1824.) 
was. Oswald, who succeeded him ; the 
seventh was Oswy, the brother of 
Oswald; the eighth was Egbert, king 
of the West, Saxons.”—Even our im- 
mortal Alfred, we are reminded, nei- 
ther in his public acts nor his still- 
extant will, ever assumed any. other 
title than that of King of the West 
Saxons ;.nor did his great and glorious 
successor, Edward the Elder, “ Athel- 
stan, however, (continiés the reviewer, ) 
as has been ascertained by authentic 
documents, assumed (and, we repeat 
it, was the first who did assume,) the 
title of King of England, and bequeath- 
ed to bis successors the undivided 
sovereignty of what had hitherto 
[heretofore] constituted the states of 
the Saxon heptarchy. ‘To him, there- 
fore, and not.to Egbert, is to be 
assigned the honour of founding what 
has since been called the English mo- 
narehy.”—This article bears through- 
out the evidence of long and diligent 
research into the subject to which it is 
devoted. 
The second article is the Poetical 
Works of, Daniel, Se. which is a judi- 
cious and tasteful criticism on a now 
almost fergotten poct. of the age of 
Qucen Elizabeth. With a discrimi- 
naling spirit, the crilic separates the 
gold from the dross; and, while he be- 
stows due commendationon the beauty, 
tenderness, and harmony, of several of 
the smaller poems, he confirms, with 
equal justice, ihe doom of oblivion on 
the tedious and monotonous medio- 
crity of that lengthy metrical chronicle, 
“the History of the Civil Wars be- 
tween the Houses of York and Lan- 
caster,” which, by a strange, but un- 
precedented fatuity, was the favourite, 
as it.was the most elaborate, work 
of its author. Some of the Sonnets, 
presented as specimens of the amatory 
vein of this author, are truly exqui- 
site; and the following quotation, from, 
the “Complaint. of Rosamond,” is 
almost as beautiful as its subject :— 
Ab, Beauty! syren, fair enchanting good, 
Sweet silent rhetoric of persuading eyes; 
Damb cloquence, whose power dothmove the blood 
More tha the words or wisdom of the wise; 
Still harmony, whose diapason lies 
Within a brow; the key which passions move 
‘Yo ravish sense, and play a world in Jove. 
What might Lthen not do, whose power is such ? 
What cannot. women do that know their powcr rf 
What women know it not (1 fear too mueh), 
How bliss or bale lies in their laugh or lour ? 
Whilst they enjoy their happy blooming flow’r, 
Whilst Nature decks them in their best attires, 
Of youth and beauty, which the world admires. 
Such once was l,—my beanty was mine own; 
No borrow’d blush, which bankrupt beauties seck, 
That new-found shame, a sin to us unknown; 
The adulterate beauty of a falsed cheek, 
Vile stain to honour, and to women eke; 
The Retrospective Review, No. 16. 
517 
Seeing that Time our fading must detect, 
Thus with defect to cover our defect. 
Far was that sin from us, whose age was pure, 
When simple beauty was acoounted best ; 
The time when women had no other lure 
But modesty, pure cheeks, a virtuous breast; 
This was the pomp wherewith my youth was blest; 
These were the weapons which mine honour won, 
In all the conflicts which mine eyes begun. 
The description of the king meeting 
the funeral procession of Rosamond 
is as. pathetic as the preceding is 
beautiful; and that from the ‘‘ Dedi- 
cation of the Tragedy of Cleopatra to 
the Countess of Pembroke,” in which 
he anticipates the diffusion of our lan- 
euage over other Jands, is animated by 
a prophetic enthusiasm, and breathes 
the genuine spirit of poetry. But the 
noblest of all the specimens presented 
is the ‘‘ Epistle to the Lady Margaret, 
Countess of Cumberland,” which is 
written, as the reviewer justly ob- 
serves, ‘in a high tone of didactic 
moralization, and is pregnant with the 
spirit of philosophy and humanity.” It 
is too long for quotation in our pages, 
and too valuable for mutilation. But 
no reader of taste will lament the time 
he may bestow ona reference to ‘this 
article, 
The third article consists of God’s 
Plea.for Nineveh, or London’s precedent 
for Mercy, delivered in certain Sermons 
within the city of London, by Thomas 
Reeve, 8.D. 1657. The review of this. 
volume of sermon,—for it is printed 
as “ one huge discourse, which it must 
have taken wecks to deliver,”—will be 
gratifying, from its quotations, to alk 
those lovers of odd reading, especially, 
who can ponder, or can chuckle, over. 
the inflated jargon of fanatical enthu- 
siasm and misanthrepy. rast 
The fourth article, Quures completes 
de M. Bernard, though a very ingeni- 
cus and well-written one, :and highly 
creditable to the taste and liberality of 
the writer, is one relative to some of 
the prosodaical principles of which we 
should be disposed, if space could here 
be afforded to it, to enter into consi- 
derable length of controversy ; not so 
much in what relates to the poetry of 
France, as to those illustrative argu- 
ments which. have reference to the 
versification and) poetry of our own 
language. At the same time, how- 
ever, even with respect to French 
poetry, candid and judicious as are 
several of the premises laid down by 
the reviewer, we oannot bring our- 
selves to all the favourable conclusions 
he adduces from them, 'That much of 
our anglo-critical objection to the ver- 
sification and poesy of that nation is 
founded 
