Now, Corporal Godwin, come forth from the clus

ter; (n)

Thy Leon possess'd gold thou never wilt muster; And, though youth-preserving elixir he boasted, Like thee, through life's course, he was constantly roasted;

As hapless as Wolstonecraft, man's arts contemning, Who sacrific'd self to those lures thus condemning. Serjeants Ireland and Curtis, (o) your stations now

take,

Nor e'er permit sense falsehood's barrier to break;

(n) This gentleman, who has long found out the fallacy of interfering with the political horizon, is now honourably employed in placing to account those talents he possesses. As a romance writer he has justly acquired a high degree of consideration; his fictions are tolerably managed; and the language, though sometimes inflated, is not of that vague character which marks the generality of such performances.

(0) Sir Scribblecumdash having thought fit to unite the above gentlemen, I shall not have the temerity to break the

Be it thine, junior Shakespeare that vagrant to stick, Who wou'd ravish The Abbess, or free Catholick.

While, Curtis, 'tis yours the Watch Tow'r to defend, Lest Sons of Ulthona steal Scottish Legend.

Now, petticoat sisters, your care next must be,

Staunch Porters (p) to scour through the Scottish Country;

link, as the performances of both partake sufficiently of the marvellous to rank them brothers in fiction. Mr. Ireland's ebullitions of this class contain much imagery; and though his language is at times rather inflated, yet, upon the whole, the natural flow of his phrases bespeaks a mind attuned to harmony, while his plots and the developements of his fictions are the indications of a creative fancy. Mr. Curtis, pursuing a similar track, is not only more copious in his descriptive parts, after the manner of Anne Radcliffe, but his incidents partake in a greater degree of the marvellous than those of his compeer. However, with all these extravagancies, there is no doubt but ladies out of number have trembled for the fate of the heroes, and wept over the distresses of the dulcineas of their eventful pages.

(p) Three sisters of the above name have displayed much talent in pursuing this walk of literature; and the praise which

Sometimes 'tis a Wallace your succours must draw,
At others great Thaddeus, fam'd at Warsaw.
With look of a don, and a wonderful Walker (q)
Comes guarding The Monk of Madrid, a bold talker,
Whose high sounding phrase might Don Raphael
dismay,

And the Vagabond ship off to Botany Bay.

As females can manage their lords in this realm,

I shall station, as steerswoman, famous Ma'am

Helme;

has been bestowed by romance readers upon their several labours is but a just tribute to their industry and literary deserts.

(q) In addition to his romantic productions, which are of a superior class, the gentleman, of whom I now speak, is the author of a novel entitled the Vagabond, containing an instructive lesson and excellent sarcasm upon the pursuits of a misguided individual, who, led astray by the false philosophy of the then revolutionized France, became a prey to sufferings and misfortunes which were the sole result of his own misguided opinions and immoral pursuits.

Who, doubtless, will ne'er from the press issue

dross

After Inglewood Forest and Pilgrim of Cross. (r)
Sir Southey, now chang'd from his garretteer state,
To write silly odes, and palaver the great,

Must high raise the pike former friends to appal
With Amadis boasted for being De Gaul. (s)

(7) The Pilgrim of the Cross, from the pen of Mrs. Helme, though possessing great merit as a romance, must, notwithstanding, yield the palm to her Farmer of Inglewood Forest, than which a better novel, perhaps, has not of late years issued from the British press.

(s) Fully determined to attempt every style of literature, our great epic laureat has not disdained to herd with the children of romance by producing the above performance, throughout which we find a great deal that calls to remembrance the pompous and declamatory ebullitions contained in Sydney's Arcadia; in short, all the lucubrations of this gentleman display a certain something which indicates that the writer is desirous of exclaiming with King Richard, "I have no brother, am like no brother."

What wou'd you, now, Murphy? Be off, cunning

thief!

Be so kind as keep watch o'er your Milesian

Chief. (t)

Odds blood! now, don't blush at the capture you've

made;

He's as good as the best of the romancing trade.

Friend Lathom's Astonishment cannot be rais'd When I tell him the females his prowess have prais'd;

(t) The abilities of Messrs. Murphy and Lathom are of the most respectable class, with whom may be conjoined Mr. N. Brewer; not so is it, however, with Miss Stanhope, who produced the Bandit's Bride, a romance which will never soar above mediocrity in the judgment of any unbiassed reader. Having now brought Sir Noodle to the termination of his muse's present flight, I deem it necessary to remark that the catalogue of non-descripts, designating themselves retailers of the wonderful, might be extended beyond all conception; but when it is remembered that such annotations could contain nothing but a recapitulation of unknown names, the catalogue may well be spared.