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thorns of severe invective unmixed with the flowers of pure poetry. The characters are delineated in strong and lively colouring, and their discriminations are touched with the masterly traces of genuine humour. The versification is equally energetic and elegant, and the fabric of the couplets approaches to the modern standard. It is no inconsiderable proof of a genius predominating over the general taste of an age, when every preacher was a punster, to have written verses, where laughter was to be raised, and the reader to be entertained with sallies of pleasantry, without quibbles and conceits. His chief fault is obscurity, arising from a remote phraseology, constrained combinations, unfamiliar allusions, elliptical apostrophes, and abruptness of expression. Perhaps some will think that his manner betrays too much of the laborious exactness and pedantic anxiety of the scholar and the student. Ariosto in Italian, and Regnier in French, were now almost the only modern writers of satire; and I believe there had been an English translation of Ariosto's Satires. But Hall's acknowledged patterns are Juvenal and Persius, not without some touches of the urbanity of Horace.* His parodies of these poets, or

• The First Satire of the Third Book strikingly resembles the

rather his adaptations of ancient to modern manners, a mode of imitation not unhappily practised by Oldham, Rochester, and Pope, discover great facility and dexterity of invention. The moral gravity and the censorial declamation of Juvenal, he frequently enlivens with a train of more refined reflection, or adorns with a novelty and variety of images." *

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Mr. Campbell is not deficient in a just estimation of the talents of this eminent divine and satirist: "in many instances," says he, Hall redeems the antiquity of his allusions, by their ingenious adaptation to modern manners: and this is but a small part of his praise; for in the point, and volubility, and vigour of Hall's numbers, we might frequently imagine ourselves perusing Dryden." See Specimens, &c. vol. ii, pp. 256--261.

In the third Satire of his fifth Book, Hall exhibits the true design of this kind of poetry; and, as his editor, Mr. Pratt, justly remarks, "laments at the same time, the untempered genius of his age; which, while it encouraged the graces and subdued imagination of classic

Sixth Satire of Juvenal.

It exhibits a forcible contrast of the temperance and simplicity of former ages, with the luxury and effeminacy of the Poet's own times.

* Vide Chalmer's English Poets, vol. v, p. 226.

elegance, could not brook its bolder and more nervous efforts." It begins thus:

"The Satyre should be like the porcupine,

That shoots sharp quilles out in each angry line,
And wounds the blushing cheeke and fiery eye,
Of him that heares and readeth guiltily.
Ye antique Satyres, how I blesse your daies,
That brook'd your bolder still, their own dispraise;
And well-neare wish, yet joy my wish is vaine,
I had beene then, or they were now againe !
For now our eares beene of more brittle mold,
Than those dull earthen eares that were of old:
Sith theirs, like anvilles, bore the hammer's head,
Our glasse can never touch unshivered."

His "last Book and Satire is a humorous and ironical recantation of the former satires; as the author here pretends there can be no just ground for one in such times as his own. In one part he glances at the sorry poets of his time, and makes some terse allusions to poets of a former day. Afterwards, when enumerating some of the festive tales of our ancestors, he gives a close and spirited imitation from Juvenal: and closes the whole by a few remarks on the prevailing dialect of poetry, with a vigour of fancy scarcely rivalled by the finest poets of his time."* following lines form part of it:

"Was never age I weene so pure as this!

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Seeke over all the world, and tell mee where
Thou find'st a proud man, or a flatterer;

* Sat. 1, b. vi. Note,

The

A theefe, a drunkard, or a parricide,
A lechour, lyer, or what vice beside.
Marchants are no whit covetous of late,
Nor make no mart of time, gaine of deceit.
Patrons are honest now, ore they of old;
Can now no benefice be boughte or sold."

The Satires of Hall exhibit a very minute and curious picture of the literature and manners, the follies and vices of his times; they amply prove the wit, the sagacity, and the elegance of his Muse. Poetry was the occupation merely of his youth; the vigour and decline of his days were employed in the composition of professional works, calculated by their piety, eloquence, and originality, to promote, in the most powerful manner, the best interests of true religion and morality.*

Though he more particularly exercised his poetical genius in his youthful years, yet at one period he intended to make a poetical version of the Book of Psalms, and signified his intention to his relative, the Rev. Samuel Burton, archdeacon of Gloucester, and to his friend the Rev. Hugh Cholmley, requesting their judgment of his design, and intimating his readiness to proceed in the work, provided he met with due encouragement from those in authority. He

+ Vide Dr. Drake's Shakspeare and his Times, vol. i, part 2, chap. iv, p. 627. Mr. Pope said high things of Hall's Satires. See Granger's Biog. Hist. of England, vol. ii, p. 157, 8vo.

says that he had been solicited by some reverend friends to undertake this task, as well according with the former exercises of his youth and his profession. However, he only proceeded as far as the ten first Psalms: but this specimen shews that he was very capable of the undertaking.*

The prose works of Bishop Hall are written in such a style of eloquence, as justly entitles him to a place amongst our best authors; but the distance of nearly two centuries since he wrote has necessarily occasioned some of his phrases to appear rather obsolete.

A judicious writer of his own times, Sir Henry Wotton, in his letter to Dr. Collins, distinguished him by the name of the English Seneca, for the pureness, plainness, and fulness of his style. He might have proceeded further, and might have denominated him the English Chrysostom. Fuller, in his "Worthies," describes him as "not unhappy at Controversies, more happy at Comments, very good in his Characters, better in his Sermons, best of all in his Meditations." ↑

The practical works of Bishop Hall have been always held in great esteem by the Christian world: many of his works are not only eminently

* See his Works, vol. x, p. 259; vii, p. 157.
+ Worthies of England, vol. i, p. 566, 4to. ed. 1811.

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