MR. URBAN,

MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.

Nov. 3.

In compliance with the suggestion of your Correspondent K. N., I beg leave to state, through the medium of your valuable Miscellany, that I was quite unconscious of a copy of Junius's Cædmon, with corrections by Lye or Manning, ever having had existence, until a few weeks ago, when a friend informed me that it figured in Thorpe the Bookseller's Catalogue, accompanied by the assertion that the notes to my edition of Cædmon were taken principally from those corrections.

Perhaps the "well-known Bibliopolist" will condescend to inform his customers, by what chance an assertion so grossly false found its way into his Catalogue. Yours, &c. B. THORPE.

J. M. remarks, "The late learned Historian of Greece once asked the writer of this note, what he supposed to be the object which Cæsar had in view in his invasion of Britain. Some reasons having been assigned; 'No,' he said, 'that was not the cause-his object was to procure slaves. The other day, while reading Cicero's Epistles, I met with a passage which corroborates the truth of the Historian's assertion, viz.- Britannici belli exitus exspectatur: constat enim aditus insulæ esse munitos molibus mirificis. Etiam illud jam cognitum est, neque argenti scripulum esse ullum in illa insula, neque ullam spem predæ, nisi ex Mancipiis, ex quibus nullos puto te literis aut musicis eruditos exspectare. Lib. Ep. 4. ep. 16. ad Att.

C. de R. will be obliged to any Genealogical inquirer for any particulars relative to Thomas Burton who lived at Calais in the year 1495, and Robert Limington who died at Calais in 1512. Also of Richard Limington (or Lymington) one of the same family, who was living at about the same period.

Can any of the readers of the Gent. Mag. oblige a Genealogist with an account of the Irish family of Killikelly, who, about a century ago, settled in one of the West India Islands? Their arms are Gules, a tower, supported by two lions rampant, between three crescents all Argent. Crest, an arm in armour hurling a spear, Proper.

ANTIQUARIUS proposes the following queries: What are the arguments in favour of Roger Wendover being the author of the early part of Matthew Paris, Matoria Major, viz., to the year 1235?

Is not the account of Richard II.'s sition attributed to Henry Knyghte published as his in Twysden's Scriptores, a copy of the Roll of Paris ment? or is it to be assigned a Knyghton as its author?-Who H author of the Chronologia, printed a to 2d vol. of the Decem Scriptores, Thorne's chronicle?-Nicolson says Stubbes (Decem Scriptores) may be quently traced to Richard of Heshan should be glad to be referred to the e sages.-Who were the writers of the y drilogus de Vit. S. Thom. a BeeWas Lydgate's Life of S. E ever printed? No. [Harleian MS and 2278.] Or Walter of Cove Work, or Rudborne's Historia M -Is the B. R. who continued Met History of the Kings of England. k naby Riche?

Mr. Samuel Gregory inquires wher were borne by the following Alderme London:

Brackley Kennett, Alderman of " hill Ward, Lord Mayor 1780-bil Putney 12th May, 1782.

Robert Peckham, Alderman of man-street Ward, Lord Mayor Resident or born in Kent. Died 15.1814-buried at Sutton Vale, near Na stone, Kent.

Thomas Sainsbury, Alderman d lingsgate Ward. Resident at Me Surrey. Lord Mayor 1786. D. New Court House, Devonshire, lit

1795.

John Burnell, Alderman of A Ward. Lord Mavor 1727. Died Jan. 1790. Buried at White Wat near Maidenhead, Berks.

William Pickett, Alderman of ( hill Ward. Lord Mayor 1749 D 17th Dec. 1796. Buried at StokeNo ington.

We are obliged by the commun of SCOPA, and his further contr will be acceptable.

The inquiry of U. U. H. for info tion respecting the Hippesley fa too general; he should learn w been already published in the Barra” &c., and then make his inquiries.

The sonnet of ETONENSIS is d We are obliged to defer our M of the late Earl Spencer, Mr. W. R. Spencer, esq. and some

till next month.

THE

GENTLEMAN'S

MAGAZINE.

THE POETICAL WORKS OF REV. GEORGE CRABBE. In 8 Vols.

"Ne forte pudori

Sit tibi Musa lyræ solers, et cantor Apollo."

A POET is generally followed at no very considerable distance by his servant the critic; and, as his rank and fame increase, in the same proportion is the number of his followers enlarged. Such persons as Scott and Byron had a whole clan at their heels for many years; most of them a sort of gentlemen ushers, and persons of very polite behaviour, attached to their chiefs, and anxious to point out their excellencies; while Mr. Keats, or Mr. * * * were per force contented with the small services of a L single attendant. The author of the volumes before us has had his full share of critical accompaniment; and his successive volumes of Poetry have for twice ten years served as whetstones to the wit and acuteness of many clever and ambitious commentators, not only differing much from each other in their various decisions, but even from themselves ;* and shifting round the vane of praise or censure, as caprice suggested, or the breath of public favour blew. Yet as Mr. Crabbe never suffered severely from the fiery darts of the wicked, which were occasionally launched at his poetical fame, so we think, on the other hand, that he was never indebted to any modern scholiast, any Aristarchus, or Servius, for the rapid and lofty elevation of his fame. He was personally unknown to the world of Literature; he had no modern patrons to supply the place of Johnson or of Burke; he had no Mæcenas in Albemarle-street, no friendly Sosius in Burlington-street. The style and subjects of his earlier Muse were not calculated to delight the fastidious saloons of the rich, to satisfy the severe taste of the learned, or to win the timid applauses of the fair; no particular favour was shown to his early attempts to mount Parnassus: he did not follow in the class of his brother bards, or, by belonging to their school, propitiate their

favour.

"Multa Poetarum veniet manus, auxilio quæ
Sit mihi, nam multo plures sumus, ac veluti te
Judice cogemus in hanc concedere turbam."

Mr. Crabbe derived no enlargement of mind, no extended reach of observation, from the diversified views of society and manners which travel affords; nor was he conversant with that deep, rich, and refined literature, -those literæ exquisite et recondita,—which belong to the scholar exclusively, and open to him the peculiar mysteries of antiquity, and the

Sir Egerton Brydges has said with justice, that though the critical disquisitions on Poetry in the leading Reviews, separately taken, are in many cases written with great talent and taste, yet it is impossible to unite them into any uniform or consistent theory. One writer forgets, and one demolishes, what the first had advanced; not to speak of the same writer changing his critical code, as his taste improves and his views enlarge.'

profound and unerring principles of art; and yet by the vigour of his tlents, and his poetical genius, supported by great industry, activity, observation, working on his materials with the patience and zeal of u artist, he won his way progressively to the possession of a reputation wild few of his contemporaries have surpassed, and which no change or capre of public taste can lower or impair. We cannot presume to say how mac of the poetry of the present day will descend to posterity, and what portion of each writer will be preserved from oblivion by the Anderse and Chalmers's of a future age.* * But we may confidently assert, that a selection is to be made by a more severe and critical generation, remore alike from our prejudices and partialities, from the works of our contes poraries, Mr. Crabbe's book will be seen sailing down the sacred river r Immortality, with as large and full-spread saii, and weighty cargo, as = of his rivals. When he first put in his claim to the honest fame' poet, there were some qualities in his poetry, which were conducive his success, while there were others that seemed for awhile to retard progress of its growth in public favour, and repelled the enthusiastic plause which has since decidedly rewarded his labours. Of the first kas must be mentioned what he derived from the subject and style of his he tious narratives. With exceptions too slight to be important, the p of later days had been employed in works of high imagination, strong ca tion, fanciful story, and rich device. Some on tales of mysterious magical agency, lavish alike in the wildness of the inventions, in profuse and luxuriant imagery and thoughts that accompanied them. in the capricious and gorgeous drapery of language that clothed t Some trusted for success to the daring boldness of their outline,some to the careful finishing and polish of their execution. Many p also, we will venture to say, of exquisite beauty, of finished taste, sterling merit, appeared, which the public never greeted with any ot smile than that of contempt, or at best passed them over with cooTM and indifference. From whatever cause it may have proceeded, it evident that the poet and the public were not in harmony; that maker' was not thinking in the spirit of his age; that he had outrun diverged from it, and that he must be content to be understood and a

66

'Posterity will hang with rapture on the half of Campbell,-the fourth par Byron, the sixth of Scott, the scattered tithes of Crabbe, and the three per Southey," &c. So said the Edinburgh Review of 1819; what would they say in 19 + Of Mr. Crabbe's early poetry, The Village' is far superior in poetic viceeffect to the 'Library' or 'Newspaper.' The cause, we conceive, is to be found :7 poet's early habits of observation, his knowledge of the humble walks of life, interest in the occupations and scenes of the society around him; while his de in book-learning in the one case, and his recluse and private life, and conse want of familiar acquaintance with the world, in the other, rendered his poems comparatively flat and feeble. The Parish Register' was a surprise = provement on the former poems; in variety of incident, liveliness of detail, an matic power in representing the passions, as well as in a better style of versihata The Borough' is on the whole inferior. There is more description and re and less of well-drawn character and well-arranged story. The description of religious sects is too long; but it improves much in the latter part; and th some well-conceived portraits, among which 'Blaney,' and the Parish Clerk. 1 conspicuous. With the latter person we are well acquainted. Old Jasper's pa"» is drawn alike with fidelity and force.

See some excellent observations on the causes of public favour being from persons of high poetical merit and granted to the Mediocrists, in Mr. See Review of Sayer's Works, Quarterly Review, No. LXIX. p. 185.

mired by a few great and congenial minds. Shall we venture to say that some of our honoured Laureate's fine epic poems (as we must call them, against his will,) thus languished for years unpraised and unsold? Of this class also were the higher and more imaginative creations of Mr. Coleridge, woven from Apollo's own mantle, as The Ancient Mariner,' and Christabel; and examples from Mr. Wordsworth would extend through half the volumes, which had the singular good fortune to be sneered at and despised by the half-learned and the dull, and of being loved and cherished by every son and daughter of Genius. * While our poets were thus calmly waiting for the future meed of fame, so ignorantly or injuriously withheld, and were dwelling aloft in their ideal worlds, delighting themselves with their splendid fictions, with tales of love and arms, and gentle knights and scornful beauties; with the magicians and dwarfs, and gnomes and genii, the spirits of the mountain, and the maidens of the sea; with lofty stories of northern chivalry like Scott, or descriptions of oriental magnificence and voluptuousness, like Moore; or framing wild and perilous adventures for melancholy heroines, misanthropic pirates, and sentimental pages, like Byron; or adding new wings to the old fabric of pagan mythology, like Keats; or wasting the most splendid and harmonious versification and luxurious fullness of imagery on untractable and revolting subjects, like Shelley ;-Mr Crabbe stept in with an attempt to excite interest in themes far more humble, familiar, and domestic. The other poets were weaving their rich and florid tapestry, and embroidering their costly arras with purple colours and threads of gold; Mr. Crabbe took a plain ground-work for his subject, and spoke in the language of the heart.' He trusted to the fidelity of his narrative, and to the dramatic developement of his passions and characters: in fact, to his sympathy with nature. He did not go to the palace of the Caliph, or the harem of the Sultan, to the land of the citron or the palm, to the den of the Greek pirate, or the seraglio of the Turkish Pasha, for subjects which were to excite interest, and kindle passion: but he sought them in the common life around him, in the cottages and hamlets of his own county and neighbourhood, in the occupations and details, the joys and distresses, the virtues and the crimes, the smiles and the tears of the humblest ranks, and the most depressed and despised society, men cruel, sensual, selfish, cold.' Those who felt no interest in the distresses and disappointments of an Arabian princess, or the loathed melancholy of an Albanian pirate, were moved by the description of sorrows that flowed from congenial sources, and sympathized in the events of a life that was formed in a model like their own. To this may be added the charm that belongs to narration of events, to well-imagined incidents, and the details of personal history. Those who could not reach the high abstractions and fine imagination of Mr. Campbell's poetry, or whose sensibility was not delicate or refined enough to delight in the exquisite taste and gem-like finish of

The late Sir James Mackintosh was the author of some of the best written reviews of modern poems; distinguished alike by their fine critical discrimination, their philosophical taste, and the elegance and beauty of their language. Indulgent indeed he invariably was in his observations on the productions of genius; but that kindness and liberality never clouded the keenness of his sagacity, nor impaired the justice of his decisions. There are some incidental observations on Mr. Wordsworth's poetry in the Edinburgh Review, which we believe to be by him; and which give us this opportunity of offering our humble testimony to his merit as a philosophical critic.

Mr. Rogers's cameos;' could yet feel their curiosity awakened, and ther passions interested, their pity moved, or their indignation aroused, by adventures and histories which Mr. Crabbe's genius spread before the as the twin-figures of Hope and Fear drew back the curtain, where he creatures of the poet's brain were engaged in pursuing their varios 20 fearful destinies, and fulfilling their stern inexorable fates.

Estuat ingens

Imo in corde pudor, mixtoque insania luctu

Et furiis agitatus amor, et conscia virtus.

It is perhaps true, that two poets had preceded Mr Crabbe at no ge distance of time, who had as it were gradually prepared the public to sympathize with the familiar scenes, the humble occupations, the or nary feelings, and the petty joys and distresses of village life; and s they possessed a claim to the merit of having enlarged the boundaries the empire of poetic fiction, and restored her lost but lawful pe sions; but Cowper, who was one to whom we allude, had a femize derness of disposition, a refined and nervous temperament, and a iz excited moral and religious feeling, which would have shrunk with air sion and disgust from scenes which Crabbe dared and delighted to pe tray; and Goldsmith never would have possessed patience or skil to lect the rich materials, which, duly arranged and worked cp. form the and masterly groups of Mr. Crabbe s painting. Beautiful as is the per of Goldsmith, and delicate and delightful the breath of that sof pensive melancholy that harmonizes the whole, yet even in his ters reflections we feel that we are rather sympathizing with the poet than with the subjects of his poetry; that we do not weep over cat which we believe existed only in the poets conception, or are at in much exaggerated in his descriptions; that we do not join in ris tion over the decay of a system and state of society, which ent exist, than the golden pictures of pastoral simplicity and ba through the enchanted veil of his poetry, we catch evastat the unfinished and imperfect argument behind.*

But we have said that there were also qualities corrected Crabbe's poetical system, which were at first unfavourable to tion, and which may in some measure affect it even at the We allude to his materials being so largely collected from the repulsive realities of common life, seen in its most dra

able form; and from the fabric of his tales being forced if the passions, the wild delusions, the paltry jeabosies and may reg loathsome crimes, the brutal susuality, and the bartzer & the ignorant and poor. Some readers #ght be repeled fr these, so powerfully pourtrayed, by delictcy of taste; at tiveness of fec. g. The poetic purasure w.