Soon after we have the following couplet : From luft exempt is there a female's doom? This appears a little obfcure. The poems which follow are of the gay and jovial kind, and defcribe the pleafures of love and wine. A few lines will ferve as a fpecimen of their merit. A lion feeling the rays of wine, and fetting fire to the foreft, is a new poetical idea, and beyond the ftretch of the European, we had almost said of the human genius. The next ftanza is no less curious. Wrapt with fuch power-in force fublime, And then arreft the course of fate.' This is Mad Tom with a vengeance. • Come, launch my bark in ftreams of wine, Youth will irradiate brighter charms.' Then follow his death and burial. Yet, quit me not, left, when no more Then steep me in a cask of wine.' Hafez, from whom these poems are tranflated, is known to us by the elegant imitations of Sir William Jones and Mr. Richardfon. The Perfian poet seems to have compofed from the inspiration of the grape; but his last tranflator appears to have written after a debauch, ART. FOREIGN LITERATURE. ART. XV. Lodbrokar-Quida; or, the Death-Song of Lodbrog: now first correctly printed from various Manufcripts, with a free English Translation. To which are added, the various Readings; a literal Latin Version; an Islando-Latino Gloffary; and explanatory Notes. By the Rev. James Johnflone, A. M. Chaplain to his Britannic Majefty's Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of Denmark Small 8vo. Copen hagen. Printed on Vellum for the Author. THE 'HE death-fong of Regner Lodbrog has been esteemed one of the most valuable remains of northern literature and Scandinavian antiquity. The real events which it defcribes recommend it to the hiftorian; the fingularity and the fpirit of the compofition give it attractions to the poet; and the warlike but ferocious manners of the times which it paints render it interefting to the philofopher. Regner, King of Denmark, is generally believed to have flourished in the clofe of the eighth and the beginning of the ninth century. After a variety of adventures, he was at laft made prifoner by Ella, a Northumbrian prince. He was condemned to die by the bite of vipers; and, during the operation of their poifon, is reported to have fung the Lodbrokar-Quida. A poem which was tranfmitted, during the courfe of centuries, by the breath of oral tradition, cannot be fuppofed to have retained precifely its original form. There is, however, no improbability that Regner fhould have finished his career with a recital of his gallant actions. Many of the Scandinavian heroes were votaries of the mufe; and one of them obtained a refpite from death by the exertion of his poetical talents. Befides, it is a feature of barbarous nations to boast of their valour in their laft moments. Hence, while the captive Indian mitigates his torments by the recollection of his exploits, he triumphs alfo over the cruelty of his enemies, by recapitulating the multitude of their relations who have perifhed by his fword. The death-fong of Lodbrog fhews that a fimilarity of manners prevailed in the north, as men in the fame degree of civilization think and act in a fimilar manner. This is, without exception, the beft and the most beautiful edition of the Lodbrokar-Quida. The Latin tranflation is literal; the English verfion is perhaps too free; and though it fometimes illuftrates, it fometimes enfeebles the ideas of the author. In the gloffary, which explains all the words in the original, the antiquary will trace the derivation of many vocables in the English tongue. The notes, which are critical and explanatory, discover taste and erudition. Upon the whole, this valuable monument of northern literature is worthy of the public attention. ART. XVI. Lettres a Monfieur Bailly fur l'Hiftoire primitive de la Grèce. Par M. Rabaut de Saint-Etienne. ART. XVI. Letters to M. Bailly on the primitive Hiftory of Greece. 12mo. THE prefent age has been diftinguished by inquifitive and philofophical researches into antiquity. That enthufiaftic admiration of the ancients which univerfally prevailed after the revival of letters, has now confiderably abated; and the enlightened nations of Europe, in the maturity of reafon, have rejected thofe phantoms which amufed their imagination in a state of youth and adolefcence. Errors and fables are no longer reckoned venerable because they are ancient; the traditions and tales of former ages are brought to the teft of rational criticism; and a spirit of philofophy has at last come to prefide over the refearches of the inquifitive, and the labours of the learned. It may fometimes happen, however, that too great a degree of refinement may be introduced, and that authors may pull down the monuments of antiquity, in order to erect an imaginary structure of their own. The object of the author of these letters is to fhew the exiftence of an anterior or primitive people, which he endeavours to prove by the monuments of their language and their writing. This, however, will be found to be a very difficult task. When ftudying ancient hiftory we remount to the distance of four thousand years, we find nothing but darkness. If fome uncertain rays difcover to us inhabited regions, monuments deftroyed, and the footsteps of men; the difficulty of tracing these venerable veftiges of time ftops us in our career. It is a promifed land which we are permitted to fee at a distance, but which we are never to enter. Phyfical appearances atteft the high antiquity of the globe; nations may have perished who have no longer a name, and barbarous tribes paffed over the earth whofe traces cannot be found; but there are no hiftorical or literary monuments of any civilized nation that exifted prior to to the Egyptians. Remains are difcovered, in the bowels of the earth, of animals that no longer exift; the rude inftruments and weapons of barbarians are often traced by the antiquary; but no monuments are found, either on the furface or in the caverns of the earth, of enlightened and refined nations, with whofe hiftory we are unacquainted. If all the monuments and memorials of the Romans had perifhed, the ditcovery of the Herculaneum would have proved the exiftence of a great and civilized nation. But no finrilar phenomenon is found in the natural hiftory of the earth, nor indeed a fingle reli&t of ingenuity and art, that we cannot refer to the original inventors. 66 66 Nevertheles M. Rabaut de Saint-Etienne attempts to prove the existence of a primitive people, who taught all others, from the monuments of their language and of their writing. We find," fays he, " among the ancient people, two kinds of writing, the one practifed, the other forgotten; the one adapted to civil intercourse, the other "confecrated to religious purposes; the one hieroglyphic, "the other alphabetical; from which we conclude, that the hieroglyphic writing, which is the moft ancient, and "for that reafon appropriated to religion, was the manner "of writing of the primitive people. An immenfe field is "now before us; but, animated by hope, let us remount to "paft ages, and converfe with the grandfathers of the Babylonians and the Chinese." This is fufficient to give an idea of our author's defign, and to fhew the nature of the profs he is to adduce of his primitive people. The ufe of hieroglyphics was not, confined to the Egyptians and Chinefe; they were practifed by almost all the nations of antiquity, in a certain stage of refinement; they were found in Mexico and Peru, the only civilized nations of the new world; and are, indeed, the natural and neceflary fteps towards the formation of an alphabet. After an alphabet was invented, they were appropriated to religion by the Egyptians, like every other ancient ufage. In the course of thefe Letters our author turns the most ancient hiftories and traditions into allegories; informs us that the annals of the heroic ages of Greece formed a fyftem of aftronomy; that the princes and princeffes, with whom the chiefs in the Argonautic expedition had adventures, were mountains and rivers perfonified; and that the cyclops and giants were volcanos and earthquakes. This method of allegorifing ancient tales and traditions is not peculiar to our author. We recollect one of these Oedipean Oedipean philofophers, who very ingenioufly conjectured that, by the labours of Hercules, the ancients meant-the circumvolutions of a windmill! MONTHLY CATALOGUE [For JUNE 1787: 1 MISCELLANEOUS. ART. 17. Two Dialogues; containing a comparative View of the Lives, Characters, and Writings, of Philip, the late Earl of Chesterfield, and Dr. Samuel Johnson. Small 8vo. 4s. boards. Cadell. London; 1787. T HE principal interlocutors in thefe dialogues are a colonel and an archdeacon, both of them men of sentiment, but both of them likewife enthusiasts; the former in favour of the Earl of Chefterfield, and the latter of Dr. Johnson. The dialogues are conducted with a moderate degree of ingenuity, and contain fome pertinent obfervations. But, under the oppofite impreffions of the difputants, and the mutual exaggeration of panegyric and cenfure, an impartial reader muft frequently diffent from both in the full extent of their conclufions. The author has thought proper to terminate the dispute by referring it to the arbitration of a lady who bears a part in the dialogues; and her opinion being delivered in the following extract, it may serve as a specimen of the work: You are very good to encourage me by fuch a quotation; but I really have not confidence enough to deliver any thing like a formal opinion upon characters of fuch eminence, even to you with whom I am fo familiar. I do not mean, however, to fhrink entirely from your requeft, which would, I think, be very unfair, after the entertainment that I have received from you both; and to pretend that I have formed to myself no notions concerning two authors whom you know I read very frequently, would be a foolish fort of prudery indeed: I fhall tell you, therefore, very frankly, how I have felt my. felf affected by your refpective favourites. To speak of them as men, I never felt in my life the flightest wish to have been perfonally ac quainted with either; though in reading many authors, and Addifon in particular, I have felt fuch a defire. Johnson, I think, faid to fome young lady, "Mifs, I am a tame monster; you may stroke me." If he faid fo, for I do not recollect where I met with the anec dote, I apprehend his expreffion was not perfectly true. He certainly was not more than half tamed. I do not believe that I could have been induced to give the fearless pat of friendly familiarity to either of these very oppofite creatures. I am perfuaded that my hand ENG. REV. Vol. IX. June 1787. Gg would |