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And with the brightness of her beams she strove
'Gainst Satan, Sin, and Adam's fleshly seed,
Reproving wrongs, bewailing worldling's need,
Who think they swim in wealth, blinded by guile,
Yet wanting Truth, are wretched, poor, and vile.

"The world reprov'd, in rage attempts her wrack;
Satan assists, malicious men devise

Torments for Truth, bind scourges at her back,
Exclaim against her with blasphemous cries,
Condemning her, exalting earthly lies:
Yet no despite or pain can cause her cease;

She, wounded, springs, bedeck'd with crown of Peace."
Virescit vulnere Veritas.

S. K.

CHATTERTON,

It is not our intention or desire to touch, in the remotest manner, on the long and well-known controversy respecting this wonderful but ill-fated youth, whose works have recently appeared in a new form, with various improvements; to which recommendation is also added one still greater-a motive of humanity and benevolence, which reflects the highest honour on the liberality of the publishers, and will, we hope, meet with every reward such generous conduct deserves. The object, then, of the present paper is merely to submit to the public what would, we think, have afforded some innocent amusement, if not instruction, had it been held expedient by the editors to follow such a plan;-we mean, to have pointed out more coincidences, not to say imitations, that frequently occur in these poems unnoticed. We shall take a single piece, and remark those that strike us on a cursory reading.

BRISTOWE TRAGEDIE,

Or the Dethe of Syr Charles Bawdin.

Our commencement will a little savour, we confess, of Addison's burlesque criticism on Chevy Chace, but we shall not always be found in the same vein.

The popular song of Old Towler is evidently a parody on these, the first three verses of the Bristowe Tragedie:

The featherd songster chaunticleer

Han wounde hys bugle horne,
And tolde the earlie villager

The commynge of the morne :

Kynge Edwarde sawe the ruddie streakes
Of lyghte eclypse the greie ;

And herde the raven's croakynge throte
Proclayme the fated daie.

"Thou'rt ryght," quod he, " for, by the Godde,
"That syttes enthron'd on hyghe!

"Charles Bawdin, and hys fellowes twaine,

"To daie shall surelie die."

In the following passage we are forcibly reminded of Shakspeare: "Before the evening starre doth sheene, "Bawdin shall loose hys hedde :"

"Canynge awaie! By Godde ynne heav'n

"Thatt dydd mee beinge gyve,

"I wylle nott taste a bitt of breade

"Whilst thys Syr Charles dothe lyve."

Richard III. A&t 3, Sc. 5.

"Off with his head. Now, by St. Paul I swear,
"I will not dine until I see the same."

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"Whatte though I onne a sledde be drawne,
"And mangled by a hynde,

"I doe defye the traytor's pow'r,
"Hee can ne harm my mynde.”

Shakspeare

HAMLET.

"I do not set my life at a pin's fee;

"And, for my soul, what can it do to that,

"Being a thing immortal?"

ANNE to RICHARD.

"Thou hadst but power over his mortal body,
"His soul thou canst not have."

Epictetus. Enchir. c. 79.

Αποκτείναι μεν δύνανται, βλάψαι δ' 8.

They can kill me, but they cannot hurt me.

Chatterton was, perhaps, indebted to an air in the Beggar's Opera for the subsequent verse :

FLORENCE.

"Ah, sweete Syr Charles! why wylt thou goe

"Withoute thye lovynge wyfe?

"The cruelle axe thatt cuttes thye necke

"Ytte eke shall ende mye lyfe."

POLLY.

"Oh, ponder well! be not severe ;
"So save a wretched wife!

"For on the rope that hangs my dear
"Depends poor Polly's life."

Towards the end

"Soe lett hym die !" Duke Richard sayde ;

"And maye echone oure foes

"Bende downe theyre neckes to bloudie axe.

Shakspeare

GLOUCESTER.

"See, how my sword weeps for the poor king's death. "O may such purple tears be always shed,

"From those who wish the downfall of our house."

Amongst the concluding lines

"Godde prosper longe oure kynge,"

is of too frequent occurrence in old ballads to call for particular notice; and if we here terminate our observations, it is not for want of matter, but because we wish, however we may be deficient in the rest, to use this one excellent quality of wit-brevity.

SECUNDUS APOLLO.

OLLA PODRIDA.

Number III.

DRUMMOND, OF HAWTHORNDEN.

IT has been well observed of Drummond, "that he possesses all the Doric delicacies of Comus," and the sweetness and delicious tenderness of his sentiments are indeed exquisite. Endued with all the pensive characteristics of genius, and with a heart feelingly alive to the soft persuasions of an elevated and ardent affection, his sonnets breathe all that mellowness of feeling, that tender elevation of sentiment, which distinguished those of the elegant Petrarch. The remains of the bad taste of a learned age, if not abundantly, may be, however, sometimes observed; and his more valuable sonnets are frequently debased by the quaint expression, metaphysic conceit, and learned allusion, so prevalent in all the writers of the preced ing age.

Spenser appears to have been his model, and to whom many thoughts and expressions may be aptly traced: and though we may suppose Petrarch to have been familiar to him, yet I by no means conclude that he had any particular influence upon his pursuits.

The life of Drummond was tinctured with misfortunes in early life, which had a predominant influence on all his succeeding years: and the regret attending the death of the accomplished and amiable Miss Cunningham, led him to the solitude and seclusion of his favourite Hawthornden.

This distressing event increased his habitual melancholy, and gave birth to some of those sonnets which are rendered so truly delightful to taste and sensibility. How beautiful is that beginning with

"I know that all beneath the moon decays," &c. that to his Lute, and to Spring, which is imitated from Guarini's Il pastor Fido

"O primavera! gioventù de l'anno," &c. &c.

This delightful passage is imitated likewise by Lord Lyttleton in his Ode to Spring, and serves Milton with those beautiful lines in Par. Lost. b. 3. 1. 40.

"Thus with the year

Seasons return, but not to me returns

Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn."

&c. &c.

CVOL. XV.

A poem of Surrey, "wherein eche thinge renewes save only the Lover," is taken also from the Italian poet. It would be curious to mark the constitution of beauty in the age of Chaucer and that of Drummond, by comparing Sonnet 7th with a passage in "the Craft of Lovers."

"O rubicunde rose and white as the lily,
Clarified chrystal of worldly portraiture!
O courfin figure, resplendent with glory.
Geme of beauty! O carbouncle shining pure!
Your fairnes excedeth the craft of nature:
Most womanli your loveli countinaunce
Registir my love in your remembraunce."

L. 8, in Sonnet 19, bears some likeness to a passage in the "Spring" of the virtuous Gawen Douglass, than whom few have painted the variety in the hues of flowers more beautifully or more naturally.

In his elegant Sonnet to the Nightingale, is an expression among many that may be remarked in Comus. Sonnet 33, l. 4. "Become all ear."

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"I was all ear to catch the heavenly turnings of her voice." From Sonnet 7. part 2. 1. 2. Milton caught that elegant idea which decorates his song in May Morning.

"The flowery May, who from her green lap throws

The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose."

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The sonnet concerning Rivers is the least interesting of any :-in it we are at a loss why he distinguishes the river Ladon by the epithet "humble.' This river has had its share of attention from the poets. Ovid calls it " rapax Ladon," and Callimachus, in a transla、 tion of his Hymn Jov. v. 18,

"Ladon vero magnus nondum fluebit."

It is an error, however, of little consequence."

* Ovid has the same inconsistency in regard to this river, that Shakespeare has to the Severn. In Metamorph. 1. 1.702, he says,

"Arenosi placitum Ladonis ad amnem.'

And in Fasti 5, 1. 89,

"Mænalos hunc, Ladoxque rapax.”,

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Thus

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