SMITH'S ,TASSO. * SOME books require to be read and reread

before a fair estimate can be formed of their merits; others bear evidence at a glance of the incompetence of their authors to the task they have undertaken. This new translation of the Jerusalem Delivered belongs to the latter class. Beyond an ordinary knowledge of Italian, the Reve- rend Charles Lesingham Smith has no qualification for translating Tasso " in the metre of the original." He has no ear for verse, no feeling for style, and a very imperfect conception of pure English ; and he has consequently reproduced the spirited and picturesque poem of the mediaeval Homer in stanzas which have no music, and in language which, with a curiosa infelicitas, blends obsolete archaic words with the rhetorical phrases of a popular preacher and the slipslop of a penny-a-liner. He seems to be. utterly un- conscious that the first requisite of a poet is that he should sin, and that to sing and to talk are two very different things. This judgment will not appear. too harsh or too sharply pronounced, if our- readers will glance over the specimens of phraseology selected

from a large stock of such. -

" And took for terms of peace precisely those It pleased the pious Godfrey to, impose."— " Thus the tame lion, if it take ofbnce, Resumes at once its natural truculence."- " But when the crime with which the king's surmise Has charged the faithful, fails yet to transpire."

Again- " But valour true, though slighted, will transpire."

Again- " Her golden hairs, now shine through the rich fleece Of thinnest veil, and now-nnveiled transpire."— " With arms desires extremely to display How far his might surpasses that of all."- ' The Jerusalem Delivered of Tcirontito Tasso, translated in the Metre of the Original. By the Reverend Charles Le.ingbasn Smith, M.A., late Fellow and Ma- thematical Lecturer of Christ's College, Cambridge. In two volumes. Published by Longman end Co. "Care not for this, if yet our mantle royal And noble seat of government be saved. But let thy boil courage and these heats that bo i So fiercely in thee for a while be waived."— " With that security which was known t' accrue In every nation from most ancient rite." "And yielding too to wrath, he wields his blade IFilh all the violence which could be displayed."

By this time, Mr. Lesingham Smith's notion of epic language has, to use his pet word, sufficiently "transpired." We add some specimens of his appreciation of the meanings of words, and his value for the usages of grammar.

"No greater warrior than Rinaldo shined."

Mr. Smith is fond of calling this new perfect tense in to aid his lofty rhyme.

"And lo the grand imperial standard rise Whereon the cross triumphant woos the skies.

We subjoin the second line, because it accounts for the gramma- tical solecism in the first-

" Was weary of pursuing those who hied."

Fancy the French being said to hie from the Prussians at Wa- terloo ! But the necessities of the rhyme frequently compel Mr. Smith to this and similar uses of the figure litotes.

"Gazed at him, spake him, heard his voice resound."—

We say " to speak a ship," but not a man, except in the colloquial phrase " speak him soft."

"Each river he disturbs and fountain sluice."

" Fountain sluice " is nonsense; and Mr. Smith would say so„ were it not that the next line closed. with " deadly juice."

" These gates in fatal safety too shall stand"- for/abed. Love is thus addressed— "Now blind, and now an Argus, now thy veil Binds up the eyes, and now thou wheel at their rays."— " One faith contains the pair."— "When from the camp which never yet demurred

When arms were called."— " The tear-drops hang

Suspended, yet not all concealed, though near"- 1. e. though " nearly all," or " nearly concealed."

"But are to splinters his great lance had fled"— for "haditeum."

"At last, so suddenly he wheels, and lays A blow so on his side with might and main, That mid the vital parts the iron plays."

Rather horse-play this.

"E'en now I see the treacherous tyrant strew Both steel and poison solely for thy woe." Steel traps are the only form of that metal which can be said to be strown ; except, indeed, knives and forks for domestic uses.

"What cannot tears do from a lovely maid, And the sweet breath an amorous tongue expires?" Mr. Smith may plead scholarship for this active verb ; but he, is attempting to write English, and not Latin verse.

"But first make to the leader who is spent

A successor to care for all your need."

When Mr. Smith uses obsolete words, he should at least take care that he knows what they mean. " Shent " is not a synonyme for, "kilt," except in the general sense of being undone by death.

"He ceased ; the king at arms then quat their sight." "Nor could it lightly be disturbed or feared

By every trilling terror which appeared "-

which, with the substitution of error for terror, our readers will agree is a very correct description of Mr. Smith's literary sensi- bility.

We unwillingly hold up to ridicule the work of a man who de- scribes himself on his titlepage as a clergyman and late mathematical lecturer of a college ; for, although he is no poet, he may possibly discharge admirably well his more important and practical duties but we do not remember a more flagrant ease of literary inca- pacity of late years, and the manes cf Torquato Tasso would have troubled our repose had we not protested against this outrage to his fame. It is possible that Mr. Smith may have performed the latter part of his task more creditably ; for we do not conceal that our criticism is founded upon a perusal of only his first five cantos. Human endurance could survive no more.