his suspicion was but too well founded. Without further evidence we should disbelieve in the total obliteration of the sutures; and we may add that, all the inferences deduced from the alleged appearances in 1, 8, 9, &c, are absurd; they do not afford evidence enough to warrant the slightest conjecture relative to the length or the brevity of life. It is, however, but fair to add, that lord Byron always had a very decided objection to being bled; and Dr. Bruno's own testimony which we have already quoted, ought to have its due weight. That lord Byron should have had an insurmountable objection to bleeding is extraordinary, and it in some measure confirms what he himself used to say, that he had no fear of death, but a perfect horror of pain.

Lord Byron's death was a severe blow to the people of Messolonghi, and they testified their sincere and deep sorrow by paying his remains all the honours their state could by any possibility invent and carry into execution. But a people, when really animated by the passion of grief, requires no teaching or marshalling into the expression of their feelings. The rude and military mode, in which the inhabitants and soldiers of Messolonghi, and of other places, vented their lamentations over the body of their deceased patron and benefactor, touches the heart more deeply than the vain and empty pageantry of much more civilized states.

Immediately after the death of Lord Byron and it was instantly known, for the whole town were watching the event, Prince Mavrocordatos published the following proclamation.

Art. 1185..

'Provisional Government of Western Greece.' The present day of festivity and rejoicing, is turned into one of sorrow and mourning.

The lord Noel Byron departed this life at six o'clock last night, after an illness of ten days: his death being caused by an inflammatory fever. Such was the effect of his lordship's illness on the public mind, that all classes had forgotten their usual recreations of Easter, even before the afflicting end was apprehended.

The loss of this illustrious individual is undoubtedly to be deplored by all Greece; but it must be more especially a subject of lamentation at Messolonghi, where his generosity has been so conspicuously displayed, and of which he had even become a citizen, with the ulterior determination of participating in all the dangers of the war.

Every body is acquainted with the beneficent acts of his lordship, and none can cease to hail his name, as that of a real benefactor.

Until, therefore, the final determination of the national go

vernment be known, and by virtue of the powers with which it has been pleased to invest me: I hereby decree,

1st. To morrow morning at daylight, 37 minute guns will be fired from the grand battery, being the number which corresponds with the age of the illustrious deceased.

2nd. All the public offices even to the tribunals are to remain closed for three successive days.

3rd. All the shops except those in which provisions or medicines are sold, will also be shut: and it is strictly enjoined, that every species of public amusement, and other demonstrations of festivity at Easter may be suspended.

4th. A general mourning will be observed for twenty one days.

6

5th. Prayers and a funeral service are to be offered up in all the churches.

Given at Messolonghi

(Signed)

this 19th day of April, 1824.

A. MAVROCORDATOS.
GIORGIUS PRAIDIS,
Secretary.

There appears to have been considerable difficulty in fixing upon the place of interment. No directions had been left by lord Byron-and no one could speak as to the wishes he might have entertained on the point. After the embalmment, the first step was to send the body to Zante where the authorities were to decide as to its ultimate destination. Lord Sidney Osborne, a relation of lord Byron by marriage, the Seecretary of the Senate at Corfu, repaired to Zante to meet it. It was his wish and that of some others, that his lordship should be interred in that Island—a proposition which was received with indignation and most decidedly opposed by the majority of the English. By one it was proposed that his remains should have been deposited in the temple of Theseus or in the Parthenon, at Athens, and as some importance might have been attached to the circumstance by the Greeks, and as there is something consolatory in the idea of lord Byron reposing at last in so venerable a spot, thus re-consecrating, as it were, the sacred land of the arts and the muses, we cannot but lament that the measure was not listened to. Ulysses sent an express to Messolonghi, to solicit that his ashes might be laid in Athens; the body had then, however, reached Zante, and it appearing to be the almost unanimous wish of the English that it should be sent to England, for public burial in Westminster Abbey or St. Paul's, the Resident of the Island yielded; the Florida was taken up for that purpose-and the whole English public know the result.

It was not only at Messolonghi, but throughout the whole of Greece that the death of lord Byron was felt as a calamity in

itself and a bad omen for the future. Lord Byron went to the Greeks not under the same circumstances that any other man of equal genius might have done. He had been the poet of Greecemore than any other man he had turned the attention of Europe on modern Greece. By his eloquent and spirit-stirring strains, he had himself powerfully co-operated in raising the enthusiasm of regeneration which now reigns in Greece. All this gave to his arrival there, to use the phrase of a letter written while he was expected, something like the character" of the coming of a Messiah." Proportionate, doubtless, was the disappointment, grief, and depression, when his mission ended before he had effected any thing of importance.-Fortunately the success of the Greeks depends not upon the efforts of any single man. Her fortune is sure and must be made by the force of uncontrollable circumstances by the character of the country, by the present ignorance and the former brutality of its oppressors, by Greek ingenuity, dexterity, and perseverance, traits stamped upon them by ages of servitude, now turned with a spirit of stern revenge upon those who made such qualities necessary-by the fortunate accidents which kept a host of consummate generals in the character of bandit robbers and shepherd chiefs, watching the moment when they might assume a more generous trade, and on a larger scale revenge the wrongs of a race of mountain warriors.-By these and a multitude of other causes which might be enumerated, the fate of Greece is certain. We repeat with the most earnest assurance to those who still doubt, and with the most intimate knowledge of all the facts which have taken place, that the ultimate independence of Greece is secure. The only question at stake is the rapidity of the events which may lead to so desirable a consummation-so desirable to those who delight in the happiness and improvement of mankind-so delightful to those who have the increased prosperity of England at heart. It is here that lord Byron might have been useful: by healing divisions, by exciting dormant energies, by ennobling and celebrating the cause, he might perhaps have accelerated the progress of Greece towards the wished for goal. But even here, though his life was not to be spared, his death may be useful-the death-place of such a man must be in itself illustrious. The Greeks will not despair when they think how great a sacrifice has been made for them the eyes of all Europe are turned to the spot in which he breathed his last. No man who knows that lord Byron's name and fame were more universal than those of other then or now existing, can be indifferent to the cause for which he spent his last energies-on which he bent his last thoughts-the cause for which he DIED.

any

CRITICAL NOTICES.

1.-The Birds of Aristophanes, translated by the Rev. Henry Francis Cary, with Notes. Taylor and Hessey, London, 1824. 8vo..

It is the fashion of the present day to read and admire Aristophanes: it was the fashion of the good old times of our fathers to abuse a writer whom they could not understand, and to adopt the common outery against his obscenity and grossness. These prejudices, which originated in ignorance, are disappearing as he is better explained; and by the industry of modern scholars, we are now enabled to form a more correct judg ment of this singular portion of Grecian literature. Aristophanes was formerly known, to many, only through a bad Latin version, the most awkward and unseemly dress in which he could be introduced to our notice. If we turn to the old translations we may pardon Voltaire for his sarcastic sneer at the comic poet :* the heavy, stale, and senseless Latin in Kuster's edition would soon exhaust the patience of a man blessed with a larger stock of that virtue than the French philosopher. Mr. Carey has endeavoured to recommend the Birds of Aristophanes to us by the first metrical version of this play that we possess in English.

This fantastic and amusing composition is characterized by the most uncommon incidents, and the strangest devices: it is full of the most extravagant fun and joke-all established order is inverted-the birds get the upper hand and turn lords and masters: the Gods are kept confined in their aerial habitations, and men worship these new deities; there is an end to the present system of things. The poet seems almost carried away by his own sportive imagination, and to triumph in the wildness of his creative fancy. But it was the chief merit of Aristophanes, to be always combating the vices, and laughing at the follies of his day he never loses sight of this important object, and we cannot help thinking, with the old critic, in opposition to a very high authority (Schlegel), that this play contains as much satire on the Athenians as any of his extant productions. It was, however, skilfully disguised: it was mingled with the most whimsical fiction, and embodied in beautiful and enchanting language.

It is not possible, for any translation, however well executed, to give to a mere English reader that gratification which all experience who can understand the original. The want of sufficient acquaintance and familiarity with the history, politics, and manners of ancient Greece, must necessarily lessen any interest which these plays are calculated to excite; besides, the inadequacy of all versions, that we have seen will account for much of the heaviness that the reader will find in the English translations.

We cannot compliment Mr. Carey on his success, in equipping Aristophanes in a new English costume; he seems very uneasy in this dress, and can scarcely be recognized by one who has known him only in his ancient habiliments. The more poetical parts of the play must have tempted him to undertake the task: in the art of rhyming he doubtless

* "Ce poete comique qui n'est ni comique ni poete," &c.

feels confident in his powers, and is perhaps rather anxious to display them. These are the best parts of his work, and several passages to which we shall refer the reader have considerable merit. But the dialogue is intolerably dull; it is worse than Mitchell's, and fairly rivals Dunster's translation. Mr. Carey considers Massinger the best model of a versification adapted to comedy, and his own, we presume, was intended as an imitation of the style of that excellent dramatic writer. This is a discovery that could not be made without the benefit of the hint in his preface. It is not the sense he gives to the original we are disposed to find fault with; the version is generally correct, and often literally faithful: but there is such a total absence of spirit and ease, such a poverty of language and idiomatic turn, that some of the liveliest scenes become, in this version, bald, disjointed, stupid gossip. It is no excuse to say, that his favourite model, Massinger, has many passages as prosaic and stiff. Massinger's best parts, such as we may see in the Very Woman, and other plays, have a graceful ease and harmony, with a correctness of phrase and idiom, which Mr. Carey has not attained to. If he attempts to be idiomatic, he introduces some vulgar expression, such for instance, as I'll do for thee, or well to do:' when he is verbally literal, which is often the case, his lines encumbered with expletives, fall heavily on the ear, like the dull monotonous construing of a blubbering school-boy.

We take the following passage at random :

:

'Pisthetaras. Midway earth you know is air. As therefore, We, if we'd to Pitho, needs must ask

go

Of the Bocotians to afford a passage:

E'en so, when men make offerings to the Gods,
Unless the Gods to you pay tribute, ye

Shall not allow the savoury steams to pass,

As through an alien state and your own chaos.

Epops. Hurrah! Hurrah! By earth, and gins, and nets and traps, I never heard a cleverer device,

So that ye shall found the city jointly with us,
Permission first obtained of th' other birds.'

After the numerous unsuccessful attempts at a version of the dialogue part, it appears almost impossible to unite, with any degree of ease and harmony, a strict attention to the meaning of the original. Cumberland's translation of the Clouds is the best specimen we have; and even this cannot always escape the charge of stiffness and pomp. Mr. Mitchell, in his last performance, the Wasps, appears fully sensible of this difficulty he accordingly comes on," piping, dancing, hopping, figgnatting, and wing-clapping," while the two poor wearied devils in Aristophanes naturally enough talk in drowsy iambics-they were tired with watching, and could hardly keep their eyes open.

ARISTOPHANES.

Sosias says to Xanthias. Ho, you rogue,-what is the matter with you, Xanthias?'

* Mitchell's translation of the Demagogues, p. 204,