787 
POETRY. 
’eberance prevails in every diftich ; and the manner of 
the good old times is copied not only in the antiquated 
di&ion, but in the needlefs garrulity. The ideas too are 
few, and eked out with expletives. The “ Pfyche,” a 
narrative in profe, altered from Apuleius, poflefles a fort 
of merrinefs, which is not in unifon with the elegantly- 
graceful character of the incidents and perfonages. The 
“ Adonis” and the “ Captivity of Saint Male,” narratives 
in verfe, have a cold heroic folemnity. Of the comedies, 
“ La Coupe Enchantee” and “ Le Florentin” have fome 
merit, and fo has the tranflation of “The Eunuch. 
We have thus traced our outline of poetical authors 
till we have approached a very remarkable tera. The 
latter end of the 18th century will ever be memorable, 
fince at that period were developed, with amazing eft'eift, 
a multitude of new ideas. From the revival of learning 
until the time in queftion, mankind had been occupied 
with endeavouring to imitate the ancients; and had held 
the lattef in fuch profound and blinded admiration, that 
every thing was taken fecond-hand, or on authority; and 
hence old inftitutions, old opinions, and old habits of 
inveftigation, remained in full fway. The (hafts of ridi¬ 
cule might occafionally glance at the abfurdities of this 
borrowed and diftorred knowledge; but they had no per¬ 
manent influence. The power of the great inventors of 
fcience remained, as it feemed, unchangeable. The im¬ 
mortal fiiade of Ariftotle ruled all literature with his nod ; 
and alas ! religion was in worfe government. The mighty 
change which overturned thefe moral and philofophical 
errors was at length developed on the continent. Men 
applied themfelves to aflc the foundations of received opi¬ 
nions. In politics they afked the natural origin of kings 
and governments ; and, as they could not anfwer this 
queftion, they rejected here the authority of cuftom ; and 
the French Revolution gradually developed itfelf. This 
fearful change was followed by a freer fpirit of enquiry 
into all arts; in painting and ftatuary, men imitated na¬ 
ture as well as the ancients. In poetry they began to 
look to the beauties of the Gothic as well as the Grecian 
fchool. Thefe minor revolutions are flow ; political change 
preceded literary emancipation; and indeed, on the 
continent, the latter confummation is but juft now ef¬ 
fected. 
The great change which the opinions engendered juft 
before the French revolution created, was however anti¬ 
cipated in England. In this country the revolution of 
religion, bought by long and bloody wars, confecrated 
on both fides by martyrdom, gave that fine turn to the 
people’s thoughts and feelings which are fo eflential to 
knowledge.. The Englifh were as bold in thinking, and 
as fearlefs in the exprefiion of thofe thoughts, in queen 
Elizabeth’s time, as the French were in the reign of Louis 
XVI. But their perfect contentment under the govern¬ 
ment of the fage Elizabeth turned the national tafte 
towards literature, and political difcordances were efcaped. 
For the reafon, then, that Englifh literature received 
her emancipation from ancient rule before the continent, 
we have feparated the account of hen poetry from that of 
contemporary nations. The French revolution re-afled 
indeed on us. But, infulated by the ocean, and by the 
uncouth manners of her people, our own country flood 
alone in her literature for two centuries. We fhall now 
run briefly over the Englifh School of Poetry. 
III. Of English Poetry. 
The Englifh School of Poetry may fairly challenge 
competition with every other. Modelled as it is on the 
ftyles both of the Greeks and the poets of the middle 
ages, it has, even in its infancy, marks of original inven¬ 
tion. Our account of Englifh poets muft be neceflarily 
fliort; but this is of minor importance, fince the many 
excellent authors who have inveftigated the fubjeft have 
rendered it quite fafhionable, and confequently moft 
perfons are tolerably informed as to Englifh poetry. 
The fine work of Warton, lately republiflied, contains 
efpecially a very compendious account of this fubjedt. 
Of the early Druids, fo powerful in the effedls of their 
verfe, no veftige remains. The antiquarian fearches alfo 
with unfatisfied toil in the Welfh traditions for remains 
of Saxon poetry. The Norman conquerors introduced 
to us their poetry, and many memorials of it have been 
found. We take chiefly from Warton the following 
particulars relative to the early poems of this country. 
The poetry prevalent among the Saxons was a kind of 
irregular blank verfe, before noticed as alliterative. The 
Normans were the firft who introduced rhyme, which 
they, it is generally believed, copied from the Latin 
rhyming verfes, a baftard fpecies, much employed after 
the decline of the Roman language, but which was 
totally unknown among the ancients. 
Lope da Vega in his Angelica, publifned 1588, wrote 
a Latin rhvme as an infcription on a golden llatue of 
Philip III. 
The beft ferious fpecimen of modern metre is Sir 
Francis Kinafton’s Amoris Troili et Crefiidse, a tranfla¬ 
tion of the two firft books of Chaucer’s poem. But the 
only truly agreeable effort in this mode is Drunken Bar- 
naby’s Journal, a work in which poignant wit is fet 
in good Latin, with fuch fliort and pithy modes of expref- 
fion, that the mind is kept in exquifite and mirthful 
furprife from the beginning of its perufal to the end. 
The following fpecimen of Latin rhyme is fo pointed, 
that we cannot forbear tranfcribing it. It is a letter 
written by Boyle, while in a fpunging-houfe, to Mr. Cave, 
proprietor of the Gent. Mag. The date is July 20, 174.2. 
Infcription for St. Lazarus' Cave. 
Hodie, tefte ccelo lumrno, 
Sine pane, finenummo, 
Sorte pofitus infefte, 
Scribe tibi dolens moefte: 
Fame, bile tumet jecur, 
Urbane, mitte opem, precor; 
Tibi enim cor humanum 
Non a malis alienum ; 
Mihi mens nec male grata, 
Pro a te favore data. AlCjE us. 
Ex gehenna debitoria, 
Vulgo domo fpongiatoria. 
We muft return from our digrefiion to the fubjeft of 
early poetry. In the Saxon Chronicle are to be found 
fome lines upon the death of William the Conqueror, 
and a fhort Canticle, which, according to Matthew Paris, 
the blefl'ed Virgin was pleafed to dictate to Godric, an 
hermit, who refided near Durham. Among the Digby 
Manufcripts at Oxford is a religious or moral ode, which 
Warton thinks, from the circumftance of its containing 
few Norman terms, is of higher antiquity than the Con- 
queft. It is written in the manner of the regular lyric ftrope 
of four lines, the fecond and fourth of which rhyme toge¬ 
ther; but fome critics are of opinion, that thefe four lines 
ought to be refolved into Alexandrines; a meafure which 
appears to have been ufed very early. The following is 
a fpecimen of this ode : 
Sende God biforen him man, 
The while he mai to hevene; 
For betere is on elmefle biforen 
Thanne ben after fevene. 
That is, in modern Englilh, “Let man fend his good 
works before him to heaven while he may ; for one alms¬ 
giving before death is better than feven after.” 
Our next fpecimen is extradied from a fatire on the 
monaftic profeflion. In this work the Saxon language 
takes a form in which the beginning of the prefent En- 
glifli may be plainly difcovered. This poem is fuppofed 
to have been written foon after the Conqueft; at any 
rate, it is of higher date than the reign of Henry the 
Second. So much does the diftion of this early fpeci- 
meiu 
