ἔστιν ἐκεῖ πάνθ ̓ ὅσσα διδοῖ Κυθέρεια βροτοῖσι, Eloquiumve oculi aut facunda silentia lingua. AD JOHAN. LISTON, VIRUM LONGE κωμῳδικώτατον. O qui Democritos theatra tota Vultus compositi lepore laxans; -Dixistin' aliquid? nihil profecto: G. SELWYN. PORSONIAN PRIZE. SHAKSPEARE. KING JOHN. Act III. Scene III. KING JOHN. HUBERT. JOHN. COME hither, Hubert. O my gentle Hubert, Lives in this bosom, dearly cherished. I had a thing to say,-But let it go: Had bak'd thy blood, and made it heavy, thick; Or if that thou could'st see me without eyes, IDEM GRÆCE REDDITUM. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ. ΟΥΒΕΡΤΟΣ. ΒΑΣ. ΔΕΥΡ' ἐλθὲ, δεῦρ', Οὔβερτε, γενναῖον κάρα· μνήμη τέθνηκε, φίλτατ', ἐν δέλτοις δ' ἐμῶν σάφ ̓ ἴσθι δ ̓, ἕξεις· κἂν βράδισθ ̓ ἕρπῃ χρόνος, νῦν δ ̓ οὐ φράσαιμ' ἄν· καί σ ̓ ὅμως ἀγαν φιλῶ, καὶ δὴ δοκῶ σὲ προσφιλῶς ἔχειν ἐμοί. Ι. B. H. KENNEDY, COLL. DIV. JOHAN. ET UNIV. SCHOL. Vid. Soph. Cd. Tyr. 1386. NECROLOGY. VOSS. [From the Bibliothèque Allemande.] GERMANY has lost one of her greatest writers; the celebrated Voss, who contributed so highly to the splendor of the German Parnassus, is no more. The Germans justly consider the death of this illustrious man as a national loss. Their literary and political journals have been eager to scatter the grave of Voss with flowers; and the writer of these lines, who was honored with the best wishes of the poet whom Germany has just lost, would willingly add his feeble accents to the strain of mourning and regret. John Henry Voss was born on the 2d February, 1751, at Sommersdorf, in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburgh. He was in early youth inspired with the love of learning; but he had obstacles to contend with in the narrowness of his means; his father was in a station bordering on absolute poverty. But eminent talents, uncommon diligence, and heroic abstinence from all the enjoyments which young men born in a lap of opulence call necessaries, could not go without their reward. Voss at last procured the means necessary for devoting himself to academical studies. In 1772 he was received into the University of Gottingen. Young Voss was not long in distinguishing himself among the pupils of this excellent institution, which was already well known throughout Europe. He made rapid progress in the ancient languages, and cultivated at the same time the happy talent he had for poetry. It was about this time that there was formed at Gottingen a society of young men, whose names speedily acquired a just celebrity. Voss became a member of this association, in which shone Hoelty, whose elegies breathe a melancholy at once sweet and mournful. It was death which this young poet loved to write about; but Death, in the harmonious verses of Hoelty, does not appear as a hideous spectre, but as a liberating genius, adorned with the flowers of eternal spring. The two Counts de Stollberg, and Miller, author of Siegwart, were parties in this alliance consecrated to friendship, poetry, patriotism, and all generous sentiments. These young friends met on Saturday, and in fine weather, frequently in the open air, under the shade of some majestic oaks. In the summer, indeed, they assembled in a garden, and prolonged their literary meetings even till sun-rise. Extemporary verses were produced and communicated with enthusiasm as they were spoken. Burger, so well known by his romances and ballads, and Klopstock himself, were honorary members of this poetical society. Voss, in his Life of Hoelty, prefixed to the new edition of the poems of his friend, (published at Hamburgh in 1804,) traces in an interesting manner these recollections of his youth. Voss lived some time at Hamburgh, and it was there that he published a Poetical Almanack for several years, which was a continuation of that of Gottingen. In 1782, he was named head-master of a school at Eutin; in 1802 he settled at Jena; and finally, in 1805, on the new organization of the University of Heidelberg, the Grand Duke of Baden invited Voss thither, to give the greater celebrity to that institution. The poetical productions of this author are numerous. Voss knew all the riches of the German language, and possessed in a very high degree the talent of managing and adapting it to the most different kinds of composition. Following the steps of Klopstock, he at last decidedly succeeded in naturalizing in German literature the metrical forms of Greek and Latin prosody, and at the same time showed how easily he could overcome the difficulties of rhyme. The character of Voss developed itself fully in his poetry; in his odes there is a vigor and energy, which, however, is not always without roughness; in his songs there is a frank cordiality, and an enticing gaiety, which always pleases; in his hymns a sweet and impressive piety but it is, above all, in his eclogues, that the genius of Voss shines. Among his compositions of this sort may be cited, Der siebenzigste Geburtstag (The seventieth Birth-day). The chef-d'œuvre of Voss, however, is his Louisa, a pastoral epic; this poem, written in hexameters, is a delightful feast : one meets there by turns with picturesque descriptions of the beauties of nature, traced with the greatest talent, and with family scenes, pervaded by the finest sentiments of filial piety, love, conjugal affection, and religion. A collection of the poems of Voss appeared at Koenisberg in 1802, the last of which contained a treatise on prosody. : The industry of Voss was surprising. German literature owes to him a great many translations, of which we may mention that of Virgil, that of a great part of the Metamorphoses of Ovid, those of Horace, Hesiod, and Orpheus, Theocritus, Aristophanes, but, above all, that of the Iliad and Odyssey; |