ON AUTHORS AND BOOKS, NO. 4

Verse may picture the feelings of the author, or it may only picture his fancy. To assume the former position, is not always safe; and in two memorable instances a series of sonnets has been used to construct a *baseless fabric* of biography. In the accompanying sonnet, there is no such uncertainty. It was communicated to me by John Adamson, Esq., M.R.S.L., &c., honourably known by a translation of the tragedy of *Dona Ignez de Castro*, from the Portuguese of Nicola Luiz, and by a *Memoir of the life and writings of Camoens,* &c. It was not intended for publication, but now appears, at my requ…