The ftanzas dedicated to Madam Defhoulieres and Mrs. Rowe, are truly poetical and characteristic.

V.

Carelessly tripping o'er the green
The fprightly Defhoulieres appears
With winning air, and brow ferene,
Unclouded by the frown of years:
Around the nymph in graceful ftate
A thousand smiling Cupids wait,

And each performs his deftin'd part;
Some give the cheeks a livelier glow,
Some tune the lyre, fome twang the bow
To pierce the most obdurate heart.
VI.

The plaintive Rowe, whofe warbling breath
Difpers'd the melancholy gloom
Which, at her dear Alexis' death,

O'erhung the fickening vales of Frome,
To the foft Cyprian lute recites

The fears, the hopes, the fond delights,
The tender blandifliments of love,

Their mutual happiness compleating,
Where innocence and pleasure meeting
Have fix'd them in the realms above.
VII.

Befide them Cytherea stands

In Virtue's inowy garb array'd,
And reunites their focial hands,

Sever'd by Death's tremendous blade:

'The Loves with elegiac verfe

Meanwhile adorn the fable hearfe

In which their mortal afhes lye,

And in due chaplet Phoebus weaves
The laurel's never-fading leaves,
The Guerdon of eternity.

The epithet tremendous may poffibly be changed for one lefs common, one that fhall in this place have greater propriety. The word Guerdon is, perhaps, both too harsh and too obsolete to be agreeable to the tuneful ease of lyric poetry: and the cinders of the dead, in the eighth flanza, approaches too near to what Horace calls the dominantia nomina rerum, to be read without cenfure.

This Ode concludes with a compliment to the Lady to whom it is addreffed, who, we understand, is a fair Salopian and a Poetefs.

In the Ode to the Dryads we admire, in general, both the fentiment and the poetry, but particularly in the two following ftanzas, where the Author has agreeably evinced both his humanity and his judgment.

Tho'

XI.

Tho' in your holy grots retir'd,

The fubtle Priefts with venom'd breath
The thirst of homicide infpir'd,

And wak'd the flumbering coals of death:

To their polluted altars led

Where erft the captive youth had bled
Victim of hellish cruelty,

Devoted Mona's frantic fhade

In vain implor'd your guardian aid,
O'erthrown by Roman victory :
XII.

Yet never gave your prefence birth
To murders fell, to battles rude,
To taunting jefts, or boit'rous mirth,
Which on your favourite feats intrude
Ye haunt not that licentious grove
Where Spencer's defperate Champions rove,
Your chafte ear loves not to be told
Of blatant beasts, of dread Despair
With glaring eyes, with clotted hair,
And brutal chivalries of old.

We are glad to find that Mr. Wodhull agrees with us, in dif approving the filthy images, and the loathfome bloody allegories of Spenfer. He will obferve, however, that the fame objection lies against the words printed in Italics in the eleventh stanza of this Ode, as against the expreffion cenfured in the eighth stanza of the firft Ode.

There is no part of thefe Odes more beautiful than that where the Dryads are yet fupposed to haunt the fcenes of Pe trarch's poetical Attentions:

In Avignon's delightful fhades
Where Petrarch fix'd his lowly cell,
Perhaps, ye filver-footed Maids,
By cool Valclufa's ebbing well
Ye deign to tend the rifing flowers,
And bid the myrtle's fhadowy bowers

A more enchanting fragrance fhed;

And there the earliest rofe is found,
Where on the rude uncultur'd ground,
Your Bard reclin'd his finking head;
XIV.

For there engrav'd upon the rind

Of every plane, and fpreading beech
The fond complaints of Love ye find,
Which move beyond the power of fpeech,

REV. Jan. 1764.

The ancient Druids.

D

And

And where he shed the tender tear
O'er his departed Laura's bier,"
To footh her hovering fhade ye bring
The fresheft lilies of the vale,
And waft the foft refreshing gale

On welcome Zephyr's balmy wing.

The poetical beauty and propriety of alluding, in an Ode to the Dryads, to a Lover's engraving his complaints on the bark of trees, are fufficiently obvious.

In the concluding ftanza the Author avows the liberal doctrine, that Pleasure and Morality are not inconfiftent; a doctrine which we do not find ourselves inclined to oppose:

A

XVI.

Yes they who erft content to rove
Thro' Poefy's fequefter'd fphere,
Or wak'd the Cyprian lute of Love,
Or bade mild Pity's ftarting tear
Bedew the couch of Mifery, find
With ftrict Morality combin'd

Sweet Pleafure's mediating wiles;

There feeking oft the Tufcan bowers,
Where Horace pafs'd his jocund hours,
Een philofophic Rigour fmiles.

CAM, an Elegy. 4to. Is. 6d. Flexney.

S the intention of Ifis, an Elegy, publifhed fome years ago, was to reproach the University of Oxford for the fuppofed Jacobitical principles of fome of its Members, fo Cam, an Elegy, is now publifhed as a fatire on the Univerfity of Cambridge, for thofe fervile and courtly principles which the Author afcribes to that illustrious body. The conduct of both poems is nearly the fame, and as the Ifis was the principal Speaker in the former, fo is Cam in the prefent Elegy; but Ifis was introduced to bewail the degeneracy of her fons, Cam to Jament the misfortunes of his, in the downfall of their powerful Patron the Duke of N▬▬▬▬

We are far from approving fuch publications as thefe, which tend to injure either the political or the moral reputation of any refpectable body; nevertheless, as a literary performance, we cannot withhold our approbation from the poem before us; for the fentiments are manly, and the verfification is elegant; the compofition is remarkable for its eafe and perfpicuity, and the deferiptive parts of the poem are ingenioufly invented.

Far from his coral, wave-encircled, bower,
Form'd for the focial, or the festal hour,
Lay fedgy-mantled CAM, on oozy bed;
While the bleak winds beat rudely on his head :
Some filent forrow prey'd upon his mind,
And o'er his urn he fullenly reclin'd;

That urn where fcience wont in times of yore,
To trace the fymbols of her facred lore;
Where Freedom once, with virtuous pride elate,
Saw her dear emblems thron'd in social state:
But now their trophies banish'd from its fide,
More modern ornaments their place fupplied;
Where erft the Genius of the British race
The Charter grafp'd with stern and awful grace,
There fmil'd a Peer, whofe fortune favour'd hand
Difplay'd its power, the staff, the feals, the wand;
Where Phoebus fat, and ftruck his golden lyre,
In concord fweet with all the Aonian choir;
There Plutus held Preferment's types on high,
Scarfs, mitres, ftalls, that prompt the priestly figh;
Faft by his fide was fervile Flattery feen,

Known by th' obfequious fmile, the cringing mien:
Where Study wont, by taper dim, to toil,

And rifle Learning of her richest spoil,

There Indolence, and Mirth, congenial fouls!

Loll'd on the couch, and crown'd the frequent bowls.
At distance due fit objects ftrike the eye,

Here temples feem with palaces to vie;

A bower umbrageous, a gymnaftic green,

Sweet interchange! compleat th' inchanting scene.

The following lines make a part of the River-God's com plaints:

And can it, Powers immortal! can it be,

That these, thefe wretched eyes are bound to fee
My H-LL-S leagu'd with Oppofition's train,
Bustling with zeal ridiculously vain ;

For what?could Liberty one danger know,
Or fear, while George protects, the subtleft foe?
Can Granta's Patron fuch a dupe commence,
So ftrange a foe to Granta's self and sense,
In earnest to efpoufe his country's caufe,
And court the real Patriot's applaufe?
A Patriot! CAM detefts the odious name!
The doating flave of principle or fame!

What's Principle-blind Confcience! random rules---
What's Fame?-a feather in the cap of fools.
Weigh'd in the balance with thy folid joys,

O Power! how quick their nothingness would rife!

The Defcription of the Duke of N's Inftallation is fpirited and poetical, and does honour to the Author, though not to the subject.

E'en

Fe'n in that ever memorable hour

That gave N ee and the charms of power,
When my loud fhore with acclamations rung,
And my fixt ftream in rapt attention hung;
A God! a God! re-ecchoing Granta cried;
A God! a God! Godolphin's hills replied;
When proudest Prefects adoration paid
To this new Deity themselves had made;
When facred Splendor grac'd the feftal board,
Scarce pomp fufficient for this earthly Lord;
When college-luxury fhone with courtly pride,
And Bacchus roll'd an unexhaufted tide;

Thrice, at each health, the choral Pœans rise,
And thrice the trumpet's clangor tears the skies;
When folemn Pedants feem'd to drop a while
Th' effential dullness, and essay'd to fmile;
Well-warm'd with wine and hope, each rufty four
Forgot its spleen, and peep'd out from its hole.

Each in idea grafp'd Preferment's prize,

While fcarfs, ftalls, mitres danc'd before their eyes.

Would it not appear invidious, we could quote many other entertaining paffages from this poem. The following account, however, of the Cambridge Verfes on the Peace*, we need not fcruple to lay before our Readers, as they imply an apology for that publication.

Her Bards must trim afresh each wither'd bay,

With George, and Joy, and Albion crowd the lay;
Here paint Britannia leaning on her lance,

Beneath her humbled Spain, and fuppliant France,
When thus they'd rummag'd old poetic lore
For flowers that bloom'd a thousand years before
This garland bound, they hied the Nymph to greet,
And humbly laid the offering at her feet,
Vowing Apollo from th' Aonian grove,

Cull'd the fair wreath which all the Mufes wove ;
But could the noblett Bards, Reviewers say,
With hearts as heavy frame a livelier lay?
Not more unfit were Ifrael's captive train,
Than Granta's Bards, to pour a joyous strain,
And tune their harps, on Babel's willows hung,
To the fweet notes they once in Sion fung.

See Review, Vol. XXIX. p. 37.

An