of hory, would be deprived of the individual in- and, perhaps, we may add, that it is the more terest whin it is so well calculated to excite. useful, as well as the more accessible, inasmuck as it affords an example capable of being easily imitated. According to the author's idea of Romantic Poetry, as distinguished from Epic, the former comprehends a fictitious narrative, framed and combined at the pleasure of the writer; begin Modern poets may therefore be pardoned in seeking simpler subjects of verse, more interesting in proportion to their simplicity. Two or three figures, well grouped, suit the artist better than a crowd, for whatever purpose assembled. For the same reason, a scene immediately presented to the imagination, and directly brought home toning and ending as he may judge best: which the feelings, though involving the fate of but one or two persons, is more favorable for poetry than the political struggles and convulsions which influence the fate of kingdoms. The former are within the reach and comprehension of all, and if depicted with vigor, seldom fail to fix attention: The other, if more sublime, are more vague and distant, less capable of being distinctly understood, and infinitely less capable of exciting those sentiments which it is the very purpose of poetry to inspire. To generalize is always to destroy effect. We would, for example, be more interested in the fate of an individual soldier in combat, than in the grand event of a general action; with the happiness of two lovers raised from misery and anxiety to peace and union, than with the successful exertions of a whole nation. From what causes this may originate, is a separate and obviously an immaterial consideration. Before ascribing this peculiarity to causes decidedly and odiously selfish, it is proper to recollect, that while men see only a limited space, and while their affections and conduct are regulated, not by aspiring to an universal good, but by exerting their power of making themselves and others happy within the limited scale allotted to each individual, so long will individual history and individual virtue be the readier and more accessible road to general interest and attention; "I must not conclude without cautioning all writers without genius in one material point, which is, never to be afraid of having too much fire in their works. I should advise rather to take their warmest thoughts, and spread them abroad upon paper; for they are observed to cool before they are read."POPE. The Guardian, No. 78. 1 "In all this we cheerfully acquiesce, without abating any thing of our former hostility to the modern Romaunt style, which is founded on very different principles. Nothing is, in our opinion, so dangerous to the very existence of poetry as the extreme laxity of rule and consequent facility of composition, which are its principal characteristics. Our very admission in favor of that license of plot and conduct which is claimed by the Romance writers, ought to render us so much the more guarded in extending the privilege to the minor poets of composition and versification. The removal of all technical bars and impediments sets wide open the gates of Parnassus; and so much the better. We dislike mystery quite as much in matters of taste, as of politics and religion. But let us not, in opening the door, pull down the wall, and level the very foundation of the edifice."-Critical Review, 1813. neither exacts nor refuses the use of supernatural machinery; which is free from the technical rules of the Epée; and is subject only to those which good sense, good taste, and good morals, apply to every species of poetry without exception. The date may be in a remote age, or in the present; the story may detail the adventures of a prince or of a peasant. In a word, the author is absolute master of his country and its inhabi tants, and every thing is permitted to him, except ing to be heavy or prosaic, for which, free and unembarrassed as he is, he has no manner of apology. Those, it is probable, will be found the peculiarities of this species of composition; and, before joining the outcry against the vitiated taste that fosters and encourages it, the justice and grounds of it ought to be made perfectly ap parent. If the want of sieges, and battles, and great military evolutions, in our poetry, is com plained of, let us reflect, that the campaigns and heroes of our days are perpetuated in a record that neither requires nor admits of the aid of fiction; and if the complaint refers to the inferiority of our bards, let us pay a just tribute to their modesty, limiting them, as it does, to subjects which, however indifferently treated, have still the interest and charm of novelty, and which thus prevents them from adding insipidity to their other more insuperable defects.1 "In the same letter in which William Erskine acknowl edges the receipt of the first four pages of Rokeby, he adverts also to the Bridal of Triermain as being already in rapid progress. The fragments of this second poem, inserted in the Register of the preceding year, had attracted considerable notice; the secret of their authorship had been well kept; and by some means, even in the shrewdest circles of Edinburgh, the belief had become prevalent that they proceeded not from Scott, but from Erskine. Scott had no sooner completed his bargain as to the copyright of the unwritten Rokeby, than he resolved to pause from time to time in its composi tion, and weave those fragments into a shorter and lighter romance, executed in a different metre, and to be published anonymously, in a small pocket volume, as nearly as possible on the same day with the avowed quarto. He expected great amusement from the comparisons which the critics would no doubt indulge themselves in drawing between himself and this humble candidate; and Erskine good-humoredly entered into the scheme, undertaking to do nothing which should effectually suppress the notion of his having set him self up as a modest rival to his friend."-Life of Scott, vol iv. D. 12. COME, LUCY! while 'tis morning hour, The woodland brook we needs must pass; So, ere the sun assume his power, We shelter in our poplar bower, Where dew lies long upon the flower, Though vanish'd from the velvet grass. Curbing the stream, this stony ridge May serve us for a silvan bridge; For here, compell'd to disunite, Round petty isles the runnels glide, And chafing off their puny spite, The shallow murmurers waste their might, Yielding to footstep free and light A dry-shod pass from side to side. II. Nay, why this hesitating pause? That this same stalwart arm of mine, Which could yon oak's prone trunk uprear, Shall shrink beneath the burden dear Of form so slender, light, and fine.— So, now, the danger dared at last, Look back, and smile at perils past! III. And now we reach the favorite glade, To break affection's whispering tone, 1 MS.-"Haughty eye." A place where lovers best may meet, Who would not that their love be seen. The boughs, that dim the summer sky, Shall hide us from each lurking spy, That fain would spread the invidious tale, How Lucy of the lofty eye,' Noble in birth, in fortunes high, IV. How deep that blush!-how deep that sigh! Than the dull glance of common men,2 Pride mingled in the sigh her voice, And shared with Love the crimson glow As if to meet the breeze's cooling; V. Too oft my anxious eye has spied With such a blush and such a sigh! Thou wouldst not yield, for wealth or rank, The heart thy worth and beauty won, "with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love."—Hamlet. " Nor leave me on this mossy bank, To meet a rival on a throne: Why, then, should vain repinings rise, That to thy lover fate denies A nobler name, a wide domain, A Baron's birth, a menial train, Since Heaven assign'd him, for his part, A lyre, a falchion, and a heart! My sword VI. -its master must be dumb; But, when a soldier names my name, Approach, my Lucy! fearless come, Nor dread to hear of Arthur's shame. That boasts a pulse so warm as mine?1 Match'd with thine eyes, I thought it faded; They praised the pearls that bound thy hairI only saw the locks they braided; They talk'd of wealthy dower and land, And titles of high birth the token thought of Lucy's heart and hand, Nor knew the sense of what was spoken. I might have learn'd their choice unwise, VII. My lyre-it is an idle toy, That borrows accents not its own, Like warbler of Colombian sky, That sings but in a mimic tone.' Ne'er did it sound o'er sainted well, Nor boasts it aught of Border spell; Its strings no feudal slogan pour, But, if thou bid'st, these tones shall tell Of errant knight, and damozelle; That best may charm romantic ear. For Lucy loves,-like COLLINS, ill-starred name!" Whose lay's requital, was that tardy fame, Who bound no laurel round his living head, Should hang it o'er his monument when dead,— For Lucy loves to tread enchanted strand, And thread, like him, the maze of Fairy-land; Of golden battlements to view the gleam, And slumber soft by some Elysian stream;Such lays she loves,-and such my Lucy's choice. What other song can claim her Poet's voice " The Bridal of Triermain. CANTO FIRST. I. 1 MS.-"That boasts so warm a heart as mine." MS." And Lucy's gems before her eyes." The Mocking Bird. 4 MS.-" Perchance, because it sung their praise." 5 See Appendix, Note A. "The Introduction, though by no means destitute of beaut'es, is decidedly inferior to the Poem: its plan, or conception, s neither very ingenious nor very striking. The best passages are those in which the author adheres most strictly to his original in those which are composed without having his eyes fixed on his model, there is a sort of affectation and straining at humor, that will probably excite some feeling of disappointment, either because the effort is not altogether successful, or because it does not perfectly harmonize with the tone and coloring of the whole piece. "The Bridal' self is purely a tale of chivalry; a tale of 'Britain's isle, and Arthur's days, when midnight fairies daunced the maze.' The author never gives us a glance of ordinary life, or of ordinary personages. From the splendid Court of Arthur, we are conveyed to the halls of enchantment, and, of course, are introduced to a system of manaers perfectly decided and appropriate, but altogether remote WHERE is the Maiden of mortal strain, from those of this vulgar world."-Quarterly Review, July 1813. "The poem now before us consists properly of two distinct subjects, interwoven together something in the manner of the Last Minstrel and his Lay, in the first and most enchanting of Walter Scott's romances. The first is the history (real or imaginary, we presume not to guess which) of the author's pas sion, courtship, and marriage, with a young lady, his superior in rank and circumstances, to whom he relates at intervals the story which may be considered as the principal design of the work, to which it gives its title. This is a mode of introducing romantic and fabulous narratives which we very much approve, though there may be reason to fear that too frequent repetition may wear out its effect. It attaches a degree of dramatic interest to the work, and at the same time softens the absurdity of a Gothic legend, by throwing it to a greater distance from the relation and auditor, by representing it, not as a train of facts which actually took place, but as a mere fable, either adopted by the credulity of former times, or invented for the purposes of amusement, and the exercise of the imagination."-Critical Review, 1813. 7 See Appendix, Note B. She must be lovely, and constant, and kind, When it breaks the clouds of an April day; sighs; Courteous as monarch the morn he is crown'd, Generous as spring-dews that bless the glad ground; Noble her blood as the currents that met That shall match with Sir Roland of Triermain. II. Sir Roland de Vaux he hath lain him to sleep, All in the castle must hold them still, III. It was the dawn of an autumn day; When that Baron bold awoke. While hastily he spoke. IV. "Hearken, my minstrels! Which of ye all Touch'd his harp with that dying fall, So sweet, so soft, so faint, It seem'd an angel's whisper'd call 1 Dunmailraise is one of the grand passes from Cumberland into Westmoreland. It takes its name from a cairn, or pile And hearken, my merry-men! What time or where [brow, Did she pass, that maid with her heavenly With her look so sweet and her eyes so fair, And her graceful step and her angel air, And the eagle plume in her dark-brown hair, That pass'd from my bower e'en now ?" V. Answer'd him Richard de Bretville; he Was chief of the Baron's minstrelsy, Silent, noble chieftain, we Have sat since midnight close, When such lulling sounds as the brooklet sings, And hush'd you to repose. When she thinks her lover near.”- Else had I heard the steps, though low VI. "Then come thou hither, Henry, my page, And redden'd all the Nine-stane Hill, Greet well that sage of power. Of kingdoms' fall, and fate of wars, of stones, erected, it is said, to the memory of Dunmail, the last King of Cumberland From mystic dreams and course of stars. Framed from the rainbow's varying dyes, Or fading tints of western skies.' Shall ever rest De Vaux's bride!""" VII. The faithful Page he mounts his steed, He pass'd red Penrith's Table Round,' Left Mayburgh's mound' and stones of power, By Druids raised in magic hour, And traced the Eamont's winding way, VIII. Onward he rode, the pathway still The silver moss and lichen twined, And o'er him shook the aspen-tree, And greeted Lyulph grave, And then his master's tale did tell, And then for counsel crave. The Man of Years mused long and deep, Of time's lost treasures taking keep, And then, as rousing from a sleep, His solemn answer gave. IX. "That maid is born of middle earth, And may of man be won, Though there have glided since her birth Five hundred years and one. 1 Just like Aurora, when she ties A rainbow round the morning skies."-MOORE. "This powerful Baron required in the fair one whom he should bonor with his hand an assemblage of qualities, that appears to us rather unreasonable even in those high days, profuse as they are known to have been of perfections now nattamable. His resolution, however, was not more inflexime than that of any mere modern youth; for he decrees that So perilous to knightly worth, Far distant, 'mid the wrecks of time. X. Lyulph's Tale. “KING ARTHUR has ridden from merry Carlisle, When Pentecost was o'er: He journey'd like errant-knight the while, Above his solitary track Rose Glaramara's ridgy back, In whose black mirror you may spy |