struction, but I do not know how to rectify it, while the metre and rhyme are preserved, "But beauty gone, 'tis easier to be wise, though it might be restored to its meaning, under the following alteration, "As harpers better play, by loss of eyes." The "Book Worm" is a translation from Beza, with modern applications. I am and In "The Imitation of some French verses," rather surprised that Pope's accuracy of ear, correct taste, should permit such an imperfect rhyme to pass, as "bliss and wish," especially in those light pieces whose perfect finishing forms half their merit. The "Night Piece on Death" Goldsmith much admires; and endeavours, yet apparently against his real conviction, to prefer to Gray's immortal Elegy. His praise is pared away by his caution, for he is Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike;" and" he supposes that, with very little amendment, it might be made to surpass all those night pieces and churchyard scenes that have since appeared." Johnson's love of truth, not his partiality for Gray, 1 In the eighth chapter of the Vicar of Wakefield, Goldsmith considers GAY as having corrupted the purity of English poetry, and introducing a false taste by loading his lines with epithets. English poetry, he says, like that in the forced him into the confession, that Gray's poem has the advantage in dignity, variety, and originality of sentiments.1 In another of his books, Goldsmith mentions this poem of Parnell with similar praise, but considers the versification unsuitable to the subject. There is, in truth, nothing which could entitle it to be raised into comparison with Gray's Elegy; but if Goldsmith had pointed out the inferiority of the third stanza in Gray's poem to the rest, and if he had even recommended its omission, I should have considered his criticism as formed latter empire of Rome, is nothing at present but a combination of luxuriant images, without plot or connexion; a string of epithets that improve the sound, without carrying on the sense. As a model of simplicity, he then proposes his Hermit. Would Gray or Gay have written the following stanza? Far in a wilderness obscure, The lonely mansion lay, A refuge to the neighbouring poor, And strangers led astray." Are there no epithets worse than useless here? 'There seems to be an oversight in not correcting the repetition of the word 'glad' in the concluding lines: "See the glad scene unfolding wide, 2 The great fault of the Night Piece on Death is, that it is in eight syllable lines, very improper for the solemnity of the subject. Otherwise the poem is natural, and the reflections just. In his Fairy Tale never was the old manner of speaking more happily applied, or a tale better told than this. Goldsmith on English Poetry, p. 418. upon juster grounds, and at least worthy of respectful attention. The hint for the Hymn to Contentment, Johnson suspects to be borrowed from Cleveland.1 The Poem to which he alludes is that beginning, "Fair stranger! winged maid! where dost thou rest Or waking whither dost thou take thy flight?" it is impossible to say how ready Parnell's habits of poetical association may have been to receive new impressions, or how quickly they may have kindled at the smallest spark, furnished by another's genius; but I can perceive here no marks of imitation.o Cleveland's poem is not without its occasional beauties, but, as is common with that writer, they are strangely mixed up with unnatural conceits, harsh phrases, and low unpoetical allusions. The poem by which Parnell is best known, and which indeed is one of the most popular in our language, is the Hermit. Pope speaking of it, says, (6 The poem is very good. The story was written originally in Spanish, whence probably Howell had translated it into prose, and inserted it in one of his letters." Goldsmith adds, that Henry More has the very same story, and that he has been informed by some, that it is of Arabian invention; I 1 See Drake's Essays on the Spectator, vol. iii. p. 191. 2 This poem of Parnell's, with his three songs, were inserted by Steele into his Poetical Miscellanies for Tonson, 1614. have added, in a note,1 the works of different authors, where, in my own very contracted line of reading, I have accidentally met with this fiction, and which shows it to have been more generally known, than Goldsmith or probably Parnell were aware. Johnson thinks that there is more elaboration in the Hermit than in the other poems of Parnell, which renders it less airy and pleasing. 1. Herolt Sermones de Tempore et Sanctis, fol. Nuremb. 1496 (Serm. liii). 2. Gesta Romanorum, c. lxxx. 3. Sir Percy Herbert's Conceptions to his Son, 4to. 1652. 4. H. More's Divine Dialogues, p. 256, ed. 1743. 5. Howell's Letters, iv. 4. 6. Lutherana (Eng. Trans.) vol. ii. p. 127. 7. Voltaire's Zadig. vol. i. chap. xx. p. 125; and see Beloe's Anecdotes, vol. vi. p. 324; and Warton's Eng. Poetry, vol. i. p. cciv. cclxvi.; vol. iii. p. 41. See also Br. Mus. MS. Harl. 463. fol. 8. Epitres de Madam An toinette Bourignon, Part: sec: Ep. xvii. Antonia who the Hermit's story fram'd, A tale to prose-men known, by verse-men fam'd. W. Harte's Courtier and Prince. 2 In the first couplet of this poem, the word 'grew,' for liv'd,' is exceptionable, and there is an ambiguity of expression, in the lines "To find if books, or swains, report it right, (For yet by swains alone the world he knew, Whose feet came wandering o'er the nightly dew);" which might without much difficulty have been removed. The word alone' has no reference to books in the preceding line, but to swains,' as distinguished from all other persons; when I wrote the above, I was not aware of the difficulty having been noticed in Boswell's Johnson; see vol. iii. p. 418. At p. 126 of Pope's ed. of Parnell (The Flies, an Eclogue)" your fenny shade forsakes the vale," is a misprint for "ferny." I hardly know whether this can be discovered, or if it is, whether it does not arise from the graver and more important subject of the narrative.1 "The compass of Parnell's poetry (says a critic of genius and taste) is not extensive, but its tone is peculiarly delightful; not from mere correctness of expression, to which some critics have stinted its praises, but from the graceful and reserved sensibility that accompanied his polished phraseology. The curiosa felicitas, the studied happiness of his diction does not spoil its simplicity. His poetry is like a flower that has been trained and planted by the skill of the gardener, but which preserves in its cultured state the natural fragrance of its wilder air." In the observations which have been made on the poetry of Parnell, I have confined myself to those productions which were first published by Pope, and subsequently reprinted by Goldsmith;3 This poem (the Hermit) is held in just esteem; the versification being chaste and tolerably harmonious, and the story told with perspicuity and conciseness." Goldsmith's Beauties of Eng. Poetry, vol. i. p. 29. 2 See Campbell's Specimens of British Poetry, vol. iv. p. 409. 3 Goldsmith added two poems to those in Pope's volume, viz. Piety or the Vision,' and 'Bacchus.' He says that they were first communicated to the public by the late ingenious Mr. James Arbuckle, and published in his Hibernicus's Letters, No. 62; but they were printed in the Posthumous Works of Parnell, 1758, p. 213. 277. Mr. Ni |