"Illic te invenio, quanquam regionibus abfis; "Sed non longa fatis gaudia fomnus habet." Thefe lines are thus tranflated: "'Tis thou art all my care and my delight, My daily longing, and my dream by night: "Oh night more pleafing than the brighteft "day, "When fancy gives what abfence takes away, And, drefs'd in all its vifionary charms, "Reftores my fair deferter to my arms!" There is fomething inexpreffibly fond, tender, and poetical in these plaintive lines. Indeed, the whole tranflation breathes fuch paffionate and pathetic fentiments, as are worthy of the exquifite fenfibility of the celebrated and amorous Sappho*: and the verfification is, in point of melody, next to that of the paftorals. The two following verses, as the effayist observes, in which alliteration is fuccefsfully used, are perhaps the most harmonious of any in our language, in rhyme. "Ye gentle gales, beneath my body blow, "And foftly lay me on the waves below!" * She is fuppofed to have defcribed the violent fymptoms attending the paffion of love, in fo ftrong, lively and accurate a manner, that the phyfician Eriftratus is faid to have difcovered the fecret malady of the prince Antiochus, who was in love with his mother-in-law Stratonice, merely by examining the symptoms of his patient's diftemper by this defcription. But But the most pathetic fubject for elegiac epiftle, is that of Abelard and Eloifa, who flourished in the twelfth century, and were two of the most distinguished perfor's of their age. Abelard was reputed the moft handfome, as well as most learned man of his time. An old chronicle, quoted by Andrew du Chefne, informs us, that scholars flocked to his lectures from all quarters of the Latin world and his cotemporary, St. Bernard, relates, that he numbered among his disciples many principal ecclefiaftics and cardinals, at the court of Rome. Abelard himself boafts, that when he retired into the country, he was followed by fuch immenfe crowds of fcholars, that neither lodging nor provifions were to be had fufficient for them. Being embroiled in controverfy, he met with the fate of many learned men, to be accufed of herefy; for, by the influence and authority of St. Bernard, his opinion of the Trinity was condemned, by a council held at Sens, 1140. But the talents of Abelard were not confined to theology, jurif prudence, philofophy, and the thorny paths of fcholafticifm; for he gave proofs of a lively genius by many poetical performances. It is to be regretted that we have no exact picture of Eloifa's perfon. Abelard himself fays, that he was, "facie non infima:" But her uncommon learning is confirmed by many circumftances. She indifputably understood the Latin, Greek and Hebrew tongues: Her literature, as Abelard tells us, "made her the most celebrated La " of "of any lady in the kingdom." And her literary merit attached him to her more powerfully. But this extraordinary pair were for nothing more famous, than for their unfortunate passion: and their diftreffes were of a moft fingular and peculiar kind. After a long feries of calamities, they retired each to a feveral convent, and confecrated the remainder of their days to religion. It was many years after this feparation, that a letter of Abelard's to a friend, which contained the hiftory of his misfortune, fell into the hands of Eloifa. This awakening all her tenderness, occafioned thofe celebrated letters, out of which the following poem, which prefents fo lively a picture of the ftruggle of grace and nature, virtue and passion, is partly extracted. The folemnity of the exordium, is admirably adapted to induce a difpofition for receiving such fenfations as the poet would wish to impress. Eloifa, who is fuppofed to be furveying the gloom around her, and meditating on the fubject of her forrow, thus breaks forth "In these deep folitudes and awful cells, "And ever-mufing Melancholy reigns, "What means this tumult in a Veftal's veins? Why rove my thoughts beyond this last re"treat? "Why feels my heart its long-forgotten "heat?" Then Then hinting at the caufe which revived thefe tumultuous ideas, that is, Abelard's letter, fhe determines not to pronounce that dear fatal name, nor yet to write it. But the manner in which he is involuntarily impelled, is beautifully and pathetically defcribed in the following broken starts of paffion. "O write it not, my hand-the name appears Already written---wash it out, my tears!" 66 The picture she draws of the Convent is finely painted, and her own defpondent condition in that dreary scene of confinement, is described in the most moving accents. "Relentless walls! whofe darksome round " contains Repentant fighs, and voluntary pains: "Ye rugged rocks, which holy knees have worn; "Ye grots and caverns fhagg'd with horrid "thorn! "Shrines! where their vigils pale-ey'd virgins keep, "And pitying faints, whofe ftatues learn to "weep! "Tho' cold like you, unmov'd and filent The learned reader will probably recollect that this beautiful thought is borrowed from Milton, in his Il Penferof, where, in his invocation to Melancholy, he says— "Forget thyself to marble." L 3 The The various emotions fhe feels on opening Abelard's Letters, and on meeting with her own, are feelingly expreffed; and the deplorable fate of those reluctant victims, who are deftined to bid adieu to the world, before their hearts are weaned from the profpect of its pleasures, is strongly imaged in the following plaintive exclamation, "Now warm in love, now with'ring in my "bloom, "Loft in a convent's folitary gloom !" But fuch is the enthufiafm of her love, that notwithstanding all the painful fenfations which the perufal of Abelard's letters occafions her, the yet defires him to write. “Yet write, oh write me all! that I may join "Griefs to thy griefs, and echo fighs to "thine." This naturally leads her to an admirable digreffion, in which the breaks forth in praise of the delightful advantages arifing from epiftolary correfpondence ;---with a fond partiality, expreffive of her character and fituation, fhe extols the use of letters as they ferve amorous purposes only, and fuppofes them to have been the gift of heaven. "Heav'n firft taught Letters for fome wretch's "aid, "Some banish'd lover, or fome captive maid; 3 "They |
