FOREIGN.

AMERICAN LITERARY AGENCY,

No. 6 WATERLOO PLACE, London, Dec. 1, 1845.

The magnificent edition of Gray's Elegy, engraved and illuminated by Owen Jones, will not, I am sorry to say, be ready for this steamer, as promised. The extraordinary care and skill required in producing each individual copy, causes more delay than was anticipated. But although this was admirably adapted for a "presentation" volume, equally elegant and unique in its style, for the "holiday season," it is a very different affair from the ephemeral annuals, which seem to lose more than half their value the day after the new year comes in. Gray's Elegy itself, will keep a good while longer; and the superb framing which Owen Jones has now designed for it, may worthily accompany the immortality of this exquisite poem. He has given before some beautiful specimens of his skill and taste in restoring the old illuminated style of illustrationbut this volume, in design and execution, far eclipses them all. It might naturally be argued that there is no harmony between such text and such illustration-that the images of the poet are not reflected in illuminations. This is not the aim of the artist, but rather to put the text in bold relief, so that the eye dwells on words which make their own pictures, and the artist merely supplies a tasteful and elegant frame. It will be sent out by the January steamer. Owing to the loss of time in attempting to complete our supply for the American market, it cannot be published even here till after Christmas.

Several books, cat from two to fifteen p graph letters, most o G.," from two to tw the more remarkable the collection. Of 1 แ many variations ar copy from this early Cromwell are judicio the diction is frequen several stanzas are five stanzas omitted in by Matthias, who thi equal to any in the w is "Stanzas wrote in

But the most curiou ing as described in the GRAY'S ODES.

Bohn, Holloway Gray, he had too "12," "15," "20lic would require

pause at sixty-arks he has made "Hold!" says Mr Poems. egret, that he had He s "No, I bid sixty-fiese Odes were pul

says Mr. Foss; arst advised (even i natory Notes: bi two bits of paperling of his Reade cheer to Payne & 1

On these bits of p

"Awake, A

"Elegy in a Countudes to the Psa arp! I myself cluding five verses age in Pindar.

with the poet's inteldar on the "Po tainly an "interestinthian of Pindar lation (tho' a 201 would call for a £10 ne Ode." On " volume with "W. s, most beautif six years ago a hundary ills of life, exception, no mere ance, that sends the gloom and ever before produced teresting obser and But this was but Day;' 99 man.' "Two There is an interest CMeant to shov by a "man of markf Dryden's ri written comments of second most e not a Shakspeare; b tle, live more freshly tached to these book calibre would have Gray" on the title p a difference of four books in which th book," sold for six ti for them when new

Ruin seize th knowledges h ley and Spen ideas from t Scaldic Od le cadence" al time. rticle," a qua for a little e

steamer Wil

ts of Leigh

has extend

ive a prose of Dante, put i gant Englis out, bnal passag the Lnd Genius by Le funt cannot

It wil toduce Am into the st of a ne

prompt

hitherto know

erstandi

alogues, &c., with Gray's MS. notes, bunds each, and thirty to forty autof them unsigned, or signed only "T. elve pounds each. These pieces are from there being so many articles in the MS. Elegy, the catalogue says d emendations occur in the printed sketch;" the names of Milton and usly substituted for Tully and Cæsar; tly strengthened and improved, and transposed. The MS. contains the n all the editions, but quoted in a note nks "the third of the rejected stanzas hole Elegy." The title in the MS. a Country Church Yard."

s lot of all, perhaps, was the followCatalogue:

With numerous MS. notes by Gray' Strawberry Hill, 1757.

he most interesting articles ever sold, thor's avowal of the sources from s ideas. From the natural diffidence much delicacy to imagine, that the any explanation of his text: but the on these two Odes, will induce many

not more elaborately illustrated his tates at the commencement, that, lished Aug. 8, 1757, the Author was by his friends) to subjoin some few it had too much respect for the underrs to take that liberty." In the first

Colian lyre, awake."

Im, "Awake my glory, awake lute will awake right early:" and also to In two other stanzas he also refers ver of Harmony," "borrowed from ;" and observes, "this is almost a eak one) of some inimitable lines in Night and all her sickly dews," he ully, "To compensate the real and the Muse was given us by the same the cheerful presence of the day to terrors of the night." There are vations upon "Dryden's Ode on St. also on Pope's "Unworthy of so coursers of etherial race," &c. Gray the majestic march and sounding !?!mes."

xquisite Ode,

iee, ruthless King!" &c.

is obligations to Shakspeare, Dryser. He also states, that he has co'Rafael's Vision of Ezekiel :" from le, and assigns his reason for giving in the third Stanza. He has marked

rto pamphlet, produced £105. pisode in literary history. ey & Putnam will receive the early Hunt's Stories from the Italian Pod his original design, which was version of Dante-for here we have Pulci, Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso ì prose," with comments throughes versified, and critical notices of of the Authors." Such a work fail to be a delightful one. an and English readers at oncé of poetic literature, in the en appreciation of the rs of Italian Song. The

readers out of Italy. The author's critical review of the Lives of Dante and Tasso will interest all scholars.

Wiley and Putnam will also receive the advance sheets of "Poems. By Thomas Hood,"-a new collection published under the superintendence of his widow. It contains many new pieces hitherto unpublished or unacknowledged The following stanzas, which we extract from the proo sheets, must have been among the last lines he wrote They bear date April, 1845, and exhibit L'Allegro and Il Penseroso which divided his life and writings, and are so distinctly marked,—the threads of gold and purple in the recently-published volumes of "Prose and Verse."

STANZAS.

FAREWELL Life! my senses swim ;
And the world is growing dim:
Thronging shadows cloud the light,
Like the advent of the night-
Colder, colder, colder still,
Upward steals a vapor chill;
Strong the earthy odor grows-
I smell the Mould above the Rose !

Welcome Life! the Spirit strives!
Strength returns and hope revives;
Cloudy fears and shapes forlorn
Fly like shadows at the morn,-
O'er the earth there comes a bloom;
Sunny light for sullen gloom,
Warm perfume for vapor cold-

I smell the Rose above the Mould!

Another forthcoming new book is "Sketches from Life by the late LAMAN BLANCHARD, edited, with a memoir o the author, by SIR EDWARD BULWER LYTton, Bart.' The sad and untimely death of Blanchard is fresh in the public memory, and will long be remembered as one of the most touching incidents in the history of genius. He com mitted suicide, physically broken down by the severe an peculiar illness and death of his wife. His death calle out a universal feeling of commiseration from the public which did not end in the mere idle expression of pity, bu in an immediate substantial provision for the orphans h left behind him. It was felt to be a touching thing indee that a Man of Genius, a Poet, an Essayist,-skilled in the minor philosophies of life, through twenty years constantl employed in conveying pleasure of no inferior kind to hi readers; a benevolent minister of gentleness and refine ment-should be brought to this sad doom of Fate. Bul wer was one of the foremost of his friends, and he has now written a memoir to accompany a collection of his writing -a pathetic narrative, one of the most pathetic ever written in its soft mournful close of that common theme of tragedy -the Life of Genius. It can scarcely be read withou tears. The work, when it is issued, will find warm friend: among all true and gentle hearts.

*Some of the papers are quite equal to Hazlitt's o Hunt's, and may worthily rank with the Essays of Elia. This work will be speedily published in Wiley & Putnam's Library of Choice Reading.

Of other literary novelties in press, or about to be there I may mention

"Narrative of the Captivity of Napoleon at St. Helena.' By the Count de Montholon. (The English translation to be published before the French edition.)

"Travels and New Memoirs of Lady Hester Stanhope.' Completing the former memoirs. Two vols.

"Emilia; or, Female Influence." By the author of "Two Old Men's Tales." 3 vols.