as it is, it will be useful to the lovers of Italian literature in this country, where foreign books are not easily to be procured, even at a price three and four-fold of their original cost. The prefatory notices are brief but useful. The editor must surely be mistaken, when he asserts that Pope was accustomed to say there were only two per sons in the world who, understood Greek, Calvini, in Florence, and he himself in London. Pope was too feeble a Grecian for this vaunt. The Rector of L. does not extend his supremacy beyond the limits of England, not even after dinner, when he confines the knowledge of Greek to one man. ART. XXI. Scenes of Infancy; descriptive of Tiviotdale. By JOHN LEYDEN. 12mo. PP. WE have seen many poems of the present day which greatly resemble this, and yet we scarcely know how to characterize it. The verse is smooth, the diction elegant, the matter varied, a picturesque country is described, many fanciful superstitions are touched on, many historical facts narrated, which are interesting cven in plain prose; yet altogether the performance is not impressive. Except a slight degree of affectation, we are unable to point out any positive fault in the style; but in the plan of the piece there is a great and obvious one-it wants regularity, compactness, and union of parts into a whole. Perhaps we should be full as correct in saying the piece has no plan. Still, if this were all, detached parts, however, might please, or indeed the whole, when considered as a miscellany, ake Cowper's Task, which surely arrests ttention full as forcibly as any regular pic in our language. But, if we must ART. XXII. Poems on several Occasions. 12mo. IN these volumes there is a great deal f sound morality and orthodox religion, nd about as much poetry as in a copy f the Bellman's verses. But these eping censures are unpardonable: tatle reader, then, judge for yourself. Pale sickness spread o'er Delia's face of late, areaten'd her brilliant charms t'obliterate; n'd was the lustre of that beauteous eye, Which apathy might warm to extacy. by fear'd, who knew the highly valued maid, fat medicine would try in vain its aid.” The maid recovered, however: phycians sore, long time she bore, but at ist got well. 184. say it, one trifling circumstance still remains to be objected---Mr. Leyden is not a poet, and when this is the case, a man is as little likely to succeed in a scene as in a drama-in an epigram as in a satire— in a couplet as in a volume. Though it may rather militate against our assertion, we quote Mr. Leyden's best passage, in which the genuine feelings of his heart seem to have been his inspirers. Speaking of himself is apt to render the plainest man eloquent. Mr. L. it is to be observed, is about to embark for the East Indies. "Not yet, with fond but self-accusing pain, Mine eyes, reverted, wander o'er the main; But, sad, as he that dies in early spring, When flowers begin to blow, and larks to sing, And makes it doubly hard with life to part. When nature's joy a moment warms his heart, I hear the whispers of the dancing gale, And, fearful, listen for the flapping sail, Seek, in these natal shades, a short relief, And steal a pleasure from maturing grief." By CHARLES CRAWFORD, Esq. 2 vols. pp. 350. Among other pious breathings, we have a poetical paraphrase, as it is called by a violent misnomer, of our Saviour's sermon on the mount: exempli gratia: "Ye know full well, by those of ancient time, Reader, hast thou enough? If not, repair to Mr. Becket, of Pall Mall, and buy the book. ART. XXIII. Petrarca: a Collection of Sonnets from various Authors; with an In troductory Dissertation on the Origin and Structure of the Sonnet. By GEORGE HENDERSON. 12mo. pp. 192. THERE is no artifice employed by the book manufacturers of this age of commercial speculation, which calls more loudly for critical reprehension than the immoderate use of compilation and selection. By this nefarious practice the original author is defrauded of the hard-earned recompence of genius -the public is tricked into repeated purchases of the same thing under different titles-and the literary profession is degraded into a system of scarcely-legal robbery. The gleaner of the present collection introduces it by the following admirably constructed sentence: "It certainly may not be deemed the least presumptuous undertaking in any one who shall attempt to point out to public regard the beauties of others." In his case, however, his humility considers it as singularly fortunate, that the possibility of his mistaking in judgment "has been almost prevented by the earlier decision of one who in like matters seldom errs,-the public." That is, the volumes from which he pilfers are in every body's hands. Could any ill-natured critic have demonstrated more clearly the inutility of his book? Mr. Southey it seems was hard-hearted enough not to comply with the collector's desire of "enriching" his "book" (or himseit) with a few of his admired sonnets. Pro bably that gentleman conceived that the consent of the public ought to be ob tained as well as his own: an idea which seems to have escaped several others who are mentioned as consenting to the reprinting of their productions. The "dissertation" is penned in a style be neath criticism, but extremely pompous and evidently laboured. As to the sonnets themselves, a few of them are good, good at least for sonnets, which at best are but stiff difficult trifles, and surely more remote from the simplicity which they often affect than any other class of poems in our language. But the majority of them are little better than ravings of "moon-struck melancholy," aped by hysterical affectation, or drivelling inco herencies, lisped by sentiment in her dotage, than which nothing can be conceiv ed more hostile to genuine poetry, manly sense, and that sensibility which strengthens while it elevates the soul-which checks selfishness, adorns virtue, give, a zest to domestic privacy, and increases the sum of human happiness. ART. XXIV. Calista, a Picture of modern Life; a Poem, in three Parts. By Lux BOOKER, LL. D. 4to. pp. 28. PREMISING that divine poeta is to be literally rendered poetic divine, we address Dr. Booker in the words of Virgil “Tale tuum nobis carmen, divine Poeta, Quale sopor." ART. XXV. The Suicide, with other Poems, by the Rev. C. W. ETHELSTON, M. A 8vo. pp. 150. WE cannot praise this book. It is are no merits. The sin of omission is unnecessary to notite faults, where there deadly. ART. XXVI. Scenes of Youth, or rural Recollections; with other Poems. By WILLIAM 8vo. pp. 160. HOLLOWAY. Diffuse their sweets, unseen by vulgar eye, Adorn'd the meads, and scented all the air. He cast our lot those rustic shades among, ART. XXVII. The Pleader's Guide, a didactic Poem, in two Parts, &c. By the late J.J. S. Esq. Special Pleader and Barrister at Law, (A new edition.) 12mo. pp. 212. THOUGH the wit of this singular production is almost exclusively techni. cal, a very superficial acquaintance with the profession will enable the reader to enjoy its pleasantry. The poem is divided into two parts, and the whole subdivided into eighteen lectures, being the substance of a course of instruction in the practice of the courts, and the art of special pleading, originally intended by the author for the use of his kinsman, Mr. Job Surrebutter, to whom it is particuarly addressed. The author, in the outset of his plan, professes to demonstrate to his pupil the decided superiority of the common law over the civil, with respect to some pecuadvantages, heretofore, perhaps, not fully considered; and from thence proceeds to inpract him in the history of a suit at common law, commencing with the original writ, and conducting him regularly through the whole of the subsequent process, in all its splendid rarieties and modifications; and finishing the fest course of his lectures with the parties' fal appearance in court, upon the return of the process to outlawry. The subsequent lectures, which comse the second part, resumie the subject at point where it rested, preserving the epic d didactic character of the work, through the remaining stages of the pleadings and the Of legal fictions, quirks, and glosses, And take my parchments, for his labour, turer calls upon all members of the law But, chiefly thou, dear Job, my friend, To labour on poetic ground, The Have 'foresaid leave, from five to ten, To draw th' aforesaid pleas again." The second and third lectures treat of the king and his prerogative, and of the great superiority of the common to the civil law. Having past through this preliminary matter, the poet makes this humorous invocation. "And first bright Cynthius I'll supæn' "Then let us pray for writ of *Pone, Ye floating forms that, light as air, Where unrepented sins are seal'd: stood, Pore o'er their bills, and turn their nought to nines, (Their unpaid bills, which long have learn to grow Faster than poplars on the banks of Po,) Jailers shall smile, and with bumbailiffs rais The second part opens in an excellent strain of poetry. "Then once more, O ye pleaders, and one more I come your pleas and pleadings to explore Ye plodding clerks, with fingers never wear And thro' the confines of your cloisters dret "Pone.-The Pone is the writ of attachment before mentioned, it is so called from words of the writ, Pone per vadium, salvos plegios,"" Put by gage and safe pledge A. B." John Doe and Richard Roe. "Dames. The author in this passage seems to have contemplated the probability cer.ain characters of both sexes in the fashionable world, exhibiting their persons in the Jory for keeping public gaming tables. It is written in the true spirit of prophecy, and fre a late declaration of a learned and noble judge, (no less distinguished for his impartial independent spirit, than for his great zeal and earnestness for justice) the editor very sincer hopes Mr. S.'s prophecy will be shortly fulfilled.” ART. XXVIII. Glasgow: a Poem, by JOHN MAYNE, 12mo. pp. 51. AN outline of these verses was published in the Glasgow Magazine for December, 1783. Dr. Geddes praised it in his Epistle to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1792, and now in 1803, the author has revised, extended, and republished it. The poem contains sixty of what may be called Scotch stanzas: of their merit a brief specimen may suffice. Caught here in shoals! "And a' the villas round, that gleam Whatever makes a penny twa, Is wafted to the Broomielaw, "Yet, should the best exertions fail, The merchants' house makes a' things hale, “Wi' broken banes should labour pine, Or indigence grow sick and dwine, Th' Infirmary, wi' care divine, Unfolds its treasure, And turns their wormwood cup to wine- Golden Lyre.-Sir John Fortescue observes, that the university of the laws, (for so Is the Inns of Court and Chancery) did not only study the laws to serve the courts Justice, but did further learn to dance and to sing, and to play on instruments on the eral days. Bugd Orig. Juridic. c. 55. Fartescue de Laud. Log. Ang.. c. 49. Mr. S. ems to have acted up to the spirit of the original institution. See the Memoirs of his aftssional career, pari I. irct. 7." ተ ――――vet not the more Cease I to wander where the muses haunt, C'ear spring or shady grove, &c. Milton." "St. Michael the archangel-The law terms respectively derive their names from the ivals of the church, immediately preceding their commencement. Michaelmas Term ally commenced in eight days after the feast of St. Michael inclusive, Octabus St. Ichaelis; but by the joint operation of two acts of parliament, and the alteration of style, tas in effect been procrastinated, so as not to commence before the 6th of November." "Saint Martin.-Crastino St. Martini, the morrow of St. Martin,' the 12th day of November; formerly the fourth, now the second return day of Michaelmas term." ་ "Thro' inner and thro' middle darkness borne. Milton." "Elm, or Garden Court. The Inns of Court were placed out of the city and noise ereof, in the suburbs of London Seorsim parumper in civitatis suburbio. Fortesc. several courts in the Temple, have been erected at different periods, upon the scite of gardens and pleasure-grounds, belonging to the Hestel or domus mansionalis of the ple, granted originally upon lease to Sir Julius Caesar and others." |