


1801. ] 
eupies a greater range, and has all the 
wildnefs of Ariofto. But the language of 
Perfia, though equally foft and luxuri- 
ous, is at the fame time far more bold 
and fonorous than the Italian, and, in 
point of ftrength and dignity of ftyle, if 
it fhould fail in a competition with Mil- 
ton, it may at leaft enter the lifts with 
the Araucana of Ercilla. In its uniform 
object and defign, however, it bears a 
ftronger fimilitude to the Lufiad of Ca- 
moens, than to ahy other poem that has 
ever been prefented to the world. The 
object of the Portuguefe bard, like that 
of the Perfian, was to exhibit a hiftory of 
his country, and immortalize the glory of 
its monarchs; and by communicating 
this hiftory in the form of an epifode or 
difting tale, by his hero, Vafco de Gama, 
he maintains a greater unity of action 
than is attempted to be preferved by Fer- 
dufi, who is himfelf the hiftorian narrat- 
ing the different events that occur in 
chronological fucceffion. The language 
of the latter is however far fuperior to 
that of Camoens: it is richer and more 
melodious, and, by the unrivalled power 
it poffeffes, of creating compound epithets, 
it leaves the Portuguefe at an infinite 
diftance. Many of the epifodes of Ferdufi, 
and particularly thofe defigned to in- 
culcate moral duties, or exhibit the force 
and tendernefs of love, are related with 
a ftronger intereft and impreflion than 
are to be found in any part of the Lu- 
fiad, though I am ready to admit the 
mafterly delineation of the Ifland of Venus ~ 
in the 9th canto ; the beauty of the gener- 
ous apology offered for, the voluptuous 
Fernando; the exquifite tendernefs and 
feeling introduced into the tale of the 
unfortunate Donna Inez, both in the 
third canto; and the luxurious, yet deli- 
_ cate, picture of the approach of Venus to 
Jupiter, inferted in the fecond canto of 
the editions of this poem publifhed by 
Goncalez and Faria i Soufa, but unac- 
countably omitted in that of Manuel de 
Lyra, edited at Lifbon in 1584. ‘The 
patiage I refer to commences 
Os crefpos fios douro fe eparziam 
Pellocolo, que a neva efcurecia, &c. 
and is properly retained, and tranflated 
with much fpirit, by Mr. Mickle. 
But the prefent letter 1 intended to 
have devoted to the entire purpofe of 
comparing the lyric poetry of Afia with 
that of Europe; and principally the 
gazels or odes of Hafiz with thofe of 
Let pietifts the ruby bowl difown, 
Mr, Good on Oriental Poetry, 
521 
Anacreon: and I now proceed to fketch, 
with a hafty hand, afew of thofe many 
refemblances which feem to fubfift be- 
tween them, and which the man of dig« 
nified leifare may purfue in his clofet to 
a much greater extent. 
The gazel bears fome fimilitude to the 
Italian fonnet, from its being faackled to 
-a rigid uniformity of rhyme, and its not | 
being permitted to exceed a certain nume 
ber of couplets: but, exclufive of fuch a 
coincidence, nothing can be more unlike; 
for inftead of being confined to one indi- 
vidual thought or idea, the bard of Iran 
is at full liberty to introduce as many as 
he choofes; and it often occurs, that the 
fubject of almoft every couplet is altoge- 
ther new, and unconnected either with its 
antecedent or confequent. Something of 
this abrupt aberration, though perhaps 
feldom carried to the fame excefs, is to 
be traced in the odes of Anacreon and 
Horace, in the latter more particularly ; 
and efpecially when, like Hafiz, fome 
moral reflexion on the brevity of human 
life, and the vanity of its pleafures and 
purfuits, rufhes fuddenly athwart his foul, 
whilft engaged on a fubject apparently ~ 
foreign from fuch ideas. In this refpect, 
the refemblance between Hafiz and Ho-. 
race is confiderably greater than between 
the former and the Teian lyrift, who 
docs not fo frequently introduce moral 
topics into his voluptuous verfification. 
Cafually, however, we meet with them, 
as in his fourth ode, commencing 
Emi pupoivass TECELVANSy | 
where, after a moft lufcious delineation of 
his repofing on a bed of verdant rofes and 
myrtles, quafling ample draughts of eg 
from a cup miniftered to him by Cupid, 
he abruptly burfts forth: 
T2005 Opuaros vue dics 
Bioros Tpenet noAloiess 
Oriyy be xevromerda 
Kovicy oorewy Avoevruy. 
Which may be thus rendered without 
diffufion : 
Rapid time, with headlong zeal, 
Flies like the chariot’s whizzing wheel ; 
And foon diffolv’d thro’ every bone, 
We fink—an inch of duit alone. 
A paffage ftrikingly fimilar, both in 
fubject and abrupt deviation, to the fol- 
lowing from the Perfian bard, taken from 
the third gazel, as arranged’by the Baron 
Revifki ; 
per oF ts 
Fain would they yield their Eden for our own.— 
Tit not to Fortune—-fly the changeling’s pow’r 
This, this is thine—then fezze the prefent hour !|—~ 
Mowntury Mac. No. 67. 
2 Each 
