The change he proposed and effected was this. He substituted for the old rhythmical mode of versification one, as nearly metrical as the nature of any language, which regulates the value of syllables by accent, and not by quantity, will allow. He limited the heroic verse to ten syllables, and these he divided into five equal iambic feet; for he perceived that the frequent return of the short syllable was necessary to correct that languor and ponderosity which the constant recurrence of monosyllables would otherwise occasion. He was aware however that the iambic measure, though sweet in itself, was liable to become monotonous and pall upon the ear. He therefore introduced the further refinement of breaking the lines with pauses. The natural place for the pause was at the end of the fourth syllable where the old cæsura generally fell; but he varied the situation of his pauses as he found the harmony of the verse required, or as he thought the beauty and effect of the passage would be heightened by it.'

The improvements introduced by Lord Surrey in poetic diction, structure of period, and rhyme, are deduced by the editor from a mode of comparison similar to that which he adopted on the subject of versification. In these respects, his Lordship shines with greater lustre when compared with his more immediate predecessors than when put in competition with Chaucer: the connection of poetry with sound, and the association of pedantic and affected terms with our language, being inventions subsequent to the age of the father of our poetry. He likewise discountenanced altogether,' says Dr.N., the French mode of laying an unnatural stress on final syllables, and followed the obvious and common pronunciation:'. but to us it appears that this was more the result of his metrical versification, and therefore it is irrelevantly introduced here as a new topic of commendation. The strong accentuation in question was necessary to the rythmical verse, especially on the syllable at which either the first or the second caesura rested; and with these artificial cadences this forced method of pronunciation also died away. That Surrey was the first writer of blank heroic verse in the English language is indisputable; or at least the first writer whose attempts have been preserved : but whence he borrowed the system, if not original, is not so clear. Warton suggested that the invention was probably derived from Trissino's Italia Liberata: but Dr. Nott doubtsthe possibility of this fact on chronological reasons, in which he is supported by the date of the Italian poem given in Tiraboschi; and, although he contends for the originality of Surrey, he would refer those who are inclined to dispute it rather to the early Spanish than the Italian poets.

Though we have now cursorily considered only about one half of the dissertation, we must take the opportunity of

leaving

leaving it at a point at which it departs from the more direct line of comparison, and, having established the claims of Lord Surrey as ons in its primitive sense, goes on to dissect with greater nicety the nature of his style, sentiments, and language. Before, however, we proceed to the poems, a few matters may be stated generally. It does not appear that the noble poet drew much from either French or Spanish sources, open as they must have been to him from his knowlege of the languages; and therefore it is not to be doubted that his imitation of the models of Italian composition arose from preference: a preference which was possibly strengthened by the precedent of Chaucer, who, as he was the only English poet worthy of the imitation of a man of Surrey's genius in point of taste, so is the only or nearly the only one from whom he could draw as a native spring. It may be added that the very nature of Surrey's subjects would lead him to Petrarch, as an amatory writer: but that he studied him more generally also we have every reason to believe. Of Surrey's imitators, it is difficult to define the number: but Dr. Nott closes his list of what may be termed the direct followers with Spenser; while the indirect, or those who have succeeded to the ideas, after the refinement of many crucibles, will extend to much more modern days. Indeed, as Surrey introduced among us a species of versification which has continued in use with very little variation ever since, our subsequent poets may still be deemed the heirs of his poetical bequests. The early popularity of the poet is a test of the improvement which he effected in public taste; his writings, exclusive of selections of them, having been reprinted nine times within the first thirty years from their appearance: but they have never been invested with a degree of splendor worthy of their author before the present occasion. In this edition, after the example of Mr. Ellis, and indeed according to the dictate of good sense, the modern orthography has been adopted throughout; and it little concerns us whether or not this shall be pleasing to antiquaries, who, if attached to old spelling, are attached to ignorance as such: since, from the constant variations in it, we may say that it was evidently subject to no other rule than the uncertain guidance of sound.

The extant poems of Lord Surrey consist, as our readers may know, 1st, of amatory compositions written in various measures, and under opposite feelings of the mind, as hope or despair, love or indignation for unrequited attachment, prevailed on the several occasions. They are addressed or relate to one and the same person throughout; that is, they do so apparently, and bear an internal evidence of such a fact: but

the

the name of the fair Geraldine occurs, as far as we recollect, in one place only. 2dly, paraphrases of portions of the book of Ecclesiastes, and some of the Psalms, written for the most. part in the cumbrous verses of fourteen syllables to the line, alternately with the verse of twelve, and with the mark of cadence expressed after the eighth syllable in the longer and after the sixth in the shorter line. 3dly, a translation of the second and fourth books of Virgil's Æneid in the iambic decasyllable, without rhyme; and presumed, as we have already said, to be the first specimen of this metre in the English language. A few other poems are inserted, — such as the Satire against the Citizens of London, written on the occasion of the poet's confinement for riot,—that are not assignable any of these heads.

to

It is by no means our purpose at the present day to offer criticisms on a poet of the date of Surrey. A few loose and scattered remarks would ill supply that knowlege which is necessary to appreciate his beauties, and to discover his imperfections; a knowlege not attainable but by reference to the taste of the age in which he lived, and the literary character of the times which preceded and followed him, not in our country only, but more especially in those which had emerged into clearer light from the darkness of the middle ages. For a great mass of information, although somewhat diffuse, on this head, we have pleasure in recommending the dissertation of Dr. Nott, and his notes on the poetry. As so much, however, has been said about the poet himself, a few extracts from the first class of his writings, which far exceed the others in power of expression, will probably be a grateful relief to our readers.

Our first citation shall be a poem in which he reproves those who would compare their mistresses to Geraldine, asserting that Nature herself declared his mistress to be the most perfect of her works.

• Give place, ye lovers, here before

That spent your boasts and brags in vain;

My lady's beauty passeth more

The best of yours, I dare well say'n,

Than doth the sun the candle light,

Or brightest day the darkest night.

And thereto hath a troth as just
As had Penelope the fair;
For what she saith ye may it trust,
As it by writing sealed were:

And virtues hath she many mo'
Than I with pen have skill to show.
REV. JUNE, 1817.

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' I could

I could rehearse, if that I would,

The whole effect of Nature's plaint,
When she had lost the perfect mould,

The like to whom she could not paint:
With wringing hands, how she did cry,
And what she said, I know it, I.

I know she swore with raging mind,
Her kingdom only set apart,
There was no loss by law of kind

That could have gone so near her heart;

And this was chiefly all her pain;

"She could not make the like again."

Sith Nature thus gave her the praise,
To be the chiefest work she wrought;
In faith, methink! some better ways

On your behalf might well be sought,
Than to compare, as ye have done,
To match the candle with the sun.'

Warton speaks of this composition as possessing almost the ease of Waller;-and, though the loss of the mould by nature has by too frequent use become rather a trite figure in our poetry, this can be no objection to Surrey. Dr. Nott happily quotes from Ariosto, Orl. Fur. Canto X.

"Natura il fece, e por ruppe la stampa ;"

a line translated almost literally by Lord Byron in his Monody on Sheridan.

The following is in Surrey's happiest manner:

The soote✶ season that bud and bloom forth brings,
With green hath clad the hill, and eke the vale.
The nightingale with feathers new she sings;
The turtle to her make † hath told her tale.
Summer is come, for every spray now springs.
The hart hath hung his old head on the pale;
The buck in brake his winter coat he flings;
The fishes flete with new repaired scale;
The adder all her slough away she flings;
The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale;
The busy bee her honey now she mings;

Winter is worn that was the flower's bale. §
And thus I see among these pleasant things
Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs!'

The editor thinks that he discovers that the general idea of the foregoing is borrowed from Petrarch, Sonn. 269.; and if so, as he justly observes, Surrey far surpasses his original. The

• * Soft. Mate, companion. Mingles. Destruction.'

same

same may be said of the ensuing lines, confessedly from that

poet:

'Calm is the sea, the waves work less and less :
So am not I, whom love, alas! doth wring,
Bringing before my face the great increase
Of my desires, whereat I weep and sing,
In joy and wo, as in a doubtful ease.

For my sweet thoughts sometime do pleasure bring;
But by and by, the cause of my disease

Gives me a pang, that inwardly doth sting,

When that I think what grief it is again,

To live and lack the thing should rid my pain.'

We select the subsequent pleasing little poem as appearing to convey a good idea of the contemplative and melancholy cast of Surrey's mind. If the cadence be made sufficiently strong in the middle of the line, each verse will read as two, and have the effect of ballad-metre.

Laid in my quiet bed," in study as I were,

I saw within my troubled head" a heap of thoughts appear.
And every thought did shew" so lively in mine eyes,

That now I sigh'd, and then I smil'd," as cause of thought did rise.
I saw the little boy" in thought how oft that he

Did wish of God to scape the rod," a tall young man to be.
The young man eke that feels" his bones with pains opprest,
How he would be a rich old man," to live and lie at rest.
The rich old man that sees" his end draw on so sore,
How he would be a boy again," to live so much the more.
Whereat full oft I smil'd," to see how all these three,
From boy to man, from man to boy," would chop and change degree.
And musing thus I think," the case is very strange,

That man from wealth, to live in woe," doth ever seek to change.
Thus thoughtless as I lay," I saw my wither'd skin,

How it doth shew my dented chews," the flesh was worn so thin. And eke my toothless chaps," the gates of my right way

That opes and shuts as I do speak," do thus unto me say,

Thy white and hoarish hairs," the messengers of age, That shew, like lines of true belief," that this life doth assuage; Bid thee lay hand, and feel" them hanging on thy chin; The which do write two ages past," the third now coming in. Hang up therefore the bit" of thy young wanton time: And thou that therein beaten art," the happiest life define.” Whereat I sigh'd, and said," "Farewell! my wonted joy; Truss up thy pack, and trudge from me" to every little boy; And tell them thus from me;" their time most happy is, If, to their time, they reason had,"" to know the truth of this."

In addition to the poems confessedly from the pen of Lord Surrey, such others are introduced as have been attributed to him on respectable authority, but have hitherto been pre

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served