ointment on his head, that may flow down his beard, even the Do&or's beard, and to the skirts of his coat, or cloak, &c."

Now, verily, this may, to our friend R. D. appear to be tender mercy; but the Doctor, perhaps, would think it cruelty fufficient, were it in our Correfpondent's power, as it feems to be in his will, to carry the fentence into execution: as, in order to receive the bonny laffie's favour, showered down from the higheft window of the highest house,' the unfortunate culprit must return to his own country!

ART. IX. Monody on Major Andrè. By Mifs Seward (Author of the Elegy on Captain Cook). To which are added, Letters addreffed to her by Major Andrè, in the Year 1769. 4to. 2s. 6d. Lichfield printed for the Author; fold by Cadell, &c. London. 1781.

ROM the elegant fpecimen of poetical abilities already exhibited by Mifs Seward in her much admired Elegy on Captain Cook (a character known to her, it seems, by fame only) our Readers will naturally expect a ftill higher gratification from her Monody on Major Andrè; a performance, in which, to the motives arifing from public regard, are fuperadded others also, flowing from the tender fenfibilities of private friendship and perfonal efteem. Her former production abounds with fplendid and original imagery: in the prefent, animation and pathos are the predominant characteristics. We mean not,

however, to infinuate, that it is any way deficient in the embellishments of fancy; this, indeed, will appear from the following fpirited lines with which the poem commences :

Loud howls the ftorm! the vex'd Atlantic roars!

Thy Genius, Britain, wanders on its fhores !
Hears cries of horror wafted from afar,

And groans of anguish, mid the fhrieks of war!
Hears the deep curfes of the Great and Brave,
Sigh in the wind, and murmur on the wave!
O'er his damp brow the fable crape he binds,
And throws his victor garland to the winds;.
Bids haggard Winter, in the drear fojourn,
'Tear the dim foliage from her drizzling urn;
With fickly yew unfragrant cypress twine,
And hang the dusky wreath round Honour's fhrine.
Bids fteel-clad Valour chace that dove-like bride,
Enfeebling Mercy, from his awful fide;
Where long the fat and check'd the ardent rein,
As whirl'd his chariot o'er th'embattled plain;
Gilded with funny fmile her April tear,

Rais'd her white arm, and ftay'd th' uplifted fpear;
Then, in her place, bids Vengeance mount the car,
And glut with gore th' infatiate Dogs of War!—

For our account of Mifs Seward's Elegy, fee Rev. for June laft,

-P. 458.

• Victor garland.-Alluding to the conquest by Lord Cornwallis. Bb 2

With

With one pale hand the bloody fcroll he rears,
And bids his Nations blot it with their tears;
And one, extended o'er th' Atlantic wave,
Points to his Andrè's ignominous grave!

And fhall the Mufe, that marks the folemn fcene,
"As bufy Fancy lifts the veil between,"
Refufe to mingle in the awful train,

Nor breathe, with glowing zeal, the votive strain ?
From public fame fhall admiration fire

The boldeft numbers of her raptur'd lyre

To hymn a Stranger?-and with ardent lay
Lead the wild mourner round her Cook's morai;
While Andrè fades upon his dreary bier
And Julia's only tribute is her tear?
Dear, lovely Youth! whofe gentle virtues ftole
Thro' Friendship's foft'ning medium on her foul!
Ah no!-with every strong refiftless plea,
Rife the recorded days fhe pafs'd with thee,
While each dim fhadow of o'er-whelming years,
With Eagle-glance reverted Mem❜ry clears.

Belov'd Companion of the fairest hours
That rofe for her in Joy's refplendent bowers,
How gaily fhone on thy bright morn of youth
The Star of Pleasure, and the Sun of Truth!
Full from their fource defcended on thy mind
Each gen'rous virtue, and each taste refin'd;
Young Genius led thee to his varied fane;
Bade thee ask all his gifts, nor ask in vain ;
Hence novel thoughts, in ev'ry luftre drest
Of pointed Wit, that diamond of the breaft;
Hence glow'd thy fancy with poetic ray,
Hence mufic warbled in thy fprightly lay;
And hence thy pencil, with his colours warm,
Caught ev'ry grace, and copied ev'ry charm
Whofe tranfient glories beam on Beauty's cheek,
And bid thy glowing ivory breathe and speak.
Bleft pencil! by kind Fate ordain'd to fave
Honora's femblance from her § early grave.

Oh!

*Bloody Scroll.-The Court-Martial decree, figned at Tappan, for Major Andrè's execution.

Julia. The name by which Mr. Andrè addreffed the Author in his correfpondence with her.

All his gifts.-Mr. Andrè had confpicuous talents for poetry, mufic, and painting. The news-papers mentioned a fatiric poem of his upon the Americans, which was fuppofed to have ftimulated their barbarity towards him.-Of his wit and vivacity, the letters fubjoined to this work afford ample proof.-They were addreffed to the Author by Mr. Andrè when he was a youth of eighteen.

Early grave.-Mifs Honora S- to whom Mr. Andrè's attachment was of fuch fingular conftancy, died in a confumption a few

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months

*

Oh! while on Julia's arm it fweetly smiles,
And each lorn thought, each long regret beguiles,
Fondly the weeps the hand which form'd the fpell,
Now throudless mould'ring in its earthy cell!

But fure the Youth, whofe ill-ftarr'd passion strove
With all the pangs of inaufpicious Love,
Full oft deplor'd the fatal art, that ftole
The jocund freedom of its Master's foul!

While with nice hand he mark'd the living grace
And matchlefs fweetness of Honora's face,
Th' enamour'd Youth the faithful traces bleft;
That barb'd the dart of Beauty in his breaft;
Around his neck th'enchanting portrait hung,
While a warm vow burst ardent from his tongue,
That from his bofom no fucceeding day,

No chance should bear that talifman away.'

The image of Valour chacing his dove-like bride, &c. if the epithet enfeebling, applied to Mercy, be excepted, is fingularly beautiful. It muft, however, be obferved, that the general idea is not altogether new, as will be obvious to any one who recollects the first stanza of Collins's Ode to Mercy.

If there be any part of this ingenious poem to which we would object, it should be the anathema against General Washington. If we impartially examine the conduct of the American Chief towards his unfortunate prifoner, we shall find, that he could not, confiftently with the established rules of military law, have acted otherwife than as he did. Befides, it does not appear, that he had any abfolute authority to mitigate the feverity of the fentence which is complained of; and even fuppofing that he had, there might have been reasons why it would have been neither fafe nor prudent to have exercised such difcretionary power. We think it would have given a better turn to the poem, and have placed the character of the gallant Andrè in a more diftinguished point of view, to have adhered ftrictly to well-authenticated facts, and to have represented his judges, at the fame time that they were compelled by the unrelenting neceffity of military juftice to condemn the criminal, venerating the man, and sympathizing with the sufferer.

The Letters fubjoined to this performance were written at the age of eighteen. They exhibit a picture of an amiable and ac

months before he suffered death at Tappan. She had married another Gentleman four years after her engagement with Mr. Andrè had been diffolved by parental authority.

* Julia's arm.-Mr. Andrè drew two miniature pictures of Mifs Honora S- — on his first acquaintance with her at Buxton, in the year 1769, one for himself, the other for the Author of this poem.

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complished

complished mind. To gratify our Readers' curiofity we shall lay before them the following:

• London, October 19, 1769.

From the midst of books, papers, bills, and other implements of gain, let me lift up my drowfy head a while to converfe with dear Julia.—And firft, as I know fhe has a fervent with to fee me a quilldriver, I must tell her, that I begin, as people are wont to do, to look upon my future profeffion with great partiality. I no longer fee it in fo difadvantageous a light. Instead of figuring a merchant as a middle-aged man, with a bob wig, a rough beard, in fauffcoloured cloaths, grafping a guinea in his red hand; I conceive a comely young man, with a tolerable pig-tail, wielding a pen with all the noble fiercenefs of the Duke of Marlborough brandishing a truncheon upon a fign-poft, furrounded with types and emblems, and canopied with cornucopies that difembogue their ftores upon his head: Mercuries reclined upon bales of goods; Genii playing with pens, ink, and paper;-while, in perfpective, his gorgeous veffels launch'd on the bofom of the filver Thames," are wafting to distant lands the produce of this commercial nation-Thus all the mercantile glories crowd on my fancy, emblazoned in the most refulgent colouring of an ardent imagination-Borne on her foaring pinions I wing my flight to the time when Heaven fhall have crowned my labours with fuccefs and opulence. I fee fumptuous palaces rifing to receive me fee orphans, and widows, and painters, and fiddlers, and poets, and builders protected and encouraged; and when the fabric is pretty nearly finished by my fhattered pericanium, I caft my eyes around, and find John Andrè, by a fmall coal fire, in a gloomy compting-houfe in Warnford Court, nothing fo little as what he has been making himself, and in all probability never to be much more than he is at prefent.—But oh! my dear Honora!-it is for thy fake only I wish for wealth.-You fay fhe was fomewhat better at the time you wrote laft. I must flatter myself that he will foon be without any remains of this threatening disease.

It is feven o clock-You and Honora, with two or three more felect friends, are now probably encircling your dreffing-room fireplace. What would I give to enlarge that circle! The idea of a clean hearth, and a fnug circle round it, formed by a few fincere friends, tranfports me. You feem combined together against the inclemency of the weather, the hurry, bufile, ceremony, cenforioufnefs, and envy of the world. The purity, the warmth, the kindly influence of fire, to all for whom it is kindled, is a good emblem of the friendship of fuch amiable minds as Julia's and her Honora's.-Since I cannot be there in reality, pray imagine me with you; admit me to your converfationès;-Think how I with for the bleffing of joining them!-and be perfuaded that I take part in all your pleafures, in the dear hope, that e'er it be very long, your blazing hearth will burn again for me. Pray keep me a place;-let the poker, tongs, or fhovel reprefent me ;-But you have Dutch-tiles, which are infinitely better-So let Mofes, or Aaron, or Balaam's Afs be my reprefentative.

• But

But time calls me to Clapton.-I quit you abruptly till to-mor row: when, if I do not tear the nonfenfe I have been writing, I may perhaps increase its quantity. Signora Cynthea is in clouded majefty.silver'd with her beams I am about to jog to Clapton upon my own ftumps;-Muling as I homeward plod my way-Ah! need I name the fubject of my contemplations!

Thursday.

I had a fweet walk home laf night, and found the Claptonians, with their fair gueft, a Mifs Mourgue, very well-My Sifers fend their amities and will write in a few days. This morning I returned to town- -It has been the finest day imaginable-A folemn mildness was diffus'd throughout the blue horizon; Its light was clear and diftinét rather than dazzling; the ferene beams of the autumnal fun!-Gilded hills,-variegated woods, -glittering fpires,-ruminating herds,-bounding flocks,-all combined to enchant the eyes, expand the heart, and "chace all forrow. but defpair"-In the midst of fuch a scene, no leffer grief can prevent our fympathy with nature-A calmness, a benevolent difpofition feizes us with fweet infinuating power.- -The very brute creation seem fenfible of thefe beauties;-There is a fpecies of mild chearful-. nels in the face of a Lamb, which I have but indifferently exprefs'd in a corner of my paper, and a demure contented look in an Ox, which, in the fear of expreffing ftill worfe, I leave unattempted.

Bufinefs calls me away-I must dispatch my letter,-Yet what does it contain? No matter. -You like any thing better than news Indeed you never told me fo, but I have an intuitive knowledge upon the fubject, from the fympathy which I have constantly perceived in the taste of Julia and Cher Jean.-What is it to you

or me,

If here in the City we have nothing but riot,
If the Spital-field Weavers can't be kept quiet,
If the weather is fine, or the streets should be dirty,
Or if Mr. Dick Wilfon died aged of thirty?

But if I was to hearken to the verfifying grumbling I feel within me, I should fill my paper, and not have room left to intreat that you would plead my cause to Honora more eloquently than the inclosed letter has the power of doing.-Apropos of verfes, you defire me to recollect my random defcription of the engaging appearance of the charming Mrs. Here it is at your fervice

Then ruling and bustling the Lady comes down,
With a flaming red face, and a broad yellow gown,
And a hobbling out-of-breath gait, and a frown,

This little French cousin of ours, Delarife, was my fifter Mary's play-fellow at Paris. His fprightlinefs engages my fillers extremely. Doubtless they talk much of him to you in their letters.

How forry I am to bid you adieu! Oh let me not be forgot by the friends most dear to you at Lichfield!- Lichfield! Ah! of what magic letters is that little word compos'd!- How graceful it looks when it is written!- Let nobody talk to me of its original meaning

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