rities, that chivalry sprang up and was nursed in the very bosom of this tremendous creed; that it gradually blended, or contrasted with its terrific features, what was tender, courteous, and gallant, and at length united to all these the fantastic wonders of the East; we cannot be surprised that from such a combination should have arisen a system of fabling better calculated perhaps than any other which the world has yet seen, to excite the imagination of the poet. Of the era which our author has fixed

upon

for his poem, when the Saxons and the Britons were contending for the sovereignty of this island, it may justly be said that he has exhibited a very profound knowledge ; and not only has he shown a perfect intimacy with Northern antiquities, both in his text and notes, but has, at the same time, very ably and correctly discriminated and opposed to each other the Gothic and Celtic costume, manners, and superstitions.

In fact, the very business and action of the poem, and its whole machinery, are founded on the enmity with which the Northern Parca, or Weird Sisters, -are inflamed against Arthur, in consequence of his opposition to the designs of their favoured hero, Hengist, king of the Saxons; whilst, on the other side, Merlin, the great prophet of the Celts, aids the British prince in defeating the machinations of the demons of Scandinavia.

With such materials, and with the avowed intention of taking the old metrical romance for his model, it might have been expected that the poet of Arthur would adopt, to a certain extent at least, the style as well as the mode of fabling of his prototypes. In this respect, however, he has deviated entirely, and perhaps somewhat injudiciously, from his originals; for whilst he has preserved the body and spirit of their fiction, he has clothed both in a classical garb, in the dress indeed of Homer and of Virgil, and has, consequently, given to his work a very anomalous aspect, being neither entitled, from the desultory nature of its fabric, to be considered as a classical epic, nor from the polish, concatenation, and uniform dignity of its style and versification, a gothic romance.

It is, however, notwithstanding this incongruity, a most valuable and interesting production, both in substance and in form ; and it has moreover the merit of being the first attempt, in modern times, to re-open that rich vein of wild narrative and fiction,

which constituted the delight and the wealth of Ariosto and Spenser.

I know few poems, ancient or modern, that can boast a more beautiful exordium than that which decorates the first book of Arthur. After invocating praise on the warrior who aspires to immortality by virtuous acts and brave exploits, the bard

a

The fable then commences by describing Ivar, the son of Melaschlen, chief of the Ebudæ, or Western Isles, as walking towards night by the sea-shore, and who, whilst watching the appearance of a fleet at a distance, is alarmed by the sound of horrible voices from the mountain Conagra.

This ciroumstance introduces to us the Weird Sisters, who are beheld by Ivar performing their magic rites on the summit.

With these personages, however, the Urda, Valdandi, and Skulda of the Northern mythology, and who were supposed to preside over the past, the present, and the future, Mr. Hole has confessedly taken considerable liberties; for he has neither delineated them as in the Edda, where they are drawn as beautiful virgins inhabiting Asgard, the city of the gods, nor painted them as Shakspeare has done in his Macbeth, where, potent ministers though they be of evil, they are, in conformity with the system of witchcraft of his royal master, represented as deformed and mischievous hags. But he has taken a middle path between these two descriptions, and has thereby rendered his personification of the Fatal Sisters more, perhaps, in consonancy with the nature and epic genius of his poem.

This, their first presentation to us, is certainly wrought up with great spirit and poetical power. They are depicted calling upon the demons of revenge to pour forth the thunders of the tempest, to awake, arise, destroy !

Of fearful mien, and more than mortal size,
Three female forms appear’d; in mystic rite
Engaged, they traced the mountain's dizzy height
In circling course : whilst wide behind them flew
Their ble locks, and robes of russet hue,
As with demeanor wild and outstretch'd arms
They roused th' infernal powers:~their direful charms
At length prevail. Th’increasing shades of night
Close dark around, and veil them from his sight.

Now, by the potency of magic sound,
Th’aspiring mountain to its base profound
Convulsive shook: the birds that used to sweep
In crowded flight around the dizzy steep,
(As grey-robed vapours, driven before the storm,
Float on the winds in many a varied form),
Roused from their secret clefts, with piercing cry,
Through the dun air in countless myriads fly.
From ev'ry point of heaven red meteors glide
In streaming radiance to the mountain's side,
Thick and more thick ; then to its height aspire,
And form á rampart of encircling fire.

But though in splendor rose the mountain's head,
The robe of darkness o’er the sky is spread :
Portentous darkness-" Powers of earth and air !"
Ebuda's youth thus raised the suppliant prayer,