15 DECEMBER 1838, Page 19

The Roman Lovers is a tale of the times of

VESPASI AN. It turns upon the passion of one Appius, for a lady called Aurelia, who is gained by Damon, a Greek employed by Appius to woo for him. This leading incident is varied by the hopeless love of Claudia for her fickle admirer Appius, and by some other incidents intended to embody the scandal and gossip of the imperial court; and crowned by Appius and Damon falling in combat, whilst

the favoured swain is eloping with the lady. The tale is told in the artificial form of letters ; and the writer appears to have little more knowledge of antiquity than—that the Romans had slaves and freedmen, reclined on couches at meals, and used the inter- jectional form more freely than we do. It is singular people do not perceive that mere modes of speech cannot be transplanted from one language to another. But so it is ; and writers of more calibre than the author before us deem that they write like Romans, when they copy their turns of phrase, and make the severely simple classics talk on stilts.