of poetry, has been long answered. Voyages of difcovery, and adventures among favages and men of Ind," have formed the bafis of numerous poems, in all languages and all ages it feems therefore a point of fomewhat more importance at the prefent period, to inquire How the ftory is related; and to this, though there are many others not lefs pertinent, which have escaped the notice of Mr. S. we must confine our animadverfions. Madoc is divided into two parts of an unequal length, which are again fubdivided into forty-five fits, or cantos, or fections (for the author, who is too wife a man to follow his predeceffors in trifles, gives them no defignation) of which eighteen are occupied with the circumftances that drove the hero from home; his voyage to the Gulf of Florida; his tranfactions there; and his fubfequent return to Wales: the remaining twenty-feven narrate his fecond voyage; his various conflicts with the Indians; and his final fuccefs and fettlement on the fouthern fhores of the Miffouri. The poem opens, very happily, with the return of Madoc from his firft voyage. His feelings are well pourtrayed as he approaches the land; and the description of the scenery is picturesque and beautiful. "The fun goes down. P. 2. . On his landing, he is met by Urien, his fofter-father, who acquaints him with the occurrences of the palace fince his departure: the following is a fhort fpecimen of the converfation which paffes between them. "Quoth Urien, He fo doats, as she had dropt The Briton blood, that came from Owen's veins. Shame! foul fhame! that they fhould hear If this be poetry, it is poetry in its dotage; and indeed nothing can be more unfortunate than Mr. S.'s attempts, in general, at familiar dialogue. It would perhaps puzzle most of our readers to account for the chemical procefs by which the the following paffage, not more untractable than a hundred others, was refolved into metre. "The old man replied, with difficult effort keeping down his heart, God, in his goodness, may referve for us that bleffing yet! I have yet life enow to truft that I fhall live to fee the day, albeit the number of my years well-nigh be full." P. 8. The fecond, divifion brings Madoc to the palace of his brother David, who is celebrating his nuptials with a Saxon Princefs. Their meeting in this unexpected manner, after fo long an abfence, gives birth to the following natural dialougue, which feems to be founded on that part of Triftram Shandy where Uncle Toby and Trim kindle each others warlike paffions, and make fo defperate a charge with chairs and tables! "Aye, many a day, The onfet!-Doft thou not remember, brother, And Berwyn's after-ftrife! That, exclaimed the king, P. 13. This filly anecdote is dragged out from Gibson's Cambden, who tells of an eftate in Dorfetfhire, held in grand fergeantry, by finding a man to go before the King bareheaded and bare-footed, when he thould make war in Scot-. land; and as fome records (very fortunately for Mr. S.'s purpose) fay, in Wales! Mr. S. is undoubtedly a man of great reading: we with his judgment were equal to his induftry, but he felects the mean and ridiculous, with no less avidity than the curious and important paffages of his author, and ftrings them together in difgufting alliance. This heroic commemoration of mutual gallantry ends in a violent fit of anger, which is calmed by the falutary arDd3 tifice tifice of Goervyl, who invites her brother to give the hiftory of his adventures. This he promifes to do on the fucceeding day, and in the interim the bard is called upon for the accustomed fong. As this is a wedding-feaft, fomething appropriate to the occafion might be expected; but we are put off with a fyftem of theology, (and a ftrange one it is) as laid down in "the Triads of Bardifm!" This is an unaccountable whim; but this is not the only inftance in which the author choofcs to let his reading appear, when there is no need of fuch vanity." The conclufion of the bard's fong, however, is in a better ftyle, and more to the purpofe. He In the third fection, Madoc begins his narrative. He was feafting at Dinevawr, (for Madoc, like Ulyffes of old, is a great leafter) when he heard of the death of his father, and of the contention of his brothers for the vacant throne. haftens to reconcile them; but their eagernefs for hoftilities defeats his pious purpofe, and he only arrives at the field of battle to witness the carnage. "The fight, the founds, Of wounded horses, wandering o'er the plain." P. 21. This is fine poetry and fine painting: and we know not how to forgive the writer's officious accuracy, for fubjoining, in a note of plain profe, that the battle was really fought two years after the period here mentioned; and that Hoel, whofe dead body Madoc difcovers on a heap of flain, made his efcape from it, and died in Iceland. From this melancholy fcene, Madoc is conducted by a peafant to the cottage of a blind old man, who proves to be his coufin, Cynetha; and the prince, who is very proud of the virtues of his father, learns, with fome confufion, that the good King had put out his nephew's eyes for claiming his inheritance! This is not told in M. S.'s beft manner*, nor is the remainder of this fection executed with much attention, though the fory hinges upon it. We are not very deeply verfed in In the midst of it we have the harsh and falfely accented word "cónsummated.” Rev. Wellh Welsh antiquities, and cannot therefore pretend to say what authority there is for representing Cynetha as a very old man, fince Madoc and he are brother's children, and muft therefore be nearly of an age. In ftri&nefs, the advantage fhould be on the fide of Madoc, who is the fon of the elder brother.. But this is not the only incongruity. Madoc had taken no part in the difpute for the fucceffion, and his brother David, the reigning King, manifefts no hoftility towards him; yet he is told by Cadwallon, the old man's fon, that there is no fafety for him in Wales, where he muft either be "the victim or the murderer." In this ftate of alarm, they walk towards the shore, and a project, on which the whole story turns, is conceived and brought about in this, fingular manner. "Prince, quoth Cadwallon, thou haft rode the waves, There, upon that wide field !-What meaneft thou? As he fpake, Like lightning on the midnight traveller." P. 33. And the next news we hear is, that he is on his voyage. Never was any thing more loosely told. The means by which Madoc prevailed on his countrymen to undertake fo perilous, fo hopeless an adventure; the refources of his ingenuity, in providing two large large fhips, in a port which had never probably feen any thing more bulky than a coracle or a canoe, and the fcience however acquired, by which he propofed to conduct his followers to that other world," might and fhould have formed an interefting part of the ftory. Here, in our opinion, lay the chief difficulty with which Mr. S. had to contend, and here, therefore, before we opened his poem, we imagined that he had exerted all his powers. But he has evaded But he has evaded every obitacle, and difDd 4 patched patched the whole of this important business in a start and an exclamation! "I caught his hand ;-kinfman, and guide, and friend. In the fourth Section, Columbus (Mr. S. calls him Madoc) purfues his voyage. The narrative is verfified with fpirit from Robertfon and others, and fome parts of it are truly beautiful. The following lines, copied from a well-known paffage, though lefs chafte perhaps than the original, are of no common hand: "'Tis pleasant, by the chearful hearth, to hear And, with an eager and fufpended foul, Woo Terror to delight us." P. 42. The fifth Section lands Madoc on the fouthern coaft of the Floridas, where he is received with wonder and kindness by the natives. There is not much to detain us here, for we can discover nothing of novelty. It is true, that Madoc accumulates his wonders for the amufement of his audience, and when first told, they must have been highly interesting; but we have met with them in a thousand different places, and flumber over the ufelefs repetition. Fire-flies, water-fpouts, flying-fish, &c. &c. cannot give zeft to a poem in the prefent day, and the reader looks for fomething less trite. In an occafional vifit to one of the Chiefs, Madoc takes notice of a boy of different features from the reft: this youth, whofe name is Lincoya, follows him on board, and, by figns and broken language, (tor Madoc, like Cortes, muft have an interpreter) invites him to continue his voyage up the great river Mifouri. Here he lands, and is conducted to an Indian village. The fixth divifion gives an accurate account of the cuf toms of the Floridans, as defcribed in the hiftory of voyages. Erillyab, the Queen, (an ill-conftructed name) receives the hero at the door of her hut; while they are engaged in converfation, a priest approaches, and feizes upon two children, with an intent to bear them off to Aztlan, a neighbouring ftate, as a tributary facrifice to the gods. Madoc interpofes, and his threats excite fuch a spirit of refistance in the Hoamen, that the prieft returns to the Aztecas full of rage and fhame, but without his prey. The King, naturally furprised |