"De tous siècles, le mendre Et le plus tollerant." The style of Mr Godwin's life of Chaucer is, in our apprehension, uncommonly depraved, exhibiting the opposite defects of meanness and of bombast. This is especially evident in those sentimental flourishes with which he has garnished his narrative, and which appear to us to be executed in a most extraordinary taste. In the following simile, for example, we hardly know whether most to admire the elegance and power of conception, or the happy ease and dignity of expression. "Its slender pillars (the author is treating of the later Gothic architecture) may possess various excellences, but they are certainly not magnificent; and the shafts by which the pillars are frequently surrounded have an insignificant air, suggesting to us an idea of fragility, and almost reminding us of the humble vehicle through which an English or German rustic inhales the fumes of the Indian weed."-Vol. i. p. 145. In p. 181, we hear of "a tune, in which the luxuriance and multiplicity of musical sounds obscures and tramples with disdain upon the majestic simplicity of words." In other places, we find "the technicalities of justice"-" the religious nerve of the soul of man"—young knights who looked upon the field of Roncesvalles with "augmented circulation"-" unforshortened figures"an "ancient baron neighboured to a throne," and sundry other extremely new and whimsical expressions. But even these conceited barbarisms offend us less than the execrable taste displayed in the following account of Chaucer's early studies: "He gave himself up to the impressions of nature, and to the sensations he experienced. He studied the writings of his con temporaries, and of certain of the ancients. according to the learning of his age. himself impelled to write. before him. He was learned He wrote, because he felt He analyzed the models which were He sought to please his friends and fellow scholars in the two Universities. He aspired to an extensive and lasting reputation." Vol. i. p. 436. We have no doubt that Mr Godwin considers these short sentences as the true model of a nervous and concise style. For our part, we find the sense so poor and trite, when compared with the pithy and sententious mode of delivery, that we feel in our closet the same shame we have sometimes experienced in the theatre, when a fourth-rate actor has exposed himself by mouthing, slapping his pockets, and, according to stage phrase, making the most of a trifling part. We will not pursue this subject any further, although we could produce from these ponderous tomes some notable instances of the mock heroic, and of the tone of false and affected sentiment. Such passages have tempted us to exclaim with Pandarus (dropping only one letter of his ejaculation), "Alas! alas! so noble a creature As is a man should reden1 such ordure!" Upon the whole, Mr Godwin's friends have, in one respect, great reason to be satisfied with the progress of his convalescence. We hope and trust, that the favourable symptoms of his case may continue. He is indeed now and then very low; or, in other words, uncommonly dull; but there is no apparent return of that fever of the spirits which alarmed us so much in his original publications. 1 For dreden. The insurrection of Jack Straw (a very dangerous topic) produces only a faint and moderate aspiration breathed towards the "sacred doctrines of equality," which it is admitted are too apt to be "rashly, superficially, and irreverently acted upon, involving their disciples in the most fearful calamity." The disgrace of Alice Pierce, or Perrers, the chere amie of Edward III., or, as Mr Godwin delicately terms her, "the chosen companion of his hours of retirement and leisure," calls down his resentment against the turbulence and rudeness of the Good Parliament. But less could hardly have been expected from the author of the memoirs of a late memorable female.1 We cannot help remarking that the principles of a modern philosopher continue to alarm the public, after the good man himself has abandoned them, just as the very truest tale will sometimes be distrusted from the habitual falsehood of the narrator. We fear this may have incommoded Mr Godwin in his antiquarian researches, more than he seems to be aware of. When he complains that private collectors declined "to part with their treasures for a short time out of their own hands," did it never occur to Mr Godwin that the maxims concerning property, contained in his "Political Justice," were not altogether calculated to conciliate confidence in the author? But, upon the whole, the Life of Chaucer, if an uninteresting, is an innocent performance; and [Memoirs of Mary Woolstonecroft, author of "The Rights of Woman." 8vo. 1798.] were its prolixities and superfluities unsparingly pruned (which would reduce the work to about one-fourth of its present size), we would consider it as an accession of some value to English lite rature. ARTICLE IV. TODD'S EDITION OF SPENSER. On the Works of [From the Edinburgh Review for 18)5. EDMUND SPENSER, with the principal Illustrations of various Commentators: To which are added, Notes, some Account of the Life of SPENSER, and a Glossarial and other Indexes. By the Reverend JOHN TOD, M.A. F.A.S. 8 vols. 1805.] A COMPLETE and respectable edition of Spenser's works, has been long a desideratum in English literature. Indeed, to what purpose do our antiquaries purchase at high rates, and peruse, at the cost of still more valuable leisure and labour, the treasures of the black letter, which, in themselves, have usually so very little to repay their exertions? Surely, the only natural and proper use of the knowledge thus acquired, is to throw light, as well upon our early literature, as on the man ners and language of our ancestors, by re-editing and explaining such of our ancient authors as have suffered by the change of both. Amongst these, Spenser must ever be reckoned one of the most eminent; for no author, perhaps, ever possessed and combined, in so brilliant a degree, the requisite qualities of a poet. Learned, according to the learning of his times, his erudition never appears to load or encumber his powers of imagination; but even the fictions of the classics, worn out as they are by the use of every pedant, become fresh and captivating themes, when adopted by his fancy, and accommodated to his plan. If that plan has now become to the reader of riper years somewhat tedious and involved, it must be allowed, on the other hand, that from Cowley downwards, every youth of imagination has been enchanted with the splendid legends of the Faëry Queen. It was therefore with pleasure that we turned to the examination of a work, which promised to recall the delightful sensations of our earlier studies; and if we have been in some respects disappointed in the perusal, we do not impute it altogether to want of diligence or accuracy on the part of Mr Todd, whose commentary, so far as it goes, is in both respects commendable. In the Life of Spenser, which is the longest specimen of original composition, he has brought forward several new facts, and evinced a laudable anxiety to throw light upon the story, by comparison of dates, and investigation of contemporary documents. The result of his labours is stated in so modest a manner, as ought, in some degree, to disarm the harshness of criti |