A fiery circle crown'd her sable hair; The tempter spoke" Spirit, thou might'st have stood, Mingled with shriekings thro' the tempest swung; A moment o'er the Mount of ruin hung, Then burst thro' space, like the red comet's cone, We have on a former occasion spoken respectfully of Mr. Croly's abilities*, and we wish not to retract our opinion. In the present instance we cannot commend his judgement, but shall leave our readers to form their own opinion of the execution of the poem from the extracts we have laid before them. Sebastian is much less objectionable, though not much more original, as a tale. Parts of it are pleasingly written, but it bears the marks of either great carelessness or very false taste, and it is much too long. We give Mr. Croly credit for not having done his best in the present volume; and we rather suspect that he shares in that mental indolence which is too often the attendant upon a consciousness of talent. The Mis'cellaneous Poems' which eke out the remainder of the volume, bave been written,' he states, at considerable interEclectic Review, Vol. IX. p. 579. D VOL. XV. N.S. • vals,' and some of them have already appeared in periodi'cal publications.' We should really have thought that the Author's portfolio had been richer. There is an ode to Satan, suggested by a picture of Sir Thomas Lawrence's, not in perfect accordance with the Author's reverend character. The prettiest thing is a Song from the Spanish, • TO LOVE. Young tyrant of the bow and wings, But all his raptures, tender, true, sublime, Art. III. The Northern Courts; containing Original Memoirs of the RICH as we are in almost every species of literary composi tion, there is one in which we are some what deficient, and of which we have had frequent occasion to feel and to lament the absence. We advert both to those personal memoirs, and to those authenticated collections of materials in elucidation of particular periods or points of history, which are so abundant in French literature, and of which our native examples, though excellent, are comparatively few. When an individual is actually engaged in state transactions, he becomes possessed of information respecting them which no other person can supply. And when men are personally conversant in the characters and intrigues of courts, they obtain an acquaintance with innumerable circumstances which may seem to throw light on events. otherwise involved in mystery. In these and similar cases, it is, of the utmost advantage to the right understanding of history, that the actors themselves should be the narrators. They will, indeed, mix up with their details much of partiality to themselves and their own views, as well as of erroneous feeling respecting the characters and motives of others; but all this is. counteracted by our knowledge of the writers, while their individual experience must give them a strong claim upon our confidence, after every allowance has been made for bias or for error. Next in value to these materials, are those which are furnished by the collectors of such well authenticated anecdotes and me morials of passing events as arein danger, if not thus secured and perpetuated, of being swept away with the generation to which they belong. But to this sort of compilation it is indispensably requisite, that it be supported by clear and avowed authorities. Nothing is more easy than to fill volumes with the presumptions and exaggerations which are continually current, frequently without specific contradiction, in the political world: but pub lications like these, instead of assisting the historian, tend to perplex him, by obscuring that boundary line between falsehood and verity of which it is at all times so difficult to trace the definition. These remarks are, in a great degree, applicable to the volumes before us. They are exceedingly amusing, and we will admit that they contain some valuable information, but they fail in supplying the means of determining their authenticity, and, in several instances, they describe circumstances and conversations, the nature of which renders it grossly improbable that they should have reached the narrator in so minute and distinct a shape. Mr. Brown has, we think, been extremely injudicious in his mode of publication. If, instead of inserting without discrimination the questionable or unimportant matter, and the indecent details, which occupy many of his pages, he had availed himself of his advantages to put together a compact volume of anecdotes and elucidations, carefully referring to his sources of information, his work would have been both useful and popular, while, in its present shape, it can never secure sufficient confidence to become a book of authority. One portion of his materials, Mr. Brown states himself to have copied from a Danish MS. found on board the Clyde, an American vessel detained in 1807. Now, though this is certainly very possible, it is so much in the style and manner of an introduction to a romance, that it would, we think, have been wiser to omit all reference to such a circumstance: it reminds us too closely of the adventures of those successful manuscript-finders, Jedediah Cleishbotham and Captain Clutterbuck. The first part of these memoirs relates to Denmark, and is principally occupied with the tragedy of Matilda and Struensee. From the memorable season when the oppressions of a haughty and tyrannical oligarchy urged the tiers état to the desperate measure of committing their government and liberties wholly into the hands of Frederick the Third, without reserve or stipulation, the Danish monarchs have been, in the strictest import of the term, absolute: they have, however, been men of prudence, and their yoke has pressed lightly on their people. Frederick the Fifth was a man of talent and worth, but circumstances which are involved in considerable uncertainty, produced, in the later portion of his reign, an entire and deplorable alteration in his character and habits: he became a confirmed the hard-drinker, and gave himself up to the control and guidance of his minister Molckte. This change is here attributed to the disastrous consequences of his second marriage, and to the diabolical attempt of his queen Juliana Maria to secure the throne to her own child, by poisoning the heir apparent, the son of Frederick's first consort. The attempt itself, the instant detection, the looks, gestures, and speeches of the different parties, are all stated with as mueh minuteness as if the narrator had been concealed in the chamber.--Christian Seventh ascended the throne with many personal advantages, which were annihilated by his excessive and premature debaucheries. His unfortunate union with Matilda, the machinations of Juliana, the fate of Brandt and of Struensee, are all matters of common knowledge; but they are here related with the addition of many and minute particulars, which make up a very interesting story, although they certainly stand in need of a severer authentication than is afforded by the Author. The scenes of dalliance between Count Rantzau and his mistress Livernet, might, with other seasonings of the same gout, have been advantageously omitted. The second division of this work relates to Sweden, and contains, together with some preliminary illustrations of the history of different political parties, the history of the third and fourth monarchs of the name and line of Gustavus. The former is described as polished and brilliant, but tainted with the most degrading and revolting vices: the latter is expressly affirmed to have been the son, not of the king, but of his friend, Count Muncke, to whom the queen, after having been secretly divorced by Gustavus, was clandestinely, but regularly espoused. Sweden required a sovereign of high and consistent character: her poverty demanded the severest economy; and the irritable spirit of her population was to be calmed and repressed only by a firm, judicious, and yet conciliatory conduct. In none of these points was Gustavus the Third equal to the severe requisitions of his exalted and difficult office: he exasperated his nobility without obtaining the attachment of his people, and in the full possession of health and outward prosperity, he fell by the pistol of Ankarstrom. The scene which immediately succeeded the assassination, is portrayed by Mr. Brown in one of the finest pieces of description that we recollect to have read. On his way from his palace to the opera-house a few hours before, Gustavus stepped lightly down the broad flights of granite to the vestibule below. He was now carried slowly back, stretched on a litter borne on the shoulders of grenadiers, whose slightest motion gave him inexpressible pain. Like the palace itself, the grand staircase is of stupendous dimensions. The massive balustrades are composed of polished marble; the broad steps of hewn granite; and the ornaments of colossal proportions, finely drawn and executed, are in strict conformity to the vast and beautiful outline of this grand edifice. The king's unwieldy state-coach, with a triple row of guards on either side, might, apparently, have ascended. Although the portals were closed as soon as the king had entered, and none but courtiers and soldiers admitted, and even those not without selection, the whole of the colossal stairs were crowded to excess. Not a few of the ministers were clad in state dresses; and most of the courtiers and household officers still had on the fanciful robes worn at the fatal masquerade. This great diversity of splendid costume, the melancholy state of the king, stretched on the bier, laying on his side, his pale face resting on his right-hand, his features expressive of pain subdued by fortitude, the varied countenances of the surrounding throng, wherein grief, consternation, and dismay were forcibly depicted; the blaze of numerous torches and flambeaux borne aloft by the military; the glitter of burnished helmets, embroidered and spangled robes, mixed with the flashes of drawn sabres and fixed bayonets; the strong and condensed light thrown on the king's figure, countenance, litter, and surrounding group; the deep, dark masses of shade that seemed to flitter high above and far below the principal group, and the occasional illumination of the vast and magnificent outline of the structure, formed, on the whole, a spectacle more grand, impressive, and picturesque, than any state or theatrical procession, on the arrangement of which the tasteful Gustavus had ever been engaged. In the midst of excruciating agonies his eyes lost not their brilliancy, and his finely expressive features displayed the triumph of fortitude over pain. Terrible and sudden as was this disaster, it did not deprive him of self-possession; he seemed more affected by the tears that trickled down the hard yet softened features of the veterans who had fought by his side, than by the wound that too probably would soon end his life. As the bearers of the royal litter ascended from flight to flight he raised his head, evidently to obtain a better view of the grand spectacle of which he formed the central and principal object. When he arrived at the grand gallery level with the state apartments, he made a sign with his hand that the bearers should halt, and looking wistfully around him, he said to Baron Armfelt (who wept and sobbed aloud), “how strange it is I should rush upon my fate after the recent warnings I had received! My mind foreboded evil; I went reluctantly, impelled as it were by an invisible hand!-I am fully persuaded when a man's hour is come, it is in vain he strives to elude it!" After a short pause, he continued, "perhaps my hour is not yet arrived; I would willingly live, but am not afraid to die. If I survive, I may yet trip down these flights of steps again;-and if I die—why then, inclosed in my coffin, my next descent will be on my road to the Gustavianska graf i Riddarholm Kyrkan."* Gustavus spoke slowly, and in a low tone of voice. The pause was awful: every one seemed anxious in the extreme to catch a view of his person, or even the most distant murmur of his voice, and not a tearless eye was to be seen. Several of the principal characters holding a torch in their left-hand, threw their cloaks over their face with their right to con *To the Gustavian Mausoleum in Riddarholm Church. |