In him an author's luckless lot behold! Condemn'd to make the books which once he sold. To fill the speaking trump of future fame! As Sisyphus against the infernal steep Rolls the huge rock, whose motions ne'er may sleep, The petrifactions of a plodding brain, That ere they reach the top fall lumbering back again. Lo! sad ALCEUS wanders down the vale! Tho' fair they rose, and might have bloom'd at last, * Mr. Cottle, Amos, or Joseph, I don't know which, but one or both, once sellers of books they did not write, but now writers of books that do not sell, have published a pair of Epics. "Alfred" (poor Alfred Pye has been at him too!)" Alfred" and the "Fall of Cambria." Mr. Maurice hath manufactured the component parts of a ponderous quarto, upon the beauties of "Richmond Hill," and the like:-it also takes in a charming view of Turnham Green, Hammersmith, Brentford, Old and New, and the parts adjacent. Nipp'd in the bud by Caledonian gales, Of northern wolves that still in darkness prowl: Some think that satan has resign'd his trust,... * Poor Montgomery, though praised by every English Review, has been bitterly reviled by the Edinburgh. After all, the bard of Sheffield is a man of considerable genius: his" Wanderer of Switzerland" is worth a thousand "Lyrical Ballads," and at least fifty "Degraded Epics." seat; the hill which overhangs Edinburgh. Who knows? if chance his patrons should restore His scribbling toils some recompense may meet When LITTLE's leadless pistol met his eye, 'Dark roll'd the sympathetic waves of Forth, *In 1806, Messrs. Jeffrey and Moore met at Chalk-Farm. The duel was prevented by the interference of the magistracy; and, on examination, the balls of the pistols, like the courage of the combatants, were found to have evaporated. This incident gave occasion to much waggery in the daily prints. †The Tweed here behaved with proper decorum; it would have been highly reprehensible in the English half of the river to have shown the smallest symptom of apprehension. The Tolbooth felt-for marble sometimes can, This of his candour seem'd the sable dew, The field, and sav'd him from the wrath of MoORE; 66 My son," she cried, " ne'er thirst for gore again, Resign the pistol, and resume the pen ; O'er politics and poesy preside, Boast of thy country, and Britannia's guide! *This display of sympathy on the part of the Tolbooth (the principal prison in Edinburgh) which truly seems to have been most affected on this occasion, is much to be commended. It was to be apprehended, that the many unhappy criminals executed in the front, might have rendered the edifice more callous. She is said to be of the softer sex, because her delicacy of feeling on this day was truly feminine, though, like most feminine impulses, perhaps a little selfish. For long as Albion's heedless sons submit, * His Lordship has been much abroad, is a member of the Athenian Society, and Reviewer of" Gell's Topography of Troy." † Mr. Herbert is a translator of Icelandic and other poetry. One of the principal pieces is a "Song on the Recovery of Thor's Hammer;" the translation is a pleasant chant in the vulgar tongue, aud endeth thus: "Instead of money and rings, I wot, The hammer's bruises were her lot, Thus Odin's son his hammer got." The Rev. Sydney Smith, the reputed author of Peter Plymley's Letters, and sundry criticisms. § Mr. Hallam reviewed Payne Knight's Taste, and was exceedingly severe on some Greek verses therein; it was not discovered that the lines were Pindar's till the press rendered it impossible to cancel the critique, which still stands an everlasting monument of Hallam's ingenuity. The said Hallam is incensed, because he is falsely accused, seeing that he never dineth at Holland house.-If this be true, I am sorry-not for having said so, but on his account, as I understand his Lordship's feasts are preferable to his compositions.—If he did not review Lord Holland's performance, I am glad, because it must have been painful to read, and irksome to praise it. If Mr. Hallam will tell me who did review it, the real name shall find a place in the text, provided nevertheless, the said name be of two orthodox musical syllables, and will come into the verse; till then, Hallam must stand for want of a better. Pillans is a tutor at Eton. |