17 MARCH 1838, Page 19

1. The Siege of Antwerp; an Historical Play. By WILLIAM

KENNEDY.

2. Freemen and Slaves ; an Historical Tragedy. By WILLIAM BALL.

These are two poems in the dramatic form, written in well- sounding verse; and the trst vigorous, elegant, and full of ideas; but both have the common faults of undramatic plays—a want of vitality, stirring action, and the impetuous flow of passion : the dialogue reads like the deliberately formed ideas of the poet ex- pressed in measured and lofty phrase, not like the spoken words of men in the heat of strong excitement.