Yet there are several instances of great felicity of expression in these original pieces; and we think the author excels in that very difficult class of which love is the subject. There is an elegance in some of these little pieces, which deserts him in his more sublime efforts; and, very contrary to the meretricious effusions of contemporary bards, we remark, with pleasure, that the passion which his verses express, is that pure and virtuous affection which sublimes and refines all that is connected with it. The piece, upon the whole, which we are inclined to consider as decidedly unworthy of the others, is a ballad called William Lambert-a Tale, which the author seems to have suspected was too simple for publication. But, however true and pleasing the incident which it contains, the account of a boy relieved from beggary by the liberality of the Lady Margaret, and who prefers being a gardener to going to sea, cannot be considered as generally interesting. In some of the verses, the author has in fact slid into that style of tawdry and affected simplicity, which we should have thought that he who has studied popular poetry upon the manliest models, would, of all persons, have been least likely to imitate. The choice of the orphan to stay with Lady Margaret is, for example, thus expressed. "The little boy he hied him in, And busk'd him in the hall; A boon (he cried), fair Lady mine! For thou must be mine only friend, O let me here thy garden tend, The soft primrose, the violet blue, And cuckoo-buds, and sorrel pale, And luscious sweet woodbine.""-Vol. ii. p. 86. This is not genuine ballad poetry, which Mr Herbert can write when he pleases; but that spurious kind, which trickles through the Sir Eldreds of the Bower, and other legendary ditties of the eighteenth century. It is the very last refuge of those who can do nothing better in the shape of verse; and a man of genius should disdain to invade the province of these dawdling rhymers. [Sir Eldred was an early performance of Mrs Hannah More.] ARTICLE VI. EVANS'S OLD BALLADS. [Quarterly Review, May, 1810. On "Old Ballads, His " Vocal Poetry, or torical," &c. By THOMAS EVANS. Revised, &c. by his Son, R. H. EVANS. 4 vols. And a select Collection of English Songs. fixed, an Essay on Song Writing." M.D.] To which is pre- WE class these publications together, as being a species which characteristic simplicity and the powerful union of music render generally acceptable, as well to high-born dames in bower and hall, as to "the free maids that weave their thread with bones." The reviver of minstrel poetry in Scotland was the venerable Bishop of Dromore, who, in 1765, published his elegant collection of heroic ballads, songs, and pieces of early poets, under the title of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. The plan of the work was adjusted in concert with Mr Shenstone, but we own we cannot regret that the execution of it devolved upon Dr Percy alone. It was divided into three volumes, each forming a distinct series of ancient poetry, selected with classical elegance, and interspersed with modern imitations and specimens of lyric composition. The various subdivisions of the work were prefaced by critical and curious dissertations upon subjects connected with or tending to elucidate the ancient ballads which they preceded. The arrangement of the specimens was so managed as to exhibit the gradation of language, the progress of popular opinions, the manners and customs of former ages, and the obscure passages of our earlier classical poets. The plan of this publication was eminently calculated to remove the principal obstacle which the taste of the period offered to its success. To bring Philosophy from heaven to dwell among men, it was necessary to divest her of some of her more awful attributes, to array her doctrines in familiar language, and render them evident by popular illustration. But Dr Percy had a different course to pursue when conducting Legendary Lore from stalls and kitchens and cottage chimneys, or, at best, from the dust, moths, and mould of the Pepysian or Pearsonian collections, to be an inmate of the drawingroom and the study. The attempt was entirely new, and the difficulties attending it arose from the fastidious taste of an age which was accustomed to receive nothing under the denomination of poetry, unrecommended by flowing numbers and elaborate expression. To soften these difficulties, Dr Percy availed himself, to a considerable extent, of his own poetical talent, to alter, amend, and decorate the rude popular rhymes, which, if given to the public with scrupulous fidelity, would probably have been rejected with contempt and disgust. It was not, then, so much the question whether an ancient poem was authentic according to the letter, as whether it was or could be rendered worth reading; and it might be said of Dr Percy's labours as an editor, nihil quod tetigit non ornavit. It may be asked by the severer antiquary of the present day, why an editor, thinking it necessary to introduce such alterations, in order to bring forth a new, beautiful, and interesting sense from a meagre or corrupted original, did not, in good faith to his readers, acquaint them with the liberties he had taken, and make them judge whether in so doing he transgressed his limits. We answer, that unquestionably such would be the express duty of a modern editor, but such were not the rules of the service when Dr Percy first opened the campaign. His avowal of alterations, additions, and conjectural emendations, at the bottom of each page, would have only led his readers to infer that his originals were good for nothing; not to mention that a great many of those additions derived their principal merit from being supposed ancient. In short, a certain conformity with the general taste was necessary to introduce a relish for the subject; accuracy and minute investigation of the original state of the ballads was likely to follow, and did follow so soon as the public ear had been won by the more elegant and polished edition of Dr Percy. It had been well if the industrious Ritson, and other minute and accurate labourers in the mine of antiquity, had contented themselves with exhibiting specimens of the ore in |