it
at our humble side-table, and converse familiarly with the reader; since,
as honest SANCHO remarked of the Duke, 'Wherever _he_ sits, there will be
the _first place_.' Our friend has a fruitful theme. How many borrowed
prose-passages have we seen, with their original brightness dimmed or
deflected in a sorry sonnet! Nine in ten of our modern examples in this
kind, when one comes to analyze them, will be found to consist of stolen
ideas, combined with what SOUTHEY would call 'bubble, and bladder, and
tympany.' But perpend the subjoined: 'Ever since the fatal days of
PETRARCH AND GUIDO CAVALIANTI, mankind have suffered more or less from the
chronic infliction of Sonnets. With them indeed the complaint was
constitutional, and came in the natural way; under so mild and gentle a
form withal, that little danger was to be apprehended for Italian
temperaments, except a degree of languor, general debility, and a
disagreeable singing in the ears. It was only when it worked its way into
English blood, that the virus assumed its most baneful character.
SHAKSPEARE, among other illustrious victims, was afflicted by it in his
youth, but seems to have recovered during his residence in the metropolis.
Possibly the favor of the royal hand might have proved more beneficial
than that of the Earl of Southampton. Perhaps he was _touched_ for it by
ELIZABETH, as JOHNSON was by Queen ANNE for the scrofula. However that may
be, we know very well that the disorder is now rooted among us, and that
every week produces decided cases of Sonnets, sometimes so severe as to be
intolerable. In this condition of the mental health of our country, since
the evil cannot be cured, it were a work at once philanthropical and
patriotic, so to modify it and regulate its attacks, that it may settle
down into a moderate degree of annoyance, like the lighter afflictions of
mild measles and mumps. We can always calculate upon the duration of each
'fytte,' as none ever exceeds the fourteenth spasm. When the just
dozen-and-two convulsions are past, the danger is over, and the offensive
matter may be removed by a newspaper, or discharged into some appropriate
magazine. There is good reason for designating the complaint as a
_periodical_ one.

We intend, one of these days, provided our remarks attract sufficient
attention, to publish a volume upon this subject. We have the materiel by
us and about us; and as soon as we can make arrangements with Mr. POH for
a puff in