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Paul once made serious proposals to a young lady, whose christian name was Lydia. On this occasion our reverend friend took for his text, 66 And a certain woman, named Lydia, heard us; whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul." Acts xvi. 14. It is to be supposed, however, that he had been over-estimating his own progress in the suit; for I believe, and no doubt many a spinster would prick

up her ears could she hear me say so, that to this hour the manse of Broughton boasts no mistress. There is plenty of trout-fishing, &c. in his neighbourhood and I mean to advise Ebony to pitch his tent there this summer for a week or so. With Dr Scott and Captain Odoherty the minister would find himself quite at home -and every overture of bottle or cup. board would be acceptable to both.

CHEVY CHACE, fitte the SECOND; IDEM LATINE REDDITUM.

MR EDITOR,

As you have been so kind as to call my version of the first fitte of Chevy Chace by the flattering title of "beautiful," I think myself bound in courtesy to give you the second. The poetical, philological, and antiquarian world, will, I doubt not, rejoice at this my determination, and receive with due rapture the chivalrous though somewhat rudely equipped ballad of the exploits of the Percy and the Douglas, dressed up by me in the lordly language of imperial Rome. You see I am not afraid of praising myself or my productions. Great men, sir, despise such squeamishness. Does not Sir James Edward Smyth, in his attack on Cambridge, honestly avow, as his opinion, that the university is disgraced for ever-that the public interest and the cause of science are irreparably injured by the rejection of the first botanist of Europe, (i. e. himself) from the chair of the botanical professor in our alma mater apud Cantabrigienses? Does not the Reverend Mr Maturin, in an account of his life, written by himself, in the New Monthly Magazine, (March 1819. p. 165-7) describe himself as a poet-some of whose writings "have scarce a parallel in English dramatic poetry"-an" unequalled novelist"— -an "unusually" handsome fellow-the "gayest of the gay" and "the most uxorious man breathing." Does not Mr Brougham puff himself in the Edinburgh Review? Does not Professor Leslie always tack" the celebrated" to his own name in that celebrated Journal? Is not the same done by Mr L. Hunt in the Examiner? By Mr Cobbett, the Atlas of England, in his Political Register? By Mr Morgan Odoherty in Blackwood's Magazine? By Mr Kean in the bills of old Drury? By Dr Solomon, and Mr T. Bish, and Mr Napier Macvey every where? And shall I, with these bright and venerable names before me, (to say nothing of the polished example of Day and Martin), be afraid to utter, in a letter of my own, a sentence of panegyric on my own versiculi?

Now, should any malignant critic-any malevolus vetus poeta-venture to say in opposition to my own favourable critique, that my Latin is not Virgilian or Ciceronian-that my verses have sometimes a hitch in their gait—I shall merely answer, that however ungracious they may seem to his fastidious eyes and ears, they would have been as musical and grammatical in the opinion of the shaveling Latinists of the date of this ballad, as they are now acceptable from their other excellencies to the true judges of poetry. If this answer will not satisfy my objector, I can only pity the opacity of his intellect. But you, O more sensible readers, will peruse my verses with favourable eyes-not tormenting yourselves about the minute dovetailings of syntax, or the metrical ictus, or any other such buffoonery-but reading the words just as you find them set down for you in the honest old English manner, laying your accents a la mode Anglaise without any regard for the dicta of Dawes or Bentley, and pronouncing the letters (both vowels and consonants) as if they were members of the Christian alphabet of the ever to be beloved language of merry England; doing this, you will do well: and so my hearty service to you, good people, and to you, sir, of whom I am the most obedient and very humble servant,

VOL. VII.

2S

O. P.

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I have, as before, modernized the spelling of the old ballad, and in a few places the language.

(1) i. e. First Flight. Percy.

(2) Dr Carey (Prowdy, p. 199, &c.) Condemns this licence.

I therefore give him leave to alter my systolated præterites into preterpluperfects, as he has done in all the passages which stand in the way of his rule.

I have no doubt that he will discover some new picturesque mood and tense beauty in the change, quite unknown to the author. (3) I hope I have hit the sense of my original.

66

(4) Perhaps many plies or folds. Monyple is still used in this sense in the north, according to Mr Lambe." Bp. Percy. I have followed him.

(5) Swords made of Milan Steel. Percy.

(6) Græce. Aúrgov Ennius uses it, or rather its plural, lytra, as the name of a play concerning the ransom of Hector's body. If this be not thought sufficient authority, the reader may substitute pratium in the text, with all my heart.

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Hugo Montgomoræus hune
Casum vulnere indigno
Vidit, et hastam arripit
Ex strenuo factam ligno.
17.

Et equitavit fortiter

Per sagittarios centum ;
Donec ad Anglum comitem
Ab eo erat ventum.
18.

Persæum gravi vulnere
Dicto citius sauciavit,
Nam corpus hasta rigidâ
Penitus perforavit.

19.
Hasta ex læso corpore

Exivit ulnæ spatio;
Meliores cæsis ducibus

Non tenuit ulla natio.
120.
Sagittarius ex Northumbria
Vidit dominum necatum;
In manu arcum tenuit
Ex arbore fabricatum.
21.
Tres pedes longum calamum
Perduxit ad mucronem,
Et vulnere mortifero
Interimit Hugonem.

(7) From this it appears that Jerry-Benthamism is of an older date than the superficial commonly imagine. Fight-you-my-merry-men-while-you-may-for-my-life-days-aregone; or, as the original has it, Fyghte-ye-my-merry-men-whylles-ye-may-for-my-lyffdays-ben-gan is as pretty a single word as any we can find in the lucid pages of this most Euphuistical radical, and most radical Euphuist, who commonly passes in our days for the inventor of the many-words-clubbing-to-make-one style. We have here a much older authority; so that Jerry must be set down as one of the servum pecus in that instance.

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(8) An attempt at imitating the alliteration of the original.

(9) How beautifully Homeric! How like the catalogues of the slain in the lines of the Prince of poets! Particularly, how like the following:

Καὶ σὺν Περσαίῳ ἐδάμεν ̓Αγαστώνος ἀμύμων,
Αρτλεῖος τ' ἀγαθὸς, Ηρώνος θ ̓ ἱππότα διας
Καὶ Λοβέλος κρατερός αἰχμητής, ἡδὲ Ῥοβαίος
Αφνειος βιότοιο πέσον χαλκοῖο τυπᾶσι.

The names in the Greek are not expressed so roughly as in the English, but there is manifest resemblance between the passages.

(10) I confess I am not sure whether the author means that Sir David Liddel was nephew to Earl Douglas or Sir H. M. but as the latter is more syntactical, I have preferred it.

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(11) Another Homerism, Αὐγειὰς ἐρατεινὰς. Iliad, B. 532. 583. Αρήνην ἐρατεινὴν. 591. Martiny iparu. 607, and a thousand other places. The author had manifestly made Homer his study.

(12) Bp. Percy suspects these two verses 41, 42, to be spurious. So do I, as they stand at present; but I think we might make a good verse out of the two; thus:

This was the hunting of the Cheviot,

Upon a Monday:

There was the doughty Douglas slain,

The Percy never went away.

This will get off the confusion with regard to the battle of Otterburn, and the strange language of these verses. Percy's interpretation of That tear began this spurn," is, "That tearing or pulling occasioned this spurn or kick." I have followed him, though I confess I am not satisfied with it.

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