The bridegroom kist the soft reluctant fair : Thus fhall the pangs of hell his monftrous guilt repay !" They ruh upon the knight; Rezia embraces him as a fhield; he founds the horn, and giddily they dance to its founds. When the mufic has ceafed, Huon kneels down before the caliph, and requires, in the name of Charles, a lock of his beard and four of his grinders: he alfo commands him to renounce his faith. Again the knight is attacked; Sherafmin founds a louder blaft: it thunders; the palace rocks; the crowd fall fenfelefs, and Oberon appears .He now afks Rezia if he will accompany Huon as his deftined wife, or remain with her father, who, by his magic power, fhall lofe all recollection of the past events. She chufes the lot of love, and mounts the fairy car. The car defcends near the shore of Askalon, and Oberon quits the lovers, having given to Huon a casket with the lock of the caliph's beard and his teeth. At the fame time, he orders him to live with Rezia as with a fifter, till the pope has fanctioned their union, on pain of forfeiting his friendfhip. The lovers embark with Sherafmin and Fatma, who anxiously watch their conduct. Sherafmin now recounts the feparation of Oberon from his queen Titania. This tale, as borrowed from the January and May of Pope, or rather Chaucer, is omitted in the tranflation. Oberon vows that he will never be reconciled to Titania till a youthful pair abfolve him from his vow, by a conftancy which fhall prefer death to conjugal infidelity. For a while Huon behaves with propriety, and converts Rezia, now called Amanda; but his religious feelings foon give place to more powerful ones. The travellers reach Lepanto: two veffels are in the port, one bound to Marfeilles, the other to Naples. Huon, eager to be relieved from the watchful Sherafmin, fends him in one of the thips to bear the tidings of his fuccefs to France, while he himself pursues his way to Rome in the other. He has now no friend whofe continual presence can restrain him; and he and Amanda foon forfeit all claim to the protection of Oberon. A ftorm arifing, the captain orders his crew to draw lots, with a view of difcovering for whofe guilt the veffel is endangered. The lot falls upon the guilty Huon; and, like Jonah, he must deliver the fhip from the burthen of iniquity. While he is ftanding on the edge of the veffel, Amanda throws her arms around him, and they precipitate themselves together into the fea. The tempeft then ceafes, and the thip proceeds in fafety. The lovers alfo escape; for the ring with which Huon had betrothed himself to the princefs was the feal of Solomon: they are preferved by its unknown virtue, and caft on an ifland. This fpot, however, is a barren mass of volcanic matter; and with difficulty can Huon, procure even berries for food. Day after day he mounts the heights; but he in vain gazes over the ocean for fome friendly fail, and over the ifland for fome human habitation. At length he discovers the dwelling of a hermit; and with him Huon and Amanda enjoy repofe and happiness. Some anxious thoughts, indeed, trouble them for their unborn child; but an unexpected friend was near them; for in the island was the favourite grotto of Titania. Amanda enters it alone. At once, a secret shudder gently steals Along her frame, upon a yielding feat She finks, where mofs and blooming roses meet. Till foftly hufh'd to fleep, oblivion ftills her heart. Of lovely shapes; fome o'er her sweep, fome roll'd, And darts her hand, while now the vifion flies, One pulfe-beat more-and how divinely great Lo! his clear eye to her's refponfive speaks, • Meanwhile with ceafelefs fearch the groves around, Huon, two livelong hours had fought his bride! But all in vain-his eye no trace defcried : At laft he wanders to this holy ground : Ye, whom kind nature gifted at your birth Gift of a feeling heart, and virtuous mind' Look, and behold that fight!-the holy curtain falls-' : In the ninth canto the ftory returns to Fatma (whom the captain of the veffel fells at Tunis to the fultan's gardener), and to Sherafmin, who, after a long and fruitless fearch for his mafter, finds Fatma, and remains as a labourer in the royal gardens. Misfortunes now occur in the island. The hermit dies; the fairy beauties of his dwelling disappear; Huonet is loft; pirates feize Amanda as the is fearching for her child; and Huon, when he rushes to her affiftance, is overpowered the affailants bind him to a tree, and leave him to perith while they bear away his wife, whom they destine for Almanfor, king of Tunis. Oberon, relenting, releafes Huon, and places him before the door of his old and faithful fervant Sherafmin. The king foon becomes enamoured of Amanda; and Almanfaris, formerly his favourite fultana, is as fond of Huon. Here the genius and the depravity of Wieland are confpicuous indefcriptions laboriously licentious. Here too his management of the ftory is faulty; for it is only the fudden entrance of the fultan that faves the knight's yielding conftancy. Like Potiphar's wife, Almanfaris accufes fir Huon; and Aman. da and her husband are bound to the fame ftake, to expiate their loves in fire. At the fatal moment, the fultan endeavours to fave Amanda, and Almanfaris to refcue Huon. Old Sherafmin, in armour, cuts his way through the throng to releafe them or perish in the attempt; and Huon finds round his neck the ivory horn. Oberon, now reconciled to Titania, appears : he conveys the lovers to France; and fir Huon is reflored to his eftates and honours, and to the favour of Charlemagne. Few poems have been conducted with equal judgment;, yet the episode of the giant Angulaffer might have been fpared; and it would perhaps have been better not to have related the fortunes of Fatma and Sherafinin before 'Huon was conveyed to Tunis, that fo the story might have flowed on in one unbroken tide of time. The name Sherafmin is awkwardly formed from the Girefme of the romance which Wieland has followed: furely, if Jerome difpleafed him, he ought to have fubftituted a French name. There is nothing original in the poem; for every one of its parts may be found elfewhere; but they are combined with admirable skill. The tranflator has not been fortunate in the choice of his ftanza: the laft line of it is too far from its correfpondent rhyme, and difappoints the ear; it wants the fullness that fhould close fo long a ftanza. Upon the whole, however, the verfion will not diminish Mr. Sotheby's reputation. He has not indeed preferved the full spirit of Wieland; but who is ca CAIT. REV. VOL. XXIV, Sept. 1798. F pable of preferving it? or who, that poffeffes the power, would fo employ it? The merit of the Oberon has been exaggerated it contains little that can elevate the mind, or amend the heart; but it will be popular becaufe it is lively and licen tious. A Tranflation of the New Teftament, from the original Greek, humbly attempted by Nathaniel Scarlett, affifted by Men of Piety and Literature: with Notes. 8vo. 6s. Boards. Ri vingtons. 1798. THE neceffity either of a new tranflation of the fcriptures, or of a correction of the numerous errors which prevail in the present authorised verfion, has been fo frequently urged by men of the greatest eminence in the church, that we are not furprised at the various attempts of individuals to introduce to the English reader thofe corrections of the text, which able scholars have shown to be indifpenfable to a right underftanding of the words of our Saviour and his apoftles. There feems to be no longer any reafon to expect that such a task will be performed by perfons of authority in the church; and while we fincerely lament that fo great a work is not undertaken by the established church, and that the riches of the diffenters, which might, as in the times of the reformation, be usefully employed in this fervice, are not likely to be devoted to fuch an object, we view with pleasure the efforts of individuals, and are convinced that their exertions will tend to the promotion of the truth. The plan and the execution of the work before us deferve confiderable praife. The common tranflation is made the bafis, and the greater part of the alterations that have been made in it may be faid to improve it. To fome it is natural that we fhould make objections; for what two perfons will agree in every refpect in tranflating a work written in a dead language? But if in general the fenfe is improved by the alterations, and the work itself is rendered more intelligible to common readers, the end of the tranflator is in a great measure obtained, and we may derive fatisfaction from the fuccefs of his undertaking. The great change is in fingle words; and to this there is fometimes an objection, more perhaps from our being accuftomed to a different found than from any impropriety in the alteration. Thus, the words baptife, baptifer, and baptifm, are changed for immerfe, immerfer, and immerfion. The word baptife, being of Greek origin, can give no fenfe to the Englith reader but by interpretation; and, as great difputes have arifen on the mode of baptifin, it is probable, that, while this |