but his country overflows with romantic reading and traditions, and his genius seems to have taken its inspirations and the subjects of invention chiefly from these sources—from the state of society, the character and sentiments of men of various ranks, as they are recorded to have existed under the influences of the fedual system, and the times immediately succeeding. Like Shakspeare, he had the talent, each change of many-coloured life to draw, to move laughter and to excite tears. The parallelism between these great men, however, applies rather to the attributes of their genius than to their condition in life. Mediocrity of fortune, and a moderate estimate of his talents, was all the outward meed awarded to Shakspeare by his contemporaries. "far Homer says of poets, they are regarded as divine beings, as the sun displays his vital fire."—But few poets have the happiness to live in the "blaze of their fame" as Scott did—Wherever English is read, there the poems and the novels of the immortal Nothern Minstrel are known, and from every region where they are known the tribute of praise and admiration is offered to him. On the accession of George IV. (1820) one of the first acts of his reign was to bestow on Mr. Scott the rank of baronet, and he has since been known as Sir Walter Scott. Scott died in 1832, at the age of sixty-two years. The Lay of the Last Minstrel consists of a tale in verse, supposed to be recited by a wandering minstrel who took refuge in the castle of Anne, Dutchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth, representative of the ancient lords of Buccleuch, and widow of the unfortunate James, Duke of Monmouth, who was beheaded in 1685. The minstrel recites to the Dutchess and her ladies a story of her ancestors. THE LAST MINSTREL. "The way was long, the wind was cold, His withered cheek, and tresses gray, And he, neglected and oppressed, Old times were changed, old manners gone; Had call'd his harmless art a crime. A wandering Harper, scorned and poor, He passed where Newark's stately tower The embattled portal-arch he passed, The Dutchess marked his weary pace, In pride of power, in beauty's bloom, Of good Earl Francis, dead and gone, To listen to an old man's strain, Though stiff his hand, his voice though weak, The humble boon was soon obtained; And then, he said, he would full fain Amid the strings his fingers strayed, And an uncertain warbling made, And oft he shook his hoary head. But when he caught the measure wild, With all a poet's ecstacy! In varying cadence, soft or strong, Each blank, in faithless memory void, Of good Earl Francis, &c. Francis Scott, Earl of Buccleuch, father of the Dutchess. And of Earl Walter, &c. Walter, Earl of Buccleuch, grandfather to the Dutchess, and a celebrated warrior. "Hushed is the harp-the Minstrel gone. No-close beneath proud Newark's tower, So passed the winter's day; but still, IMPROVISATORI. From the beginning of the seventeenth century, minstrelsy went out of practice in Britain, but in Italy the recitation of extemporary poetry still constitutes a popular amusement. About seventy years ago Benjamin West, a native of America, went to Rome to study the art of painting. His biographer, Mr. Gait, relates the manner in which this celebrated artist was once entertained by an Improvisatore, one of the extemporane ous Italian poets. "One night, soon after his arrival in Rome, Mr. Gavin Hamilton, the painter, to whom he had been introduced by Mr. Robinson, took him to a coffee-house, the usual resort of British travellers. While they were sitting at one of the tables, a venerable old man, with a guitar suspended from his shoulder, entered the room, and coming immediately to their table, Mr. Hamilton addressed him by the name of Homer. He was the most celebrated improvisatore in all Italy, and the richness of expression, and nobleness of conception which he displayed in his effusions, had obtained for him that distinguished name. "Those who once heard his poetry, never ceased to lament that it was lost in the same moment, affirming that it often was so regular and dignified, as to equal the finest compositions of Tasso and Ariosto. It will, perhaps, afford some gratification to the admirers of native genius to learn, that this old man, though led by the fine frenzy of his imagination to prefer a wild and wandering life to the offer of a settled independence, which had been made him in his youth, enjoyed in his old age, by the liberality of several Englishmen, who had raised a subscription for the purpose, a small pension, sufficient to keep him comfortable, in his own way, when he became incapable of amusing the public. "After some conversation, Homer requested Mr. Hamilton to give him a subject for a poem. In the meantime, a number of Italians had gathered round them to look at West, who they had heard was an American, and whom like Cardinal Albani,* they imagined to be an Indian. Some of them, on hearing Homer's request, observed, that he had exhausted his vein, and had already said and sung every subject over and over. Mr. Hamilton, however, remarked that he thought he could propose something new to the bard, and pointing to Mr. West, said, that he was an Ame A Spanish Cardinal, who presumed that American signified Indian: |