1810.] 
abated, we are left at liberty to contem- 
plate a character of a different complex- 
ion, “buxom, blithe, and debonair ;” 
one who, although evidently a great fa- 
vourite of the poet’s, and therefore to 
be received with all due courtesy, is not- 
withstanding introduced under the suspi- 
cious description of an alias. 
In heaven yclep’d Euphrosyne, 
And by men, heart-easing Mirth, 
Judging indeed ‘from the hight and easy 
deportment of this gay nymph, one might 
guess there were good reasons for a change 
ef name as. she changed her residence. 
But of all vices there is none we abhor 
more than that of slanderous insinuation; 
we shall therefore confine our moral stric- 
tures to the nymph’s mother, i whose 
defence the poet has little to say himself. 
Here too, as in the case-of the name, 
there is some doubt: for the uncertainty 
of descent on the father’s side having be- 
come trite to a proverb, the author, 
scorning that beaten track, has left us to 
choose between two mothers for his fa- 
vourite; and without much to guide our 
choice; for, whichever we fix upon, it 
is plain she was no better than she should” 
As he seeins, however, himself in-- 
be. 
clined to the latter of the two, we will 
even suppose it so to be, 
Or whether (as some sager sing) 
The frolic wind that breathes the springy 
Zephyr, with Aurora playing, 
As he met ber once a Maying ; 
‘There on beds of violets blue, 
And fresh-blown ruses washed in dew, &c, 
Some dull people might imagine, that 
the wind was more like the breath of 
spring than spring the_breath of the wind ; 
but we are more disposed to question the 
author’s ethics than his physics, and ac- 
cordingly cannot dismiss these May gam- 
bols without some observations. 
In the first place, Mr. M. seems to 
have higher notions of the antiquity. of 
the May-pole than we have been accus- 
tomed to atiacn to it. Or perhaps he 
thought to shelter the equivocal nature of 
this affair under that sanction. To us 
however, who can hardly subscribe to 
the doctrine that “ vice loses half its evil 
by losing all its grossness,” neither the 
remoteness of time, nor the gaiety of 
the season, furnishes a sufficient palli- 
ation.» ‘ Violets blue,” and * fresh- 
blown roses,” are to be sure more agree- 
able objects of the imagination than a 
gin-shop in Wapping, or a booth in 
Bartholomew-fair; but in point of mo- 
rality, these are distinctions without a 
Advice to a Young Reviewer. 
St5 
difference: or, it may-be, the cultivation . 
of mind which teaches us to reject and 
nauseate these latter objects, aggravates 
the case, if our improvement in taste be 
not accompanied by a proportionate ime 
provement of morals, 
If the reader can reconcile himself to 
this latitude of principle, the anachronism 
will not long stand in his way. Much 
indeed may be said in favour of this 
union of ancient mythology with moderr 
notions and manners. It is a sort of 
chronological metaphor—an artificial ana- 
logy, by which ideas, widely remote and 
heterogeneous, are brought into contact, 
and the mind is delighted by this unex- 
pected assemblage, as it is by the com- 
binations of figurative language. 
Thus in that elegant .nterlude, which 
the pen of Ben Jonson has transmitted 
to us, of the Loves of Hero and Lean- 
der: . 
Gentles, that no longer your expectations may 
wander, d 
Behold our chief actor, amorous Leander, 
With a great deal of cloth, lapp’d about him 
like a scarf, © 
For he yet serves his father, a dyer in Pud- 
dle Wharf; " 
Which place we'll make bold with, to call it 
our Abydus, 
As the Bank-side is our Sestos, and /et it not de 
denied us, 
And far be it from us to deny the use of 
so reasonable a liberty; especially if the 
request be backed (as it is in the case of | 
Mr, M.) by the craving and imperious 
necessities of rhyme. What man who 
has ever bestrode Pegasus but for an hour, 
will be insensible to such a claim? 
Haud ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco, 
Weare next favoured with an enumera- 
tion of the attendants of this ‘‘ debonair” 
nymph, in all the minuteness of a Gere 
man dramatis persone, or a rope-dan- 
cer’s hand-bill : 
Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee 
Jest, and youthful Jollity ; 
Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles, 
Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles, 
Such as hang on Hebe’s cheek, 
And love to live in dimple sleek 5. 
Sport that wrinkled Care derides, 
And Laughter holding both his sides. 
The author, to prove himself worthy of 
being admitted of the crew, skips and 
capers about upon “the light fantastic 
toe,” that there is no following him. . He 
scampers through all the categories, in 
search of ‘his imaginary beings, from 
Substance to Quality, and back again; 
: frons 
