guage. In which opinion I am confirmed by the authority of the great Sir William Temple, a person of unquestioned taste and judgment, who in his Effay on Poetry written about a century after the Arcadia, fpeaks thus: The ⚫ true spirit and vein of ancient poetry in this kind seems to fhine moft in Sir Philip Sidney, whom I esteem both the greatest poet and the nobleft genius of any that have left writings in our own or any other modern language; a perfon born capable not only of forming the greateft ideas, but of leaving the nobleft examples, if the length of his life had been equal to the excellence of his wit and ⚫his virtues. With him I leave the difcourfe of ancient poetry.' After fuch an elogium, I could not help being furprized at the different character to be read in the Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors. Mr. W. pronounces the Arcadia a tedious lamentable pedantic paftoral romance.' But the paftoral is the most inconfiderable part of the Romance,

*However, Johnfon in his Preface to Shakespeare, pronounces the following cenfure on his confufion of the customs of different ages and nations: "Shakespeare," fays he "was not the only vio"lator of chronology, for in the same age Sydney, who wanted not "the advantages of learning, has in his Arcadia, confounded the "paftoral with the feudal times, the days of innocence, quiet, and "fecurity, with thofe of turbulence, violence, and adventure." Johnson's and Steevens's Shakespeare, 1778, vol. I. Preface, p. 16.

which may be read without it, and is not necef fary to the main defign. If because it touches the tender paffions with a mafterly hand, it muft be allowed. As to its being a Romance, the Romance is only the vehicle of fine fentiments and judicious reflections, in morals, government, policy, war, &c. and perhaps as animated descriptions as are any where to be met with, in which the idea is not barely raised in the mind, but the object itself rifes to the eye. Tedious indeed it may be in fome parts, and fo tedious that the patience of a young virgin in love cannot now (as Mr. W. complains) wade through it; which may be owing to the different taste and cuftoms of the different ages. The age in which Sir Philip wrote was very different from the prefent. Tilts and tournaments; jufts and running at the ring; and the furniture, caparisons, armour, and devices of the knights and their horfes in those martial exercises, were as much the entertainment and attention of Ladies then, as the never-ending variety of fashions now. All this to a young virgin in love muft now have loft its attraction. And indeed what are fine fentiments or judicious reflections in war or government, or policy, or any descriptions foreign to the point, to a young virgin, or (I may add) young gentleman, in love, reading what is confidered

only

only as a love-ftory, the patience, every step, haftening to the end? It must be acknowledged we fometimes meet with extravagances and odd quaintneffes in the expreffions; in which there feems no other view (at firft fight) but to play. upon words. But even in these no expreffion is barren, every word has its idea. And this was in a great measure the humour of the times. Mr. Walpole has obferved of Henry the VIIIth, that he was fond of fplendor and feats of arms; and had given a romantic turn to compofition; which might be the reason of Sir Philip's choofing that fort of writing for the vehicle of his fentiments; and that great part of the work is upon the plan of the Romances then in vogue. The way is now, by length of time, grown in fome places a little. rugged and uneven; and we may be obliged now and then (as Mr. W. fpeaks) to wade a little. But the profpects that frequently prefent themselves, might perhaps make the paffenger amends, if the ways were deeper; and if the beauties he may take notice of in his firft paffage fhould difpofe him to attempt a fecond, he may difcover many things worthy that escaped him in the firft. The great variety and diftinction of characters, preferved throughout with most remarkable exactness, deserve particular attention, as well as the me

taphors

taphors and allufions, adapted to the quality and condition of the feveral fpeakers; to the flock, when the fhepherd fpeaks; to the war, when the hero."*

But candor mult confefs that in Sir Philip's profeffed poetry the fire of genius feldom overcomes the quaint and tinfel conceits of the age -and that he is far inferior in this department to his neighbourt Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, who though many years older, and though he discovered his poetical talents at an equally early period of his life, yet from a less, brilliant affemblage of fpendid qualities, or a more quiet temper, never attained the fame celebrity, notwithstanding he poffeffed rank, riches, the favour of his Queen, and uniform prosperity in honourable employments through a long life.

*Gent Mag. 1767, ut fupra. This defence appeared to me so judicious as to apologize for fo long a tranfcript.

See Lord Buckhurst's character, p. 65, 66.

Many paffages in the Sydney Papers feem to discover a jealousy between the Sackville and Sydney families-which for the greater part of the two fucceeding centuries took the lead in Kent, and were often alternate Lord Lieutenants, &c.

SIR

SIR EDWARD DYER.

"Sir Edward Dier, a perfon of good acσε count in Queen Elizabeth's reign, poetically addicted, feveral of whose pastoral "Odes and Madrigals are extant, in a printed "Collection of certain choice pieces of fome "of the most eminent poets of that time.”

Again in the Supplement, Phillips adds, "Edward Dier a poetical writer, who seems formerly to have been in good esteem, being "rankt with fome of the most noted Poets of "Qu. Elizabeth's time; and a contributer "with the chief of them, out of his writ

ings to the abovementioned Collection and "with him we may perhaps not unfitly rank,

John Markham, Henry Conftable, Thomas "Achelly, John Weever, George Turberville, " befides Lodge, Green, Gascoign, and others, "that have been already mentioned."

SIR EDWARD was of the fame family with thofe of his name in Somerfetfhire, and was educated at Oxford, where he discovered a propensity to poetry, and polite literature, but

left