properly, terms, The Beauties of Sylvester's Du Bartas.

No production of our elder poetry, is, perhaps, better calculated for a selection of this kind, than the Translation of Sylvester. As a whole, in its general structure and execution, it is insufferably heavy and tedious, nor will a reader, in the present day, be easily found, who shall possess perseverance and patience adequate to its complete perusal. In this mass of deterring materials, however, and which abounds with quaintnesses, puerilities and vulgarisms, of almost every description, are to be discovered, beauties of no common kind. These, it may be presumed, appear more brilliant, from being contrasted with the opacity, which usually surrounds them in their original station; but even when detached, they will generally be allowed to possess great merit, and, in expression and versification, to approach, in a very singular degree, the refinements of the present age.

The occasional excellence, indeed, which Sylvester displayed in the construction of the

couplet, was not unnoticed in the criticism of his time, and the epithet silver-tongued, was, from the superior sweetness of his harmony, commonly applied to him by his brethren of Parnassus. The passages, nevertheless, in which these beautiful cadences occur, are not numerous, when compared with the bulk of the whole, and would, to a superficial observer, seem rather the effect of accident than design. That they are, however, the result of elaborate study, I am well convinced, and justly, therefore, they entitle the poet, to the honour of improving our versification. Many of these elegancies are apparent in the extracts already before the public, and many more will be perceived in the selections for these essays.

When the perusal, indeed, of Mr. Dunster's collection, induced me to refer to, and to labour through the entire work of Sylvester, I was much surprised to find many passages of the most undoubted excellence omitted. That the specimens he has chosen in general, do credit to his taste, will not, probably, be denied, but that the pictures now detached and arranged, and which are

equal, if not superior, to any exhibited in his essay, should have been wholly overlooked, is not easily to be accounted for. They are, for the most part, descriptions, not dependent on technical beauty or local sketching, but calculated for universal acceptance, and must have struck every reader of the version with the most pleasing astonishment, for such, as I have observed before, is the great inequality of this poem, that pages of extreme dullness and imbecility, usually intervening, admiration is consequently strongly excited, and the eye dwells with rapture on portions, so unexpectedly polished and interesting.

To the flowers, therefore, as arranged by Mr. Dunster, every judge of elegance will, I have no doubt, add, as of equal fragrance and colour, the présent collection, and, probably, without presumption, it may be now affirmed, that every specimen, worth preserving, has been selected from this rude and neglected garden, and that what remains may be considered as little else than weeds or noxious plants, without utility and without beauty.

To have treated any old poem of general excellence in this way, would have been both mischievous and absurd, but, in the present instance, even every lover of old English literature, will, I should imagine, be thankful for the attempt; for what was of value in the version was utterly inadequate to its entire preservation, and was in imminent danger of perishing with the whole.

With the view of rendering these numbers more interesting, I shall annex to my quotations, such illustrations, observations, and parallel passages, as the lines immediately before me may suggest, and it may be necessary, ere I proceed, to say, that I have consulted two copies of my author, the quarto of 1608, which was the second edition, and the folio of 1641, which was the last.

The poem of Du Bartas, entitled Days and Weeks, is divided into two Weeks, and these are again subdivided into Days. The First Week, or Birth of the World, contains seven books or days, viz. 1. The Chaos. 2. The Elements. 3. The Sea and Earth.

4. The Heavens, Sun, Moon, &c. 5. The Fishes and Fowls. 6. The Beasts and Man. 7. The Sabaoth. Of the Second Week the poet only lived to finish Four Days, viz. Adam. Noah. Abraham. David. The three remaining, which would have completed the design, were to have been named Zedechias, Messias, and the Eternal Sabbath. The Four Days of the Second Week are broken each into four parts, under the following heads; First Day. Eden. The Imposture. The Fairies. The Handy-Crafts. Second Day. The Ark. Babylon. The Colonies. The Columns.

Third Day. The

Vocation. The Fathers. The Law. The Captains. Fourth Day. The Trophies. The Magnificence. The Schism. The Decay.

I have given this outline of the plan of the poem, in order to facilitate the system of reference I have adopted, and which will apply to the various editions quarto or folio. No liberty of any kind has been taken with the quotations, except that of omitting a line or two, judged infinitely inferior and injurious to the general merit of the passage,