjection to his Familiar, than his evil desires recur;—and, first of all,

he exclaims in a rapture,

"One thing, good servant, let me crave of Thee,

To glut the longing of my heart's desire,
That I may have unto my Paramour,
That heavenly Helen which I saw of late,
Whose sweet embraces may extinguish cleare
Those thoughts that do dissuade me from
my vow,

And keep my vow I made to Lucifer."

With this request Mephostophilis eagerly complies, and Helen enters between two Cupids. The address of Faustus to her is distinguished for elegance and grace, and shows the passionate fervency of the lover, joined to the classical propriety of the scholar.

"Faust. Was this the face that launcht a thousand ships,

And burn'd the toplesse towers of Ilium ?

Sweet Helen! make me immortal with a kiss!

-Her lips sucke forth my soule-see! where it flies!

Come, Helen-come, give me my soule againe.

Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.
O! Thou art fairer than the evening ayre
Clad in the beauty of a thousand starres!

Brighter art Thou than flaming Jupiter,
When he appear'd to haplesse Semele!
More lovely than the Monarch of the skye
In wanton Arethusa's azure arms,
And none but Thou shall be my Paramour!”

Faustus are soon to be direfully interBut the rapturous enjoyments of rupted. Lucifer, Beelzebub, and Mephostophilis enter, amid thunder and lightning-and the hour is at hand in which he is to deliver up his soul.

"Luci. Faustus, we come to Thee, Bringing with us lasting damnation, To wait upon thy soule! the time is come Which makes it forfeit.

Meph. And this gloomy night, Here, in this roome, will wretched Faustus be. Beel. And here we'll stay, To marke him how he doth demeane him

self.

Meph. How should he, but in desperate lunacy?

Fond

His

worldling! now his heart-blood dries with griefe !

braine

conscience kills it—and his labouring Begets a world of idle fantasies To over-reach the Devil! but all in vain !"*

Meanwhile Faustus, aware of his approaching destruction, has very coolly made his will, of which we are rather surprised Marlow has not given us a scroll, and takes a tender farewell of his scholars, who retire, and await in an adjoining room the issue of the

fatal visit of Lucifer. That cursed Familiar, Mephostophilis, now comes to torment him.

"Meph. Aye! Faustus! now thou hast no hope of Heaven! Therefore despair! think only upon Hell! For that must be thy mansion.

Faust. O! Thou bewitching Fiend! 'twas thy temptation Hath robb'd me of eternal happinesse. Meph. I do confesse it, Faustus! and rejoice.

to Heaven,

'Twas I-that when thou wert i' the way Damn'd up thy passage,-when thou tookst

the Booke

To view the Scriptures, then I turn'd the

leaves,

And led thine eye. What! weep'st Thou? 'tis too late. Despair! Farewell!"

Faustus is now left alone in his study, and the clock strikes eleven. His last soliloquy will not suffer by a comparison with any passage in any dramatic writer.

"Faust. O Faustus!

Now hast thou but one bare houre to live!

And then thou must be damned perpetually. -Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of Heaven,

That time may cease, and midnight never come !

Faire Nature's eye! rise! rise againe! and make

Perpetual day or let this houre be but a yeare,

A month, a weeke, a naturall day,
That Faustus may repent, and save his soule!
O lente, lente, currite noctis equi!
The stars move still! time runnes! the
clocke will strike!

The Devil will come, and Faustus must be damn'd.

Oh! I'll leap up to heaven!—who pulls me downe?

See where Christ's blood streames in the firmament!

One drop of blood will save me! Oh! my

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Oh! if my soule must suffer for my sin,
Impose some end to my incessant pain!
Let Faustus live in hell a thousand yeares!
A hundred thousand! and at last be say'd.
-No end is limited to damned soules!

Why wert thou not a creature wanting soule?
Or why is this immortal which thou hast ?
Oh! Pythagoras' Metemsycosis! were that
true,

This soule should flie from me, and I be chang'd

Into some brutish beast!

All beasts are happy, for when they die, Their soules are soon dissolv'd in elements.

But mine must live still to be plagued in hell!
Curst be the parents that ingender'd me.
No, Faustus! curse thyselfe! curse Lucifer!
That hath depriv'd thee of the joys of heaven.
[The clock strikes twelve.

It strikes! it strikes! now, body, turne to ayre !

Or Lucifer will beare thee quicke to Hell! O, soule, be chang'd into small water-drops, And fall into the ocean, ne'er to be found! Thunder, and enter the Devils.

O mercy, Heaven! looke not so fierce on me! Adders and serpents! let me breathe a while! Ugly Hell, gape not!-Come not, Lucifer! I'll burn my bookes!-O Mephostophilis!"

The terrified scholars now rush into the study, and one of them exclaims

"The Devil whom Faustus serv'd hath torne him thus !

For 'twixt the hours of twelve and one, methought

I heard him shrieke, and call aloud for help, At which same time the house seemed all on fire,

With dreadful horror of these damned fiends."

The Chorus then enters, and the drama concludes with the following fine lines.

"Cut is the branch that might have growne

full straight,

And burned is Apollo's laurel bough,
That sometime grew within this learned man.
Faustus is gone: regard his hellish fall,
Whose fiendful torture may exhort the wise,
Only to wonder at unlawful things,-
Whose deepnesse doth entice such forward
wits

To practise more than heavenly power permits."

We have enabled our readers to judge of the merit of this drama, from the many extracts now given, and therefore we need not offer any observations of our own. It is obvious, that, as a whole, it is exceedingly imperfect and disproportioned. The commencement and the conclusion are solemn, lofty-even magnificent-but the middle part is out of all keeping; and the ludicrous is therein not only too far prolonged, but too broadly drawn, and deeply coloured. drama, too, comprehends a period of twenty-four years, and the actions and events are too few, and not sufficiently varied. Neither does Faustus seem to deserve the fearful punishment finally inflicted on him by Lucifer. At the same time, Marlow has shown great skill, and a deep knowledge of human nature, in not drawing Faustus as a monster of guilt and iniquity, so as to destroy all sympathy

The

with his sufferings and fate. Though sold to Hell, he seeks rather his own enjoyment and pleasure than the misery of others; nor does he even seek them at the expense of his fellow creatures. When he delivers himself up to pleasure, his paramour is no innocent maiden whom his magic seduces, but the bright phantom of a former age, and his licentiousness, even in its most criminal indulgencies, connects itself with the dreams of an imagination filled with all the forms of classical beauty. Goethe, on the other hand, in his powerful drama on the same subject, has driven Faustus over the edge, and down the abyss, of Sin. But we are not now going to criticise the work of the German philosopher; that we may do at another opportunity. Let us conclude with one remark -that while there is at present abroad throughout the world so mad a passion for poetry, and more especially for poetry in which the stronger passions of our nature are delineated, it is somewhat singular, that such excessive admiration is bestowed on one great living Poet, while (to say nothing of contemporary writers) there are so many glorious works of the mighty dead, unknown or disregarded-works from which that illustrious person has doubtless imbibed inspiration, and which, without detracting from his well-earned fame, we must think, are far superior, in variety, depth, and energy of passion, to the best poems which his powerful genius has yet produced. H. M.

REMARKS ON THE DISEASES LATELY PREVALENT IN EDINBURGH.

A VAPOUR, or effluvium of an unknown nature, which arises from stagnant water in marshes or lakes, commonly called marsh miasma, almost never fails, in the situations in which these exist, to produce Intermittent Fevers or agues. In Edinburgh this disease is recorded to have formerly prevailed epidemically; but since the removal of the cause, by the draining of the marsh which existed on the south side of the town, in the present situation of Hope Park, and of the North Loch, between the Old and New Town, about the middle of last century, intermittent fevers have almost entirely disappeared from the town. Examples of this disease are here now extremely rare, except when excited by exposure

to cold in those who have formerly been affected with it, or who have been exposed to its cause in countries and situations where it still prevails. Two instances only have come under my observation, in which agues appeared to originate in the town or neighbourhood. One was in a gardener, who, in the spring of the year 1815, had been employed in working on the marshy banks of Duddingston Loch. In this man the ague was quotidian; and when, along with a medical friend, I first saw him, about a fortnight after he had been taken ill, the hot stage of the fever was long continued-the cold fit slight and with little shivering; he, at the same time, laboured under cough and other pectoral complaints, which rendered it difficult to determine whether the disease was intermittent fever, or hectic, symptomatic of a rapid consumption. On watching the case, however, for a few days, the progress of the symptoms seemed to indicate that it was intermittent fever. The bark was accordingly given, which, by producing its usual specific effects in that fever, demonstrated the nature of the disease. After a few doses, the paroxysms were diminished in severity, and in a fortnight were entirely removed. The other instance was in a poor man who had lived in the Cowgate, and several years ago was admitted as a patient into the Royal Infirmary with a wellmarked intermittent fever, of which he was speedily cured. In this case no adequate cause could be assigned for its production.

Continued fevers always prevail more or less in Edinburgh. Of these some seem to be produced by exposure, or fatigue, or other causes which it is not easy to ascertain, but do not appear to arise from, or to be communicated by, contagion. This, which may be considered as the synochus, or common continued fever of this country, seems to prevail in all parts of Britain, particularly during summer; and is accordingly denominated by some physicians the Summer Fever. It occurs among all classes of the community, and in persons of all ages; but young and plethoric men seem to be more liable to it than others. It appears to be seldom dangerous; but the feverish symptoms are frequently smart, and are attended by headach, and by sickness of stomach, bilious stools, and other marks of derangement in the

secretion of bile. In other cases the symptoms are exceedingly mild; and I have had frequent opportunities of seeing instances, in which general lassitude, with inaptitude for exertion of the body or mind, impaired appetite, slightly foul tongue, and disturbed sleep, were the only symptoms of the disease, the pulse continuing little if at all above, sometimes even below, the natural standard; and the patients, while lying in bed, feeling so easy in every respect, that it was difficult to persuade them or their friends of the propriety and necessity of confinement to bed, and of their observing an abstemious diet. In these cases the fever has been generally long continued, and its abatement almost imperceptible; no very distinct amendment having taken place till after a period of several weeks.

Besides this fever, there generally exists in Edinburgh, though usually to a very limited degree, a continued fever of a contagious nature, commonly denominated Typhus or Nervous Fever. During the earlier months of last year, a considerable number of cases of this fever appeared in town; but these were chiefly confined to particular situations of the town and suburbs, which are close and ill-aired. Indeed the greater proportion of cases which came under my observation occurred in a house in a close in the Grassmarket, occupied as a beggars' lodginghouse, where, in two small and confined rooms, there were no fewer than seven beds, generally completely filled by the families of vagrants or stranger poor, who had no permanent residence in the town. Into this habitation, so well adapted for the reception and spreading of contagion, a man came from Glasgow affected with fever, and speedily communicated it to others of his fellow-lodgers; and though as many of the sick as possible were sent to the Infirmary, and, in consequence of the fever, several of the lodgers left the house, and others were deterred from coming into it, yet the disease spread through fourteen of the inhabitants of this miserable place. The house was at length left nearly empty; and ventilation and cleaning having been promoted as much as possible, the contagion appeared to have been destroyed, as I believe fever did not afterwards recur among those who resided in it.

The number of fevers diminish

ed very considerably during the summer; but during this last winter it has again increased, and typhus fever has been diffused among the poor in the different quarters of the town, and several persons in the better ranks. of life have been attacked by it. During its prevalence, this fever has however generally been mild, and few cases have occurred in which I have learnt of its having been attended by the severe or putrid symptoms which distinguish malignant typhus. In a great number of the cases there can hardly be said to have been any symptom peculiar to typhus fever; and had it not been from their apparently contagious nature, it would have been impossible to have distinguished them from common continued fever. In the severer cases, however, the symptoms of typhus were more distinct, as shewn by the early delirium, the suffusion of the eyes, the involuntary discharge of the excretions, and the black and incrusted fur on the mouth and tongue. In a considerable number also of these, an eruption of a red colour, not unlike measles in its appearance, but of a paler hue, without being elevated, appeared during the earlier days of the fever, and faded during its progress. No instances have fallen under my own observation, of the occurrence of the small black or dark purple points, commonly called petechia, which are apparently formed by blood thrown out in the skin, and usually considered as a mark of putrescency; but I have been informed of several cases in which they appeared. In one of these cases, the petechiae were preceded, for some days, by the red eruption already noticed. In a very violent case of the fever, which proved fatal, gangrenous vesications were formed, about the eleventh day, on the back and loins, from the irritation produced by the involuntary discharge of the secretions; and various instances of the mortification of the parts of the body which are compressed in lying have taken place. In two instances, I have seen the disease accompanied by an aphthous state of the throat and back part of the nose. In one of these, the fever went on till the twenty-first day, when, under the cooling treatment and antiphlogistic regimen, an abatement took place, and, after a long convalescence, the patient completely recovered. In the other, which occurred in a brother

of the first, after two relapses, in each of which the fever was more severe than in the preceding attack, notwithstanding the very liberal and apparently beneficial use of wine, the strength was completely exhausted, the functions of the stomach failed completely, vomiting of a black matter like coffee-grounds (very similar to what is described under the name of the black vomit in fevers of tropical climates) came on, and the patient died at the end of the eleventh week. In both these cases, the aphthous state of the throat went off during the progress of the fever, and no other symptom of putrescency appeared. In a great proportion of cases, an abatement of the fever has taken place by the fourteenth day; and in many instances, particularly in children, much earlier. In some cases, however, the change did not happen till the twenty-first day. In those in whom the fever proved fatal, death has, as far as I can learn, very rarely taken place at an early period of the disease, but generally at some time after the fourteenth day of its continuance.

It is not easy to form any conjecture with regard to the causes of the different degrees of severity of the fever in different individuals, for among a number affected, placed in the same circumstances, and apparently having derived it from the same contagion, it has been seen to exist in very various states. The disease has, however, been in general much milder among children than in adults, or in those who had passed the age of puberty; and what appears rather remarkable, it has been in general more severe in those of the better classes whom it has attacked than among the poor. It has been among individuals in the better ranks of life, who had every advantage in their accommodation and treatment, and who previously enjoyed a high state of health, that I have seen and heard of the most violent and malignant cases of the fever.

The typhus which has prevailed, has not appeared to have been of a very actively contagious nature; for though in some few families and situations, in circumstances peculiarly well adapted for the propagation of contagion, it spread very generally, yet, in other instances, where but very imperfect means of prevention could be adopted, it affected only a small

part of those exposed to it, and frequently did not proceed further than the individual first attacked. During the last month, the number affected with it has considerably decreased; and there seems reason to hope, that a further abatement will take place with the continuance of the fine weather. The unusual circumstances, however, of the prevalence of a contagious fever, though to an extent which must appear exceedingly trifling, when compared with what takes place in other large towns, or even with what formerly existed in Edinburgh, and of its having attacked several individuals in the better ranks of life, to some of whom it proved fatal, have excited a considerable degree of anxiety in the minds of the public; and most unfounded alarms, and exaggerated reports, have spread abroad with regard to the extent and danger of the disease. The discussion which these have occasioned may not be without its use, as it leads to the consideration of the causes which produce the fever, and of the means to be employed for arresting its progress.

Among the various causes to which the prevalence of the fever has been attributed, the one which has excited most attention, is the great accumulation of the soil from the town, in the dunghills in its immediate neighbourhood. It is true, that it is by no means sufficiently determined, what the circumstances are under which typhus fever is generated, or whether, any more than small-pox or measles, it is ever excited except by a specific contagion; but, as far as is known, there seems no reason to believe that a contagious fever is ever produced by the putrefaction of dead animal or vegetable matter; and, in the present instance, I am aware of no facts which can tend to shew, that the effluvium from the dunghills has had any share in the production or spreading of the fever which has prevailed, while there are many circumstances which go far to establish that it has had no such effect. Besides, when it is considered, that it is universally acknowledged that close and ill ventilated houses, crowded with inhabitants, who, from poverty and want of employment, are debilitated in their bodies, and depressed in their minds, are situations most favourable to the propagation of contagious fever,-that contagious fe

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