↩ In this part of the field, Mr. 👤Wheaton has not quite done all we could have wished. It is, indeed, a theme not easily to be handled; and we are not sure that poets themselves have said much about poetry that is worthy to be heard and remembered. Mr. 👤Wheaton's account of the Skalds in general, and of the historical songs of the ►Edda, are however very interesting, if not quite complete; but he should not have passed so slightly over ►Beowulf's Drapa, one of the very brightest monuments of ancient Northern poetry, a mirror in which so much light is reflected from the days of old. He has referred to it, and is certainly not unacquainted with it. In 📌Denmark, it is well known through Grundtvig's admirable translation—in 📌England, it has hitherto excited attention wholly disproportioned to its high merits. We are surprised that Mr. 👤Wheaton should deem the ►Rigs-mal worthy of comparison with ►Beowulf's poem; and yet more so, that on the authority of 👤Thorkelin, whom he does not name, and if he did the authority would not be of much value, he deems ►Beowulf's great work to be “probably a translation or rifaccimento of some older lay, originally written in the ancient language of 📌Denmark.” [p. 130]. We are a little tender, be it owned, of ►Beowulf's reputation, and unwilling that the original merit of one of the most remarkable, if not the most remarkable, literary production of our Anglo-Saxon progenitors, should, without good evidence, be snatched away. Of ►Beowulf other occasions will be found to speak. A version into English, and accompanied with a preface 451from the Danish translator, is far advanced, and the accessibleness of the work, will soon give it the place in public opinion to which it is intitled.*Mr. 👤Wheaton states, erroneously [p. 131] that ►Beowulf has been translated, or rather paraphrased, in English verse, by the late ingenious Mr. 👤Conybeare. Mr. 👤Conybeare, in fact, translated only a few fragments. The adventure related in ►Beowulf's “Drapa,” is no doubt fabulous; but the historic relations, which are introduced as Episodes, deserve every attention—that relating the expedition of ⓘ ►Higelac to 📌Friesland, and his fall in a conflict with the Franks and Frieslanders, is literally corroborated by history.