certained. The first edition was published in the year of his death, with an air of concealment, professing in the title-page to be printed at Antwerp. Of some of the pieces, however, there is no doubt. The imitation of Horace's satire, the verses to Lord Mulgrave, satire against Man, the verses upon "Nothing," and perhaps some others, are I believe genuine, and perhaps most of those which the collection exhibits.* As he cannot be supposed to have found leisure for any course of continued study, his pieces are commonly short, such as one fit of resolution would produce. His songs have no particular character; they tell, like other songs, in smooth and easy language, of scorn and kindness, dismission and desertion, absence and inconstancy, with the common-places of artificial courtship. They are commonly smooth and easy; but have little nature, and little sentiment, His imitation of Horace on Lucilius is not inelegant, or unhappy. In the reign of Charles the Second began that adaption, which has since been very frequent, of ancient poetry to present times; and perhaps few will be found where the parallel ism is better preserved than in this. The versifi cation is indeed sometimes careless, but it is sometimes vigorous and weighty. The strongest effort of his Muse is his poem upon "Nothing." He is not the first who has chosen this barren topic for the boast of his fertility. There is a poem called "Nihil," in Latin, by Passerat, a Dr. Johnson has made no mention of "Valentinian," (altered from Beaumont and Fletcher) which was published after his death by a friend, who describes him in the preface not only as being one of the greatest geniuses, but one of the most virtuous men that ever existed.-J. B. poet and critic of the sixteenth century in France; who, in his own epitaph, expresses his zeal for good poetry thus: -Molliter ossa quiescent, Sint modo carminibus non onerata malis. His works are not common, and therefore I shall subjoin his verses. In examining this performance,"Nothing" must be considered as having not only a negative but a kind of positive signification; as I need not fear thieves, I have nothing, and nothing is a very powerful protector. In the first part of the sentence it is taken negatively, in the second it is taken positively, as an agent. In one of Boileau's lines it was a question, whether he should use à rien faire, or à ne rien faire; and the first was preferred because it gave rien a sense in some sort positive. Nothing can be a subject only in its positive sense, and such a sense is given it in the first line: Nothing, thou elder brother ev'n to shade. In this line, I know not whether he does not allude to a curious book, "De Umbra," by Wowerus, which, having told the qualities of shade, concludes with a poem in which are these lines : Jam primum terram validis circumspice claustris The positive sense is generally preserved with great skill through the whole poem; though, sometimes, in a subordinate sense, the negative nothing is injudiciously mingled. Passerat confounds the two senses. Another of his most vigorous pieces is his lampoon on Sir Car Scrope, who, in a poem called "The Praise of Satire," had some lines like these:* He who can push into a midnight fray This was meant of Rochester, whose buffoon conceit was, I suppose, a saying often mentioned, that every man would be a coward if he durst; and drew from him those furious verses; to which Scrope made in reply an epigram, ending with these lines: Thou canst hurt no man's fame with,thy ill word; Thy pen is full as harmless as thy sword. Of the satire against "Man," Rochester can only claim what remains when all Boileau's part is taken away. In all his works there is sprightliness and vigour, and every where may be found tokens of a mind. which study might have carried to excellence. What more can be expected from a life spent in ostentatious contempt of regularity, and ended before the abilities of many other men began to be displayed? + • I quote from memory.-Dr. J. + The late George Stephens, Esq. made the selection of Rochester's Poems which appears in Dr. Johnson's edition; but Mr. Malone observes, that the same task had been performed in the early part of the last century by Jacob Tonson.-C. Poema Cl. V. JOANNIS PASSERATII, Regii in Academia Parisiensi Professoris, Ad ornatissimum virum ERRICUM MEMMIUM. Janus adest, festa poscunt sua dona Kalendæ, Munus abest festis quod possim offerre Kalendis. Siccine Castalius nobis exaruit humor? Usque adeo ingenii nostri est exhausta facultas, Grano hærere fabæ, cui vox adjuncta negantis. Pura liquefaciunt simul, et patrimonia miscent, Nec numeret Libycæ numerum qui callet arena: Tange NIHIL, dicesque NIHIL sine corpore tangi. que Absque ope pennarum, et graditur sine cruribus ullis. Absque loco motuque NIHIL per inane vagatur. Sed tempus finem argutis imponere nugis : |