and by himself indeed in other cases, as a convenient resort, where the trifling hinderance of an impossibility was to be surmounted. Homer, who cannot be accused of timidity in fiction, but who, like his own hero, took care " Ψευδεα πολλα λέγων," that they should be “ ἐτυμοίσιν ὁμοῖα," did not trust for the concealment of that hero to twenty years of absence, and nearly incessant hardships. When he returns to his native country, the powerful wand of Minerva is employed to disguise him effectually, and screen him from discovery. Mr. Southey, with a bolder daring, supposes Roderick so metamorphosed by grief in considerably less than half that time, as to escape the penetrating glance of the fondest and most deeply-rooted attachment. His victory over Witiza had taken place but ten years before his foster-father details to him, as to a stranger, the subsequent triumph; and some years must have elapsed between that victory and his defcat by the Moors. We confess therefore that, in spite of our wish to give the imagination its fullest scope, and to go to the utmost verge of poetic credence, this gross improbability has met us at every turn in this poem with a broad glare of fiction, which has considerably lessened its hold upon the fancy. But if we turn from the plot to the manners and sentiments of the poem, with much to praise, we have to lament one striking inconsistency in its tone, to which we have already alluded; it is the totally unqualified expression of a deeply vindictive spirit. It must be admitted, that the circumstances of the plot made it necessary to exhibit the workings of such a spirit to a certain degree, in order to be true to nature: but the fault lies in the apparent zest and relish with which this is done. Instead of being cast into the shade, as a necessary but unwelcome blemish in the picture, it is forced upon the eye both by prominence of situation and strength of colouring. " And pray'd the while for patience for himself Where he lies howling, the avenger cried, No one could have objected to these and similar expressions, had they been attributed to appropriate characters, had Witiza and Orpas been represented as nourishing these remorseless feelings, instead of exciting them in the breasts of Rusilla and Roderick. But as it is, and especially in the latter case, they are grating to the ear, from their evident inconsistency with those high principles, the operation of which on the mind of the penitent King forms the characteristic feature, and leading interest of the poem. With this exception, Mr. Southey has succeeded in giving a beautiful and useful display of the powerful efficacy of those principles. We have heard some of his readers carp at the frequent reference that is made to them; but this, we think, is owing partly to their overlooking this intention in the author, and partly to the same baneful squeamishness, and extravagant fear of being deemed puritanical, which has unnerved and impoverished the style of our theology, and weeded our colloquial vocabulary at the expense of some of its fairest flowers. There is a medium between the adoption of a cant phraseology, and the studied rejection of all reference to what ought to be always uppermost in our minds. If, as we have the best reason to suppose, the prevailing tone of our conversation is to be regarded as a fair sample of "the abundance of our hearts," the inference to be drawn from the general tone of our social intercourse is by no means a favourable one. Did Mr. Southey's poem afford any instances of a levity of association in this respect, we should be amongst the first to reprobate such an abuse; but, as it is, we think that so far from deserving censure, his introduction of the rich vein of pure and golden ore, which may be traced from the beginning to the end of his work, is worthy of praise and imitation. The extracts which we have made from the poem will convey a pretty clear notion of its language and versification, the flow of which might with advantage have been more varied, but is as easy as was consistent with a due degree of sonorous dignity, which is successfully maintained throughout. We should not think it worth while to pick out the scattered passages which lie open to criticism, but for the hope that, should our observations chance to meet the author's eye, they may help, in however trifling a degree, to give a higher polish to future editions of his work. There is something rather Della-cruscan in these lines : "Nay, quoth Pelayo; what hast thou to do (Vol. I. p. 107.) The fourth sentence in the tenth Canto, beginning with " eagerly at every foot-fall," is imperfect in its construction, a repetition of the nominative case being necessary before the verb " obeyed." There is rather too strong a family likeness between the closing lines of the twelfth Canto, and these lines in the eighteenth. The following lines and expressions occur to us as open to criticism: "Each strengthening each, and all confirming all." " only thought of how to make." "The armour which in Wamba's wars I wore." "Cold accoil;" " commeasurable strength;" " mouldering fires;" remote from frequentage;" "an auriphrygiate mitre." We cannot conclude without entering a strong protest against the modern fashion of encumbering a poem with a body of notes, swelled by quotations, which nobody reads, and every body must pay for. It is a heavy tax on the reading part of the community, and we doubt whether it is one which answers in the end even to those who impose it, since it must raise the price of the article so encumbered above the limit, by which a large class of purchasers think it right to bound their literary indulgences. ART. XIV.-Αἰσχύλου Προμηθεὺς Δεσμωτής. Æschyli Prometheus Vinctus. Ad Fidem Manuscriptorum emendavit, Notas et Glossarium adjecit Carolus Jacobus Blomfield, A. M. Collegii SS. Trinitatis apud Cantabrigienses nuper Socius. Editio Secunda. 8vo. Londini, Mawman; Cantabrigiæ, Deighton. 1812. Αἰσχύλου Ἑπτὰ ἐπὶ Θήβας. Æschyli Septem contra Thebas. Ad Fidem Manuscriptorum emendavit, Notas et Glossarium adjecit Carolus Jacobus Blomfield, A. M. 8vo. Cantabrigiæ, 1812. Αἰσχύλου Περσαί. Æschyli Persce. Ad Fidem Manuscriptorum emendavit, Notas et Glossarium adjecit Carolus Jacobus Blomfield, A. M. 8vo. Cantabrigiæ, 1814. It is unnecessary to remind our readers of the eminent services conferred by the late Professor Porson on Grecian literature, and of the great loss which the lovers of the ancient classics have sustained by his death. He had accomplished but a small proportion of his edition of Euripides; enough, however, to raise high expectations of his future labours, and to excite a deep regret that those labours were so prematurely terminated. He was the founder of a school in criticism; and in this view the beneficial influence of his example and authority will long survive him. He banished entirely from the field which he occupied, the dull prosings, the conjectural speculations, and the ingenious triflings of commentators, who were accustomed to think their own lucubrations more interesting than the authors they professed to elucidate, and who not unfrequently rewarded the patience of their readers, by leading them through circuitous passages into final error and confusion. In the task of editing Euripides, Mr. Porson has been succeeded by Mr. Monk, who succeeded him likewise in the office of Greek Professor, and whose Hippolytus we have already noticed.Æschylus has also fallen into the hands of two scholars of no mean celebrity: Dr. Butler of Shrewsbury has nearly completed an extensive variorum edition; and Mr. Blomfield, who is evidently a disciple of the Porsonian school, has published the first three plays, and is in progress with the remainder. His first edition of the Prometheus appeared in 1810, and was, we believe, the first book printed with the beautiful Greek types cast under Professor Porson's own inspection. The text generally received as the groundwork of this and the other tragedies was that of the Glasgow edition of 1806, which, our readers are aware, was prepared by Porson, though it was printed clandestinely without his name, and without his consent. The accompanying notes are on the plan adopted by the Professor himself in his four plays of Euripides, very short and chiefly employed in stating the various readings, or the grounds of the alterations received. They are " enriched," as Mr. Blomfield says, with several copied from the manuscripts of Porson, which are printed in italics, and distinguished with his initials, R. P. that they may be the more easily recognized, amidst the baser matter of ordinary notes. To us, however, we must confess, these MS. notes of Porson appear somewhat jejune and unimportant, very necessary to be preserved, no doubt, for the satisfaction of the scrupulous idolaters of his great name, but constituting a very small proportion indeed of the merits of the present edition, as they are principally occupied in pointing out the citations of different passages by later writers. -The printed text of the play is followed by a Glossary, exhibiting a collected and well-arranged view of the interpretations given by different grammarians of all the words requiring explanation. This Glossary is an improvement upon Porson's plan, and is calculated to answer all the purposes of a philological commentary. In 1812 was published a second edition of the Prometheus; and then was supplied, what was obviously needed, an Index to the Glossary, containing a reference to all the words and phrases explained. About the same time also the Septem contra Thebas appeared, published on exactly the same plan with the improved edition of the Prometheus. The Perse, the last play yet published, appeared about the end of 1814. We are waiting in anxious expectation for the remaining dramas of the great Father of Greek tragedy; but in the meantime we shall call the attention of our readers to those already before us. We consider the proper ultimate end of all the labour, and learning, and investigation employed in the publication of classical authors to be, to render the treasures they contain more easy of access. There must necessarily be much difficulty and abstruseness in the intermediate steps, much research into manuscripts scarcely legible, much patient toil in comparing the established usages of speech, much labour in reducing them, as far as may be, to simplified rules, and still more in eliciting a clear and intelligible text from the jargon of various readings, and the accumulated blunders of successive editors. But all this is to be done not for any inherent interest or value attached to such labours, but that many may be made wise by the diligence of a few; that ordinary readers may share in the enjoyment produced by the final result; that taste may be assisted by the researches of criticism; and that the treasures of ancient genius may be thrown open to a more enlarged circle of inquirers by an easy and pleasant approach. For the satisfaction of those who are competent to investigate the point, it is obvious that as there must exist a reason why one reading is right and another wrong, that reason ought to be laid before them. But still an editor's notes should be simple and concise in giving this reason, and detached from all extraneous matter; that the mere reader of taste, with his mind on fire, may not be hampered with investigations belonging only to the critic, and puzzled with conscientious scruples about dὲ and ye, when he looks only for the light of explanation to help him to follow with certainty the march of original genius. The demands of taste have been far too little attended to in the publication of those works, which spread before it the most inspiring enjoyments. Though we need not at every step be reminded in the language of common-place that this is beautiful-that this is sublime; we should be interrupted as little as possible when we are saying all this to ourselves. We require that the collation of MSS. and the promulgation of rules, should not be regarded as the ultimate end of commenting, but as means employed in subservience to the great object of enlightening the understanding, and impressing the heart. As we advance towards the perfection of the building, we expect to see the superfluous scaffolding removed: and we would in like manner remove the accumulated |