IMOGEN.

Oh bliss !

ALMANZOR.

What do I see?

Trio. People, sing, dance, and hail this prodigy. Chorus. Let's sing, and dance, and hail this prodigy.

IMOGENE.

Ah! quel moment ! ALMANZOR.

Où suis-je ? Les Trois. Peuples, chantez, dansez, celebrez ce pro

dige! La Cheur. Chantons, dansons, celebrons ce prodige!

ELVES IN A MONASTERY.

A FRAGMENT FROM THE LUTRIN OF BOILEAU.

Discord beheld, and with enraptur'd eyes

Shriek'd a delight which tore into the skies :
The dark air, groaning with the dreadful blow,
Rolls a deep thunder to the far Citeaux,
Where midst fat Elves and Pleasures nonchalant,

The soft Indulgence keeps her favourite haunt:

La Discorde en sourit, et, les suivant des yeux,

De joie, en les voyant, pousse un cri dans les cieus.
L'air, qui gémit du cri de l'horrible déesse,
Va jusques dans Citeaux réveiller la Mollesse.

C'est là qu'en un dortoir elle fait son séjour ;

Les Plaisirs nonchalants folâtrent à l'entour;

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Some, laughing, paint a monk's cheek red as wine;
Some in a corner feed an embonpoint ;
Low bends Voluptuousness with Magd’len hairs ;
And Sleep sheds poppies in the shape of prayers.

L'un paîtrit dans un coin l'embonpoint des chanoines;

L'autre broie en riant le vermillon des moines :

La Volupté la sert avec des yeux dévots,
Et toujours le Sommeil lui verse des pavots. .

THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS.

FROM THE SAME.

The subject of the Lutrin is a dispute between the Chanter and Treasurer (or Dean) of a Cathedral Chapel in Paris, respecting the right of having a reading. desk in the Choir, and of giving the bevediction. If the Chanter can succeed in publicly giving the benediction to the Dean himself, he thinks he shall establish that privilege without further trouble: on the other hand, if the Dean can get the start of him, and bless the Chanter, his predominance is secured for ever.

Luckily for the Dean, whenever he and the Chanter are together, and a multitude assembled, he enjoys, from prescription, the greater influence; and how he gains his end accordingly, is set forth in the ensuing Battle of the Books, which is the original of Swift's prose satire. Boileau is quite at home in it. It gives him an opportunity, as Warton ob. serves, of indulging in his favourite pastime of ridiculing bad authors. This perhaps is the liveliest and most inventive passage in all the Lutrin ; and it may be fairly pitted against the Battle of the Beaux and Ladies in the Rape of the Lock, being at once more satirical, probable, and full of life. If Pope's mock-heroic excels in delicacy and fancy (which we cannot but think it does, out and out,) Boileau's may lay claim to a jollier and robuster spirit of ridicule, acd to a greater portion of what the French call movement.

MEANWHILE the canons, far from all this noise,

With rapid mouthfuls urge the hungry joys :

Loin du bruit cependant les chanoines à table
Immolent trente mets à leur faim indomtable :

Only in spring, when cruel storms have done,

And the new air is tender with the sun,

Four gentle oxen, moving in a string,
Paraded in his town the sluggard king.

Oh times admired and mourned !

Seulement au printemps, quand Flore dans les plaines
Faisoit taire des vents les bruyantes haleines,
Quatre bæufs attelés, d'un pas tranquille et lent,
Promenoient dans Paris le monarque indolent.

Ce doux siecle n'est plus.