b o o k created him counfellor o f ftate; conferred upon him the
— J—'order o f St. Anne.; and honoured him with many inftances
o f munificence and diflindtion until his death, which carried
him off at Mofcow, on the i f t o f Odlober, 1777, in the 51ft
year o f his age.
“ With refpedt to his difpofition,” fays his biographer,
“ this celebrated poet feems to have poflefled a good and
“ amiable heart; but his extreme fenfibility, an excellent
“ quality in a poet when tempered with philofophy, occafi-
“ oned that Angularity and vehemence of charadter, which
“ gave fo much trouble and uneafinefs to all his acquaint-
“ ance, but particularly to himfelf. He was polite and con-
“ defcending towards thofe who treated him with refpect,
“ but haughty to thofe who behaved to him with pride.
“ He knew no deceit; he was a true friend, and an open
et enemy; andcouldneithenforget an obligation nor an injury.
“ Paflionate, and frequently.inconfiderate in his purfuits, he
“ could not bear the leafttoppofition ; and oftentimes looked
“ upon the moft trifling circumftance as the greateft evil.
“ His extraordinary fame, the many favours which the
“ emprefs conferred upon him, the indulgence and venera-
“ tion o f his iftiends, might have made him extremely for-
“ tunate,.-if he had underftood the art o f being fo.
“ He had conceived a great, perhaps too great, an idea of
the, character and merits o f a true poet; and could not
endure to fee with patience this noble.and much-efteemed
art, which had been confecrated by Homer, Virgil, and
“ other great men, profaned by perfons without judgement
or abilities. Thefe pretenders, he would fay, ihock the
“ publick with their nonfenfe in rhyme; and clothe their
•“ monilrous conceptions in the drefs. o f the Mufes. The
<“ publick .recoil .from them with difguft and averfion ; and,
“ deceived
P O E T S.
deceived by their appearance, treat with irreverence tliofe CHAP-
“ children o f heaven the true Mufes,”
The examples o f Lomonozof and Sumorokof have tended
to diffufe a fpirit o f poetry, and a tafie for polite learning
among the Ruffians, and they are fucceded by a. numerous
band o f poets'*. Of,thefe I ihall only mention one writer,
who has difiinguiflied himfelf b y .compelling the firft Epick
Poem in the,Ruffian tongue.
Michael Kherafkof, a perfonof ambble family,has excelled
in feveral fpecies o f compofition. His works are, a Poem
Upon the Utility o f Science.; feveral tragedies and-comedies;;
Pindarick odes, Anacreonticks, fables, idyls, and fatir.es; a
romance, called Ariadne in Thebes ; Numa Pompilius,; a
poem in four cantos, in honour o f the naval vidlory over the
Turks at the battle of Tchefme; but the piece by which he has
acquired the greateft fame, is an epick poem in twelve cantos,
called the Roffiada, written in Iambick meafure o f fix¡feet in
rhyme. Its fubjedt is the conqueft of Cafan by Ivan Valfi-
lievitch II, or, as the author has exprefled himfelf, If I fing
I Ruffia delivered from the yoke o f barbarians; the might o f
Xi the Tartars laid low, and their pride humbled : I fing the
ftrifes and bloody conflidts o f antient armies ; Ruffia’s tri-
“ umph; and Cafan’s fubjedtion.” This work is greatly admired
by the natives ; and may juftly be confidered as forming
an epoch in .the hiftor.y o f their poetry. The general plan
feems well difpofedt; the events follow each other in a rapid
but orderly fucceffion.; and the imagination o f the reader is
kept alive by frequent fcenes o f terror, iin which the author
*_Many o f -thefe are enumerated b y M r . \,nutely de lineated . -had once begun a
^ M od . p . 7,8 to 98. tranflation 6 f this R e v iew , and o f th e con -
t A n ac cou n t\o f this poem in th e G e r - tents o f ea ch ca n to ,w ith a defign o f prefent in <?
roangiongue is g iv en , in th e J o u r n a lo f S t. it to th e reader ; bu t defifted, as th e mate-
eteriburgh fo r 17.79, v o l. I . p . .3S8. in ria ls for this w o rk w ere mu ch more e x ten -
vtfuch.the contents o f each can to a r e -m i- five than I had at firft reafon to ap prehen d.
y Oi~ JL JE e feen-».;§ .