advantage of never lofing fight of his main fubject, Mr Ellis has brought together much information on collateral points of intereft and curiofity, which will be new to the modern reader, and pleafing to the antiquary, by placing, at once, under his review, circumftances difperfed through many a weary page of black letter. The reign of Henry VI., and thofe of the fucceeding monarchs, down to Henry VIII., feem to have produced few poets worthy of notice. Two tranflators of fome eminence occur during the former period, and the latter is graced by Harding (a kind of Robert of Glocefter redivivus); Hawes, a bad imitator of Lydgate, ten times more tedious than his original; the Ladie Juliana Berners, who wrote a book upon hunting in execrable poetry; and a few other rhimers, who, excepting perhaps Lord Rivers, are hardly worth naming. During this period, however, the poetry of Scotland was in its highest state of perfection; and Mr Ellis finds ample room, both for his critical and hiftorical talents, in celebrating Henry the Minstrel, Henryfoun, Johnftoun, Merear, Dunbar, and Gawain Douglas. Upon the works of the two laft, Mr Ellis dwells with pleafure; and his opinion may have fome effect in refreshing their faded laurels. In the reign of Henry VIII., the Scotifh bards continue to preferve their fuperiority; for, furely, the ribald Skelton, and the tiresome John Heywood, cannot be compared to Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, or to the anonymous author of the Mourning Maiden. In this laft beautiful poem, the following paffage embarraffes Mr Ellis: • Sall never berne gar breif the bill. At bidding me to bow.' The meaning feems to us to be, No one fhall enrol the fummons, which fhall force me to yield to his fuit.' With this poem Mr Ellis clofes the firft part of his work, being the hiftory of the English poetry and language. We have already taken notice of the very extensive range of difcuffion which this sketch embraces. It was therefore almost unavoidable, that there fhould remain fubjects on which we might have wished for farther information. The hiftory of English Minftrelfy, in particular, makes too important a part of Mr Ellis's fubject, for us to permit him to escape from it fo flightly. As he has announced his intention to publish a second series of specimens, felected from the early metrical romances, we recommend strongly to him, to prefix fuch a prefatory memoir as may fill up this wide blank in the history of our language. We are the more earnest in this recommendation, because we know, from experience, that Mr Ellis will manage, with the temper becoming a gentleman, a difpute which, though the circumstance feems to us altogether aftonishing, aftonishing, has certainly had a prodigious effect in exciting the irritable paffions of our antiquaries, and has been managed with a degree of acrimony only furpaffed by the famous and rancorous quarrel about the Scots and Picts. We obferve, with pleasure, that, in repelling fome attacks upon his first and fecond editions, Mr Ellis has uniformly used the lance of courtesy, as a romancer would have faid; and truly we have no pleafure in feeing his contemporaries fpur their hobby-horses headlong against each other, and fight at outrance, and with fer emoulu. Mr Ellis's ftyle is uniformly chafte and fimple, diverfified by a very happy gaiety which enlivens even the most unpromising parts of his fubject. We have only to add, that no author has paffed over his own pretenfions with fuch unaffected modefty, or given more liberal praife to the labours of others. It cannot be expected, after dwelling fo long upon the original part of the work, that we fhould have much to fay upon the fpecimens which occupy the two laft volumes. To each reign is prefixed a general character of the literature of the period; and to each fet of fpecimens fome account of the author and his writings. That of Spenfer contains fome new and curious particulars, with a fhort and able critique upon his ftyle of poetry. We therefore extract it at length. From fatisfactory information that has lately been procured, it appears that Spenfer was born about 1553, and died in 1598-9. He was educated at Pembroke-Hall, Cambridge, which he quitted in 1576; and, retiring into the north, compofed his Shepherd's Calendar, the dedication of which feems to have procured him his first introduction to Sir Philip Sidney. In 1579, he was employed by Leicester, to whom he had been recommended by Sidney, in fome foreign commiffion. In 1580, he became fecretary to Lord Gray of Wilton, then appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland; and, in 1582, returned with him to England. In 1586, he obtained a grant of 3000 acres of land in the county of Cork, and in the following year took poffeffion of his eftate, where be generally continued to refide till 1598, when, as Drummond relates on the authority of Ben Johnfon, his houfe was plundered and burnt by the Irish rebels; his child murdered; and himself, with his wife, driven in the greateft diftrefs to England. It was in the course of eleven years, paffed in Ireland, that he compofed his Fairy Queen.' If thefe dates be correct, it will follow, that notwithstanding the illiberal oppofition of Lord Burleigh, whofe memory has been devoted to ignominy by every admirer of Spenfer, the period during which our amiable poet was condemned To fret his foul with croffes and with cares, was not very long protracted; fince he began to enjoy the advantages of public office at the age of 26, and, at 33, was rewarded by an amVOL. III. NO. 7. L ple ple and independent fortune, of which he was only deprived by a general and national calamity. Few candidates of court favour, with no better pretenfions than great literary merit, have been fo fuccessful. Mr Warton has offered the best excufes that can be alleged for the defects of the Fairy Queen,' afcribing the wildnefs and irregularity of its plan to Spenfer's predilection for Ariofto. But the Orlando Furiofo, though abfurd and extravagant, is uniformly amufing. We are enabled to travel to the conclufion of our journey without fatigue, though often bewildered by the windings of the road, and surprised by the abrupt change of our travelling companions; whereas it is fcarcely poffible to accompany Spenfer's allegorical heroes to the end of their excurtions. They want flesh and blood; a want, for which nothing can compenfate. The perfonification of abftract ideas furnishes the moft brilliant images of poetry; but these meteor forms, which startle and delight us when our fenfes are flurried by paffion, muft not be submitted to our cool and deliberate examination. A ghoft muft not be dragged into day-light. Perfonification, protracted into allegory, af fects a modern reader almost as difagreeably as infpiration continued to madness. This however was the fault of the age; and all that genius could do for fuch a fubject, has been done by Spenfer. His glowing fancy, his unbounded command of language, and his aftonishing facility and fweetnefs of verfification, have placed him in the first rank of English poets. It is hoped that the following fpecimens, felected from his minor compofitions, will be found to be tolerably illuftrative of his poetical, as well as of his moral character. The three first books of the Fairy Queen' were printed in quarto, 1590; and again, with the three next, in 1596.' From the works of voluminous authors Mr Ellis has felected fuch paffages as might give the beft general idea of their manner; but he has also been indefatigable in feeking out all such beautiful fmaller pieces as used to form the little collections, called, in the quaint language of the times, Garlands. His own work may be confidered as a new garland of withered rofes. The lift concludes with the reign of Charles II. The publication feems to have been made with the ftricteft attention to accuracy, except that, throughout the whole, the fpelling is reduced to the modern ftandard, for which we fear Mr Ellis may undergo the cenfure of the more rigid antiquaries. For our part, as all the antique words are carefully retained and accurately interpreted, we do not think that, in a popular work, intelligibility should be facrificed to the preservation of a rude and uncertain orthography. As an example of the amatory ftyle of Charles the Firft's reign, from which our later poetafters have fecurely pilfered for their mistreffes' use so many locks of gold and teeth of pearl, not to mention roses and lilies, we infert the following fong from Ca rew. Ak * Afk me no more where Jove beflows, Ask me no more where thofe ftars light, And in your fragrant bofom dies. ' It only remains to mention, that there are prefixed to thefe volumes two accurate lifts of English poets, one chronological, and the other alphabetical, from 1230 to 1650; and that there is an Efay at the conclufion, in which the author's opinion concerning the origin of language is condensed and recapitulated. ART. XI. Inquiries concerning the Nature of a Metallic Subfiance, lately fold in London as a New Metal, under the Title of Palladium. By Richard Chenevix Efq. F. R. S. and M. R. 1. A. From Philofophical Transactions for 1803. Part II. WE E confider this as a very excellent paper; and, fince the subject is not only curious in detail, but may lead to several important general views, we fhall devote a few pages to fuch an account of Mr Chenevix's inquiries, as may introduce them to the acquaintance of our readers. An advertisement was circulated laft fpting, defcribing the chemical properties of a new noble metal, called palladium, or new filver. Specimens of it were expofed to fale; and no account whatever was given of the manner or the place in which they had been procured. They had all undergone the operation of the fatting mill, and were formed into thin lamine. Nothing like an unwrought fpecimen, a bit of the ore, or a portion of its maIn 2 trix, in chemistry. We are, however, warranted in concluding, that various alloys of mercury and platina may be formed, which do not poffefs the diftinguishing properties of palladium. To unite the two metals fo as to increase the fufibility and diminish the fpecific gravity of the platina, is by no means difficult: But the compound does not acquire the characteristic qualities of palladium until a much greater proportion of the mercury has been combined; and its folubility in nitric acid only takes place when the specific gravity has been reduced to 12 or 12.5. III. It is fingular with what force the component parts of palladium are united, notwithstanding their repugnance to enter into combination. All the experiments which our author made with a view to analyfe this fubftance, completely failed. He tried the converfe of all his fynthetical operations without effect. He expofed palladium to a violent heat; fubjected it to cupellation; burnt it both in oxygen gas and by means of the galvanic pile, without the flighteft tendency to feparation being evinced by the component parts. When it was burnt, a thick white fmoke arose, which, on being collected, was found to confift of palladium, entirely unaffected by the operation. Thefe experiments were tried not only upon the fpecimens exposed to fale, but upon the fubftance produced by our author's experiments; and, what is not a little remarkable, it was found as impoffible to decompofe the imperfect kind of palladium, formed by a flight union of platina and mercury, as to feparate thefe two metals, from the union of which they are fufceptible in the largest proportions. Mr Chenevix concludes his paper with fome experiments upon the mutual affinities of metals, and the affinities of platina with acids. The former clafs of experiments is not very interefting in the latter, it is afcertained that fulphuric acid has a stronger affinity for platina than muriatic acid; from whence our author infers, that the opinion is fallacious which accounts for the folution of platina in nitro-muriatic acid, upon the fup. pofition that the muriatic acid affts the procefs in the fame manner as fulphuric acid aids the decompofition. of water by iron. One argument, which he omits to adduce on this point, may be drawn from the opinion now univerfally entertained by the best chemifts, that, in the nitro-muriatic acid, neither of the component acids exifts entire, as the fulphuric acid exifts in its mixture with water; but that, in fact, a new acid, with a feparate radical, is formed by the combination of the other two. Mr Chenevix has in this, as in all his other papers, needlefsly expofed himself to criticifm, both by the affectation of his nomenclature, and by the introduction of general reflections; a de partment |