Song writing 66 EVOL 4 "About her shoulders shone her golden locks, Tasso merely observes that a young female appeared before him with her golden locks shaken out in the wind. The exquisitely graceful addition of the translator may however be traced to a Sonnet by Lorenzo de' Medicis, with whose writings Fairfax was very well acquainted. Quando sopra i nevosi ed alti monti Sonnet 73. Tal i crin suoi sopra la bianca gonna. Thus on the mountain heights with snow o'erspread, Roscue's Life of Leo. I, 259. Stage Directions. Is a talent entirely per se," and given, like every other branch of genius, by nature. Shenstone was labouring through his whole life to write a perfect song, and succeeded no better than Pope did in his attempts at a Cecilian Ode. Mr. Moore is one of the very few poets who have entered into the spirit of this style of composition. His in some of our old English plays, that songs abound in the most exquisite similies, and generally conclude with the direction and invention of the actors part of the minor speeches were left to one, which may be said to be to the themselves. This at least would appiece, like the dew-drop at the end of an unfolding rosebud, which, tinged with the colour of the flower, adds brightness to its hues, delicacy to its shades, beauty to its shape, and fragrance to its perfume! It appears from the stage directions pear from the following very ludicrous Seat of Modesty. The conduct of a man in public Aristotle observes that lovers gaze life, occupied in concealing his ignoron no part but the eyes of those they ance, is an absolute system of taclove, which is the abode of modesty. tics. It is curious to remark his stuPliny, however, places it in the cheeks; died silence when the conversation but Erasmus in some measure illustrates the meaning of the Stagyrite, by affirming that modesty is said to be in the eyes, because children when they blush cover their eyes. He adds that the Poets feign Cupid blind because he is so impudent; were his eyes open nobody would trust him. turns upon a subject which he is conscions he ought to know well, and of which he is equally conscious that he knows nothing; to see how he slinks away when this conversation approaches too near him, and the looks of the circle around seem to express that they are all expectation to hear his opinion. He goes up in an absent way to the chimney-piece, takes up some papers that lie there, and begins to look them over with profound attention, while, nevertheless, if he hears any thing said on which he may venture with confidence to put in a word, 'tis so, says he, exactly so, not taking his eyes however from the papers till the moment when he can adroitly give another turn to the conversation; and to this resource he has been obliged to recur so often, that it has become entirely familiar to him. Sometimes he will be a little more adventurous; and if a debate arises in Curious Epigram. 269 The following epigram occurs in a very rare and curious selection, not mentioned by Ritson, entitled "The two last Centuries of Epigrammes," Printed by J. Windet, (no date.) his company upon the period when some event of antiquity happened, or upon the distance between two large towns, and several different opinions on the question are supported with equal pertinacity, one maintaining, for instance, that it was the year 300, before our era, another, that it was the year 200, one that the distance between the towns was 2000 leagues, another that it was 2400, he will fix the period at the year 250, the distance at 2200 leagues this is a medium he ventures to take without having any notion ous; he treats poets with the sanie whatever upon the subject, only he feels kindness as he did his favourite comconfident that he cannot be very wide panion Hyacinthus.* It is more Made breeches fit to hide themselves withal; The friendship of Apollo dangerous. * See the story of Hyacinthus, Ovid, book 26, who was killed by a quoit from the hand of Apollo. Moliere From this of the mark. But with such fortunate thought the device of Tasso was a opportunities to display his knowledge, hyacinth, with the motto, "Sie me he is not often favoured. Phoebus amat!" easy for him to terminate a controversy on any axiom laid down, since he has always some common-place remark, or assertion ready at hand, suited to the Pillaged without scruple the thoughts occasion. Sometimes he takes his re- of others. The scene of the Pyrrhonian venge; and if he happens to have philosopher in the Forced Marriage, is been reading in the morning, in the way taken word for word from Rabelais. of his business, any paper or papers, The play of the "Physician in spite of through which he has acquired some himself," is founded on the circumstance piece of statistical knowledge, he does related by Grotius; the story of George not rest till he gives the conversation Dandin is stolen from the Decameron. such a turn, as will enable him to bring To Bergerac he is indebted for his Wo, then, to any one who character of the Pedant, ridiculed in thinks he shall pay his court to him by the cheats of Scapin. making many inquiries on the subject, or who offers some slight objection, that he may ask for an explanation ;our man of ignorance is already at the full length of his tether ; he only by monosyllables, and becomes evidently out of humour.-M. de Stuel. Illustration of a passage in Milton's Lycidas. it out. answers Warton, in his criticism on Lycidas, observed, that, by "the grey fly winds her sultry horn," the poet describes the sunset, and the buzzing of the chafer. This opinion appears to be erroneous; sultry agrees much better with noon, than with sunset. The horn of the grey fly is probably the peculiarly distinct tone of the gnat. With regard to the epithet applied to the insect by Milton; Shakspeare designates the waggoner of Queen Mab, a small grey coated gnat." 66 Unwillingness of Men of Genius to be satisfied with their own productions. though men of ordinary talents may be It has been very justly observed that highly satisfied with their own producWhatever be their subject they always tions, men of true genius never are. seem to themselves to fall short of it, even when they appear to others most to excel; and for this reason, because they have a certain sublime sense of perfection which other men are strapgers to, and which they in their performance are not able to exemplify. Don Quixote, Lord Orford used to say of Don Quixote," that when the hero in the outset of the novel is so mad as to mistake a windmill for a giant, what more is to be said but an insipid repetition of mistakes, or an uncharacteristic deviution from them! 270 Modern Persia. [VOL. 4 ing, some beauty which had escaped him before. Conrad Gessner. This is too harsh; it is the very minute description of life and character as they occur in Spain, that interests us in reading Don Quixote, and makes us The death of Conrad Gessner is said pardon the extravagance of the chief to have been similar to that of Petrarch, character, and the insipidity of the pas- Capite libris innixo mortuus est intoral scenes. The episodes are bad; ventus," (vita Petrarcha.) He was the fate of the Spanish captive and his found dead in his study with his head moorish mistress excepted, which is an leaning on some books.-Most of his exquisite piece of truth and na- writings exhibit uncommon force of ture. It is observed in the life of Day (the author of the Dying Negro) that he regularly perused this work once a year, and fancied he discovered in each read imagination, but very indifferently regulated, with much of that meretricious substitution of glittering words for ideas, so common to the German School of poetry. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS IN MODERN PERSIA. A SECOND JOURNEY THROUGH PERSIA, ARMENIA, ASIA MINOR, &c. BETWEEN THE YEARS 1810 AND 1816. BY JAMES MORIER, Esq. &c. &c. LONDON. 1818. THE military history of the Persians was a saint; and he excited them to 6 is as humorous as their domestic bis- take forts, and to oppose any numbers tory is strange and unamiable; we have to the enemy, by promising Paradise many entertaining anecdotes on the as a reward. They went with alacrity former subject scattered through this whithersoever he directed them, and volume. Our readers know that Abbas met their death with constancy. When Mirza, the heir apparent, residing at Beg Jan was one day describing the Tabriz, has succeeded in introducing delights of Paradise, an Uzbeg asked the European system of tactics into his him, Is there any chappow (plunder) army, perhaps one of the most impor- in Paradise? To which the other said tant events for his country since the 'No.' 'Ah then,' said he, ‘Paradise days of Timour. Boasting of this im- won't do for me.' provement, and of the facility it would afford, through the use of artillery, of conquering the Uzbeg Tartars, he exclaimed," Ab! it would indeed be an easy matter! What do they know of guns, or manœuvres, and of firing ten times in a minute? I recollect the tiine when we Persians were as bad as they. My father, the Shah, once besieged a fort, and had with him one gun, with only three balls; and even this was reckoned extraordinary. He fired off two of the balls at the fort, and then summoned it to surrender. The besieged, who knew that he had only one ball left, sent him this answer: "For God's sake fire off your other ball at us, and then we shall be free of you altogether." He continued to say, "The Uzbegs not long since had a famous fellow amongst them, called Beg Jan, who made them believe that he This Beg Jan's history is very curious; but we shall pursue our military extracts for the present. The unparalleled answer to the Shah's summons will perhaps be thought bolder than it appears at first sight, when we mention that even with Abbas Mirza, and his European assistance, the fort of Abbasabad, the plan of which was given by the French general Gardand, by an architectural arrangement peculiar to the Persians, has the heaviest stones at top instead of being at the foundation, so that even without the pawnbroker's number of balls being discharged at it, large portions of the wall tumbled down every year, But the frontier or border war with the Russians, which had lasted 11 years, and was finally negotiated into a treaty of peace through our mediation, affords the finest examplos of Persian tactics. VOL. 4.] Signs of Inns-Daniel Lambert. 271 At Shisheh they surprised a Russian which rejoiced the King's ministers expost, killed 300, and took 500 prisoners ceedingly; for on no occasion before and two guns. This was swelled into had their troops been known to apa grand victory, 2000 killed, 5000 proach near enough to the enemy to taken, and 12 guns! get killed. The death of our sergeants "Upon questioning them why they settled a doubt that existed among the exaggerated so much, when they knew Persians, whether or not Christians how soon the falsehood would be dis- would fight against Christians in favour covered, they very ingenuously said, of Mussulmans, and this occurrence • If we did not know that your stubborn raised us not a little in their estimation. veracity would have come in our way, "In one of the first visits which the we should have said ten times as much. Ambassador paid to the Grand Vizier, This is the first time our troops have he found him directing a letter to the made any stand at all against the Rus- Governor of Mazanderan, which was sians; and you would not surely re- to announce the defeat of the Russians. strict so glorious an event in our history When the writer had got to the catastroto a few dry facts.' phe, he asked, "How many killed am We wish all European conquerors I to put?' Write 2000 killed, 5000 were equally ingenuous. The Persians made prisoners, and that the enemy had about 14,000; the Russians 800 were 10,000 strong.' Then turning to men. One of their articles of capitulation the Ambassador, he said, 'This letter was, that their heads were not to be cut has got to travel a great distance, and off; an act which in Persian and therefore we add in proportion.' When Turkish warfare is a common custom. the King saw the Ambassador, he exDuring this fight ten tomaums were pressed his joy at the event; and said, given for every head of the enemy that that he had a forewarning of it by a was brought to the Prince; and it has dream, in which he saw a ruffian about been known to occur after the combat to plunge a dagger into his breast, but was over, that prisoners have been put that he had been saved by his son to death in cold blood, in order that the Abbas." heads, which are immediately dispatched to the King, and deposited in heaps at the Palace gate, might make a more considerable show. Two of the English sergeants (in the Persian service) were killed on this occasion, and after the battle was over, one of their bodies was found without its head, which was discovered among a heap of Russian heads. It had doubtless been severed by a Persian, who passing it off for a Russian head, had received the price fixed for such a commodity. The Persians lost 100 men, a circumstance army could march. Prince Abbas, it should be told, hehaved very nobly to the Russian commander, when brought wounded before him. Observing that he had no sword, he took off his own, which was. of great value, and desired him to put it on and wear it for his sake. It may be gathered, however, from the above, that Persia owes its safety neither to the gallantry of the Prince, nor the valour of his troops, but to the abso→ lutely impracticable nature of its fron-. tier, through which no regular invading REMARKS ON INNS, &c. From the Gentleman's Magazine. DANIEL LAMBERT. Correction at Leicester, where his vast AT Leicester, his native place, in the bulk excited a curiosity which was very street called Gallow-tree gate, is a rarely gratified, as he had the greatest public house, the sign-board of which repugnance to being gazed at. He was exhibits a portrait of this person, by far fond of cocking, horse-racing, and the the fattest and heaviest man ever known. sports of the field; and when prevented He was born March 13, 1770, and was by his size from an active participation for many years Keeper of the House of in these pleasures, they formed the fa 272 99 66 66 Signs of Inns-Daniel Lambert-The Dog. A trav THE DOG. [VOL. 4 vourite topics of his discourse. eller, who had learned these circumstan- Notwithstanding the almost infinite ces, and was very anxious to see this variety and great dissimilitude in the human prodigy, knocked at his door, appearance, size, and qualities of the and enquired if he were at home. The different species of dogs, yet it is admitservant replied, Yes;" but added, ted by every naturalist that they all “that Mr. Lambert never saw strang- spring from one parent stock. ers. Tell him," said the visitant, "that In "The Sporting Cabinet" there are I called about some cocks." Lambert, 24 beautiful delineations of different who overheard the conversation, sus- kinds of dogs, engraved by Scott from pecting the real motive, immediately the drawings of Reinagle; but of called aloud to his servant, "Tell the this number 16 will be more convenientgentleman that I am a shy cock." At ly noticed under other signs; viz. the another time,a person who was extreme- water-dog and water-spaniel, the spanly importunate to see him, pretending ish and english pointers, the setter and that he had a particular favour to ask, the springer, or springing spaniel, unwas after considerable hesitation admit- der the " Dog and Duck, Dog and Parted; when he said he merely wished to tridges ;" the fox-hound and the terrier, inquire into the pedigree of a particular under "The Fox;" the english, irish, mare. Lambert, aware of the true and italian grey-hound, under "The cause of his visit, with happy prompti- Greyhound;" the Southern-hound, the tude replied, "Oh, is that all ?--she was harrier, and the beagle, under the “ Hare got by Impertinence out of Curiosity." and Hounds ;" and the blood-hound Being under pecuniary embarrassment, and the stag-hound, under" The Stag." he at length very reluctantly assented to Of the remaining eight dogs, a public exhibition of himself; and March 28, 1806, arrived for that purpose at lodgings in Piccadilly, London, where he was visited by crowds of spectators. He afterwards exhibited him- 2. The Bull Dog, the native produc-self at most of the principal towns in tion of Britain, is the most courageous England, and died on his journey at and unrelenting of the canine species. Stamford in Lincolnshire, June 21, It is a distinguishing and invariable trait 1809. He had retired to rest in appar- in the true-bred dog, never to atack the ent health, and intended seeing compa- bull but in front, seizing upon the lip, ny the following day, but was found lifeless in his bed in the morning. His coffin, consisting of 112 superficial feet of elms, was rolled upon two axle-trees to the grave back of St. Martin's church, where a monument was erected, thus inscribed : In remembrance of that prodigy in nature, Daniel Lambert, a native of Leicester, who was possessed of an excellent and convivial mind, and in Personal Greatness he had no competitor. He measured three feet one inch round the legs, nine feet four inches round the body, and weighed 52 stone, 11 lbs. (739 lbs.) He departed this life on the 21 of June, 1809, aged 39 years. As a testimony of respect this stone is erected by his friends in Leicester."* N. B. The stone of 14 lbs. 1. The Shepherd's dog is supposed by Buffon to be the original Dog of Nature, from which every other species is derived. * Magazine: has been taken from the Obituary of the Gentleman's 1763, weight, 34 stone 4 ibs.-480 lbs. be a larger man than Bright," but no weight stated. Mr. Spooner, Shuttington, Warwickshire, died June 1775, 40 stone, 9 lbs-569 lbs. Daniel Lambert, Leicester, died June, 1809, weight, 52 stone 11 lbs.-739 lbs! * About the year 1805 Mr. Henry Hawkes, a farmer of Halling in Kent, returning home from Maidstone market, after drinking freely, lost his way in a deep snow, and overpowered by sleep, the constant. concomitant of extreme cold, he laid himself on his back upon the ground. His attendant, a shepherd's dog, scratched away the snow, so as to form a kind the bosom of his heipiess master. The frost was extremely severe during the night, and the snow continued failing. Early in the morning a Mr. Finch, who ran to him, and by the most importunate acin the pursuit of wild fow!, was perceived by the dog, tions attracted his attention, and conducted him to of protecting wall around, and then laid himself on the spot; where upon wiping away the icy incrustation from the face, he recognized the features of the farmer, and conveyed him, apparently lifeless, to the nearest house; but the proper means being speedily applied, animation was again restored, the warmth of the dog, in covering the most vital parts *The following list of persons of remarkable size having prevented a total stagnation of the blood. |