Review The Turtle Dove
author: Elizabeth Moody
source date: January 1791

Elizabeth Moody Art. 65. The Turtle Dove. A Tale, from the French of M. de Florian. 8vo. pp 25. Printed at Caen in Normandy; and sold in London by Payne. [The Monthly Review , second series, vol. 4 (new series), January 1791, p. 113. Benjamin Nangle identifies Elizabeth Moody as the author of this review from an editor's marked copy of The Monthly Review . See Nangle, The Montly Review, Second Series, 1790-1815: Indexes of Contributors and Articles , Clarendon Press, 1955. This edition of this review was prepared by Mary A. Waters with transcription assistance by Ismael Escalera. The book's author, poet and dramatist Jean-Pierre-Claris de Florian (1755-1794), wrote plays, pastorals, and heroic romances, but was best known for his Fables (1792). The Turtle Dove was published in 1789.]

Turtle doves have long been celebrated for their fidelity; and this turtle dove, though he flirts, en passant, [In passing.] with a sky lark, a jay, and a quail, does not materially discredit the famed constancy of his species, these birds being all coquettes, [Flirts.] but when he meets (as he fortunately does) with an amiable dove-mate, he is as faithful as any turtle, of any grove. The author had probably some meaning, and intended to illustrate some moral, in this poem: but our dullness is at a loss to discover either. The secret, therefore, must remain in his own bosom. As for the translator, his humility deserves encouragement: he should be truly flattered, (he says,) 'were it permitted him to believe that his copy displayed any of the artless graces of the original.' It is with pleasure that we assure this humble copyist, that we think full as well of his translation as we do of the original.