attention-Florence, indeed, only to be la mented on the account of lofing its liberty under those patrons of letters, the Medicean family; the jealous Pisa, justly so called in refpect to its long impatience and regret under the fame yoke; and the fmall Marino, which however unrefpectable with regard to power or extent of territory, has, at least, this diftinction to boast, that it has preserved its liberty longer than any other ftate ancient or modern, having, without any revolution, retained its prefent mode of government near 1400 years. Moreover the patron faint who founded it, and from whom it takes its name, deferves this poetical record, as he is, perhaps, the only faint that ever contributed to the esta blishment of freedom.

Nor e'er her former pride relate,
To fad Liguria's bleeding flate.

In thefe lines the poet alludes to those ravages in the state of Genoa, occafioned by the un

happy divifions of the Guelphs and Gibelines.

When the favour'd of thy choice,

The daring archer heard thy voice.

For an account of the celebrated event referred

to in these verses, fee Voltaire's Epistle to the King of Pruffia.

Those whom the rod of Alva bruis'd,
Whose crown a British queen refus'd!

THE Flemings were fo dreadfully oppreffed by this fanguinary general of Philip the fecond, that they offered their fovereignty to Elizabeth, but, happily for her fubjects, she had policy and magnanimity enough to refuse it. Deformeaux, in his Abrége Chronologique de l'Hiftoire d'Espagne, thus describes the fufferings

of the Flemings. "Le Duc d'Albe achevoit de réduire les Flamands au défefpoir. Aprés avoir inondé les echafauts du fang le plus noble et le plus précieux, il fasoit conftruire des citadelles en divers endroits, et vouloit établir l'Alcavala, ce tribute onéreux qui avoit été longtems en usage parmi les Espagnols." Abreg. Chron. Tom. IV.

-Mona,

Where thousand Elfin shapes abide.

Mona is properly the Roman name of the Isle of Anglesey, anciently fo famous for its Druids; but fometimes, as in this place, it is given to the Isle of Man. Both those Isles ftill retain much of the genius of fuperftition, and are now the only places where there is the least chance of finding a faery.

O DE

TH

this ode is conceived, feems as well calculated for tender and plaintive fubjects, as for those where ftrength or rapidity is required-This, perhaps, is owing to the repetition of the ftrain in the fame ftanza; for forrow rejects variety, and affects an unifor, mity of complaint. It is needless to obferve that this ode is replete with harmony, fpirit, and pathos; and there, furely, appears no reason why the feventh and eighth stanzas fhould be omitted in that copy printed in Dodfley's collection of poems.

THE

cited admiffion into the English poetry;

but its efforts, hitherto, feem to have been vain, at least its reception has been no more than partial. It remains a queftion, then, whether there is not fomething in the nature of blank verfe lefs adapted to the lyric than to the heroic measure, fince, though it has been generally received in the latter, it is yet unadopted in the former. In order to discover this, we are to confider the different modes of thefe different species of poetry. That of the heroic is uniform; that of the lyric is various; and in these circumftances of uniformity and

variety, probably, lies the cause why blank verse has been fuccefsful in the one, and unaccep

table in the other. While it prefented itself

only