No. V. The Negro's Vigil: Eve of the First of August, 1834 SONNETS, IMITATIONS, AND TRANSLATIONS. Westminster Abbey, on the twenty-eighth of June, 1838 Imitation from the Italian of Gaetana Passerini On the Siege of Famagusta, in the Island of Cyprus, by the On the Sepulture of Christ. Imitated from the Italian of Gabriello On Judith Returning to Bethulia with the head of Holofornes in her hand. From the Italian of Giovambatista Zappi For a Nun, on taking the Veil. From the Italian of Eustachio MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. JAMES MONTGOMERY is admitted by all the critics to be at the head of the religious poets of the present age. Since the bard of Olney, no one has surpassed him in purity of sentiment or fervour of devotion. For half a century he has been slowly and constantly increasing in the popular favour, and his reputation has now a compass and a solidity which forbid all thought of its decay. Of the throng of competitors among whom he has won his laurels, CRABBE, BYRON, SOUTHEY, COLERIDGE and CAMPBELL have gone before him into the region of the Unknown; and ROGERS and WORDSWORTH, his venerable brothers, are permitted with him to linger at the gates of the Future and listen to the applauses of posterity. They are the noblest impersonations of Piety, Philosophy, and Taste, and they are all immortal. In the last and completest edition of his works, published recently in London, Mr. MONTGOMERY has given in various prefaces and notes an account of his |