In his other works—the principal of which are 'The Book of the Church,''The Lives of the British Admirals,' that of Wesley, a History of Brazil,' and of the Peninsular Warwe find the same admirable art of clear vigorous English, and no less that strong prejudice, violent political and literary partiality, and a tone of haughty, acrimonious, arrogant selfconfidence, which so much detract from his many excellent qualities as a writer and as a man, his sincerity, his learning, his conscientiousness, and his natural benevolence of character. In his innumerable critical and historical essays, chiefly contributed to the Quarterly Review,' in the Colloquies' (a book of imaginary 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.

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CHAPTER XVIII.

MOORE, BYRON, AND SHELLEY.

Moore: Translation of Anacreon, and Little's Poems-Political SatiresThe Fudge Family-Irish Melodies-Lalla Rookh-Epicurean -Biographies. Byron: Hours of Idleness, and English Bards -Romantic Poems-The Dramas-Childe Harold-Don JuanDeath 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.

Moore.

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.

satires.

He now commenced a long series of political satires-light arrows of ridicule aimed against men and measures, Political 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 The Fudge Paris,' supposed to be written by a party of Family. 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 brutalising 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.

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We now approach those works upon which will be founded Irish Melo- this poet's widest and most enduring reputation— dies. 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