ECLOGUE I.
SELIM: OR, THE SHEPHERD’S MORAL.
The following eclogues,† written by Mr. Collins, are very pretty: the images, it must be owned, are not very local; for the pastoral subject could not well admit of it. The description of Asiatic magnificence, and manners, is a subject as yet unattempted amongst us, and I believe, capable of furnishing a great variety of poetical imagery.
† i.e.—Selim, Hassan, Agib and Secander, and Abra. Goldsmith admired Collins, whom he calls in the Enquiry, 1759, p. 143, ‘the neglected author of the Persian eclogues, which, however inaccurate, excel any in our language.’ He borrowed freely from him in the Threnodia Augustalis, q.v.
THE SPLENDID SHILLING.
BY MR. J. PHILIPS.
This is reckoned the best parody of Milton in our language: it has been an hundred times imitated, without success. The truth is, the first thing in this way must preclude all future attempts; for nothing is so easy as to burlesque any man’s manner, when we are once showed the way.
A PIPE OF TOBACCO:
IN IMITATION OF SIX SEVERAL AUTHORS.
Mr. Hawkins Browne, the author of these, as I am told, had no good original manner of his own, yet we see how well he succeeded when he turns an imitator; for the following are rather imitations than ridiculous parodies.
A NIGHT-PIECE ON DEATH.
The great fault of this piece, written by Dr. Parnell, is that it is in eight-syllable lines, very improper for the solemnity of the subject; otherwise, the poem is natural, and the reflections just.
A FAIRY TALE.
BY DR. PARNELL.