It is intimated, that the hiftory of this Philifides was a very melancholy one, for he is faid to know that the relation thereof was more fit for funerals than the time of marriage.' Among thefe unpublished compofitions, the following is one of the best. The author figns himself EDW. HALL, and appears to have been one of the fons of Bifhop Hall. See the quotation from Wood, in page 69. " III. ON THE AUTHOR OF BRITANNIAS PEERLESSE PASTORALLS. "I'll take thy judgment golden Mydas now, Nor will of Phoebus harmony allow, Since Pan hath fuch a fhepheard, whofe fweet layes May claim defervedly the Delphique bayes. Thrice happy Syrinx, onely great in this, Come hither fhepheardes, let your bleating flockes Tis he can keepe you fafe from all your flockes, And innocently trip and frisk among Your wanton lambkins at his fwanlike fong; Yea had the Thracian fung but half so well, Then rally fwaine, aftonish humane eyes, And let thy Tavy high as Tyber rife." P. 61. This collection of complimentary verfes, befides being highly curious, as having remained fo long unpublished, and being now brought to light by the accident of the volume * "Anadem is an old word for a garland. With fingers neat and fine Brave anadems do make. Drayton's Polyolb. Song 15. "The lowly dales will yield us anadems To fhade our temples. Browne's Brit. Paftorals." falling falling into judicious hands, affords a very pleasing teftimony of the high ellimation in which Browne was held by thofe who knew him beft. His. Paftorals have received their due commendation from Headley, Ellis, and others, but nothing more honourable to him than thefe College poems has been produced at any time. To the perfon who collects fuch memorials, the public is certainly indebted for a very pleas ing and very rational amufement. " Mr. Beloe next gives fome fpecimens from a book of fongs by T. W. (Thomas Weaver) in 1654, and then from the Loyal Garland," a collection often reprinted, as the fifth edition bears date 1686. The fongs taken from this are very elegant, but more modern than any of the former. One of them has been often fet to mufic even in late times. The following elegant compliment to the poetical talents of Bishop Bedell is prefixed to a poem written by him entitled, " Â "A Proteftant Memorial," the fubject of which is the Powder Plot. They do not appear among the works of Hall, though they are by no means unworthy of him. "Willy, thy rhythms fo fweetly run and rife, "Thine be his verse, not his reward be thine, "Not all the shepherds of his calender, Yet learned fhepherds all, and feen in fong, 1 Soon after Mr. Beloe fays, JOS. HALL." P. 100. "I have often been of opinion, that a curious volume might be compiled, of the fugitive poetical pieces of men eminent in various branches of learning and science, but not known or distin guifhed as poets. It is pleafing to fee the grave philofopher, profound fcholar, and fubtle critic, defcend from their lofty fta tions, tions, to cull a few tranfient flowers in the gardens of the Mufes."* P. 104. We are entirely of the fame opinion; and who more proper to collect them than Mr. B. himself? We are perfectly fatisfied, that a volume or two of that fort would be very acceptable to the public; and a part of the materials might, without impropriety, be taken out of thefe volumes. The learned Gataker, and Sir Thomas Roe, immediately after, fupply inftances of this fort. Various other felections follow: all curious, and, for fome reafon or other, worthy of attention. We will, however, conclude, for the prefent, with a copy of verfes, written by no lefs a perfonage than Sir Francis Drake, and prefixed to a book on the then recent difcoveries, called the "New Found Lands," by Sir Humfrey Gilbert, Knight. "SIR FRAUNCES DRAKE, KNIGHT, IN COMMENDATION OF THIS TREATISE. "Who feekes by worthie deedes to gaine renowne for hire, Whofe hart, whofe hnd, whofe purfe is preft to purchase his defire, If anie fuch there bee, that thirfteth after fame, Lo, heere a meane, to winne himfelfe an euerlafting name. Who feekes by gaine and wealth to aduance his house and blood, Whofe care is great, whofe toile no leffe, whofe hope is all for good, If anie one there bee that couettes fuch a trade, Lo heere the plot for commonwealth, and priuate gaine is made. He that for vertues fake will venture farre and neere, Whofe zeale is ftrong, whofe practize trueth, whofe faith is void of feere, If any fuch there bee inflamed with holie care, Heere may hee finde, a readie meane, his purpose to declare. The path to fame, the proofe of zeale, and way to purchase golde. So other curiofities demand our notice in this vomany lume, that we must defer the conclufion of our account to another opportunity. ART. IV. The Life of Arthur Murphy, Efq. By Jeffe Foot, Efq. bis Executor. 4to, pp. 470. 21. 2s. Faul der. 1811. MR. Murphy, who for nearly half a century engaged a large portion of the public attention as an author, and whofe productions ftill contribute to our delight in the thea tre, and our inftruction in the clofet, is well entitled to the tribute of a biographical effay, and no one had fo good materials for forming it, as his friend and executor, Mr. Foot. Mr. Murphy claimed this distinction for himself, and following the example of Rutilius and Soranus among the ancients, and Mr. Hume and Mr. Gibbon in his own days, he had prepared a memoir of his own life, which occupies nineteen pages of the prefent volume. This was certainly too fhort and too dry a memorial to fatisfy those who wished to know the character and conduct of the author; but, on the other hand, we think the friendship of Mr. Foot has been by far too induftrious in extending the life to a two guinea volume. If all men, whofe memories deferve preservation, were to be treated on to a proportionate extent, no moderate library would be fufficient to contain British biography alone, without attempting to introduce the memoirs of the brave, the wife, or the learned of other countries. It is eafy for a perfon, obtaining poffeffion of the letters written by and to a deceased individual, to ftretch a narrative into prolixity, or fwell a volume by additions, to which the fubject himself would never have confented, if his own opinion could have been taken. In the prefent inftance, we have fome oppor tunity of knowing what Mr. Murphy would have done, and we think the public would have had lefs caufe to complain, if his model in his own life, and his example in the lives of others, had been more exactly kept in view. For inftance, he comprises in a fingle page, the few and unimportant events which marked his life, from the year 17+7 to 1751. Unfortunately, the papers of his brother and his mother were among his effects when he died; and Mr. Foot, looking into them with the becoming diligence of a biographical editor, furnishes out nearly thirty pages of letters written by Mr. Murphy, in this period, to thele two relatives. It fometimes happens, that the letters of a youth, from his twentieth to his twenty-fourth year, are interefting; but thefe prefent only the the most ordinary images, in language not at all diftinguished from that of every day's correfpondence. The young gentleman travels to Bth; other ftage-coaches are robbed, but his escapes; one of his companions is an old lady, who takes and talks of medicines of her own preparing all the way; he bribes a French hair-dreffer to break the Sabbath, that he may appear well at dinner, and fo on, in terms and matter little varied, and feldom more important. Mr. Foot is pleafed to apologize for the introduction of thefe epiftles, by faying that they evidently display the early powers of Mr. Murphy's mind, as well as thofe embellishments which he had acquired by a very attentive application. Moft affuredly they difplay nothing of the kind; but they certainly do fhow a dutiful and affectionate difpofition, the dictates of which are occafionally conveyed in manly yet tender expreffions. A felection of thefe paffages would have occupied one page, and would have been ftrongly felt by the reader, in confequence of their being placed clearly and diftinctly before him; but it is much more easy to fen thirty pages of letters to the prefs, than to felect one which fhall be really worth reading. But if this portion of the work offends by its needlefs prolixity, we are little relieved by that which immediately fol. lows the details of Mr. Murphy's efforts as an author.Extracts from the Gray's Inn Journal; plots and treasurers' accounts of plays; obfervations on pieces too well known to require them, and extracts from others fo abfolutely forgotten, that nothing can render them interefling; and for a fupreme delight, thirty pages of the correfpondence, poetry, and a play of Mr. James Murphy French; letters to his mother; to Beau Tracey; to an anonymous alderman's wife, with whom he longs to hob-or-nob in claret; and to a shepherdess of Richmond Park, nick-named Paflorella, with whom he is not in love, though he is with another, who is a nymph, and whom with equal gallantry, fprightlinefs, and originality, he calls Venus. In the vrfes we find a wretched doggrel jingle, like the mufic of a triangle, on the names of fome jigging ladies of 1756, to the tune of "Green grow the ufhes O!" Take a fample. "And first there's Lady Eufton O, I'd be a bird Upon my word Were the a tree to root on O. There's |