and Lernyng that I may verily know he dothe his dever I wyll geve hym x m'rs for hys labor.' A catalogue of Clement's wardrobe occurs in this letter, one item of which is afyde Ruffet Gowne furryd wt bevyr was mad this tyme ij yer.' On the word afyde we have the following note: A fide gown may mean a long one; for in Laneham's account of Queen Elizabeth's entertainment at Kennelworth Caftle, 1575, the minftrel's "gown had fide [i. e. long] fleeves down to the mid leg. The gown, however, defcribed by Mrs. Pafton, appears rather to have been the Sid-neap. Lateralis veftis, fc. ad latera tegenda. Lumbaris toga. See Reubenii Gloffarium 65, and Ælfr. Gloff. p. 68, 69. A gown to cover the fides or loins.' With deference to fuch learned authority, we think fyde fignifies long, ift, because it is now a provincial word in the northern counties, fignifying long and wide; 2d, becaufe Mrs. Pafton first enumerates all the fhort gowns, and after them all the fide gowns; and 3d, because one of the fhort gowns is faid to have been made of a fyde gown.

A very curious letter from Sir John Pafton defcribes the battle of Barnet, and relates many circumftances on which our general hiftories are filent.

To mention all the curiofities in this collection would require more room than we can well fpare: we shall, however, infert one more letter entire, as we think it remarkable.

'On to Jon Pafton in haft'.

Maftyr Pafton I pray yow yt it may plefe yow to leue † yowr logeyng for iij or for days tyll I may be porved of anodyr and I fchal do as mufche to yowr plefyr, for Godys fake fay me not nay and I pray yow rekomaund me to my lord Chambyrleyn.

Your frend Elizabeth."

This Elizabeth was third daughter of Richard Plantagenet, and Cecily, daughter of Ralph Neville, Earl of Weftmoreland. She was fifter to Edward IV. and Richard III. By the latter, her fon, John Earl of Lincoln, was (after the death of his own fon) declared heir to the crown. She married John Duke of Suffolk. Sir John Fenn is furely right in thinking this letter curious. It fhews, he fays, the fimplicity of the times, when a princefs of the blood royal, coming to London, unprovided with a lodging, petitions for the use of that of a friend for three

*The Editor interprets this word by endeavour. We think it more probable to fuppofe it means in this place duty, being a corruption of the French devoir: and thus he hath interpreted it in a fubfequent paffage of this fame letter.

+Leue, or lend ;-I believe (fays the Editor) it is leve; but it is fo written, that it is very difficult to determine.'

Purveyed, provided with.

ог

or four days in the moft humble terms, " for Godys fake fay me not nay." We think it is rather the mark of fome great diftrefs in which the might be involved; or it might be that the wished to be in London on fome private affairs, and have her journey concealed.

Let it not be imagined that we have in this fhort article mentioned every circumftance that may be deemed inftructive, entertaining, or curious, in this valuable collection. Readers of different denominations will be inftructed and entertained by it, according to their different taftes for hiftory, antiquities, lan guage, &c. And we doubt not that most of them will thank the laborious and learned editor for preferving these remains from the wide- wafting hand of Time.

*For the information of our Readers, we transcribe the following paragraph from the preface to the fecond edition of this work:

As this work has been fo very favourably received, the Editor is preparing for the prefs a further felection of letters and papers, written during the reigns of Henry VI. Edward IV. and Richard III. to which he intends adding fuch as are in his poffeflion, which were written in the reign of Henry VII. And as the fame care and attention will be employed in the continuation as have been already exerted in the prefent volume, he flatters himself that the expectations of the inquifitive fearcher into the ufages of former ages, will not be disappointed.'

ART. X. Poems and Tranflations. By the Rev. William Beloe. 8vo. 5s. Boards. Johnson. 1788.

HE principal poem in this collection is the Rape of Helen, from the Greek of Coluthus:' of which an account was

THE

given in our Review for May 1787, page 423.

The opening of this performance was originally thus:

Ye Trojan nymphs! the filver Xanthus' pride.'

We then objected to the epithet filver, as no way characteristic of the river in queftion,-the famed Scamander, or Xanthus ;and we now find it altered to beauteous: this is equally faulty, and wholly inexpreffive of its fabled colour, which was faid to be yellow, and which, no doubt, gave rife to the affertion of both Ariftotle and Elian, who obferve, that the fleeces of the fheep which drank of this water became tinged with that hue. This particular circumftance may be thus explained: In the mountains of the kingdom of Phrygia, and near to the fpot where the Xanthus took its rife, were many confiderable mines of gold. This gold, or gold-duft, washed by the torrents from those mountains, fettled in the beds of the adjacent rivers. It was the practice of the earlier ages to fink in fuch rivers a certain number of fleeces, by which means they collected this precious

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metal in confiderable quantities;-and hence, according to Strabo, the fable of the Golden Fleece. Now the river, which had at firft the name of Scamander, but which was afterward changed to that of Xanthus (i. e. the yellow river), received this latter appellation, as there is every reafon to fuppofe, from the abundance of gold it had been found to afford, and by way of diftinguishing it from the lefs valuable ftreams. In like manner, it may be obferved, that the Pa&olus, which is a little to the fouth of the Scamander, was termed Chryforrhoas (i. e. the golden river), and evidently on account of its riches *.

But to return to the poem. Though we are diffatisfied with the epithet beauteous, we have fcarcely any one to propose in its place. Golden or yellow, indeed, might be adopted, were it not that the colour of the river is expreffed in the very name of the river itself. We may, perhaps, be allowed to read the glittering Xanthus' pride' or the rich Scamander's pride.' The latter reading appears to be the beft.

But as an account of this tranflation is to be found in a former Review, we must defift from any farther examination of it. With respect to the other pieces, we have only to obferve, that though the writer does not foar on ftrong and powerful pinions; though he has not the bold and daring flight of the eagle; he is feldom content to fweep the ground with the fwallow, but generally tiles to a pitch which keeps him above the range of the critic's-arrow, and which exhibits him to confiderable advantage,

To fpeak without a figure, thefe poems are for the most part above mediocrity. Some particularly faulty and inelegant lines are, however, to be found in them. We will point out a few of the exceptionable paffages,-which appear to have arisen more from inattention than want of judgment,-that the Author, in any future publication, may be induced to revife his performances with a fuitable regard and care.

As this is the river in which, according to the fable, Midas, King of Phrygia, is faid to have bathed, in order to wash away the power which had been granted him of turning to gold every thing he touched,-we muft beg leave, in this place, as it ftrengthens our opinion with refpect to the reafon for changing the name of the Scamander, to interpret that fable in a manner fomewhat different from that in which it has been explained by Maximus Tyrius, and others, who understood it as alluding to the covetoufnefs of the King, whereas it is much more probable that it was intended to be expreffive of his country's wealth. Cicero and Valerius Maximus, it may be remembered, have reprefented Midas as one of the richest princes that had ever filled a throne. The mines of which we have already spoken were difcovered in his reign. It was therefore afferted, in the figurative expreffion of the ancients-of which mode of fpeaking, by the way, they were particularly fond-that whatever he touched he changed to gold. • They

6

They fay, but oh! how falfe the tale fhall prove,
That Hymen blights the fairest flowers of love;
That oft has his ftern influence deform'd,

What truth has nourish'd, and what friendship form'd.'

The conftruction is:-He (Hymen) has often by his ftern influence deformed what truth had nourished. The expreffion is not very happy. The third line is particularly reprehenfible, the words has his' making an ugly kind of cacophony: this might eafily have been avoided.

• Sweet comfort to my foul fhe brings,

And promifes the kindeft things.'

The inanity or no-thingness of the fecond line might serve as an example for Scriblerus himself. The appearance of an anticlimax fhould be carefully guarded againft by the poet who is ambitious of praise.

Yes, Delia, long as beats this trembling heart,

Thofe fcenes, thofe hours, fhall fweet remembrance bring,
In which as yet had cold regret no part,

But we were gay and cheerful as the spring.'

But, as a disjunctive, is in this place improper: for had been better, because it brings with it the neceffary confequence. The lines are feeble and profaic.

We have felected thefe few inftances from among fome others of a fimilar kind, not with any view of injuring Mr. Beloe as a writer, but entirely from the regard due to his general merit; and that cultivation to which his genius has an unquestionable claim.

ART. XI. Letters written in Holland, in the Months of September and October 1787. By Thomas Bowdler, Efq. 8vo. 5 s. Boards. Robfon. 1788.

TH

HESE Letters appear to have been haftily written, and without any great profpect of awakening attention. What (fays the Author) can you expect from me? A perfon unacquainted with tactics is to give an account of military operations; and one unconnected with statesmen is to write of political This being the cafe, I need not claim your indulgence with regard to the imperfections that you will find in my let

ters."

The fact is, they contain little more than a recapitulation of what the foreign gazettes have brought us acquainted with; namely, the operations (if operations they must be called) of the Prufian army against the States of Holland, in confequence of their refufal to give the fatisfaction demanded by Frederic William for the infult offered to his fifter by arrefting her on the road to the Hague. The Author's defcription of the conduct of the copofing

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oppofing Hollander on the arrival of the Prufian troops, will ferve as a specimen of his work:

I do not recollect to have ever heard a more remarkable inftance of general panic having feized a nation than that which now takes place in Holland. Niewport and Schonhoven, which from their fituation were capable of a long defence, were abandoned without firing a fhot; and the fame has been the cafe with other ftrong fortreffes. The rapid progress of the Duke's army has been well calculated to increase the terror of the patriots. You will readily conceive that the panic which has feized the patriots must have been very great, when I tell you, that although the Pruffians have taken near 400 pieces of cannon, and about 600 prifoners, they do not know of more than eight Dutchmen who have been killed. The truth is, they have every where fled or furrendered. I must however take notice of one circumftance, which has contributed in a great degree to the facility with which the Pruffian troops have advanced. I am told, that the friends of the Stadtholder are much more numerous than I imagined; and now, that they find they can be fupported, they have exerted themfelves in many places, and fhewn very plainly that nothing but fear had made them fubmit to their late govern

ors.'

The Reader of the foregoing extract will affuredly fmile when he is told, that the writer, in fpeaking, in another place, of the Duke of Brunfwic, talks of the glory he has acquired by the campaign,' of the conqueft of Holland,' &c. &c. A glory and a conqueft which we will venture to fay his Highness would never think of arrogating to himself, when oppofed to fuch holyday foldiers as thofe he met with among the patriots, and of which, indeed, their armies were entirely compofed *.

But though Mr. Bowdler remarks with too much gravity on the movements of the Duke of Brunswic in the little time that he was at the head of his army, and which Major Sturgeon, perhaps, would likewife have called a campaign: he is nevertheless a fenfible and intelligent man, as may be gathered from several obfervations in his book; and has, undoubtedly, the merit of having given us an authentic detail of facts, which may prove highly ufeful to the hiftorian who fhall hereafter chufe for his fubject, The Troubles in Hilland, A. D. 1788.

* It must be remembered, however, that a Dutchman will be valiant in an honeft caufc.

ART. XII. A. Jos. TESTA, Phil. & M. D. &c. De Vitalibus Pericdis Agregantium et Sanorum: Seu Elementa dynamicæ Aximalis, 810. 2 Vols. 10s. 6d. Boards, Johníon. 1787.

A

LTHOUGH the animal economy has ingroffed the attention of feveral able phyficians, few authors have treated the fubject in its utmost extent. Since the time of Dr. Ruffel, who chiefly confined his thoughts to glandular difcafes, we do

not