impreffive than a plain profe narrative. The latter has more the air of truth and authenticity; and where the reality is fo tragically interefting, there is no room for fiction or eloquence to dif play their illufions. Befides, the catastrophe is fo well known, and preffes fo conftantly upon the mind, that the detail of minor fufferings produces fcarcely any effect, and excites but a small share of our fympathy. When Mr Burke published his Reflections, the account of the return from Verfailles produced an extraordinary intereft; but after the blood of Louis and his confort had flowed upon a public fcaffold, we do not think that it was very judicious in M. de Lille to dwell upon it at fo great length in this canto. The whole progrefs of the King's trial, depofition, condemnation, and death, are then narrated in the fame minute, declamatory ftyle; and a paffage of at least 200 lines, reads exactly like a verfification of fome turgid and fonorous funeral oration. In one place he breaks out into the dignified exclamation, Noirs efprits des Enfers, quel confeil ténébreux Inventa, dites-moi, ces traitemens affreux ?' p. 74 At another stage of the proceeding, it is impoffible, we are told, that any thing can be worfe; and Pity is exhorted to dry her tears. Then fomething worfe is announced, and the poet will not believe it; and yields at length, with great agitation, to the dreadful certainty! In a story fo well known, this is very injudicious trifling. When he comes to the execution, he breaks off in this cold and affected manner: • Ces tableaux font horreur: et je peins la Pitié!' P. 77. And then he concludes in the very ftyle of a common-place preacher, by recollecting that the Royal Martyr is no object of pity; and by telling the angels to take their lyres of gold, and receive him with triumphal palms! This we cannot help thinking a little profane; but the following lines, in which he lets himself down fo familiarly to his mortal fubject, appear to us to be still worfe. Mais, d'où vient tout à coup que mon cœur fe refferre? Louis en vain affifte aux céleftes concerts; Les cieux font imparfaits, fon époufe eft aux fers.' p. 77. The fucceffive immolation of the Queen, Madame Elifabeth, and the Dauphin, is then narrated in the fame ftyle, and with equal heaviness and labour of compofition. The canto terminates with an encomium on the heroic fortitude with which a multitude of beautiful women encountered a public death in that period of diftraction. Of thofe lovely victims, he fays, with more prettiness than pathos, C 3 • Près Près d'elles du trépas l'afpect eft moins affreux. La beauté, fur la mort exerçant fon empire, L'adoucit d'un regard, l'embellit d'un fourire.' p. 90. The three virgins of Verdun, who were facrificed together, are then celebrated in the fame manner; and the canto is clofed with the following propofal for commemorating their fate, by an annual festival in their honour. M. de Lille, who really does not fucceed at all in tragical defcriptions and fcenes of blood, refumes all his powers of fafcination, in sketching out the pastoral imagery and rural innocence of this romantic folemnity. The following verfes, which are in the true taste of les jardins, came upon us with a refreshing fweetnefs after wading through fo many oceans of blood. Mais s'il eft quelque lieu, quelques vallons déferts Là, ce fexe charmant, dont vous êtes l'orgueil, Efpoir de vos parens, ornement de votre âge, "Vous eûtes beauté, vous eûtes le courage, "Vous vites fans effroi le fanglant tribunal, "Vos fronts n'ont point pâli fous le couteau fatal. ". "Adieu: quand le printemps reprendra fes guirlandes, "Nous reviendrons encor vous porter nos cifrandes ; Aujourd'hui recevez ces dons confolateurs, "Nos hymnes, nos regrets, nos larmes et nos fleurs!" p. 92.93. The laft canto is, at least in the London edition, very much in the ftyle of the preceding one, and might have formed a continuation of it, indeed, if it would not have been too long. It proceeds, in a ftyle which we are rather furprised that the Confular cenfors have not corrected, to enlarge upon the evils that France has fuffered by the deftruction of her royalty, and to expatiate upon the abfurd appearance that many of her new rulers make, in fituations fo eppofite to their original. The fate of fociety appears, fays he very childithly, as much difordered as a wood would do with its branches in the ground, and its roots in the air.' The unfortunate emigrants are then commemorated in 2 a paffage, that has borrowed the greater part of its beauties from the Deferted Village, and are compared to the Ifraelites, during their captivity in Babylon: upon occafion of which fimile, a very beautiful paraphrafe of the 137th pfalm is inferted. After this, there occurs, in the London edition, a very long paffage, crying out against the confifcation of property that took place, and afking the god Termes' what he thinks of thofe terrible doings. The poetical merit of thefe 150 lines is not great. But M. de Lille, when at Paris, probably repented him in a particular manner of the following: Mais j'entends des flatteurs Joindre à tant d'autres maux le tourment des regrets. After this, there comes a very animated address to the kings and rulers of the world, in behalf of the emigrating royalifts. Though this is perhaps the best political paffage in the poem, it is too long to be extracted. Our readers may judge of the style of it from the following verfes : Non, non : le temps n'eft plus, où la soumiffion, Du feu chevalerefque éteint la noble flamme; De l'état focial défordonne les rangs.' p. 102-3. At this period, the poet feems to have recollected that he was wandering a little from the proper fubject of his poem; and to make amends, he fuddenly bursts out into a new invocation to Pity, declares that no other fubject is worthy of his mufe, and copies two long paffages from Virgil to fhow, in general, how much intereft the language of compaffion can give to a poetical compofition. Having performed this evolution in honour of 'La Pitié,' the poet wheels round again to his revolutionary differtation, and commemorates the hofpitality of diverfe princes. and nations towards the unhappy emigrants who had implored their protection. The compliment to England is particularly C 4 full full and flattering: we fhould be inclined to fufpect that the following verles will not be very popular at Paris : Tes lois font la raifon; tes mœurs font la fageffe, Ce'ft Vénus s'élevant de l'empire de l'onde.' p. 110. After this, there is introduced a long romantic episode, containing the adventures of an interefting emigrant, who, in his wanderings over the great deferts of the world, fortunately flumbles upon the retreat of another emigrant, who had established himself, like Robinson Crufoe (it is the author's own fimile) with his wife and family in the folitary woods of America, and who detains his ancient Parifian friend to make their fociety more comfortable. There is fome pretty landfcape painting in this part of the work; but the story is fpoiled by an attempt at too great refinement; and we could fcarcely help laughing, when we were stopped, in following the courfe of this heart- fick exile, to be informed that he was a curious botanift, and that De nombreux végétaux, dans fa courfe intrépide, A part of this episode, it feems, was written by M. de Lille entirely from his own invention: but he was afterwards delighted to find that fuch an incident had actually occurred, and modelled the conclufion of it according to authentic information. From this point, there is fcarcely any refemblance between the London and the Paris editions. The former contains a long eulogium upon the army of Condé, and on the princes of the blood royal; an addrefs to the author's ancient patron, le Duc d'Artois; and a caution to the emigrants, not to be tempted back to France by the infidious promifes of the new government. The French copy leaves all this out, and concludes with a congratulatory addrefs on the restoration of civil order and religious rites, and on the return of fecurity and peace after fo long a tempeft. In point of poetical beauty, we are forry to fay, that the latter edition appears to us to have the advantage. There are fome fine expreffions of a loyal devotion, no doubt, in the addrefs to the princes; but the whole paffage is infected with so much pedantry, and is compofed in a tafte fo decidedly French, that no English critic can be expected to fhow it much mercy. What can be faid, for inftance, for fuch a cold fcholaftic conceit as the following? ! Qu'on Qu'on ne me vante plus ce triple Gérion Condé, Bourbon, Enghien fe font d'autres Rocroys. But the circumstance that gives a decided fuperiority to those verses in which M. de Lille must be admitted, we are afraid, to have recorded his own defertion from the cause of his patrons, is the fingular adaptation of the fubject to his peculiar powers of defcription. He is not formed by any means for recording deeds of blood, or scenes of terrible contention; but in the elegant and touching delineation of ruftic fcenery and innocent occupations, he is perhaps without a rival among the writers of modern Europe. We have no hesitation in saying, that the following verses upon the restoration of religion, which do not appear in the text of the London edition, are by far the most beautiful in the whole poem : Je les revois enfin, ces tribunaux, où Dieu Demande encor des vœux pour les mortels fouffrans, Et, fur le coq dore, l'honneur de fon village, Vers le toit paternel dirige fon voyage.' p. 124-5. We may add the following charming defcription of a vernal feftival in the country: Et, des que Mai fourit, les agreftes peuplades De cette grande fête a donné le fignal, Enfin |