Ve ‘ 
\ 
- 
24. _ Origin of Oberon’s Tale—Meteor—Firgil, 
however, an interefting note to Bex Fohn- 
big s Silent Woman, which will both ex- 
plain the great aéion (or rather one of the 
great aétions) of the poem, and, perhaps, 
Pina to a difcovery of the origin of the 
tale, if not ftated by the author 
It is m the highly comic fcene, aét sth, 
of the Silent Woman, where Truewit 
plays upon the cowardice of Sir Joh. Daw. 
“¢ Tru. That you would fuffer, I told him: 
fo, dt firft he demaneed, by my troth, in my- 
conceit, too much. 
Daw. What was it, Sir? 
diz. Your upper lip, and fix ©’ your front 
teeth. 
Daw. Twas unreafonable. 
Tri. Nay, I told him plainly you Eoald 
not {pare em all. So, after long argument 
€pro and con, as you know) I Brought him 
dawn to your two butter teeth and them: he 
— would have.” 
Note. This feems to have been copied 
after a penalty of the fame nature, mentioned 
in an old French romance. ‘* Dans le roman de 
- Huon de Bourdeaux, entre autres chofes a 
faire pour affronter l Amiral Gaudifie, on or- 
gonna au pauvre Chevalier Huon dene rentrer 
point en France, qu’il n’euft efté lui arracher 
ia barbe, et quatre dents mafchelieres: ce 
qwil fit enfin avec l’aide d’Oberon le Fe, fon 
ami iy al, mais non pourtant fans maint coup 
fevit /* 
I believe the firft impreffion on reading 
the correfponding part of Oberon, is that 
of burlefque: a fentiment which is feveral 
times unluckily fuggefted. The fancitul 
and extravagant wildnefs of the machinery 
by no means authorizes broad humour, 
which bears a different character. 
As probability and propriety of man- 
ners are effential evento a fairy tale: I 
think the effect of the ftory would have 
been improved, if Charlemagne’s ftern de- 
cree had. been more reafonable, or, atleaft, 
better explained ; and the brave Sir Huon, 
a model of loyal knights, {wears to com- 
mit an act againft all ‘the laws of chivalry ; 
for he is to cut off the head of him who 
fits at the Sultan’s left hand, without giving 
the accuftemed defiance. I do not think 
it {eicient to fay, he was a Pagan ; and 
the poet feems aware of the original im- 
propriety, ‘by introduc.ng an “accident 
which leffens the tN of the murder. 
E confefs myfelf anxious to know how 
far the bow], the ring, and the dance. ex- 
siting horn, are the agents of the old ro- 
mance. And if any of your readers 
fhould, by accident, poffefs it, or if any 
of your German correlpondents were to 
favour us with a tranflation of the author’s 
eriginal preface, ifghere beany, for with any 
rFeb. x,. 
further hiftorical anecdotes concerning a ’ 
poem of fuperlative exsellence,-he would, 
I believe gratify a confiderable number Be 
your readers. 5. Co. 
Ss ‘ 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SER, 
SEE. by your very valuable publica- 
tion, the Monthly Magazine for De- 
cember laft, that you with further commu- 
nications relating to the meteor which was 
feen in various parts cf England, on the 
12th of November laft. 
Tt was feen in this neighbourhood, par- 
‘ticularly by an intelligent man, who was 
going to Weft Wycombe, about 6 o'clock 
in the morning ; he defcribed it, when he 
came home in the evening, as a very large 
ball of fire, pafling over his head-from the 
fouth-weft, and which, he thought, fell to 
the earth, abe a mile to the north-eaft 5, 
he alfo faid, that he thought it made a hi 
fing noife; but he was to much alarmed, 
that I think he muft have been mifiaken 
in that refpeét; there had been ‘frequent 
flathes of lightning from the fame quarter 
’ beforé the meteor appeared, but none after. 
I remember, fome years ago, in the month 
of Auguit, about ten o’ clock in the eyen- 
ing, a very large meteor pafled’ over this 
town; and every perfon who ‘awit thought~ 
it fell within a mile; and that was feen 
alfo all over England and Scotland, and: 
fome parts of the Continent, about the 
fame hour. I am, Sir, : 
_ Your very humbie fervant, 
High Wycombe, f.R. 
Fan. 8, 1806. 
a 
To the Editor of the Mobhly Magazine. 
SSERS 
OMMENTATORS have been much - 
at a lofs how to conftrue that paf- 
face in Virgil’s firft Eclogue, .where Me- 
libceus addrefies Tityrus : 
Hinc tibi que femper vicino a limite fe- 
Pes, 
Hybieis apibus florem depafta faliéti 
Szpe levi fomnum fuadebit inire fufurro. 
According to the interpunctuations - 
which all the editions, that Iam acquaint- 
ed with, have followed, the relative gua, 
in the firft line, feems to want its verb 3 
and this the commentators have, in genes 
ral, been obliged to fupply, by fwppofiag 
an ellipfis of the word eff, either after 
tibi, or depafia; which in both places 
~ would be equally harfh and incompatible 
~with the propriety ‘of the Latin tongue. 
Now , if we infert a comma after Jennper, 
tne 
