to commend him for his former attention to politics: at the fame time he affects to ridicule Dr. Franklin for his electrical dexterities, and to admire his prefent political purfuits. We will venture, notwithstanding, to fay, that neither of thefe ingenious Doctors were more innocently, ingenioufly, and, we believe, ufefully employed, than they were in their phyfical researches from which the honour, w th which their names will defcend to pofterity, will be derived; and not from their political productions or party pursuits. IV. Sir Martyn, a Poem, in the Manner of Spenfer. By William Julius Mickle. 4to. 2s. 6d. Flexney. This Poem was first published in the year 1767, and has gone through feveral editions under the title of the CONCUBINE; a title, which the author here fufpects to have conveyed a very improper idea both of the fubject and fpirit of the Poem. For our part, however, we think it conveyed full as proper an idea of the fubje&t, viz. the inconveniences and ill effects of the libertine ftate of Concubinage, as the title it now bears; unless there be fome covert meaning, we do not understand, in the name of Sir Martyn; on the advantage of which the author congratulates himfelf.-But the title is of little impor ance the work itfelf, which is of fingular merit, is of much more. The Reviewers of the month, indeed, found fome fault with the compofition, on its firft appearance; which appears to have induced Mr. Mickle to add a prefatory addrefs to the prefent edition, by way of explaining the defign of the piece, to which the faid Reviewers, it feems, did not fufficiently attend. Be this as it may, we ourfelves cannot speak of the piece in more candid and critical terms than does the author Limfelf. It is an established maxim in criticifin, That an interefting moral is effential to a good poem. The character of the Man of Fortune is of the utmost importance both in the political and moral world; to throw, therefore, a juft ridicule on the purfuits and pleasures which otten prove fatal to the important virtues of the Gentleman, muft afford an interesting aral, but it is the management of the Writer which alone must render it striking. Yet, however he may have tailed in attaining this, the Author may decently affert, that to paint falfe pleasure as it is, ridiculous and contemptible, alike deftructive to virtue and to happiness, was, at leaft, the purple of his Poem. This, at least, might have been fufpected, if, inftead of giving his poem the name of its hero, the author had named it after the heroine; christened her Betty, and let her taken the name of her matter. Rev. "It is alfo an established maxim in criticifm, That the subject of a poem fhould be One; that every part fhould contribute to the comple tion of One defign, which, properly purfued, will naturally diffufe itfelf into a regular Beginning, Middle, and End. Yet, in attaining this Unity of the Whole, the neceffary Regularity must still be poetical, for the fpirit of poetry cannot exist under the shackles of logical or mathematical arrangement. Or, to use the words of a very eminent Critic, "As there must needs be a connexion, fo that connexion will "best answer its end, and the purpose of the writer, which, whilst it leads by a fure train of thinking to the conclufion in view, conceals " itself all the while, and leaves to the Reader the fatisfaction of fupplying the intermediate links, and joining together, in his own mind, what is left in a feeming poíture of neglect and inconnec ❝tion." If therefore the delineation of the character of the Man of Birth, who, with every advantage of natural abilities and amiable difpofition, is at once loft to the Public and Himself; if this character has its beginning, middle, and end, the Poem has all the unity that propriety requires: how far fuch unity is attained, may perhaps be feen at one view in the following Argument. After an invocation to the Genius of Spenfer, and propofition of the fubject, the Knight's firft attachment to his Concubine, bis levity, love of pleafure, and diffipation, with the influence over him which on this fhe af fumes, are parts which undoubtedly conftitute a juft Beginning. "The effects of this influence, exemplified in the different parts of a gen tleman's relative character,-in his domeftic elegance of park, gardens, and house-in his unhappiness as a lover, a parent, and a man of letters-belaviour as a master to his tenants, as a friend, and a brother—and in his feelings in his hours of retirement as a man of birth, and a patriot, naturally complete the Middle, to which an allegorical catastrophe furnishes the proper and regular End. "Some reasons, perhaps, may be expected for having adopted the manner of Spenfer. To propofe a general ufe of it were indeed highly abfurd; yet it may be prefumed there are some subjects on which it may be ufed with advantage. But not to enter upon any formal defence, the Author will only fay, That the fulness and wantonnefs of defeription, the quaint fimplicity, and above all, the ludicrous, of which the antique phrafeology and manner of Spenfer are fo happily and peculiarly fufceptible, inclined him to efteem it not folely as the beft, but the only mode of compofition adapted to his fubject." As a fpecimen of the poem itself, we fhall give our readers the defcription of the Cave of Difcontent; of which an elegant defign by Taylor, engraved by Grignion, ornaments the itle-page of the prefent edition. Deep in the wyldes of Faerie Lond it lay; Wide was the mouth, the roote all rudely rent; Yet Yet all in fight, with towres and castles gent, All by the gate, beneath a pine fhade bare, An owl-frequented bowre, fome tents were fpred; Here fat a Throng, with eager furious stare Rattling the dice; and there, with eyes halfe dead, Some drowfie Dronkards, looking black and red, Dozd out their days: and by the path-way green A fprightlie Troupe ftill onward heedleffe fped, In chace of butterflies alert and keen; Honours, and Wealth, and Powre, their butterflies I ween. And oft, difguftfull of their various cares, Here, all in raggs, in piteous plight moft bace, Yet round his gloomy cell, with chalk he scrawls Prefent him ftill, and mock his miferie. And there, felf-doomd, his curfed felie to flee, Ghaftly and fell; and ftill with deepe regrate For boldly he the ways of God blafphemd, Near Near by there stood an hamlett in the dale, We cannot own ourfelves fond of imitations of Spenfer; and yet, in the particular cafe before us, we think Mr. Mickle's reafons for adopting fuch imitation fully fufficient. We would, nevertheless, caution poets of inferior talents how they follow his example. W. Travels through Spain and Portugal, in 1774; with a short Account of the Spanish Expedition against Algiers, in 1775: By Major William Dalrymple. 4to. 7s. 6d. Almon. There is fomething fo pleafing in the relations of voyagers and travellers, that we do not wonder at the fuccels of publications of this nature; even when they contain nothing new but the manner of relating them. We do not mean the relations of your literary voyagers, whofe itineraries are fabricated by fire fide-travellers at home, who manufacture defcriptions of places they never vifited, converfe with people they never faw, and invent incidents and accidents that never happened, but in their own imagination. Major Dalrymple's travels have, befide their authenticity to recommend them, the advantage of relating a tour, feldom taken by English travellers. A Chart of his route is prefixed to the work, by which it appears that he fet out from Gibraltar, paffing through Ronda, Offuna, Cordova, and Anduyer, to Madrid: from whence he travelled to Corunna and Ferrel, paffing through Avila, Salamanca, Zamora, Aftorga, and Lugo. From Corunna he returned to Gibraltar through Portugal, by the way of Oporto and Lisbon, re-entering Spain at Bajados, and paffing thence through Seville and Cadiz, to the place from which he fet out. Of the incidents, that befell our traveller in this tour, there are few worth relating, as the reader may conclude from his thinking proper to record the following, which happened to him at Tembiequer. "Here "Here the pofada was bad; but it afforded us an adventure, very fimilar in its nature, to that of Don Quixote and Maritornes; our fair-one was not quite fo ugly as Cervantes's; but he was fully as amorously inclined. We got a quarter with a recefs, wherein two beds were placed; as it was extremely hor, and the recefs ftunk of all kinds of bad fmells, I drew the mattrafs off the platform, and placed it in the middle of the floor; now it happened that our quarter was a paffage room, at one end of which was a little apartment, taken up by a Calazero, going with an empty chaife to Toledo; he retired early to reft, and we were not long after him: at what hour the devil disturbed the repofe of the Calazero, I cannot determine; but in the midst of a most profound fleep, I was awaked, and almoft crushed to death, by an amazing weight falling acrofs me; fo foon as I could fpeak, I roared out luftily, for an initant, when I was relieved from my burthen, and faluted by a hollow and deep-toned voice, with Perdon U. M. Cavallero, which was repeated several times; I was too much flurried to think of Spanish execrations; but I curfed most heartily in English-at lait, recollecting myself, I asked, Que qu'ere U. M.? Nada, replied the voice, Voi a mi quarto Señor. Va U. M. al Demonio, fays I, and then turned myself to fleep; when I was again difturbed by a naked foot, which gave me a flop in the face: Quien es, fays I, loudly'; a female voice replied, Hu-fh-- I then, in a lower, and more gentle tone, afked, Quiere V. M. algo? at the fame time putting my hand out of bed, to feel whether it were a substance or a fhade, that had accofted me; I perceived a glimmering light coming towards me, held out by the witch of Endor, in a yellow petticoat. The girl was fairly caught, and all the powers of eloquence could not prove the contrary. The picture was a good one: the old beldam, with a thin, fhrivelled, yellow countenance, and clamorous voice, expofing, by the dim light of a half extinguished lamp, Maritorne's charms, which were concealed by the thitt only; with fuch a fhift, and fuch charms! the mafter fitting up in bed, endeavouring to vindicate his conduct; and the fervant, awaked out of his fleep, with a blue handkerchief tied about his head, in amazement at the fcene. It being now three o'clock, it was in vain to rest again, fo we fed our cattle, the Calazero his mules, and at four we fet out; the latter foiled in his intrigue, of which I had only the reputation. Thus we left the poor difappointed girl to be feverely lectured by the jealous Jezabel her miftref, who was fo old, that he had quite forgot the time when the ufed to play the fame pranks. Sport on, ye amorous Caftilians; nor let the ill-judged caution of a gloomy Englishman deprive you of those trariports he cannot enjoy." Of the King and Court of Madrid our traveller gives the following defcription. "I was feveral times at cour', during its refidence here: all the royal family dine publicly in separate rooms; and it is the etiquette to * Pofada or Inn. By this being faid to be fimply bad, it must have been comparatively tolerable; our traveller's conftant complaint being against the badnefs of the Inns: his encountering of which he was fo firgularly unlucky as to meet feveral times with the worst in the world. |