poet who knows any thing of his trade will husband his best thoughts for a concluding stroke. "O were my love yon lilack fair, Wi' purple bloffoms to the spring; When wearied on my little wing: By autumn wild, and winter rude; When youthfu? May its bloom renew'd." 3. Tell him I'll read his poem on the Sphere. This is the philofophical poem De Sphaera, which, if lefs interesting perhaps than the Urania of Pontanus, and fome others of the fame kind, abounds with beautiful poetical paffages. I read it, but was always happy when any friend called and interrupted my reading. It is evident that Sir John, from his partiality to Queen Mary, had an antipathy both at George Buchanan and at our illustrious reformer John Knox. This, fome readers may judge to be a defect; but no perfon is altogether perfect; and befides, as the critics obferve, a perfect is not a theatrical character. Perhaps George Buchanan, is as much spoken of among the vulgar of our country as among the Literati, under the title of Geordy Buchanan, the king's fool; and there is a pamphlet fold at country: fairs, which tells his merry deeds and fayings. How the greatest genius perhaps our country has yet produced should go under the denomination of fool, is hard to fay. Virgil too paffes for a wizard among the vulgar of Naples. 4. And feared neither man nor woman's face. This was the eulogy pronounced upon Knox by the Earl of Morton, who at his funeral said, "Here lies he who never feared the face of man." One of the strongest instances of the intrepidity of that period is given by the pious and illustrious Dr Jortin. "A Scotch clergyman, fays he, (probably our Mafs James) railing in the pulpit against monarchical government before King James VI. was commanded by his Majesty "Either to speak sense, or to come down." To this (one would think reasonable) request, the preacher anfwered, "I'fe tell thee, mon! I'fe neither speak fenfe, nor come down." 5. The maids who watch'd her bad gane to the door." The notion of a fecond fight still prevails in a few places, as does the belief of fairies; and children are watched till the christening is over, left they should be ftole or changed."-Pennant's Tour in 1769, 8vo, p. 94. 6. The gates of bell are open night and day. Facilis defcenfus Averni, Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis; Sed revocare gradum, fuperafque evadere ad auras, 7. SCENE II.-When I tald her, the Shepherd the rofe, &c.-This, as well as the next fong, and indeed the great proportion of them, is an early production. Opposite to this stanza, in the old manuscript, are the following lines of Metastasio, from which the idea feems to have been taken. Odia la Paftorella 8. The merry owl will cry.-The only poet, perhaps, who has ever affociated the owl and mirth, is Shakespeare; who, at the end of Love's Labour Loft, fays, Then nightly fings the staring owl, Tu-whit, to-who, A merry note; While greafy Joan doth keel the pot. In this the poet accords with natural history, by which we learn that the howling of the owl is his expreffion of joy and exultation. At least fo I learn from a work of Sir John Hill, whofe opinions on fubjects of that kind have fome weight, whatever they may have on others. Sir John once owned to a physician who attended him when fick, that he was then writing on seven different subjects, one of which was architecture, and another cookery. 9. SCENE III.-And sweeter unto me the purple beath, &c-For a commentary on this passage, read the tale of Voltaire entitled La Begueule. 10. Ob bow like to our late lady's picture.-Sir John and his lady had been abroad, and there the pictures mentioned might have been done. But there seems to have been a taste for painting in Scotland even fo early as the reign of James V. since we have portraits of that monarch in a good ftile. Sir Anthony More, it is faid, came to Scotland with Lord Seton, when ambassador from Mary of Guyse. II. And golden fruitage beckons on each path.-Since I wrote this, I fee that Pluto endeavours, in Claudian, to confole Proferpine, who, according to Chaucer, was Queen of Faerie, by telling her that below, Nec mollia defunt, Prata tibi: zephyris illic melioribus halant Autumnum, et fulvis femper ditabere pomis. Rapt. Proferp. lib. ii. v. 299. 2. If then fo great a love perfuades to go. Quod fi tantus amor menti, fi tanta cupido eft, Accipe quae peragenda prius!Æneid vi. 136. ACT IV. SCENE I-Ob happy love, &c.—In addition to this fine stanza from Burns, let me add the following of Madame Deshoulieres. Que la fin d'une tendre ardeur, Laiffe de vuide dans la vie ! Rien remplace-t-il le bonheur, Dont la douce union des Amans eft fuivie? Non il n'appartient qu'a l'amour, De mettre les mortels au comble de la joie; A fes brûlans tranfports lorsqu'on n'eft plus en proie, A number of critics have condemned the mingling love fo much in dramas. But, befides that no paffion is more general, and that few are judges of the noble or heroic paffions of patriotifm, maguanimity, &c. none is fufceptible of so much variety. Courtship, abfence, infidelity, conftancy, marriage, death, or dishonour, give rife to importunity, complaint, defpondence, hope, joy, lamentation, and despair. Even the fevere Boileau, notwithstanding his adventure with the Turkey cock, has said : De cette paffion la fenfible peinture. Eft pour aller au coeur la route la plus sûre. And Fontenelle, whofe friends were accustomed to fay that he was wholly head without a heart, remarks—“ Il n'eft que trop certain que l'amour eft de toutes les paffions la plus agréable." He adds indeed, that it is that state of it in which on a le coeur rempli et non pas troublé, on a des foins, et non pas des inquietudes, on est remué, mais non pas dechiré." I might quote a vast number of philosophers to the fame purpofe, but shall content myself with the following philofophic lines of Voltaire, and Platonic ones of Milton. Un amour vrai, fans feinte, et fans caprice, Eft en effet, le plus grand frein du vice; Eft honnête homme, ou va le devenir. Love refines The thoughts, and heart enlarges; hath his feat By which to heavenly love thou may'st ascend. Paradife Loft, viii. 593. 2. Sooner yon bark, &c.—I do not remember to have seen lines which contain a more delicate confirmation of lasting attachment, than the following of Montreuil. Pourquoi me demandez vous tant, Si mes voeux dureront, fi je ferai conftant, Jufques à quand mon coeur vivra fous votre empire? Ah Phillis vous avez grand tort! Comment vous le pourrois-je-dire ? Rien n'eft plus incertain que l'heure de la mort. Thus imitated by Mr Sheridan. Afk'ft thou "How long my love may stay, When all that's new is past;" How long?-Ah Delia, can I say, How long my life will last. Dry be that tear, be hush'd that sigh, At least I'll love thee till I die. The fame thought had appeared beautiful to the celebrated David Hume, who, in his fentimental effay the Epicurean, thus addresses Caelia : "But why does your bofom heave with thefe fighs, while tears bathe your glowing cheeks? Why distract your heart with such vain anxieties? Why fo often ask me, How long my love foall yet endure ?— |