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nament is like a promife unfulfilled. reprefentation, no doubt, the mufic might become refponsible for the pleasure that was wanting in the fenfe. But the rationality of an English audience has not yet taught them to tolerate an Alexander, a Celar, or a Cato, making their exit in miling a ditty. We may be fallowed to fay of thefe airs in general, what Metastafio himfelf has faid of the Bravura in partilar. In thefe airs there is no attention paid to characters. situation, passion, sense, or reafon : without regard to confiftency, they are folely employed to exhibit their own peculiar beauty, and, with the aid of tertain trillings, to rival the nightingale, or violin, and excite that species of pleafare arifing from wonder alone."-[Lettere fopra la Mufica.]

His fimiles, which generally compofe the air, are, like the piece which they adorn (and where they are rather ap pended, than interwoven), regularly beautiful, and ingeniously drawn (without ever being boldly fnatched) from some of the I will moft prominent features in nature. here endeavour to give the English reader an idea of the style of thefe airs, which conftitute what may be called the profelfed ornaments of Metaftafio's compofi

tions.

In his Siroe (Atto. 3, Sc. 14.) Medarfe thus foliloquifes on the nature of virtue and vice." Ab con mio danno imparo, 8cc."]

Too late, oh Vice, thy votaries fee
When all their pleasure flows from thee,
On fortune hangs their whole :
While Virtue's fons, tho' fate remain
No longer kind, at least retain

Inherent peace of foul.--
While fummer funs diffolve the fnows,
The turbid torrent proudly flows ;.
But comes the winter frost,
Its courfe is run, its power is thed,
Destruction only marks its bed,

Its flowing treasures loft.
But be there to a ftreams pure courfe
Some ever living, limpid fource;

And tho' no longer fhone
The fummer fun ;-tho' froft retains
The mountain streams-its own remains,
And flows ftill purer on.

I will give one more as a specimen of his boldeft ftyle-it is in his " Sogno di Scipune."—[“ In ogni forte, &c.—and again -"Biancheggia in Mar lo Scoglio, &c."] In all viciffitudes of fate

Unaltered, firm, fee virtue reft,
Or grow more firm with growing time;
For, tho' purfued by fortune's hate,
We fee it fhaken, not opprett ;

And, while lefs happy, more fublime.

Thus ftands, on fome rude mountain's fide,
Expofed to all the winds of Heaven,
The monarch oak, from times of yore;
When winter ftrips his leafy pride,]
His root ftrikes deeper, tempeft-driven :
His beauty lefs, his vigor more.
Behold yon rock's majestic form,
Whitening amid the foaming surge,

And, haken, feem the abyss to glut ;
Then rife fuperior to the storm:
Rebuked the waves in awe regurge,

And fink fubmiflive at his foot.
The course of a river, the growth of a
plant, and the dangers of the ocean, are the
ufual fubjects of Metastafio's metaphorical
allufion.

It is often obferved, that poetry takes its character from the manners of the times, and the customs and occupations of the country where it is cultivated. It is a fingular exception to this, that the circum. stances incident to a maritime life are the favourite subjects of elucidation to Metaftafio, whofe life was principally spent in the court of a prince having but one feaport in the whole extent of his vast dominions. But he was more the poet of cultivation than of nature; and literature has made her votaries the denizens of every foil.

It would have been fortunate had Me-
tastafio escaped in other instances, too, the
contagion of furrounding circumstances.
But the incenfed atmosphere of a court has
infected many of his pieces with flattery so
grols, fo unveiled by delicacy or ornament,
as to please none but the vitiated ears or
thofe for whom it was prepared. Such
are always his licenza, his complimento,
and too frequently his fonnetto, cantate,
and canzonetta; written generally with
the intention (and probably the fuccessful
intention) of pleafing an individual :-
but, like family portraits, they are pleafing
To this,
to none but those they flatter.
however, the air of "Il Sogno" is a
pretty exception, particularly in its open-
ing.

In dreams I fee my charmer come,
In dreams to fmile away my gloom,
And to her bofom take me;
Oh love, if thou a god would'st seem,
Or realize this happy dream,

Or never, never, wake me.
["Pur ne! Sogno almen talora," &c.-
It is rather unfortunate that this prettiest
part of the piece fhould be borrowed from
Ariofto, Il Furiofo, Cant. 25, St. 67- and
again, Cant. 33, St. 63-twice claimed,
and not once allowed !--Poor Ariofto!-
fo feldom, too, that thou haft one claim to
a beauty!]

66

Of the Tempefta," the design and exexecution

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ecution are equally beautiful and interefting;-but thefe are happy exceptions the generality of his fmaller pieces are infipid-whilft these epithets, of beautiful and interefting, may be applied as general characteristics of his more important compofitions. But then, again, in the multiplicity of thefe, the fame kind of beauty, and the fame kind of intereft, are fo frequently repeated, with fo little of diftinguishing character, as but feldom to leave any appropriate impreffion. This effect is increafed by the rule he feems to have univerfally observed of preferving poetic juftice. We are generally able, from the firit developement of the characters, and their relative fituation, to predict, with tolerable precifion, the denouement.

His characters are fufficiently adequate to conduct the piece with spirit to its conclufion but the grand defect is the want of variety in the mode of their conducting it. There is a multiplicity of heroic actions, but they are all performed in the fame ftyle of heroilm. New actions of the fame generic nature might have been infinitely varied by the specific differences of the characters performing them. Generofity, for example, appears the favourite virtue of the poet, and this he has exhibited in numerous actions, but all in one caft of character, unmodified by any variation of concomitant paffions the purpofe of generofity, indeed, must always be the fame; but the spirit which conftitutes the bafis of the cordial, may vary in flavour, according to the nature of the fubftance from which it is drawn, or the ingredients with which it is compounded.

But it is not difficult to account for Metaftafio's deficiency in individuality of character. He wrote in the funfhine of royal favour; his theatre was a palace; kings and courtiers were his fpectators, and princes not unfrequently perfonated his characters. The action, then, and perfons of his drama, were to be fuch as might be fuppofed worthy of engaging the intereft of an audience fo auguft. "So wits, plain dealers, fops and fools appear, Charged to fay nought but what the king may

hear;

And old and young declaim on soft defire,
And heroes, never but for love, expire."

The poet, inftead of ranging through the infinite modifications of the focial character, was confined to one clafs of men, where a fimilarity of occupations and cuftoms neceffarily impofe, a fimilarity of fubject, of fentiment, and of expreffion. The characters are generally good, or

generally bad: but to diftinguish the individuals of these respective classes, we find none of thofe difcriminating traits, which we meet with in fcenes drawn from common life; where countless combinations of paffions, and infinite variety of circumftances, ftamp their modifications as they pafs. I do not recollect one of Metastaho's greater pieces, where the hero is not a royal perfonage, or at least the scene in which the hero is to act, depends for its form on royalty. It feems, however, to have been neceffity that circumfcribed the author's range; and though he could not confiftently give very different manners to characters formed by the fame fituation, he has feized the only occafion, perhaps, that ever offered, of exhibiting a fingularity of manner, without tranfgreffing the prefcribed idea of dignity in the intereft to be created. This is in his "Semiramide," where is an affemblage of kings to conteft the hand of Tamira; and among them comes Ircano, the Scythian Sovereign: All the other princes reign over comparatively polished nations; but Ircano rules a rude and fimple people, who honoured their king only as he excelled in the virtues which themselves were formed to ad. mire. This diftinguishing character Metaftafio has very happily pourtrayed: Ir. cano's vices acquire the merit of virtues, by that open avowal of them, which proves that they are an error in judgment, not a depravation of heart, in the poffeffor: and his virtues are of that energetic kind, that command admiration, without conciliating love: his manners are drawn not unlike the blunt haughtiness of Shakespeare's Falconbridge, but without his humour.

Such inftances, however, of individuality of character are very rare indeed in Metaftafio. His perfonages are usually of fuch a defcription, as might be fuppofed perfonifications, or abstract general ideas, of the virtues and vices they reprefent, rather than mortal examples of their exiftence.

I have now concluded my obfervations on the greater works of the principal Italian poets:-what I have faid on Dante, Petrarch, and Ariofto, will fufficiently explain why I think the perufal of their works not an adequate compenfation for the trouble of acquiring their language. But the merit which I have allowed in Taffo and Metaftafio, might seem to justify the advocates of the Italian tongue : and, therefore, it may be neceffary to ftate, why, allowing that merit in its fullest extent, I would fillendeavour to diffuade the reader

from

from feeking to become acquainted with the original.

To return to the paffage of your correfpondent, the negatives are confined to complete fentences, with which alone they are connected: for inftance, the context may be thus regularly supplied; Nihil ifte fecit, nec aufus eft facere, nec potuit fa cere." Notwithstanding what has been faid, any deviation from the regular rules of fyntax in the prefent inftance may be eafily accounted for; the language of paffion, either in extreme grief, or extreme joy, is for the most part abrupt and unconnected. Nifus fees his beloved friend at the point of being murdered, in confequence of what he himself had done; frantic with rage and anguish, he rushes from his concealment, and paffionately exclaims,

In introducing the subject, I have before obferved, that the Italian language is not like the French or German, which, when cace acquired, are daily increafing in va lue, by works of ftill greater value daily appearing it is, to elegant literature, nearly a dead language, of which the exifting treasures are easily appreciated, and nothing of future increase is left to hope. To undertake the labour of acquiring fuch a language, we fhould be perfuaded that the few works which conftitute its value, can boast such beauties as will never cloy; and of which the reiterated enjoyment will fatisfy defire, and fupprefs the love of no velty. That Taffo's Epic or Metafta- Me, me! Adfum qui feci : in me convertité bo's Dramatic Beauties are not of this defcription, requires little proof;-they are of that common kind, that refults from regularity of features, and a blooming face; -but have little of that noble originality of expreffion, with which exalted genius ftamps her offspring, which nothing but genius of equal fublimity can imitate; and which, to be conceived, must be seen as it

came fresh from the hand of its creator.Such are not the traits of Taffo, or Metaitafio;—the hand of no very extraordinary mafter might transfer them to British Canvas, with little lofs of lustre. Between the original and copy, the difference of value would be very fmall; while the price at which the former is to be obtained, is extravagantly high.

Dec. 12, 1799.

G. T.

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ferrum,

"O Rutuli mea fraus omnis: nihil ifte,
nec aufus,
"Nec potuit."

fuch numerous beauties, as perhaps to
The whole of this Episode abounds with
claim a decided preference even over that
of Orpheus and Eurydice in the 4th
Georgic.

to obferve, that a negative is frequently I shall take up your time no longer than found in a pofitive fentence, as in the following line:

"Abde domo, nec turpi ignofce fenectæ." Virg. Georg. iii. 1. 96. where the negative conjunction nec must be refolved, and the paffage will stand thus: "Abde domo, et non turpi ignofce fene&t æ.* It is almost fuperfluous to remark, that non turpi for honefte is by no means an un

ufual mode of construction.

I am, Sir, your well-wisher, &c. Dec. 12, 1799.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

UNQU

P..

NQUESTIONABLY the most va.. luable prefent to our national liteOberon; and our obligations to Mr. rature from the German, is Wieland's had condefcended to annex to his TranslaSotheby are very great. But I wish he tion fome kind of preface. We naturally feek for information concerning what has much delighted us; and the Fairy-Epic is not an exhaufted fubject. Shakelpeare has brought us acquainted with the quarrel between Oberon and Titania; but at prefent, I believe, the legend of Sir Huon is not familiar to English readers. I find,

however,

1

however, an interefting note to Ben Jobnfon's Silent Woman, which will both explain the great action (or rather one of the great actions) of the poem, and, perhaps, lead to a difcovery of the origin of the tale, if not stated by the author.

It is in the highly comic fcene, act 5th, of the Silent Woman, where Trnewit plays upon the cowardice of Sir Joh. Daw.

"Tru. That you would fuffer, I told him: fo, at first he demanded, by my troth, in my conceit, too much.

Daw. What was it, Sir?

Tru. Your upper lip, and fix o' your front teeth.

Daw. 'Twas unreasonable.

Tru. Nay, I told him plainly you could not spare 'em all. So, after long argument (pro and con, as you know) I brought him down to your two butter teeth and them he would have."

Note. This feems to have been copied after a penalty of the fame nature, mentioned in an old French romance. "Dans le roman de Huon de Bourdeaux, entre autres chofes á faire pour affronter l'Amiral Gaudiffe, on ordonna au pauvre Chevalier Huon de ne rentrer point en France, qu'il n'euft efté lui arracher la barbe, et quatre dents mafchelieres: ce qu'il fit enfin avec l'aide d'Oberon le Fé, fon ami loyal, mais non pourtant fans maint coup ferir."

I believe the first impreffion on reading the correfponding part of Oberon, is that of burlefque: a fentiment which is feveral times unluckily fuggefted. The fanciful and extravagant wildness of the machinery by no means authorizes broad humour, which bears a different character.

As probability and propriety of manners are effential even to a fairy tale : I think the effect of the ftory would have been improved, if Charlemagne's stern decree had been more reasonable, or, at leaft, better explained; and the brave Sir Huon, a model of loyal knights, fwears to commit an act against all the laws of chivalry; for he is to cut off the head of him who fits at the Sultan's left hand, without giving the accustomed defiance. I do not think it fufficient to fay, he was a Pagan; and the poet feems aware of the original impropriety, by introducing an accident which leffens the injuftice of the murder.

I confefs myself anxious to know how far the bowl, the ring, and the dance-exciting horn, are the agents of the old romance. And if any of your readers fhould, by accident, poffefs it, or if any of your German correfpondents were to favour us with a tranflation of the author's original preface, if there be any, for with any

further hiftorical anecdotes concerning a poem of fuperlative excellence, he would, I believe gratify à confiderable number of your readers. H. C. R.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

SEE by your very valuable publication, the Monthly Magazine for December last, that you with further communications relating to the meteor which was feen in various parts of England, on the

12th of November last.

It was feen in this neighbourhood, particularly by an intelligent man, who was going to Welt Wycombe, about 6 o'clock in the morning; he defcribed it, when he came home in the evening, as a very large ball of fire, paffing over his head from the fouth-weft, and which, he thought, fell to the earth, about a mile to the north-east; he also faid, that he thought it made a hiffing noife; but he was fo much alarmed, that I think he must have been mistaken in that refpect; there had been frequent flashes of lightning from the fame quarter before the meteor appeared, but none after. I remember, fome years ago, in the month of Auguft, about ten o'clock in the evening, a very large meteor paffed over this town; and every perfon who faw it thought it fell within a mile; and that was feen alfo all over England and Scotland, and fome parts of the Continent, about the I am, Sir, fame hour.

Your very humble fervant,
J. R.

High Wycombe, Jan. 8, 1800.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

OMMENTATORS have been much at a loss how to conftrue that paffage in Virgil's firft Eclogue, where Melibus addieffes Tityrus:

Hinc tibi quæ femper vicino a limite fe

pes,

Hyblais apibus florem depafta falicti
Sæpe levi fomnum fuadebit inire fufurro.

According to the interpunctuation, which all the editions, that I am acquainted with, have followed, the relative quæ, in the first line, feems to want its verb; and this the commentators have, in general, been obliged to fupply, by fupposing an ellipfis of the word eft, either after tibi, or depafta; which in both places would be equally harth and incompatible with the propriety of the Latin tongue. Now, if we infert a comma after femper,

the

the ellipfis will be of the word fuadebat, which, occurring afterwards in the future tenfe, fuadebit, riders the fenfe perfectly clear, without any violation of the idiom of the language. The fentence will then be to be construed thus: Hinc tibi fepes que femper (formerly) fuadebat fomnum inire (in future) fuadebit.

According to the reading which I pro

But the inhabitants of cities would as
naturally confider even a relaxed monk as
a very contemplative, abftemious, purita-
nic, folitary character, and would there-
fore foon employ the term recluse, particu-
larly, if in conduct thefe anchorets corre-
fponded with their profethions, in the fe-
vere and modern acceptation.

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SIR,

pofe, femper has a reference to the paft, To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.
whereby the whole becomes much more
clafely connected with the fubject of the
poem, (in which Meliboeus is defcribing
the happiness of his companion, in being
re-instated in his former poffeffions) than
according to the common reading; which,
by joining it with the fuadebit, makes the
fentence refer folely to the future.

T will not be difputed, that the announcement of economical projects and improvements of all kinds is a valuable part of your mifcellany, nor can you be expected to anfwer for the truth and real utility of all you infeit; but it will be proper for readers to be aware, that in the common courfe of things a large propor tion of thefe will fail in the trial. You must know, Sir, that in my little domain we have a confiderable propenfity to try new experiments; when, therefore, you told us, of fo ealy a way of preferving apples from freezing, as that of covering them with a linen cloth, we immediately beftrewed a garret floor with part of our winter flock, and fnugly concealed them beneath a large fheet or two. The late fevere weather gave us an early opportunity of witneffing ECLUSE means in English shut up, the efficacy of this method, which was

If any of your claffical readers will: please to inform me, through the medium of your valuable mifcellany, whether there be any edition of Virgil extant, in which the paffage in question has a comma femper, he will very much oblige

after

A CONSTANT READER.

Jan. 9th, 1800.

For the Monthly Magazine. REPLY TO MR. SAMUEL WESLEY,

VOL. VIII. p. 875.

Rjolitary, because it had that figna fuch, that almost every apple was frozen

cation previously in French:

Les chofes d'ici bas ne me regardent plus:
En quoi peut un pauvre reclus
Vous affifter?

Lafontaine.

The question now recurs, how could this Latin word acquire in French a fenfe feemingly fo unclaffical? The following project of explanation may perhaps fatisfy. In the feventh century, which abound. ed with chapel-building and monaftic foundations, four diftinct claffes of monks, bound by vows of chastity and poverty, are enumerated by the ecclefiaftical historians. 1, Cenobites, who lived in focieties under a fuperior; 2, Pilgrims, who were itinerant from motives of religion; 3, Hermits, who lived a retired life of prayer in defert places; 4 Anchorets, who lived an afcetic devout life in the midst of cities. To this laft defcription of holy perfons

the appellation of reclus was peculiarly af.

af, fected. The denomination was probably bestowed originally by the monkish wri. ters. They would naturally confider brethren, who, like Diogenes, pitched their tubs in towns, as men at large, let loose, unfettered, made public, not fout-up, which are the original meanings of the word. MONTHLY MAG. NO. 55.

to the core, and many of them irrecovera-
bly spoilt; while fome, which were pack-
ed in a hamper with ftraw, were fcarcely
at all injured. This fact I beg you will
make known, in order to prevent further
mifchief. I am fenfible, the erroneous in-
formation did not come first from you, but
the wide circulation of your magazine is
likely to give it extenfive currency, I
have fince been told, that, in relating the
American practice, a little circumftance
was omitted, which is, that, befides the
fheet, every fingle apple fhould be wrapped
in paper; but I mean not to affert, that
even this will answer; nor do I intend to
Your's, &c.
try the experiment.
Jan. 6, 1800.

SIMPLEX.

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