Page:Richard Cumberland (1919).djvu/29

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Richard Cumberland

remarks again in his “Memoirs”, and gives us an example of his labor in a versified translation of Judges V., the Song of Deborah.


Of special interest is his poem, written jointly with Sir James Burges, entitled “Exodiad.” This work was undertaken in 1807 as a fellow-piece to Cumberland’s New Testament epic, “Calvary.” The “Exodiad” is founded upon the portion of scriptural history which narrates the history of Moses from the time of his leading the Israelites out of Egypt to his death upon Mount Horeb. In his “Memoirs” Cumberland states that he desired to follow the example of Milton’s “Paradise Lost and Regained” by selecting a heroic theme from the Old Testament. The story of Moses “appeared to me a subject, comprising every property that should unite to constitute a sacred epic poem—a series of supernatural and sublime events, awful and tremendous judgments, forming a perfect and magnificent whole, displaying characters, achievements, incidents and situations,

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