* So old she was, that she ne went Is shamefaced and despised aye. One more image which is excellent, and even superior to the Revenge of Sackville : A crutch. Participle passive of nime, to take. Last of all. Never so little. | Great cause. A corner. ** Crouched. Malice. †† A religious order -A Nun ‡‡ A scold. §§ Mad. = G Y-frounced foul was her visage, If however, Sackville was indebted to Chaucer, he, in his turn has conferred obligations upon several suc-, eeeding Poets. Instances of these will occur to every poetical student; but the limits of the present compilation forbid their insertion. A Midnight Scene; from the Legend of Buckingham. Midnight was come, and every vital thing With sweet sound sleep their weary limbs did rest, The golden stars were whirled amid their race, * Wrinkled. + Grief; any violent affection of the mind. + Enwrathed. § And firey Phoebus riseth up so bright, CHAUCER The ugly bear now mindeth not the stake, Nor how the cruel mastiffs do him tear; These are very fine stanzas, but they want originality. The original must be sought in the Eneid of Virgil. "Nox erat, et placidum carpebant fessa soporem Corpora per terras, silvæque et sæva quierant (Lib. IV. 523.) This passage is not only poetical in itself, but has perhaps, in an especial manner, been the cause, as Falstaff would say, of poetry in others. Besides our author and his predecessor Surrey, both Ariosto and Tasso have made free with it. The imitation in the latter is so close, that a translation of it will serve a double purpose, and give the unlearned reader a very clear conception of the original. ""Twas night; the breathing winds, the waters cease, And through the still creation all is peace, Each being that has life, the scaly train That skim the rivers or the boundless main, The beasts that roam in herds, or far from men, Tenant in trackless wilds their lonely den, Wrapt in the arms of sweet oblivion lie; The feathered tribes, the wanderers of the sky, Beneath the silence of the secret gloom Close their light wings, and fold their painted plume; All sought repose, with daily toil oppressed, They eased their wearied hearts, and steeped their cares in rest." The passage in Tasso, of which this is a translation, was written at a period somewhat later than the above imitation by Sackville. "Alas! so all things now do hold their peace! Heaven and earth disturbing in nothing; The beasts do sleep, the birds their songs do cease, The nightis chair the stars about doth bring. "The heaven shews lively art and hue, "And tell in songs full merrily, How they have slept full quietly, That night, about their mother's sides, And when they have sung more besides, Then fall they to their mother's breast." SURREY, It is evident from numerous passages in his poems, that Sackville had studied the writings of his noble predecessor with much assiduity, and had formed his poetic style from that of Surrey. In the above instance he has certainly extended this licence too far, and may fairly be taxed with plagiarism. It is but justice to our poet to remark, that the three last extracts are taken from a poem inserted by Dr. Nott in his late edition of the works of Surrey, for the first time, and claimed by him for that author. This claim has been made upon slight grounds, and has been disputed by a writer in the Edinburgh Review. It was first printed among a collection by uncertain authors. The reviewer is inclined to give it to Lord Vaux. May it not have been written by Sackville himself, many of whose poems produced, as Wood assures us, in early life, have been lost, or remain u.claimed? Well The Restlessness of Guilt; from the same. To his two sons, that in his chamber layen: Or dreadless breathe one breath out of their breast. So gnaws the grief of conscience evermore, That they may neither sleep nor rest therefore, Of restless woe, in terror and despair, Like to the deer that stricken with a dart, * Then as the stricken deer withdraws himself alone, SURREY. |