MISCELLANIES.

Ingram's Ready Reckoner, which fhows at one View the Net Amount of any Quantity from one Quarter to fifty Yards, or from one Shilling to forty Shillings per Yard, &c. 11. 1s.

The Hydro-Aeronaut, or Navigator's Life Bucy: being an eafy and effectual Method of preventing the Lots of Lives by Drowning, in Cafes of Shipwreck, and others. By Thomas Cleghorn, Inventor of the Ice Life-Boat. 5s.

The true Senfe and Meaning of the Syftem of Nature, a pofthumous Work of M. Helvetius. Tranflated by Daniel Ifaac Eaton. 3s.

The Two Pictures; or a View of the Miferies of France, contrafted with the Bleffings of Eugland. Earneftly recommended to the Notice of every

rue Britain. 6d.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO CORRESPONDENTS.

A letter from Mr, Pratt intimates an apprehenfion, that, from our account of his Poem, entitled "The Lower World," the readers might conceive it to be a partial and political performance, inftead of being founded on general principle. We take this opportunity to fay, that we did not intend fo to reprefent it. The author would, to use his ⚫wn words,

"One truth, or other truths fublime reveal,

That bird, beaft, infect, like ourselves can feel *.'

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

Mr. Dibdin is printing a much-improved and enlarged edition of his Bibliomania, which will make it a very instructive as well as elegant work.

We learn with pleasure, that Mr. Weber, Editor of the beft edition of the Battle of Flodden Field, (fee Brit. Crit. Vol. xxxv. p. 633,) is employed in a new edition of Beau mont and Fletcher, which will comprise the long-lost, and unpublifhed Comedy of the Faithful Friends, recovered by Mr. Kett.

The Bishop of Lincoln is printing a work upon the fubject of Calvinifm, which will comprehend his last three Charges, with very confiderable additions and numerous quotations from the works of Calvin and of the ancient fathers.

In the courfe of the month, the fecond edition of M. Johne's Tranflations of Monftrelet's Chronicle will appear in twelve volumes, octavo.

Mr. Southey's Poem of Kehama is nearly finished at prefs. Bannockburn has been felected by Mijs Holford, as the fubject for her next Metrical Romance.

*Not exactly like ourselves, becaufe not mentally, which makes a little difference.

Rev.

Genevive,

Genevive, or the Spirit of the Drave, by John Stewart, Elg. Author of the Refurrection, will be publifhed this month."

The Gleaner, a Selection of papers from neglected periodi cal Effayifts, by Dr. Drake, have been for fome time in the prefs, and will speedily be publifhed, in four octavo volumes.

Mr. Richards's Hiflory of Lynn, civil, commercial, political, and military, in one volume octavo, will be completed in a few weeks.

Mr. George Woods has prepared for the prefs an account. of the Isle of Man, comprizing its Hiftory, Antiquities and prefent State.o be published in one octavo volume.

Dr. George Rees is preparing for the prefs a new edition of his Work on Disorders of the Stomach, with additional cafes.

Mr. Cromek, editor of the Reliques of Burns, will publish fhortly, "Remains of Nithfdale and Galloway Song" with historical and traditionary Notices relative to the Manners and Customs of the Peafantry.

A fecond edition with additions of Mr. Henry Card's Literary Recreations, will fpeedily be published.

The Right Hon. George Rofe has in the prefs a new and enlarged edtition of a brief Examination into the Increase of Commerce and the Revenue brought down to the prefent Time.

A work is in the prefs, the first part of which will be published at the beginning of the enfuing year, entitled the "Devotional Family Bible," containing the Old and New Testaments, with Notes and Illuftrations, partly original and partly felected from the moft approved expofitors, with a Devotional Exercife at the end of every Chapter; by the Rev. John Fawcett, A. M.

A Life of the late Arther Murphy, Efq. with his Epiftolary Correfpondence, in a quarto volume, from Authentic Documents in the poffeffion of Mr. Ford, his Executor, is in the prefs.

Mr. John Bigland will fhortly publish in two octavo volumes, a Sketch of the Hiftory of Europe, from the peace of 1783 to the present time.

Mr. Smith's Hiftorical Memoranda of the War in the Levant, 1798 to 1801, illuftrated by Engravings, is nearly ready for publication.

A Tranflation of the Inftitutes of the Chriflian Religion, by the celebrated John Calvin, in three octavo volumes, is fhortly expected to appear.

ERRATA.

In our laft, page 239, line 29, dele but

In the Review for Auguft, page 181, in the price of Mr. Pratt's Poem, for 12s. 6d. read fix fhillings.

THE

BRITISH CRITIC,

For NOVEMBER, 1810.

Οὐδὲν ἄλλο ποιεῖ τὸν παῤῥησιαζομένον ἥκισα λυπεῖν, καὶ μαλίκα θεματα πεύειν, ἢ, τὸ φειδόμενον ὀργῆς, ἐν ἤθει, καὶ μεν εὐνοίας προφέρεσθαι τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσιν. PLUT.

Nothing renders animadverfion lefs grievous, or more beneficial, than avoiding violence, and approaching the person cenfured in a placid and benevolent manner.

ART. I. Conftance de Caftile. By William Sotheby, Efq. 4to. and Davies.

1810.

A Poem, in ten Cantos, 191 pp. 11. 5s. Cadell

combine hiftorical fact with romantic intereft; to produce defign, and colouring, and character from the bare outlines fupplied by the more accurate but often jejune, annalift; to illuftrate and enrich a fable, the ground-work of which is laid in truth, with the embellishments of fancy, the touches of a painter, and the harmonies of the musician; preferving at the fame time through the whole, an elevation of moral fentiment, is the province of poetry; and however dif ficult of attainment, we think, in an intellectual and cultivated æra, the most legitimate employment of the dignified Muse.

In faying this, we are by no means disposed to admit that a mere historical romance, is to be justified. A novel, for Ff inftance,

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXVI. NOV. 1810.

inftance, of this kind, appears in falfe colours: we are bewildered between pofitive and imaginary circumstances; between fact and fable, between the evidence of history, and the drama of fiction. But it is far otherwife in poetry: -the province of poetry, is, at its very outfet, inftantly recognized; it is that of imagination, and of colours. In the words of Sir Philip Sidney "the hiftorian, affirming many things, can, in the cloudy knowledge of mankind, hardly efcape from many lies;-but the poet never affirmeth, the poet never makyth any circles about your imagination, to conjure you to believe for true what he writeth, he citeth not authorities of other hiftories, but even for his entertainment calleth the sweet mule to infpire into him a good invention."

We think therefore, a poem founded upon hiftory (and the best and higheft fpecimens of the kind may be inftantly recollected) to be far fuperior in dignity, and far preferable in point of moral utility, to a poem purely ro

unantic.

The great truths, which experience beft teaches, may be difplayed in a more interefling manner; a diftant æra, with a more vivid reprefentation of its coftume and character may be brought before us; the knowledge of past scenes and periods revived; at the fame time, as the WHOLE is to be confidered in the light merely of dramatic and moral painting, while the general refult is inftructive and delightful, we need not perplex ourselves to find out where the detail of hiftorical incident ceafes, and where the lines of poetic imagination begin.

In the choice of a fubject for a poem from hiftory, confiderable judgment is required. Of fome hiftory has faid too much, and of others too little. Where the hiftorian has been prodigal in his detail of circumftantial events, the poet could do little more than verfify thofe circumftances; if the information be too fcanty and obfcure, then a poem fo founded could not be claffed as hiftorical, but, would be almoft purely romantic. It is where hiftory furnishes the medium between thefe extremes, that a proper bafis is laid for the further design and embellishments of the Muse. The fubject being fuch as would admit reference to general fact, and yet not exclude invention.

In the choice of his fubject for the prefent poem, we think Mr. Sotheby has evinced great judgment. The æra is heroic, the incidents and characters connected with the molt friking parts of our own national history; for who

does

J

does not with pride recollect the names of Edward the Third, and his illuftrious fon the Black Prince? Peter, of Pedro, of Spain, (commonly called the Cruel) having been deprived of his kingdom by his natural brother, Henry, Count of Traftamere, intreats the affiftance of the Black Prince; at this time refident with his Court at Bourdeaux. The English prince aflifs the Spanish Moharch in recovering his dominions. John, duke of Lancaster, brother to Edward, then in the bloom of youth, and actuated by the fpirit of chivalry, accompanies the expedition to Spain. Peter is reinftated in his dominions, and John of Lancaster marries Conftance, one of the three daughters of Peter, the heroine of this poem. This is all we know from history. Additional intereft is given to the ftory from the circumfance (of which Mr. Sotheby has ably availed himself) that the chief incidents are connected with that fpot, where the arms of the English are now united with thofe of Spain, to rescue that injured and infulted nation from the ambition of a ferocious and hitherto fuccessful invader.

In giving a general analyfis of this poem, we fhall point out as we proceed, fome of its most prominent beauties, and mark alfo, with the fpirit of candour and impartiality, what may appear to us as faulty, either in the conftruction

or execution.

The Poem opens with Pedro's return to CORUNNA, the only place of his dominions which remained to him, and which was now befieged by the conquering army of Traftamere. He had been abfent feeking affiftance; and, according to Froiffart, Fernando de Caftro, had engaged to furrender this laft fortrefs, unless Pedro came with fuccours, in the course of a twelvemonth: during his abfence, he had been thrown into prifon, by the treachery of the king of Portugal. The period was now juft expired, when in a tempeftuous night, a bark is defcried, by the fentinel on watch. It is that of Pedro: Conftance rushes through the waves, and fwoons in the arms of her long-loft father. Pedro is received by his faithful followers on the beach. His firft appearance is thus poetically and characteristically reprefented:

"The Monarch pauf'd to praise their worth

But deep groans burst unbidden forth;

And all, in filent agony,

Wept, as their lord went hopeless by." P. 13.

He afcends by a fubterraneous paffage to the keep of

the Caffle, where Conftance wakes from death-like

Ff2

fleep.