Yoo , Poetry of Spain and Portugal. Bis [Oar ‘ 
him, and he is dying with defpair. After We wifdom feek and calm contant 
they are gone out, Camilla enters, and They both freguese our dwelling 5 
lies down by a fountain to take her /icfa From thefe a deathlefs comfort fringss 
—her evening’s nap. Albanio finds her, The jays of Angi ce 
and feizes her, but releafes her on her. 
folemn promife to remain and hear him, 
which fhe, as foon as releafed, breaks, 
and runs away, and Albanio runs mad. 
Salicio now enters, with Nemorofo; Ne- 
morofo, tells a long ftory about a magi- 
’- eran, which is a panegyric upon the fa- 
mily of Alva; and the eclogue concludes 
with their refolution to get Albanio cured 
by this magician. — elevate his mind by the fublime. There 
In this very ill-planned poem, Gar- is more prettinefs in Bofcan, mere tender- 
cilafo has perpetuated his friendfhip for nefs in Garcilafo. The following little 
Bofcan, and perhaps no lines in the piece cf Bofcan is not unhappy, and by 
poem can be perufed with more pleafure the many imitations of it, it appears te 
than thefe, in which he bears teftimony have been a favourite conceit : 
to the virtues of his friend: 
«: Then, hand in hand, 
A youth approach’d, with Phebus ; in his face 
The skilful eye might read benevolence 
And wifdom ; he was perfeéted in all 
The lore and various arts of courtety 
‘That humanize mankind ; the graceful port, 
And the fair front of open manlinefs, 
Difcover'd Bofcan; and that fire iJlumin'd 
His generous face that animates his fong, : 
With never-fading fplendour there to thine. The fonnets of Garcilafo are the mof 
interefting of his works: there are fome 
as beautiful, but none fuperior, to the 
following: 
In this the obje@tion to the Moorifh 
metre is removed, by the alternation of 
a regular rhyme. 
Both Eofcan and Garcilafo poffeffed 
more learning than tafte, and more tafte 
than genius. Their poems, particularly 
thofe of the latter, are full of imitations 
from the ancients; they feldom difgut 
the reader by bombaft, but they never 
TO A MiRROR. 
Since ftill my paftion-pleading ftrains 
Have fail’d her heart to move, 
». Show, Mirror! to that lovely maid, 
The charms that make me love. 
Reflect on her the thrilling beam 
Ot magic from her eye,- 
So, like Narciffus, fhe thall gaze, 
And, felf-enamour’d, die. 
Garcilafo has, in his fecond eclogue, 
introduced a Moorifh metre, which has 
been feldom imitated, and, indeed, which 
: Seen mp is S when t H ve € ; 
did not deferve to be imitated at all: it is A i. ne ‘es sn insta ‘ alent ae 
. . » ei Ea » I i 5 4 ~*~ 
making the middle of the fecond line a ae ey 
rhyme to the end of the firft: the mid- Bee soy calle 
a aes i , ques Some feeming good, that-makes his pain the 
dle of the third to the end of the fecond, lefs, : 
cc. Sir Philip Sidney, who was always 
. : ’ Yet, with fhort eafe ! the future evil moreg 
trying experiments in’ verfification, and Even as her fondnefs yields to his vain will 
making innovations inftead of improve- She haftes to gratify her fickly fon— 
ments, has left us fome fpecimens of this: Anticipating then the coming ill, 
Sadly fhe fits, and weeps what fhe has done, 
Thus have I pamper’d my diftemper’d mind ; 
And yielded thus to fancy’s wayward mood, 
Poor dupe of Fancy | felf-condemn’d to find 
The future anguifh in the prefent good.— 
Thus do I wafte a wretched life away, 
And nightly weep the errors of the day ! 
Thy fafety fure is wrapped in deffruction, 
For that conffruéfion thine own words do bear 5 
A man to fear a woman’s rnoodie eye 
Makes reafon Jie a flave to fervile fex/c, 
A weak deferce, where weaknels is thy force 3 
So is remorce in folly dearly bought. 
This novelty, however, is to the eye 
and not to the ear; it is only rhyming 
regularly in fhort and irregular lines. A 
peculiarity fimilar to this, though infi- 
nitely fuperior, is much ufed by the 
Welth poets; and the Welfh bard, Ed- 
ward Williams, has given a very happy 
{pecimen in Englih : - 
Bofcan paraphrafed the Hero and 
Leander of Mufaus, of courfe he in- 
jured it; for to paraphrafe is to dilate, 
and to dilate, to weaken. He furvived ~ 
his friend. Garcilafo (who was killed in 
battle) but a few years: they both died 
young; but their celebrity will always 
laft; for though Spain may hereafter 
Retir’d amongft our native Alls, produce better poets, the glory of res 
_ And far from i// of greatnefs, forming the Rational poetry muft till 
We live, delighted with our /or, ‘remain, "ky Xe 
_ And trim our cot with neatpes 
dé 
