]120 



liness, in the rcco!lcction of Iiis valua- 

 Llo life, conies before us ■Nvitli the 

 principal incidents wliich maiked its 

 chosen tenor. To provoke in our 

 readers an appetite, which for our- 

 selves, we can truly state, has been 

 agreeably satisfied, we siiall extract, 

 witii some account of Dr. Sayers, just 

 enough in prose or poetry to evidence 

 the warranty of our award; and, if 

 there may arise any impression to 

 diminish in auglit the interest we feel, 

 it must lie in the reiJtret we also have 

 felt to notice the very modest plain- 

 ness with wliich T\1r. Taylor has dis- 

 charged the inheritance of friendship. 

 But that may bo grief, and must be 

 virtue. 



Friincis Sayers was born in Rood- 

 lane, London, on the 3d of March, 

 1763. His father was a merchant, and 

 survived the birth of an only child for 

 a few months. The widow, soon after, 

 sought the home of her parents in 

 Yarmouth ; and the doctor loved in 

 aftertime to tell, how snugly he was 

 taught the elements of instruction 

 behind a large Flemish screen, the 

 shelter of whose leather-gilt folds was 

 absolutely required to preserve tlie 

 comforts of the domestic hearth, in 

 the antique gallery which formed the 

 diawing-room of his grandfather's 

 mansion. To the impressions fostered 

 by the old state and palace-like conve- 

 nience of this home, the biographer in 

 some degree fondly attributes the 

 poetical bent of the author's imagina- 

 tion. The suggestion is followed by 

 this remark: — "Comic poets and 

 artists have usually been low-born, 

 and accustomed to the world in its 

 undress; but those who have excelled 

 in sublime composition have mostly 

 originated amid the statelier monu- 

 ments of art and nature." We fear 

 the exceptions are too numerous for 

 this rule. Congrevc, Sheridan, and 

 our living Colinan, were not only 

 gentlemen, but courtiers ; to say no- 

 thing of Addison and Steele : while 

 IMilton and Shakspeare can hardly be 

 said to have lived in any genteel cir- 

 cumstances or places. 



After some Latin and a little Greek, 

 at a boarding-srhool in North Wal- 

 sham, with Lord Nelson for a school- 

 fellow, our author's education was ably 

 continued at a dissenting school, kept 

 by the Rev. R. Barbauld, at Palgravc, 

 in SuQolk. The lessons in elocution 

 he there received, from Mrs. Barbauld 

 the authoress, were ahva3s acknow- 



News/j-om Parnassus, No. XXXI. 



[March 1, 



ledged with a very warm .sense of 

 praise. After his grandfather Morris's 

 death, he left the counting-house in 

 which the old gentleman had placed 

 him, and for a while pursued an agri- 

 cultural life; but definitively settled 

 on a medical profession. At Edin- 

 burgh, then at London, and at Edin- 

 burgh again, he devoted his time for 

 some years to the most eminent 

 lecturers, and improved his mind 

 considerably by attentive study. In 

 1789 he took a diploma at Hardervick, 

 made the tour of Holland and the 

 north of France ; and settled with his 

 mother for practice in Norwich about 

 1789. 



It was not until 1790 that Dr. 

 Sayers evinced himself an author, by 

 the publication of " Dramatic Sketches 

 of Northern Mythology;" which con- 

 sisted of " Moina, a tragedy," " Starro, 

 a monodrame," and the " Descent of 

 Frea, a masque;" all written in the 

 order they are here mentioned in, and 

 after the Grecian model, as the one 

 best calculated to develop the fables 

 through the subserviency of the chorus. 

 In 1793 followed "Disquisitions Me- 

 taphysical and Literary ;" and in 1805 

 " Miscellanies Antiquarian and His- 

 torical." Sincerely sorry are we to 

 add, that, with the exception of some 

 shorter pieces of lighter thought, our 

 enumeration already comprises our 

 author's works. 



Tiie kind of poetry in which Dr. 

 Sayers volunteered for distinction, is 

 one which but few amongst us have 

 essayed, though it is eminently fertile 

 in beauties; and certainly the style in 

 which the bard of Norwich has finished 

 his task is most polite and correct. 

 Few writers have succeeded in the 

 union of so fine a spirit of imaginative 

 thought, and so stern a fidelity of that 

 state and consequence the subject 

 particularly demands. The choruses 

 are breathing strains of energy and 

 greatness, not altogether so classically 

 polished as the odes of preceding 

 lyrists, but perhaps more consistent 

 with the wildness of these popular 

 fliemes. The following passage is 

 from the " Descent of Frea," and is aa 

 address to Odin : — 

 Chief of warriors ! king of might ! 



Clinging to thy sable steed, 

 And, dashing thro' the fight, 



Thou smil'st when thousands bleed. 

 Coucher of the ponderous spear ! 



Thou slioiit'st amid the battle's stound^ 

 The armed sisters hear, 



Viewless hurrying o'er the ground, 



They 



