The name of Don Roderick is now become familiar to the ear, as having formed the subject of one of the poems of Walter Scott. It is not impossible but some of our readers may hastily conjecture that the present production,--the first that Mr. Southey has given to the public since his promotion to the honours of the Laureatship, is intended as a rival essay. This, howcver, is by no means the case. In one instance only do the two poems possess any points of resemblance, and this occurs in the scene of the confession of Roderick, and even in this instance, as Mr. Southey himself observes, “if the contrast had been intentional, it could not have been more complete."

The Roderick of Walter Scott is a personage who seems solely introduced to give effect to the political feelings of the day, that they may not appear in their cold realities, but derive some borrowed interest from the medium through which they are viewed -and this medium is the hacknied and elaborate strain of longdrawn prophecy. Mr. Southey's object seems to have been to display the intensity of passion, and the action of the severest virtue. Accordingly he has described a man, who, though he might, perhaps, have pleaded some excuse in palliation of a guilty act, yet nobly scorns to lay any “ flattering unction to his soul” that might cheat him into self-forgiveness. He rises superior to the frailties of his nature, flies to solitude to weep over his failings, to obtain a thorough knowledge of his own heart and to train himself to the virtue of self-controul. This accomplished, he again emerges into society with his nature sublimed and purified; and becomes a voluntary victim for the salvation of his country.

But we proceed to give an outline of the story, and shall accompany our observations with such extracts as may give the reader some idea of the manner in which the poem is executed.

In a short preface, Mr. Southey informs us that an enmity had subsisted between the royal families of Chindasuintho and Wamba, and that this was a principal cause of the destruction of the kingdom, the latter party having assisted in betraying their country to the Moors for the gratification of their own revenge. Theodofred and Favila were younger sons of King Chindasuintho; King!Witiza, who was of Wamba's family, put out the eyes of Theodofred, and murdered Favila at the instigation of that Chieftain's wife, with whom he lived in adultery. Pelayo, the son of Favila and afterwards the founder of the Spanish monarchy, was driven into exile. Roderick, the son of Theodofred, recovered the throne, and retaliated upon Witiza the

cruelty inflicted upon his father, but through a mistaken clemency, he spared Orpas, the brother of the tyrant, as being a priest, and Ebba and Sisibert, the produce of the adulterous connection of Witiza with the mother of Pelayo. These, uniting with count Julian, the powerful governor of Andalusia, invited the Moors to the invasion of Spain—they obeyed the call, and after a continued battle of eight days defeated the Spaniards on the plains of Xeres. It should have been premised that the principal motive that led to this act of treason was a thirst of vengeance for the violated honour of count Julian's daughter, by Roderick.

The poem opens with a rapid detail of Roderick's crime-the invasion of the Moors, and the disastrous event of the battle on the plains of Xeres. Here we are introduced to the hero, who appears in a very interesting point of view.

“ Bravely in that eight days' fight
The king had striven—for victory first while hope
Remain'd, then desperately in search of death,
The arrows past him by to right and left,
The spear-point pierced him not, the scymitar
Glanced from his helmet. Is the shield of heaven,
Wretch that I am, extended over me?
Cried Roderick, and he dropt orelio's reins
And threw his hands aloft in frantic prayer :
Death is the only mercy that I crave !
Death soon and short !- death and forgetfulness !
Aloud he cried; but in his inmost heart
There answered him a secret voice, that spake
Of righteousness, and judgment after death.

-'Twas agony,
And yet 'twas hope-a momentary light
That flashed through utter darkness on the cross,
To point salvation, then left all within
Dark as before. Fear, never felt till then,
Sudden and irresistible, as stroke

Of lightning, smote him.”
Under this impression of mind he quits the field disguised is
the dress of a peasant, whose dead body he had stripped on
the plain. After seven days' Alight, he reaches the Guadiana,
and finds himself at the Caulian schools, a monastery famous in
those days. The place was abandoned by its inhabitants, who
had sought safety within the walls of Merida. One solitary monk
alone remained, awaiting in the fervour of his zeal the
crown of Martyrdom. In him Roderick finds a comforter, and
to him he makes a confession of his sins. The poet has very

happily availed himself of this humbling act to give us a clear and powerful view of the character of his hero.

Romano (for such is the name of the monk) takes too deep an interest in the fate of his royal penitent, to leave him : the Moorish army is heard advancing, and they continue their flight till they reach a hermitage situated on a rock that overlooks the western ocean.

The 2nd canto paints Roderick in solitude. This gives the poet an opportunity to describe the struggles of his mind and the various temptations that assail him ; which he has done with all the touches of a master, experienced in tracing the secret workings of the heart, and of those compunctious visitings, to which a soul like Roderick’s must have been the prey. At one moment self-love prompts him to palliate his crime; the next the sad consequences of his guilt both to himself and his bleeding country rush upon his mind, and tempt him to suicide. Romano dies, and exhausted by one of these mental conflicts, Roderick had stretched himself upon the grave of his departed friend, where, praying for consolation, he falls asleep. He then hears in a dream

« That voice
Which sung his fretful infancy to sleep
So patiently; which sooth'd his childish griefs ;
Counsell'd with anguish and prophetic tears

His headstrong youth.” His mother stands before him in chains ; then suddenly her form seems arrayed in splendour, she bears a shield, and glitters in arms.

From the visionary tumult of a battle whose cry is “Spain and Victory,” he awakes,

“ And finds himself upon that lonely grave,

In moonlight, and in silence.” The vision works upon his mind, he interprets it into a revelation of the will of heaven. It bids him also indulge the hope that his mother Rusilla yet lives, and he resolves to leave his solitude and once more seek the redemption of Spain.

The 3rd canto represents Roderick as again returned to society. He has spent twelve months in solitude, and the poet gives a highly striking and characteristic description of the effect which the sight of objects, to which he had so long been a stranger, has upon his mind;

“ The sound, the sight
Of turban, girdle, robe and seymitar,
And tawny skins, awoke contending thoughts

Of anger, shame and anguish in the Goth.
The unaccustom'd face of human-kind
Confus'd him now, and through the streets he went
With hagged mien, and countenance like one
Crazed and bewilder'd.

-One stopt him short,
Put alms into his hand, and then desired,
In broken Gothic speech, the moon-struck man
To bless him. With a look of vacancy
Roderick received the alms; his wandering eye
Fell on the money, and the fallen king,
Seeing his own royal impress on the piece,
Broke out into a quick convulsive voice,
That seemed like laughter first, but ended soon

In hollow groans supprest." On his way to Coimbra his eyes are struck with the desolation of his country, and he is gradually prepared to meet the horrors that mark the ruined Auria ; all this is painted with a force and truth which bespeak no common artist. Here he meets with a female, the only survivor of this scene of carnage, who relates her history, which makes a deep impression on his heart, and tends to confirm him in his purpose.

purpose. Adosinda so the heroine is named-struck with the effect her story has upon Roderick, joins with him in a solemn vow to devote her life to avenge the wrongs of her country. Adosinda demands his name, but he evades the disclosure, and accepts from her the surname of Maccabee. They then part—she to the mountains to arouse the vassals of her father's house, and he to bear her commands to the Abbot of St. Felix. He reaches the monastery and finds Odoar the prelate, and Urban, archbishop of Toledo, in deep consultation. He relates what he had wite nessed at Auria, and according to Adosinda's instructions enquires whom among the Barons they judge most worthy of the

The deep interest he takes in the cause, added to the familiar manner in which he speaks of the characters of the various chieftains, excites their surprise; they demand his name, but only obtain in return the appellation he had lately received from Adosinda : the scene is thus described :

• Odoar and Urban eyed him while he spake,
As if they wondered whose the tongue might be
Familiar thus with chief and thoughts of state.
They scann'd his countenance, but not a trace
Betray'd the royal Goth : sunk was that eye
Of sovereignty; and on the emaciate cheek

crown.

Had penitence and anguish deeply drawn
Their furrows premature, forestalling time,
And shedding upon thirty's brow more snows
Than three-score winters in their natural course

Might else have sprinkled there."
They commission him to seek Pelayo at Cordoba, the seat of
the Moorish court, and to advise him to fly to the Asturias
and accept the vacant crown. At his departure, Urban, in con-
sideration of the spiritual necessities of many of the faithful,
whom he might find opportunities of relieving, invests him with
the priestly character and dismisses him with his blessing.

In the 5th canto we find him on his way to Cordoba. He meets with a party of travellers at an Inn, who are mourning over their respective sorrows and calling down imprecations on the soul of Roderick as the author of their calamities. Roderick's solemn entreaty that they would not curse that sinful soul, which Jesus suffered on the cross to save, attracted the sympathy of an old man, in whom he discovers Siverian the favorite servant of his mother, and his own foster father. The sight of this man in a distant part of the country, excites Roderick’s alarm for the safety of his mother; his fears represent her as dead, and he weeps to think he shall never hear her pronounce his forgiveness. He summons up resolution to enquire in the following pathetic lines;

« With that he bent
Over the embers, and with head half-raised
Aslant, and shadowed by his hand, he said,
Where is king Roderick's mother ? lives she still?
God hath upheld her, the old man replied ;
She bears this last and heaviest of her griefs,
Not as she bore her husband's wrongs, when hope
And her indignant heart supported her,
But patiently, like one who finds from heaven
A comfort, which the world can neither give
Nor take away. Roderick enquired no more:
He breathed a silent prayer in gratitude,
Then wrapt his cloak around him, and lay down

Where he might weep unseen.”
In the morning Roderick and the old man depart, and on
the way communicate to each other the object of their re-
spective missions. Siverian is sent by Rusilla to acquaint
Pelayo with the dangers that threaten' his house, from the
apostasy of his sister Guisla. They reach an edifice near the
city, and entering the chapel of the building, gave way to
their mutual sorrows, when

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