Who catch the Gallic smile-th' Ausonian mien, And thence returning, kindly spread around This is equal to a passage on the same subject in Cowper; but not to the politely scornful irony of a celebrated passage in Pope's shew-up of diplomatic nurselings : Led by my hand, he saunter'd Europe round, And gather'd every vice on Christian ground, &c. Dunciad, 4th Book 311, &c. The following has great verve, and finishes with an expression perfectly Juvenalian, Carted round the world!' Nor is the insurrectionary vehemence of the fifth line less remarkable. Will Mr. Robert Montgomery's detractors say that this passage, evidently thrown off in mere playful power, is not poetry? They cannot master it by any passage in the English Bards. Spirits that burn'd with an heroic glow, Cursed by the good, and carted round the world! This short outline of one alone of the Parnassian throng', is bitterly dashed out; Made up of every cold and jealous art, Beloved by none he crawls his reptile way; Stabs where he can, and slanders for his pay. The next passage I shall adduce is equally energetic, and concludes with a thought of deadly and annihilating scorn. Ye of the empty skull! unsafe, unsound,— Is wet-nurse to the wig-wams of the age,— "Tis hard to tell the baser of the two, The one who writes or reads each quack review ; Of taste well modell'd, and of judgment sound,— But say, amid the fry of critics now, With dainty eye, and Aristarchian brow, How seldom shall we find the man whose mind Is fit to helm the judgment of mankind! How much I scorn SOME ignominious crews, 'wretch," and all they deem more vile; Concentrated Imagery is the main characteristic of Mr. Montgomery's style in his didactic poems. In his satires we see him under a different aspect. Ju venal's power consists in an analogical propertythat of concentrating an entire logical argument into three or four energetic phrases—sometimes, indeed, condensing a whole thesis into a single word. This untranslateable writer,-(untranslateable without a circumlocution, which disguises, or misrepresents his true character-I say this, meo periculo, notwithstanding the excellent paraphrases of Hodgson, and even Gifford,) -effects the magical result sometimes by a collocation of words, varying their force like counters by position, often by prolepsis, often by briefly insinuating an inference, overstepping the logical stages by which it is reached. If several of Mr. Montgomery's words, in his imaginative poetry, concentrate similes, or resemble pictures, some of Juvenal's words resemble single algebraic characters, which represent an entire reasoning process. The latter's style is perfectly divested of images; and it will be seen that, with all his exuberant imagery in descriptive poems, Mr. Montgomery uses scarcely any in the Age Reviewed, but adapts himself, with the native tact and elasticity of genius, to the severe style appropriate to the subject, and of which Juvenal furnishes the model. In the following passages, the rushing sonorousness of the verse, and the glowing vehemence of the denunciation, often rise above the common level of poetical satire to the sublime. To save space and time, I shall follow the example of my learned friends', -whose polite attention is solicited,-by criticising with italics and notes of adıniration. At the same time they must accord me the liberty of arranging the satirical extracts in a dramatic form. Up curtain! OVERTURE TO THE MARCH OF MIND. · Tune-the ROGUE'S MARCH.' Delightful period!-dare we mock the truth, And palsied swindlers snivel o'er their dice; (!!) How sinecures and Germans plunder me; A few more bars of the same strain Yes! every blockhead born to clean the mews, CONCLUDING CRASH. Can aught of PATRIOTIC fervour grace Cling to the cursed columns that ye scrawl, Recipe for a Modern Tragedy. Compound some proverbs of obscurest growth, Dish up five acts-the tragedy is done! Six times shall thund'ring sticks, and hired huzzas, [Enter a Persona Dramatis.] 6 'I'm first!' cries Fungus, unabash'd I'll stand, Nor step behind the noblest of the land! Though scullion-bred, my kitchen tones declare,— [Enter Sir Punch.] A COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, OR JOLTERHEAD, ' M.P. Burden'd with fate, SIR PUNCH to London goes, NOES' in his eyes, and 'AYES' upon his nose ; |