Envy the next, Envy with squinted eyes; Sick of a strange disease, his neighbour's health; Is never poor, but in another's wealth: On best men's harms and griefs he feeds his fill; -it Each eye through divers optics slily leers, And molehill faults to mountains multiply. When needs he must, yet faintly, then he praises; Somewhat the deed, much more the means he raises: So marreth what he makes, and praising, most dispraises. The poem is supposed to be sung by a Shepherd, which gives the poet an opportunity of introducing several interesting descriptions of rural scenery. The following stanzas are pretty and fanciful. The flow'rs that, frighten'd with sharp winter's dread, Yet in the spring in troops new mustered Spreading his flower'd purple to the skies; The hedge, green satin pink'd and cut, arrays; In hundred-colour'd silks the tulip plays; Th' imperial flow'r, his neck with pearl attires; The pansy, her wrought velvet garment bears; The introduction to the ninth canto is poetical, and worth quoting. The bridegroom Sun, who late the earth espous'd, His shines the Earth soon latch'd to gild her flow'rs: The cheerful lark, mounting from early bed, Earth seems a mole-hill, men but ants to be; e The lines which succeed on the decay of human greatness, and the ruin of principalities and powers, are some of the finest and most spirited in the poem, and for which the author has our unqualified praise. "Fond man, that looks on Earth for happiness, And here long seeks what here is never found! Nor can we pay the fine, and rentage due : Why shouldst thou here look for perpetual good, Do but behold where glorious cities stood, There now the hart fearless of greyhound feeds, There screeching satyrs fill the people's empty stedes.* Where is the Assyrian lion's golden hide, That all the east once grasp'd in lordly paw? Through all the world with nimble pinions far'd, Hardly the place of such antiquity, Or note of these great monarchies we find : Only a fading verbal memory, And empty name in writ is left behind : But when this second life and glory fades, And sinks at length in time's obscurer shades, * i. e. places. That monstrous beast, which, nurs'd in Tiber's fen, And that black* vulture, which with deathful wing Who then shall look for happiness beneath? Where each new day proclaims chance, change, and death, And life itself's as flit as is the air we breathe. Fletcher's description of fear is as follows: :-. Still did he look for some ensuing cross, His sense, he dare not trust (nor eyes, nor ears); And when no other cause of fright appears, Himself he much suspects, and fears his causeless fears. Harness'd with massy steel, for fence not fight; Shaming the knight-like arms he goodly bears: Compare this with Spenser's description. " Next him was Feare, all arm'd from top to toe, Yet thought himselfe not safe enough thereby, But fear'd each shadow moving to or froe; And evermore on Daunger fixt his eye, Gainst whom he alwayes bent a brasen shield, Which his right hand unarmed fearefully did wield. † *The Turk. Faëry Queen, b. iii. c. xii. st. xii. We concur in Mr. Headley's opinion, that "There seems to be more nature and real poetry in Fletcher's describing him as but starting at the sight of his arms, than in Spenser, who on the same occasion represents him as absolutely "flying fast away;" but perhaps Spenser has heightened the image by making him equally terrified with the sound of them as the sight; this is omitted in Fletcher." To these observations may be added, that there is great propriety in the bewildered air which Spenser gives him in the last line. The following stanza possesses considerable merit. But ah! what liveth long in happiness? So have I often seen a purple flow'r, Fainting through heat, hang down her drooping head, Begins again her lively beauties spread, And with new pride her silken leaves display; And, while the sun doth now more gently play, Lays out her swelling bosom to the smiling day. The conception of Thumos, or Wrath, is forcible, and his attributes appropriate. Thumos the fourth, a dire, revengeful swain; Whose soul was made of flames, whose flesh of fire, Wrath in his heart, hate, rage, and fury reign! But when dead paleness in his cheek took seizure, colours: Strove which should paint revenge in proper His shield's device, fresh blood with foulest stain defac'd. We have omitted the intermediate stanza in the above description, but shall quote it in this place, for the purpose of shewing the singular skill with which the poet has availed himself of a very mean image, and which he has indeed elevated into something like dignity. It is, in plain prose, nothing more than a comparison of the rage of Thumos to a kettle, full of boiling water, on the fire. Like as when waters, wall'd with brazen wreath, Are sieg'd with crackling flames, their common foe; Then swell, rise, rave, and still more furious grow; Nor can be held; but forc'd with fires below, Tossing their waves, break out, and all o'erflow: Upon the whole, we think we have adduced sufficient specimens to shew that, although Fletcher had not much originality of invention or power of combination, he possessed a luxuriant fancy, and a pleasing vein of poetry. ART. XII. A true discourse of Sir Anthony Sherley's Travele into Persia, what accidents did happen in the waye, both goeinge thither and returning backe, with the businesse he was employed in, from the Sophie. Written by George Manwaring, gentleman, who attended on Sir Anthony all the jorneye.-MS. Sir Anthony Sherley, the history of whose singular journey into Persia, the manuscript which stands at the head of this article professes to record, was the second son of Sir Thomas Sherley, of Wiston, in Sussex, and was born in 1565. He had two brothers, Sir Thomas Sherley, his elder, and Mr. Robert Sherley, his younger brother, all distinguished for their adventurous and romantic dispositions. It is, however, with Sir Anthony that we have chiefly to do in this article, although we shall have occasion to notice incidentally his two brothers, and especially Mr. Robert Sherley, his companion in this extraordinary enterprize. On Sir Anthony, his friends bestowed "those learnings which were fit for a gentleman's ornament;" and after having taken his degree at Oxford, he entered into the service of his sovereign, “in which he ran many courses of divers fortune, according to the condition of the wars."-He first joined |