The political verses possess more truth than poetry. The follow ing stanza, however, is worthy of selection: De l'ampio mondo abbracciò sola Roma, Il vasto impero, e sol bramò le stelle. Città superba, con desir fallace! Di Cincinnato la vita serena Seguite avessi, or non saresti oppressa, Libero, in sè tranquillo Fora, e temuto ancora, il bel paese, Ed onta, e scorno fra' due mari, e l'Alpi. Barbara gente, e tante arpie con essa; Virtù ritorna a riparar gl'errori.' Tasso, Petrarch, Milton, Rollin, &c. contribute largely to the annotations. The author informs us, in a small appendix, that his collection is destined for the young; and this intimation, though rather late, disarms our criticisin. Yet really, for the sum of half a guinea, the young are intitled to a more liberal allowance of pretty passages, even from Bulmer's press. In his enumeration of the comforts of the poor, our poet has overlooked one, which strikes us very forcibly; namely, their inability to procure the Poesie Liriche of Signor Leucippo Eginèo. Art. 35. Poems from the Arabic and Persian; with Notes, by the Though the characteristic features of the Eastern muse are prominent in these effusions, the English Translator does not venture to assert their authenticity. Being himself ignorant of both the Arabic and the Persian languages, he has been indebted to some French versions of these poems, which are said to have arrived in Europe from India; and these translations of translations are left to speak for themselves. As far as oriental imagery, glowing fancy, wild combinations, rapid transitions, and bold personifications, are evidences of originality, there is little reason to doubt that these poems are of Arabic and Persian origin: but if they should be only imitations, their excellence in this view reflects considerable credit on the European imitator. The titles of these poems, which are all short, are -Address to the Vine-To Ilbra-To the Nightingale-Praises of Abu-Said. (These from the Persian.) - The Son of Sheik Daher ou leaving Syria after the murder of his Father - Against Jezzar-On the Affliction of his Wife - On the Death of his Wife- Addressed to Rahdi. (These from the Arabic.) Muir. A, As a specimen of the translations from the Persian, we shall give the lines TO THE NIGHTINGALE. Candid with thy modesty, grateful with thy shyness, And saw them array with pearls the eye-lashes of Ilbra. I said to Ilbra, "these are my pearls ;" She smiled, and showered them into my bosom. The dove was over her, the rainbow on her cheek. The pearls of Ilbra are now my pearls. Sweet nightingale, may also thy passion prosper.' Of the versions from the Arabic, we select the poem intitled Her voice was sweeter than the sound of waters! Sweeter was the voice of my beloved. The storm descends, and the tent Autters, The tent so dark by day, so musical by star-light, Bed of bright yellow, had I left thee at Damascus, The exclusion of day-light, in Arabia, is, in some degree, the exclusion of heat. The old, the wealthy, and the women, are, for the most part, inactive by day, as we may naturally suppose from the intensity of the climate; but they amuse themselves in the evening with songs and music.' † "Bed of bright yellow, &c." I am more pleased with_this stanza, which will be despised by the generality of readers, perhaps by the generality of critics, than with any other in the poem. Had the bed of bright yellow still belonged to the mercantile citizen of Damascus, it would have witnessed, if a note may be poetical, vows of silk, to be suspended in the mosch, if his prayers for gain were granted.' "More tiresome than birds." It must be observed, that the birds which pass over, and the few which inhabit, the desert, are all of them destitute of song. The borders of the Red Sea abound with water fowl; which, of every description, are unpleasant in their note. The jackals make an incessant cry by night.' • Fed And dizzy with the fragrance of her flowering lips, God is great! repine not, O child and mourner of dust! It would not have occurred to an European poet to represent the sound of birds as tiresome; and the vows of suspended silk' bespeak an Asiatic, or a person who is well acquainted with oriental customs. Art. 36. Narrative Poems. By J. D'Israeli. 4to. pp. 65. Boards. Murray. If we are not now prepared to compliment Mr. D'Israeli with a repetition of that praise which we have rendered him on former occasions*, this difference will be found to arise, not from any change in the critic, but from a failing in the poet. Though poems be narrative, they should be poetry; and he who, sectantem levia nervi deficiunt animique, must have forgotten the distinguishing properties of his art. So palpable are Mr. D'Israeli's deficiencies in this respect, that the notice of them can yield us no victory;' and we should be blameable if we subjected our readers to a yawn,' by 'a long drawn critique' on such verses as these: • With constant hearts that never know caprice The price of pleasure-is the wish to please.' I hail the desert which Religion chose, Severe, to build the Wanderer's last sad House.' Mo.y. Tears dropt his stony eyes, and murmurs stole From his mute tongue-ah, poor distraction's child! He held with her who was, a converse wild. We leave these specimens of negligence to speak for themselves. Mr. D'Israeli's muse might truly say Non sum qualis eram, though she probably will not feel inclined to make the confession. Do Art. 37. Henry and Almeria; a Tragedy. In Five Acts. By * M. R. Vol. iv. p. 312, Vol. xxix. p. 121. N. S. &c. When When Swift shewed some of his first verses to Dryden, the old Bard observed, "Cousin Swift, you will never be a Poet." We must, in like manner, gently hint to Mr. Andrew Birrell, that his talents are not exactly adapted to tragedy. He will have the goodness to consider that a tragedy ought to be written in blank verse, which his play does not contain, since most of his lines have a foot too much, or too little; and that a tragic writer should have some knowlege of geography, which he possesses not; for he sends the son of the Viceroy of Mexico to fight the North-American Indians, whom he supposes to live in Peru, and he brings two of their chieftains, Ontario and Oswega, prisoners, on the stage, where they talk of killing a black bear, in the woods of Peru! The writer claims the merit of originality for his North-American Chief, though Gay had already introduced that character in the second part of the Beggar's Opera: but Mr B.'s management of the circumstances is truly original. Nothing resembles it, but Shakspeare's scene of a shipwreck on the coast of Bohemia. Some originality, too, might be claimed for the catastrophe of the heroine, who breaks her neck: but we have dwelt long enough on the beauties of Mr. Birrell's piece, which we shall now dismiss in vicum vendentem thus et odores; that is, to the snuff-shop. MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 38. An Account of Louisiana. Being an Abstract of Documents delivered in or transmitted to Mr. Jefferson, President of the United States of America; and by him laid before Congress, and published by their Order. Printed at Washington, at Philadelphia, &c. London, reprinted for Hatchard. 8vo. - Is. 6d. The plan of this publication is to consolidate [in a narrow compass] the information respecting the present state of Louisiana, furnished to the Executive by several Individuals among the best informed upon that subject.' The heads of information are, Boundaries; Divisions of the Province; Short, General, and Particular Descriptions of the Country; Inhabitants, their Origin and Number, Militia, and Fortifications; Indian Nations; Lands and Titles; Cultivation of Sugar; Laws; the Church; Officers of Govern. ment; Taxes; Expences and Debt; Imports, Exports, Manufactures, and Shipping employed; and a Census taken in the year 1785, with a Statement of the Population, including the Births, Marriages, Deaths, Stock and Productions of the Year 1799. Of this aggregate of information, (which is comprised in 43 octavo pages) we shall here only transcribe the remarks concerning the Boundaries and Cession. No general map of the Province of Louisiana, sufficiently correct to be depended upon, has been published, nor has any been yet promised from a private source.'- The precise boundaries of Louisiana, westwardly of the Mississippi, though very extensive, are at present involved in some obscurity. Data are equally wanting to assign with precision its northern extent. From the source of the Mississippi, it is bounded eastwardly by the middle of the channel of that river to the thirty-first degree of latitude: thence, 5 Fer. it is asserted upon very strong grounds, that according to its limits, when formerly possessed by France, it stretches to the east, as far, at least, as the river Perdigo, which runs into the bay of Mexico eastward of the river Mobille. It may be consistent with the view of these notes to remark, that Louisiana, including the Mobille settlements, was discovered and peopled by the French, whose monarchs made several grants of its trade, in particular to Mr. Crosat in 1712, and some years afterwards, with his acquiescence, to the well-known company projected by Mr. Law. This company was relinquished in the year 1731. By a secret convention on the 3d November 1762, the French government ceded so much of the province as lies beyond the Mississippi, as well as the island of New Orleans, to Spain; and, by the treaty of peace which followed in 1763, the whole territory of France and Spain eastward of the middle of the Mississippi to the Iberville, thence through the middle of that river, and the Lakes Maurepas and Ponchartrain to the sea, was ceded to Great Britain. Spain having conquered the Floridas from Great Britain during our revolutionary war, they were confirmed to her by the treaty of peace of 1783. By the treaty of St. Ildefonso, of the 1st of October 1800, his Catholic Majesty promises and engages on his part to eede back to the French Republic, sixth months after the full and entire execution of the conditions and stipulations therein contained, relative to the Duke of Parma, "the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it actually has in the hands of Spain, that it had when France possessed it, and such as it ought to be after the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and other states." This treaty was confirmed and enforced by that of Madrid, of the 21st March 1801.-From France, it passed to us by the treaty of the 30th of April last, with a reference to the above clause, as descriptive of the limits ceded.' The contents of this pamphlet are interesting to politicians, but principally to those of America. Art. 39. The Flowers of Persian Literature: containing Extracts from the most celebrated Authors in Prose and Verse, with a Translation into English: being a Companion to Sir William Jones's Persian Grammar. To which is prefixed an Essay on the Language and Literature of Persia. By S. Rousseau, Teacher of the Persian Language. 4to. pp. 222. 18s. Boards. Murray and Co. This work will supply a want that has been long the subject of complaint. The selections are interesting in their nature, are taken from standard authors, and speak highly in favour of the taste and judgment of the compiler. Our connection with the East, which grows daily more and more extensive, enhances the value of publications like the present; since the surest road to preferment in the civil department in India is said to be an acquaintance with the languages current in the country. The student, who is stimulated by his interest as well as by his own desire to attain a knowlege of the pages of Furdoosee, Hafiz, and Sadee, which this writer so highly and justly extols, will here find the attainment of his object made easy, and his path strewed with the choicest flowers. Art. Capt. B....y", Jo. |