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in clear weather, between noon and midnight; and could always perceive when approaching the ice, by a bright appearance near the horizon, which the pilots called the blink of the ice. All the drift-wood, about which to many conjectures have been formed, which they faw, was fir, and not worm-eaten, except fome pipe-ftaves, feen by Dr. Irving, on a low ifland already mentioned. The nature of ice being a principal object of attention; while they were locked among the feven idlands, they had frequent opportunities of obferving its progrefs, and often faw pieces of feveral acres square lifted up between pieces of much larger dimenfions, and afterwards thete pieces acting in the fame manner upon a fecond, a third, and fo on, till the whole became, as it were, one piece of a confiderable height. This accumulation would probably have been continued, till the whole bay had been formed into tolid ice, had not the tream taken an unexpected turn, and fet the ice out of the bay.

19. Weighed. For 3 or 4 days before there was the appearance of dufk.

20. Stood to the W. N. W. fell in with a fream of loofe ice, but foon loft fight of it in the fog.

21. Close in with the main body of weft ice, and obliged to tack.

22. The wind fprung up northerly, and the feafon being very far advanced, and nothing more to be done, had any thing been left unattempted; and, moreover, the fummer being uncommonly favourable for determining the fituation of that wall of ice, extending for more than 20 degrees between the latitudes of 80 and 81, through which there did not appear the finalleit opening to the north; for these reasons it was retolved to take the advantage of the breeze to ftand to the fouthward.

Here Capt. Phipps would have concluded his voyage, but for tome curfory obfervations in his paflage home. Aug. 24. They faw Jupiter. The fight of a ftar was now the fame uncommon phenomenon, as the fun at midnight, when they first entered the Arctic circle.

Sept. 4. The weather being fine, repeated the experiment with fuccefs, of attempting to get foundings at great depths in the middle of the ocean, and truck ground in 683 fathoms.

From Sept. 7, when they were off

Martens, a voyager of creant, fays, that when the fun is to the northward, you may look at him with the naked eye.

Shetland, till the 24th, when they were off Orford-Nels, hard gales of wind, which were conftantly indicated feveral hours before-hand by the fall of the barometer, and rife of the manometer. In one of thefe gales the Racehorfe loft three of her boats, and heaved two of her guns over board. Dr. Irving found, upon trial, the temperature of the fea, in that state of agitation, much warmer than that of the atmosphere; a confirmation of a paffage in Plutarch, in which he remarks that the ica becomes warmer by being agitated in waves.

Capt. Phipps concludes the account of his voyage, with giving his reafons for thinking the precife time of their failing the propereft that could have been chofun. The hard gales they met with in their return, are as frequent in the fpring as in the autumn. Had they met with fuch at first setting out, when their fhips were heavy Jaden with provifions, much of the neceffary flores must have been thrown over-board, and the voyage by that means defeated; had they fet out later, much of the fine weather would have been elapfed before they had got to the place of their deftination, and they could not have had time to have coafted the ice before the winter frofts had fet in, by which the certainty of a navigation to the Pole would ftill have remained doubtful; whereas, by fetting out just in the proper feafon, they not only reached the 80th degree of latitude, without meeting any obftruction from the ice; but they had likewite time sufficient to examine a tract of icy coalt, between the latitudes of 80 and 81, extending more than 20 deg from W.

to E. in which there did not exist the leaft opening to the North, the whole being one continued wail of ice, impaffable by human art. So that all farther enquiries for a north paffage feem now to be precluded.

The appendix to this curious voyage, which does equal honour to the navigator and the nation, contains not only the refult of the oblervations and ex. periments made throughout the courie of it, but aito a full detail of the whole procefs of investigation, that those who may be fo minded, may reexamine the facts, and judge of the folidity of the conclufions. Certain it is, that there has not yet appeared a voyage in any language fo replete with nautical information, nor in which the mariner and phitotopher can find fuch liberal entertainment.

44. Mr.

14. Mr. Warton's HISTORY of ENGLISH POETRY. [Continued from P. 373.]

I

N Sect. III. our author confiders the effects of the increase of tales of chivalry, the rife of chivalry, and the new spirit of enterprise excited by the crufades, together with the rife and improvements of romance, and the origin of metrical romances, which were very current about the end of the thirteenth century; mentions the introduction of French minstrels into EngJand by Richard I. and enlarges on the prologue to an English romance on his atchievements, entitled Richard Cueur du Lyon,tranflated probably from the French; in a digreffion fuggested by this, obferves, that, though both Homer's poems were unknown, at least not understood, in Europe, from the fourth century to the fourteenth, the Trojan ftory was ftill kept alive in two Latin pieces, which paffed under the names of Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretenfis; that Guido Colonna, a learned Sicilian, engrafting on thefe many new inventions, compiled, in 1260, a grand profe romance in Latin, which was the fource from whence Chaucer derived his ideas of the Trojan ftory. As Alexander was the most eminent knight-errant of Grecian antiquity, many fabulous hiftories (here recapitulated) were forined of him. Some very ancient French romances here mentioned are Beuves de Hanton, or Sir Beavis of Southampton (from whom Bevis-mount, near that town, now the feat of Sir John Mordaunt, derives its name), Guy Earl of Warwick, Sidrac, Sir Blanda. moure, Sir Triamaure, Sir Eglamoure of Artoys, and La Mort d'Arthur. Mr. W. adds, that the French troubadours, of whom there were two forts, the serious and the gay, were the first writers of metrical romances.

Sect. IV. contains an examination and fpecimens of the metrical romance above-mentioned of Richard Cueur de Lyon, in which our author has fome curious obfervations on the fyre Grekys, or Grecian fire, ufed at the fiege of Acon, the military machines employed in the crufades, the musical instruments of the Saracen armies, and the ignorance of geography in the dark

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cer a romance of pris), The Squier of Low Degree (alluded to alfo by Chan cer), Sir Degore, King Robert of Sicily, The King of Tars (Tarfus), Ippomedon, and La Mort d Arthur; and feveral fashionable fubjects of ancient tapestry are recapitulated.

In Sect. VI. are fome extracts from the poems of Adam Davie, who flourifhed about the year 1312, particularly from his Vifions (molt of which are compliments to Edward II.); his Bate tel of Jerufalem, from the Latin, (in which Pilate challenges our Lord to fingle combat); his Legend of St. Alexius, alfo from the Latin; and the Life of Alexander, his matter-piece, which, Mr. W. fays, "deferves, on many accounts, to be published entire." An account is added of Rob. Bafton,and his fuppofed comedies, which gives rife to fone digreffive anecdotes of the early periods of the English, French, and Italian drama.

Sect. VII. opens with the character of that "illuftrious example and patron of chivalry," Edward III. The prowess of Queen Philippa and the Countefs of Montfort is alfo introduced. Richard Hampole, an Eremite, is mentioned as one of the poets of this æra; and feveral verfes are extracted from his Pricke of Confcience, of which, though " one of the most common MSS in our libraries," our hiftorian prophefies that he is " its laft tranfcriber." We will not make him a falfe prophet.

In Sect. VIII. we are brought acquainted with a poet of the fame time,

who on various accounts deferves more attention," viz. Robert Longland, author of The Vifion of Pierce Plowman, a series of diftinét visions, or fatires on the vices of almost every profeffion, which the author imagines himself to have feen while he was Sleeping on Malvern hills, in Worceftershire. He was a fecular priest, and a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and flourished about the year 1350. Of this poem, which is written, not in rhyme, but with a perpetual alliteration, fome fenable and humorous fpecimens are inferted, which introduce fome curious remarks on the ancient state and original institution of fairs, an explanation of the word Donat ('a grainmar,' from Donatus, the grammarian), and an account of the old French Roman d'Antichrift, a poem written by Huan de Meri, 1228,

Pierc

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creed.

Pierce the Plowman's Crede, written in imitation of the Vision above-mentioned, but by a different hand, is confidered in Sect. IX. An abstract of its plan, inferted by Mr. Pope in a copy of it once belonging to him, and lately prefented to our author by the Bifhop of Gloucefter, we shall transcribe as a curiofity: "An ignorant plain man, having learned his Pater nofter and Ave-Mary, wants to learn his He asks feveral religious men of the feveral orders to teach it him: first, of a Friar Minor, who bids him beware of the Carmelites, and affures him they can teach him nothing, deferibing their faults, &c. but that the Friars Minors fhall fave him, whether he learns his creed or not. He goes next to the Friars Preachers, whose magnificent monallery he defcribes : there he meets a fat friar, who declaims against the Auguftines. He is fhocked at his pride, and goes to the Auguftines; they rail at the Minorites. He goes to the Carmes; they abufe the Dominicans, but promife him falvation, without the creed, for money. He leaves them with indignation, and finds an honest poor Plowman in the field, and tells him how he was difappointed by the four orders. The plowman aniwers with a long invective against them.” Of these four orders of mendicants our author defcribes the conftitution and character, preparatory to the fpecimen which he gives of the Plowman's Crede, the humour and tendency of which are by this introduction well explained.

This poem," Mr. W. adds, "is now extremely fcarce, and has almoft the rarity of a manufcript." Some other fatires of that æra adopted alfo this Plowman's name, and were all founded on the doctr nes then newly broached by Wickliffe, with fonie remarks whofe character and conduct this fection closes.

on

As imitations of Longland's alliterative metre, Sect. X. mentions" an anonymous poem on the fashionable hiftory of Alexander the Great," and another entitled The Warres of the Jerves, of both which our hiftorian gives extracts. Dr. Percy has given pecimens of fome others here mentioned, particularly Death and Life. Mr. W. adds an ancient hymn to the Virgin Mary, never printed, "where bis affectation profeffedly prefides."

At the beginning of Sect. XI. our

author digreffes to two. Scotch heroic poets of that period, John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, author of The Hiftory of Robert Bruce, and Blind Harry (as he is called), tranflator (from the Latin) of a poem on the exploits of Sir William Wallace, 1361. Of both thefe poems fpecimens are inferted. About that period hiftorical

romances of recent events feem to 'have commenced. Many of these were written by heralds, particularly one in French, reciting the actions of the Black Prince, compofed by John Chandois herald. Their character and business in thofe times are here defcribed. Some narratives written by them are still extant. An account is given of Froiffart's Chronicle, his life and character; and, as our author now approaches to Chaucer, he ftops and takes a retrospective view of the manners of the times.

Sect. XII, gives a general view of the character of Chaucer, which we fhall infert entire as a fpecimen of the work:

"The moft illuftrious ornament of the reign of Edward III. and of his fucceffor Richard II. was Jeffrey Chaucer; a poet with whom the hiftory of our poetry is by many fupposed to have commenced; and who has been pronounced, by a critic of unqueftionable taste and difcernment, to be the first English verfifier who wrote poeticallyt. He was born in the year 1328, and educated at Oxford, where he made a rapid progrefs in the fcholaftic fciences as they were then taught: but the liveliness of his parts, and the native gaiety of his difpofition, foon recommended him to the patronage of a magnificent monarch, and rendered him a very popular and acceptable character in the brilliant couft which I have above defcribed. In the mean time, he added to his accomplishments by frequent tours into Fiance and Italy, which he sometimes vifited under the advantage of a public character. Hitherto our poets had been perfons of a private and circumfcribed education, and the art of verfifying, like every other kind of compofition, had been confined to reclufe fcholars. But Chaucer was a man of the world: and from this circumftance we are to account, in great meature, for the many new embellishments which he con