University of Virginia Library

Euripides.

It is scarcely necessary to acquaint the reader, that this verse contains an allusion to the customs of the monks in the late monastery of La Trappe, in Lower Normandy.

Heraclitus, a famous philosopher of Ephesus, in Asia Minor, known by the name of the Weeping Philosopher, as Democritus was of the Laughing. Diog. Laer. in Vita.

The respected friend of Dr Priestley.

An injured, unfortunate character alluded to in the Complaints of the Poor People of Enoland.

A pleasant village in Essex, bordering on the river Stour, where are several boarding-schools, in one of which, under the care of Dr. Grimwood, the Author resided some years ago.

Alawn, one of the most ancient British Bards. See an Ode to the British Muse, by the honest and well-informed Edward Williams, in Poems Lyric and Pastoral. There are, also, some Icelandic and Irish Odes, translated by Charles Wilson, a person, as I perceive by the Nordymra, and Walker's History of the Irish Bards, Sect ix. x. xi. well acquainted with the Icelandic and Irish languages, and poetry.

This work is intitled, First and Second Books of Paradise Lost, printed from the First and Second Editions, collated; the original system of orthography restored, the punctuation corrected, and extended with the various readings and notes chiefly rythmical.. This work, if executed on the plan of the Books already published, would be a valuable publication with respect to the mechanical part of blank verse, and shew how a great critic may mangle a greater poet. Dr. Bentley is here alluded to.

Plutarch in his treatise De Audiendis Poetis, asserts of the great poets of antiquity what nearly amounts to Lucretius's assertion in his first book De Rerum Natura. “Few,” says Plutarch, “are acquainted, that they contain a great mixture of fable and fiction, like poison mixed with our food, and that neither Homer, nor Pindar, nor Sophocles, spoke conformably to their convictions, when speaking of such things, as, &c. Πλουταρχου Χαιρωνεως Βιβλιον, πως δει τον νεον ποιηματων ακουειν.” A person, however, may undoubtedly be pleased with the poetry, though he may not be convinced in all things of the truth of the representations: and it will at all times be hazardous to quote poets, whose great province is to please, for the truth of speculative opinions. Even Milton is often quoted in support of opinions, which he did not retain to the close of his life. For from a Calvinist, he became not only an Arminian, but probably an Arian. No insinuation is, however, here intended against Milton's sincerity: and all that has been said is merely en passant. See Toland's Life of Milton.

A name applied to Ossian the son of Fingal, in the poems ascribed to him, as translated by Macpherson: concerning the authenticity of these poems it is unnecessary to say any thing here.—Ossian lived in the third century.

Caron, or Carrun, a small river in Sterlingshire, in the neighbourhood of Agricola's Wall. The scene of the dramatic poem entitled, The War of Caros, lies on the banks of this river. See Ossian's Poems.

The river Clyde.

On some future opportunity I shall extend this list of Scotch-poets, and shall avail myself of Campbell's History of Scotch Poetry.

The principal of the ancient Scottish poets. He chiefly excels in descriptive poetry: of which species of composition is The Golden Terge. Dunbar died in the middle of the 16th century; his poems were some time since republished in Scotland.

Dunkeld, in Perthshire, was formerly an episcopal see; and Gawin Douglas, brother to the Earl of Angus, an excellent poet, was some time bishop of it. Douglas translated Virgil; the prologues to which display wonderful powers of description. Other poems also were written by this writer, the most distinguished of which is an allegorical poem, intitled, King Hart. Douglas died in 1522. See Pinkerton's Ancient Scottish Poems, in two vols. 8vo.

The ruins of a fine abbey are at Dunkeld.

The river Tweed divides England and Scotland.

The Tweed has been much celebrated by the Scottish poets, and is the scene of some of their most beautiful songs.

Dr. Anderson is editor of The Works of the British Poets, From Chaucer to the present time, including also the best translations from the classical Greek and Latin poets, with prefaces biographical and critical.

A pastoral drama, written by Allan Ramsay, much admired in Scotland, perhaps too much; but certainly much under-rated by Pinkerton. See preface to Ancient Scottish Poems, Vol. I.

The well-known Robert Burns.

Such at least is the opinion of well-informed people in Scotland: a hint to their modern poets, to be cautious of making experiments in their own language.

A village near Kelso in Berwickshire, near which the little river Eden flows, from which the village takes its name: the native place of Thomson, the author of the Seasons.

Near Kelso the rivers Tiviot and Tweed join.

The author of the state of the prisons in Engand and Wales. It is, however, not intended to compliment the present rage for building prisous, many of which have no inhabitants, and others are true Bastilles. In the West of England this rage has been carried to a height truly ridiculous: in Glocestershire are no less than seven Howard, however, was a well intentioned man. He died in Russia, of an infection caught in a prison.

On occasion of his requesting the author to sit for his portrait.

Gray.

A river in Devonshire.

See her celebrated Ode in Longinus.

A chain of mountains in Scotland, running through Lothian.

The highest mountains in North and South Wales.

The highest mountains in North and South Wales.

The highest mountains in North and South Wales.

A chain of mountains running East and West almost the whole length of Scotland.

Called by artists the Clear Obscure. See Webb on Painting. Dial. V.

The Tay issues from Loch Tay, in Broadalbin, and divides Scotland into North and South.

Tintern Abbey, in Monmouthshire, the finest ruin of the kind in England.

Author of a Journal of a Tour through North Wales.

Dr. Aikin, author of the Calendar of Nature, Evenings at Home, Poetical, Critical, and Topographical Works.

Arthur Aikin was engaged in a mineralogical survey of Scotland. Saussure is the author of, Voyages dans les Alpes.

For an account of this Institution, as founded by David Williams, author of various political works, and of the History of Monmouthshire, see my Dissertation on the Theory and Practice of Benevolence.

See Milton's Paradise Lost, Book III.

A more correct copy of these verses may be found in the last annual account of the Literary Fund, in which are appropriate poems by the elder Captain Morris, William Boscawen, and W. T. Fitzgerald. The above lines were printed from the author's incorrect copy when he was out of town. A more correct copy may, also, be found in the Gentleman's and Lady's Magazines.

For an account of Colonel Sir Richard Lovelace, see The Poet's Fate.

Of the talents and learning of the editor of Bellendenus, it was unnecessary to say any thing. The lines were written on receiving an account of the very benevolent exertions of Doctor Parr on many occasions, more particularly on one, and of the malignant conduct of an insignificant persecutor.

A river Avon (for there are several of that name in England and Scotland) passes by Stratford, in Warwickshire, which is, therefore, called Stratford on Avon, the birth-place of Shakespeare. Hatton is a village about two miles from Warwick.

Author of the State of the Prisons in England and Wales.

Written in the life-time of Howard.

Homer.

Alludes to some strokes of exquisite painting at the close of the sixth book of the Iliad; where Andromache, the wife of Hector, is represented viewing the battle from the walls of a tower:

Royal Hospitals in London founded by Edw. VI.

Alludes to the cruelties practised in France under Lewis the XIV. the fulsome panegyrics offered him by the clergy, and the Te Deum ordered to be sung by Innocent XI.

See the Groans of the French Protestants, and the History of the Reformation in France by the celebrated Reformer, John Claude.

See The Fair Believer, or Asteria Rocking the Cradle, in the former part of these Poems.

The Tweed is unusually rapid and violent here.

This delightful spot, now the residence of Lord and Lady Buchan, was formerly a monastery. In a part of the chapel are now placed the busts of our English poets. Lord Buchan is well known as a man of letters.

Thomson, the author of the Seasons, was born at Ednam, by which the river Eden passes. A Life of that Poet has been written by Lord Buchan.

To Dryburgh-Abbey.

Part of this hymn has been published before in the Monthly Magazine.

Mithra is worshipped, as the source of light, the sun, by the Persians and Indians. An allusion is here made to a fine hymn at the end of Maurice's Second Volume of Indian Antiquities.

Rousseau, though placed above the necessity of working, copied music for a shilling a sheet.

Sir William Jones published Eastern Poems, and his Specimen Poeseos Asiaticæ, before he visited the East. In 1784 he was appointed chief judge in India, with an annual salary of 80001.

Dr. Darwin, author of the Loves of the Plants.

Dr. Wolcot, known by the name of Peter Pinder, Esq.

A mere allusion to the author of the Essay on the Life and Writings of Pope, and to the Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford; though with their particular preferments I am quite unacquainted.

Pope, previously to his translating the Iliad, laboured under pecuniary difficulties. That undertaking placed him in a condition of great independence, for a poet, by bringing him 5,3201. clear of deductions. See Dr. Johnson's Life of Pope, among the Lives of the English Poets.

Allan Ramsay, a Scotch poet, author of an admired pastoral eclogue, entitled, The Gentle Shepherd, raised himself from a low station to some consequence.

Two of the most distinguished wits of those times, the duke of Buckingham, and the Earl of Rochester, became the declared enemies of Dryden. In 1671, under the character of Bays, the poet was held up to public ridicule, in a farce entitled the Rehearsal. The Earl of Rochester also became the patron of Settle, in order to injure Dryden; nor did he rest till he procured the latter a sound drubbing. Rochester, in conjunction with others of the nobility, hired persons to way-lay and beat him, supposing him the author of an Essay on Satire, that had been handed about in manuscript. Each of the hints in the text alludes to something specific in the life of Dryden.

Countess of Ormond, to whom Dryden addressed an elegant complimentary poem.

Duke of Dorset.

The Life of Dryden is the best written, and the most interesting of all the Lives of the Poets written by Dr. Johnson.

The poetry in Dodsley's Miscellany, and in the various Monthly Magazines, is, for the most part, composed by men of leisure.

Written at the time when there was said to be a great scarcity of corn. The royal family, and many of the nobility, most graciously abstained from the use of wheaten bread, for the sake of the poor.

Foote, the celebrated comedian, had a leg made of cork.

The first persons that went from England to settle in America, were the puritans, who afterwards split into different sects, all disaffected to the established religion of their own country, or persecuted for their opposition to it.

Two well-known writers of odes, the former poet laureat: the latter addressed a fine ode to Howard.

The Baviad, a satirical Poem, directed against Robert Merry, the author of De la Crusca. The Mæviad has been since published by the same author.

Joshua Barnes was Greek professor in the university of Cambridge, at the close of the last century; eminent and learned, though inclined to trifling and pomposity. He was editor of Euripides, of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Anacreon's Odes, and wrote the History of the Black Prince He was likewise no unsuccessful versifier of Greek, and turned the book of Esther into Greek heroics, with as much ease as he made the following lines kick with k, and rattle with r.

In his Epilogue to Homer's Odyssey, he gives an account sufficiently flattering of himself, and orders Calliope to keep, alive his name in the world as a person of no small consequence.

In his Ευχαριστηριον Barnes is as abundant in compliments to others; he ransacks the two universities, the bench of bishops, the public schools: he finds every where friends and patrons; he records their names, and emblazons their actions.

The author of Hudibras, that celebrated artist in satire, a severe lampooner of the Puritans and Roundheads. Courtiers, royalists, and majesty, however rewarded not his talents: of whom probably he, at length, expressed himself in some such manner as this—

These lines are extracted from a poem entitled Hudibras at Court, inserted in some editions of Butler's Remains; but as they occur not in Thyer's edition, I quote them not as Butler's, though expressive, probably, of his sentiments, if not written by him.

The truth is, the admired poem, entitled Hudibras, justified its author in forming great expectations; it was read by the king, studied by the courtiers, and universally admired by the royalists; yet the author lived in obscurity, died in want, and at his death was rewarded with a monument, and an epitaph!

Colonel Sir Richard Lovelace was an amiable and accomplished man, in the time of the civil wars; by the men respected for his moral worth and literary talents; by the fair sex almost idolized, for the elegance of his person, and the sweetness of his manners. He was author of a collection of poems, entitled Lucasta, printed in 1649. Some beautiful copies of verses, extracted from that collection, may be seen in Percy's reliques of English Poesy, vol. ii. and in the Gentleman's Magazine.

Lovelace was a great loyalist, and appointed by the people of Kent to deliver their petition to the house of commons, for the restoration of Charles, and for settling the government. In the Gatehouse, Westminster, where he was confined, he composed that well-known and elegant little song, entitled, Loyalty confined.

After a few months confinement, he obtained his enlargement; but, partly by furnishing the king with men and money, and partly by assisting ingenious persons of every description in difficulties, he became himself involved in the greatest distress, and died in abject poverty.

In a note, it is added, “John Taylor, the water-poet, an honest man, who owns he learned not so much as his Accidence: a rare example of modesty in a poet—”

Stephen Duck was a thresher in the reign of George the First, an honest, modest, and ingenious man: a volume of poems of his was published, and much patronized.

Homer, according to some, means a blind man. Εντευθεν/ δε και τουνομα Ομηρος επεκρατησε τω Μελεσιγενει απο της συμφορας οι γαρ Κυμαιοι τους τυφλους ομηρους λεγουσι Herodotus, Περι της Ομηρου Βιοτης.

Favourite notions, these, of the Platonists. See more particularly the Phædrus of Plato.

This subject has lately been discussed at large by the author of the Analysis of Ancient Mythology. See Bryant's Dissertation of the War of Troy.

The itch of writing, the “scribendi cacoethes.”

Steph. Græc. Epigram. lib. ii.

The person mentioned by Herodotus was a schoolmaster.

It is scarcely necessary to acquaint the reader, that, when I speak of Homer as a blind beggar, I make free with a little of that fiction generally admitted in poetry. The Αοιδος, the ancient strolling bard, both in Greece and Britain, was a respectable and independent character, though not decorated with titles, or overburthened with riches.

It may not be improper to subjoin the following extract from sect viii. of an Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer, to prevent any mistaken notions concerning the character of the Αοιδος, or bard.

“Few people have conceived a just opinion of this profession, or entered into its dignity; the reason of which I take to be, that we have no modern character like it: for I should be unwilling to admit the Irish or Highland Rüners to a share of the honour; though their business, which is to entertain a company with the recital of some adventures, resembles a part of the other. The Trovadores, or Troubadours of Provence, the earliest of the moderns who discovered any vein for poetry, have a better claim; they sang their verses to the harp, or other instrument they could use, and attained to a just cadence, and return of verse in their stanzas; but had neither manners nor language for great attempts.”

The author of the Life and Writings of Homer asserts, that “Homer's being poor, and living as a wandering indigent bard, was, in relation to his poetry, the greatest happiness that could have befallen him.” Sect. viii. And says one of our old poets,

Herbert.

Petri Aligonii Medici Legatus, five de Exilio, libri duo: Accessere Joan. Pierius Valerianus, et Cornelius Tollius, de Infelicitate Literatorum, ut et Josephus Barberius de Miseriâ Poetarum Græcorum.

See the Poet's Fate.—Sufficient has been there said to prevent mistaken notions concerning the strolling bard, the Αοιδος among the ancient Greeks. It should be further noticed, that in England, Scotland, and Ireland, the bards were held, in remote times, in great veneration; and, in Ireland, more particularly, they were the second order in the state. See Walker's Memoirs of the Irish Bards.—A change of manners, brought the bards and minstrels into contempt; and no later than in 1458, the bards were classed, in an act of the Scottish Parliament, with gypsies, masterful beggars, and feigned fools. See Pinkerton's Essay on the origin of Scottish poetry, prefixed to ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 73.

The Miseries of a Pure Scholar.—By A. Arbuthnot.

Ovid is here more particularly alluded to, who was banished by the emperor Augustus to Tomos, an Island in the Euxine Sea, from whence he wrote many poems, more particularly his four books of Epistles from Pontus: he died in exile, and sent his own epitaph in an epistle to his wife.

Ovid. Trist.

Dante, also, the Italian poet, was banished from Florence, and died in banishment. His epitaph, written by himself, closes as follows:—

Elogia Doct. Virorum, Paulo Iovio. p. 18.

Here also might be mentioned Anacreon, who retired to Samos; Æschylus and Euripedes, who retired to the court of Hiero, and Theocritus, who banished himself to the court of Philadelphus, in Egypt. The Persian poet Ferdusi; Petrarch, and Boccacio among the Italians, Klopstocke the German, and even the ingenious Voltaire, might here be mentioned,

(See Anacreon and other poets at Foreign Courts, in Thomson's Picture of Poetry.)

Johnson says of Addison's marriage to the Countess Dowager of Warwick, “that he espoused her on terms much like those on which a Turkish Princess is espoused, to whom the Sultan is reported to pronounce, Daughter, I give thee this man for thy slave.”

Edward Phillips, in his Theatrum Poetarum, mentions Diphytas, a poet, and Grammarian, who having written invectives against monarchy, was crucified on a mountain of Magnesia. But the allusion here is more particularly to Lucan, the author of the Pharsalia. He died in a hot bath, where he had his veins opened by order of the Emperor Nero, over whom he obtained a victory in a literary contest, which, if Persius's quotation from him be a fair sample, he might have done with less ability. He died repeating with earnestness the following lines in the Pharsalia, applied originally to the Spartan Hero, Leonidas.

Seneca met with the same fate. We might have illustrated by the tradition current in Wales, respecting the bards put to death by Edward the Third, on which Gray's Ode is founded; —there was a partial banishment of the bards from Ireland. Walker's History of Irish Bards, p. 55.

Marcus Æmilius Scaurus, a Roman tragedian in the reign of Tiberius, on account of some sarcastic expressions in his tragedy of Atreus, supposed to allude to the Emperor, was so alarmed as to destroy himself.

Chatterton in England was supposed to poison himself. See Dr. Gregory's life of Chatterton. Homer has by some been supposed to be starved to death. Valerius Maximus mentions a report of his being killed by fishermen, because he could not answer certain questions. Val. Max. lib. ix. cap. xii. It is reported by one of the biographers of Otway, that having fasted too long, and being relieved by charity, he swallowed too greedily what had been given him, and was choaked, Johnson says of him, “he appears by some of his verses to have been a zealous loyalist, and had what in those days was the common reward of loyalty, he lived and died neglected.”

Boyce, the author of a serious poem on Creation, was, as I perceive by D' Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, starved to death.

Here Æschylus and Euripides more particularly might be mentioned, who retired in disgust to the court of Hiero.

In allusion to Linus, Thamyris or Tamyris, and Orpheus. Each of these bards was antecedent to Homer; but the account of their death is intermixed with fable. Some say, that Hercules killed Linus with his own lyre; others that Apollo pierced him with a lance. Hence the distich

Thamyris is said to have had his eyes pulled out by the muses. Καθυπερτεραι γενομεναι και των ομματων αυτον και κιθαρωδιας εστηρησαν. Apollodori Athen. Bibliotheca, Lib. 1.

Orpheus, according to some, was struck dead with thunder.

Apollodorus says, he was torn to pieces by the Mœnades.

Several of the Popes amused themselves with writing poetry. Pope Leo X. made one of an ingenious circle of men, critics and poets, that assembled at Rome. Vid. Stradæ Prolus. p. 210.

The writings of Pope Pius the Second are numerous. His poetical works consist of epigrams, the Nephiliticum, and epistles. Pope Urbanus, also, was a poet.

Julius Cæsar, besides commentaries, wrote poems. Suetonius says of him, Reliquit et de analogia, quosdam libros, et annotationes totidem, ac præterea poema, quod inscribitur iter: and again, Feruntur et a puero et ab adolescentulo quædam scripta, ut laudes Herculis, Tragœdia Œdipus. Augustus Cæsar would not permit the latter to be published, and they are lost.

Augustus Cæsar, the patron of Virgil and Horace. Suetonius says, there was extant in his time a book written by Augustus, entitled, Sicily, and another small book of epigrams. Four of Horace's most excellent odes are compliments to Augustus. It would be difficult to find in all the writings of antiquity a panegyric more highly polished, than the Introduction to the Epistle to Augustus.

The Æneid, also, is a laboured eulogium on the government of Augustus, and tended, beyond any thing, to reconcile the Romans to their chains.

Nero, Vespasian, Domitian, Titus, Adrian, Julian, and other Roman emperors, wrote poems on various occasions; of which Suetonius gives an account. The Animula, vagula, blandula, Hospes, comesq. corporis, &c. of Adrian, is known to every body. Some of Julian's epigrams are in the Anthologia, and his theological and philosophical works prove him to have possessed a vigorous imagination. His two orations, one to the sovereign Sun, the other to the Mother of the Gods, were a few years ago translated and published by the worthy and ingenious modern Platonist, Thomas Taylor.

Lucan, was raised by Nero to be a knight.

Seneca was of senatorial rank, and advanced through the different ranks of quæstor, prætor, and other offices. Other Roman poets were men of rank.

Silius Italicus, the author of the Second Punic War, a Roman consul.—Ovid, also, was of a noble family.

Sir William Jones, quoting an observation of Cicero's, on the lyric poets among the Greeks, and applying it to the Asiatics, says, “Si mihi vitæ spatium duplicetur in iis tantummodo percurrendis, non esse suffecturum.” Specimen Poeseos Asiaticæ, Pars Quinta, cap. xix.—Herbelot mentions the names of three hundred authors who have written the lives merely of the Arabian Poets.

A king of Hama, whose work on the lives of the Arabian poets consists of ten volumes; another prince also, Ebn Al Motezz Al Abassi, wrote on the same subject. Jones, as above.

Moses, the Jewish lawgiver; David, and his son Solomon, kings of the Jews, were poets. Several parts of the Pentateuch are in verse, particularly the prophecy of Lamech, Gen. iv. 23, 24. Noah's curse on Ham, Gen. ix. 25, 27. The prophecy of Balaam, as it is called, Num. xxiv. Each of these are distinctly criticised, and translated into Latin verse by Lowth, De Sacra Poesi Hebræorum, Prælect. iv.

The Psalms of David, and the Proverbs of Solomon, were divided into metrical versification by Hare, bishop of Chichester. The Book of Job also was divided in the same manner, by Dr. Zachary Grey. But though it is pretty generally agreed, that the precise measure is not known, yet that they are in verse, is on all hands allowed.

That pretty love pastoral called the Song of Songs, is in verse: and we have a poetical version of it in English by Dr. Croxall, entitled the Fair Circassian. Some have supposed that the song has also an occult meaning, as well as other amatory and drinking odes among the Asiatics; a matter that belongs not to this place. Vide Poes. Asiat. Comment. cap. ix.

Anacharsis, brother of a Scythian prince, travelled to Athens, and obtained the friendship of Solon; and after the manner of the Athenian legislator, put the Scythian laws into verse. Suidas.

Alfred, the celebrated Saxon, one of the greatest of mankind, to the character of a politician, warrior, legislator, historian, mathematician, and musician, added that of poet. Alfred wrote some sacred poems, and put Boethius de Consolatione Philosophiæ into Saxon verse. Edward the Sixth also wrote verses, and there are three pretty sonnets of Queen Elizabeth's in Percy's Reliques of English Poetry.

James the First, of Scotland, was a very pleasing poet. The following poems of his are extant. A Song to his mistress, afterwards his Queen; The King's Quoir; Pebles to the Play; all in Scottish Ballads, Vol. II. And Christ's Kirk on the Green, in the Second Appendix to Pinkerton's Ancient Scottish Poems, Vol. II.

There were three poems by James the First, on similar subjects; the two just mentioned, and one entitled Falkland on the Green, now lost.

James the First was a man of fancy: James the Sixth was but a jangler.

Sir David Lindsay's Papingo.

Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, amid numerous other works, published a volume of Poems, consisting of Odes, Epistles, and a poem in six books, on the art of war. The latter poem, and his Apology for Princes, have been admired.

L'Art de la Guerre, ch. i.

The most ancient writers were the poets.—It is foreign to my design to inquire into the truth of Cicero's observation, that there never was such a person as Orpheus; or into the authenticity of those writings called Orphic Fragments. Brucker, in his Historia Critica Philosophiæ, may be consulted on this subject, or the abridgement by Dr. Enfield. History of Philosophy, Vol. I. Book. II. Chap. I.—It is sufficient for my purpose to abide by the commonly received account, that Orpheus, the most celebrated personage among the Greeks in the fabulous ages, was a native of Thrace; that having travelled amongst the Egyptians, and having learned philosophy, poetry, and music, from that ingenious people, he revisited a rude people, and civilised their manners.

Horat. de Art. Poet. v. 391.

The passage in the text alludes to the well-known passages in Horace and Virgil.

Horat. Lib. I. Od. xii.

Virgil, Ecl. III. v. 46.

The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is beautifully detailed in the fourth Georgic.

Of the same character with Orpheus was his disciple Musæus, mentioned by Virgil in the sixth book of the Æneid.

Æn. Lib. VI. v. 665.

This Musæus was a different person from the author of the beautiful little Greek poem of Hero and Leander, though confounded with him by Scaliger in his Poetics.

To these might be added Melampus, Linus, Alcman, and others antecedent to Homer. See Suidas in loco.—Of Alcman there are some remains among the Greek lyrists.

In like manner, among the northern nations, before the poetical character fell into disgrace, the bards were their moralists and their legislators. In Ireland there was a particular order of bards assigned to legislation, whom they called Breithcamhain (Brehons) or legislative bards. Indeed it was the universal practice for the poets to be legislators; of which the precepts of Phocylides, the sentences of Theognis, and the golden verses of Pythagoras, among the Grecians, are fine specimens. The same observation will apply in general to the Asiatics, and particularly to the Hebrews. Jones, Specimen Poes, Asiat. and Louth de Sac. Poes. Heb.—We may go still farther, and assert more generally, that anciently the sciences were all conveyed in verse; and the monkish distich, applied to Amhergin, the first monarch of Ireland, will apply to the bards in general.

See Walker's Hist of the Irish Bards, p. 3.

Of the powers of poetry to rouse the spirit in the field of battle, as employed by the ancients, some opinion may be formed from the Γνωμαι Ελεγειαι of Tyrtæus: four of these remain. See the Poetæ Minores Græci.—The northern nations were still more celebrated for the War-songs, and Songs of Victory; but of these, it is said by some, that there are no genuine remains. There is an account of them in Tacitus and Olaus Magnus. In Ossian's poems we may at least collect fine resemblances to these War-songs, and Songs of Victory: and in Richard's Songs of the Aboriginal Britons, there is an illustration of them. Dr. Sayers, in an excellent volume of Poems, has given a War-song, which, he says, was translated literally from the Gaelic by a native of Scotland, and given to him in incorrect prose. See Poems by F. Sayers, M. D. p. 172.

The most ancient of those writers, called by the Christian fathers, Gentile, was Sanchuniathon; of whom see what Philobyblius observes, as quoted by Eusebius, Præparat. Evangelicæ, L. I. Cap. ix.

The records found in an Ammoneal temple were made up of fable and allegory, which are a species of poetry.

The Oracles of Zoroaster, or, as they are called the Chaldaic Oracles, are said by some to be forgeries of a Christian, a disciple of Prodicus; others, that they were the figments of the Gnostics, or Platonic Christians. The contrary opinion, however, is supported by Stanley, History of Philosophy, Book IV. His opinion is also defended by Le Clerc, who translated Stanley into Latin, and has published the Chaldaic Oracles with notes. It is, however, the general belief, that these oracles, collected as they are from different authors, were in verse; as also the Sibylline Oracles, and the Orphic Hymns, a complete edition of which has been published.

Of the Theogonies themselves I say nothing. That India was the cradle of the arts and sciences, and that philosophy and poetry travelled thence to Egypt, and from Egypt to other nations, is an ancient and probable opinion.

Some of the most celebrated writers in the ancient and modern world, exercised a talent for poetry. Socrates is thought by some to have assisted that sentimental poet Euripides, in his plays. Xenoph. Memorab. Plato is well known to have excelled in poetry. In the Greek Anthologia are some fine epigrams, ascribed to him. His philosophical works also display the enthusiasm and brilliancy of a poet.

In the Anthologia are some epigrams of Aristotle's: and his hymn beginning

The writers called Patres Apostolici are certainly not chargeable with poetry; but in succeeding times some of the fathers were tolerable poets. Among the Grecian, Gregory Nazienzen was more particularly celebrated; among the Latins, Lactantius and Prudentius: Lactantius turned the idle story of the Phœnix, alluded to by Clemens, into a beautiful poem. Lactantius has written hymns.

Here is an allusion to the striking resemblance between that fine piece of poetry in the Introduction to Callimachus's Hymns to Apollo,

Some of our most eminent critics, as well in ancient as modern times, have had a taste for poetical composition. Stephens, Heinsius, Muretus, Casaubon, Grotius, Beza, Burmannus, Joshua Barnes, Dawes, &c. Published Latin or Greek poems. It is mentioned, as a proof that Bentley wanted taste, that he never wrote poetry. The only copy of verses that ever I saw of his, are a poor imitation of a silly conceit of Cowley's. It may be seen in Dr. Johnson's life of Cowley. The best classical critics in England, of the present day, have given undoubted proofs of poetical talent.

What Tasso puts into the mouth of others, he unfortunately experienced in his own person.

Sonnetto VII.

Barbarius was author of the Essay on the Greek poets alluded to at the beginning of this poem. Tollius was author of the book De Infelicitate Literatorum.

Ovid. Metam. Lib. 1.

Some particulars relative to the death of Linus, Orpheus, Tiresias, and Homer, have already been noticed.

Ovid. Metam. Lib. 1.

Some particulars relative to the death of Linus, Orpheus, Tiresias, and Homer, have already been noticed.

Petrarch, Ariosto, and Tasso, were designed for the law; but after engaging in studies suitable to the profession, left it for poetry. They were all, in the end, unfortunate. For poetry and the law have rarely well united. Corneille, the French tragedian, and Rowe in England, also relinquished law for poetry; all crying out probably

Boileau, Sat. I.

The author of the Lusiad, it is said, was starved to death.— Of him, Butler, Otway, and Chatterton, notice has already been taken.

In Henry the Eighth's, and Charles the Second's reign, the noble writers of poetry were numerous, and some good.

This admirable poet has very pathetically described the hard lot of poetry in “Mother Hubbard's Tale.”

Every body has heard of his disappointment in a salary, as Poet Laureat, in consequence of Lord Treasurer Burleigh's interference. “What! said Burleigh, (in reference to some of Spenser's poems) all this for a song?” Every body also knows Spenser's verses on the occasion.

Spenser had an appointment in Ireland under Lord Grey; but his whole life seems to have passed in expectations and disappointments; and he appears to have considered poetry as his more immediate profession. According to Ben Jonson he died for want of bread. See some account of Edmund Spenser, prefixed to Church's edition of the Fairie Queen.

Of Milton sufficient notice has already been taken.

Boileau's Introductory Satire is on the Misfortunes of a Poet.

Each allusion here will be thoroughly understood by the readers of that very interesting performance, The Memoirs of Thomas Hollis, Esq. in two volumes, quarto.—Of my estimable friend Ann Jebb, widow of the late excellent Dr. Jebb, I have already spoken in poems published in 1792, and shall speak more hereafter, in a poem on the death of General Washington.