NOTE ON MR. CLARKE'S "LOVE AND DUTY."

Ma. CLARKE has sent us a long letter, on the sole topic which em- ploys the pen of a poet whose critic has ventured to "hint a fault and hesitate dislike." Its leading points may be briefly told. 1. Mr. CLARKE cannot understand what we mean by saying that he "fails by too close an adherence to the weakness of common or every-day existences" ; and he demands an explanation. 2. He objects that we have confounded his "Lore and Duty" with the Eclogue of the ancients, instead of viewinglt as a Pasto- ral of the modern Italian and English schools; of which class he instances TASSO, GUARINI, and ALLAN RAMSAY. He also demurs to our canon of criticism which forbids the introduction of "family differences, pecuniary embarrassments, and emigration," into a pastoral; and adduces Viacies First Eclogue as an instance to the contrary, so far as it regards emigration.

3. He asks us to do him the favour "to point out any error per vading and vitiating the work." Controversy on the critical opinions we offer on the works sub- mitted to our judgment would be tiresome and endless, and it is

against our rule to indulge in such pastimes : but as Mr. CLARKS complains of ambiguity in what we said, we will answer his de- mands, seriatim, and once for all.

1. We endeavoured to make clear our expression of "the weak- ness of common or every-day existences" by context-expansions,— that an imitation of nature, without selection, induced a bald sim- plicity, beneath true poetry; that mere " tragic occurrences "— death, bloodshed, misery, and crime—were not of themselves suffi-

cient to constitute a tragedy, and so forth. If Mr. CLARKE cannot

understand this, to profit by it, which he informs us is his object, we are very sorry. Our consolation is, that we are unintelligible in good company. "Fine writing," says Animsort, " consists in thoughts which are natural but not obvious"; and Hume, approvingly expanding the sentiment, observes, that mere nature will not suffice to produce fine writing, or it would be enough to

note down the conversation of a tea-table. DENNIS, considering a position similar to Mr. CLARKE'S—that his "Love and Duty"

ought to please, because it is natural—remarks, that "there is a way of deviating from nature by bombast or tumour, which soars above nature, and enlarges images beyond their real bulk ; by affectation, which forsakes nature in quest of something unsuitable;

and by imbecility, which degrades nature by faintness and diminu- tion." And though DENNIS alone might be objected to as au-

thority, yet his canon may pass current with the approving stamp

Of JOHNSON. If Mr. CLARKE IS yet to seek in what REYNOLDS calls "the art of seeing nature," he may turn to the Third Lecture of

that great critic, where he will find many useful hints that be may apply to poetry with profit—unless Sir Josnow should, unhappily, prove as obscure as our humble selves.

2. In objecting to "family differences, pecuniary embarrassments, and emigration,' of the present day, as being unfit subjects for

pastoral poetry, we assert a principle of which every one must judge for himself. At the same time, we may oppose to Mr. CLARKE'S examples of the Italian writers, the authority of STEELE,* who expressly excludes both Tess° and GUARINI from the list of such writers- " It is observed, that the people of that nation [Italy I are very profound and abstruse in their poetry as well as politics; fond of surprising conceits, and far- fetched imaginations, and labour chiefly to say what was never said before. From persons of this character, how can we expect that air of simplicity and truth which bath been proved so essential to shepherds ? These are two pastoral plays in this language, which they boast of as the most elegant perforinauceS in poetry that the latter ages have produced ; the Aminta of Tasso, and Gus- rim's Pastor Fido. In these the names of the persenis are indeed pestorkt,

the sylvan gods, the dryads, and the satyrs, appointal with the egotplIge of an- tiquity ; but neither the language, sentiments, passion, or designs, like those of the pretty triflers in Virgil and Theocritus. • • • Whoever can hear these, may he assured he bath no taste for pastoral."

As regards the First Eclogue of Vutuic, emigration is not its subject. A rustic, like many other rustics of that time, driven from his house by military force, is one of the speakers; but the themes discussed have no relation to emigration, or even to war: they are all strictly pastoral—rustic nature selected and refined, but such as is found in Italy to this day ; the very flattery of AUGUSTUS is pastoral, and Rome (which a vulgar artist would cer- tainly have described) is alluded to in a series of purely pastoral images. The poem, moreover, has the quality we missed its Mr. CLasuca's pastoral—brevity, (for noting which he has also remarked upon us) : the First Eclogue consists of eighty-four lines ; "Love and Duty," of upwards of eight hundred. At the same time, if emigration had been discussed in a poem so personal as the First Eclogue, it would be little to the present purpose, unless the treat- ment were Virgilian as well as the theme. The same remark might be extended to TASSO, GUARINI, and Ramsay, supposing their pre- cedents to have been in point ; for, to refer to Sir Joanna again, there is not a fault but may take shelter under a great name. Any one, however, who reads our notice of Mr. CLARKE'S volume, will see that we were not considering a formal but (in our opinion) a vital objection—that "Love and Duty" was an incongruous work ; its subject involving the stirring themes of the "crosses, troubles, and struggles of life," but its style exhibiting the feebleness, or, as "surly Dennis" might have said in relation to this poem, the im- becility of the pastoral.

3. The last remark explains what we meant by a "pervading error vitiating the work." If Mr. CLARKE cannot understand that something is fundamentally wrong, when, though the subject is various, complex, and full of force, the treatment and diction are uniform and feeble, more words, at least such words as we can address to him, would be useless.

• Guardi us No. 28.