MISCELLANIES. Ingram's Ready Reckoner, which fhows at one View the Net Amount of any Quantity from one Quarter to fifty Yards, or from one Shilling to forty Shillings per Yard, &c. 11. 1s. The Hydro-Aeronaut, or Navigator's Life Bucy: being an eafy and effec tual Method of preventing the Lols of Lives by Drowning, in Cafes of Shipwreck, and others. By Thomas Cleghorn, Inventor of the Ice Life-Boat. 5s. The true Senfe and Meaning of the Syftem of Nature, a pofthumous Work of M. Helvetius. Tranflated by Daniel Ifaac Eaton. 3s. The Two Pictures; or a View of the Mileries of France, contrafted with the Bleffings of England. Earneftly recommended to the Notice of every true Britain. 6d. ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO CORRESPONDENTS. A letter from Mr, Pratt intimates an apprehenfion, that, from our account of his Poem, entitled "The Lower World," the readers might conceive it to be a partial and political performance, inftead of being founded on general principle. We take this opportunity to fay, that we did not intend fo to reprefent it. The author would, to ufe his own words, "One truth, or other truths fublime reveal, That bird, beaft, infect, like ourselves can feel *." LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. Mr. Dibdin is printing a much-improved and enlarged edition of his Bibliomania, which will make it a very inftructive as well as elegant work. We learn with pleasure, that Mr. Weber, Editor of the beft edition of the Battle of Flodden Field, (fee Brit. Crit. Vol. xxxv. p. 633,) is employed in a new edition of Beau mont and Fletcher, which will comprife the long-loft, and unpublifhed Comedy of the Faithful Friends, recovered by Mr. Kett. The Bishop of Lincoln is printing a work upon the fubject of Calvinifm, which will comprehend his last three Charges, with very confiderable additions and numerous quotations from the works of Calvin and of the ancient fathers. In the courfe of the month, the fecond edition of M. Johne's Tranflations of Monftrelet's Chronicle will appear in twelve volumes, octavo. Mr. Southey's Poem of Kehama is nearly finished at prefs. Bannockburn has been felected by Mifs Holford, as the fubject for her next Metrical Romance. Not exactly like ourselves, becaufe not mentally, which m. kes a little difference. Rev. Geneviv Genevive, or the Spirit of the Drave, by John Stewart, Elq. Author of the Refurrection, will be published this month. The Gleaner, a Selection of papers from neglected periodical Eilayifts, by Dr. Drake, have been for fome time in the prefs, and will tpeedily be publifhed, in four octavo volumes. Mr. Richards's Hiflory of Lynn, civil, commercial, political, and military, in one volume octavo, will be completed in a few weeks. Mr. George Woods has prepared for the prefs an account of the Isle of Man, comprizing its Hillory, Antiquities and prefent State. To be publifhed in one octavo volume. Dr. George Rees is preparing for the prefs a new edition of his Work on Diforders of the Stomach, with additional cafes. Mr. Cromek, editor of the Reliques of Burns, will publifh fhortly," Remains of Nithfdale and Galloway Song" with hiftorical and traditionary Notices relative to the Manners and Cuftoms of the Peafantry. A fecond edition with additions of Mr. Henry Card's Literary Recreations, will fpeedily be published. The Right Hon. George Rofe has in the prefs a new and enlarged edtition of a brief Examination into the Increase of Commerce and the Revenue brought down to the prefent Time. A work is in the prefs, the first part of which will be publifhed at the beginning of the enfuing year, entitled the "Devotional Family Bible," containing the Old and New Teftaments, with Notes and Illuftrations, partly original and partly felected from the moft approved expofitors, with a Devotional Exercife at the end of every Chapter; by the Rev. John Fawcett, A. M. A Life of the late Arther Murphy, Efq. with his Epiftolary Correfpondence, in a quarto volume, from Authentic Documents in the poffeffion of Mr. Ford, his Executor, is in the prefs. Mr. John Bigland will fhortly publish in two octavo volumes, a Sketch of the Hiftory of Europe, from the peace of 1783 to the present time. Mr. Smith's Hiftorical Memoranda of the War in the Levant, 1798 to 1801, illuftrated by Engravings, is nearly ready for publication. A Tranflation of the Inftitutes of the Chriftian Religion, by the celebrated John Calvin, in three octavo volumes, is fhortly expected to appear. ERRATA. In our laft, page 239, line 29, dele but In the Review for Auguft, page 181, in the price of Mt. Pratt's Poem, for 12s. 6d, read fix fbillings. THE BRITISH CRITIC, For NOVEMBER, 1810. · Οὐδὲν ἄλλο ποιεῖ τὸν παῤῥησιαζομένον ἥκιστα λυπεῖν, καὶ μαλιςα θεράδα πεύειν, ἢ, τὸ φειδόμενον ὀργῆς, ἐν ἤθει, καὶ μοῦ εὐνοίας προφέρεσθαι τους ἁμαρτάνουσιν. PLUT. Nothing renders animadverfion lefs grievous, or more beneficial, than avoiding violence, and approaching the perfon cenfured in a placid and benevolent manner. ART. 1. Conftance de Caftile. A Poem, in ten Cantas. By William Sotheby, Efq. 4to. 191 pp. 11. 5s. Cadell and Davies. 1810. To combine hiftorical fact with romantic intereft; to produce defign, and colouring, and character from the bare outlines fupplied by the more accurate but often jejune, annalift; to illuftrate and enrich a fable, the ground-work of which is laid in truth, with the embellishments of fancy, the touches of a painter, and the harmonies of the musician; preferving at the fame time through the whole, an elevation of moral fentiment, is the province of poetry; and however difficult of attainment, we think, in an intellectual and cultivated æra, the moft legitimate employment of the dignified Mufe. In faying this, we are by no means difpofed to admit that a mere historical romance, is to be juftified. A novel, for Ff inftance, BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXVI, NOV. 1810. inftance, of this kind, appears in falfe colours: we are bewil dered between pofitive and imaginary circumstances; between fact and fable, between the evidence of history, and the drama of fiction. But it is far otherwife in poetry: -the province of poetry, is, at its very outfet, inftantly recognized; it is that of imagination, and of colours. In the words of Sir Philip Sidney "the hiftorian, affirming many things, can, in the cloudy knowledge of mankind, hardly efcape from many lies;-but the poet never affirmeth, the poet never makyth any circles about your imagination, to conjure you to believe for true what he writeth, he citeth not authorities of other hiftories, but even for his entertainment calleth the fweet mufe to inspire into him a good inven tion." We think therefore, a poem founded upon hiftory (and the best and higheft fpecimens of the kind may be inftantly recollected) to be far fuperior in dignity, and far preferable in point of moral utility, to a poem purely ro mantic. The great truths, which experience beft teaches, may be difplayed in a more interefting manner; a diftant æra, with a more vivid reprefentation of its coftume and character may be brought before us; the knowledge of past scenes and periods revived; at the fame time, as the WHOLE is to be confidered in the light merely of dramatic and moral painting, while the general refult is inftructive and delightful, we need not perplex ourselves to find out where the detail of hiftorical incident ceafes, and where the lines of poetic imagination begin. In the choice of a fubject for a poem from hiftory, confiderable judgment is required. Of fome hiftory has faid too much, and of others too little. Where the hiftorian has been prodigal in his detail of circumftantial events, the poet could do little more than verfify thofe circumflances; if the information be too fcanty and obfcure, then a poem fo founded could not be claffed as hiftorical, but, would be almoft purely romantic. It is where hillery furnithes the medium between thefe extremes, that a proper basis is laid for the further defign and embellishments of the Mufe. The fubject being fuch as would admit reference to general fact, and yet not exclude invention. In the choice of his fubject for the prefent poem, we think Mr. Sotheby has evinced great judgment. The æra is heroic, the incidents and characters connected with the molt friking parts of our own national hiftory; for who does does not with pride recollect the names of Edward the Third, and his illuftrious fon the Black Prince? Peter, or Pedro, of Spain, (commonly called the Cruel) having been deprived of his kingdom by his natural brother, Henry, Count of Traftamere, intreats the affiftance of the Black Prince, at this time refident with his Court at Bourdeaux: The English prince affills the Spanish Monarch in recovering his dominions. John, duke of Lancaster, brother to Edward, then in the bloom of youth, and actuated by the fpirit of chivalry, accompanies the expedition to Spain. Peter is reinftated in his dominions, and John of Lancafter marries Conftance, one of the three daughters of Peter, the heroine of this poem. This is all we know from hiftory. Additional intereft is given to the flory from the circumftance (of which Mr. Sotheby has ably availed himself) that the chief incidents are connected with that fpot, where the arms of the English are now united with thofe of Spain, to refcue that injured and infulted nation from the ambition of a ferocious and hitherto fuccessful invader. In giving a general analyfis of this poem, we fhall point but as we proceed, fome of its most prominent beauties, and mark alfo, with the fpirit of candour and impartiality, what may appear to us as faulty, either in the conftruction or execution. The Poem opens with Pedro's return to CORUNNA, the only place of his dominions which remained to him, and which was now befieged by the conquering army of Traftamere. He had been abfent feeking affiftance; and, according to Froiffart, Fernando de Caftro, had engaged to furrender this laft fortrefs, unless Pedro came with fuccours, in the courfe of a twelvemonth: during his abfence, he had been thrown into prifon, by the treachery of the king of Portugal. The period was now juft expired, when in a tempeftuous night, a bark is defcried, by the fentinel on watch. It is that of Pedro: Conftance rushes through the waves, and fwoons in the arms of her long-loft father. Pedro is received by his faithful followers on the beach. His first appearance is thus poetically and characteristically represented : "The Monarch pauf'd to praise their worth ; And all, in filent agony, Wept, as their lord went hopeless by." P. 13: He afcends by a fubterraneous paffage to the keep of the Caftle, where Conftance wakes from death-like Fi 2 fleep." |