They say, that my unfeeling breast

Ne'er felt love's pleasing, anxious smart; Was ne'er with doubts and fears opprest, Nor sighed to win a woman's heart: And let them say Whate'er they may,

I heed not censure now, nor praise : I could not ask a simple maid

To seek with me the lowly shade;

I hoped for brighter days.

Yes, I have felt that hallowed flame

Which burns with constant, chaste desire;

I, too, have cherished long a name

That set my youthful breast on fire;
But HOPE's sweet smiles,

And witching wiles,

Beguiled my heart of every pain;
And I have slept in her soft bowers,
'Till now, of life's last lingering hours
How few, alas, remain!

Ah! now her fairy reign is past,

For youth's warm raptures now are o'er;
Those visions all, too bright to last,

Of love and joy, can charm no more!
Some little toys,

Some puny joys,

To wear life's listless calm away;
Then near some old, neglected stone,
Unwept, unnoticed, and unknown,
I yield the worm its prey.

Come, then, whatever ills await,

Though age sits hoary on my brow,
1 care not for the frowns of fate!
And, POVERTY! I scorn thee now:
I shall not see,

The shade of youthful hope is there,
That lingered long, and latest died;
Ambition all dissolved to air,

With phantom honours at her side.

What empty shadows glimmer nigh!

They once were friendship, truth, and love!
Oh, die to thought, to memory die,

Since lifeless to my heart ye prove!

ON MODERATION IN OUR PLEASURES.

By Abou Alcassim Ebn Tabataba.

"Tabataba deduced his pedigree from Ali Ben Abou Taleb, and Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed.

"He was born at Ispahan, but passed the principal part of his life in Egypt, where he was appointed chief of the sheriffs, i. e. the descendants of the prophet, a dignity held in the highest veneration by every Mussulman. He died in the year of the Hejira 418, with the reputation of being one of the most excellent poets of his time."

HOW oft does passion's grasp destroy
The pleasure that it strives to gain;
How soon the thoughtless course of joy
Is doomed to terminate in pain.

When prudence would thy steps delay,
She but restrains to make thee blest;
Whate'er from joy she lops away,

But heightens and secures the rest.

Wouldst thou a trembling flame expand,
That hastens in the lamp to die;
With careful touch, with sparing hand,
The feeding stream of life supply.

But if thy flask profusely sheds

A rushing torrent o'er the blaze,
Swift round the sinking flame it spreads,
And kills the fire it fain would raise.

TO READERS.

WE had hoped to have accompanied the likeness of Commodore Decatur with a biographical article, but did not receive the necessary particulars in time. It shall be furnished as soon as possible.

We have received several communications in prose and verse, but have been induced, from various reasons, to decline inserting them. Some, though well written, are on trite and worn out subjects, or have been anticipated by selected articles which have appeared in former numbers. Others do not come within the plan of this work. It is hoped this general excuse will be sufficient; and that correspondents will not consider the omission of their writings as a censure on their merits.

ANALECTIC MAGAZINE.

FOR JUNE, 1813.

Comedies of Aristophanes, viz. the Clouds, Plutus, the Frogs, the Birds. Translated into English with notes.

[From the Eclectic Review, for March, 1813.]

THERE is, perhaps, no species of composition, of which we can so easily conceive the first occasion and rude beginnings, and the minute and gradual improvements, as of comedy. Nothing appears more natural than that at some season of unrestrained hilarity, at harvest-home, or when the vintage was got in, some wicked wag, full of the "veteris Bacchi, pinguisque ferinæ," should undertake to amuse his companions with the oddities of a ridiculous or obnoxious individual. He would suppose him in some ludicrous situation-put on his face as well as he could-use his cant phrases and particular gestures-and, exaggerating and caricaturing the whole, he might manage to give the taste and malignity of his rude audience a very tolerable afternoon's entertainment. To support a monologue, however, would be difficult and tedious, and his memory would easily supply him with more than one fit subject of mimicry. He would probably, therefore, soon introduce two characters in dialogue, playing the two parts alternately, till some one of his companions, ambitious of his honours, should rid him of half the burden, and sustain the conversation with him. It would then become necessary to preconcert, in some measure, the story and the dialogue; and two successful performers would soon draw a company around them. They would next claim some reward for their trouble, and would wander about, VOL. I. New Series.

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amongst villages, a kind of strolling improvisatori, exacting, at fairs and festivals, contributions from the lovers of drollery. They would contrive a moveable booth in which they might receive their audience in unfavourable weather. By a natural division of labour, the dialogue would soon be provided for the performers "by another hand," and the poet and the player would become distinct personages. The taste of the auditory would in time become more fastidious, and dresses must be used appropriate to the characters. Rude scenery, too, would begin to be introduced; and these would gradually improve as the fables of the poet, still employed about particular and well known persons, grew more attractive, and drew more forcibly the attention and liberality of the public. The strolling company would, from a consideration of interest, manage to be at any particular place at the time when the pomp and pageantries of Pagan worship had attracted thither a great concourse of people-as they do in fact, among ourselves, follow in the rear of the fairs. Thus the festivities of the theatre would connect themselves with the solemnities of religion, and hence we may account for the introduction of the chorus, who, in the infancy of the drama, interrupted the action of the piece with hymns in honour of the gods. When regular theatres were established, this connexion was necessarily dissolved, and the chorus then took a wider range.

It appears certain that in the time of Aristophanes, (who, all our readers know, was the chief of the old school of comedy,) great magnificence and dexterity must have been attained in the scenery and machinery of the stage. We do not argue from the expense and management requisite for the adequate representation of some of his comedies, as, for instance, of the Clouds, where the introduction of the chorus, and the conflagration of the school, would require considerable ingenuity; or of the Birds, of which the winged "dramatis persona" would occasion inexperienced dress makers much perplexity; or of the Frogs, in which the passage of Styx is a matter of even greater difficulty ;-because we know the poet is used to make the greatest demands upon the good nature and imagination of the audience, when the wardrobe and machinery of the theatre the least entitles him to do so. When our stage had scarcely sufficient decorations to distinguish a country house from a banqueting room, Shakspeare introduced his Tempest, with a dialogue on board a ship, in a storm at sea, and Beaumont and Fletcher had occasion for a sea fight. But it is upon record, that the Athenians lavished great sums upon the drama; that Eschylus frightened preg