It is difficult, if not impoffible, to pronounce with certainty in matters of this fort, but we think Mr. W.'s emendation poffelles as fair pretenfions to the title of genuine, as any we remember to have seen. Χώπως ἐν κώραις Λυκομηδίσιν, άβρα λέγοισα, Κήλησε τὸν ἄπλατον ̓Αχιλλέα Δηϊδάμεια. We must, however, make an exception to the orthography of not; a mode adopted and defended by Mr. W. in his late edition of Greek plays, at v. 22. Herc. Fur. and 161. Philoct. and in the book before us at v. 78. Mofch. Id. 3. against which however we muft pofitively enter our protest. Id. 9. 3. Τυτθὸν ἔφαν· τὶ το τόσσον ἀπέχθεο, και τινος, ἄνδα. Stobæus gives, at the conclufion of this line, xai Tivayta, Scaliger proposed τι να αυτα, Longopetræus και τι να σ' ατg, and Brunck reads x T d'adobns; it is unneceffary for us to say we give a decided preference to the prefent editor. Id. 10. 5. Ονικά οι ξυνὰς Πυλάδας ἄρητο κελεύθας. Ουνεκά οι ξυνᾶς Πυλάδας ἀγῆτο κελεύθε pro žuvis nyero dux erat viæ. Mosch. 2. 117. αλίης ἡγεῖτο κελεύθε. In the fecond line of the next Idyll. or rather fragment, we adopt, with Mr. W. ἐπεβώσατο for ἐπεβώετο. It is unneceffary to produce any further fpecimens from a work, which our readers, we think, will agree with us in pronouncing highly creditable to the fcholar from whom it has procedeed. But we cannot conclude without expreffing the pleafure which it gives us to find Mr. W. cncouraged to publish a series of claffical works in fo elegant a form. We truft it is a fign that the remains of ancient literature are at leaft keeping their ground in the public opinion: and that the good fenfe and exquifite tafte of Greek and Roman writers, are not to be driven away from the public and private repofitories of knowledge, by the refinements or the barbarifms of modern innovators. May we hail it as an omen, that the public attention will not dwell fo long as it has done, upon the undigefted #effufions of halfwitted politicians, or the fplenetic ravings of half-read infidels; upon * Jortin remarks of the difciples of Spinoza, that they followed their master, as they fay the tiger follows the rhinoceros, to eat his excrements." Will not the fame hold true of the profelytes of fome modern upon the fantastic vifions of a Barlow, or the naufeous impie ties of a Paine! ART. III. The Birth and Triumph of Love. A Poem. By Sir James Bland Burges, Bart. 4to. 21. 10s. or, without the Plates, 6s. Egerton. 1796. THE HE intimate union of the graphic and poetic arts was never more delightfully exemplified, than in the production which we now announce. The truly elegant and original devices of a fair royal artift, on the birth and progrefs of Love, produced at a time of domestic celebration, might well be expected to attract, as they well deferved, a very general applaufe; but it was beyond the reach of calculation, that they should give rife to a finished allegorical poem, rich in poetical imagery, highly wrought in harmony and force of language, and fit in all refpects to take its place among the most celebrated compofitions of the kind. Such, however, is the poem of Sir J. B. Burges, which now accompanies the beautiful defigns of the Princefs Elizabeth. The fubjects fupplied by the royal inventrefs are thefe: 1.The Birth of Love; 2. Going alone; 3. Finds his Bow and Arrow; 4. Trying his Bow and Arrow; 5. Dreams there is a World; 6. Going in fearch of the World; 7. Alighting on the World; 8. Miftakes his Mark; 9. In Vexation breaks his Bow; 10. Meets a Heart; 11. Weeps for the lofs of his Bow and Arrow; 12. His Arms reftored; 13. Sharpening his Arrow; 14. Stringing his Bow; 15. Returning Thanks; 16. Arrives at the Hill of Difficulty; 17. Turns away in Despair; 18. Meets with Hope; 19. Afcends the Hill with Hope; 20. Refting on Hope itrikes the Hearts; 21. Offering up the Hearts; 22. Uniting the Hearts; 23. Preparing for Triumph; 24. Triumphant. Thefe periods of fanciful history, delineated as elegantly as they are imagined ingenioully, form the outline on which Sir J. B. B. has conftructed a poem, which is by no means a flight jeu d'efprit, but a claffical compofition, in many places fublime; in all polished, harmonious, and animated with vivid glow of genius. As the poem must be allegorical, the author has chofen the ftanza of Spenfer, but, with great judg. ment, has totally difcarded the obfolete language, which Spenfer himself might with advantage have avoided, more than he thought proper to do. The principal modern poems in this ftanza are: Thomfon's Caftle of Indolence, Shentone's modern “abfurd and cloudy philofophers?" Vid. Remarks on Eccl. Hiftory, vol. i. p. 135. School School-Miftrefs, Gilbert Weft's Poem on Education, and Dr. Ridley's Melampus. All thefe preferve, more or less, the obfolete words. In the two first, which are partly of the mock heroic kind, they have a good effect; in the two latter it would have been better to difmifs them. They are all written with the intricate arrangement of rhymes which Spenfer adopted, notwithftanding which, we happen to know accidentally, that many parts of the poem now before us, excellent as it is, were written with a rapidity which few attain even in the fimpleft measures: eleven ftanzas having been fometimes produced in a day, and thofe fo finifhed as to require hardly any additional polifh. The model for all our writings in ftanza may be fuppofed to have been the Italian octave rhyme. Yet the arrangement in thofe ftanzas are very fimple. Taffo and Ariosto uniformly write fix lines of alternate rhymes, and close with a couplet on a new rhyme, thus: This arrangement was copied exactly by Daniel, and by Drayton in fome of his legends. But our poets in general have varied in the number of lines, and in the union of the rhymes. Spenfer's ftanza is of nine lines, concluding with an Alexandrine, and united thus *; 3. Sackville, in his induction to the "Mirror for Magiftrates," adopted the ftanza of seven lines, which is ufed in Chaucer's Troilus and Creffeide, and many other poems, and was followed by most of the other writers in that collection. The arrangement of shymes is this: 34. Phineas Fletcher, in his "Purple Island," employs a ftanza of feven lines alfo; but they rhyme thus: 4+ Giles Fletcher, in his "Chrift's Victory," rifes to eight lines; but they do not take the Italian arrangement. His method is this: 126 347 2 6 57 126 348 7 Chatterton, in his Battle of Haftings, has formed ftanzas of ten lines, but they are exactly on the Italian plan, only with two more alternate rhymes: fo that one ftanza has five rhymes. But in his English Metamorphofis he is more complicated, and in his Tragedy of Alla. If we were to decide upon the merits of thefe conftructions, we fhould say that the Italian form is much the beft, as being the fimpleft. The flanza of Spenfer has the complication of the fonnet, which ferves only to increase the difficulty, without additional advantage: except that the final Alexandrine has, indeed, a pleasing This is formed from a ftanza ufed by Chaucer in a poem called his A. B. C. with the mere addition of the Alexandrine, on the rhyme of the 6th and 8th lines. In his pifcatory Eclogues he has various ftanzas. I effe&t effect to the ear, to which it has once been familiarized. Such as it is, however, it has been established by the authority of Spenfer, and has thus received the additional fanction of cuftom. Nor can it be denied that it has its beauties, which will be seen in full perfection in the fpecimens we shall now give from this poem. The poet takes care, at the opening of his poem, to raise its dignity, by difclaiming all reference to impure love. The love he fings is hailed by him as a Pure emanation of th' eternal mind. But here, if any where, he fails; and that only from too great an elevation of ideas. The love he celebrates, though virtuous, is, after all, connubial love; his objects are human hearts, which he transfixes with arrows and unites on an altar: but the genius of the poet fometimes glances to the eternal attribute of Love in the fupreme Being, and connects the one rather too nearly with the other. Abating this, which is a fault arifing from vigour, not weaknefs, the whole appears to us to be admirably conceived and conducted. The defcription of love is very animated, and his fports are happily imagined. But his free spirit no fuch perils feared; Where'er he turned, the face of heaven was cheer'd, To weave with him the dance beneath celeftial bowers. When the author brings the young Deity to earth, he takes the liberty to conduct him to Britain; and there he places him at the clofe of the firft canto, which extends no further than to the feven first plates. At a lofs where to felect among a variety of beauties, we cannot perhaps better fix our choice, than on the opening of the fecond canto, which presents us with fome defcriptive poetry that will not often be furpaffed. High on a cliff, whofe threat'ning brow o'erhung, Young Love exulting flood. The babbling tongue Soothed the last lingering rays while flitting into fhade. LI BRIT. CRIT. VOL. VII. MAY, 1796. The 2. The diftant hills with brightnefs ftill were crowned, And o'er th' enchanting fcene her placid radiance spread. 3. And, feattered thickly o'er the wide expanfe, While, widely ranging through their trackless way, In folemn ftate they move, and orderly array. The tranfition from night to day is touched alfo with the hand of a mafter. Now gliding from her high-exalted course, Lefs brightly fhone, as through heav'ns field they paffed: Th' awakening dawn with modeft luftre gleamed; Now o'er the eaftern hills encroaching fatt, The jocund day with new-born radiance beamed, Gilded the laughing plains, and o'er the vallies ftreamed. 6. And foon, his golden treffes waving high. Numerous as defcriptions of this kind are, we recollect very few that can in any degree vie with this. The fimilies alfo, a ftrong teft of genius, are in general happy. When Love has recovered his arms, his joy is thus illustrated. 27. Thus when by driving ftorms, or foul neglect, Some |