4 FEBRUARY 1832, Page 19

PICTURES AND ARTISTS.

THE costume of the last century is a field whence GEORGE CRUM- SHANK gleans a rich harvest of the grotesque. His characters, how- ever, are not mere ordinary persons in masquerade ; they have other peculiarities besides their dress. His Parson Trulliber, Adams, Captain Bath and Booth, in the Amelia and Joseph Andrews of FIELDING, which form Volumes VIL and VIII. of the .Novelist's Library, so well fill up the idea we had formed of these characters, that we should be satis- fied with the ideal portraits, even were the humour of the scenes and the ludicrous situations wanting; though GIWIESHANK 6118 up a pic- ture admirably, and his details have an effect similar to the turns of language with which a good story-teller embellishes a narrative. We read over again the rich scenes of Smoixarr and FIELDING illUS- trated by CRITIESHANK, with a relish similar to what would be sup- plied by the piquant anecdotes of some octogenarian, who had been ac- quainted with the incidents andns that formed the groundwork of the adventures of the story. %Tare carried back to the time, the place, and into the scene itself. Here is a new edition of ANSTEY'S Beth Guide; a book which, ,un-

like most other satires of fashionable follies, will outlive the absurdities it ridicules ; and the etchings of CRGIKSMANK give new point to the wit and fresh gusto to the humour. Mr. Simpkin, however, is some- what too much of a bumpkin even for a country squire of that day. The scene where he consults the Doctor, and that where be dances a reel with a couple of chairs, are wrought up in the true spirit of the au- thor; and the rest of the plates are congenial in their drollery. The new edition is considerably cheaper than its immediate predecessor.