Victorious be the sword for Britain drawn ! And ere ye sheath it, give to Europe peace." P. 15. We might now well retort a passage of the Marche des Marseil lois, exclaiming to our countrymen, with allusion to the "feraces soldats" of Buonaparte; Ils viennent jusques dans vos bras, Egorger vos fils, vos compagnes, L'Eneide traduite par Jaques Delille: i. e. The Eneid translated by the Abbé Delille, into French Verse. Paris. Three Editions at once. ABBE DELILLE was so long among us, that there are few persons, at all given to letters, unacquainted with his merits: his recitations gave delight to a vast variety of circles; and the English became in this way possessed of many beautiful specimens of works either uncompleted, or then only in manuscript. Something of the divine poem now given to the world, thus challenged a comparison with Dryden and with Pitt, and a translation as perfect as the language would supply, was expected from him who had, at an early age, obtained for the French Géorgiques the high panegyric of Voltaire. The Abbé, in principle, (in this age of change) is somewhat altered from his former self, and we are clearly of opinion that he is nearer than he was to the just notion of translation; he shall speak, however, his own sense of this matter. "Jai dit, dans la préface des Georgiques, qu'une traduction etoit une dette, et qu'il falloit payer, non dans la même monnoie, mais la même somme. Je ne pense pas tout-à-fait de même aujourd'hui: une cassette remplie de pièces d'or seroit mal représentée par un tonneau de petite monnoie, quand même la somme seroit égale." He has consequently repressed the former temptation to exend the bulk of the text. If the imitation must be of a baser metal (and, alas! it certainly must) than the original, it does not occupy more room-it is not silver, likę Virgil, pure silver, but it is the very best French plate; a cassette neatly formed and beautifully polished. There is a variety of passages in such a writer as Virgil, which, from their exquisite beauty, have forced themselves into superior currency. The last six books of the Eneid are not sufficiently known, and, by scholars, even but slenderly quoted. The popular favourites may reasonably claim the earliest notice from us; and, indeed, fully SS-VOL. XVIII. aware of what would be expected, the Abbé seems to have struggled hard that the hasty critic should not be disappointed; that he who looked for the gems about the hero should not find them "base and unlustrous." But we have read him through, from the first line to the last, and certainly the greatest power of French versification displays itself throughout the translation. We shall direct our readers presently to admire the noble lines in which he has rendered the storm in the first book; but pre viously, to disburthen our consciences, we must hint at two little slips, almost at the threshold. In the mention of Carthage,―his “Sejour de la fortune et le temple des arts—” does not at all convey Virgil's "studiisque asperrima belli”— : and Pallas destroying the Grecian vessels "Pourquoi? pour quelques torts d'un jeune furieux," should also tell us, as Virgil does, who the offender was, and not sink his name, whose offence was so disastrous-" furias AJACIS OILEI." O that the fetters of French verse had no more to answer for! but with rhymes, and those masculine and feminine alternately, how any grand and affecting things are accomplished is the wonder! Cependant en voici-we shall, with no unfriendly readiness, supply the original. Eripiunt subito nubes coelumque diemque Teucrorum ex oculis: ponto nox incubat atra. Now Delille. Sur la face des eaux s'etend la nuit profonde, This is one of the passages which the glory of France has imitated in the Henriade. I do not think that Voltaire had any wish to dilate his original, though he certainly has done it; he has added no new image, and yet, how much more pointed, clear, and energetic will Delille be found, than what follows, taking, as it does, moreover, two aditional lines to express the ideas. L'astre brillant du jour à l'instant s'obscurcit; L'air siffle, le ciel gronde, et l'onde au loin mugit; La foudre etincellante éclate dans les nuës; 2 Et le feu des éclairs, et l'abîme des flots, Montraient partout la mort aux pâles matelots. "L'astre brillant du jour" is a puerility; so is "la foudre etincellante qui éclate." There is a majestic energy, and awful brevity in the style of Delille here; and the want of epithets is the secret of his triumph. We shall, in our next, continue the subject; but not to break off without displaying M. DELILLE'S skill in the famous pathos of tu Marcellus eris, we insert his version, which, though á little ambitious of adding perfume to the violet, is certainly not wasteful and ridiculous excess. Tu seras Marcellus. Ah! souffre que j'arrose Son tombeau de mes pleurs. Que le lis, que la rose; Pleuvent à pleines mains sur son triste corcueil; Et qu'il reçoive au moins ces offrandes légères, The Scenery, Antiquities, and Biography of South Wales, from Materials collected during two Excursions in the Year 1803. By B. H. Malkin, Esq. M. A. F. R. S. Embellished with Views drawn on the Spot, by Laporte. 4to. 2l. 12s. 6d. Longman and Co. 1804. WHAT the Junior Pliny has observed of history, historia quoquo modo scripta delectat, may in general be affirmed of travels into foreign regions; but not so of excursions at home, which, unless they are undertaken, as in the present instance, by a man of taste, judgment, and learning, are too often the most uninstructive, senseless, vapid reading that can possibly issue from the press. Mr. Malkin, with every requisite to improve observation, to animate description, and to lend a grace to truth, has pursued his course with a felicity of industry and research, that cannot fail to command respect, and to secure approbation. Although it would be inconvenient to us to go fully into this volume, and to make large extracts from its various contents, yet are we not inclined to dismiss it without favouring the reader with a specimen of the style of our author, which we shall therefore select from p. 67. "Ill may it befal the traveller," says he, "who has the misfortune of meeting with a Welsh wedding on the road; he would be inclined to suppose that he had fallen in with a company of lunatics, escaped from their confinement. It is the custom of the whole party that are invited, both men and women, to ride full speed to the church porch; and the person who arrives there first has some privilege or distinction at the marriage feast. To this important object all infe rior considerations give way; whether the safety of his majesty's subjects, who are not going to be married, or their own, incessantly endangered by boisterous, unskilful, and contentious jockeyship. The natives, who are acquainted with the custom, and warned against the cavalcade by its vociferous approach, turn aside at a respectful distance; but the stranger will be fortunate if he escapes being overthrown by an onset, the occasion of which puts out of sight that urbanity so generally characteristic of the people. 66 Their customs in case of death," he also observes, "are not less remarkable. The bed on which the corpse lies is always strewed with flowers, and the same custom is observed after it is laid in the coffin. They bury much earlier than we in England; seldom later than the third day, and very frequently on the second. This haste would be considered here as less respectful and affectionate; yet take their customs in the aggregate, and they will be found to be more so. Indeed, respect, or the reverse, on such occasions, is altogether determined by opinion: the custom or ceremony is in itself nothing, any further than as it is supposed to indicate the mind. It appears to me that the custom of burying early is in every respect the most proper, where the evidence of actual mortality is decisive. In this part of the country, especially, it is for the interest of the living, for the habit of filling the bed, the coffin, and the room, with sweet scented flowers, though originating, probably, in delicacy as well as affection, must of course have strong tendency to expedite the progress of decay. The attentions which immemorial prescriptions demand from a family, are such as could not be continued long without serious inconvenience. It is an invariable practice, both by day and night, to watch a corpse; and so firm a hold has this supposed duty gained upon their imaginations, that probably there is no instance on record, of a family so unfeeling and abandoned, as to leave a dead body in the room by itself a single minute, in the interval between the death and burial: such a violation of decency would be remembered for generations. The hospitality of the country is not less remarkable on melancholy than on joyful occasions. The invitations to a funeral are very general and extensive; and the refreshments are not light, and taken standing, but substantial and prolonged. Any deficiency in the supply of ale would be as severely censured on this occasion as at a festival. With respect to these peculiarities, it is to be understood, that they apply rather to the farmers and peasantry, than to persons of condition, who are apt to lose their nationality, and contract the manners and opinions of the polite world: but strewing flowers and watching the corpse are universal among all ranks and degrees, because the observance or neglect of such ceremonies depends on servants and nurses, whose minds are always peculiarly susceptible of local and superstitious prejudices. The grave of the deceased is constantly overspread with plucked flowers, for a week or two after the funeral: the planting of graves with flowers is confined to villages and poorer people. It is, perhaps, a prettier custom." It is also common to dress the graves, on certain festivals, when flowers are to be procured; and Mr. M. tells us, that the grave of his father-in-law "in Cawbridge church, has been strewed by his surviving servants, every Sunday morning, for these twenty years." -Wallace; or the Vale of Ellerslie: with other Poems. By John Findlay. Second Edition. 6s. Boards. Constable and Co. Edinburgh; Vernor and Hood. 1804. THESE ingenious pieces, which posses the rare advantage of being what the rhyming butler terms " poetical poems,” have reached a second Edition, and are now presented to the public with the additional recommendation of having been "corrected and enlarged." Proofs of Holy Writ, or England's Triumph over Bonaparte and his Armada, in express Terms, 1700 Years ago. 8vo. 6d. Badcock. 1804. WHAT does the reader think of the author who, by being like Lord Loggerhead, a little "loose in his orthography," and spelling Bonaparte, Bovvewagen, brings it to square with the number 666, in the Apocalypse? As he thinks of this, so will he respect these pages. Hints to the People of the United Kingdom in general, and of North Britain in particular, on the present important Crisis; and some interesting collateral Subjects. By William Dickson, LL. D. 1s. Ogle. Ir appears that it is unparliamentary to take even the broadest hints; but, though this may be wisdom in a minister, who wishes to keep in place, it will be none in the people, unless they wish to persevere in error, to neglect these salutary hints of Dr. Dickson. A Tale without a Title: give it what you please. By Eugenia de Acton. 3 Vols. 12s. Lane. 1804. A GOOD TALE is the title that we shall give these interesting and profitable volumes. Human Frailties. Interspersed with Poetry. 3 Vols. 9s. Dutton. We know not what greater frailties may fall to the lot of our au thor; but that of writing the novel before us will not, we shrewdly suspect, be easily forgiven by those who purchase it. "It is a tale," not" full of sound and fury,” for it is exceedingly tame, but it is a tale" signifying nothing." The American: a Novel. By William Higgins. 2 Vols. 8s. Ridgway. 1804. We have had no description of the inhabitants of terra incognita, but we may, perhaps, at some future time, be indulged with one |