The Lyrick Poems are almost all of the light and airy kind, fuch as trip lightly and nimbly along, without the load of any weighty meaning. From thefe, however, Rural Elegance has fome right to be excepted. I once heard it praised by a very learned lady; and though the lines are irregular, and the thoughts diffufed with too much verbofity, yet it cannot be denied to contain both philosophical argument and poetical fpirit.

Of the reft I cannot think any excellent; the Skylark pleafes me beft, which has however more of the epigram than of the ode.

But the four parts of his Paftoral Ballad demand particular notice. I cannot but regret that it is paftoral; an intelligent reader, acquainted with the fcenes of real life, fickens at the mention of the crook, the pipe, the fheep, and the kids, which it is not neceffary to bring forward to notice, for the poet's art is felection, and he ought to fhew the beauties without the groffhefs of the country life. His ftanza feems to have been chofen in imitation of Rowe's Defpairing Shepherd.

if

In the first part are two paffages, to which any mind denies its fympathy, it has no acquaintance with love or nature:

I priz'd every hour that went by,

Beyond all that had pleas'd me before; But now they are past, and I figh,

And I grieve that I priz'd them no more.

When forc'd the fair nymph to forgo,
What anguish I felt in my heart!
Yet I thought-but it might not be fo,
'Twas with pain that fhe faw me depart.

She gaz'd, as I flowly withdrew;
My path I could hardly difcern;
So fweetly the bade me adieu,

I thought that fhe bade me return.

In the fecond this paffage has its prettiness, though it be not equal to the former :

I have found out a gift for my fair;

I have found where the wood-pigeons breed:

But let me that plunder forbear,

She will fay 'twas a barbarous deed:

For he ne'er could be true, fhe averr'd,
Who could rob a poor bird of its young;
And I lov'd her the more, when I heard
Such tenderness fall from her tongue.

VOL. IV.

A a

In

In the third he mentions the common places of amorous poetry with fome address:

'Tis his with mock paffion to glow;
'Tis his in fmooth tales to unfold,
How her face is as bright as the snow,
And her bofom, be fure, is as cold:

How the nightingales labour the ftrain,
With the notes of his charmer to vie ;
How they vary their accents in vain,
Repine at her triumphs, and die.

In the fourth I find nothing better than this natural strain of Hope :

Alas! from the day that we met,
What hope of an end to my woes?
When I cannot endure to forget
The glance that undid my repose.

Yet Time may diminish the pain :

The flower, and the fhrub, and the tree,
Which I rear'd for her pleasure in vain,
In time may have comfort for me.

His Levities are by their title exempted from the feverities of criticifm; yet it may

be

be remarked, in a few words, that his humour is fometimes grofs, and feldom fpritely.

tis

Of the Moral Poems the firft is the Choice of Hercules, from Xenophon. The numbers are smooth, the diction elegant, and the thoughts juft, but something of vigour perhaps is ftill to be wifhed, which it might have had by brevity and compreffion. His Fate of Delicacy has an air of gaiety, but not a very pointed general moral.. His blank verses, thofe that can read them may probably find to be like the blank verses of his neighbours. Love and Honour is derived from the old ballad, Did you not hear of a Spanish Lady-I wish it well enough to wish it were in rhyme.

The School-miftrefs, of which I know not what claim it has to ftand among the Moral Works, is furely the most pleasing of Shenftone's performances. The adoption of a particular style, in light and short compofitions, contributes much to the increase of pleasure we are entertained at once with two imitations, of nature in the fentiments, of the original author in the ftyle, and be

tween them the mind is kept in perpetual employment.

The general recommendation of Shenstone is eafinefs and fimplicity; his general defect is want of comprehenfion and variety. Had his mind been better stored with knowledge, whether he could have been great, I know not; he could certainly have been agreeable.

YOUNG.