et ton fils doit dorénavant accomplir plus d'une veille dans la profondeur des forêts, sur la cime des monts, dans les plaines couvertes de tentes, observant, pour l'amour de l'Espagne, la marche des astres de la nuit, et préparant l'ouvrage de sa journée avant que le soleil ne commence sa course."-T. i. pp. 175—177.

In the other translation the motes are not converted into moths, but the image is omitted.

Consumées dans des soins pareils les rapides heures s'écouloient, les lampes et les torches commençoient à pâlir, et l'oblique rayon du matin doroit déjà les vitraux élevés qui regardoient vers l'Orient: le retour du jour ne ramenoit point, dans cette sombre enceinte, les sons joyeux, ni le tableau mouvant de la vie qui se reveille; mais, tombant d'en haut, le céleste rayon, passant audessus de l'autel, vint frapper le tombeau de la femme pécheresse. “Ansi soit-il,” s'écria Pelage, "ainsi soit-il, ô divin Créateur! Puisse ta vivifiante bonté verser ainsi le pardon en ce lieu! Que les gémissemens d'une mort pénitente, que mes amères prières ne soient pas arrivées en vain devant la trône de miséricorde! Et toi, qui, de ton séjour de souffrances et de larmes, regardes vers ton fils, pour abréger et soulager tes peines, pardonne, si d'autres devoirs ont rempli les heures que cette nuit et cet habit m'enjoignoient de te consacrer! Notre patrie exigeoit ce sacrifice; d'autres vigiles m'attendent dans les bois et les défilés de nos montagnes; et bientôt sous la tente, il me faudra veiller, le soir, avant que le ciel ne se couvre d'étoiles, étre prêt pour le travail du jour, avant que le soleil ne commence sa course."pp. 92, 93.

A very good translation in Dutch verse was published in two volumes, 8vo. 1823-4, with this title:- "Rodrigo de Goth, Koning van Spanje. Naar het Engelsch van Southey gevolgd, door Vrouwe Katharina Wilhelmina Bilderdijk. Te 's Gravenhage." It was sent to me with the following epistle from her husband Mr. Willem Bilderdijk.

"Roberto Southey, viro spectatissimo,
Gulielmus Bilderdijk, S. P. D.

nosci putavi quorum præ cæteris e meliori luto finxerit præcordia Titan, neque aut verè aut justè judicari vatem nisi ab iis qui eodem afflatu moveantur. Sexagesimus autem jam agitur annus ex quo et ipse meos inter æquales poëta salutor, eumque locum quem ineunte adolescentia occupare contigit, in hunc usque diem tenuisse videor, popularis auræ nunquam captator, quin immo perpetuus contemptor; parcus ipse laudator, censor gravis et nonnunquam molestus. Tuum vero ncmen, Vir celeberrime ac spectatissime, jam antea veneratus, perlecto tuo de Roderico rege poëmate, non potui non summis extollere laudibus, quo doctissimo simul ac venustissimo opere, si minus divinam Aeneida, saltem immortalem Tassonis Epopeiam tentasse, quin et certo respectu ita superasse videris, ut majorum perpaucos, æqualium neminem, cum vera fide ac pietate in Deum, tum ingenio omnique poëtica dote tibi comparandum existimem. Ne mireris itaque, carminis tui gravitate ac dulcedine captam, meoque judicio fultam, non illaudatam in nostratibus Musam tuum illud nobile poëma fœminea manu sed insueto labore attrectasse, Belgicoque sermone reddidisse. Hanc certe, per quadrantem seculi et quod excurrit felicissimo connubio mihi junctam, meamque in Divina arte alumnam ac sociam, nimium in eo sibi sumpsisse nemo facile arbitrabitur cui vel minimum Poëseos nostræ sensum usurpare contigerit; nec ego hos ejus conatus quos illustri tuo nomini dicandos putavit, tibi mea manu offerre dubitabam. Hæc itaque utriusque nostrum in te observantiæ specimina accipe, Vir illustrissime, ac si quod communium studiorum, si quod veræ pietatis est vinculum, nos tibi ex animo habe addictissimos. Vale.

"Dabam Lugduni in Batavis. Ipsis idib. Februar. CIICCCXXIV."

It so

PREFACE

ΤΟ

THE TENTH VOLUME,

BEGINNING

have contented himself with a bare exposition of the measures of his verse, but should have actually noted the cæsuras, accented the syllables, and divided the feet. In matters of rhythm and sound the untried ear cannot always catch the precise meaning of the musician or poet, especially where an original air is turned

"The Laureate says that if it be difficult to reconcile the public to a new tune in verse, it is plainly impossible to reconcile them to a new pronunciation.' But why not attempt to teach this tune on new principles? Why leave the public without a guide to the accents and divisions of the Georgian hexameter? This should have been done either by-borrowing from the Latin rules-adopting those of the early prosodians, or by inventing a new metronome. It is difficult to recommend, much more to establish, any theoretical attempt upon individual authority, because practical experience is the best and ultimate test of success. After repeated trials the enterprize in question has uniformly failed, and experience has shown that all modern imitations of the epic are unworthy of becoming denizens among our English metres. The system attempted by the Laureate is professedly an imitation of the ancient systems; but every copy is good or bad as it resembles or differs from its original. In defence of his enterprize, Mr. Southey should not

case between the modernized and original epic, the difference acknowledged by the Laureate being the variation alluded to.

66

"A table exhibiting the varieties which Mr. S. has adopted, and their agreement or disagreement with the legitimate hexameter, should have been drawn out. Critical experience has long ago selected and established certain canons for the iambic, sapphic, alcaic, and other metres; and Greek or Latin verses constructed according to these laws invariably excel both in rhythm and melody.-There are in the Vision of Judgement parts which may charm and delight, but they do so from no metrical effect. The reader (notwithstanding the Laureate's caution) soon finds himself in a tangled path, and gets bewildered for want of those guides which lead him smoothly through the Siege of Troy. But if he travel far with the Muse of modern epic, he will have little running, frequent haltings, some stumbling and jostling, and now and then find the good lady gaping, or sitting cross-legged in the midst of a barbarous rabble of monosyllabic particles.

"But it will be easier to show the comparative and probable sources of excellence or failure in the composition of the modern hexameter, by an analysis of the Greek and Latin languages, compared as to their literal and syllabic relations. To effect this, four separate tables have been drawn, containing the component parts and totals of eight verses of hexametrical dimensions, taken severally from the Iliad, Æneid, Vision of Judgement, and from a poem by Schiller. The divisions are calculated to show the totals of words, syllables, consonants, vowels, diphthongs, letters, and variety of final syllables. It will be seen from this tabular exposition that the Greek and Latin are nearly analogous, except that the balance of polysyllables inclines to the former. The diphthongs are more and the consonants fewer,

and the total of letters and words also is less with the Greek. The conclusion therefore is, that the euphony, and syllabic power of speech, must likewise be on the side of the Greeks.

"In the English scale the number of monosyllables is five times as great as in either of the two ancient languages, and more than twice as great as in the German. The English consonants are very nearly double those of the Greek or Latin, and the total number of words bears nearly the same ratio both to the Greek and Latin, viz. two to one. By necessity of grammar, a large proportion of these words consists of monosyllables and expletives. Neither the consonants in the German, nor the total of letters, is so numerous as in the English, and the same relation holds between the final varieties of these two languages.

"It has been before remarked that the Teutonic hexameter may be rendered somewhat superior to the English. This superiority is in a great measure to be attributed to the smaller aggregate of consonants and monosyllables which distinguish the German vocabulary. But the unprejudiced reader will draw what inferences he pleases from the comparative powers of each language, and regulate his decision according to the apparent truth or falsehood of the whole of the argument and evidence.

"Excludat jurgia Finis.'

"In taking leave of this question, the Writer again assures Mr. Southey of his high regard both for the private and literary life of the Laureate of the present age. The pen which has traced these Remarks, if it be not that of a ready writer, would fain be considered as that of a humble critic, actuated by no other motives than those of friendly discussions, and a desire to preserve the Epic Muse of Greece and Latium free from the barbarities of modern imitation.

"It is against the metre-the metrical association and arrangement,—against the innovation, not the innovator, that the writer protests; the merits or demerits therefore of the Vision of Judgement, as a poem, he leaves to abler reviewers and to posterity. It will be read and admired by a few persons, just as the attempts of other Hexametrists have been. The experiments of Trissino, Sidney, and Spenser, produced a short-lived sensation, which perished

with the sympathetic caprice of the times. The reputation of Mr. Southey may, even in the Georgian age, produce a parallel effect, but independent of the probable causes of the failure already stated, the poem itself, being an occasional one, is on that account also more liable to forgetfulness.

"Via trita, via tuta, is therefore as good a password for the aspirant who would climb Parnassus, as for the humble pilgrim who plods along the beaten path of Prose. There is no necessity, indeed no apology, for attempting to revive those misshapen forms of Poetry,—those immodulata poemata,' which have long ago been laid to rest, shrouded in cobwebs and buried in the dust. Ennius may be pardoned his imaginary metempsychosis, his Somnia Pythagorea, and assumption of the title, ‘ Alter Homerus,' but the world would be loth now-adays to allow the same privileges to an English Poet.

"Had there been any good chance of imitating the classic hexameter, surely he (who by distinction among our Poets was called 'divine,') must have succeeded in the enterprize. Spenser however relinquished the hopeless task; and it is to be regretted that his example, in this respect at least, has not acted preventively upon his worthy successor.

"In the farrago of metrical trash which has been extracted from the modern Hexametrists of different countries, what is there worthy of example or remembrance either in the subjects or execution of their performances? Human nature is indeed so fickle in her intellectual operations, that the most absurd and impracticable speculations have ever found partisans ready to advocate their truth, and embark in the execution of them. But the career of such preposterous enterprizes can neither be prosperous nor long. To wage war against the opinions of the wise and experienced, is to challenge the fate of poor Dick Tinto, who, after all his ill-spent time and labour, found himself 'patronized by one or two of those judicious persons who make a virtue of being singular and of pitching their own opinions against those of the world in matters of taste and criticism.' Ever since the Republic of Letters was established, innovators of one kind or other have endeavoured to supplant the ster

ling writers, not only of Greece and Rome, but of every civilized country. But when ingenuity or imitation can be foisted upon true scholarship, as the representative of original genius, the taste of the public must either be sadly perverted to relish what is bad, or be already satiated with that which is good.

"There can now be little, or rather no honour conferred upon our own legitimate Muse, by an attempt to naturalize a bastard race of metre, which has been banished from the most enlightened countries of Europe. Within the last two centuries, literature, arms, and commerce have extended our vernacular tongue over a vast portion of the globe, and it is spreading still further. On this, if on no other account, it behoves the guardians of our native quarry to see that it maintains its proper excellence, and to recommend, as worthy of imitation, only such standard works of art or science, as may have received the repeated sanction of the scholar and critic. The arts are naturally imitative; they will, however, sometimes, from mistaken judgement or self-confidence, undertake to copy that which is inimitable. We cannot, under any colouring or disguise, mistake the Muse of modern hexameter, for the original Calliope of Homer or Virgil.

"In the preface to the Vision of Judgement Mr. Southey assures us that a desire to realize one of the hopes of his youth was one among the leading causes of his enterprize: to this motive, might have been superadded the conscientious discharge of an official duty, and the public expression of his loyalty and attachment to the reigning sovereign. With these, or such like considerations, the imaginary apotheosis of our late revered monarch seems to have cooperated in the plan and execution of a poem, which cannot fail of giving offence to many serious and well-meaning persons. To dive into the mysteries of heaven, and to pronounce upon the eternal condition of departed kings or others, is unquestionably a bold, if not a presumptuous undertaking. But when this is carried on under the bias of political feelings, there is greater danger of its becoming erroneous, or digressing into what some might call impiety. It must, however, be remembered, that the 'Vision of Judgement,' is neither more nor less than a poet's dream. Objections of a similar kind might apply to Dante or Milton, and to

the subjects of their great labours, and in short to all scriptural themes. It would be difficult, perhaps, to determine in what manner the scenes of the Vision of Judgement could have been unobjectionably pourtrayed. But there is no reason why a gentleman and scholar like Mr. Southey (who cannot, any more than the rest of the world, be deemed infallible) should be loaded with abuse which would have been hardly justifiable had he published a series of poems as licentious as many of recent notoriety. No wonder, therefore, that the offended pride of the Laureate turns in disgust from the counsel of such unworthy rivals. When the civilities of learning cease to be cherished, admonition will become nauseous, and criticism will lose half its usefulness. It is, however, to be hoped, that no dispassionate inquirer will be ranked, even by the Laureate, among the Duncery of the Georgian age. At all events the Writer of the present remarks had rather accept an humble place among those whom King James has styled the docile bairnes of knowledge.' The Writer's stock in trade as a critic is poor and homely; a little recollection of the rules of prosody, accent, and rhythm, imprinted upon early memory by rod or ferula; an Etonian master and grammar - remnants of scanning and proving — an ordinary pair of ears, and lungs no better than those of other folks. These scanty materials have been exercised in the examination of the 'Vision of Judgement,' and conclusions very different from those of its author have been deduced. And when the reader has perused the following eulogy by the Laureate upon the excellence of our blank verse, he will surely ask himself why that gentleman did not apply it in the composition of a poem, which, from the nature of its argument, embraced the terrible and sublime as well as the tender and pathetic. Take our blank verse for all in all, in all its gradations from the elaborate rhythm of Milton, down to its loosest structure in the early dramatists, and I believe that there is no measure comparable to it, either in our own or any other language, for might, and majesty, and flexibility, and compass.' A host of authors might be brought in support of this panegyric upon English blank verse; but as it is against the modern hexametrists that the writer has waged a somewhat long (though as he trusts a friendly) warfare, he will now draw his last shaft from the quiver of