remarkable for industry, genius, and acquirements, ancient fathers—now diving into the human heart, Mr Moore's career has been one of high honour and and now skimming the fields of fancy—the wit or success. No poet has been more universally read, imagination of Moore (for they are compounded toor more courted in society by individuals distin- gether) is a true Ariel, a creature of the elements, guished for rank, literature, or public service. His that is ever buoyant and full of life and spirit. His political friends, when in office, rewarded him with very satires 'give delight, and hurt not.' They are a pension of £300 per annum, and as his writings never coarse, and always witty. When stung by an have been profitable as well as popular, his latter act of oppression or intolerance, he can be bitter or days will thus be spent in comfort, without the sarcastic enough; but some lively thought or sporanxieties of protracted authorship. He resides in a tive image soon crosses his path, and he instantly cottage in Wiltshire, preferring a country retire- follows it into the open and genial region where he ment to those gay and brilliant circles which he loves most to indulge. He never dips his pen in occasionally enriches with his wit and genius; and malignity. For an author who has written so much he has recently given to the world a complete collec- as Mr Moore has done on the subject of love and tion of his poetical works in ten volumes, to which the gay delights of good fellowship, it was scarce

possible to be always natural and original. Some of his lyrics and occasional poems, accordingly, present far-fetched metaphors and conceits, with which they often conclude, like the final flourish or pirouette of a stage-dancer. He has pretty well exhausted the vocabulary of rosy lips and sparkling

eyes, forgetting that true passion is ever direct and La

simple-ever concentrated and intense, whether bright or melancholy. This defect, however, pervades only part of his songs, and those mostly written in his youth. The 'Irish Melodies' are full of true feeling and delicacy. By universal consent, and by the sure test of memory, these national strains are the most popular and the most likely to be in mortal of all Moore's works. They are musical almost be yond parallel in words-graceful in thought and sentiment—often tender, pathetic, and heroic—and they blend poetical and romantic feelings with the objects and sympathies of common life in language chastened and refined, yet apparently so simple that every trace of art has disappeared. The most familiar expressions become, in his hands, instruments of power and melody. The songs are read and remembered by all. They are equally the delight of the cottage and the saloon, and, in the poet's own country, are sung with an enthusiasm that will long be felt in the hour of festivity, as well as in periods

of suffering and solemnity, by that imaginative and Moore's Cottage, near Devizes.

warm-hearted people. are prefixed some interesting literary and personal details. When time shall have destroyed the attractive charm of Moore's personal qualities, and removed his works to a distance, to be judged of by In 1817 Mr Murray published a small poetical their fruit alone, the want most deeply felt will be volume under the eccentric title of Prospectus and that of simplicity and genuine passion. He has Specimen of an intended National Work, by William worked little in the durable and permanent mate and Robert Whistlecraft, of Stowmarket in Suffolk, rials of poetry, but has spent his prime in enrich- | Harness and Collar-Mäkers. Intended to comprise the ing the stately structure with exquisite ornaments, most Interesting Particulars relating to King Arthur foliage, flowers, and gems. He has preferred the and his Round Table. The world was surprised to myrtle to the olive or the oak. His longer poems find, under this odd disguise, a happy imitation of want human interest. Tenderness and pathos he the Pulci and Casti school of the Italian poets. The undoubtedly possesses; but they are fleeting and eva-brothers Whistlecraft formed, it was quickly seen, nescent-not embodied in his verse in any tale of but the mask of some elegant and scholarly wit bemelancholy grandeur or strain of affecting morality longing to the higher circles of society, who had or sentiment. He often throws into his gay and chosen to amuse himself in comic verse, without infestive verses, and his fanciful descriptions, touches curring the responsibilities of declared authorship: of pensive and mournful reflection, which strike by To two cantos published in the above year, a third their truth and beauty, and by the force of contrast. and fourth were soon after added. The poem opens Indeed, one effect of the genius of Moore has been with a feast held by King Arthur at Carlisle amidst to elevate the feelings and occurrences of ordinary his knights, who are thus introduced :life into poetry, rather than dealing with the lofty abstract elements of the art. His wit answers to the

They looked a manly generous generation; definition of Pope : it is

Beards, shoulders, eyebrows, broad, and square, and

thick, Nature to advantage dressed,

Their accents firm and loud in conversation, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.

Their eyes and gestures eager, sharp, and quick, Its combinations are, however, wonderful. Quick, Showed them prepared, on proper provocation, subtle, and varied, ever suggesting new thoughts or To give the lie, pull noses, stab and kick; images, or unexpected turns of expression — now And for that very reason it is said drawing resources from classical literature or the They were so very courteous and well-bred.

JOHN HOOKHAM FRERE.

In a valley near Carlisle lived a race of giants; Oft that wild untutored race would draw, and this place is finely described :

Led by the solemn sound and sacred light, Huge mountains of immeasurable height

Beyond the bank, beneath a lonely shaw, Encompassed all the level valley round

To listen all the livelong summer night, With mighty slabs of rock, that sloped upright,

Till deep, serene, and reverential awe

Environed them with silent calm delight,
An insurmountable and enormous mound.
The very river vanished out of sight,

Contemplating the minster's midnight gleam,
Absorbed in secret channels under ground;

Reflected from the clear and glassy stream. That vale was so sequestered and secluded,

But chiefly, when the shadowy moon had shed All search for ages past it had eluded.

O'er woods and waters her mysterious hue, A rock was in the centre, like a cone,

Their passive hearts and vacant fancies fed Abruptly rising from a miry pool,

With thoughts and aspirations strange and new, Where they beheld a pile of massy stone,

Till their brute souls with inward working bred Which masons of the rude primeval school

Dark hints that in the depths of instinct grew Had reared by help of giant hands alone,

Subjective-not from Locke's associations, With rocky fragments unreduced by rule :

Nor David Hartley's doctrine of vibrations. Irregular, like nature more than art,

Each was ashamed to mention to the others Huge, rugged, and compact in every part.

One half of all the feelings that he felt, A wild tumultuous torrent raged around,

Yet thus far each would venture - Listen, brothers, Of fragments tumbling from the mountain's height;

It seems as if one heard Heaven's thunders melt The whistling clouds of dust, the deafening sound,

In music!
The hurried motion that amazed the sight,
The constant quaking of the solid ground,

Unfortunately, this happy state of things is broken Environed them with phantoms of affright;

up by the introduction of a ring of bells into the Yet with heroic hearts they held right on,

abbey, a kind of music to which the giants had an Till the last point of their ascent was won.

insurmountable aversion :The giants having attacked and carried off some The solemn mountains that surrounded ladies on their journey to court, the knights deem it The silent valley where the convent lay, their duty to set out in pursuit; and in due time With tintinnabular uproar were astounded they overcome these grim personages, and relieve When the first peal burst forth at break of day: the captives from the castle in which they had been Feeling their granite ears severely wounded, immured:

They scarce knew what to think or what to say ; The ladies ?-They were tolerably well,

And (though large mountains commonly conceal At least as well as could have been expected:

Their sentiments, dissembling what they feel, Many details I must forbear to tell ;

Yet) Cader-Gibbrish from his cloudy throne Their toilet had been very much neglected;

To huge Loblommon gave an intimation But by supreme good luck it so befell,

Of this strange rumour, with an awful tone, That when the castle's capture was effected,

Thundering his deep surprise and indignation; When those vile cannibals were overpowered,

The lesser hills, in language of their own, Only two fat duennas were devoured.

Discussed the topic by reverberation; This closes the second canto. The third opens in Discoursing with their echoes all day long, the following playful strain :

Their only conversation was, 'ding-dong.' I've a proposal here from Mr Murray.

These giant mountains inwardly were moved, He offers handsomely-the money down;

But never made an outward change of place; My dear, you might recover from your flurry,

Not so the mountain giants-(as behoved In a nice airy lodging out of town,

A more alert and locomotive race); At Croydon, Epsom, anywhere in Surrey ;

Hearing a clatter which they disapproved, If every stanza brings us in a crown,

They ran straight forward to besiege the place, I think that I might venture to bespeak

With a discordant universal yell, A bedroom and front parlour for next week.

Like house-dogs howling at a dinner-bell. Tell me, my dear Thalia, what you think;

This is evidently meant as a good-humoured satire Your nerves have undergone a sudden shock; against violent personifications in poetry. MeanYour poor dear spirits have begun to sink;

while, a monk, Brother John by name, who had On Banstead Downs you'd muster a new stock, opposed the introduction of the bells, has gone in a And I'd be sure to keep away from drink,

fit of disgust with his brethren to amuse himself And always go to bed by twelve o'clock.

with the rod at a neighbouring stream. Here We'll travel down there in the morning stages;

occurs another beautiful descriptive passage :-. Our verses shall go down to distant ages.

A mighty current, unconfined and free, And here in town we'll breakfast on hot rolls,

Ran wheeling round beneath the mountain's shade, And you shall have a better shawl to wear;

Battering its wave-worn base ; but you might see These pantaloons of mine are chafed in holes ; On the near margin many a watery glade, By Monday next I'll compass a new pair:

Becalmed beneath some little island's lee, Come now, fling up the cinders, fetch the coals, All tranquil and transparent, close embayed; And take away the things you hung to air;

Reflecting in the deep serene and even Set out the tea-things, and bid Phoebe bring

Each flower and herb, and every cloud of heaven; The kettle up. Arms and the Monks I sing.

The painted kingfisher, the branch above her, Near the valley of the giants was an abbey, con- Stand in the steadfast mirror fixed and true ; taining fifty friars, ‘fat and good,' who keep for a Anon the fitful breezes brood and hover, long time on good terms with their neighbours. Be. Freshening the surface with a rougher hue ; ing fond of music, the giants would sometimes ap- Spreading, withdrawing, pausing, passing over, proach the sacred pile, attracted by the sweet sounds Again returning to retire anew : that issued from it; and here occurs a beautiful So rest and motion in a narrow range, piece of description :

Feasted the sight with joyous interchange.

Brother John, placed here by mere chance, is ap- Davy, in her diary, quoted by Mr Lockhart, that prised of the approach of the giants in time to run Sir Walter on this occasion repeated a pretty long home and give the alarm. Amidst the preparations passage from his version of one of the romances of for defence, to which he exhorts his brethren, the the Cid (published in the appendix to Southey's abbot dies, and John is elected to succeed him. A quarto), and seemed to enjoy a spirited charge of stout resistance is made by the monks, whom their the knights therein described as much as he could new superior takes care to feed well by way of have done in his best days, placing his walkingkeeping them in heart, and the giants at length stick in rest like a lance, "to suit the action to the withdraw from the scene of action

word.”! It will not, we hope, be deemed improper

that we redeem from comparative obscurity a piece And now the gates are opened, and the throng Forth issuing, the deserted camp survey;

of poetry so much admired by Scott:Here Murdomack, and Mangonel the strong,

The gates were then thrown open, And Gorbuduc were lodged,' and 'here,' they say,

and forth at once they rushed, * This pig-stye to Poldavy did belong ;

The outposts of the Moorish hosts Here Bundleback, and here Phigander lay.'

back to the camp were pushed; They view the deep indentures, broad and round,

The camp was all in tumult, Which mark their postures squatting on the ground.

and there was such a thunder Then to the traces of gigantic feet,

Of cymbals and of drums, Huge, wide apart, with half a dozen toes;

as if earth would cleare in sunder. They track them on, till they converge and meet

There you might see the Moors (An earnest and assurance of repose)

arining themselves in haste, Close at the ford; the cause of this retreat

And the two main battles They all conjecture, hut no creature knows;

how they were forming fast; It was ascribed to causes multifarious,

Horsemen and footmen mixt, To saints, as Jerom, George, and Januarius,

a countless troop and vast.

The Moors are moring forward, To their own pious founder's intercession,

the battle soon must join, To Ave-Maries, and our Lady's psalter ;

‘My men stand here in order, To news that Friar John was in possession,

ranged upon a line! To new wax candles placed upon the altar,

Let not a man move from his rank To their own prudence, valour, and discretion;

before I give the sign.' To relics, rosaries, and holy water;

Pero Bermuez heard the word, To beads and psalms, and feats of arms—in short,

but he could not refrain, There was no end of their accounting for't.

He held the banner in his hand, It finally appears that the pagans have retired in

he gave his horse the rein ; order to make the attack upon the ladies, which had

You see yon foremost squadron there, formerly been described-no bad burlesque of the

the thickest of the foes, endless episodes of the Italian romantic poets.

Noble Cid, God be your aid, It was soon discovered that the author of this

for there your banner goes ! clever jeu d'esprit was the Right Honourable John

Let him that serves and honours it, Hookham Frere, a person of high political conse

show the duty that he owes,' quence, who had been employed a few years before

Earnestly the Cid called out, by the British government to take charge of diplo

• For heaven's sake be still!' matic transactions in Spain in connexion with the

Bermuez cried, 'I cannot hold,' army under General Sir John Moore. The Whistle

so eager was his will. craft poetry was carried no further; but the peculiar

He spurred his horse, and drove him on stanza (the ottava rima of Italy), and the sarcastic

amid the Moorish rout: pleasantry, formed the immediate exemplar which

They strove to win the banner, guided Byron when he wrote his Beppo and Don

and compassed him about. Juan; and one couplet

Had not his armour been so true,

he had lost either life or limb; Adown thy slope, romantic Ashbourn, glides

The Cid called out again, The Derby dilly, carrying six insides

· For heaven's sake succour him!'

Their shields before their breasts, became at a subsequent period the basis of an allu

forth at once they go, sion almost historical in importance, with reference

Their lances in the rest to a small party in the House of Commons. Thus

levelled fair and low; the national poem has actually attained a place of Their banners and their crests some consequence in our modern literature. It is

waving in a row, only to be regretted that the poet, captivated by in Their heads all stooping down dolence or the elegances of a luxurious taste, has

towards the saddle bow. given no further specimen of his talents to the The Cid was in the midst, world.

his shout was heard afar, For many years Mr Frere has resided in Malta.

"I am Rui Diaz, In the Life of Sir Walter Scott, there are some par

the champion of Bivar; ticulars respecting the meeting of the declining Strike amongst them, gentlemen, novelist with his friend, the author of Whistlecraft.

for sweet inercies' sake!' We there learn from Scott, that the remarkable There where Bermuez fought war song upon the victory at Brunnenburg, which

amidst the foe they brake; appears in Mr Ellis's Specimens of Ancient English Three hundred bannered knights, Poetry, and might pass in a court of critics as a

it was a gallant show; genuine composition of the fourteenth century, was Three hundred Moors they killed, written by Mr Frere while an Eton schoolboy, as an

a man at every blow: illustration on one side of the celebrated Rowley When they wheeled and turned, controversy. We are also informed by Mrs John

as many more lay slain,

You might see them raise their lances, At the silence of twilight's contemplative hour,
and level them again.

I have mused in a sorrowful mood,
There you might see the breastplates,

On the wind-shaken weeds that embosom the bower
how they were cleft in twain, Where the home of my forefathers stood.
And many a Moorish shield

All ruined and wild is their roofless abode,
lie scattered on the plain.

And lonely the dark raven's sheltering tree;
The pennons that were white

And travelled by few is the grass-covered road, marked with a crimson stain, Where the hunter of deer and the warrior trode The horses running wild

To his hills that encircle the sea. whose riders had been slain.

A favourite rock or crag, the scene of his musings,

is pointed out in the Island of Mull as the ‘Poet's THOMAS CAMPBELL.

Seat.' While living in the Highlands, Mr Campbell

wrote his poem entitled Love and Madness (an elegy The most purely correct and classical poet of this on the unfortunate Miss Broderick), and several period, possessing also true lyrical fire and grandeur, other poems now neglected by their author. The is Thomas CAMPBELL, born in the city of Glasgow local celebrity arising from these early fruits of his July 27, 1777. Mr Campbell's father had been an poetical genius, induced Mr Campbell to lay aside extensive merchant, but was in advanced years the study of the law, which he seriously contem(sixty-seven) at the time of the poet's birth. The plated, and he repaired to Edinburgh. "There he

became acquainted with James Grahame, author of
the .Sabbath,' with Professor Dugald Stewart, Jef-
frey, Brougham, &c. In April 1799 he published
the Pleasures of Hope, dedicated to Dr Anderson,
the steady and generous friend of literature. The
volume went through four editions in a twelvemonth.
At the same age Pope had published his · Essay on
Criticism,' also a marvellous work for a youth ; but
the production of Campbell is more essentially poeti-
cal, and not less correct or harmonious in its num-
bers. It captivated all readers by its varying and
exquisite melody, its polished diction, and the vein
of generous and lofty sentiment which seemed to
embalm and sanctify the entire poem. The touch-
ing and beautiful episodes with which it abounds
constituted also a source of deep interest; and in
picturing the horrors of war, and the infamous par-
tition of Poland, the poet kindled up into a strain of
noble indignant zeal and prophet-like inspiration.
Oh, bloodiest picture in the book of time!
Sarmatia fell, unwept, without a crime;
Found not a generous friend, a pitying foe,
Strength in her arms, nor mercy in her wo!
Dropped from her nerveless grasp the shattered spear,
Closed her bright eye, and curbed her high career :
Hope for a season bade the world fareweli,
And freedom shrieked as Kosciusko fell !
The sun went down, nor ceased the carnage there;
Tumultuous murder shook the midnight air,
On Prague's proud arch the fires of ruin glow,
His blood-dyed waters murmuring far below.
The storm prevails, the rampart yields a way,

Bursts the wild' cry of horror and dismay !
latter was the Benjamin of the family, the youngest Hark! as the smouldering piles with thunder fall,
of ten children, and was educated with great care. A thousand shrieks for hopeless mercy call !
At the age of thirteen he was placed at the univer- Earth shook, red meteors flashed along the sky,
sity of Glasgow, where he remained six years. In And conscious nature shuddered at the cry!
the first session of his college life he gained a bur- These energetic apostrophes are contrasted with
sary for his proficiency in Latin. He afterwards sketches of domestic tenderness and beauty, finished
received a prize for the best translation of the Clouds with the most perfect taste in picturesque delinea-
of Aristophanes, and in awarding it, Professor Young tion, and with highly musical expression. Traces
pronounced the poet's translation to be the best of juvenility may no doubt be found in the ‘Plea-
exercise which had ever been given in by any student sures of Hope'—a want of connection between the
of the university. His knowledge of Greek litera- different parts of the poem, some florid lines and im-
ture was further extended by several months' close perfect metaphors; but such a series of beautiful
study in Germany under Professor Heyne; but this and dazzling pictures, so pure and elevated a tone
was not till the poet's twenty-second year. On of moral feeling, and such terse, vigorous, and
leaving the university, Campbell resided a twelve- polished versification, were never perhaps before
month in Argyleshire. His father was the youngest found united in a poem written at the age of twenty-
son of a Highland laird-Campbell of Kernan—and one. Shortly after its publication Mr Campbell
the wild magnificent scenery of the West Highlands visited the continent. He went to Bavaria, then the
was thus associated in his imagination with recol. seat of war, and from the monastery of St Jacob
lections of his feudal ancestors. His poem on visit- witnessed the battle of Hohenlinden, in which (De-
ing a scene in Argyleshire will occur to our readers : cember 3, 1800) the French under Moreau gained a
it opens as follows:

victory over the Austrians. In a letter written at

F. Campbell

66

this time, he says, “The sight of Ingoldstat in ruins, Mr Campbell wrote several papers for the Edinburgh and Hohenlinden covered with fire, seven miles in Encyclopædia (of which Telford had some share), circumference, were spectacles never to be forgotten.' including poetical biographies, an account of the He has made the memory of Hohenlinden immortal, drama, and an elaborate historical notice of Great for his stanzas on that conflict form one of the Britain. He also compiled Annals of Great Brigrandest battle-pieces that ever was drawn. In atain, from the Accession of George III, to the Peace few verses, flowing like a choral melody, the poet of Amiens, in three volumes. Such compilations can brings before us the silent midnight scene of engage- only be considered in the light of mental drudgery; ment wrapt in the snows of winter, the sudden arm- but Campbell, like Goldsmith, could impart grace ing for the battle, the press and shout of charging and interest to task-work. In 1806, through the squadrons, the flashing of artillery, and the too cer influence of Mr Fox, the government granted a tain and dreadful death which falls upon the crowded pension to the poet-a well-merited tribute to the ranks of the combatants.

author of those national strains, Ye Mariners of Few, few shall part where many meet!

England, and the Battle of the Baltic. In 1809 was The snow shall be their winding-sheet; published his second great poem, Gertrude of WyomAnd every turf beneath their feet

ing, a Pennsylvanian Tale. The subsequent literary Shall be a soldier's sepulchre !

labours of Mr Campbell have only, as regards his The poet intended to pass into Italy-a pilgrim at poetical fame, been subordinate efforts. The best of the shrine of classic genius; but owing to the exist them were contributed to the New Monthly Magaing hostilities, he could not proceed, and was stopped zine, which he edited for ten years (from 1820 to both on his way to Vienna, and by the route of the 1830); and one of these minor poems, the Last Man, Tyrol. He returned to Hamburg in 1801, and re- may be ranked among his greatest conceptions: it is sided there some weeks, composing his Exile of Erin, like a sketch by Michael Angelo or Rembrandt. and Ye Mariners of England. The former was sug- Previous to this time the poet had visited Paris in gested by an incident like that which befell Smollett company with Mrs Siddons and John Kemble, and at Boulogne, namely, meeting with a party of exiles enjoyed the sculptured forms and other works of art who retained a strong love of their native country, in the Louvre with such intensity, that they seemed and a mournful remembrance of its wrongs and to give his mind a new sense of the harmony of art sufferings. So jealous was the British government

-a new visual power of enjoying beauty. Every of that day, that the poet was suspected of being

a step of approach,' he says, “to the presence of the spy; and on his arrival in Edinburgh, was subjected Apollo Belvidere, added to my sensations, and all to an examination by the authorities! He lived in recollections of his name in classic poetry swarmed Edinburgh, enjoying its literary society for upwards on my mind as spontaneously as the associations of a year, and there wrote his Lochiel's Warning. that are conjured up by the sweetest music’ In

1818 he again visited Germany, and on his return the following year, he published his Specimens of the British Poets, with biographical and critical notices, in seven volumes.* The justness and beauty of his critical dissertations have been universally admitted; some of them are perfect models of chaste yet animated criticism. In 1820 Mr Campbell delivered a course of lectures on poetry at the Surrey institution; in 1824 he published Theodric, and other Poems; and, though busy in establishing the London university, he was, in 1827, honoured with the graceful compliment of being elected lord rector of the uni. versity of his native city. This distinction was

poets' legacies, the sums were nearly doubled in consequence of the testator's effects far exceeding what he believed to be their value. Thomas Telford (1755 - 1834) was himself a rhymester in his youth. He was born on poetic ground, amidst the scenes of old Scottish song, green hills, and the other adjuncts of a landscape of great sylvan and pastoral beauty, Eskdale, his native district (where he lived till nearly twenty, first as a shepherd, and afterwards as a stone-mason), was also the birthplace of Armstrong and Mickle. Telford wrote a poem descriptive of this classic dale, but it is only a foeble paraphrase of Goldsmith. He addressed an epistle to Burns, part of which is published by Currie. These boyish studies

and predilections contrast strangely with the severer pursuits Alison Square, Edinburgh.*

of his after years as a mathematician and engineer. In his This poem being read in manuscript to Sir Walter stones (in which he excelled), we can fancy him cheering his

original occupation of a stone-mason, cutting names on tombScott, he requested a perusal of it himself

, and then solitary labours with visions of literary eminence, rivalling the repeated the whole from memory—a striking in- fame of Milton or Shakspeare; but it is difficult to conceive stance of the great minstrel's powers of recollection. him at the same time dreaming of works like the Menai In 1803 Mr Campbell repaired to London, and de- Bridge or the Pont-cy-sylte aqueduct in Wales. We should as voted himself to literature as a profession. He re soon expect to see the .gnarled and unwedgeable oak' spring sided for some time in the house of his friend, Mr from a graft on a myrtle. He had, however, received an early Telford, the celebrated engineer. Telford continued architectural or engineering bias by poring over the plates and his regard for the poet throughout a long life, and descriptions in Rollin's history, which he read by his mother's remembered him in his will by a legacy of £500.- fireside, or in the open air while herding sheep. Telford was a

liberal

minded and benevolent man. * The Pleasures of Hope were written in this square.

* A second edition of this work was published in 1841, in one + A similar amount was bequeathed to Mr Southey, and, large volume, edited, with care and taste, by Mr Peter Carr with a good luck which one would wish to see always attend ningham.