CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Dramatic Works of Edwin Atherstone. Edited by his Daughter, M. E. Atherstone. (Elliot Stock.)—Mr. Atherstone is known to at least some of our readers as the author of several epics, poems containing some meritorious work, but not successful,—a verdict which has to be pronounced on most epics. This volume contains three plays,—two tragedies, Pelopidas and Philip (the last King of Macedon), and one comedy, Lave, Poetry, Philosophy, and Gout. These were frequently offered to managers and refused. The writer's daughter now appeals to the public of readers against the verdict of the green-room. We will give a specimen of his verse :—
"On every step that leads up to a throne, There stand a myriad sharp, invisible swords To hew down lawless climbers. For this traitor, He shall not put one foot upon the stair, Far less reach up to th' diadem. Thee, Persons,
In the eye of all men do I now proclaim
My son and sole successor. For Demetrius, I here abjure him—cast him utterly off ;— And as a cankered branch is hewn away
And thrown into the flames—so from my heart Is he cut off."
We doubt whether the public will reverse, or even think about reversing, the judgment which the theatre, and, it seems, the author himself, passed on his plays.
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