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Thee, friend, next Cæsar now we deem
Of fishing rod and race the boast;
Reading, on no inglorious theme,

Deep lectures to a listening host.

And master thou, and scholar I,
A dread associate may record

(For I, too, watch the mimic fly)

-A fisher was great nature's Lord.

(F. W.)

III.

Upon the subject of the "Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Sir Philip Sidney," the following communications are preserved among Dr. Zouch's Papers. The first is addressed to a Nephew of his, the other to a Friend.

DEAR SIR,

I.

8th July, 1809.

I HAVE read the Life of Sir Philip Sidney with much care, and as I expected, with much pleasure. I found in it nothing to blame, but much to admire. It is an highly interesting piece of biography, and a curious picture of the age. The stile is sweetly simple, and the arrangement of the materials clear. It is, in fact, a valuable accession to our stock of elegant liteI beg you may offer my best thanks to your learned Uncle for the pleasure and information, which his work afforded me. The intimacy, which subsisted between Tasso and Sir

rature.

Philip, was a fact quite new to me. Nor is it, I believe, noticed by Serassi, or any of the other biographers of Tasso. On reading the passage, it struck me that Sir Philip might also have known Guarini, who had been a student at Padua. He might, it is true, have met with him at Venice, or at the splendid court of Ferrara; but he had, I find, retired from Padua when Sir Philip was a student in the University of that city.-I think with Dr. Zouch, that the Arcadia of Sannazaro was, probably, the archetype of the English Arcadia. In referring (p. 141.) the first edition of the Italian Pastoral to 1504, Dr. Zouch follows Fontanini; but it appears, from a note in a little work published by Longman and Rees (see Hist. Essay on the Revival of the Drama in Italy, p. 64.) that there was an earlier edition. Dr. Zouch need not be reminded, that an interesting account of the Stephenses may be found in Dr. Irving's Memoirs of Buchanan. But it probably escaped his recollection that Mr. Todd, in the account of Spenser prefixed to his edition of his works, does not think with Warton that he died in Dublin. These are the few very unimportant remarks, that occurred in the perusal of your Uncle's book. In communicating them, I am only performing my promise to you, dear Sir, to whom I feel so much obliged.

I have the honour to be, &c.

J. C. W.

P. S. My edition of the Arcadia (London, 1655, fol.) contains The Life and Death of Sir Philip Sidney,' with the Letter to the Countess of Pembroke so justly praised by Mr. Hayley, &c. &c. Mr. Hayley, in his Epistle to Romney,' recommends the death of Sidney as a fine subject for the pencil.

My late accomplished friend, the Earl of Charlemont, was a warm admirer of the Arcadia, and left, I believe, an Essay on it, which will probably be mentioned in his Lordship's Memoirs now in the press.

As the splendour of the Court of Ferrara would be likely to attract the notice of a young traveller, I hope your Uncle will be able to ascertain whether or not Sir Philip visited that Court.

2.

-I HAVE read Dr. Zouch's Life of Sir Philip Sidney with very great pleasure, and admire the historian for feeling indignant at Lord Oxford's impertinent treatment of so noble and virtuous a character as Sir Philip's. I long for Dr. Zouch to take up the defence of Bruno, who I am persuaded was most unjustly accused of atheism. There is a Paper in the Tatler (said to be written by Mr. Eustace Budgell) which admits the charge, and gives a short account of the book

on which the charge is grounded, but treats the work as a very futile performance; and so it might be but the title of the work, Il Spaccio della Bestia trionfante," the Overthrow (or Destruction) of the triumphant Beast,' appears to me to predict the decline of the Church of Rome, which all Protestants have hitherto supposed, by that opprobrious name fixed on it in the Revelation. If so, the dismissal by Jupiter of the inferior deities or planets, and substituting the moral duties in their room, accords exactly with the putting down of the idolatrous worship of Saints and Angels, but may not mean the abolishing of all Revealed Religion, and certainly cannot consist with a disbelief of a deity; for Jupiter is introduced as a wise and governing intelligence. If you are intimate enough with Dr. Zouch to ask, whether this sketch of a defence of Bruno is not quite absurd, I should be glad to know his opinion: I don't like to have it believed, that Sir Philip Sidney and Sir Fulke Grevile attended Bruno's Philosophical Lectures and honoured him with their friendship, if his discourses tended to establish any atheistical opinions. I give you leave to laugh at my troubling you with this disquisition. As you will hardly have had time to read the work which has interested me so much, you may not see the propriety of defending Bruno for Sir Philip's sake : but I hope, Dr. Zouch will find himself inclined

to take

up his pen again; and the public, I am sure, will find instruction in what he writes on the subject.

3.

Dr. Zouch had, also, procured from Cambridge, as a specimen of Sir Philip Sidney's sacred poetry, the Versions of the Psalms 93, 100, and 127, which are here subjoined.

I.

Psalme, 93. Dominus regnavit.

Cloath'd in state, and girt with might
Monarch like, Jehova raignes :
He who earthe's foundation pight
Pight at first and yet sustainęs.
He whose stable throne disdaines
Motions short, and ages flight

He who endles one remaines

One the same, in chaungeles plight.

Rivers, yea though rivers roare

Roaring tho' sea billowes rise,

Vexe the deepe, and breake the shore,
Stronger art thou Lord of skies.
Firme, and true thy promise ties
Now, and still as heretofore
Holie worship never dies

In thy howse where wee adore.

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