Black coaly smith, when first thou went'st about
This tool to forge, I would thou hadst been mad,
Dan Vulcan's luck, or worse mischance hadst had.

STANZA 375.

Brave England never had a braver knight,

Puissant France hath felt no fiercer foe;
Fairer condition'd never living wight;

More courtesies no earthly man did know;
More finer wit, more judgments none did show
In his attempts: more honours none had gain'd
By high exploits than those thou hast attain'd!

STANZA 376.

From out our bunch our orient's pearl is gone,

From treasure ours our rarest jewel lost,

From ivory ours stol'n is our whitest bone,

Reft from our wealth rich thing of greatest cost;

Of all our pillars fall'n is most surest post;

Good Chandos slain, I say no more but this,
Best English Knights thy presence much will miss.

STANZA 388.

What glorious praise deserves that worthy wight,.....
Whose arm'd body as bulwark 'gainst the foe,
Despising life in throngs of foes doth fight
For country's cause, and sweetest sweet bestow ?
Though bodies die, wide do their praises grow,
Seld' well-got honour suffer'd is to die,
But memorized lives perpetually.

STANZA 396.

Ah! throughfare full of baleful miseries,

Hard passage cover'd with sharp threat'ning rocks,

Vile toilsome life subject to destinies,

Mad fools on stage whom flouting fortune mocks,

Poor silly sheep to slaughter led by flocks;

Drunk peevish men, whom safety's thought confound, Dreaming they never shall consume in ground.

STANZA 397, AND LAST.

As silent night brings quiet pause at last

To painful travels of forepassed day,
So closing death doth rest to labours cast;
Making of our toilful work a stay;

Thoughts, griefs, sad cares are bandon then away;
In pomp and glory though brave days we spend ;
Yet happy none, until be known his end.

FINIS.

WILLIAM WYRLEY.

ART. LXXV. Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia, first published 1590.*

I HAVE been favoured with the following among many other literary obligations in the progress of this work, by the Rev. James Stanier Clarke, whose very learned and laborious volume, "The Progress of Maritime Discovery," containing a vast fund of interesting information which was before almost inaccessible, must in spite of the attacks of ill-directed talent, gradually win its way to its merited fame.+

*The first edition was in 4to. for W. Ponsonby, 1590.

It is no slight honour to have awakened all the fancy of Bowles, and to have given occasion to his very beautiful and touching poem on the same subject.

Perhaps there may be many, who will think, that the Arcadia is a book too common to justify its occupation of much room in these pages. But I do not profess totally to confine myself to rare books. There are many old volumes of frequent occurrence, to which it may yet be desirable to call the public attention. And is this work at present much examined beyond its title? As the manners of chivalry have been forgotten, it would be vain to deny, that this romance is become unconquerably tedious. But for those, who study the progress of the English language, the Arcadia is a treasure, which ought to be frequently investigated. If, as a poet, Sydney does not exhibit that rare genius, which could rise above the faults of his age, he yet discovers most brilliant attainments, which, when we consider his active habits, his various other qualifications, and his very short life, entitle him to permanent celebrity among the most favoured in the Temple of Fame. I insert with pleasure therefore the following specimens, with the hope of recalling the public notice to a character, which I have always contemplated with admiration; though I cannot at present find room for all the extracts, which Mr. Clarke has, at the expense of much pains, had the goodness to select for my use from the numerous pages of the Arcadia.

Dec. 3, 1806.

The Countesse of Pembroke's Arcadia, written by Sir Philip Sidney, Knight. Now the ninth time published, with a twofold supplement of a defect in the third book: the one by Sir W. A.* Knight ;

*Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling, a poet.

the other, by Mr. Ja. Johnstoun Scoto-Brit. Dedicated to K. James, and now annexed to this work, for the reader's benefit. Whereunto is also added a sixth book, by R. B. of Lincolnes Inne, Esq. London. Printed for J. Waterson and R. Young, 1638. Folio. Pages 624, with the short Supple

ment.

The dedication to this interesting work has been deservedly much admired.

"To my dear Lady and Sister, the Countesse of Pembroke.

"Here now have you (most deare, and most worthy to bee most deare Ladie) this idle worke of mine; which I feare (like the spider's web) will be thought fitter to be swept away, than worn to any other purpose. For my part, in very truth (as the cruell fathers among the Greekes were wont to doe to the babes they would not foster) I could well finde in my heart to cast out in some desart of forgetfulness this childe, which I am loth to father. But you desired me to doe it, and your desire to my heart is an absolute commandement. Now, it is done only for you, onely to you: if you keepe it to your selfe, or to such friends, who will weigh errours in the ballance of good will, I hope, for the father's sake, it will be pardoned, perchance made much of, though in it selfe it have deformities. For indeed, for severer eyes it is not, being but a trifle, and that triflingly handled. Your deare selfe can best witnesse the manner, being done in loose sheets of paper, most of it in your presence, the rest by

sheets sent unto you, as fast as they were done. In summe a young head, not so well staid as I would it were, (and shall bee when God will) having many many fancies begotten in it, if it had not beene in some way delivered, would have growne a monster, and more sorry might I be that they came in, than they gat out. But his chiefe safety shall be, the not walking abroad; and his chiefe protection, the bearing the livery of your name; which (if much good will doe not deceive me) is worthy to be a sanctuary for a great offender. This say I, because I know the vertue so; and this say I, because it may be ever so, or to say better, because it will be ever so. Read it then at your idle times, and the follies your good judgement will finde in it, blame not, but laugh at. And so, looking for no better stuffe, than as in a haberdasher's shop, glasses, or feathers, you will continue to love the writer, who doth exceedingly love you, and most most heartily prayes, you may long live to be a principall ornament to the family of the Sidneis.

"Your loving brother,

"PHILIP SIDNEY."

Mr. Hayley thus speaks of this dedication in the Life of Cowper. "If we turn to an early season of our epistolary language, we may observe, that the Letter of Sir Philip Sidney to his Sister, Lady Pembroke, (prefixed as a dedication to his Arcadia) is distinguished by tender elegance, and graceful affection."

The poetry in this work has not been sufficiently