When I first went on board, the mate was employed in cutting a cross upon the fide of his birth, and the failors were feafting upon a mefs of bifcuit, onions, liver, and horfe-beans, boiled into a brown pap, which they were all pawing out of a bucket. The fame tafte and cleanliness of cookery were difplayed in the only dinner they afforded us on the paffage and the fame fpirit of devotion made them, when the wind blew hard, turn in to bed and to prayers. The weather was bad, and I was terrified; but, though I had not a brass* heart, the ship had a copper bottom and on the fifth morning we arrived in fight of Cape Finifterre." P. i. The author foon finds reafon to be difcontented with his fare on land, for we find him in the fame letter thus defcribing the comforts of a Spanish Inn. "We are at the Navio (the fhip), a Pofada kept by an Italian. Forgive me for ufing the Spanish name, that I may not commit blafphemy against all English pot-houfes. Our dinner was a fowl fried in oil, and ferved up in an attitude not unlike that of a frog, taken fuddenly with a fit of the cramp. With this we had an omelet of eggs and garlic, fried in the fame execrable oil, and our only drink was a meagre wine, price about two-pence the bottle-value wotfe than nothing, which, by comparifon, exalts fmall beer to nectar. In this land of olives they poifon you with the most villainous oil, for the fruit. is fuffered to grow rancid, before the juice is expressed. "You must perceive that I write at fuch opportunities as can be caught from my companions, for the room we fit in ferves likewife for a bed-chamber. It is now Monday morning. Oh, the mifery of the night! I have been fo flead, that a painter would find me an excellent fubject for the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew. Jacob's pillow of ftone was a down cufhion, compared to that which bruifed my head laft night; and my bed had all poffible varieties of hill and vale, in whofe receffes the fleas lay fafe; for otherwise I should inevitably have broken their bones by rolling over them. Our apartment is, indeed, furnished with windows; and he who takes the trouble to examine, may convince himself that they have once been glazed. The night air is very cold, and I have only one folitary blanket; but it is a very pretty one, with red and yellow ftripes. Add to this catalogue of comforts, that the cats were faying foft things in moft vile Spanish; and you may judge what refreshment I have received from fleep." P. 4 Of Mr. Southey's talent for profe defcription, and of the poetical fentiments to which the fcenes he defcribes have given rife, the following paffage difpofes us to think favourably; and we cannot but feel that a knowledge of the place, time, and * Illi robur et æs triplex Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci Primus. CC 2 Hor. circumftanco, circumstances, under which the poetry in this volume was compofed, gives it an higher interest in our mind, than if it was prefented to us in detached pieces, and we were entirely ignorant of the caufes which operated at the moment to give a particular colour to the author's fentiments. "In the dingle below us on the right, at the foot of a dark and barren hill, a church flood, on the banks of a winding rivulet. The furze even at this season, is in bloffom. Before us, a little to the left, was a bold and abrupt mountain; in parts, naked precipices of rock; in parts, richly varied with pines, leaffefs chefnut trees, and oaks that ftill retained their withered foliage. A ftream, foaming along its rocky channel, wound at the bafe; intercepted from our view where the hill extended its gradual defcent, and visible again beyond a tuft of trees, green even from their roots, which grew on the banks: on the fummit of the mountain ftands a church, through whose towers the light was vifible: around us were mountains, their fides covered with dark heath, and their fantastic tops richly varied with light and shade. The country is rude and rocky; the houfes all without chimnies; and the appearance of the fmoke iffuing through their roofs, very fingular and very beautiful, as it rofe flowly, tinged by the rifing fun. In about three hours we began the winding afcent of Monte Salguero, whofe fummit had clofed the morning profpect. By afcend ing directly I reached the top long before the mules. There I rested, and looked back on the watch-tower of Coruna, fix leagues diftant, and the Bay of Bifcay. I was not, however, idle while I refted: as a proof, take these lines. Fatigued and faint, with many a ftep and flow The ling'ring traveller's ear. Thus on my road Where Where Peace and Love await me. Oh! most dear! We fhall look back on many a well-spent year, For the reafon given above, we were pleafed with the serious and melancholy turn of the following fonnet : "Not far from Lugares, half way down the mountain, oppofite the road, is a natural bridge of rock. The rocks here are of fchift. We were three hours afcending from Lugares, and that place lies high. You know I never ride when I can walk. The clouds wetted me as they paffed along. I was fatigued, and when the body is wearied, the mind is feldom cheerful. In this mood I committed a fonnet. Another mountain yet! I thought this brow Such is the lot of man. Up Life's fteep road 'Till Time and Ĉare have led thee to the tomb." P. 57. What, however, will recommend this volume more particularly to English readers, is the able and fatisfactory information which is given refpecting Spanish and Portuguese poetry. In his view of this fubject, the author has not confined himself to general criticifin, but has enlivened and enriched his account by tranflations from different parts of the most approved poets of thofe countries, accompanying them in every inftance with the original. The most important of this part of the work is the complete analysis which he has given of a Spanish and a Portuguese Epic Poem: the former entitled The Beauty of Angelica," by Lope de Vega, who has unfortunately expofed his poetical pretenfions by attempting to rival Ariofto: the latter entitled "Charles Redeemed. England Illuftrified, by Pedro de Azevedo Tojal." This latter poem celebrates the fuppofed converfion of Charles the Second to the Catholic faith, in confequence of his marriage with Catharine Princefs of Portugal. On this part of the work we fhall only fay, that it furnishes Mr. Southey Southey with various opportunities of displaying his talent in tranflation; and the remarks which are interfperfed between the feveral pieces of poetry, are replete with found and entertaining criticifm. From the latter poem (in which the execution is only not inferior to the choice of the fubject) we select one paffage, which we recommend to the next editor of the trealife περὶ βάθος "Ao grande Mello a lege author de empreza, P. 338. But though we have been pleafed with the livelinefs of this writer, and are difpofed to praife his defcriptive powers in verse and profe, the book is by no means without faults. His livelines fometimes carries him beyond due bounds in the choice of his words as well as fubjects: and the inconveniences he encoun tered in travelling, are enumerated and repeated with offenfive minutenefs. His opinions here, as in other places, are biassed by the innovating fpirit of the prefent times; and he has not yet learned to diftinguith between the faults effential to a fyltem, and those which arife only from an abuse of its prin ciples. Hence the defire to confound in one cenfure the hierarchy of England and the fpiritual defpotifm of Rome (p. 72) and hence, in the true fpirit of Illuminifm, the condemnation of every form of civil inftitution conveyed by the expreffion of " that depraved fociety which difinherits of happinefs half the civilized world." P. 360. Upon fubjects connected with theology, Mr. Southey fometimes ventures beyond his depth. He has quoted, with an evi dent intention to cenfure for its abfurdity, a fentiment of the Archbishop of Valencia, who affirms that our Saviour, when he drove the buyers and fellers out of the Temple, performed "the greatest miracle he ever wrought, for fo St. Hierom faith it was." P. 306. Here we beg leave to ftate that an eminent theologian, not more friendly to fuperftition or perfecution than Mr. Southey himfelf, concurred entirely in fentiment with the Archbishop and the Father; and, as the pallage is curious, we fhall quote it. "Some doubt whether this was any miracle at all, but whoever confiders, that thofe who ufually came from all parts to celebrate the Pallover, were not fewer in number than three millions (Jofeph. Bell, Ted, ib. ii. cap. 14. § 3. See alfo lib. vi. cap. 9. 3) and that, in The court of the Gentiles, were expofed to fale, by authority of the 5 Jewish Jewish rulers, all the animals that were to be offered up in facrifice (not lefs than 256,500 according to Jofephus, Bel. Jud. lib, vi. cap. 9. § 3. p. 399, ed. Havercamp.) and whatever elfe the fervice of the fanctuary required; and that neither the mercenary traffickers, nor any of the multitude, made any oppofition to Chrift, will perhaps be of opinion, that they were intimidated and overawed by a divine power, and agree with Jerome (in Matt. tom, ix. p. 31. ed. Bafil. 1516) that it was the most wonderful of all the miracles of Jefus." We cannot be understood as meaning any vindication of the Prelate's fentiments on the Expulfion of the Morifcoes, a meafure equally irreconcileable with policy and humanity; but we would merely intimate, that an opinion is not neceffarily wrong, because it proceeds from the pen of an Archbithop, even of the Romish church. Among the curious articles of the book, is a lift of the Penitents at the Auto da Fe, Oct. 15th, 1779, p. 318; a Memorial (apparently authentic) on the state of Portugal, p. 406; and an amufing extract from Refendius, a Portuguese writer in Latin, p. 493, refpecting the Deification of St. Viarius. The abfurd and laughable mistake, by which Spanish ignorance and fuperftition had converted a præfectus VIARum into a Saint, has been noticed by Mabillonf, and expofed by Middletont. The enumeration of circumftances in this extract from Refendius, renders the account more authentic as well as entertaining. There appears altogether fuch a variety of amufing and interesting matter in this volume, that we doubt not it will attract the public attention; at the fame time we cannot but with that the author had made it worthy of unreserved commendation, by more deliberation in forming his opinions, and more caution in expreffing them. ART. IV. The Old English Gentleman; a Poem. By Mr. Polwhele. 8vo. 6s. Cadell and Davies. 1797, THIS is only a part of a poem, confifting of two books; to which a third is announced at the end. That Mr. Polwhele is a writer of confiderable merit, in profe and verse, we have had frequent occafion to teftify: the prefent produc Farmer on Dæmoniacs, p. 293. Note. Iter. Ital. p. 145. + Letter from Rome-Works, vol. v, P, 125. |