The ftanzas dedicated to Madam Defhoulieres and Mrs. Rowe, are truly poetical and characteristic. V. Carelessly tripping o'er the green And each performs his deftin'd part; The plaintive Rowe, whofe warbling breath O'erhung the fickening vales of Frome, The fears, the hopes, the fond delights, Their mutual happiness compleating, Befide them Cytherea stands In Virtue's inowy garb array'd, 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 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 And wak'd the flumbering coals of death: To their polluted altars led Where erft the captive youth had bled Devoted Mona's frantic fhade In vain implor'd your guardian aid, Yet never gave your prefence birth 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 A more enchanting fragrance fhed; And there the earliest rofe is found, For there engrav'd upon the rind Of every plane, and fpreading beech REV. Jan. 1764. The ancient Druids. D And And where he shed the tender tear 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 Sweet Pleafure's mediating wiles; There feeking oft the Tufcan bowers, 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, That urn where fcience wont in times of yore, Known by th' obfequious fmile, the cringing mien: And rifle Learning of her richest spoil, There Indolence, and Mirth, congenial fouls! Loll'd on the couch, and crown'd the frequent bowls. 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 For what?could Liberty one danger know, What's Principle-blind Confcience! random rules--- 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, Thrice, at each health, the choral Pœans rise, 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; Beneath her humbled Spain, and fuppliant France, Cull'd the fair wreath which all the Mufes wove ; See Review, Vol. XXIX. p. 37. An |