" The Summer Webs." - m "The Fancy Fair." Dy .1.110111AS
MOORE.
Mr. Moon': has here again united in his own person the characters
of poet and musician, like his ancient predecessors the bards. In his former attribute lie has no living rival: and his music usually expresses well the sentiment of his words ; but his musical resources are few His melodies are not dull, like those of BEI.LINI, but they are often tame. They have none of the depth of feeling, the freshness and fertility of imagination, which pervade his poetry. He has not ascended the heights or sounded the depths of the sister art : he is acquainted with her language but superficially, and therefore can only venture on common modes of expression. The language of words is but the vehicle of thought, and just such is the language of sounds ; a thorough knowledge of which, in a mind like his, would generate, not stiffness, not pedantry, but freedom, facility, power. But blooaa will tell us that we must now be content to take him as he is : and we are so. Endeavouring, then, to read him in the spirit with which he writes, and not with the dull and plodding examination of a critic, we have laughed at the keen and polished satire of his " Fancy Fair," and echoed the joyous hilarity which floats around his " Summer Webs."
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