Dunlop has given a very pleasing and compendious view.-' Quæ per diversos auctores librosque dispersa adbreviat; ne vel fastidium nasceretur ex plurimis, vel plenitudo fidei deesset in parvis.' In regard to style, Virgil is as much the standard in Latin verse as Cicero in prose. When the subject, as in the Bucolics, required polished simplicity of language and ideas-or, as in the Georgics, elegant refinement and delicate taste, he far surpassed his Grecian masters, Theocritus and Hesiod; and when, as in the Æneid, dignity and majestic power were demanded, he equalled Homer. And so far only his genius could bear him on. Imitation could not supply his original deficiency in towering imagination, in sublimely passionate conception, and in the knowledge and keen discrimination of diversified character. In these latter qualifications, Virgil's mode of life rendered him especially defective; for his time was spent between rural retirement and the court of a despot, where manners are moulded into one form, and the exhibition of passion constrained within the narrowest limits. Imitators as the Romans were contented to be, and rural as their habits were, it is singular that Hesiod and Theocritus should have so long remained unrivalled in Latin poetry; and it is yet more singular, that, with all Virgil's genius and taste, he should have so servilely copied Theocritus, as to transfer the manners, climate, and mountains of Sicily to the marshy champaign of the Mincius;-as great an incongruity, only not quite so amusing, as the Arcadian shepherdess in Guarini's Pastor Fido escaping from the gripe of a Satyr, by leaving her periwig in his hands :we may well exclaim with the Satyr, O maraviglia inusitata!' The Eclogues partake of the insipidity of all eclogues; and the Georgics betray the want of interest which is felt in all didactic poetry. But the Georgics have more exquisitely elegant variety, and more originality; deriving much less from Hesiod than the Bucolics from Theocritus. And wherever Virgil condescends to borrow, he never fails to add brilliance to the beauties of those early writers; as in Tasso, Apollo inaura Le rose, che l' Aurora hà colorite.' Speaking of the Æneid, Voltaire has observed, 'On dit qu'Homère a fait Virgile; si cela est, c'est, sans doute, son plus bel ouvrage but this, like so many of Voltaire's smartnesses, is a mere jeu de mots: for si cela est'-if Virgil have borrowed so much from the Iliad and Odyssey, as to make the Æneid only Homer's work, it must needs be inferior to his other works, from which it is borrowed. The probability is, that Virgil would have produced a better work if he had not copied Homer at all, but depended more on his own resources, consulted more the intellectual advancement advancement of his own age, and abode more by the dictates of his own taste. Virgil has been called the prince of the Latin poets; and if dignity and majesty be considered as the tests of supremacy, the title must be admitted; but if force of intellect, if variety of power, and if utility in the application of these, be deemed the characteristics of superiority, then Horace must be hailed as at least a rival chief. A much less proportion too of Horace's works is of an imitative kind; his Odes, indeed, have very many passages traceable to the extant works of Grecian lyrics; and therefore it is reasonable to conclude that he owed many more to others, that have sunk in the gulf, which separates the Augustan age from that of modern Europe. Still, in all, and especially in what may be called the political and occasional odes, much is unquestionably original. In his amorous and festive odes, though the Latin language would not allow him to emulate the harmonious volubility of Anacreon, yet he fully equals him in ease and elegant gaiety; and even with regard to rhythm, he had the merit of showing his countrymen that genius might make the stubborn Latin itself flexible to all the measures and cadences of the Greek. In the Satires and Epistles of Horace, (in which we include that exclusively literary epistle, Ad Pisones,' commonly considered as if it were a formal treatise, and entitled De Arte Poeticâ,') we have at length entire compositions of original Roman poetry; and, as borrowed from no other nation, excelled by none -equalled by none. Of other Roman satirists-Ennius, Lucilius, &c.-fragments only remain; and from those fragments it is obvious, that they were rude indeed, compared with the exquisite productions of Horace. Combining elegant ease with strength and keenness, he is witty and severe, yet never out of humour; and shows such pleasant confidence that his readers will be interested in him-that he lets them into the history of his life, familiar habits, thoughts, and daily occupations; so that we not only have an intense admiration for him as a poet, but feel a delightful companionship with him; and most gladly admit for him the apology of Pindar: εἰ δὲ τέτραπται Θεοδότων ἔργων κέλευθον ἂν καθαρὰν, Μὴ φθόνει κόμπον τὸν ἐοικότ', ἀοιδᾷ Hence it is, that his beautiful descriptions and sentiments, his maxims of morality, and canons of criticism, so happily and tersely expressed, are wrought into the memory, and constitute a portion of our own minds. Though often differing in opinion from Mr. Dunlop, we most readily readily acknowledge the assistance we have derived from his elegant essay, in this brief sketch of the rise and progress of Roman literature; and shall be very glad to avail ourselves of the opportunity, which we trust he will soon afford us, for tracing the history of its decline and fall.* ART. IV.-Life (sic) of Mrs. Siddons. By Thomas Campbell. 2 vols. 8vo. London. 1834. THIS book is a real superfetation. We doubt whether the very uneventful life of Mrs. Siddons had not been already overwritten; but we are confident that every one, except Mr. Campbell, must agree, that after Mr. Boaden's labours on this subject, there was no room for another voluminous biography. Mr. Boaden, not satisfied with having anticipated the most important circumstances of Mrs. Siddons's history in his Life of Kemble, had favoured us with an equally copious Life of Mrs. Siddons herself; and although he professes to give not merely these lives, but a history of the stage during their time, there surely was not matter for four octavos-nay, we are satisfied that one volume would have afforded ample room for both the brother and the sister-the history of the stage in their day, and as much criticism as could be requisite to the due appreciation of their several merits. After expressing this opinion as to Mr. Boaden's bulky production, it is needless to say that another work, equally voluminous and more expensive, appears to us worse than unnecessary; and we regret to add, that the manner in which it is executed can add nothing to the reputation of either the object or the author of this abuse of biography. Mr. Campbell incidentally hints that Mrs. Siddons left to him her papers,' but he does not state this as an excuse for attempting this work of supererogation-indeed, it would afford none; for a few pages of autobiographical memoranda, a couple of prosy dissertations on the characters of Constance and Lady Macbeth, and three or four very unimportant letters, are the only things that can in substance (if such trifles may, by any laxity of language, be called substantial) distinguish Mr. Campbell's Life from that of his predecessor; while, on the other hand, Mr. Boaden's extensive theatrical information, and his personal recollections of the whole of Mrs. Siddons's career, of which from first to last he was an admiring, yet critical witness, give to his narrative and opinions a vivacity and authority to which Mr. Campbell, who appears to * We observe that Mr. Dunlop has recently put forth Memoirs of Spain during the Reigns of Philip IV. and Charles II:' such a work was wanted, and we doubt not we shall find that he has ably acquitted himself in it;—but we hope he has not abandoned the completion of his earlier and more universally interesting undertaking. know know little of the stage in general, and nothing from his own observations of Mrs. Siddons's earliest and most interesting triumphs, cannot pretend. We however expected, that, in the elegancies of style, in accuracy of literary history, and in delicacy of criticism, Mr. Campbell would have improved upon his predecessor; but we are sorry to say that we have been, on every point, signally disappointed. In fact, we are much inclined to credit a prevailing rumour, that Mr. Campbell ought rather to be considered as the editor than as the substantial author of this book. Mr. Boaden's diction, though occasionally forcible, is too often inflated and obscure: he seems a great admirer of Gibbon, and sometimes applies with ludicrous solemnity to his dramatic history the oracular* style in which Gibbon describes the decline of the Roman empire. But Mr. Campbell-or, as we are willing to believe, Mr. Campbell's journeyman-has an obscure bombast of his own, which is still more intolerable-as our readers may judge from the following examples, extracted, with no labour of search, from the earlier pages of the work. When he recollects Mr. Stephen Kemble on the Edinburgh boards, 'joy comes to his heart.'-p. 20. When he means to express an opinion that the Paradise Lost' was not embellished by Mrs. Siddons's recitation, he says the muse of Milton is too proud to borrow a debt from elocution.'-p. 37. When Mr. Siddons, whose addresses were not at first agreeable to Miss Kemble's parents, proposed to his beloved an immediate elopement, she, tempering amatory with filial duty, declined the proposal.'-p. 48. What is amatory duty? But if that expression be somewhat turgid, we are immediately refreshed with the familiar slip-slop of declining the proposal! When the author of the tragedy of The Regent' fell under what Mr. Campbell calls the savage vituperation' (though he does not deny that it was well deserved) of our beloved associate and friend, Mr. Gifford, he adds- But his scathed laurels did not lower him in Mrs. Siddons's regard.'-p. 52. *To avoid the repetition of proper names, as well as to give epigrammatic point to his periods, Gibbon is foud of describing his characters by some accidental quality, or some incidental allusion; for instance-These spiritual terrors were enforced by a dexterous application to the Byzantine court; the trembling president implored the mercy of the church; and the descendant of Hercules enjoyed the satisfaction of raising a prostrate tyrant?—Dec. and Fall, c. xx. § v. It requires a degree of attention rather to be expected from a mathematical student than a mere reader of history to discover that the president and the tyrant were no other than a certain haughty magistrate' before mentioned, whom, on further search, we find to have been one Andronicus, who is further designated as the monster of Libya—and that the descendant of Hercules was a 'philosophical bishop,' who, by reference to a former paragraph, is ascertained to have been the polite and eloquent Synesius.' When When he contrasts Mrs. Siddons's early failure with her subsequent triumphs, it is in a magnificence of metaphor that is liker the old galimatias of a French éloge than good English biography. Her case adds but one to the many instances in the history of great actors and orators, of timidity obscuring the brightest powers at their outset; like chilling vapours awhile retarding the beauty of a day in spring. But the day of her fame, when it rose, well repaid her for the lateness of its rising, and its splendour more than atoned for its morning shade.'-pp. 76, 77. When he would tell us that Mrs. Siddons probably excelled all her predecessors, he opines My inference is, if I may parody Milton's phrase, that she was the fairest of her predecessors-and that if Time could rebuild his ruins, and react the lost scenes of existence, he would present no female to match her on the Tragic stage.'-p. 94. Our author suggests that the indelicacy of making love on the stage is greater in an amateur than a professional actress, but so commonplace a sentiment might have been expressed more soberly than in the following style: There are persons, not puritanical, who think it derogatory to female delicacy to meet the gaze of spectators in impassioned parts. . But the public actress has a fair apology, and her professional publicity is an additional challenge to her virtuous pride.'-p. 102. When Mr. Campbell has been startled by an incredible statement, it makes the hair of his literary faith stand on end.'—p. 111. He resents with great indignation certain insinuations which some late writers have made against the virtue of Mrs. Bracegirdle, an actress who flourished an hundred and thirty years ago. quarrel is just as important as that about the character of Sir Archy's great grandmother;' but it gives occasion to the following sentiment, which seems so moral and so beautiful, that we wish we could understand it. The ⚫ Injustice towards the dead leads, by no very circuitous route, to injustice towards the living. Once convict the one on false or defective evidence, and you will soon leave the other at the mercy of malignity. The serpent vituperation will thus grow into an amphisbæna, to sting at both ends.'-pp. 123, 124. But while he thus pompously inculcates the duty of charity towards ladies of the fifteenth century, we regret to say that his practice is not always consistent with his precept; for, after stating that the mother of Mrs. Ellinor Gwynne was drowned by falling from her window into the Thames,' he adds, in a spirit and style very different from the charity and elegance of the amphisbæna passage which we have just quoted- VOL. LII, No. CIII. H • What |