of life, which in that particular renders them superior to those of Spenser and of Sackville *. The following rich figure of Hope (which is represented as masculine,) is. among Fletcher's best pieces; the attitude of his leaning on his attendant Pollicita, to whom every female grace might be given, seems worthy the notice of a painter. I will quote the description at length, as it affords me an opportunity of comparing it with a figure of Spenser on "the same subject:

"Next went Elpinus, clad in sky-like blue † ;

"And through his arms few stars did seem to peep;
"Which there the workman's hand so finely drew,
“That rock'd in clouds they softly seem'd to sleep :
"His rugged shield was like a rocky mould,
"On which an anchor bit with surest hold:
"I hold by being held, was written round in gold.

"Nothing so cheerful was his thoughtful face,
"As was his brother Fido's: fear seem'd to dwell
"Close by his heart; his colour chang'd apace,
"And went, and came, that sure all was not well;
Therefore a comely maid did oft sustain
"His fainting steps, and fleeting life maintain :
"Pollicita she hight, which ne'er could lie or feign.
Cant. ix. St. 30.

"The following is Spenser's personification, which is delineated with greater chastity than usual:

*Eschylus, in his "Seven Chiefs against Thebes," has shown much fancy in the mottos and devices of the shields of the different chiefs.

"Pyracles, in Sidney's Arcadia, is dressed in a garment of the same "materials: "Upon her body she wore a doublet of sky-colour satin," &c. p. 42. Milton also has his "sky-tinctured grain," Paradise Lost, V. 285. But Fletcher might have had a passage in Quarles in his eye, who, "after describing Parthenia in a robe bespangled with stars of gold, adds,

"Her dishevell❜d hair

"Hung loosely down. and veil'd the backer part
"Of those her sky-resembling robes; but so,
"That every breath would wave it to and fro,
"Like flying clouds, through which you might discover
"Sometimes one glimm'ring star, sometimes another.

Arg. and Par. B. iii.

66

With him went Hope in rank, a handsome maid,
"Of cheerful look and lovely to behold;

"In silken samite she was light array'd,
"And her fair locks were woven up in gold:
"She always smil'd, and in her hand did hold
"An holy-water sprinkle, dipt in dew,
"With which she sprinkled favours manifold
"On whom she list, and did great liking show;
* Great liking unto many, but true love to few.
B. III. Cant. xii. St. 13.

"The figure is simple, and the attributes are new; Hope is here divested of her usual emblem, the anchor, (which Fletcher has preserved) and the water-sprinkle substituted in its room, which gives a religious air to the image; had it but received the sanction of antiquity for its adoption, we might perhaps have heard more in its praise. On their coins, the ancients, we find, represented Hope in the character of a sprightly girl, looking forward and holding a blossom or bud in her right hand *, whilst with her left she holds up her garment, to prevent its retarding her pace. On a coin of Hadrian, I have seen Fortune and Hope with this emblem. Mr. Spence has justly objected against Spenser, that many of his allegorical personifications are inconsistent, complicated, and overdone; he observes, that when they are wellinvented, they are not well-marked out, and instances amongst others the figure of Hope now before us. surely though his general charge may be true, in this instance he has been misled by his classical taste, and too great a reverence for the ancients; to expect an implicit adherence to them in all their mythological appendages is unreasonable and absurd, and at once puts a stop to every exertion of fancy and genius; it is but doing justice to them to acknowledge that their emblematic figures are unrivalled; but as their several distinct attributes are closely connected with, and indeed drawn from their religion, history, dress, and manners, they must be considered as relatively excellent only; we cannot be

But

* We commonly say "to destroy our hopes in the bud.

.

so barren of invention, as to be obliged tamely to have recourse to their imagery on all occasions; the religion, history, manners, and dress, of our own country, are sufficiently dignified to supply a fertile imagination with combinations infinitely new, and to justify us in forming a style of our own. Propriety in selection is every thing: to produce a strong effect from a few masterly outlines, and to give an individual and exclusive character to the personage, seems to have been the sole aim of the ancients. From the profusion of ornaments with which most modern allegorical figures are overwhelmed, we are as much at a loss to discover for whom they are designed, as we are to unravel a rebus or an anagram. Milton appears to have been a reader of Fletcher. I will conclude these desul

tory remarks on him, with noticing a few passages that have escaped the commentators of our divine Bard. Milton is invoking Mirth to bring with her,

"When this exquisite assemblage was formed, it is more than probable that the poet had an eye on the following passage of Fletcher:

"Here sportful Laughter dwells, here ever sitting,

Defies all lumpish griefs, and wrinkled care;

"And twenty merry mates mirth causes fitting,
"And smiles, which, Laughter's sons, yet infants are.
Purple Island, Cant. iv. St. 13. Edit. 1633.

"Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide."

Lycid. 157.

In the edition of 1630, Milton had written humming tide, which is perhaps more expressive and poetical. His first epithet he had probably from the following fine image of Fletcher:

"While humming rivers by his cabin creeping,
"Rock soft his slumbering thoughts in quiet ease.

Eclog. 2. "Milton uses syllable, Comus, 208. Fletcher in his miscellanies, page 85, has syllabled.”

It will not be unacceptable to the reader to know what portions of the Purple Island were selected by the taste and judgment of Mr. Headley, to form a part of a work composed of such rich materials as his "Beauties of Ancient Poetry." The first extract is the description of the descent of Örpheus into the infernal regions in search of his lost Eurydice, Cant. v. St. 61-67. In a note we have the following remark on that highly poetical episode: "These lines of Fletcher are a paraphrase, or rather translation, from Boethius. The whole description is forcible: some of the circumstances perhaps are heightened too much; but it is the fault of this writer to indulge himself in every aggravation that poetry allows, and to stretch his prerogative of "quidlibet audendi" to the utmost."

The next extract, which is honoured with a place in the Beauties, is the description of the Shepherd's Life, Cant. xii. St. 2-6. "These beautiful lines," says Mr. Headley, seem to have suggested the plan of a most exquisite little piece called The Hamlet, by Mr. T. Warton, which contains such a collection of beautiful rural images, as perhaps no other poem of equal length in our language presents us with. The latter part of it more closely reminds us of Fletcher. A shepherd's life is to be found in Spenser's Fairie Queene, B. VI. Cant. ix. St. 20.

The other extract is on the Instability of Human Greatness, Cant. vii. Št. 2—7.

The reader will do well to pay particular attention to these spirited passages of the Purple Island, as well as to many others of singular beauty which the confined limits of Mr. Headley's Work and Plan, would not allow him to notice. That able young man was himself anxious that the whole works of our author should be reprinted.

W. J.

As some optic-glasses, if we look one way, increase the object, if the other, lessen the quantity; such is an eye that looks through affection; it doubles any good, and extenuates what is amiss. Pardon me, Sir, for speaking plain truth; such is that eye whereby you have viewed these raw Essays* of my very unripe years, and almost childhood. How unseasonable are blossoms in autumn! unless perhaps in this age, where are more flowers than fruit. I am entering upon my winter, and yet these blooms of my first spring, must

* To this poem, when first published, were added a few piscatory eclogues and poetical miscellanies, written by the same author.