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which subsequently took place, was effected by means as little reputable to the lady's relations as they were honourable to himself In this year he discovered that the Muse, whom he had for so long a time deserted, was still dear to him. From the period of his returning to England, the pastoral, which he had hung upon the tomb of his friend, Charles Deodati, was the only poem of any length which he had composed. The discharge of his serious duties had not admitted of his indulging in his favourite recreation; and his occupations had been of too stubborn and harsh a nature to blend with the fine visions of imagination, or to melt into the harmony of poetry. Some sonnets however he had occasionally produced; and in the year now in question he found so much time to respire, after his domestic and his public contests, as to be able to prepare an edition of all his English, Italian and Latin poems. Of this small volume, which was sent into the world with the author's name and with a preface by the publisher, Humphrey Moseley, the principal pieces have already been made the subjects of our remark. The novelties therefore of this collection, which are chiefly the sonnets, have now the only claim to our attention.

The sonnet, as is generally known, is altogether of Italian origin; and its structure is ascertained with so much rigid precision as to be insusceptible of any, or only of the most trifling variation. Of the fourteen lines, of which it is to consist, the first eight are to admit one change only of rhyme for their termination; and are to be distributed into two stanzas, of which the first verse chimes with the last, and the two intermediate ones with each other. The six concluding lines may either be confined within terminations of two similar sounds alternately arranged, or may be disposed, with two additional rhymes, into a quatrain and a couplet.' Like every short poem, the sonnet requires strict unity of subject; but it solicits ornament from variety of thought, on the indispensible condition of a perfect subordination. The sentence may overflow the verse, but must not transgress the stanza.

i Milton has not always observed this arrangement of the terminations in the six concluding lines. In his sonnet to Fairfax, he has formed the first four of these lines into a third stanza, of a similar construction with the two preceding ones; and he has made the two last lines to rhyme with the two which immediately go before them. In his sonnet to Cromwell, he has disposed these six verses into a similar stanza, and a couplet with a new rhyme. He seems to have regarded the order of this part of the sonnet as submitted in a great degree to his discretion.

This little poem is impressible with various characters; and, while with Petrarch it is tender and pathetic, with Dante in equal consistency with its nature it is elevated and forcible. Peculiarly adapted to the language and the taste of its native Italy, it has been considered, though in my opinion without sufficient reason, as insuperably unaccommodated to those of Britain. When happily constructed, it will be found to gratify every English ear, attuned to the harmony of verse; and the idea, which it suggests, of difficulty encountered and overcome must contribute, as has been more than once remarked, to heighten the power of its effect.

During the prevalence of our Italian school of poetry, this short and pregnant composition was much in favour with our bards; and in the childhood, as it may be called, of the English Muse, it was made the vehicle of his love by the tender, the gallant, the accomplished and the ill-fated Surrey. In the succeeding generation, the

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From the notoriety of the fact, it can scarcely be necessary to inform the reader, that this ornament of the English nobility, (Henry Howard, eldest son of Thomas duke of Norfolk,) fell a victim, in the flower of his age, to the jealousy of that capricious and remorseless tyrant, Henry VIII.

When I speak of Surrey as a sonnetteer, I either take the fact

sonnet was constructed, though not with rigid accuracy, by Sidney, Spenser, Shakspeare, and still more happily by Drummond, the peculiar object, as it would seem, of Milton's applause and imitation. By Milton this minute poem has frequently been animated with a great and mighty soul. That which

on the credit of others, or I adopt the vague language of writers, who call every short poem, comprised within fourteen lines, a sonnet. Surrey has justly been honoured by Mr. Warton with the title of our first English classic: but I am not acquainted with one regular sonnet, which he has constructed. I am far from being profoundly conversant with our old English poets; and therefore the reader will be the less surprised when I tell him that Drummond is the earliest writer of the true sonnet whom I can properly be said to know. One of the sonnets of this admirable genius, addressed to the Nightingale, is so beautiful that I must be allowed to gratify myself by transcribing it.

TO THE NIGHTINGALE.

Sweet bird, that sing'st away the early hours
Of winter, past or coming, void of care,
Well pleased with delights which present are,
Fair seasons, budding sprays, sweet-smelling flowers:
To rocks to springs, to rills, from leafy bowers
Thou thy Creator's goodness dost declare,
And what dear gifts to thee he did not spare;
A stain to human sense in guilt that lowers.
What soul can be so sick, which by thy songs,

Attired in sweetness, sweetly is not driven
Quite to forget earth's turmoils, spite and wrongs,
And lift a reverend eye and thought to heaven?
Sweet artless songster! thou my mind dost raise
To airs of spheres,-yes, and to angels' lays.

ness.

he wrote "when the assault was intended to the city," and those which he addressed to Cyriac Skinner, (the grandson of the great lord Coke,) to Fairfax, to Vane, and to Cromwell are eminent for their vigour and loftiSome greater accuracy perhaps might be required in the finishing of these short poems; but they are conceived and executed in a grand and broad style. Like a small statue by the chisel of Lysippus or a miniature from the pencil of Angelo, they demonstrate that the idea of greatness may be excited independently of the magnitude of size.

The distinguishing qualities of our author's genius are generally known to be elevation and power; and he is certainly never more in his proper employment and station than when he is sporting in the tempest, and hovering in infinite space. Descending however into the regions of tenderness and grace, he can contract the action of his giant hands to the braiding of a wreath, or to the fashioning of a gem. If this were not sufficiently attested by his L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, and parts of his Comus and of his great Epic, we might rest our proof of it on the testimony of those little pieces which are now under our notice. His sonnet to the nightingale is sweet; that on his deceased wife is pathetic, and

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