they approach the palace, Oberon, in a car drawn by leopards, the lily-sceptre in his hand, advances to meet them. Jerom, terrified, seizes his master's horse by the bridle, and urges their flight at full speed, until they reach the holy ground of a convent within view, where Jerom thinks it safe to stop. Meanwhile, lightnings, thunder, and rain pursue them, and drive back into the court-yard a procession of monks and nuns, who were performing in concert their pious orgies. Oberon appears in the midst of them;-the sky is again serene;-he applies a bugle-horn to his lips, and an irresistible disposition. to dancing seizes the motley crowd: Friar or sister, Jerom or lady-abbess, none are spared from this comic ballet, except Huon, who alone remains standing. At length, weariness strows them all on the ground: Sir Huon intercedes for his companion, and Oberon offers to him an empty cup, which fills itself with wine on being applied to the lip, and presently recruits the exhausted squire: the horn and the cup are then presented to Sir Huon by the king of Elves.-The versification of this canto is not every where solicitously polished: st. 16 and 17, the idea of disappearing in einem Huy occurs twice too contiguously st. 18, the allusion implied in the words als sey der grosse Pan gestorben is too learned for the mouth of Jerom: st. 21, 1.5, the cacophonous repetition of Rumpf displeases; why not read Oft rennt sogar der Leib in vollem Lauf? st. 38 and 42, the dance of monks is twice called a dance of Fauns; the simile adds too little to bear repetition. The repose among the shepherds, st. 7, 8, and 9, is an exquisitely finished picture. The third book opens with the episodical adventure of Angela, whom Huon delivers from the giant Angulaffer; and it closes with a dream, in which Oberon first vouchsafes to the hero a sight of Rezia. The hint of this vision is borrowed from the Persian Tales, where a couple are similarly enamoured. The delineation of Angela's person, st. 43 and 44, and the falling asleep of Huon, st. 56 and 57, are peculiarly fortunate. In the fourth book, Sir Huon delivers from a formidable lion a treacherous Mohammedan, who rides off with his horse, and obliges him to purchase a shabby mule, on which Jerom arrives in the suburbs of Bagdad. An old woman offers accommodation for the night, which they accept (Prince Calaf is thus harboured in the Persian Tales). This woman is mother to the nurse of Rezia, and tells them that the princess was to be married on the morrow to Babekan, prince of the Druses; although she abhorred him, having fallen vehemently in love with a strange knight, whom a beautiful dwarf, with a lily-sceptre in his hand, had presented to her in a dream. The emotion Rr 2 emotion of Sir Huon, his appearance, his yellow hair, convince the old woman that he is the desired stranger; and she runs at day-break to the seraglio with news of his arrival. Jerom's description of the night-mare, st. 14, 15, and 16, the invocation to his birth-place, st. 22, and the whole dialogue with the tattling curious old woman, are excellent. We should have preferred the appearance of Oberon, st. 46, 1.7, In einem Facton den Leoparden zogen, because a change of costume tends to diminish the confidence in his identity. Book V. Rezia, informed by her nurse Fatima of the arrival of the yellow-haired knight, decks herself for the feast, and takes place at the table, on her father's right-hand: Babekan being on his left. Sir Huon finds beside his couch the gala-dress of an Emir; and at his door, a horse richly caparisoned, and pages who conduct him to the palace. He passes for a weddingguest of the first rank, and is admitted to the hall of banquet. He discovers, on the left-hand of the caliph, the treacherous Mohammedan whom he had rescued in the forest, and he strikes off his head with a scymetar. On perceiving Rezia, he throws aside his sword and his turban, and is recognized by her as his yellow locks descend. The lovers fly into each other's arms. Meanwhile, the caliph orders an armed guard to seize the intruder. The intreaties of Rezia and the courage of Huon are unable to resist them: but the mystic bugle-horn is now sounded, and every inmate of the palace, Caliph, Imam, Circassian, eunuch, negroe, is attracted to mingle in antic motley dance. Sir Huon applies to the caliph for his beard, while Jeroni and Fatima make the necessary preparations for flight. Oberon intervenes; and the two couple are safely transported through the air to Askalon. This whole canto is a master-piece of narrative and interest: the meeting of the lovers communicates! to the reader an electric transport, and is one of the finest moments in the whole compass of the epopca. Huon's behaviour to Rezia is exquisitely proper; and the appearance of Oberon (st. 67 and 68) is truly sublime. Perhaps the dream at the beginning was needless: there had been much dreaming already. In the sixth book, before the lovers embark for Europe, Oberon warns them to consider each other as brother and sister, until Pope Sylvester should pronounce the marriageblessing on their union. "Should you (says he) pluck the sweet forbidden fruit before the time, Oberon must withdraw his protection."-The four companions set sail for Lepanto; and Jerom, to amuse their leisure, recounts a history which he had learnt from some calender. This story is no other than Chaucer's January and May, here called Gangolf and Rosetta; at the close of which, Oberon is made in anger to quit Titania, with an oath "never again to meet her in water, air, or earth, until a faithful couple, united in mutual love, shall by their purity atone for the guilt of the unfaithful pair; and, remaining true to their first affection, shall prefer death by fire to a breach of fidelity even for the sake of a throne." Rezia's first view of the sea affords a fine stanza: but, in general, this canto is trailing and tedious, worthier of Chaucer than of WIELAND: the 70th, 71st, 72d, 73d, and 74th stanzas might with advantage be wholly omitted; and many others require to be compressed. Book VII. Our amiable hero and heroine arrive at Lepanto. The presence of Jerom begins to grow inconvenient to Sir. Huon, who sends him forwards to Marseilles, with the casket containing the caliph's beard; and he himself takes shipping for Salerno. His passion for Rezia grows hourly more sensual and more impatient; and at length In Hymen's stead Amor crowns their union.' *At once the sky grows black, and all the stars are extinguished. Dissolved in joy, they are not aware of it. With storm-laden wings, bluster from afar the rude band of the unfettered winds. They hear it not. Mantled in dark anger, Oberon rushes beside them. They hear him not. Already the thunder rolls a third time, and they hear it not.' Roused, at last, from intoxication, they find the captain collecting the crew to draw lots for a victim; all ascribe the danger to the anger of Heaven against some individual criminal on board. Sir Huon draws the lot of death. As he is about to cast himself overboard, Rezia, wild with despair, clasps him about the neck, and hurls herself with him into the flood. Immediately, the storm is allayed: the lovers with difficulty reach some desert island: but the horn and the cup, the pledges of Oberon's favor, are withdrawn: their distress becomes extreme; and, with much labour, they scarcely collect subsistence.-The whole canto is composed in à pure and lofty strain of poetry: the 29th stanza, in which Rezia flings herself with Huon into the sea, and all the scenes of suffering tenderness after their landing, go to the heart. *The French translator thus renders this stanza; Des Aquilons la redoutable haleine Rr 3 Superior still, if possible, is the eighth canto; in which the lovers discover, in a distant corner of the island, an old her-. mit; who receives them into his dwelling. The pregnancy of Rezia advances. Her parturition is at once the newest, the most delicately managed, and the most affecting incident of the poem. Titania, the Elfen queen, who had chosen this island for her residence since her lamented separation from Oberon, performs for Rezia the mysterious services during the hour of her throes. We should despair, in any attempt at translation, of doing justice to the very fine concluding stanzas. . Book IX. The ship which Huon had quitted is compelled to make the port of Tunis, instead of Salerno; and the captain sells his remaining passenger, Fatima, for a slave, to Ibrahim, chief gardener of the Sultan. Jerom, thinking that his casket of white hair would not convince Charlemagne in Sir Huon's absence that his commands had been fulfilled, determines to rejoin his master at Rome; and not finding him there he adopts the costume of a pilgrim to go in search of him, and traces his ship to Tunis; where Fatima gets him employment in the royal gardens, under old Ibrahim. Titania steals away the young Huonnet. Rezia, searching for him along the shore, is surprised by pirates, and hurried on board a ship. Huon, rushing to her assistance, is overpowered by numbers, and left behind, bound to a tree. Book X. The action now hastens to solution. Oberon wrecks the ship of the pirates in the bay of Tunis, near to a terrace, whence the sultan Almanzor sees Rezia brought to shore: he also sends a spirit to unbind Huon, who is borne to the door of the gardener Ibrahim, and employed under him. In the French romance, the name of the spirit who carries Huon through the air is Malebron: it has here been suppressed but it was perhaps worth while to have connected the mythological personages still farther with the fictions of Shakspeare, by introducing the spirit of the Tempest, and reading st. 14, 1. 8, Sich Ariel ihm der sein Vertrauter war. Book XI. Almanzor is now an avowed suitor to Rezia. Huon, apprised of her arrival, attempts to see her by lingering in the garden, but meets the Sultaness Almanzaris, who determines to avenge the altered sentiments of her husband, by courtesy to the handsome gardener. She tempts him, vainly, in her chambers, surrounded with every luxury and every enticement. She then appoints him deceptiously in the bath house, and assails his constancy by her naked embraces. The Sultan intervenes; she denounces Huon as a ravisher; and he is condemned to die by fire. She visits him a third time in prison; prison; and she offers to arm numerous slaves in his behalf, and to give him the throne and bed of her husband. He remains inflexible.-The voluptuous scenes of this canto are no where surpassed even by the author himself: it will bear comparison with Acrasia's bower of bliss in Spenser, and with Tasso's garden of Armida. Book XII. Almanzor is also unsuccessful with Rezia; who, having discovered the doom of Huon, goes to solicit his life. The Sultan offers it on condition of her compliance:-she disdains him. He threatens her with a like fate, and orders her execution. The two lovers are now bound to the stake on a pyre, like Olindo and Sofronia. The torch is just applied, when Almanzor, at the head of one troop, rushes forwards to save Rezia; Almanzaris, at the head of another, to rescue Huon; and Jerom, in a solitary suit of black armour, also appears, scarcely hoping more than to fall beside his master. Their zeal, however, is needless :-the condition of Oberon's oath is accomplished: - their bonds are broken: the bugle-horn hangs again on the neck of Huon, and a tune involves in one vast dance the executioners and the assailants. The car of Oberon descends, and removes Huon, Rezia, Jerom, and Fa tima, first to the palace of Oberon to witness the feast of his reconciliation with Titania, where Huonnet is restored to his parents; and next to the banks of the Seine, where they are finally settled with a rich provision of furniture and magnificence. A tournament at Paris impends: the prize is Sir Huon's land; which, from his long absence, is supposed escheated to the crown. Sir Huon enters the lists unknown, and wins the stake: he then presents the casket, Rezia, and his son, to Charlemagne, in whose bosom all animosity expires. Such is the well-rounded fable of this metrical romance of chivalry. It were difficult to suggest a blemish in it. Yet, as the author has thought fit to convert the heroine to a religion which peculiarly enforces the duty of chastity; and as the turn of the whole story, not less than the law of France, sets a considerable value on the marriage-ceremony;-we have sometimes been tempted to think that this conversion should have been reserved until the sojournment on the island; and that the nuptial benediction should there have been pronounced by the hermit, previously to the interposition of Titania. In the whole poem we discover but few similes: they be long, no doubt, to the exhausted class of ornaments. The style is less diffuse and trailing, less exuberant of circumstances and particulars, than in most productions of WIELAND. It abounds, as in all his works, with sensible imagery and picturesque decoration: it studiously avoids the English fault of substituting general terms, and allegoric personification, for Rr 4 specific |