The age of tourneys, triumphs, and quaint mafques, The fage himself; witness his arched hedge, With colour'd mirrors deck'd, and caged birds: Their fmiles in varied tufts the velvet rofe, There flaunts the gadding woodbine, fwells the ground 'Thro' bloffom'd fhades the fecret pathway fteals." After paying fimilar qualified compliments to Spenfer, Milton, Sir William Temple, the poet comes to the ftill more modern reformeis in horticulture. ADDISON, Thou polish'd Sage, or fhall I call thee Bard, *See Mr. Pope's Epiftle on FalfeTafte infcribed to the Earl of Burlington. Few readers I fuppofe need be informed that this line alludes to the following Couplet: Grove nods to Grove, each alley has a brother, And half the platform juft reflects the other. It is faid that Mr. Kent frequently declared he caught his tafte in gardening from reading the picturefque defcription of Spenfer. However this may be, the defigns which he made for that poet, are an inconteftible proof, that they had no effect upon his executive powers as a painter. Which would she emulate, her daring hand On thee too, SOUTHCOTE, fhall the Mufe bestow The harlotry of Art. Nor, SHENSTONE, thou Of the fecond Part of this Poem, we mean, barring injunc tions, to give a Specimen in our next Review. S. Poems, confifling chiefly of Tranflations from the Afiatick Languages. To which are added Two Effays; I. On the Poetry of the Eaftern Nations. II. On the Arts, commonly called Imita tive. The Second Edition. 8vo. 58. Conant. The first edition of this mifcellany having made its appearance before the commencement of the London Review, it would be doing injuftice to our readers as well as to the author †, did we not embrace the prefent opportunity of noticing its contents, and of enriching our own work with an extract or two from fo fingular and ingenious a publication. In juftice to both, therefore, we fhall felect a paffage or two from the author's Effay on the Poetry of the Eastern Nations; adding, by: way of exemplification, as many fpecimens of the poetry defcribed. Of the Arabians our author obferves, "that their fondness for poetry, and the refpect which they fhow to poets, would be fcarce believed, if we were not affured of it by writers of great authority: the * Mr. Southcote was the introducer, or rather the inventor, of the Ferme orné, for it may be prefumed nothing more than the term is of French extraction. + William Jones, Efq; of Univerfity College, Oxford, author of many other learned and ingenious publications. principal principal occafions of rejoicing among them were formerly, and, very probably, are to this day, the birth of a boy, the foaling of a mare, the arrival of a guest, and the rife of a poet in their tribe: when a young Arabian has compofed a good poem, all the neighbours pay their compliments to his family, and congratulate them upon having a nelation capable of recording their actions, and of recommending their virtues to pofterity. At the beginning of the feventh century, the Arabick language was brought to a high degree of perfection by a fort of poetical academy, that used to affemble at ftated times, in a place called Ocadh, where every poet produced his best compofition, and was fure to meet with the applaufe that it deserved: the most excellent of these poems were tranfcribed in characters of gold upon Egyptian paper, and hung up in the temple of Mecca, whence they were named Modhahebat, or Golden, and Moallakat, or Sufpended: the poems of this fort were called Caffeida's or eclogues, feven of which are preserved in our libraries, and are confidered as the finest that were written before the time of Mahomed: the fourth of them, compofed by Lebid, is purely paftoral, and extremely like the Alexis of Virgil, but far more beauti ful, because it is more agreeable to nature: the poet begins with praifing the charms of the fair Novâra, (a word which in Arabick fignifies a timorous fawn, but inveighs against her unkindness; he then interweaves a defcription of his young camel, which he compares for its fwiftnefs to a ftag, purfued by the hounds; and takes occafion afterwards to mention his own riches, accomplishments, liberality, and valour, his noble birth, and the glory of his tribe: the diction of this poem is eafy and fimple, yet elegant, the numbers flowing and mufical, and the fentiments wonderfully natural; as the learned reader will fee by the following paffage, which I fhall attempt to imitate in verse, that the merit of the poet may not be wholly loft in a verbal trans lation: Bel enti la tadrina cam mi'lleilatin, Thalkin ledhidhin lahwoha wa nedamoba, But ah! thou know'st not in what youthful play Sweet was the draught, and fweet the blooming maid, The damfels flumber'd, but we fip'd again: I have a fine copy of thefe feven poems, clearly tranfcribed, with ex planatory notes the names of the feven poets are, Amralkcis, Tarafa, Zoheir, Lebid, Antara, Amru, and Hareth, The The waking birds, that fung on every tree Their early notes, were not jo blithe as we." The first poem in this collection, entitled Solima, affords a more copious fpecimen of the Arabick poetry. It is, indeed, a beautiful compofition, both with respect to fentiment and harmony of numbers; although only a pasticcio, if we may fo venture to call it, of figures and defcriptions taken from the Arabian poets. The Perfians, Turks, and Indians, are faid to have done little more than imitate the ftile and adopt the expreffions of the Arabians. Speaking of Perfia, our author obferves that "the fame difference of climate, that affects the air and foil of this extenfive country, gives a variety alfo to the perfons and temper of its natives: in fome provinces they have dark complexions, and harsh features; in others they are exquifitely fair, and well-made; in fome others, nervous and robuft: but the general character of the nation is that softness, and love of pleasure, that indolence, and effeminacy, which have made them an easy prey to all the western and northern fwarms, that have from time to time invaded them. Yet they are not wholly void of martial spirit; and, if they are not naturally brave, they are at least extremely docile, and might, with proper difcipline, be made excellent foldiers: but the greater part of them, in the fhort intervals of peace that they happen to enjoy, conftantly fink into a state of inactivity, and pass their lives in a pleasurable, yet ftudious, retirement; and this may be one reafon, why Perfia has produced more writers of every kind, and chiefly poets, than all Europe together, fince their way of life gives them leifure to pursue thofe arts, which cannot be cultivated to advantage, without the greatest calmnefs and ferenity of mind: and this, by the way, is one caufe, among many others, why the poems in the preceding collection are lefs finished; fince they were compofed, not in bowers and fhades, by the fide of rivulets or fountains, but either amidst the confufion of a metropolis, the hurry of travel, the diffipation of publick places, the avocations of more neceffary ftudies, or the attention to more ufeful parts of literature. To return: there is a manufcript at Oxford containing the lives of an hundred and thirty-five of the finest Perfian poets, most of whom left very ample collections of their poems behind them: but the verfifiers, and moderate poets, if Horace will allow any fuch men to exift, are without number in Perfia. "This delicacy of their lives and fentiments has infenfibly affected their language, and rendered it the fofteft, as it is one of the richest, in the world: it is not poffible to convince the reader of this truth, by quoting a paffage from a Perfian poet in European characters; fince the sweetness of found cannot be determined by the fight, and many words, which are foft and musical in the mouth of a Perfian, may appear very harsh to our eyes, with a number of confonants and gutturals: it may not, however, be abfurd to fet down in this place, an *In Hyperoo Bodl. 128. There is a prefatory discourse to this curious work, which comprifes the lives of ten Arabian poets. C 2 Ode Ode of the poet Hafez, which, if it be not fufficient to prove the delicacy of his language, will at least show the liveliness of his poetry: Ai bad nesimi yâr dari, That is, word for word: Ofweet gale, thou beareft the fragant fcent of The forward violet thus did I chide: "Sweet thief! whence didft thou fteal thy fweet that smells, "If not from my love's breath? The purple pride, "Which on thy foft cheek for complexion dwells, "In my love's veins thou haft too grofly dyed." The |