Walpoliana, No. IV.-Grace in Compofition. generates into tinfel or pertnefs. Pertnefs is the mistaken affectation of grace, as pedantry produces erroneous dignity : the familiarity of the one, and the clumfinefs of the other, diftort, or prevent, grace. Nature, that furnishes famples of all qualities, and in the fcale of gradation exhibits all poffible fhades, affords us types that are more appofite than words. The eagle is fublime, the lion majeftic, the swan graceful, the monkey pert, the bear ridiculoully awkward. I mention these as more expreffive and comprehenfive than I coud make definitions of my meaning; but I will apply the fwan only, under whofe wings I will shelter an apology for Racine, whofe pieces give me an idea of that bird. The colouring of the fwan is pure, his attitudes are graceful, he never difpleases you when failing on his proper element. His feet may be ugly, his notes hiffing not mufical, his walk not natural; he can foar, but it is with difficulty. Still the impreffion the fwan leaves is that of grace-fo does Racine. Boileau may be compared to the dog, whofe fagacity is remarkable, as well as its fawning on its mafter, and its fnarling at those it dislikes. If Boileau was too auftere to admit the pliability of grace, he compenfates by fenfe and propriety. He is like (for I will drop animals) an upright magiftrate whom you refpect; but whofe juftice and feverity leave an awe, that difcourages familiarity. His copies of the ancients may be too fervilebut if a good tranflator deferve praife, Boileau deferves more: he certainly does not fall below his originals; and, confidering at what period he wrote, has greater merit ftill. By his imitations he held out to his countrymen models of tafte, and banifhed totally the bad taste of his predeceffors. For his Lutrin, replete with excellent poetry, wit, humour, and fatire, he certainly was not obliged to the ancients. Excepting Horace, how little idea had either Greeks or Romans of wit and humour! Aristophanes and Lucian, compared with moderns, were, the one a blackguard, the other a buffoon. In my eyes, the Lutrin, the Difpenfary, and the Rape of the Lock, are standards of grace and elegance, not to be paralleled by antiquity; and eternal reproaches to Voltaire, whole indelicacy in the Pucelle degraded him as much, when compared with the three authors I have named, as his Henriade leaves Virgil, and even Lucan, whom he more resembles, by far his fuperiors. The Dunciad is blemished by the offenfive images of the games, but MONTHLY MAG. No. XXXII. 439 the poetry appears to me admirable; and tho' the fourth book has obfcurities, I prefer it to the three others. It has defcriptions not furpaffed by any poet that ever exifted; and which furely a writer merely ingenious will never equal. The lines on Italy, on Venice, on Convents, have all the grace for which I contend, as diftinct from poetry, tho' united with the most beautifull;, and the Rape of the Lock, befides the originality of great part of the invention, is a standard of graceful writing. In general I believe that what I call grace, is denominated elegance; but by grace I mean fomething higher. I will explain myself by inftances; Apollo is gracefull, Mercury elegant. Petrarch perhaps owed his whole merit to the harmony of his numbers, and the graces of his ftyle. They conceal his poverty of meaning, and want of variety. His complaints too may have added an intereft, which, had his paffion been fuccessfull, and had expressed itself with equal fameness, would have made the number of his fonnets infupportable. Melancholy in poetry I am inclined to think contributes to grace, when it is not disgraced by pitiful lamentations, fuch as Ovid's and Cicero's in their banishments. We respect melancholy, because it imparts a fimilar affection, pity. A gay writer, who should only exprefs fatisfaction without variety, would foon be naufeous. : Madame de Sevignè fhines both in grief and gaiety. There is too much of forrow for her daughter's abfence; yet it is always expreffed by new turns, new images; and often by wit, whofe tendernefs has a melancholy air. When the forgets her concern, and returns to her natural difpofition, gaiety, every paragraph has novelty her allufions, her applications, are the happieft poffible. She has the art of making you acquainted with all her acquaintance; and attaches you even to the spots the inhabited. Her language is correct, tho' unstudied; and when her mind is full of any great event, she interefts you with the warmth of a dramatic writer, not with the chilling impartiality of an hiftorian. Pray read her accounts of the death of Turenne and of the arrival of K. James in France, and tell me whether you do not know their perfons, as if you had lived at the time. For my part, if you will allow me a word of digreffion (not that I have written with any method), I hate the cold impartiality recommended to historians; fi vis me flere, dolendum eft primum ipfi tibi-but that Ï 3 L may 440 Account of Schiller. may not wander again, nor tire, nor contradict you any more, I will finish now : and fhall be glad if you will dine at Strawberry-Hill next Sunday, and take a bed there; when I will tell you how many more parts of your book have pleased me, than have startled my opinions, or, per haps, prejudices. I am, fir, your obedi ent humble fervant, HOR. WALPOLE. P. S. Be fo good as to let me know, by a line by the poft to Strawberry-Hill, whether I fhall have the pleafure of feeing you on Sunday. ORIGINAL ANECDOTES, LETTERS, &c. Characteristic Account of Foreign well fupported by the dramatic talents of TH Literati. SCHILLER. HIS dramatic writer has acquired an uncommon degree of celebrity, as well among the Germans as the Englith. None of his performances have efcaped the lath of criticifin, which, perhaps, never has been more juftly inflicted than upon his eccentric compofitions. It will hence be understoody that, in his un country, particularly among critics who combine a correct taite with a judicious arrangement of facts-facts founded upon the purity of moral motives-he holds but a middle rank. SCHILLER is a native of Stutgard, the capital of the dutchy of Wurtemberg, born in 1760. As his father was an officer in the army of the late reigning Duke of Wurtemberg, who had erected a military academy, in imitation of that eftablished at Berlin, by the late Great Frederick; our bard was naturally placed in this feminary, where he received the first rudiments of his education-by no means congenial to his talents. Under all the difadvantages of a military school, he, however, foon diftinguished himself among his companions, by his metaphorical language in converfation, and his poetical turn in compofition. Though the leader in almoft every clafs through which he paffed, his talents did not render him the object of envy and hatred among his fchoolfellows; for he was a perfect stranger to referve and artifice. SCHILLER'S parents obviously wifhed him to try his fortune in the army; but his natural propensity to dramatic ftudies foon determined him to prefer the elegant purfuits of the Mufes, to the riotous and diffipating scenes of a military life. We are not informed at what period of life SCHILLER left Stutgard; but he muit have been very young (perhaps, not twenty years of age), when he wrote, at Manheim, his famous tragedy, "The Robbers." Manheim then poffeffed one of the best theatres in Germany, and was Beck and Ifland, two excellent performers: the latter of whom has alto written a confiderable number of good plays, amounting to 25 at least, with the various merits of which, his countrymen are well acquainted. SCHILLER'S next performances were " Cabal and Love," (tranflated into Englifh by Mr. Lewis, under the title of "The Minifter;") "The Confpiracy of Fiefco," and "Don Carlos." Each of thefe plays, particularly the latter, met with a favourable reception on the German ftage. It is, however, worthy of remark, that, though all SCHILLER'S COM pofitions bear the ftamp of great genius, fupported by a brilliant and fertile ima gination, yet they are neither calculated to become completely popular, nor to withstand the attacks of the most lenient critics. In fact, they are meteors on the German horizon; they are not only deficient in the defign, or arrangement of parts, but are likewife written in fo extravagant, or rather infuriated a dialogue, as to excite the idea, that they must be acted by beings inhabiting a very different world from that we live in. Befides, the ftyle and phrafeology of SCHILLER cannot be held out as a pattern of German writing, to those who apply to the study of that copious and energetic language. The natives of Germany, who have ftudied their language grammatically, and critically, are annoyed in every page of his earlier compofitions, with Swabian and Bavarian provincialisms. Soon after the four dramatic pieces above mentioned had made their appearance, SCHILLER prefented the public with a volume of poems, which greatly increafed his reputation, already eftablifhed among a certain clafs of readers, who delight in the marvellous, and which, not undefervingly, were the means of introducing him into the higher circles of life. The reigning Duke of Saxe-Weimar, a true Mæcenas in German literature, is faid to have been fo much pleased with Writings of Schiller. with SCHILLER'S poems, that he appointed him one of his Aulic Counsellors, and conferred on him a profefforfhip of history and philofophy in the university of Jena. Here he compofed his "Hiftory of the Thirty Years War in Germany;" a work of great merit, and, in the opinion of fome Germans, not inferior to the -compofitions of Livy, Voltaire, or Gibbon. This, however, is a pardonable prejudice in favour of SCHILLER, fince his countrymen cannot boat of many good hiftorians, and perhaps of none of fuperior excellence, or at least equal to Hume and Robertfon. So much is certain, that the laft mentioned two writers greatly gain in the comparison with the beft German hiftorians, namely, Häberlin, the two Henrys (Heinrich), Schmidt, Galetti, Buchholz, Wagner, and Baczko. The next work of SCHILLER'S is, "The Hiftory of the Netherlands," which, however, he has not yet concluded; although it was begun feveral years ago.Perhaps, the fevere criticisms that appeared on this work in the German Reviews, have discouraged him from profecuting this very important fubject†. Another work of SCHILLER's, that excited confiderable attention in Germany, is "The Hiftory of the most memorable Confpiracies."-But, as a work of imagination, difplaying all the powers of invention, his "Ghoft-feer," may be ranked among the principal compofitions of that kind. It has been very imperfectly tranflated into English; and many fuperficial readers have concluded, that the genius of the Germans ftrongly inclines to the marvellous and romantic, because this book was received with fuch fatisfaction by certain claffes of people in Germany, that it has been feveral times reprinted; though the first part of it only was published by the author. Another writer, of inferior talents, has published This is a mere title, attended with no other emolument than that of being called Her Hofrath, instead of the fimple word Herr, i, e. Sir, or Mr.-The Germans, however, are still very fond of titles-being an appendage of the old feudal fyftem: and as the petty fovereigns rarely reward a meritorious literary man in a more effectual manner than by loading him with an empty title, the first characters in Germany are reluctantly obliged to fubmit to this farcical mode of rewarding literary merit, until a better prospect opens. Meanwhile, the Bishop of Antwerp has written a most valuable Hifery of the Ne aberlands." 441 a furreptitious continuation of the "Ghoftfeer," which, notwithstanding its inferiority, has met with an unmerited degree of fuccefs. SCHILLER NOW conducts a monthly publication, which is fupported by the. firft German writers, among whom we find the names of DALBERG, ENGEL, GARVE, GLEIM, GOETHE, HERDER, HUFELAND, HUMBOLDT, JACOBI, MATTHISON, PFEFFEL, SCHUTZ, &c. This claffical Magazine is printed at Tübingen, under the title, " Die Hozen, alluding to the three graces, Eunomia, Dice, and Irene. Befides thefe publications, SCHILLER is the editor of an annual poetical almanack, (“ Mùsen Almanack,") which ferves as a vehicle for the occafional effufions of young bards, who wish to bring their poetical talents to the telt before the pub. lic, and to profit by the previous criticims and corrections of the editor. In this almanack he alfo communicates the latest productions of his own mufe. Our poet is faid to have difplayed a ftrong propensity, in his youth, to whatever had the appearance of eccentricity. His drefs, his mode of life, even his courtships, were as original as his mode of writing. It is, however, not very difficult to account for these peculiarities. If we confider him as a youth endowed with a fertile and active mind, with the ftrongest fenfations of virtue and liberty, and, at the fame time, checked in his intellectual career, within the narrow path of a military fchool, where every thing moves by the dimenfions of space and time; his earlier productions, fuch as "The Robbers," and "The Conspiracy of Fiefco," are, in a high degree, characteriftic of the fituation and circumftances in which he was placed at a time of life, when the human mind is fufceptible of. the ftrongest and most lafting impreffions. We cannot fupprefs a fingular anecdote which forms an epocha in the life of SCHILLER. As a diftinguished favourite among the fair, his courtships in general were more of the paffive than of the active kind. Thus it happened, that a young lady, of rank and fortune, in the vicinity of Jena, fent him an unexpected challenge, by offering him her hand at the altar of Hymen. This he could not eafily refufe, without being guilty of great rudeness and cruelty; efpecially as the enamoured lady would undoubtedly have fallen a victim to an affection which he alone could relieve, and which he had contracted by the perufal of his poems. 3L2 Such 442 Original Poetry. Such is the power of language, even in the dead letter of a book! SCHILLER married this frank and amiable lady, who now enjoys more favourable opportunities of ftudying his character, and of teftifying her efteem for his talents and conjugal virtues, than at the former diftance, when reading his captivating poems. W. [Kotzebue in our next number.] ORIGINAL POETRY. VERSES fent to a Lady with Dr. DARWIN'S "Botanic Garden.", WHEN Eve walk'd forth at early hour, Vacant of science was her mind, SONNET TO TRUTH, By Mr. LUNDIE. TO these fad eyes, 'mid wild'ring mazes loft, Lur'd oft by phantoms veil'd in garb like thine, Whofe molds external thy pure radiance boast, Yet but to hide their inward darkness shine, Thy form, bleft feraph, smile-begirt, unfold, Thy genuine nameless graces blazon round; May I thy fun-eclipfing charms behold Illume all fcenes in nature's ample bound. Hence, when mild Morn unveils her adiant eye, : Or gilds Eve's ling'ring ray th' Atlantic deep; When Cynthia's pearly hoft begem the sky, Or midnight filence wraps the world in Леер; : Thine ardent vot'ry,borne on Rapture's wing, In Fancy's wildeft ftrains, thy praise fhall grateful fing. Banks of the Tweed. Original Poetry, by Capt. Morris, and Mr. Capel Loft. hour, Here little Robin was his gueft and friend. Perch'd on his book, and perking in his face, The guileless Redbreaft feem'd to watch his thought: Alas! he knew not man's perfidious race, By whofe allurement fimple birds are caught. E'en man to man but rarely is fincere; The love profefs'd is interested art: Tho' heav'n's bright image on his brow appear, Yet honeft Robin boats a purer heart. Defpair not, Robin, tho' I take my flight; The gen'rous hoft, who oft hath feafted me, Shall, for my fake, thy amity requite, And, when he treats his friends, remember thee. Written on Seeing Mrs. SIDDONS, as Mrs. HALLER, in THE STRANGER, Friday, 25th of May; and as ISABELLA, in THE FATAL MARRIAGE, Monday, 28th, 1798. By CAPEL LOFFT, Esq. No; we may speak of others:-but for thee; 1 'Tis not in poetry or mortal voice, Thefe may defcribe: the elevated mien; whole To virtue, dignity, celeftial grace! defpair. The poet's eye, in a bleft frenzy rolling, But never form like thine, or look, or mien, 443 O never, glowing with the tints of heav'n, Each moment new, and vivid beyond thought. Wonders to call her own, and lift'ning feems ear, Nor fupplicate the bending of that neck, ferv'd. O Haller; Ifabella!..... to these names, Living in thy action, by thy voice fuftain'd, Fill'd with the high affections of thy foul, Weak are all words, and pow'rlefs ev'ry praise. May 30, 1798. LINES On Valentine's Day. AGAIN revolving time unfolds the day, When each plum'd choritter, with heart elate, Salutes, O Nature! thy refiftless sway, Or fly for fhelter from the froft-wind bleak. What pleafing rapture each fond breast infpires! Each trives with each, as emulous to prove, That wintry blafts ne'er chill'd their warm defires, Or cool'd the embers of their former love. Sweet birds! gay Spring will foon with foliage deck The laughing groves, to you a fafe retreat; There build, nor fear your much lov'd neftlings wreck, By plund'rers wand'ring with intrufive feet. Perhaps fome youthful heart now fondly throbs, And feelings new it's little breast invade, "Tis |