e brain--never did a
wretch fevered with gluttony and intemperance, and writhing under the
pressure of the night-mare, dream of more horrible circumstances than
those which Mr. Lewis has offered in this prodigious melo-drame, for the
ENTERTAINMENT of the British nation. Where will the taste of England
stop in its descent? Where will the impositions on it by bastard genius
end? Yet since this monster has produced a powerful effect, and is
managed with such perverted skill as to excite a strong interest, and
since whole audiences condescend to club tastes with the scarecrow old
women of the heath and the mountain, and to play "look at the bugabow,"
with the nurselings of the lap, we should be sorry to be deficient in
curtesy, or when so many good and wise people drivel not to drivel a
little too; we bend therefore with stiff and painful obedience to our
duty, and offer our readers a short summary of the fable.

To clear the way then, be it in the first place known, that Mr. Matthew
Lewis has found out a new kind of infernal agent--a demon who delights
in human sacrifices, and lives in the woods. Perhaps it is because we
are poorly versed in demonology that we do not recollect to have heard
of this particular infernal before. Be that as it may, _Count
Hardyknute_ of Holstein, having been sent into the world deformed in
person and poor in circumstances, and being resolved to sell his soul to
damnation for the bettering of his body, makes a contract with the
demon, in condition of his being made handsome and powerful, to
sacrifice to him a human victim on a particular day in each year; in
failure of which he is to become the prey of the demon, who is very
handsomely named _Sangrida_. The count has sacrificed nine victims
before the opening of the piece, and is meditating with himself with
what fat offering he shall next glut the maw of Sangrida, in anniversary
punctuality. _Leolyn_, a dumb boy, the rightful heir of the estate and
title which Hardyknute had usurped, has been secretly bred up by
_Clotilda_ as her own, but Hardyknute discovers him by the mark of a
bloody arrow on his wrist, and determines to help Sangrida to his little
body. _Una_, a beautiful young lady, to whom the count pays his
addresses, is selected by the guardian spirit of Holstein to be the
preserver of the intended victim. The time approaches for the fulfilment
of the agreement. By a process of the most horrible kind of enchantment
Una is enabled to re