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    REVIEW.

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    Review.

    REVIEW .

    Untitled Article

    Art . I , —Saul : a Poem in 2 parts ; by William Sotheb y ^ Esq , 4 to .

    Whatever disputes may exist about the hero of the Iliad , or the hero of the Paradise Lost , every body mast be convinced that the " Saul" of Mr . Sotheby

    Hiight with much greater propriety have been called Dav-idJ * who is indisputably the principal figure in six , and the most interesting in eight of the books of which this poem consists . Without a strict attachment

    to the laws which critical writers , ancient or modern , have established for epic song , we think Mr . S . has chosen a very difficult subject , and we are sorry

    to add , that in his management of it , we have experienced considerable disappointment . We had imagined that with proper

    skill , a poem , upon the character and history of Saul , might have been constructed , full of melancholy interest : in which Saul would have been conspicuous , not wholly corrupted by

    his elevation , ami entitled to more than compassion in his fall . With" two exceptions , the brief history of Saul which is-furnished by tht- sacred historian is abridged rather than ex p . ui tied by the poet ' s

    fancy , anil nonidod by his knowledge of the human heart , so as to exhibit a man in whom unusual

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    ( 322 )

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    " still pleas e d to praise , yet not afraid to blame . " Pope * V

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    prosperity has wrought its worst moral efleet , a man subjected to the most com plicated distress which may be imagined to attend the fall of one who , with his virtue , lost not the remembrance that he was once virtuous and happy .

    By the author ' s rigid adherence to the phraseology of the scri ptures , from which he seldom departs except by some awkward inversion to suit his measure , we are constantly liable to apprehend that we are attending a mere copyist , and not accompanying a spirited and successful imitator .

    Saul is iirst introduced as " smittenof God , " " rebellious , " cc urged by lust of spoil , " a character entitled to our interest only from his sufferings . He afterward ^ comes befo re us a fraid of engaging , and envious at the courage of the shepherd boy for oiFering to engage in battle , with Goliah of the Philistines . This envy is exasperated to madness

    when thr daughters of Jerusalem sing < mL Saul has slain his thousands , and David his ten thousands ; " and the monarch of Israel forms his purpose of destroying the you'll . A He a- some successless at : t"r > pis to accomplish tins base and era I |« : r ^ oso wo

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1807, page 322, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2381/page/34/