| The booksellers on the continent had such entire confidence in the reputation of the author of this poem, and in the public eagerness to peruse it, that, as soon as the MS. was procured, fifteen editions were printed at once in Paris, from very high to very low prices, and 30,000 copies were sold in less than a fortnight[(NDA: "Various editions, in 12mo. 8vo. &c. are imported in London.")]\ ! Though the Abbe !!Delille!! is an emigrant, a voluntary exile, and has remained a firm friend to the antient religion and government of his country, all parties in France are equally desirous of reading his productions; and they are in few things so unanimous, as in pronouncing that he is the best poet of whom France can at present boast, or perhaps ever possessed, in heroic verse. No poetry in a foreign language approaches the compositions of Mr. Pope so much as that of the Abbe !!Delille!!, who has confessedly made the English bard his model; and who resembles him in every respect which the different structure of French verse will permit: in smoothness, accuracy, and good taste; we dare not say in force, which perhaps the genius of his language will not admit. Pope never scrupled to borrow a good thought wherever he could meet with it, in prose or in verse: but he borrowed always to polish and to improve. If he found it in base metal, he set it in diamonds. The Abbe's imitations and adoptions of the thoughts of others are at least equally numerous. As the late learned Dr. Warton would not allow Pope even to be a poet, but denied him the gift of //invention//, though he readily granted that he was a fine versifier and an excellent moralist; he would certainly have had equal reason for disputing the originality of the Abbe !!De Lille!!: but he must also have been obliged to concede that, in spite of deductions and draw-backs, the verses of the Virgil of France afford the highest gratification to readers of taste and discernment[(//Id//., p.(nbsp)470-471.)]. | The booksellers on the continent had such entire confidence in the reputation of the author of this poem, and in the public eagerness to peruse it, that, as soon as the MS. was procured, fifteen editions were printed at once in Paris, from very high to very low prices, and 30,000 copies were sold in less than a fortnight[(NDA: "Various editions, in 12mo. 8vo. &c. are imported in London.")](nbsp)! Though the Abbe !!Delille!! is an emigrant, a voluntary exile, and has remained a firm friend to the antient religion and government of his country, all parties in France are equally desirous of reading his productions; and they are in few things so unanimous, as in pronouncing that he is the best poet of whom France can at present boast, or perhaps ever possessed, in heroic verse. No poetry in a foreign language approaches the compositions of Mr. Pope so much as that of the Abbe !!Delille!!, who has confessedly made the English bard his model; and who resembles him in every respect which the different structure of French verse will permit: in smoothness, accuracy, and good taste; we dare not say in force, which perhaps the genius of his language will not admit. Pope never scrupled to borrow a good thought wherever he could meet with it, in prose or in verse: but he borrowed always to polish and to improve. If he found it in base metal, he set it in diamonds. The Abbe's imitations and adoptions of the thoughts of others are at least equally numerous. As the late learned Dr. Warton would not allow Pope even to be a poet, but denied him the gift of //invention//, though he readily granted that he was a fine versifier and an excellent moralist; he would certainly have had equal reason for disputing the originality of the Abbe !!De Lille!!: but he must also have been obliged to concede that, in spite of deductions and draw-backs, the verses of the Virgil of France afford the highest gratification to readers of taste and discernment[(//Id//., p.(nbsp)470-471.)]. |