it is not copied from any individual writer, but is evidently the appropriate manner of the author, formed upon a deliberate and attentive comparison of all the best writers who have diftinguished the feverat periods of our literature. Indeed, the peculiarity of Mr. Way's ftudies fuggefted the choice of his fubjects; his tafte led him to poetry, and his indolence to tranflation; and he found, in tranflating the publications of M. Le Grand and M. de Treffan, an employment perfectly fuited to his favourite and habitual modes of expreffion. Mr. Gray has obferved, in one of his letters to Mr. Weft, that "the language of poetry is never the language of the day;" and his correfpondent, without quite acceding to the univerfality of this axiom, remarks, in his turn, that " old words revived are of excellent ufe in tales: they add (fays he) a certain drollery to the comic, and a romantic gravity to the ferious, which are both charming in their kind; and this way of charming Dryden understood very well." This is certainly true: befides which, there are many obvious reasons for endeavouring to preferve fuch old words as are not quite obfolete and unintelligible, because they are generally fimple, often very energetic, and feldom exactly fynonimous with their modern fubftitutes : at all events, though they should be unneceffary for the purpose of giving ftrength or precifion, they have the merit of giving variety to the fentence. "But the mere adoption of a few antiquated words, is not alone fufficient to conftitute an antiquated ftyle. La Fontaine, whom the French confider as a model of elegant fimplicity, and whose phraseology is now regarded as almost effential to every humourous compofition, has been more folicitous to imitate the conftruction and grammatical arrangement of Clement Marot, and other poets of the 16th cen tury, than to engraft on modern language a number of words gleaned from obfolete gloffaries. He feems to have been aware, that from the mechanifm of the prefent European languages, in which fo much is performed by prepofitions and auxiliary verbs, their phrafeology muft, of neceffity, become languid and diffufe, in the fame proportion as they advance in precifion and exactnefs of meaning; and that the ruder conftructions of fentences, in ufe amongst our ancestors, had a concifenefs and rapidity which is fcarcely attainable by the more artificial rules of modern compofition. At the fame time, it was evident that these advantages were balanced, in the works of the early writers, by correfpondent defects; that one rich and energetic verfe was frequently accompanied by a number of confufed and frigid lines, and that this inequality of ftyle, which could only be excufed during the infancy of criticism, would not be tolerated by modern readers. This feems to have fuggefted to him the expedient of adopting that ftrange kind of measure (which, from his example, is become fashionable in France) in which the duration of the line is regulated only by the meaning, and confits of any number of fyllables, from one to ten, that may happen to fuit the convenience of the writer. "Such a contrivance, however, is only a mode of evading the difficulty which Mr. Way wished to overcome. Though he felt that it was impoffible to unite, into a confiftent and uniform ftyle, the elaborate diction and mufical cadences of Pope, with the artlefs fyntax and írregular irregular numbers of Chaucer; yet he conceived that a language of perfect fin licity is capable of a great deal of variety, and that it may, by proper gradations, be brought to affume almost any character; and to affimilate with the appropriate diction of every period of our literature. "He that will write well in any tongue (fays old Roger Afchain) must follow the counfel of Ariftotle; to fpeak as the common people do; to think as wife men do;" and a copious model of this popular ftyle is preferved in the common English tranflation of the facred writings. From this, Mr. Way principally formed his vocabulary; to which he has endeavoured to give the colouring of a fomewhat higuer antiquity, by adopting a number of elliptical phrafes; by occafionally throwing the rhyme on an unimportant fyllable; and hy a few fimilar imitations of the characteristick negligence of our early verficiers. "These remarks, compiled from a few hints contained in Mr. Way's papers, are not inferted with any view of conciliating the favour of the reader towards a work, the failure or fuccefs of which can no longer either difappoint or gratify the wishes of its author; but for the purpofe of recording thofe opinions which gave a direction to his efforts. A tranflation of a few obfolete Norman ftories can only pleafe by the graces of language and verfification; but, where thefa are found, the reader often feels a degree of intereft in exploring the fources from whence his amufement is derived, and in fearching, through the hiftory of the author, for thofe peculiar opinions and habits which modify the effects of general education, and produce the differences of literary character obfervable in contemporary writers, in the fame manner as the infinitely various combinations of similar features distinguish the physical individuals." P. 289. If any lover of English Literature could poffibly be ignorant how well qualified the writer of thefe remarks is to decide and judge upon the fubject, the good fenfe and fagacity fo evident in them would at once fatisfy him on that point. Mr. Ellis then gives a fketch of his friend's life; which, befides being too fhort to require abridgment, is too well written to bear mutilation we fhall, therefore, infert it entire. "It is a trite observation, that the life of an author is feldom сараble of affording much amufement to the reader; and that of Mr. Way was particularly barren of incident: for his biographer would have little to relate, except that he was educated at Eton, from whence he went to Oxford, and afterwards to the Temple; and that having married early in life, he retired almost immediately to a small country feat in Effex, where he died, on the 26th of April, 1799, after a very short illness, in the 43d year of his age. Finding himself poffeffed of a fortune which feemed to remove the abfolute neceffity of addicting himself to any profeffion, though infufficient without ftrict economy to meet the wants of a growing family, he voluntarily devoted himself to retirement, which was not much interrupted by an annual vifit of a month to fome near relations in the country, and by a fortnight ufually allotted to an old friend in London. Under fuch circum fances ftances it was fcarcely poffible that he should fail to contract some peculiarities; because, being neither folicitous for wealth nor power, and having no habitual occupations or amufements which required the affiftance of fociety, he was not likely to imitate, or even to notice the viciffitudes which fashion is daily producing in the drefs, and gestures, and manners, and language, and opinions of what is called the world. He conceived that happiness is the only rational object of purfuit; and he believed that the means of happiness are to be found in the prac tice of religion. The hiftory of that religion therefore, the means by which it was established, the evidence on which it refts, the hopes it holds out, the duties it inculcates, and the opinions of its different fectaries, became the object of his conftant ftudies and daily medita. tion. His principal amufement was literature, and particularly poetry: and from this choice of occupations and amufements, a choice dictated partly by reflection, and partly, perhaps, by the effects of fituation and early habit, he certainly acquired fuch a conftant flow of cheerfulness, as a life of more activity and a greater variety of resource, often fails to produce. ་་ "It has been remarked, that he had fome peculiarities; but they were fuch as it is not eafy to describe, because they were not the result of eccentricity, or of my marked deviation from general habits. There was nothing in them on which ridicule could faften. His manners were easy and unembarraffed, and his addrefs particularly attractive, from being marked with that beft fort of politeness which is the expreffon of benevolence. But that perfect fimplicity of demeanour which borrows nothing from imitation, has certainly a fingular appearance in the eyes of those who are only converfant with artificial fociety: perhaps, indeed, few peculiarities are more striking than a total abfence of all affectation. "His converfation was very characteristic, and extremely amufing; particularly on thofe topies which seemed most remote from his usual purfuits, and in which he was led to take an intereft only by that kindness of difpofition which prevented him from viewing with indifference any amufement of his friends. There are probably few fubjects lefs propitious to the difplay of literary acquirements than the difcuffion of a fox-chace, yet I have seen him voluntarily engage even with this untoward argument: and he applied with fuch tafte and fagacity the learning he had acquired from Mafter Turberville and the Book of St. Albans; his language was fo picturefque; and he drew fo comical a parallel between the opinions of practitioners in the science in ditferent ages, that the effect was fcarcely lefs ftriking than if Sir Triftram, or King Arthur, had unexpectedly defcended amongit a company of modern fportfmen. On all occafions the Cervantic turn of his humour was fingularly heightened by his researches in antiquarian knowledge. It is impoffible to confider fuch a fimple and amiable character without lamenting that he neglected to become his own biographer; because no fpecies of writing, perhaps, is more capable of uniting amufement with utility than the genuine unvarnished picture of private life; and certainly no fpecies of writing is fo uncommon, Many, indeed, have professed to lay the whole contents of their memory be fore fore the public, and to expofe all their thoughts and actions to its infpection but in thefe reports of their confcience, whether under the humble name of confeflions," or the more fincere title of "appeals to pofterity," we generally find modes of acting and feeling more remote from common nature, than those of an Amadis or a Caffandra; and are unable to draw any practical leffon from fuch a delineation, unless it be that much real vice and folly may refult from a fickly fenfibility and an over-delicate organization. "An eminent French writer has obferved, that even in novels, and other fictitious defcriptions of human nature, where the hero and he roine are rewarded by the completion of all their wishes, their happinefs is announced, indeed, but never particularized and that no writer has yet been found, whofe confidence in his imagination and powers of amusement, was fo fturdy as to cope with the monotony of domeftick felicity. If this farcaftic remark be at all juft, it must be because the painter of ideal life is in want of real models from which he may copy his delineations. In every other science we find authentick records of experiments, which have been made with caution, and defcribed with minute and circumftantial accuracy; but in the great art of being happy, the experience of every man becomes useless to the rest of the world. Thofe who are most attached to life, and most defirous of protracting its duration, have probably paffed fome hours which they would willingly have retrenched from the fum of exiftence, and have endeavoured, with more or lefs fuccefs, to quicken their paffage. It may be prefumed, therefore, that the history of a practical moralift, who was forced to conftruct his fcheme of happiness with common materials, and to fight the tedioufnefs of life with weapons which are within every man's reach, would prove neither useless nor unentertaining. Such a moralift was Mr. Way. He was not, like the imaginary Raffelas, a prince, or a traveller; but he found, in the affection of his wife, in the duty of his children, and the hopes afforded by religion, a compenfation for all the difappointments and miferies to which life is fubject." P. 292. Having given, in our former critique, a table of the Fabliaux imitated in the first volume, with references to the corref ponding tales in Le Grand, we fhall here infert a fimilar ac Count of the fecond volume; following the order of their arrangement here. The tales here enumerated were left finished and corrected by Mr. Way. Thofe which had not yet received his lat touches, or were left incomplete, Mr. Ellis has thrown into an Appendix. The references of thefe to Le Grand's work are the following: In order to exhibit a fpecimen of the poetical style which prevailed in England at the time when many of the French Fabliaux were compofed, Mr. E. has inferted, at the end of the volume, the Lay of Launfal (Lanval*) tranflated from Mile. Marie's French original, by Thomas Cheftre, who flourished, he adds, " as our poetical antiquaries fuppofe, in the reign of Henry VI, and who feems to have given a faithful, as well as fpirited verfion, of this old Breton ftory." This Poem is carefully tranfcribed from an original MS. in the Cotton Library, and is illuftrated by fuch gloffarial notes as are neceffary to make it intelligible to the modern reader. "as To fpeak generally of the prefent volume, it prefents the fame elegancies, both of writing and of appearance, which recommended its predeceffor; and muft infallibly make its way into every judicious collection of English poetry. The Lay of the Gray Palfrey, which was left unfinished by Mr. Way, has been completed by his editor, whofe modefty has delivered on that fubject almost the only opinion in the book which will be generally controverted; namely, that it poffeffes no merit but that of fcrupulous fidelity. That our readers may be enabled to judge on this point, we fhall infert a portion of this tale, beginning before the conclufion of Mr. Way's part, and continuing our extract to fome extent in the additional lines. The poet defcribes the preparation made for marrying the beautiful young Nina, to a very old Friend of her father. "To fill the pomp with bride-folk meet, |