The Sun.
London, England, 1828-07-30 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH POETRY, FROM
CHAUCER TO THE PRESENT DAY.-:—LoN-
DON, 828.

To those who -desire to have a pleasant su,
perficial acquaintance with English poetry, from
the very earliest.
we recombehd the present 'little corpulent duo-
decimo. . Though fat it is intelligent.

" The fellow knows well what his wits are about,

Albeit he is wondrously stunted and stout."
The specimens given of our elder Bards evince
in particular much critical sagacity, combined
with research and diligence ; ,we think, however,
that the Editor in his selections from Pope and
Dryden, should have indulged us with the Theo-
dore and Honoria, or the Absalom and Achito-
phel of the one, and the conclusion to the Dun-.
ciad of.the other ; the last especially is one of
the sublimest and most comprehensive passages
in all Pope, and as a piece of music fitted to
flow arandly and sonorously from the lips of a
good°declaimer; is inimitable. AmOng the
minor poets cotemporary with Shakspeare, we
have the following cursory sketch of Dr. Cor-
bet, Bishop of Norwich, accompanied with the
same extract which Percy has given in his fasci-
nating and instructive " Relics.' A versifying
Bishop is a curious phcenomenon in humanity,
and must sadly Perplex a naturalist ; with the
single exception of 1)r. Heber's, we never yet
heard of any episcopal poetry worth mentioning;
Porteus to be sure wrote a blank-verse Homily
upon Death, but, like its subject, it has long
since gone the way of all flesh ; Percy, too,
edited and contributed to the " Relics of An-
cient English Poetry," but when some time
afterwards he became a Bishop, he thought fit
to apologize indirectly for the romance of his
unbeneficed youth. -How absurd ! the Editor
of the " Relics" yet lives ; the Bishop of Dro-
more is forgotten. But to our extract :

RICHARD CORERT.-.--11ORN 1582-DIED 1635.

This jovial and facetious prelate, wko might have sat for
the yortrait of the Clerk of Copmanhurst, was a native of
Ewell, in Surrey. his talents were of the kind which,
in certain circumstances, promote a man's interest inde-
pendently of principles, or the strict decencies of the sacred
office. Fro-in being made one of the chaplains of James I.
he was successively promoted to the desitery of Christ
Church and the bishoprics of Oxford and Norwich. His
poems strongly indicate great constitutional gaiety, and a
flow of high animal spirits not devoid of a certain warmth
and heartiness, which almost resembles the careless ebul-
lition of genius. Whatever were the failings of this con-
vivial prelate, he was no hypocrite. After he %was in
orders, and indeed doctor of divinity, it is related, that a
ballad-singer, at Abingdon, came into the house where he
was, complaining that nobody would buy his wares. Cot,
bet stripped off his gown, assumed the ballad-singer's
leathern jacket, went into the street, and soon drew around
him a circle of liberal admirers. When he wished "to make
a night of it," he used to shut himself up in his well-filled
cellars with his jolly chaplain, first throw off his gown, ex-
claiming, " There goes the doctor !" and next his episco-
pal hood, " and there the bishop !" It is not to be ex-
pected that the Bishop of Norwich was very eminent as a
divine.

Why not ? A Divine's addiction to " well-filled
cellars" is surely no impeachment of his ortho-
doxy. It rather improves it, we conceive. Dr.
Warton, of Oxonian notoriety, was a first-rate
polemic, yet he was also a devout tippler, and, to
use the language of Farquhar's Boniface, " dined
On his ale, supped on his ale, and slept on his ale."
Walter de Mapes too, as good a churchman
as ever existed, acknowledged an amiable weak-
ness in favour of a social glass. Hear the fine
old gentleman on the subject :

est propositurn in tahernit wori ;
Vin►un sit appositum morientis ori,
Ut dicant, cum venerint, angelorum ehori ;
Dens sit propitius huic potatori.
I devise to end my days all in a tavern drinking ;
'lay some good Christian hold for me the glass when

am shrinking,
That the Seraphim may cry when they see me sinking,
Cod be merciful to a soul of this gentleman's way of
thinking ; _

It is recorded of Blackstone, that when he
' wrote his " Commentaries," in order to improve
their quality, he indulged from time to time
during composition, in copious potations of port
wine. Were our modern churchmen to do the
same, they would, we think, be the gainers.
The great Dr. PhiUpotts, above all, should
never sit down to abuse the Catholic religion
without at least refreshing and dulcifying his in-
tellect with a proportionate modicum of wine. At
present he is remarkably abstemious that way,
which may be one reason why his works are
so dry.
With the exception of this curious sketch of
Bislov Corbet, who looks singularly out of
place in the present volume—thrust in with
truly comic effect between Ben Johnson's
" Masque of Beauty" on one side, and Shak-
spore s voluptuous " Lucretia" on the other—
there is little or nothing worthy of further notice
in these " Specimens." They are, as we said
before, intelligent ; and what is better still, give
a very fair characteristic idea of the writers '
whose choice morceaus they extract. The " Ad,
dress to a Wild Deer," more especially, is the best
possible sample of Professor Wilson's genius :
it is rich, careless, flowing : full of strong mus-
pular lies, projipg fancy, and varied versi-
fication.

CfftEAT FLooD At CHESTER.—IIi this city,
yesterday (Monday) the people were obliged to take shelter
in the rows (a species of piazza peculiar to Chester): aptl
some ids of the violence of the rain and hail may be
formed from the fact that an impetuous torrent of water,
almost sufficient to float a boat; cowed from the High
Cross through the East-gate. The river rose to an gnu.
spat height, and two of the boats of the Chester Yacht
Club broke from their moorings above the bridge, and
sustained considerable da!pap. Even our ancient ramparts
themselves, that resisted the repeated assaults of the
ritans, have been forced to yield to ‘c the pelting of the
pitiltv storm." About 15 or 16 yards of that part near
the Pbomix Tower (fFsm the summit of which King
CHARTS* witnessed the defeat qf his irmy on pc)wton-,
;nom) gave way with a ttemendons crash yesterday after-
noon, the Pinylation being quite undermined by the effects
of the heavy rains. 41 Sealand, lower down the river,
wlwre Wrpsa, the fAimpany's mint, resides, the
water has ',Lien 0 a considerable height in 134 hoose,se..
veral inches higher than the great good in 1794, the
greatest in the memory of man in this part of the king-
dom. The accounts of the crops from all parts of the
Pountry are most distressing ; and if the wet weather con-
t.9c4 trek or 10 days longer, the wheat will be irreco-
verably
.gone. A'iyo large FOrE9;Speame up this day as far as
bridge. They were chhsed by a iniqti,l44o of !mats
a..ai men, armed with various missiles, but without
; they made good their retreat again at the
tt 4 our 3
retlux or the tide.- The accounts from Wrexham and the
neighbouring Fgt.,
fif the principalitymast
til'ifrou Walesgh t
that
te
town,
disastrous. A little brook
h
and thins into the Dee, suddenly rose to a height unpreee:
dented in the Wolory of the oldest inhabitant, and washed
down several honey, and completely inundated tee low
parts of the town. In some instance's breaches were made
in the roots of the houses to rescue the inmates from perish-
in. A great portion of rciob's Mills, on the same stream,
was washed away, and the bridge !qui two neighbouring
cottages were totally destroyed. One of the Q'westry
coaches had but just arced over the bridge :and another
p
was within twenty yards of •it, both heavily laden, when it
gave way, Several other bridges were also parried away
and among the rest Leeswood-bridge, in Flintshire, over
which the }ley. Mr. Cr.oucir of Mold, and his lady, passed
scarcely five iniauteS before in their carriage. A clock, a
bed, and Qtiwr articles of household furniture, were seen
yesterday floating down the Alwyn, an inconsiderable
stream that flows through part of Fliptsliire and Donbigh-
shire, and also the dead body of a man,. who proves Co be
poor collier, who lost his life in endeavouring to save some
Of his little effects. The details Of the dauine done here
would till a whole newspaper.