the Mull of Kintire.[For further particulars relating to the Somerled family, Allan of Galloway, &c. fee Buchanan's Hiftory of Scotland, Book VII] The Editor hath illuftrated thefe Anecdotes by fome useful Notes, in which the names of the feveral perfonages who figure in this Fragment are explained very fatisfactorily, and fome circumstances are related which tend to throw a light on the general narrative. We shall present the Reader with two or three, which are the most curious; leaving the critic in antiquity to determine their juftness. The NESSES mean the Mulls of Galloway. This word is primitively derived from the Greek vew to fwim: hence was formed a noun vnoos, which antiently denoted, either capes or iflands, from their appearing at a diftance to float on the water. The Doric colonies which fettled in Italy, changed vnos into Nafus, and lofing fight entirely of the original meaning, ufed it metaphorically to fignify the nofe. From nafus, the Scandinavians formed their nes, but used it in the fame extent as the Greeks did their prou which primitively fignified the nose, but afterwards a cape. From piou, the Welsh borrowed their rhyn of the fame import.' ρίου SOMERLED: the fummer-foldier: from fumar (iflandic) fummer; and lid a body of troops. Wetterled, or the winterfoldier, was alfo a proper name among the Norwegians. From Somerled I. the Earl of Antrim, Lord M'Donald, and the other branches of that family: the M‘jans, M'Dugals, and several other tribes are defcended.' SUDUREYS. The fouthern divifion of the Isles of Scotland: from fudr If. South, and y an island. They formed a diocefe, the Bishop of which, was called the Bishop of Sodor, i. e. the Bishop of the Sudureys.' This ingenious derivation of the word Sodor, was (if we miftake not) fift noticed by Dr. John Macpherfon. The former writers on British antiquities were divided, not only about the derivation of Sodor, but what was of more confequence in a topographical hiftory, the fituation of it. Camden, in his account of Iona, or I-Colem- Kill, fays, that a bishop's fee was erected in this ifland, and (as fome report) was called the Bishoprick of Sodor, from a little village there: whereas Buchanan places Sodor in the Ifle of Man. This confufion arifes from confidering the ancient bishoprick of Sodor as the fame with that of Man, because they are now united; though at prefent, the bishoprick of Sodor is merely titular and nominal. Formerly they were two diftinct diocefes. The original bishoprick of Sodor was inftituted by Pope Gregory the Fourth, towards the middle of the 9th century; and the fee was eftablished in Iona, a little ifland of the Sudureys, which after wards wards became celebrated for its fanctity; and in point of learning, as well as piety, was the great luminary of the Picts and Scots, as well as the Hebridians. In the 11th century, the Norwegians having conquered the Western Islands, and the Ifle of Man, united the two bishopricks. This union continued till the year 1333, when the English were fully poffeffed of Man. In after-times, the Bishop of the Sudureys was called Epifcopus Infulanus; and in the 15th century the Bishop of the Ifles fubmitted to the jurifdiction of the See of Dunkeld. The Editor ingeniously derives the ancient name of the Argyle family Gil-efpie, from Gil and Upfac, i. e. the fons of Upfac. The family may have affumed this appellation from another USpac, father to Somerled, whofe daughter Thora, about the year 1064, was married into the family of the Earl of Orkney [Sigard], who was fon-in-law to Maol-Choluimb II. King of Scotland. Others have fuppofed that Gil-efpie meant the fons of the Bishop. Mr. Johnftone's derivation is moft probable. The little Eulogies by Snorro Sturlfon, are printed from the originals in the Iflandic language (as well as the Fragment), and tranflated into literal English with a moft fcrupulous exactnefs. One object of the Author was, to fhew the affinity of the English language with the moft pure and original dialect of the Teutonic, and to affift those who are ftudying the Islandic. The poetical fpecimens are defigned to give the Reader an idea of the various modes of verfification, which were adopted by the ancient Scalds of Iceland and Scandinavia. Some of them are in rhime, and in the meafure frequently fanciful and childifh. Witness the following: Ræfir glæfir Rökkva dökva Skreytir hreytir Hiörtum fvörtum. In English.-The King richly clothes his ruftic warriors. Our bounteous Prince adorns them, neat and expert, with bright armour, to provide transfixed heaps of black hearts for the ravens. The defcription of a Norwegian battle has fomething of the rapidity and wildnefs of the Galic bards. The firife begins. Fields redden. Javelins are hurled. The din increafes. Ground is gained. The blade grows warm. Shields are bent. The hero, foe to peace, pants with ardor, &c. &c. The curious in antiquity would, we doubt not, receive ftill further entertainment, if the Editor would pursue his researches into the Norwegian and Islandic records, in order to illuftrate the Scottish history. ART. H 2 B.....k. ART. IV. Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the T is obferved by Dr. Johnfon, that the promises of authors are like the vows of lovers. Happy for the republic of letters he has not, by his own conduct, exemplified the obfervation. In the fix additional volumes of his Biographical Prefaces, which we are now entering upon, he has amply fulfilled his engagements to the Public. Of these, the firit contains the lives of Addifon, Blackmore, and Sheffield: the fecond, those of Granville, Rowe, Tickel, Congreve, Fenton, and Prior: the third is dedicated entirely to Pope: the fourth belongs to Swift, Gay, Broome, Pitt, Parnell, A. Philips, and Watts: the fifth to Savage, Somervile, Thomfon, Hammond, and Collins: in the concluding volume are the lives of Young, Dyer, Mallet, Shentone, Akenfide, Lyttelton, Weft, and Gray. Addifon's life and perfonal character are well known, and his prefent Biographer, concurring with thofe who have preceded him, bears teftimony to the goodnefs of both. Of his literary character there are parts on which the critics have been divided. Our Readers will not be difpleafed to fce what Dr. Johnfon's fentiments are on this agitated question. Addifon, in his life, and for fome time afterwards, was confidered by the greater part of readers as fupremely excelling both in poetry and criticifm. Part of his reputation may be probably afcribed to the advancement of his fortune; when, as Swift obferves, he became a itatefman, and faw poets waiting at his levee, it is no wonder that praife was accumulated upon him. Much likewife may be more honourably afcribed to his perfonal character; he who, if he had claimed it, might have obtained the diadem, was not likely to be denied the laurel. But time quickly puts an end to artificial and accidental fame, and Addifon is to pafs through futurity protected only by his genius. Every name which kindness or intereft once raised too high, is in danger, left the next age should, by the vengeance of criticifm, fink it in the fame proportion. A great writer has lately filed him an indifferent poet, and a worfe critic. His poetry is first to be confidered; of which it must be confeffed that it has not often thofe felicities of diction which give luftre to fentiments, or that vigour of fentiment that animates diction: there is little of ardour, vehemence, or tranfport; there is very rarely the awfulness of grandeur, and not very often the fplendour of elegance. He thinks jully; but he thinks faintly. This is his general character, to which, doubtlefs, many fingle paffages will furnith exceptions. Yet if he feldom reaches fupreme excellence, he rarely finks into dulness, and is still more rarely entangled in abfurdity. He did not trult his powers enough to be negligent. There is in moft of his With thefe are likewife published a comprehenuve poetical Index, in two volumes, of the fame fize with the Poets. com compofitions a calmness and equability deliberate and cautious, fometimes with little that delights, but feldom with any thing that offends. · Of this kind feem to be his poems to Dryden, to Somers, and to the King. His ode on St Cecilia has been imitated by Pope, and has fomething in it of Dryden's vigour. Of his Account of the Englih Poets, he used to fpeak as a poor thing*; but it is not worse than his ufual train. He has faid, not very judiciously, in his character of Waller : Thy verfe could fhew ev'n Cromwell's innocence, And compliment the forms that bore him hence. What is this but to say that he who could compliment Cromwell had been the proper poet for King William? Addifon however never printed the piece. The Letter from Italy has been always praised, but has never been praifed beyond its merit. It is more correct, with lefs appearance of labour, and more elegant, with leis ambition of ornament, than any other of his poems. There is however one broken metaphor, of which notice may properly be taken : Fir'd with that name I bridle in my struggling Mufe with pain, To bridle a goddess is no very delicate idea; but why must the be bridled? because the longs to launch; an act which was never hindered by a bridle and whither will the launch? into a nobler ftrain. She is in the first line a horse, in the fecond a boat; and the care of the poet is to keep his horse or his beat from finging. The next composition is the far-famed Campaign, which Dr. Warton has termed a Gazette in Rhyme, with harfhnefs not often used by the good-nature of his criticifm. Before a cenfure so severe is admitted, let us confider that War is a frequent fubject of Poetry, and then enquire who has defcribed it with more juttnefs and force. Many of our own writers tried their powers upon this year of victory, yet Addison's is confeffedly the beft performance; his poem is the work of a man not blinded by the duit of learning: his images are not borrowed merely from books. The fuperiority which he confers upon his hero is not perfonal prowefs, and mighty bone, but deliberate intrepidity, a calm command of his paffions, and the power of confulting his own mind in the midst of danger. The rejection and contempt of fiction is rational and manly.'— The tragedy of Cato,,which, contrarily to the rule obferved in felecting the works of other poets, has by the weight of its character forced its way into this collection, is unquestionably the noblet production of Addison's genius. Of a work fo much read, it is difficult to fay any thing new. About things on which the Public thinks long, it commonly attains to think right; and of Cato it has been not unjully determined, that it is rather a poem in dialogue than a drama, rather a fucceffion of just fentiments in elegant language than a reprefentation of natural affections, or of any ftate probable or poffible in human life. Nothing here excites or affwages emotion; here is no magical power of raifing phantaftic terror or wild anxiety, The events are expected without folicitude, and are remembered without joy or forrow. Of the agents we have no care: we confider not what they are doing, or what they are fuffering; we wish only to know what they have to fay. Cato is a being above our folicitude; a man of whom the gods take care, and whom we leave to their care with heedlefs confidence. To the rest neither gods nor men can have much attention; for there is not one amongst them that frongly attracts either affection or esteem. But they are made the vehicles of fuch fentiments and fuch expreffion, that there is fcarcely a scene in the play which the reader does not with to imprefs upon his me. mory. When Cato was fhewn to Pope *, he advised the author to print it without any theatrical exhibition, fuppofing that it would be read more favourably than heard. Addifon declared himself of the fame opinion; but urged the importunity of his friends for its appearance on the flage. The emulation of parties made it fuccefsful beyond expectation, and its fuccefs has introduced or confirmed among us the ufe of dialogue too declamatory, of unaffecting elegance, and chill philofophy. The univerfality of applaufe, however it might quell the cenfure of common mortals, had no other effect than to harden Dennis in fixed diflike; but his diflike was not merely capricious. He found and shewed many faults: he flewed them indeed with anger, but he found them with acutenefs, fuch as ought to rescue his criticism from oblivion; though, at laft, it will have no other life than it derives from the work which it endeavours to opprefs.'------ • Of Addison's smaller poems, no particular mention is neceffary; they have little that can employ or require a critic. The parallel of the Princes and Gods, in his verfes to Kneller, is often happy, but is too well known to be quoted, His tranflations, fo far as I have compared them, want the exactness of a scholar. That he understood his authors cannot be doubted; but his verfions will not teach others to understand them, being too licentiously paraphraftical. They are, however, for the most part, fmooth and eafy; and, what is the firft excellence of a tranflator, fuch as may be read with pleasure by those who do not know the originals. His poetry is polished and pure; the product of a mind too judicious to commit faults, but not fufficiently vigorous to attain excellence. He has fometimes a ftriking line, or a fhining paragraph; but in the whole he is warm rather than fervid, and thews more dexterity than firength. He was however one of our earliest examples of correctness. The verfification which he had learned from Dryden, he debafed rather than refined. His rhymes are often diffonant; in his Georgic he admits broken lines. He uses both triplets and alexandrines; but triplets more 'requently in his tranflations than his other works. |