"O happy be ye, beaftes wilde, "Of these your faithfull makes (a). "But welaway, that nature wrought, "Thee, Phyllida, so faire ; "For I may fay, that I have bought In this part of his work, Mr. Warton has inferted feveral extracts from the manufcript Romance YWAIAN and GAWAIN, written in the reign of Henry the Sixth, in order to lay before his reader a comparative view of our language during that period, and this he is now treating of, and by fo doing the better to illuftrate the refpective ages of fuch pieces as he has already, or intends to produce. The NUTBROWN MAYDE, and the fatyrical ballad called the TOURNAMENT OF TOTENHAM, are by our author claffed under the reign of Henry the Eighth, and apparently with good reafon, although our antiquarians have always afcribed them to that of Henry the Sixth. Both of thefe pieces, but more especially the first, bear ftrong marks of that dawn of genius and tafte which took place during this period, and the language which it exhibits, is not of that harsh and gothic caft which characterifes the poetical performances of Henry the Sixth's time. It is true that the NUT-BROWN MAID does not contain any of thofe claffical images and fanciful conceits which the introduction of the Roman poets and the Italian models had rendered fo abundant; but it is equally true that Lord Surrey, notwithstanding he refined our poetry on thefe very models, yet retained a fimplicity in his poems which could only be the effect of a judg ment naturally chaste and correct; and it is as reasonable to suppose, that whoever wrote the NUTBROWN MAID had, with the fame advantages, as good and as pure a tafte as Lord Surrey. The violence with which the Reformation was carried on during the fhort reign of Edward the Sixth, rendered poetry fubfervient to its views and interefts, and to them alone. The character and fpirit of our compofitions underwent a confiderable alteration, and had not that mixture and display of love and gallantry in them which was fo confpicuous in the writings of the former reign. The metrical verfion of the Pfalms and of different portions of the fcripture, became the only fubjects for the mufe: almoft the whole of the Old and New Teftament was turned into verfe by many of our reverend prelates, and by fuch as were accounted the beft fcholars of their time. The tranflation of the Bible, which even during the reign of Henry the Eighth was not allowed but with numberlefs reftrictions, was now admitted into the churches, and into the hands of the vulgar in general. The effect this tranflation had on our language is remarked upon with great judgment by our author. He fays, "I must add here, in reference to my general fubject, that the tranflation of the Bible, which in the reign of Edward the Sixth was admitted into the churches, is fuppofed to have fixed our language. It certainly has tranfmitted and perpetuated many antient words which would otherwife have been obfolete or unintelligible. I have never feen it remarked, that at the fame time this tranflation contributed to enrich our native English at an early period, by importing and familiarifing many Latin words(a). Thefe were fuggefted by the Latin vulgate, which was used as a medium by the tranflators. Some of thefe, however, now interwoven into our common fpeech, could not have been understood by many readers even above the rank of the vulgar, when the Bible first appeared in English. Bifhop Gardiner had therefore much lefs rea fon than we now imagine, for complaining of the too great clearnefs of the translation, when with an infidious view of keeping the people in their antient ignorance, he propofed, that instead of always using English phrafes, many Latin words fhould still be preferved, because they contained an inherent fignificance and a genuine dignity, to which the common tongue afforded no correfpondent expreffions of fufficient energy (b)." We now come to the reign of Queen Mary, during the commotions of which was wrote A MIRROUR FOR MAJISTRATES, a poem planned and chiefly executed by Thomas Sackville the first Lord Buckhurft, and Earl of Dor fet, and which our author fays, illuminates with no common luftre that interval of darkness which occupies the annals of English poetry from Surrey to Spenfer. As we have, in another part of our Annual Regifter (c), inferted Mr. Warton's literary character of this nobleman, we shall not dwell upon it here, but only add what he fays of the poem in question. "About the year 1557,he formed the plan of a poem, in which all the illuftrious but unfortunate characters of the English history, from the conqueft to the end of the fourteenth century, were to pass in review before the poet, who de (a) More particularly in the Latin derivative fubftantives, fuch as, divination, perdition, adoption, manifeftation, confolation, contribution, administration, confummation, reconciliation, operation, communication, retribution, preparation, immortality, principality, &c. &c. And in other words, fruftrate, inexcufable, transfigure, concupifcence, &c. &c. (b) Such as, Idololatria, contritus, bolocaufta, facramentum, elementa, bumilatas, fatisfactio, ceremonia, abfolutio, myfterium, penitentia, &c. See Gardiner's proposals in Burnet, HIST. REF. vol. i. B. iii. p. 315. And Fuller, CH. HIST. Book v. Cent. xvi. p. 238. (c) See CHARACTERS, p. 14. of this volume. fcends fcends like Dante into the infernal region, and is conducted by SoRROW. Although a descent into hell had been fuggefted by other poets, the application of fuch a fiction to the prefent defign, is a confpicuous proof of genius and even of invention. Every perfonage was to recite his own miffortunes in a separate foliloquy. But Sackville had leifure only to finish a poetical preface called an INDUCTION, and one legend, which is the life of Henry Stafford Duke of Buckingham. Relinquishing therefore the defign abruptly, and haftily adapting the clofe of his INDUCTION to the appearance of Buckingham, the only ftory he had yet written, and which was to have been the laft in his feries, he recommended the completion of the whole to Richard Baldwyne and George Ferrers." In the induction just mentioned, there are many beautiful, as weil as grand and fublime parts: of the latter fpecies is the following extract from a part of it, which Mr. Warton has inferted, and fpeaking of which, he uses the following words. "Our author appears to have felt and to have conceived with true tafte, that very romantic part of Virgil's Eneid which he has here happily copied and heightened. The imaginary beings which fate within the porch of hell, are all his own. I must not omit a fingle figure of this dreadful groupe, hor one compartment of the portraitures which are feigned to be sculptured or painted on the SHIELD of WAR, indented with galhes deepe and wide And, firft, within the porch and jaws of hell Her eyes unftedfast, rolling here and there, Toft and tormented with the tedious thought Next, faw we DREAD, all trembling how he fhook, And, And, next, within the entry of this lake, Sat fell REVENGE, gnashing her teeth for ire; When fell REVENGE, with bloody foul pretence, His face was lean, and fome-deal pin'd away, His food, for moft, was wild fruits of the tree, Our author compares Dante's Inferno with Sackville's Defcent into Hell. They have both for their foundation the fixth book of Virgil, and their different modes of treating the fubject, arife in a great measure from the different periods at which they wrote. Dante compofed his poem about the year 1310, and when the spirit of chivalry and romance was at the higheft. It is this fpirit that renders many of his fublime parts more fearful and terrible by infufing into them an air of mfte rioufnefs, and it is the fame spirit that often exhibits effects of the most ridiculous and incongruous nature, when incorporated with the ideas of the antient claffics. In treating the fofter paffions Dante is incomparable: his defcriptions are the most natural and graceful that can be conceived, and tinctured with a degree of fentiment and refinement (for the fource of which we must look to chivalry and romance), not eafily to be found in the best claffical authors. Sackville wrote about the year 1557, when the models of antiquity were better understood than they were in Dante's time, and when when they began to have their true and genuine effect. His compofitions are therefore more natural and correct, although inferior, as there are few but are fo, in point of fublimity to Dante. Mr. Warton has been particularly attentive to the works of thefe two poets, not only on account of their intrinfic merit, but alfo from their being the models which Spenfer and Milton afterwards ftudied with great attention. During this reign feveral critical and rhetorical works were published, and the cultivation of our language began to be attended to by men of learning. The pedantry of treating all fubjects in the Latin tongue was first broke through by the TOXOPHILUS of Roger Afkam in English, and by fome regular fyftems of logic and rhetoric in the fame language, by Thomas Wilfon, in 1553, tutor to Henry and Charles Brandon, Dukes of Suffolk, afterwards fecretary of state and privy counfellor. We shall not attempt to follow our author through a regular account of the writers of these times, contenting ourselves with remarking only upon the more grand and decifive periods of the improvement of our poetry. In the beginning of Elizabeth's reign appeared the play of GORDOBUC, written by the fame Lord Buckhurst we have before spoken of. As this is the firft regular tragedy in our language, our author has given it an attention beyond what it claimed as forming a part of his fyftem: the character he gives of it is as follows. "That this tragedy was never a favourite among our ancestors, and has long fallen into general oblivion, is to be attributed to the nakedness and uninteresting nature of the plot, the tedious length of the fpeeches, the want of a difcrimination of character, and almoft a total abfence of pathetic or critical fituations. It is true that a mother kills her own fon. But this act of barbarous and unnatural impiety, to fay nothing of its almost unexampled atrocity in the tender fex, proceeds only from a brutal principle of fudden and impetuous revenge. It is not the confequence of any deep machination, nor is it founded in a proper preparation of previous circumftances. She is never before introduced to our notice as a wicked or defigning character. She murthers her fon Porrex, becaufe in the commotions of a civil diffenfion, in felf-defence, after repeated provocations, and the ftrongest proofs of the bafeft ingratitude and treachery, he had flain his rival brother, not without the deepest compunction and remorfe for what he had done. mother murthering a fon is a fact which must be received with horror; but it required to be complicated with other motives, and prompted by a co-operation of other caufes, to roufe our attention, and work upon our paffions. I do not mean that any other motive could have been found, to palliate a murther of fuch a nature. Yet it was poffible to heighten and to divide the distress, by rendering this bloody mother, under the notions of human frailty, an object of our compaffion as well as of our abhorrence. But perhaps thefe artifices were not yet known or wanted. The general itory of the play is great in A |