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part in every adventure to Prince Arthur. By this means his fable would have been of the claffic kind, and its unity as ftrict as that of Homer and Virgil. All this he knew very well, but his purpose was not to write a claffic poem. He chofe to adorn a Gothic ftory; and, to be confiftent throughout, he chofe that the form of his work fhould be of a piece with his fubject; whether he did right in this or not, our ingenious Critic does not take upon him to determine; but tells us, if we compare his work with that of Taffo, he fees no reason to be peremptory in condemning him.

This leads him to confider the example of the Italian Poet. It will afford, he fays, a fresh confirmation of the point, he principally infifts upon, viz. the pre-eminence of the Gothic manners and fictions, as adapted to the ends of Poetry, above the claffic.

Taffo, coming into the world a little of the latest for the fuccefs of the pure Gothic manner, thought fit, we are told, to trim between that and the claffic model. It was lucky for his fame, perhaps, that he did fo. For the Gothic fables falling every day more and more into contempt, and the learning of the times, throughout all Europe, taking a claffic turn, the reputation of his work has been chiefly founded on the ftrong resemblance it has to the ancient epic poems. His fable is conducted in the fpirit of the Iliad, and with a strict regard to that unity of action which we admire in Homer and Virgil.

But this is not all; there is a ftudied and clofe imitation of thofe Poets, in many of the fmaller parts, in the minuter, ineidents, and even in the defcriptions and fimilies of his poem. The claffic reader was pleafed with this deference to the pub lic tafte; he saw with delight the favourite beauties of Homer and Virgil reflected in the Italian Poet: and was almoft ready to excufe, for the fake of thefe, his magic tales and fairy inchantments.

By this means the Gierufalemme Liberata made its fortune amongst the French Wits, who have conftantly cried it up above the Orlando Furiofo, and principally for this reason, that Taffo was more claffical in his fable, and more fparing in the wonders of Gothic fiction, than his predeceffor.-This dexterous people have found means to lead the taste, as well as fet the fashions of their neighbours: and Ariefto ranks but little higher than the rudeft Romancer, in the opinion of thofe who take their notions of thefe things from their Writers.

But

and Romance.

The

But the fame principle, our Author fays, which made them give Taffo the preference to Ariofto, had led them, by degrees, to think very unfavourably of Taflo himself. mixture of the Gothic manner in his work has not been forgiven. It has funk the credit of all the reft; and fome initances of falfe tafte in the expreffion of his fentiments, detected, by their nicer Critics, have brought matters to that pafs, that Taffo himself is now given up, and likely to share the fate of Ariofto.

A little national envy mixed itself, perhaps, with their other reasons for undervaluing this great Poet. They afpired to a fort of fupremacy in letters; and finding the Italian language and its beft Writers ftanding in their way, they have fpared no pains to lower the estimation of both.

Whatever their inducements were, they fucceeded but too well in their attempt. Our obfequious and overmodest Critics, it is faid, were run down by their authority. Their tafte of letters, with fome worfe things, was brought amongst us at the Restoration. Their language, their manners, nay their very prejudices were adopted by our Frenchifyed King and his Royalifts. And the more fashionable Wits, of course, fet their fancies, as Lord Molefworth tells us the people of Copenhagen in his time did their clocks, by the CourtLandard.

Sir W. Davenant, our Author obferves, opened the way to this new fort of criticifm, in a very elaborate preface to Gondibert; and his philofophic friend, Mr. Hobbes, lent his best affiftance towards eftablishing the credit of it. These two fine letters contain the fubftance of whatever has been fince written on the fubject. Succeeding Wits and Critics did no more than echo their language. It grew into a fort of cant, with which Rymer, and the reft of that fchool, filled their Alimfy eflays and rambling prefaces.

"Such, continues our Author, was the addrefs of the French Writers, and fuch their triumphs over the poor Italians. It must be owned, indeed, they had every advantage on their fide, in this conteft with their Mafters. The talte and learning of Italy had been long on the decline, and the fine Writers under Lewis XIV. were every day advancing the French language, fuch as it is, (fimple, clear, exact, that is, fit for bufinefs and converfation; but for that reafon, befides its total want of numbers, abfolutely unfuited to the genius of the greater poetry) towards its laft perfection.

The

The purity of the ancient manner became well understood, and it was the pride of their beft Critics, to expofe every inftance of falfe tafte in the modern Writers. The Italian, it is certain, could not ftand fo fevere a fcrutiny. But they had escaped better, if the mroft fashionable of the French Poets had not, at the fame time, been their best Critic.

"A lucky word in a verfe, which founds well, and every body gets by heart, goes farther than a volume of just criticifm. In fhort, the exact, but cold Boileau, happened to fay fomething of the clinquant of Taflo; and the magic of this word, like the report of Aftolfo's horn in Ariofto, overturned at once the folid and well-built reputation of the Italian poetry.

"It is not, perhaps, fo amazing that this potent word fhould do its bufinefs in France. It put us into a fright on this fide the water. Mr. Addifon, who gave the law in taste here, took it up, and fent it about the kingdom in his polite and popular eflays. It became a fort of watch-word among the Critics; and, on the fudden, nothing was heard, on all fides, but the clinquant of Taffo."

This brief hiftory of the Italian poetry is followed by a fhort apology for the Italian Poets. Our Author affirms, perhaps fomewhat too boldly, that there are more inftances of natural fentiment, and of that divine fimplicity we admire in the antients, even in Guarini's Paftor Fido, than in the best of the French Poets.

He obferves juftly, that the fource of bad criticism, as of bad philofophy, is the abufe of terms. A Poet, they fay, must follow Nature; and by Nature we are to fuppofe can only be meant the known and experienced courfe of affairs in this world. Whereas the Poet has a world of his own, where experience has lefs to do, than confiftent imagination.-He has, befides, a fupernatural world to range in. He has Gods, and Faeries, and Witches at his command. In the Poets world, all is marvellous and extraordinary; yet not unnatural in one fenfe, as it agrees to the conceptions that are readily entertained of thefe magical and wonder-working natures.

This trite maxim of following Nature is farther mistaken, we are told, in applying it indiscriminately to all forts of poetry. In thofe fpecies which have men and manners profefledly for their theme, a ftrict conformity with human nature is reasonably demanded. Still farther, in those species that ad

drefs

drefs themselves to the heart, and would obtain their end, not thro' the imagination, but thro' the paffions, there the liberty of tranfgreffing nature, i. e. the real powers and properties of human nature, is infinitely reftrained; and poetical truth is, under these circumftances, almoft as fevere a thing as biftorical. The reafon is, we must first believe, before we can be affected.

But the cafe, our Author fays, is different with the more fublime and creative poetry. This fpecies, addreffing itself folely or principally to the imagination, a young and credu- · lous faculty, which loves to admire and to be deceived, has no need to obferve thofe cautious rules of credibility fo neceffary to be followed by him who would touch the affections, and intereft the heart.

Critics, we are told, may talk what they will of truth and nature, and abuse the Italian Poets for tranfgreffing both in their incredible fictions. But these fictions with which they have ftudied to delude the world, are of that kind of credible deceits, of which a wife Antient pronounces with affurance, that they, who deceive, are honefter than they who do not deceive; and they who are deceived, wifer than they who are not deceived.

Our Author now enquires, whence it comes to pafs, that the claffical manners are ftill admired and imitated by the Poets, when the Gothic have long fince fallen into difufe.One great reafon, he fays, of this difference is, that the ableft Writers of Greece ennobled the fyftem of heroic manners, while it was fresh and flourishing; and their works, being mafter-pieces of compofition, fo fixed the credit of it in the opinion of the world, that no revolutions of time or taste could afterwards fhake it. Whereas the Gothic, having been difgraced in their infancy by bad Writers, and a new fet of manners fpringing up before there were any better to do them juftice, they could never be brought into vogue by the attempts of later Poets; who, in fpite of prejudice, and for the genuine charm of thefe highly poetical manners, did their utmoft to recommend them.

But the principal reafon of all, we are told, was, that the Gothic manners of Chivalry, as fpringing out of the feudal fyftem, were as fingular as that fyftem itself: fo that, when that political conflitution vanished out of Europe, the manners that belonged to it, were no longer feen or understood. There was no example of any fuch manners remaining on the face of the earth; and as they never did fubfift but once, REV. Aug. 1762.

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and

and are never likely to fubfift again, people would be led of course to think and fpeak of them, as romantic, and unnatural. The confequence of this was, a total contempt and rejection of them; while the claffic manners, as arising out of the customary and ufual fituations of humanity, would have many archetypes, and appear natural even to those who faw nothing fimilar to them actually fubfifting before their

eyes.

Thus, tho' the manners of Homer are, perhaps, as different from ours, as those of Chivalry itself, yet as we know that fuch manners always belong to rude and fimple ages, fuch as Homer paints, and actually fubfift at this day in countries that are under the like circumstances of barbarity; we readily agree to call them natural, and even take a fond pleafure in the furvey of them.

We have now given a pretty full view of thefe truly ingenious Letters; and as it is but feldom that we have an opportunity of entertaining our Readers fo agreeably, we make no apology for the length of the article.

Medical Obfervations and Inquiries. By a Society of Phyficians in London. Vol. II. 8vo. 6s. Johnfton.

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S we had, with all proper regard to this laudable affociation of many eminent phyficians, given no very fhort detail of their first volume*, we proceed, without further introduction, to prefent our readers a more brief account of the fecond; which, not being of inferior merit, muft induce moft practitioners in phyfic and furgery to perufe it at large, and fufficiently apologize for our fummary account of it.

The first article, from Mr. Travis, Surgeon at Scarborough, in a letter to Dr. Fothergill, endeavours to fhew, that the ufe of copper-boilers in the navy, is one principal caufe of the fea-fcurvy. The most confiderable proof he gives of this is, "That the number of fhips fent to fea from Scarborough is about two hundred fail; and we employ, fays he, about three thousand men and boys: on board of thefe, iron pots are in general ufed, and we have no inftance of any one having the fymptoms called highly fcorbutic, except in fome few of the larger fhips, in which coppers are used." See Review, vol. XVI. p. 541.

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