who-bus written something?" (berit quelque chose!) It is said that the Here, reader, will we pause ;-if there's no harm in

THE VISION OF JUDGMENT

BY QUEVEDO REDIVIVUS.

SUGGESTED BY THE COMPOSITION 80 ENTITLED BY THE AUTHOR OF "WAT TYLER.”

"A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel!

I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word."

PREFACE.

Ir hath been wisely said, that "One fool makes many;" and it hath been poetically observed,

"That fools rush in where angels fear to tread."-Pope.

3dly. Was he not entitled by William Smith, in full parliament, "a rancorous renegado ?" 4thly. Is he not poet laureate, with his own lines on Martin the regicide staring him in the face?

And 5thly. Putting the four preceding items together, with what conscience dare he call the atten tion of the laws to the publication of others, be they what they may ?

If Mr. Southey had not rushed in where he had no business, and where he never was before, and never will be again, the following poem would not I say nothing of the cowardice of such a proceedhave been written. It is not impossible that it may ing; its meanness speaks for itself; but I wish to be as good as his own, seeing that it cannot, by any touch upon the motive, which is neither more noi species of stupidity, natural or acquired, be worse. less than that Mr. S. has been laughed at a little in The gross flattery, the dull impudence, the renegado some recent publications, as he was of yore in the intolerance, and impious cant of the poem by the " Anti-jacobin" by his present patrons. Hence all author of Wat Tyler, are something so stupendous this "skimble-scamble stuff" about "Satanic," and as to form the sublime of himself-containing the so forth. However, it is worthy of him--" Qualis quintessence of his own attributes. ab incepto."

So much for his poem-a word on his preface. In If there is any thing obnoxious to the political this preface it has pleased the magnanimous laureate opinions of a portion of the public in the following to draw the picture of a supposed Satanic School,' poem, they may thank Mr. Southey. He might the which he doth recommend to the notice of the have written hexameters, as he has written every legislature; thereby adding to his other laurels the thing else, for aught that the writer cared-had ambition of those of an informer. If there exists any they been upon another subject. But to attempt to where, excepting in his imagination, such a school, canonize a monarch, who, whatever were his houseis he not sufficiently armed against it by his own hold virtues, was neither a successful nor a patriot intense vanity? The truth is, that there are certain king-inasmuch as several years of his reign passed writers whom Mr. S. imagines, like Scrub, to have in war with America and Ireland, to say nothing of "talked of him; for they laughed consumedly." the aggressions upon France,-like all other exag I think I know enough of most of the writers to geration, necessarily begets opposition. In whatwhom he is supposed to allude, to assert, that they, ever manner he may be spoken of in this new in their individual capacities, have done more good" Vision," his public career will not be more favorin the charities of life to their fellow-creatures in ably transmitted by history. Of his private virtues any one year, than Mr. Southey has done harm to (although a little expensive to the nation) there cau himself by his absurdities in his whole life; and be no doubt. this is saying a great deal. But I have a few questions to ask.

1stly. Is Mr. Southey the author of Wat Tyler? 2dly. Was he not refused a remedy at law by the highest judge of his beloved England, because it was a blasphe:nous and seditious publication?

With regard to the supernatural personages treated of, I can only say, that I know as much about them, and (as an honest man) have a better right to talk of them than Robert Southey. I have also treated them more tolerantly. The way in which that poor insane creature, the laureate, deals about

his judgment in the next world, is like his own

1.

judgment in this. If it was not completely ludi- SAINT PETER sat by the celestial gate;
crous, it would be something worse I don't think
that there is much more to say at present.

QUEVEDO REDIVIVUS.

His keys were rusty, and the lock was dull,
So little trouble had been given of late;
Not that the place by any means was full,
But since the Gallic era eighty-eight"
The devils had ta'en a longer, stronger pull

P. S.-It is possible that some readers may object, in these objectionable times, to the freedom with And "a pull altogether," as they say which saints, angels, and spiritual persons discourse At sea-which drew most souls another way in this "Vision." But for precedents upon such points I must refer him to Fielding's "Journey

II.

from this World to the Next," and to the Visions The angels all were singing out of tune,
of myself, the said Quevedo, in Spanish or trans- And hoarse with having little else to do,
lated. The reader is also requested to observe, Excepting to wind up the sun and moon,
that no doctrinal tenets are insisted upon or dis- Or curb a runaway young star or two,
cussed; that the person of the Deity is carefully Or wild colt of a comet, which too soon
withheld from sight, which is more than can be said
Broke out of bounds o'er the ethereal blue,
for the laureate, who hath thought proper to make Splitting some planet with its playful tail,
him talk, not "like a school divine," but like the As boats are sometimes by a wanton whale,
unscholarlike Mr. Southey. The whole action
III.
passes on the outside of heaven; and Chaucer's The guardian seraphs had retired on higa,
Wife of Bath, Pulci's Morgante Maggiore, Swift's
Tale of a Tub, and the other works above referred

tɔ, are cases in point of the freedom with which
saints, &c., may be permitted to converse in works
not intended to be serious.
Q. R.

Finding their charges past all care below;

Terrestrial business fill'd nought in the sky
Save the recording angel's black bureau:
Who found, indeed, the facts to multiply
With such rapidity of vice and wo,
And yet was in arrear of human ills.
That he had stripp'd off both his wings in quills,

IV.

His business so augmented of late years,

To aid him ere he should be quite worn out
By the increased demand for his remarks:
Six angels and twelve saints were named his clerk

Mr. Southey, being, as he says, a good Christian and vindictive, threatens, I understand, a reply to this our answer. It is to be hoped that his visionary faculties will in the meantime have acquired a little more judgment, properly so called: That he was forced, against his will, no doubt, otherwise he will get himself into new dilemmas. (Just like those cherubs, earthly ministers,) These apostate jacobins furnish rich rejoinders. For some resource to turn himself about, Let him take a specimen. Mr. Southey laudeth And claim the help of his celestial peers, grievously "one Mr. Landor," who cultivates much private renown in the shape of Latin verses; and not long ago, the poet laureate dedicated to him, it appeareth, one of his fugitive lyrics, upon the strength of a poem called Gebir. Who could suppose that in this same Gebir the aforesaid Savage This was a handsome board-at least for heaven, Landor (for such is his grim cognomen) putteth into And yet they had even then enough to do, the infernal regions no less a person than the hero So many conquerors' cars were daily driven, of his friend Mr. Southey's heaven,-yea, even George the Third! See also how personal Savage becometh, when he hath a mind. The following is his portrait of our late gracious sovereign:

(Prince Gebir having descended into the infernal regions, the shades of his royal ancestors are, at his request, called up to his view, and he exclaims to his ghostly guide)

"Aroar, what wretch that nearest us

what wretch

Is that with eyebrows white and slanting brow?
Listen! him yonder, who, bound down supine,
Shrinks yelling from that sword there, engine-hung.
He too among my ancestors! I hate
The despot, but the dastard I despise.
Was he our countryman?"

"Alas, O king!
Iberia bore him, but the breed accurst

clement winda blew blighting from northeast."
"He was a warrior then, nor fear'd the gods?"
Gebir, he fear'd the demons, not the gods,
Though them indeed his daily face adored;
And was no warrior, yet the thousand lives
Squander'd, as stones to exercise a sling,
And the tame cruelty and cold caprice-

Oh madness of mankind I address'd, adored !"--Gebar, p. 28. I omit noticing some edifying Ithyphallics of Savagius, wishing to keep the proper veil over them, if his grave but somewhat indiscreet worshipper will suffer it; but certainly these teachers of great moral lessons are apt to be found in strange company.

V.

So many kingdoms fitted up anew;

Each day too slew its thousands six or seven,
Till at the crowning carnage, Waterloo,
They threw their pens down in divine disgust-
The page was so besmear'd with blood and dust.

VI.

This by the way; 'tis not mine to record

What angels shrink from: even the very devil On this occasion his own work abhorr'd, So surfeited with the infernal revel; Though he himself had sharpen'd every sword, It almost quench'd his innate thirst of evil. (Here Satan's sole good work deserves insertion"Tis, that he hath both generals in reversion.)

VII.

Let's skip a few short years of hollow peace,
Which peopled earth no better, hell as wont,
And heaven none-they form'd the tyrant's lease.
With nothing but new names subscrib'd upon't;
'Twill one day finish: meantime they increase,

"With seven heads and ten horns," and all in

front,

Like Saint John's foretold beast: but ours are born
Less formidable in the head than horn.