Our ingenious correspondent will find that Mr. C. has, amongst many precursors in the art of writing poetical or versified prose, or prose run mad, TACITUS at the commencement of his Annals: . Urbem Romam à principio reges habuere. We shrewdly suspect that the same sort of good turn might be done Mr. C. with regard to his blank-verse, which has frequently appeared to us only to need the form of printing here used to deceive the eye no longer with the belief that it was any thing but plain prose. What PAOLO ROLLI says of BOCCACCIO seems not to be ill-applied to Mr. CUMBERLAND'S genius. Professò POESIA, ma ne' versi ebbi poco favorevole la poetica vena: e pure in sue No VELLE trovansi molti bei versi. Having thus proyed his prose to be verse, and vice versâ, we wish our correspondent would try what can be made of him when read hebraicè, that is, backwards. The attempt is not so desperate as it may at first appear. Ex. gr. "These words at the head of a map of the world, 'Nova totius terrarum orbis tabula,' make an hexameter when read backwards-Alubat sibro murarret suitot avon." Here we see that, which is no verse in one direction, verse in another; and it should at least teach us, in charity, not to pronounce unfavourably on what many of our moderns call poetry, until we have given them the fair play of trying it both ways. EDIT. COUNSEL. SOME reform appears very necessary as to the present mode of calling to the bar. From a hint formerly thrown out in the court of King's Bench, and lately revived, concerning the necessity of the bench being satisfied that students, applying to be admitted to the bar, have received a liberal education, we should not wonder if the old rule were renewed-that none should be called to the bar, who had not taken a degree at one of our universities:-A bad criterion, however, by which to judge of the size and character of a man's understanding; for though we chuse to say nothing in derogation of those learned seminaries, we may yet be allowed to observe, that a man may have some sense without having been at either,-probably enough to be a good lawyer. It is also within the scope of possibility, that a person may have been many years at an university, and be little better than a dunce. The question should be non quo sed quomodo, not by whom a man was educated, but in what manner, or not where, but how. There was a time when no person could have been admitted, even as an attorney, without satisfying some of the judges that he possessed competent knowledge; but the way, in which it has lately been judged expedient to supersede the necessity of that laborious enquiry, has been, to call on each individual to shew his fitness for the station by paying the revenue, 100%.; and the mode by which gentlemen come to the bar is by keeping, as it is termed, a certain number of terms at one of the inns of court-i. e. to dine there, a given number of days in each term. In that time, it is true that the performance of a certain number of exercises is requisite, but for these he may compound at 40s. apiece. The form of performing them, where the composition is not admitted, will, as it relates to the proof of qualification, excite a smile. A question is proposed in writing by the undertreasurer, or deputy reader, which is argued before him by four students, two of whom are to affirm, and two to deny.-The first speaker rises very solemnly and says-" Under all the circumstances of the case, I think so and so, and that A. takes an estate for life."His opponent, with the same preamble, forms an opposite conclusion. The third professes his agreement with the learned gentleman who spoke first, and the fourth concurs in opinion with his learned friend who spoke second. Thus, after regularly eating his dinners, and arguing three or four cases in this way, he is called to the bar: The barrier which formerly divided the ATTORNEY from the BARRISTER, is now in such a great measure removed, as to open the greatest intimacy of communication, and intercourse of familiarity between them. It is not here meant that there ever was any positive rule or law, which prevented this freedom between barrister and attorney; but by the étiquette of the profession, the former preserved a dignity, that kept the latter at a distance- this is the barrier at present removed through the eagerness of barristers to procure business by flattering and courting attornies, who have the distribution of it. To this practice is given the curious appellation of huggery, which, if it be observed on the circuit, is transportation--to Coventry. ON THE GALLANTRY OF THE AGE. OLD people, and especially old women, complain very loudly of a want of gallantry in the young men of the present day; but this complaint, like all those of the degeneracy of the age, will be found, on reflection, to be without foundation. A century ago, the education of women was so little intellectual, that unless they were kept at a chivalric distance from the men, and were very little known to them, they would never have been taken by them for magnificent. A gallant, or rather a knight, of a century ago, looked upon all women as a kind of superior beings, to be thought of only with reverence, and to be approached only upon the knee. In the pleasing life of LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY, the "true knight" gives an interesting account of the effect his chivalric oath wrought upon him ; in virtue of which he thought himself. bound to challenge, and actually did challenge a man who had playfully taken a ribband from a female child, of ten or twelve years old; and even so late as Richardson's days, there was not a novel that gave its heroine to its hero till he had been on his knees to her. Such blind idolatry as this is very properly scorned by the present generation; and to the worship of stocks and stones, has succeeded that of a more reasonable object. The present education of women, and the literary works of some ingenious females, have brought them to a real equality with men, instead of an ideal superiority over us; and they are now treated more as our companions and friends. In former times, women were kept from the company of men as if they were not the same species of animal, and were really taught to believe that man was some nondescript he-monster, who would eat them up, if they fell in his way. The whole duty of women then was to keep all the keys: if the man wished to entertain his friends, the presence of his wife was a restraint, and he took them over to the next tavern. Surely then, the sex ought to rejoice at their elevation in our opinions, rather than repine at the greater familiarity of our behaviour towards them, when it is only the result of that elevation, and should gladly exchange the restraints of being thought angels, for the privileges of being considered as women. REVIEW OF LITERATURE. Shall we for ever make NEW BOOKS, as apothecaries make new mixtures, by pouring only out of one vessel into another? Are we to be for ever twisting and untwisting the same rope? for ever in the same track---for ever at the same pace? Tristram Shandy. Il Poeta di Teatro, Romanzo Poetico in sesta rima, del Dr. Filippo Pananti da Mugello. 2 Vol. Dulau. 1809. ITALY is the cradle, home, and chosen seat of the Muses, and this is of modern days their chosen son. Moschus bids the Sicilian Muses weep, for Bion the lovely songster is no more, but, says he, it pleased the nymphs that the frog should sing for ever Ταις νυμφαισι δ' εδοξεν αει τον βατραχον άδειν. -and here he is, by name Pananti, all hopping alive! Moschus's singing frog is, indeed, finely represented by an Opera-House poct. The preface informs us that we shall meet with una varietà di cose e di stile, a variety of things and styles; and Doctor Filippo keeps his word. We shall take little notice of the first volume, which is occupied in describing the troubles of a dramatic poet, and his insults (being called by the mechanists, a fellow artist,* &c.) with his travels, but leap immediately into tomo secondo, where we have the fate of an Italian master delineated. This is what Il Maestro Pananti promises himself, in his preface, will prove useful to the cultivators del bel sermone d'Italia, of Fra noi altri artisti is a salutation to dramatists from scene-painters and ether mechanists, which need by no means be confined to the Opera House. * the beautiful language of Italy. The notes, explaining proverbial expressions, may certainly have some merit in this way, but not if they are no better interpreted than the above very sorry which Italian masters are, it seems, perpetually receiving in billets from their idle scholars. In English thus: Note 6. Very sorry, that is, It displeases me very much. This is the common beginning of the letters of ladies to the master, when they inform him that the following morning they cannot take a lesson, and consequently mean to keep their seven shillings— these little notes, therefore, cannot be called billets doux. We shall give some further specimens of the Doctor's notion of humour, wit, and pleasantry. The motto from the twentythird canto is from Chesterfield; "When you go to the Opera, leave your senses with your half-guinea at the door-" always supposing it to be an opera by Dr. Filippo Pananti da Mugello, the Don Quixote of the theatre,† as he styles himself. Un gentleman non deve andare a piedi, Se no se ne farebbe poco conto. Call a coach-Very well the coach is ready. -To the Opera. Parto, arrivo, smonto, Passo al Pitt door e, in gran prosopopea, Faccio suonar la mia mezza ghinea. St. iii. St. viii. Buonaiuti, whom he justly denominates a fool, for professing to correct Metastasio, It is true that “il croit avoir fait le livre qu'il gate,” and that when he meddled with La Chasse d'Henri IV. it was well saidO Henry, how hard is thy fate, to be murdered both living and And he says at p. 298, vol. ii. The study and love of our humorous verses have tended to give perfection to the taste of that happy island. tle son il Don Chiseiot del teatre. |