into them by the heads and shoulders." There is a fine religious poem by Audeddine Alnasaphi*, figurative enough without much extravagance. But if an admired poem of their blind poet, Abu'lola, the most celebrated of all the Arabian poets, be taken as a fair specimen of the rest, Huet's representation is not wide from the truth†. Mr. Carlisle remarks of the Arabians, that they have not among them the epic and drama ‡. This perhaps may be occasioned by their extravagant fondness for the Romance, of which they of all the orientals are proclaimed the inventors. This passion, when suffered to run wild, is a fever in the soul, which renders salutary food nauseous, and hurries away from sober restraint and the discipline of well-regulating laws.

The great father of Asiatic literature, as he has been called, Sir William Jones,-has with great pains, perhaps too much, given us various specimens of the Arabian and Persian poets; for he acknowledges the part which he performed was rather that of a critic than philologist; of a poet of than interpreter. His admired Greek and Latin poets are his exemplars; and accordingly he gives, by his own testimony, Asiatic poets in

* Verba Doctoris Audeddini Alnasaphi de Religionis Principiis, numero vincta. Edidit et Latinè reddidit I. Uri. There is one strange figure in this poem, He (God) built as an architect the heaven from smoke, his work.

+ Sikla zzendi, elapsam excussamve igniarii scintillam.

Sub finem Erpenii Grammat. Arab. † In the strict sense of the moderns. See Carlisle's Specimens. § Poes. Asiat. Comment. Proæmium, pag. 9.

the neat flow of a Grecian dress. The most elegant of the Persian poets is Hafez, possessed, too, of much fire and sublimity: he has been called the Anacreon, or rather the Horace, of the Persians. But his poetry is greatly disjointed and unconnected, rows of pearls loosely strung together, rather than bracelets of gold in well-connected links: and whoever peruses the classical poetical versions of Sir William Jones, and the literal prose translations of Mr. Scot Waring, will perceive the difference*.

Sir William Jones has stated at large the opinion of those who maintain that mystic or arcane sense †, which the Asiatics, and particularly the Persians, according to them, include in their most gay poems. It is difficult to conceive that Hafez's drinking songs and amatory poems are all of this character; and if they be, they are among double entendres, some, at least, of the most lengthened, and grossest descriptiotu. As to some of his amatory allusions, they are such, as, for the introduction of them into poetry, all the lasciviousness of Asiatic manners should not be admitted as an apology; and accordingly the Jewish Legislator, as much an Asiatic as any of them, stigmatized such propensities with his marked, severest reprehensions.

The most surprising poem of the Persians is the Shah Namu of Ferdusee: it relates to the exploits of the kings of Persia; it comprehends a period of 3700 years, and

* See Mr. Waring's account of Hafez's poetry, in his Journey

* "a series of apie poems," wist. of Puvian Language, p.424.

50

FEW EXCELLENT POETS.

*

consists of 60,000 couplets. Sir William Jones entertained a hope of being able to present the whole of this prodi. gious poem to the public, but did not realize his intentions. He gave, however, an ample specimen of the work; and Mr. Scot Waring has presented us with a more critical account of its poetical character and interior texture. Sir William Jones calls this a most noble and truly epic poem, approximating to the dignity and celestial ardour of Homer. Yet Mr. Waring, though unwilling to differ from so great an authority, cannot allow it to be an epic poem, but an immense mass of historical poems, luminous in parts, yet involved, as a whole, in innumerable perplexities; amid much to be admired, irreconcileable to method, and intermixed throughout with fables and legends, without any moral end in view.

There will be frequent occasion of recurring to Sir William Jones's Commentaries hereafter. I shall therefore just notice what is said by the present learned President of the Asiatic Society, relative to that range of poetry which did not fall particularly under the notice of Sir William Jones, and which is of the highest account among the Indians; I mean, the Pracrit and Sanscrit *. These, as described by Mr. Colebrooke, are understood to be richer in their prosody than the poetry of any known language; yet he adds elsewhere, " The six excellent compositions, written by their six principal poets, abound with the most licentious descriptions ;" licentious, he means, not with respect to any wantonness

* Essay on the Pracrit and Sanscrit Poetry, in the Asiatic Researches, vol, x.

in their principles, but to the tinsel and false lustre of their composition.

The sacred poetry of the Hebrews is, by Jewish and Christian writers, allowed to be of all the poetical productions of the East the most excellent; that of Isaiah is greatly sublime. But as the superior excellence of the Hebrew poets is referred to a supernatural cause, they do not properly fall under critical observation; being raised to an eminence which places it beyond the ordinary rules of human censure.

Leaving, therefore, the Hebrew poets in full possession of all their advantages, and allowing the other oriental poets to have those peculiar excellencies challenged for them by their respective admirers, still we must admit in this question the testimony of one of their warmest admirers, and one of the most competent judges: even he will not allow them to possess the merit peculiar to each of his favourite Greek poets; the majesty of Homer, (I shall borrow his words,) the sweetness of Theocritus, the magnificence of Pindar, the elegance of Apollonius, the force of Sophocles, the ease of Euripides, the bold figures of Æschylus, the hilarity of Anacreon, the ardor of Ibycus, the gravity of Stesichorus, the softness of Alcman, or the elegance of Bacchylides *.

To come, then, to that people, the most improved, and allowedly the most polished of all: the Grecians were

* Asiat. Poes. Comment. part. i. cap. i. But surely this writer too hastily limits nature, when he adds, " Neminem unquam scribendo consequi posse censendum est," in reference to the Grecian poets.

that people. Greece is still the great luminary to which we look back, though, as it were, at an unapproachable distance; and from which, while we contemplate it with admiration, we are proud to catch something of ardour to animate us in our literary course. Here the more elegant arts, no less than the profoundest sciences, flourished in a most glowing, a most increasing vigour. Here (for in this respect Cicero * classes Rome and Greece together) was a variety of great generals, statesmen, philosophers, mathematicians; here, too, an abundance of such as were eminent in the liberal arts. And in a soil so favourable to genius, there must have been an ample stock, and a regular, quick succession of poets. But we now perceive only here and there one, like a rose or tulip adorning a bed of ordinary flowers. It does not fall in the course of my arguinent to increase the list just produced, but rather to hint what has been observed by some moderns, that, of those already mentioned, some have been overrated,

Rome was for a long period devoted rather to the arts of war than of peace: and when, at length, she cultivated the latter, still how rare a production was excellent poetry! It is unnecessary to push the matter further than Cicero himself, who, though he may not be allowed to have been an excellent poet, will be allowed to have been a good judge of what was excellent, as having been well acquainted with what was the best in this way before his time, and as having been in his youth a great