The Rhyme Translations from DANTE and EURIPIDES have been necessarily delay. ed, but shall appear in our next.-Then, too, the Life of POUSSIN. The Correspondents of the EDINBURGH MAGAZINE AND LITERARY MISCELLANY are respectfully requested to transmit their Communications for the Editor to ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE and COMPANY, Edinburgh, or LONGMAN and COMPANY, London; to whom also orders for the Work should be particularly addressed. Printed by George Ramsay & Co. EDINBURGH MAGAZINE, AND LITERARY MISCELLANY. MARCH 1821. PROLEGOMENA. [THE following Prolegomenon, though bearing to be from the Editor, was received among other communications for the Magazine. We suspect that we are indebted for it to our unknown friend the Genius, at least we judge so from the similarity of the writ. ing. We cannot help wishing, however, that he had continued to adhere to his own immaterial character, instead of making free with ours; for "the satirical rogue" somewhat too plainly insinuates "here, that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams; all which, though we most powerfully and potently believe, yet we hold it not honesty to have it thus set down."] Prologues precede the piece, in mournful verse— As undertakers walk before the hearse. As the Printer and the Brownie or Genius of the Scots Magazine have taken it upon them to hold correspondence with its readers, it might be considered as unbeseeming if we our selves were behind-hand in our duty to the public. We have, therefore, judged it proper also to compose an epistle, containing something by way of preface, proemium, or prolegomena, to the present Number; and we are further warranted in supposing that this will not be displeasing to a discerning public, from the number of addresses that have lately been presented to the two highest personages in this country, and to the two great bodies of its legislators. We are not party men, and we had once meditated to send a loyal address from our own person to each of the individuals above alluded to, as well as to both Houses of Parliament, expressive of our obedience to all that they have enacted, or should in their wisdom think proper to enact, for our welfare, or otherwise, and had so far carried this idea into execution, that we have at this moment by us draughts of four addresses, for the above-mentioned purposes, in our own handwriting;but the very term address having now become merely expressive of "sound Prologue to the Apprentice. and fury," and generally "signifying nothing,' as William Shakespeare hath it, and we being loth to lose our trouble, we hereby offer them to all and sundry such burghs, corporations, or public bodies, who have not hitherto expressed their sentiments in a petition or address, provided there be any such in this kingdom, warranting them, the said addresses, to embody the sentiments of all parties in a very classical and parliamentary manner, and only requiring the blanks to be filled up with the name of the place and body addressing the price of the addresses to be five shillings for each, exclusive of twopence for paper. We had written thus far when our friend Mr Andrew Kittlecrony called to accompany us to a sale of old china -our tea-equipage being reduced by time and accident to one cup and two saucers, the tea-pot moreover wanting the handle; and, as we have a strong affinity, as the chemists would term it, for the patterns which were displayed by the matrons in our youthful days, when tea-parties were much more frequent and infinitely more amusing than now, we felt a strong desire to secure to ourselves a few cups and coffee-jugs at the sale of our old friend Pitfour's furniture, that we might be able to personate to our now spectacled vision, and to the real enjoyment of our younger nephews and nieces, the glories of an ancient teaequipage, where plates of whigs, cuckies, and petticoat-tails, contended with buttered bread and jellies for the preference of being eaten. What a change in Edinburgh! Our old friend's house, in spite of the creation of a new city of palaces, still remained in the Luckenbooths, not far from our own dwelling; and though, of late, there was rather a different neighbourhood from that which occupied the adjoining houses fifty years ago, he honourably persisted in keeping up the town residence of his ancestors. We verily believe that this is the last instance of a gentleman of fortune and a member of Parliament occupying a floor of a house in the High Street of the Old Town; and we sighed involuntarily as we passed the Advocates' Close, and went up stairs, to think of the days of former years, gilded in our mind with recollections and associations, which scarcely reconcile us to the present state of manners. What would the Faculty now-a-days say if they were obliged to reside in the Advocates' Close, or the Writers to the Signet if they were forced to take up their abode in Writers' Court? We sincerely believe that We are uncertain why these delectable cates are called in Scotland by such strange names. Whigs can mean nothing but Whigs, though, reasoning a priori, we should rather have expected the tea-bread of Edinburgh to have belonged to the Jacobite or Tory party. Cuckies sounds very like a word which we have Shakespeare's authority for accounting "unpleasant to a married ear." But why Whiggery should have been peculiarly associated with Cuckies, or with those whom an ingenious friend terms Knights of the Crown Matrimonial, (the most numerous and comprehensive order, perhaps, in Christendom,) we are at a loss to conjecture. The late transactions relating to the Queen, however, would almost insinuate a natural, if not a necessary connection between Whigs and petticoat-tails. But this discussion, so important in an economical as well as a political view, must be the subject of a separate essay. We trust that, in the mean time, we neither compromise our principles nor our taste, in declaring that we like whigs, are very fond of cuckies, and are not averse to petticoat-tails. the very proposal would occasion a rebellion in the Parliament House; and yet we have seen men as accomplished, and ladies as beautiful, as any who now inhabit the modern palaces of the New Town, pouring out from the mouths of the funnels called closes, in all the pomp of toupees and hooppetticoats, to be delivered from a sedan-chair into the mouth of another close, not far distant, where the assemblies of that day were held. We have seen ranges of these chairs, decorated with brass coronets and emblematical designs, in the High Street of this ancient city, of which the modern natives have no conception. We have ourselves, indeed, often attended such chairs with their precious cargo, our hair in silken bag-head whitened with the farina of wheat-hat in hand, and sword by side-in our satin breeches, which are still extant-in our cambric stock, fastened behind with a diamond buckle, which we still preserve-and ruffled to the knuckles with the best Brussels lace while the very houses resounded to the echo,-" Shentlemans comingmak room tere for te lady, an be tam!" We have also had the honour, once in our life, after a tavern party in Janet M'Gillivray's in the Covenant Close, to be carried to our present lodging in one of these same chairs, after demolishing we know not how many stoups of her best claret. Whether we had been reasoning with our joyous friends upon the principle of gravitation till the centre of our own gravity was doubtful, we cannot, at this distance of time, venture to say; but, our mischievous companions having made the knaves remove the bottom of the leathern casement, we were hurried along as fast as the animals could trot, in spite of our calls to stop, which were answered in a language we understood not, accoinpanied by a smothered laugh, which showed the rascals had been instructed.- -But we run on, as our friends say, without stopping, when we get upon old stories.-To return: As above premised, we went to the sale of china, and, thinking we should not be detained very long, left our address, as far as we had proceeded, lying upon our table. Our purchases at the sale, which was numerously attended, were not very costly; but we were much satisfied with our acquisi tions, which were eight cups and sau cers, of very diminutive size and olden form, only six of which were cracked-sugar basin and other appurtenances, not much chipped-and (thanks, reader, to thy encouragement of our work) a silver tea-pot. Having dispatched these home by a careful hand, we were prevailed upon by our friend, as we were exhausted by tarrying so long at the sale, to eat our afternoon's repast in Dugald M'Ewan's, and, on our coming home in the evening, we found our paper filled up by the following address, which Janet Most potent, laughing, grave, and reverend readers, That I am Editor of the Scots Magazine It is most true;-true, I am Editor; The very Its dearest action in the field of letters; More than pertains to books of needy authors, In speaking of myself:-Yet, by your gracious patience, Of my course editorial; what sonnets, essays The Public lov'd me; often read my pages; From year to year ;-the births-the deaths-the marriages I ran them through, even from their tavern days, To the very moment that they bade me tell it: Of moving accidents by flood and field, Of hair-breadth 'scapes from soldiers of town-guard, Of being taken by the insolent foe And lodg'd in durance; of their redemption thence By money paid to Bailies and Town-Council. To please, besides, the lovers of the marvellous, I spoke of antres vast, and deserts idle, Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven, Miraculous loads of flesh at city dinners; Generals, learned men and wise, of every age, But still the house affairs would draw them thence, Which ever as they could with haste dispatch, They'd come again, and with a greedy ear -My stories being done, |