The Express.
London, England, 1846-09-09 00:00:00

food or inability to work. Mr. Turner and the Rev. Mr.
Burnet (the suegeon and chaplain of the Rouse of Corree-
Mem), gave similar testimony. The jury returned a verdict,
"Thu the riper of the *entente being fully carried into
ellbett and the insufficiency of the food, destroyed the con-
stitution of the deceased, in consequence of which he died."

-- - -
Lives
.of the English Poets, front Johnson to Kirke White,
dmacitad as a omansaustios of Johnson's Lives. By the
hste RCS. HENRY FRANCIS CART, MA., Translator of
" Dante." 12mo. Bohn.
The Early French Poets; a series of Notice, and Trans-
lations, by the Late Rev. HENRY FRANCIS CARL, M.
Translator of" Dante." With au Introductory &tete/sof
the History of French Poetry, by his son, the Rev.
HERRN CARY, M.A., Worcester College, Oxford. 12mo.
Bohn.
The lives in the first of these two volumes are

those Of Johnson, Armstron g, Jago, Cambridge,
Smollett, the Wartons, Anstey, Mason, Goldsmith,
Darwin, Mickle, Beattie, Bayley, Jones, Chatterton,
and Kirko White :—the French Poets noticed in the
second are, Marot, Thibaut (King of Navarre), licroet,
Saint Gelais, Salel, De Magny, Du Bellay, Belleau,
Bair, La Peruse, Ronsard, Jodelle, Desportes, Bertaut,
Same, Autels, Garnier, Chartier, Charles of Orleans,
Villon, Vauquelin, Jamyn, and Gringoire.
They are not unwelcome books to such readers as
are willing to hear anything, new or old, of writers
well known or obscure. The first indeed, with the
exception of compressed biographies of Beattie, Bay-
ley, and Kirke White, scarcely presents any novelty,
and can only be said to be written with more
taste than the lives which were written by Chal-
mers ; and the notices and translated passages of
the French Poets, though for the most part new to
English readers, and not wanting in elegance, are defi-
cient in impulse and vivacity. Mr. Cary was a man
of taste and reading; a good scholar; and his
translation of Dante, though executed on mis-
taken principles, will always be esteemed for its care-
fulness and general correctness. But he wanted pas-
Sinn in his greater versions, and animal spirits in his
smaller ; and both of the works before us are cha-
racterised rather by a placid than a powerful taste.
We extract from both the most interesting of the
3:
ha that have struck us. The first is perhaps
TS
y'one in the" Lives of the English Poets" (most
of whom, by the way, are no poets at all) which
contains any new information:
" I have heard it observed by a lady," says Mr. Cary,
"that Johnson, in his ' Life of Milton,' is like a dog in-
censed and terrified at the presence of some superior creature,
at whom he snarls, then runs away, and then returns to
snarl again. If the comparison be a just one, it may be
added, in extenuation of Johnson's malignity, that he is
at least a dog who thinks himself to be attacking the
inveterate foe of his master, for Milton's hostility to a kingly
geneernment was the crime which he could not forgive.
The mention of Milton, and of his politics, brings to my
mind two sayings of Johnson's that were related to me by
Mr. Price, of Lichfield. After passing an evening together
at Mr. Seward's, the father of the poetress, where,
in the course of conversation, the words' Me miserable !' in
Paradise Lost had been commended as highly pathetic,
the 7 had walked some way along the Street in silence,
which the good man was not likely first to break, when
Johnson suddenly stopped, and, turning round to him,
exclaimed, ' Sir; don't you think that " Me Miserable" is
miserable stuff?' On another occasion he thus whimsically
described the different manner in which he felt himself die
posed towards a Whig and a Tory. ' If,' said he, ' I saw a
Whig and a Tory drowning, I would first save the Tory ;
and, when I saw that he wad safe—not till then—l would
go and help the Whig; but the dog should duck first—the
dog should duck!'—laughing with pleasure at the thought
of the Whig's ducking."
Our other passage from the Lires relates to
" gentle Mr. Bayley," who surprises us by turning
out to have been a stalwart personage, " remarkably
ate -built, " and addicted to perilous horsemanship
7io the best of his recollection the Editor (of his
memoirs—the Rev. Dr. Johnson) never saw him abroad
without an umbrella, which, in no weather he used as a
parasol to preserve his eyes."
This looks gentle enough—quite like a milksop, or
" timid gentleman," or modern Roman soldier, who
mounts guard with the like defence against the sun.
But mark what follows, and learn to distrust appear-
ances:

"He even rode with it (the parasol) on horseback, a very
awkward operation, considering the high-spirited animals
that composed his stud, and the constitutional malady in his
hip-joint, which, in addition to his weight (for be was a
remarkably strong-built man), and his never riding without
military spurs, reduced the danger of falling almost to a cer-
tainty, when he opened his umbrella without due precaution.
But he was a stranger to fear in equestrian matters, and
always mounted his horse again as soon as it could be caught.
The editor was once riding gently by his side, on the stony
beach of Bognor, when the wind suddenly reversing his
umbrella as he unfolded it, his horse, with a sudden but
desperate plunge, pitched him on his head in an instant.
Providentially he received no hurt, and some fishermen
being at hand, the plunging steed was stopped at a gate, and
being once more subjected to his rider, took him home in
safety. On another occasion, in the same visit of the editor,
be was tossed into the air on the downs, at the precise
moment when an interesting friend whom they had just left,
being apprehensive of what would happen, was anxiously
viewing him from her window through a telescope."
Our extract from the " Early French Poets" con-
tains an account of a charming passage in Niarot's
" Temple of Cupid," from which one might imagine
that Rabelais had caught the idea of his Abbey of the
Thelemites, in which the monks and nuns are bound
on oath to do what they please, wear costly dresses,
walk by river-sides making love, 8.7 c.
" In secret tabernacles and little shrines are deposited
necklaces, rings, crowns (coins), ducats, and chains of gold;
by which greater miracles are wrought in love than even by
the mighty Beau-parler (fine-talk) himself.
" The vaults and arches arc marvellously interlaced with
trellis-work of vines, from which the young buds and grapes
are seen depending.
" The bells are tabors, dulcimers, harps, lutes, oboes,
flageolets, trumpets, and clarions ; from which, whensoever
they are sounded, there issue, a chime so melodious, that
there is no soldier, how ever fond of war, who would not quit
lance and sabre to become a monk in this temple.
" On the sick and infirm, who are recommended for charity,
the ladies bestow smiles, and kind looks, and kisses, for alms.
The preachers are elderly matrons, who exhort their young
sisters not to lose the flower of their age ; and many are the con-
verts that are won over by th is doctrine. The cemetery is a green
wood ; the walls, hedges and brakes; the crosses are fruit
trees; and the Dr Profundia, merry songs. Ovid, Master
Alain Chartier, Petrarch, and the Romant of the Rose, serve
for mass-books, breviary, and psalter • and the lessons
ebaunted are rondeaux, ballads, and virelays. Other man-
ner of (haunts there are, that consist only of cries, wailings,
and complaints. The little chapels, or oratories, are leafy
chambers and branching cabinets; labyrinths in woods and
gardens, where one loses one's-self while the green lasts ; the
wickets are low bush( s, and the pavement all of greensward.'
• • • • • • •
" Genius' the arch-priest, atands ready to administer the
vows to all who are desirous of professing. • • • The
terms of their profession are so clear, that novices know more
than the most learned clerks. • • • The masses for
requiem are serenading.; and the solemn words repeated for
the deceased, as paternosters'and avemaryes, are the gossiping
and prattle of women. The sacred processions are the morns
dancing, and mumming, and antic feats of amorous cham-
pions : their consolings are to talk pair by pair, or to read
the Art of Love for gospels ; and their holy relies are the
lips of their ladies."
Marot was the most original poetic genius that
France ever produced ; and his countrymen will
never see their way clearly out of French nature into
universal, till they become aware of this fact. He
had a true, impulsive, unaffected, inspired vein, un-
borrowed either from "classicist" or " romaneist."
He was the prototype of La Fontaine, and had more
tenderness. Mr. Cary observes in him a strong
resemblance to Chaucer. He says he has "the same
liveliness of fancy ; the same rapidity and distinct-
ness of pencil; the same archness; the same disposi-
tion to satire; but he has all these generally in a less
degree." This would be true, if applied to the
serious portions of Marot; but his archness, if not
exactly of the same kind, is quite as good as Chaucer's,
and far more abundant. He is superior to him also in
fancy; a_property for which the great English poet
is generally indebted to Marot's native predecessors;
and his off-hand mode of speaking is quite his own.

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