conversations composed on a most absurd plan), and in the strange miscellaneous work entitled 'The Doctor,' we see a gross ignorance of the commonest principles of political and economic science, and an arrogant, dictatorial, persecuting tone, which render these works melancholy examples of the truth that intolerance is not always naturally associated with weakness of intellect or with malignity of heart.

CHAPTER XVIII.

MOORE, BYRON, AND SHELLEY.

Moore: Translation of Anacreon, and Little's Poems-Political Satires-The Fudge Family-Irish Melodies Lalla Rookh - Epicurean-Biographies. Byron: Hours of Idleness, and English Bards-Romantic Poems-The Dramas-Childe Harold-Don Juan-Death of Byron. Shelley: Poems and Philosophy-Queen Mab, Prometheus Unbound, Alastor, &c.-The Cenci -Minor Poems and Lyrics.

We have seen how the name of Walter Scott was the type, sign, or measure of the first step in literature towards romanticism, or rather of the first step made in modern times from classicism-from the regular, the correct, the established.

The next step in this new career was made by Thomas Moore, who broke up new and fresh fountains of original life, first in the inexhaustible East, and secondly in his native Ireland. In the former field, indeed, it may be thought that he was perhaps anticipated by Southey, so many of whose poems are on Oriental subjects; but these two poets are sufficiently dissimilar to absolve the author of 'Lalla Rookh' from the charge of servilely copying, or, indeed, of following, the writer of 'Thalaba' and 'Kehama :' in the latter and more valuable quality, of a national Irish lyrist, he stands absolutely alone and unapproachable.

Thomas Moore, the Anacreon and Catullus, perhaps in some sense the Petronius and the Apuleius also, of the nineteenth century, was born in Dublin in the year 1780. Belonging essentially to the middle class, and a Roman Catholic besides, it may be easily conceived how he must have sympathised in the deep discontent which pervaded his country at that agitated period. Moore passed some time at the university of his native city, and soon after gave proof that he had made a more than ordinary progress in at least the elegant department of classical scholarship. His first work was a translation into

English verse of the 'Odes' of Anacreon, in which he exhibits a very great extent of reading, and no mean proficiency in Greek philology. The translation, however, is much more valuable as giving us an earnest of the poet's future powers than as a faithful reproduction of the original: it is more interesting as Moore than as Anacreon: it is Irish rather than Greek.

Canova is said to have exhibited his Venus in a sort of close recess, surrounded by crimson drapery, and lighted by a single lamp; he is even said to have slightly tinged the marble with a faint rosy glow; and this is what Moore has done to Anacreon. He has diffused over his version a rapturous and passionate air not in harmony with the unadorned simplicity of the Greek; he is fanciful where the original is sensuous. The reputation, both as poet and as scholar, which Moore acquired by his Anacreon, combined with his musical and conversational talents, immediately introduced him to the refined and intellectual society then assembled round the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV.; for the heir apparent had surrounded himself (as naturally happens in a constitutional monarchy) with a strong phalanx of opposition wits and statesmen, and Charles Fox and Sheridan arrayed themselves with the Prince and against the existing government of the King.

In 1803 Moore received an appointment in the island of Bermuda, which he not long afterwards lost through the malversation of a person employed under him, whose dishonesty exposed Moore to the prosecution of the government, and involved him in difficulties from which he did not easily extricate himself. During his absence from England, both in the beautiful Antilles and his subsequent retirement at Paris, he continued to be an industrious author. We must mention a small volume of 'Odes and Epistles,' written in singularly easy and graceful language, with very little pretension to elaborate finish (he calls them himself "prose tagged with rhyme"), but exhibiting the dawning of those powers which were to render him unequalled in a peculiar and very difficult line. The other production of this period was a small collection of poems, almost all of an erotic character, and some translated from Catullus, and other poets, Greek and Latin, of the same class. This volume was published under the pseudonym of "Thomas Little," and the merit of its contents, though occasionally great, was not sufficient to counterbalance the sensual and immoral tone of many of the pieces. In this respect 'Little's Poems' are indeed open to very severe reprehension, and, without affecting any Pharisaical degree of moral severity, we may affirm that they have really done a great deal of harm.

He now commenced a long series of political satires-light arrows of ridicule aimed against men and measures, generally only of a temporary interest, but so sharply pointed with wit, so lightly

feathered with grace and àpropos, that these slight shafts will retain to remote posterity very high value as perfect masterpieces of their kind. Moore did for the political "squib" what H. B. has done for the political caricature"he deprived it of half its evil by depriving it of all its grossness." The Chinese are said to exhibit fireworks of exquisite brilliancy and ingenuity so contrived that they can be let off in a room, not only without danger of fire, but with the peculiarity that in exploding they emit a fragrant odour. These light productions of Moore are like the Chinese fireworks: they are wonderfully varied, petulant, and sparkling; and instead of the heavy vapours of personal malignity, they spread around, after crackling and flashing through their momentary existence, a fragrance of good taste, good humour, and classic grace. Though they must have given, as we know they did, the most exquisite. pain to their unfortunate victims, they are absolutely the most unanswerable and galling attacks that were ever made; and the only way to conceal the wound must have been by joining in the laugh. They are full of the most happy turns of ingenuity, of the gay exhaustless fancy which seems the peculiar heritage of the Irish intellect, and they show a vast extent of curious and out-of-the-way reading, which no man ever knew better to employ than Moore.

Among the best of Moore's comic compositions are the admirable letters entitled 'The Fudge Family in Paris,' supposed to be written by a party of English travellers at the French capital. It is composed of a hack-writer and spy, devoted to legitimacy, the Bourbons, and Lord Castlereagh; his son, a young dandy of the first water; and his daughter, a sentimental damsel, rapturously fond of "romance and high bonnets and Madame Le Roy," in love with a Parisian linendraper, whom she has mistaken for one of the Bourbons in disguise. In this, as in his other comic productions, Moore shows great skill in introducing his own witty fancies without destroying the probability of the character who is made the unconscious mouthpiece for the author's good things. We ought not to forget O'Connor, the tutor and poor relation" of this egregious family, who is an ardent Bonapartist and Irish patriot. His letters are all serious, and contain violent declamations against the Holy Alliance, the British government, &c.; but they are not in harmony with the gay and ludicrous tone of the work- to which they were probably intended to act as a foil or relief.

Another delightful collection of (pretended intercepted) letters, supposed to be from eminent persons, is entitled 'The Twopenny Post-Bag.' These, like the preceding, had a most unparalleled success. Before quitting this category of Moore's multifarious writings, we will mention his Rhymes on Cash, Corn, and Catholics,' the subject of which is sufficiently indicated by the title; his Fables for the Holy Alliance,' a most spirited and ludicrous

mockery of the legitimist doctrines; and a number of political squibs written in the slang or argot of the prizefighters. These offer a new proof of the elegance and versatility of Moore's talents; for though in them he has adopted a dialect associated with the lowest and most brutalizing of our national sports, he has handled it so that it is not only not offensive, but in the highest degree comic. Moore has used the jargon of the prize-ring so as to lose all its coarseness, and retain only its oddity and picturesque force. The narrative of the great fight between "Long Sandy and Georgy the Porpus" is in true sporting style, and 'Tom Cribb's Memorial to Congress' contains passages of true poetic spirit.

We now approach those works upon which will be founded this poet's widest and most enduring reputation - these are the 'Irish Melodies.' They are short lyrics, written to suit that vast treasury of beautiful national airs which form the peculiar pride, joy, and consolation of the Irish people. "The task which you propose to me," says the poet, in his letter to Sir John Stevenson, the arranger of the music," of adapting words to these airs, is by no means easy. The poet who would follow the various sentiments which they express must feel and understand that rapid fluctuation of spirits, that unaccountable mixture of gloom and levity, which composes the character of my countrymen, and has deeply tinged their music. Even in their liveliest strains we find some melancholy note intrude some minor third, or flat seventh - which throws its shade as it passes, and makes even mirth interesting." We have in another place spoken of the Scottish national airs in terms of admiration which will appear exaggerated to those only who are unacquainted with them the popular airs of Ireland are inferior to those of Scotland neither in pathos, in gaiety, nor in inexhaustible variety. In Ireland the national music had been associated with coarse, rude, and mean words, often indecent and trivial in the highest degree; and thus by degrees many most beautiful airs, naturally expressive of the tenderest emotion, were deprived, by changes in their time, their key, and their accentuation, of their natural sense and meaning. When we see, among the titles by which the airs are known, such gross and vulgar appellations (generally worthy specimens of the pot-house compositions of which they are the beginning) as Paddy Snap,' The Black Joke,' 'The Captivating Youth,' 'Bob and Joan,' 'Paddy Whack,' 'The Dandy O,' and the like, we shall partly appreciate the service rendered by Moore to the music and poetry of his country.

The 'Irish Melodies,' as songs, have never been surpassed in their particular kind. The versification is so exquisite, and executed with such delicacy of rhythm, that, on hearing them well read, we involuntarily and certainly conceive the tune, even though we may never have heard it.

Viewed as poetry, these songs are among the most beautiful productions of literature. The diction is invariably perfect for elegance, neatness, and grace: it is truly Catullian, "simplex munditiis:" the words are never too big for the thought. They exhibit marks, not so much of labour and effort as of polish and care; and where the author can prevail upon himself to resist his natural and Irish tendency to say something ingenious and conceited, their sentiment is as true and beautiful as their execution is felicitous. The great art in song-writing is to invent something that is original without being far-fetched; and when we reflect upon the difficulty of finding untouched and unhackneyed ideas on the few topics offered by patriotism, love, and pleasure (which compose nearly the whole curta supellex of the song-writer), we shall the more easily excuse Moore for having sometimes fallen into the fantastic and epigrammatic.

If we compare Moore, as a lyric poet, with Burns, we shall acquire a much more elevated idea of the Irishman than by looking at him in a distinct point of view. The peasant poet of Scotland had the advantage of using a dialect which was simple and rustic without vulgarity, and all his finest compositions (with perhaps one or two remarkable exceptions) are written in that dialect; and it is difficult for a critic not practically acquainted with that dialect, to judge how far its use may have contributed to give Burns's poetry its charm of naïveté, slyness, and pathos. Moore has not this advantage: his lyrics are models of the most refined and classical English. Both poets abound in beautiful love-passages; but the passion of the Scottish ploughman is rather too ardent and unscrupulous, while that of the Irish poet is often frittered away in cold and sparkling concetti, and thus loses in depth and tenderness more than it gains in ingenuity and elegance.

In 1817 Moore published the celebrated Oriental romance 'Lalla Rookh' (Tulip-Cheek, so entitled from the name of the heroine). The structure of this work is truly original: it consists of a little romantic love-story, in which the beautiful daughter of Aurengzebe, during her journey into Bucharia, where she is to meet her betrothed husband, the prince of that country, falls in love with a young minstrel, who afterwards turns out to be her affianced bridegroom in disguise, and who thus, "having won her love as an humble minstrel, now amply deserved to enjoy it as a king." This slender plot is related in that ingenious and sparkling prose of which Moore is a consummate master; and nothing can exceed the gorgeousness, splendour, and pleasanty with which he describes all the details of Oriental life and scenery during the journey, and the inimitable character of Fadladeen the high chamberlain, a pedantic critic and accomplished courtier. This prose narrative, which, though very short, is one unceasing sparkle of brilliant antithesis and Eastern imagery, forms a kind of framing (like the prologues of Chaucer)