He on whose tomb these eyes were wont to dwell, "He whose green bays shall bloom for ever young, Reverence and love are trembling on my tongue; Sweet Spenser,-sweetest Bard; yet not more sweet If this be a genuine and not, in some degree at least, a factitious admiration (which we can hardly suppose with a man of Mr. Southey's taste), it is singular that he should so late have postponed his imitations-for such we apprehend it is his intention that they should be esteemed-especially when he informs us, that even in his childhood on Spencer's song "his spirit fed, attracted to its kind." For our own part, excepting that they make pretensions to an allegorical form, we should scarcely have known that any resemblance was intended. Properly speaking, we doubt if this Carmen Nuptiale be an allegory, for though characters of the kind are introduced, it does not at all satisfy the definition of Plutarch, "where one thing is related and another understood," or the other distinctions pointed out by Hughes in his clever Essay on poetry of that species. It is not however very important to settle this point, and we will proceed to give some specimens of the body of this production. While musing upon his "master dear," the poet supposes himself to fall asleep, and he immediately begins to dream that he is in the street amidst the bustle attendant upon the royal marriage: he obtains entrance, it does not exactly appear how, into the Hall of Victory of Carlton House; what he there saw he thus describes : "Amid that Hall of Victory side by side, "Of princely lineage and of princely heart, The Bridegroom seem'd, a man approved in fight, "Guerdant before his feet a Lion lay, The Saxon Lion, terrible of yore, "A Lion too was couched before the Bride; They many a time had met, and quelled his pride, Their throne represented as supported by Honour and Faith; and while the poet is employed in gazing at the wond'rous sight, suddenly the air "is filled with solemn music breathing round," and Britannia (whose attributes are minutely described with little variation from the representation of her upon the reverse of a halfpenny) enters and addresses the royal bride as follows: "Daughter of Brunswick's fated line, she said, No other change be felt than of the head "Love peace and cherish peace; but use it so Be swift and sure: then put forth all the powers Thy power shall then be dreaded far and wide: Thou mayest again defy the world's collected might." She moves off majestically, and is followed by Experience, who presents 66 a goodly volume, which he laid Between that princely couple on the throne." And next to him approaches "the Angel of the English Church," accompanied by " Edward the spotless Tudor," Cranmer, Latimer, and a crowd of "partakers in beatitude" and martyrdom, among whom why Ridley, the firm unshaken Ridley, is not distinguished we know not, unless Mr. Southey's laureate loyalty was shocked by the sermon of that bishop against Queen Mary, and in favour of Lady Jane Grey. The Angel makes rather a long speech against Popery, "that Harlot old," whose seductions and machinations Mr. Southey at the present moment seems rather unreasonably to dread, and thus winds up the oration, speaking of the established church : "Built on a rock, the fabric may repel Their utmost rage, if all within be sound: Woe to her then! there needs no outward wound! "In thee, as in a cresset set on high, The light of piety should shine far seen, A guiding beacou fixed for every eye: Thus from the influence of an honoured Queen, "So should return that happy state of yore When piety and joy went hand in hand; The household prayers which, honouring God's high name, The Angel of the Church and the saintly train vanish, and their place is occupied by "another minister of bliss,' one of that angelic company "Who, guardians of the rising human race, Mr. The object of this mission is to exhort the Princess to use her influence in promoting the great object of the education of the lower classes. Although none but common-place topics are introduced into this harangue, yet the purpose is good, and the language by no means infelicitous. Southey has always been very laudably zealous in his exertions on this subject, and our readers will recollect, that in his "Pilgrimage to Waterloo," he travelled no little distance out of his course for the sake of introducing it. The eight subsequent stanzas are spoken by the Angel to the Princess Charlotte : "I plead for babes and sucklings, he began, Those who are now, and who are yet to be: "O Lady! if some new-born babe should bless, In that the likeness of all infants see, prove, And call to mind that hour what now thou hearest from me. "Then seeing infant man, that Lord of Earth, Most weak and helpless of all breathing things, Remember that as Nature makes at birth No different law for Peasants or for Kings, And at the end no difference may befall, The short parenthesis of life' is all. "But in that space, how wide may be their doom To take from circumstance their woe or weal; "Is it then fitting that one soul should pine Perish, like seeds upon the desert sand?- "Little can private zeal effect alone; The State must this state-malady redress! "This the first duty, carefully to train The children in the way that they should go. How large a part were banished from below? An inbred taint disposing it for ill? Neglected, it is choaked with tares and noxious weeds." Two female personages called Speranza and Charissa (Hope and Charity we suppose), next pass in the procession, and pausing before the throne, unfold "earth's melancholy map," to shew how great a space is yet covered with the darkness of ignorance and idolatry. Speranza represents the duty of this country to diffuse" the sacred word of Heaven," calls upon the Redeemer to speed the work, and concludes by invoking a blessing on " this happy island." "A strain of heavenly harmony ensued, Such as but once to mortal ears was known, The voice of that Angelic Multitude Who in their orders stand around the Throne; PEACE UPON EARTH, GOOD WILL TO MEN! they sung, "In holy fear I fell upon the ground, |