New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-10-31

ocs,ive Of each other. Sir Roger DEstrange wh'
| was four years in prison, wrote the foiIo"ins
| auofed from his poem of the " Liberty Oh Tue LII
| prisOned Royalist":
| That which the world miscalls gaoi,
| private closet - 20 me, o.,
| whilst good conscience IL my Dall,
| And innocence my liberty. ,4
| Locks bars walls, banners, though together iie'
Make me no prisoner, but an anchored
| Sir Richard Lovclace's verses addressed ITO"
| prison ITO Althoa ere better known; one verse
| that is very like the one just quoted runs;
Stone walls do not prison make,
Nor IRON bars u cage;
Minds, innocent and quiet take
hat for an hermitage;
If have freedom in my love,
And IN my soul AN free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.
Among the many glorious sOnncts OF Shakespeare
there is one describing bright morning that Is
overshadowed and finally destroyed by the dark
heavy clouds of the later day. in presenting the same
ldea Richard Crashaw'3 language Is remarkabiy
like nat Of Shakespeare and both are so beautlIui
rs to be well worth reading and COMPARING Cra-
shaw was . religious poet of genus. HIS lines are
these
l'vo seen the mornings lovely ray
Hover der the newborn day,
with rosy wings 30 richly brl2ht
As if he scorncd to thin Of night,
"
Made IIcayen'5 radiant f1ce look foul
Called Tor on untimriy night
10 Blot tie uew,y-biossOmed light.
II is difficult TO decide which worthy Of greater
admiraion. the foregoing or tac beautiful sonnet OF
Shakespeare. OF whicn the following constitutes the
iir.t eight lines:
Tr!i many q glorious morning have seen
IialeT die mount8iu-top5 Win sovereign eye
Kissing with golden lfcc Ic ri"sagW' green
@ id:ng pale streams WITH ,-GcHiy achyny
Anon permit the baocsi ciovds'O ride
With uly rack ou HIS eel asiial face,
And irun rhc i0rtoru word his yi'aHe hde,
Stealing unseen % rest with tins disgrace.
The idea that music or melody IS suggested DIV
ooE.ngupol the loyciiaes OF a. adored object IS a
thought which three cr four poets have daintly
touched upon; Byron SAID in describing one Of lis
beautiful! herouei:
The mad, tie music .rcathing from her face.
Loycl.cc also:
O. could you view the melody
q. every grace,
End u.u.lc # her face
You'd drop tear.
Shakespeare calls the beloved one music itself,
when b. y,:
Wen tLon. my Music, muslc playcst.
Who could pay the lady Of his love a swec,cr com
pllmcnt thau lo say OF her, As did Burns:
My luye's like a melody
That ,wcctly played in unc.
less there j, more resemblance tLan can be sup
posed 10 have happened by chance. Ihu3, II does
not seem unnatural that Mrs Brownjug's d" Lament
Tor Adorisp should open 5ljh the words:
Imoulu for Adouis-AGonis is dead
while Shelly, in his Ionody on the Death of
Keats has begun his lameutat.on with the similar
line:
Iwcep for Adori3-he is dead.
Since it is natural to suppose that the same
.houObts occur % persons in like circumstances il
is not remarkably strange that two poets. seeking
to describe The color and motion of certain dfapcry
stirred by the Jre D., should choose the words
purple" ard uuccraIn"; the sameness OF these
words and the like measure Of the lines IN which
they occur make tn" similarity most striking be-
tween Mr.. Browuiug'7 line:
With a rushing str uncertain, in the air, the
purple curtain,
and Edgar \. Pos
And tie skrn, sad, uncertain rustllng Of each
purple curtain.
Byron sad that it would not BE- strange if CO.
incdences were marked, rs existing between what
he claimed "a his own labor and the work of those
authors he read most frequently; and WhlIo no one
can dispute the originality Of the English poet,
many such rcscmblances do certainly exist passages
bearing evident marks Of their authors acquant-
anccs with Shakespeare, Coleridgc Beckford. Gray
and Lovelace are to be found in Byron. 1t has been
said that the theme of Manfred" was taken from
Gorthe's Faust" and NJ. de Chateaubriand said
that Childc Harold" was stolen from bis own
Rene"
If one collected in book form all the things which
have been said more than once, a large library
would be the result. compiler of such books
would have greater occupation than the learned
Frenchman who said he Intended issuing treatise
concerning things that have been SAID but once"
which things" certainly can be contained IN
small pamphlet MILTON FIsKE.
,Jamfsforn ~ y Oct Is. 1880.