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[THE following excellent observations on the LYRIC STYLE have been kindly communicated to the EDITOR by the Rev. THOMAS WARTON.-They appear to have been taken almost verbatim from several of the former works of that ingenious author; but chiefly from his late edition of Milton's Minora. We sincerely hope, therefore, that they may serve the double purpose of enriching the present collection, and of attracting the public attention to that very critical work from which they are principally extracted.]

THOUGHTS ON ODE WRITING.

QAH Moλn, Carmen, Cantus, Cantilena, Chanson, Canzone, all signify what, Anglicè, we denominate ODE-Among the Greeks, Pindar; among the Latins, Horace; with the Italians, Petrarch; with the French, Boileau; are the principes hujusce scientiæ-Tom Killigrew took the lead in English Lyrics; and, indeed, till our own Mason, was nearly unrivalledJosephus Miller too hath penned something of the Odaic, inter his Opera Minora. My grandfather had a MS. Ode on a Gilliflower, the which, as our family had it, was an esquisse of Gammer Gurton's; and I myself have seen various Cantilenes of Stephen Duck's of a pure relish-Of Shad

well, time hath little impaired the fameColley's Bays rust cankereth not-Dr. Casaubon measures the Strophe by Anapæsts In the Polyglott, the epitrotus primus is the metrimensura.-I venture to recommend "" Waly, waly, up the Bank," as no bad model of the pure Trochaic-There is also a little simple strain, commencing "Saw ye my father, saw ye my mother;" which, to my fancy, gives an excellent ratio of hendecasyllables.-Dr. Warton indeed prefers the Adonic, as incomparably the neatest, ay, and the newest μoλNS μpov A notion too has prevailed, that the Black Joke, or Μελαμφυλλαι Δαφναι, is not the "cosa deta in prosa mai, ne in rima;' whereas the Deva Cestrensis, or Chevy Chase, according to Dr. Joseph Warton, is the exemplar of

Trip and go,
Heave and hoe,

Up and down,

To and fro.

Vide Nashe's Summer's Last Will and Testament, 1600.

I observe that Ravishment is a favourite word with Milton, Paradise Lost, B. V. 46.

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Again, B. IX. 541. Again, Com. V. 245. -Spenser has it also in Astrophel, st. 7.— Whereof I earnestly recommend early rising to all minor Poets, as far better than sleeping to concoct surfeits. Vid. Apology for Smectymnuus. For the listening to Throstles or Thrushes, awaking the lustless Sun, is an unreproved or innocent pastime: As also are cranks, by which I understand cross purposes. Vid. my Milton, 41.

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Filling a wife with a daughter fair," is not an unclassical notion (vid. my Milton, 39), if, according to Sir Richard Brathwaite, "She had a dimpled chin, made for love to lodge within" (vid. my Milton, 41). "While the cock," vid. the same, 44.-Indeed, " My mother said I could be -no lad, till I was twentye," is a passage notice in my Milton with a view to this; which see; and therein also of a shepherdess " taking the tale."-T were well likewise if Bards learned the Rebeck, or Rebible, being a species of Fiddle; for it solaceth the fatigued spirit much; though to say the truth, we have it; 't is present death for Fiddlers to tune their Rebecks, or Rebibles, before the great Turk's grace.

However, Middleton's Game of Chess is good for a Poet to peruse, having quaint phrases fitting to be married to immortal verse. JOSHUA POOLE, of Clare Hall, I also recommend as an apt guide for an alumnus of the Muse.-Joshua edited a choice Parnassus, 1657, in the which I find many "delicious, mellow hangings" of poesy.He is undoubtedly a "sonorous dactylist" -and to him I add Mr. Jenner, Proctor of the Commons, and Commissary of St. Paul's, who is a gentleman of indefatigable politeness in opening the Archives of a Chapter-house for the delectation of a sound critic. Tottell's Songs and Sonnets of uncertain Auctoures is likewise a butful, or plenteous work. I conclude with assuring the Public, that my brother remembers to have heard my father tell his (i. e. my brother's) first wife's second cousin, that he, once, at Magdalen College, Oxford, had it explained to him, that the famous passage "His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff," has no sort of reference to verbal criticism and stale quotations.

RECOMMENDATORY

TESTIMONIES.

[ACCORDING to the old and laudable usage of Editors, we shall now present our Readers with the judgments of the learned concerning our Poets.-These Testimonies, if they proceed from critical pens, cannot fail to have due influence on all impartial observers. They pass an author from one end of the kingdom to the other, as rapidly as the pauper Certificates of Magistracy.-Indeed, it were much to be wished, that as we have no State Licenser of Poetry, it might at least be made penal, to put forth rhymes without previously producing a certain number of sureties for their goodness and utility; which precaution, if assisted with a few other regulations, such as requiring all Practitioners in Verse to take out a License, in the manner of many other Dealers in Spirits, &c. could not fail to introduce good order among this class of authors, and also to bring in a handsome sum towards the aid of the public revenue.Happy indeed will be those Bards, who are supplied with as reputable vouchers as those which are here subjoined.}

Testimonies of Sir JOSEPH MAWBEY's good Parts for Poetry.

46

MISS HANNAH MORE.

SIR JOSEPH, with the gentlest sympathy, begged me to contrive that he should meet

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