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ERRATA.

Page 14, line 3, for "Rapsodie," read" Rapsody." 2, for "his Cælia, read his "Cælia. 2, between for and this, dele comma. 5, for Her, read Here.

80,

99,

112,

156,

5, for Christ, read Christi.

214, 16, for greater, ed. 1630 reads graver, which

229, Ibid.

943,

seems preferable.

6, for 1629, read 1624.

for seven, read about three.

6 from the bottom, for 28, read 32.

SPECIMENS, &c.

James I.

VOL. III.

B

SPECIMENS, &c.

JAMES I.

Ir has been remarked by bishop Percy, that almost all the poetry which was composed during the early part of the preceding reign was remarkable for the facility and musical flow of its versification; whereas the compositions of Donne, Jonson, and many of their contemporaries are, in general, unusually harsh and discordant.

Indeed, our literature could not fail of reflecting, in some degree, the manners of the court. Our maiden queen, unable to submit without some degree of peevishness and regret to the ravages made in her charms by the attacks of age and infirmity, spread uneasiness and constraint all around her and the playful gallantry inseparable from a

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female court was gradually succeeded by a more cold and gloomy system of manners. Poetry, which had long been busied with the loves and graces, was now only occupied with the abstruse researches of science; and fancy seemed to be crushed and over-laid by the weight of learning.

The accession of James I. who brought to the throne the accomplishments and dispositions of a pedagogue, contributed to the growth of pedantry and affectation; and at the same time the sullen spirit of puritanism, which began to be widely diffused, concurred in vitiating the national taste. The theatres alone seem to have been the refuge of genius; nor has any æra of our history produced so many models of dramatic excellence : but the wretched spirit of criticism which prevailed in the closet is evinced by the multiplied editions of Donne, Herbert, and similar versifiers; by the general preference of Jonson to Shakspeare; and by the numberless volumes of patchwork and shreds of quotation which form the prose compositions of this age.

It is remarkable, that the series of Scotish poets terminates abruptly in this reign; and that no name of eminence occurs between those of Drummond and Thomson. Indeed it is not extraordinary that the period which intervened between

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