deeming a sedentary Tisiphone a sufficiently picturesque personage to stand sentinel at the door of" gloomy Dis," he has thought fit to represent her as a melancholy ghost stalking sadly and solemnly, like a modern sentry before the gate;-where Virgil is satisfied with bringing Juno down to earth, Dryden has sent her down to hell;-where the Latin poet speaks of Po directing some of his waters down towards the Elysian fields, the Englishman has added to the picturesque effect, by first making the river-divinity take a trip" ad superas auras," and then modestly hide his head in the ground, as if ashamed of the silliness of this same aeronautic adventure;-in fine, where the Mantuan describes Sabirus as holding a pruning-hook under the drapery of his figure, his tuneful representative, contrary alike to the original, and to all ideas of beauty and symmetry, has made the god rest his head upon this most useful and comfortable instrument of husbandry. Mr Ring, we are happy to say, has generally avoided this ludicrous error; and in this respect has, therefore, improved upon his predecessors. But that he is not altogether free from blame, will be seen from the following instances, where he has either injudiciously altered or departed from the words of his masters. We have selected them pretty much at random, and they will serve, of consequence, rather as a specimen of the kind, than of the degree of the which Mr Ring has tamely and indistinctively rendered Saw the rough billows of the golden Po. We are the more surprised at this oversight, as in a passage of the neis, he has himself corrected Pitt, when he had committed the same mistake, by rendering the word Corniger, which he had omitted. O horned ruler of Hesperian floods, Ador'd on earth, enroll'd among the gods. En. 8, 107. We have not mentioned in this passage the consequent omission of the auratus," the gilding of the horns, though this was important among the ancients, as it was one way of showing their devotion to their river-gods, as may be seen from Martial; Nympharum pater amniumque Rhene Lib. 10. Ep. 7. There is, perhaps, no more conspicuous instance of the minute accuracy of Virgil in describing his allegorical personages, than in that passage of the Eneid, where, in his account of the workmanship on Æneas's shield, he takes occasion to introduce the God of the Nile. After presenting him in his well-known attributes of vast size and perturbed countenance, and giving a picturesque effect to the drapery of his figure, by making him spread out his robe to receive the distressed and shattered fleet of Cleopatra; with a degree of accuracy and of greatness of imagination quite peculiar to Virgil, he adds, et tota veste vocantem, Caruleum in gremium, latebrosaque flu mina victos; where, beyond all reasonable doubt, he alludes to the dark marble of which the statues of this god were made, as well as to the concealment of his source; sacking of Rome by the Gauls, the historian says, "Haud secus quam venerabundi intuebantur in ædium vestibulis sedentes viros, præter orna To his dark bosom, and most hidden tum habitumque humano augustio stream. It might have been supposed that, in a translation which arrogates such sinless accuracy and undeviating fidelity as the present, an opportunity, like what this passage affords, of improving upon his predecessors, would not have been allowed to slip. Mr Ring, however, has quietly glided over the passage without stopping to inquire whether his meaning was that which Virgil intended or no. His arms expanded, and with timely care Hid in his bosom all the flying war. En. 8, 1010. But by far the most culpable error of this kind with which we have met, is in the Ninth Book. In that much admired description of Jupiter, which Virgil has almost taken literally from Homer, there is nothing which has more puzzled commentators than that, while he has copied every other material circumstance, he has quite omitted all the fine strokes of his master concerning the beard, hair, and eyebrows of the divinity. Macrobius has gone to such a length, as to set down the passage in question among the instances in which the Latin falls decidedly below the Greek poet ;-while Scaliger, like a true critic of the modern school, has extolled the taste and discernment of Virgil in this passage at the expence of his predecessor. We think it is unnecessary to have recourse to either extreme. Each poet painted with reference to the deities of their respective nations. A long beard, to this day, carries with it the idea of majesty all over the east ; and that the ancient Greeks had this notion of it is evident, not merely from the allusions to it to be found in their poets, but also from the medallions and other relics of Greek antiquity which have reached us. Our opinions on the subject are considerably different; and those of the Romans, in the later ages of their republic, seem to have been equally so. In the infancy of their state, they had imbibed the Grecian idea, as is evident from the following passage of the Fifth Book of Livy, where, when describing the rem, majestate etiam quam vultus gravitasque oris præ se ferebat simillimos diis. Adeo velut simulacra versi cum starent. M. Papirius unus ex his dicitur Gallo barbam suam, ut tum omnibus promissa erat, permulcenti," &c. Lib. 5, cap. 41; but as their state advanced into civilization, they gradually laid aside these ideas; and during the emperors they entertained nearly the same opinions which are now in vogue, as may be learned from many passages of the classics. Speaking of their forefathers, Ovid has made it a subject of reproach, that they had long beards and rough heads of hair. In gradibus sedit populus de cespite factis ; Qualibet hirsutas fronde tegente comas. Ovid Art. Amor. 1, 108. Hoc apud intonsos nomen habebat avos. Juvenal also has, and Fasti, 2, 28 Facile est barbato imponere regi. credam dignum barba, dignumque capillis Majorum. Id. 16, 32. And Horace, who is more minute on points of this kind than any of the former, in speaking of the philosophers of his time, who were so unfashionable as still to adhere to the antiquated custom, makes their beards a topic of ridicule. Solatus jussit sapientem pascere barbam. Dii te, Damassippe, deæque, Id. 17, &c. Although, therefore, there was nothing absurd in Homer's representing his Jupiter with the "barba intonsiqui capilli," Virgil has shown his regard for good taste and consistency of costume, by omitting these circumstances. Of this, however, Mr Ring seems not to have been aware, or rather he seems to have disregarded it. He appears to have read and adopted Macrobius's opinion on the subject; for, not content, as he generally is, with He said, then awful shook his sable brow, The stamp of fate, and sanction of the God. En. 9, 136. It is to the Georgics, however, that the reader will naturally turn for spehens of Mr Ring's original execution-as in them he has been profess edly less indebted to his predecessors.* Why, out of the three divisions of Virgil's works, he has selected the Georgics for his portion of the labour, he has given us no satisfactory account. Some of his friends, we are told, have praised his attempt, and encouraged him to proceed in a work which, for what reason we are not informed, he had begun. But with deference to these gentlemen, we must state it as our opinion, that Mr Ring has been neither judicious nor fortunate in his choice. The Georgics is the very last poem we should recommend a young translator to try his hand upon. It is allowed to be, by the united suffrage of all ages, the most correct and elegant composition of the most elegant and correct of poets. It is debased by no careless passages, by improving which a translator might atone for inferiority in other passages; It does not say much for the ingenuousness of Mr Ring that he has acknowledged his obligations to Mr Sotheby in such equivocal terms. He professes to have taken only two lines from the version of that gentleman, but that he is indebted to it for many of his finest expressions, and that he has corrected many of his own renderings by adopting his interpretations, every one will be satisfied who will take the trouble to compare any single page with the corresponding page of Mr Sotheby. To suppose such striking coincidences, as frequently occur, to be the effect of sheer accident, would, we think, be a ridiculous attempt to account for a fact by a remote and improbable circumstance, when an easy and likely one is at hand. and there is no thread of continuous narration by which the interest of the reader may be kept awake, and his attention diverted from minutely adverting to infelicities and inaccuracies of expression. It is an unique specimen of polished, chastened, and spirited poetry-enfeebled by no slovenly, and deformed by no vulgar, writing. After Sotheby, too, who is declared by one of the highest authorities in criticism, to have run the same race with the best and most celebrated worthies of English poetry, and to have distanced all his competitors, by producing the happiest translation of a classic poet that is extant, we think it required no common hardihood to enter into the same lists. Whether, however, Mr Ring has been able to foiled so many competitors; or whedraw this bow of Ulysses, which has ther he has earned by his presumptuous and uncalled-for effort the seu tence of Salmonius lation word for word with the origiAs it is endless to compare a transnal, perhaps the safest method of ascertaining its deserts is to try it both in passages where the original affords the finest display of poetical beauties, the subject or of the language precluded every like ornament. For both sorts of comparison there are happily an abundance of materials in the Georgics. Not that there are any passages, which are left wild and unadorned by Virgil, or on which he has not expended the enriching influence of his genius, but that there are numerous verses, which, from the dullness and minuteness of the subjects discussed, he has not been able to render generally interesting, and in which he has evidently wrestled with the difficulty of ennobling them. By the latter set of examples we will be enabled to estimate the skill of the translator, as by the former, we shall be able to put to the test the strength of his imagination and the reach of his under standing. We shall first give speci and in those where the barrenness of mens of Mr King's success in each of these departments. The most poetical passage, beyond all question, in the Georgics, and one with which, in point of felicity of expression, power, and pathos, scarce any thing, either in ancient or modern poetry, can bear comparison, is the Episode of Orpheus and Eurydice, at the conclusion of the Fourth Book. Proteus is telling the story to Aris pression with which it is deluged. The last part of the extract is certainly given in flowing and harmonious numbers, but who would ever imagine that the lines beginning “Again, again the cruel fates recall," was intended as a spirited transfusion of these energetic verses? En iterum crudelia retro Fata vocant, conditque natantia lumina somnus. Jamque vale. Feror ingenti circumdata nocte, Invalidasque tibi tendens, heu! non tua, palmas. The conceit" were lovers judges," of the translator, is more in the manwhich is quite gratuitous on the part ner of Ovid than of Virgil. The change from the singular to the plu "What fierce distracral in the line, tion," &c. enfeebles the poem very much, and the line," Again I perish with untimely fall," is so extremely slovenly and unvirgilian, that we are surprised Mr Ring, if he could not himself produce a better, had not recourse, ut suus mos est, on such occasions, to his practice of levying contributions from his more tuneful pre decessors. (To be continued.) BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF KORNER, SCHENKENDORF, AND SCHULZE, THREE MODERN GERMAN POETS. GERMANY yet weeps over the ashes of three of her most promising poetical children, who, within these few years, have been called away from the task of delighting their country, and from the enjoyment of that fame their writings were beginning to obtain. Theodore Körner, Ernst Schulze, and Maximilian Schenkendorf, are at present honoured by a purer devotion than is paid to Goethe, Schlegel, or Fouque. The fame of these latter is brilliant, and widely diffused; but it is obscured by envy, and often darkened by malice. Their poetical theories are contested, their labours vilified, and their characters and writings calumniated. We pay the homage due to talents cheerfully, when their possessor is no longer sensible of the honours we bestow on him. The merits of the dead are even magnified, and those who are the most ready to scowl on living, are most cager to worship & departed genius. It is not that reputation is beyond our reach, when an author is laid in his grave, but he is no longer our competitor,he is removed from our path, and there is a -feeling of mercy in human nature which makes it spare the arrows of reproach, when they cannot be aimed against a living antagonist. The first, and the greatest of the young men, whose loss the muse deplores, is Theodore Körner, who fell in a skirmish with the French in Mecklenburg, before he had attained his thirtieth year. By birth he was a Prussian, but he resided for a considerable time at Vienna, and there most of his writings were first published, or performed. He was chiefly distinguished as a dramatic author; and Rosamund and Zriny are two well known tragedies of his composition. They are agrecable and pleasing, rather than deepfelt or sublime, and full of that gentle reverie, Schwürmery, which, in our opinion, is at present the distinguishing characteristic of German poetry. At the voice of freedom, which resounded throughout Germany in 1813, his heart appears to have beat higher, and his muse to have taken a bolder flight. He grasped the sword to contend for liberty, and he turned his lyre to martial deeds, celebrating the triumphs of his countrymen, or inspiring them by his songs with courage. "Lützow's Wilde Jagd," ," "Schwertlied," and " Männer und Buben," were some of the most admired of all the exhilarating songs, -and they were extremely numerous, which were produced in Germany during the contest of 1813, 1814. They are still remembered and sung with considerable enthusiasm. Many of them possess a value, independent of their poetical merit, derived from the circumstances under which they were written, on the march-while standing centinel-a few hours before his death, were all circumstances under which the poet composed some of his best productions. "Lützow's Wilde Jagd," is a description of the corps to which Körner belonged, and which was distinguished by its resolute daring deeds. Lützow was a Silesian nobleman, whose wife was seduced by some Frenchman during the subjugation of Prussia. He immediately left Berlin, where he was then residing, and retiring to his estates in 66 Silesia, never returned to court till Germany rose in arms to expell the French. He then formed a rifle corps of volunteers, clothed in black, with red facings, which became known by its valour and its name, "The corps of Vengeance," throughout Germany. The black, it was said, denoted sorrow for the decayed spirit of the country, and the red facings was French blood. Its motto was Luise und die Rache," (Louisa, * Queen of Prussia, and Revenge.) At first it neither gave nor received quarter, and was nearly extirpated in several battles. Yet was it always soon again completed, till its commander himself fell on the fields of France. The circumstances which caused Schill to be unsuccessful added to his fame. He fought almost alone, and while it was impossible that his valour could save his country, it exalted him far above every other German warrior of the day. Under similar circumstances Lützow might have attained equal fame with Schill. But the deeds of the young volunteers he commanded were only a few of a very splendid series, and were lost or forgotten amid the glare of numerous and important victories. From the prodigious enthusiasm of the Germans at the period of their deliverance there were, no doubt, many examples of heroism like that of Lützow and of Körner, which it will be the business of future historians and poets to record and embellish. For many years, nay, for centuries, the Germans have felt no such general enthusiasm, nor been surrounded with so much glory; and Spain is most certainly not the only country in which the defeated oppressions of a foreign power have given rise to a warm and general desire for internal and regulated freedom. In sharing the enthusiasm and the hopes of his countrymen it was impossible that Körner should not have been, in some measure, a prophet-should not have foreseen some of the results, while he participated in the contest. His confidence in a |