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a panacea which would infallibly cure him of the poetic itch. To me it appears extremely probable that Trebatius was a lover both of bathing in the Tiber, and of old wine, and that the poet jocosely alludes to both. Many such particular touches, which derive all their facetia from local and personal circumstances, are undoubtedly couched in this and several other pieces, which to us are as good as lost. Cupidum, pater optime, vires, &c.] This excuse which Horace so frequently avails himself of, I think I have placed in its proper point of view, in the introduction to the epistle to Augustus. Here we cannot fail to observe the particular ingenuity, with which (for the purpose of avoiding the bad appearance of a bare evasion) he as it were forces himself into the dilemma, by putting this objection into the mouth of Trebatius: "If then thou hast no talent for heroic poesy, what hinders thee from celebrating the great qualities which Cæsar displays in peace?” To such an objection no other salvo remained but that which he gives in reply: I should not be backward in so doing, when the proper time and opportunity arrive. The fact was, the Romans began with some reason to expect, that Cæsar Octavianus, by a mild and wise administration in peace, would efface the remembrance of what he had been

during the triumvirate. But that remembrance was still too fresh, and that hope too fallacious to excite a vehement passion in the breast of any honest Roman to praise and extol the successful usurperas fortem et justum, that is, precisely for those virtues, in diametrical opposition to which he had been manifestly acting but a few years before. All in good time. Octavianus must first have learnt to play with greater ease and propriety, the new part, which Mæcenas and Agrippa were tutoring him to perform. At present such panegyrics would wear too much the appearance of flattery for being really flattering to him; and from whose mouth would such strains sound more suspicious, than from one who, six or seven years ago had borne arms against him? At that circumstance the poet seems to give a gentle hint in the words, nisi dextro tempore Flacci verba, &c.

recalcitrat undique tutus.] This metaphorical expression taken

from a wild unbroke horse deserves notice as an instance how different the notions of propriety and decorum are in different ages and with different nations. It would ill become a modern poet to use it, notwithstanding J.Matthias Gesper thinks that kings are fond of being compared to horses. This whole passage, from the twelfth to the twentieth line, may be alleged, in my opinion, as a very striking proof of the little inclination and disposition, Horace had to recommend himself to Octavianus by the arts of adulation since even on this so gratifying an occasion (for Trebatius probably acts here only as the spokesman of the public) he could not bring himself to say any thing obliging, so far from flattering, even but incidentally, to one who, with all his authority and power, acted so equivocal a part in the Roman government.

Votivá tabella.] The votive tablets, with which we still see in our days, the Roman Catholic churches garnished, especially in petty towns and villages, are best adapted to give us an idea of these tabula votiva, which in the times of paganism, superstitious persons who attributed their deliverance from any imminent danger to the immediate assistance of some particular deity whom they had invoked in the hour of their distress, were wont to testify their gratitude. The poor blind heathens had likewise their consecrated places, and miraculous images; they made vows to them when groaning under affliction, which they paid on being relieved from it, by votive tablets, waxen, silver or golden arms, legs, eyes, breasts, &c. As these votive paintings, with which principally the temples and chapels of the marine deities were richly hung, were mostly put up by common people, and daubed by wretched painters, at a moderate price: it is no wonder, that, together with other errors against good taste, they transgressed the rule of the unity of the subject represented. Frequently, therefore on the same tablet was to be seen at one end of the fore-ground the credulous votary going on shipboard; in the middle ground buffeting the billows in a violent storm; on another plan suffering shipwreck; on another again upon the top of a prodigious wave, with uplifted hands making vows to Neptune, and lastly, at the

other

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other end of the picture, happily preserved and scrambling on shore. this multiplicity of events, which, as a succession of scenes in one general plot, was represented on these votive paintings, the tertium comparationis lay between them, and the satires of Lucilius might be regarded, referably to the familiar garrulity with which he talks in them about himself, as in some sort a journal of his daily life.. Venusinus.] Horace was born at Venusia.

Quod Appulu gens seu quod Lucania bellum, &c.] He seems here in his bantering way, to copy Lucilius's own loquacity and negligence in style. Great Ormond-Street.

W. T.

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This passage unquestionably bears out the commentary of Messrs. Theobald and Malone: but it is to be understood, that though it may, on account of its acid quality, be denominated Vinegar, it would have been more accordant to have described it as a chemical preparation corrosive and destructive. This explanation will manifest that some peril is attendant upon the different trials, to which Luertes is challenged, beyond “drinking up Vinegar," - a beverage that many young ladies highly esteem, when the preservation of a shape is the object, and no person scarcely can feel a revolt at. And I beg, in confirmation of what is advanced, to subjoin the following extract from Sir William D'Avenant's Gondibert, in which Esil is adverted to for its potency, as if it were as searching as aqua fortis.

EXTRACT FROM GONDIBERT.

BOOK IV. - CANTO IV.

(The Edition in 12mo. printed 1651.)

IT has been observed by T, that the Victorious King! Abroad your subjects

through all the Editions, that the word Esil has been distinguished by Italic characters, as if it were the proper name of a river; and, although be rejects that application, he very comprehensively mentions the Yssel in the province of Overyssel. He, however, properly decides, towards the close of his note, that by Esil is to be understood Vinegar; and he adds, that "the lowness of the idea is in some measure removed by the uncommon term."

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Mr. STEEVENS, the most powerful of all Shakspeare's commentators, rejects this construction; saying, "that the challenge is not very magnificent, which only provokes an adversary to a fit of the heart-burn, or the colick." And he remarks that "the Yssell would serve Hamlet's turn, or his own;" and farther, that "the Poet might have written Weisel, which falls in the Baltic ocean, and could not be unknown to any Prince of Den

mark."

Mr. MALONE advocates the elucidation of Theobald of Esil, or Eisel, being Vinegar; and quotes Sir Thomas More, as follows:

With sowre pocion If thou pain thy tast, remember therewithal How Christ for thee tasted Eisil and gall."

are

[free! Like Legars safe, at home like altars Ev'n by your fame they conquer as by

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rather, we are unwilling to admit that it possesses any melody whatever. It

is however certain, that one nation can very imperfectly judge of those rules of harmony which govern the language of another, unless that language has become, by insensible adoption, equally familiar with its own; as is the case with the French tongue generally on the Continent. Laharpe, after quoting Voltaire's witty sarcasm, that "the English gained two hours a day on their neighbours, by eating half their words," and after observing that our inarticulateness, as to vowels especially, seemed to shock the very principles of articulation, finishes, by informing his readers, that "the English too, pretend to a harmony of their own, no less than their neighbours; and, doubtless, they must be believed; provided, he pertly adds, they admit in their turn, that the harmony exists but for themselves." It would indeed be difficult to make a

foreigner perfectly acquainted with the interior structure of our metrical harmony: especially in blank verse; of which, the music chiefly depends on the different arrangement of the pauses in different successive lines; but Laharpe is no more justified in insinuating that this is a mere harmony of agreement which has no positive existence, than an Englishman, whose

knowledge of the French language is usually limited to the reading and writing it, can reasonably be excused in retorting on French rhythm a similar observation. What has contributed to this disdain of French verse, I allude more particularly to the heroic verse, is the very general prejudice, that its cadence is anapæstic: a measure usually employed by us on light subjects, and, therefore, from peculiar association, regarded as unsuitable to subjects of dignity. Supposing this idea of the French rhythmical cadence accurate, the objection, arising from habits of national taste, would be altogether frivolous; but the notion of a certain appropriateness in particular metres to particular subjects, is in great measure arbitrary. The lines in Beattie's Hermit, But when shallSpring visit the mouldering urn? [grave?

Oh! when shall it dawn on the night of the never, I believe, suggested to any body associations of a mirthful na

ture. It is more the flexibility of style and expression, than the syllabic arrangement, that produces the seeming correspondence of the verse with the subject. The celebrated author of "Hints for the Education of a Princess" is therefore wholly mistaken, when she infers the impropriety of the French Epic measure, from its supposed resemblance to

A Cobler there was, and he liv'd in a stall ;' which, as connected with a ludicrous association, cannot be admitted as a fair instance of comparison, and of which the rhythm, considered abstractedly from the sense, has, perhaps, necessarily, no essential property of light and joyous movement. The resemblance, moreover, is so completely chimerical, that, if the following verse,

Dans le récueillement son âme est absorbée, were pronounced with correspondent stress of emphasis to the verse of the English ballad, it would be absolute jargon. That partial emphasis which nunciation, added to our close, comforms the peculiarity of English propressed method of articulating, so contrary to the open articulation of the French, has led to this error in the reading of French verse. The French tic importance which he gives to one detect an Englishman by the emphasyllable more than another; which, concurring with his close and often sibilant articulation, cuts short the time of a word. In French verse, as in French prose, the emphasis for the most part is evenly distributed; the heroic measure is not marked by tic cadence like the English, but by quantity like the Latin, nor by emphatime alone. The French Epic verse has twelve times: it exactly corre sponds to the Alexandrine or twelvewhich has nothing incompatible with syllable verse of Drayton's Polyolbion, Epic dignity of flow, and is less unwieldy than the measure in which Chapman translated the Iliad. And as each one is prais'd for her peculiar things, [springs; So only she is rich in mountains, meres, and And holds herself as great in her superflu

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Essay on the Merits of French Versification.

is usually slow and distinct; a cesura or pause in the middle of the line is rigidly marked, and the unaccentuated vowels before consonants, though not absolutely sounded as they are when sung to musick, yet are felt by the reciter to be so many syllables, which fill up the rhythmical time, and, by a slight unarticulated breathing, contribute impalpably to the cadence. This remark will at once show that the short, lively cadence of the

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English anapæstic verse bears no sort of affinity to the measured and elongated cadence of the French heroic. French verse so pronounced would convey to a native ear a hubbub of sounds absolutely barbaric; and the most artful and happy effect of rhythmical imitation would inevitably be destroyed. We boast, and with reason, of our imitative harmony; can we deny it to our neighbours?

Diversified Echo.

Sous les coups rédoublés tous les banes rétentissent:
Les murs en sont émus, les vôutes en mugissent;
Et l'orgue même en pousse un long gémissement+.
Distant Sound.

L'air sife, le ciel groude, et l'onde aù loin mugit‡.
Extended Space.
D'où l'œil découvre aù loin l'air, la terre, et les flots§.
To pronounce the last verse glibly
and rapidly, would baffle the most
flexible organs.

stichs, is the distinguishing pause of French versification; but they sometimes adopt an arbitrary cesura, which, like our own, does not fall invariably in the centre, but rests, as the sense may exact, near the beginning of a verse, or towards its close. Il faut des châtimens dont l'univers frémisse; Qu'on tremble en comparant l'offense et le supplice]]. Je l'ai vu tout couvert d'une affreuse poussière, Revêtu de lambeaux, toût pâle, mais son œil Conservait sous la cendre encor le même orgueil¶.

French verse has been accused of a want of variety, perhaps without due consideration. The cesura that divides the line into two exact hemi

In the French couplet the sense is not necessarily bounded by the close of the second line. The verses often flow easily into each other.

Que dis-je ? ah! libre enfin des chaines de la ville

Ne pourais-je à mon gré solitaire et tranquille
Confier aux hameaux le reste de mes jours ?

Le luxe des cités, et le faste des cours

N'ont jamais ébloui les régards du poëte:

Il songe en les fuyant à la douce retraite

Où sur des frais gazons, sous des ombrages verds

Il pourra méditer et soupirer ses vers**.

†The English reader will accept a hasty translation of the passages quoted.
Beneath redoubled blows the benches ring;

Rock the firm walls, the vaulted roofs rebound,

And the deep organ breathes a long and groaning sound.

Air whistles, roars the heaven, the surge at distance howls.

Whence air, earth, sea, rush boundless on the sight.

§ There need such chastisements as may astound

A shuddering universe; yes, let mankind

Trembling compare the punishment and crime.
I have beheld him grim with dust, and clad
In tatter'd garb, and pale --- but still his eye
Beneath the dusky horror flash'd its pride.
** Ah! why at freedom from the imprisoning town,
Why may I not in solitary calm

To hamlets trust my residue of days?
The city's luxury, the pomp of courts,

Were never dazzling in the Poet's eyes:

He flies in thought to that serene retreat

Where, on fresh herbage, underneath the shade
Of verdant woods, he sits and meditates,
Or sighs his verses forth.

It seems probable, from the com- own language. The practice of the positions of the earlier French Poets, old Poets will, at least, demonstrate that the metrical language of France the practicability of running one verse might have attained a far greater de- into another, which the French call gree of strength and freedom, had it enjambement, and even of combining not been refined down and restrained words in the manner of the Greek by the care of successive improvers. epithets; a usage to which the lanThe modern Freuch critics, indeed, ob- guage is commonly thought inadeject to the obsolete style in question, quate. The following passage deas barbarous; and it must be confessed serves to be cited at length, from its that they are the best judges of their quaint ingenuity. Trois fois cinquante jours le general naufrage Devasta l'univers-enfio d'un tel ravage L'Immortel attendri, n'eût pas sonné si-tôt La retraite des eaux, que soudain flot sur flot Elles vont s'écouler; tous les fleuves s'abaissent; La mer rentre en prison; les montagnes rénaissent; Les bois montrent déja leur limoueux rameaux ; Dejà la terre croit par le décroit des eaux ; Et bref la seule main de Dieu darde-tonnerre Montra la terre aù cjel et le ciel à la terre*.

DUBARTAS.

While I am on the subject of French verse, I shall observe that their lyric measure has great sweetness; witness these stanzas of Malherbe:

Le malheur de ta fille aù tombeau descendue

Par un commun trépas;

Est-ce quelque dédale où ta raison perdue
Ne se rétrouve pas ?

Elle était de ce monde, où les plus belles choses

Ont le pire destin:

Et rose, elle a vecu ce que vivent les roses

L'espace d'un matin+.

The fall from a long verse to a short one, has in that language an effect spirited and pleasing.

Ont-ils perdu l'esprit ? ce n'est plus que poussière

Que cette majesté si pompeuse et si fière

Dont l'éclat orgueilleux étonnait l'anivers;
Et dans ces grands tombeaux où leurs âmes hautaines
Font encore les vaines

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