even an exclamation, is often sufficient to produce the full effect of the ludicrous, as a spark will spring a mine, in the place and time when the explosion is least suspected. The most unexpected means in the hands of this great artist are also the most certain; and you are first made sensible of what he has aimed at, when you admire his arrow quivering in the centre of the mark.

The depth and force of Molière's common sense is equally remarkable in displaying his own just and sound opinions, as in exposing the false taste and affectation of others. Ariste, Philinte, and the other personages of his drama, to whom (as the ancients did to their choruses) he has ascribed the task of moralizing upon the subject of the scene, and expressing the sentiments which must be supposed those of the author himself, have all the firmness, strength, and simplicity, proper to the enunciation of truth and wisdom; and much more of both will be found within the precincts of Molière's works, than in the formal lessons of men of less acute capacity.

Molière himself knew the force and value of his simplicity, although sometimes objected to by fastidious critics as hurrying him into occasional vulgarity. In order that he might not depart from it, he adopted the well-known practice of reading his pieces, while in manuscript, to his housekeeper, La Foret, and observing the effect they produced on so plain, but shrewd and sensible a mind, before® bringing them on the stage. The habit of being called into consultations of this kind, had given the good dame such an accurate tact, that it was in vain that Molière tried to pass upon her the composition of another poet for his own. The circumstance proves how well she deserved to sit in the chair of censorship which her master had assigned her. Mons. Taschereau thinks, that the opinion of La Foret was only demanded by Molière upon low and farcical subjects. But though we allow that some parts of his higher comedy might be above her sphere, we can easily conceive, that the author might have an interest in knowing exactly how much his housekeeper-at once an exact and favourable specimen of a great majority of his audiences -might be able to comprehend of his higher comedy, and in what particulars it was elevated beyond the line of her understanding. Nor is it unreasonable to conceive, that an author who desired above all other things to be generally understood, should have paused on the passages which La Foret comprehended less perfectly, and omitted or explained what was like to prove caviare to the multitude. It would not be perhaps unnatural to suppose, that to the shrewd, frank, acute, and penetrating character of Molière's housekeeper we owe the original idea of those clever and faithful, but caustic and satirical female domestics, the Toinettes and Nicoles, whom he has produced on the stage with so much effect.

taining work we are obliged for so much instruction or amusement. Some readers may be disappointed, that, after pronouncing Molière the prince of the writers of comedy, we should have limited the talents by which he attained such pre-eminence to the possession of common sense, however sound-of observation, however acute-and of expression, however forcible, true, and simple. It is not, however, by talents of a different class from those enjoyed by the rest of humanity that the ingredients which form great men are constituted; on the contrary, such peculiar tastes and talents only produce singularity. The real source of greatness, in almost every department, is an extraordinary proportion of some distinguishing quality proper to all mankind; and of which, therefore, all mankind, less or more, comprehends the character and the value. A man with four arms would be a monster for romance, or for a show; it is the individual that can best make use of the ordinary conformation of his body who obtains a superiority over his fellow-creatures by strength or agility. In a word, the general qualities of sound judgment, clear views, and powerful expression of what is distinctly perceived, acquire the same value, as they rise in degree above the general capacity of humanity, with that obtained by diamonds, which in proportion to their weight in carats become almost inestimable, while the smaller sparks of the same precious substance are of ordinary occurrence, and held comparatively in slight esteem.

Dec.62

(From the Edinburgh Review, April, 1804. On the Works of THOMAS CHATTERTON; containing his Life, by G. GREGORY, D.D., and Miscellaneous Poems. 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1813.]

THE works of Chatterton, whose life and death will be the lasting honour and indelible disgrace of the eighteenth century, are at length, after the lapse of more than thirty years, edited in a collected state. We were at some loss to conceive what could have occasioned the long delay of so interesting a publication; and the explanation has proved rather mortifying. A priori, such a work seemed particularly calculated to engage the public attention. To the internal merit of the poems, now at length published, is united all the interest excited

CHATTERTON.

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as well as that which arises from the exercise of critical investigation, and the ardour of literary controversy. Nevertheless, the delay may be attended by its own advantages in aiding us to ascertain the real merits of the disputed question. The works of Chatterton, or the poems of Rowley, have survived the controversy which attended their appearance in 1770. Of the assailants and defenders of their originality, many have paid the debt to nature, and others will remember their ardour in the contest as the emotions of an agitating dream.* It may therefore be supposed that the public will coolly and impartially determine the controversy (if it yet remains a controversy) upon the solid grounds of evidence; and it might also have been hoped, that circumstances of additional proof, suppressed or misrepresented while the feelings of being duped were yet too acute, might now have been recovered. We will endeavour to show how far we have been gratified by the present edition, and in what respects it has fallen short of our expectation.

The preface bears the well-known and respectable name of Mr Robert Southey; but we are informed that so much of the business has devolved upon Mr Cottle, that it becomes necessary to use the term editors in the plural. Both poets, and both natives of Bristol, we may suppose that these gentlemen felt a deep and peculiar interest in the task they have undertaken, of rendering a just homage to the genius of their wonderful fellow-citizen, and of contributing to the interest of his surviving relation. The purposes to which the profits of the publication are dedicated, are thus expressed in the preface; and the circumstances, while they do honour to the liberality of the editors and publishers, account for the delay of which we have complained, in a manner deeply disgraceful to the taste and feelings of the public.

"In the winter of 1799, a subscription edition of the works of Chatterton was publicly proposed for his sister's benefit. These works had hitherto been published only for the emolument of strangers, who procured them by gift or purchase from the author himself, or pilfered them from his family. From the interest which these circumstances, and the whole of Chatterton's history had excited, more success was expected than has been found. At the end of two years, the subscription would not have defrayed the costs of publication An arrangement was then made with Messrs Longman and Rees, who have published the work at their own expense, and allowed Mrs Newton a handsome number of copies, with a revisionary interest in any future edition."

The friends and patrons of Chatterton, as well as the former collectors of his poems, have been liberal in their communications to the present editors; and the book accordingly contains many of his productions which have been hitherto inedited. We do not aver that, in general, these additions to his works tend to augment his fame; on the contrary, as some of them have been written almost during infancy, as others are merely unfinished fragments, and as all seem in

[See at the end of vol. iii., Life and Works of Chatterton, a Catalogue raisonné of

correct and hasty productions, we cannot but consider them as far inferior to the poems ascribed to Rowley, and even to those which Chatterton was himself pleased to own during his life. But, in another point of view, these early and unfinished compositions are very interesting. In Chatterton, above all other poets, we would wish not merely to admire the works upon which he may safely rest his claim to immortal fame, but also to investigate the performances in which his exertions have been less successful; and, by comparing them together, to form, if it be possible, some idea of the strength and weakness of this prodigy of early talent. We therefore approve of publishing such pieces as "Sly Dick" and "Apostate Will," which display the early satirical propensities of young Chatterton; with the elegies, songs, and burlettas, by which he endeavoured rather to supply his necessities, and postpone the dreadful crisis of his fate, than to indulge his genius, or extend his poetical fame. One of his juvenile productions, now published for the first time, is a hymn for Christmas-day, which, if really written about the age of eleven, bears ample testimony to the premature powers of the author. We extract a verse or two, which, when the harmony and ease of expression are contrasted with the author's boyhood, inexperience, and want of instruction, appear almost miraculous.

"Almighty Fraser of the skies,

O let our pure devotion rise
Like incense in thy sight!
Wrapt in impenetrable shade,
The texture of our souls were made,
Till thy command gave light.

The Sun of glory gleamed, the ray
Refined the darkness into day,
And bid the vapours fly:
Impelled by His eternal love,
He left his palaces above,
To cheer our gloomy sky.

How shall we celebrate the day,
When God appeared in mortal clay,
The mark of worldly scorn,

When the Archangels' heavenly lays
Attempted the Redeemer's praise,
And hailed Salvation's morn?

A humble form the Godhead wore,
The pains of poverty he bore,

To gaudy pomp unknown:
Tho' in a human walk he trod,
Still was the man Almighty God,
In glory all his own.

Despised, oppressed, the Godhead bears
The torments of this vale of tears,

Nor bid his vengeance rise:
He saw the creatures he had made
Revile his power, his peace invade,
He saw with mercy's eyes."

Such was the early command of language displayed by a child, who, when a beardless youth, was to gull a whole synod of grizzled deans and antiquaries.

The life of Chatterton, prefixed to these volumes, was written by Dr Gregory of London, for the "Biographia Britannica," and, by his permission, has been reprinted upon this occasion. Although it seems to be compiled with great fidelity, and probably contains all the material facts known upon the subject, we cannot suppress our hearty wish, that either of the present editors had himself undertaken the task of Chatterton's biographer. Many observations must have occurred to them while preparing these volumes for the press, which

limited purpose. This was the more incumbent upon the editors, because, from persons of poetical taste, so long employed in examining Chatterton's productions, the public must have expected some light upon the Rowleian controversy. Dr Gregory, unwilling, or unable to form a judgment upon this most important point of the life of the youthful poet, has arranged, with great impartiality, the arguments upon both sides, in battle array against each other, leaving his reader to draw such conclusions as his own taste or judgment may enable him to form. Now, this might be very excusable, in the original circumstances in which Dr Gregory's life of Chatterton was published; for the "Biographia Britannica" is not a natural field for literary controversy, though often occupied as such. But in publishing a formal edition of the whole works of Chatterton, in which those articles ascribed to Rowley are included, the public had a right to expect from the editors, their full sentiments upon the point of most essential interest to their author's fame, especially as Mr Cottle, at least, has formed and expressed a decided opinion upon the subject. Besides, without depreciating the labours of Dr Gregory, who has produced a plain and simple account of Chatterton's life, we must express ourselves disappointed, that we have not, from the hand of a poet like Southey, a memorial of his ill-fated brother bard. Few subjects of composition, equally affecting or elevating, can ever occur; for when we consider the strange ambiguity of Chatterton's character, his attainments under circumstances incalculably disadvantageous, and his wish to disguise them under the name of another; his high spirit of independence, and the ready versatility with which he stooped to the meanest political or literary drudgery; the amiable and interesting affection which he displays towards his family, with a certain looseness of morality which approaches to profligacy,we cannot but regret that a subject, uniting so strong an alternation of light and shade, had not been sketched by the hand of a master. We will not suppose that Mr Southey, or his brother editor, retreated from the task of becoming Chatterton's biographer through mere indolence; for, the liberality of their purpose towards his sister, is a pledge to us, that they would not readily "wax weary in well-doing." We content ourselves with lamenting that any reason should have occurred to deprive us of the satisfaction which we would have reaped in seeing a new life of Chatterton, with a full view of the Rowley controversy, upon which, in many particulars, the book before us, and the detached notes of the editors, throw so much light. One general remark we cannot help deducing from the melancholy picture of the life before us. The inconsistencies o Chatterton's conduct and character may be, in some measure, ascribed to his situation and extreme youth; yet we fear their original source