to the tranflator than Ovid; and as he treated the Roman like a Jew, fo he has made the Jew fpeak like a Roman. Your, etc. THE LETTER XXV. FROM MR. CROMWELL. Dec. 5, 1710. HE fame judgment we made on Rowe's ixth of I find this memorable line, Parque novum Fortuna videt concurrere, bellum For this he employs fix verses, among which is this, Pray can you trace chivalry* up higher than Pharamond? will you allow it an anachronifm?-Tickle in his verfion of the Phoenix from Claudian, When nature ceafes, thou fhalt still remain, Nothing furely can be so totally abhorrent from all the ideas of antiquity as chivalry, the rife and genius of which is no where fo amply and accurately inveftigated as by that curious antiquary M. De la Curne de Sainte-Palaye, in a Memoir first published in the 20th volume of the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres, and afterwards enlarged and published in two volumes at Paris, 1759 Claudian Claudian thus, Et clades te nulla rapit, folufque fuperftes, which plainly refers to the deluge of Deucalion, and the conflagration of Phaeton; not to the final diffolution. Your thought of the priests lottery is very fine you play the wit, and not the critic, upon the errors of your brother. Your observations are all very juft: Virgil is eminent for adjusting his diction to his sentiments; and, among the moderns, I find you practise the Profodia of your rules. Your t poem fhews you to be, what you say of Voiture-with books well bred the ftate of the fair, though fatirical, is touched with that delicacy and gallantry, that not the court of Auguftus, not-But hold, I fhall lose what I lately recovered, your opinion of my fincerity: yet I muft fay, 'tis as faultlefs as the fair to whom it is addreffed, be fhe never so perfect. The M. G. (who, it seems, had no right notion of you, as you of him) transcribed it by lucubration: From fome difcourfe of yours, he thought your inclination led you to (what the men of fashion call learning) pedantry; but now, he says, he has no lefs, I affure you, than a veneration for you. Your, etc. To a Lady, with the Works of Voiture. P. LETTER XXVI. IT my December 17, 1710. late mention of Crafhaw, and my T seems that quotation from him, has moved your curiofity. " I therefore fend you the whole Author, who has held a place among my other books of this nature for fome in which time having read him twice or thrice, years; I find him one of those whofe works may just deserve reading. I take this poet to have writ like a gentleman, that is, at leisure hours, and more to keep out of idleness, than to establish a reputation; fo that nothing regular or just can be expected from him. All that regards defign, form, fable, (which is the foul of poetry,) all that concerns exactness, or confent of parts, (which is the body,) will probably be wanting; only pretty conceptions, fine metaphors, glittering expreffions, and fomething of a neat caft of verse, (which are properly the drefs, gems, or loofe ornaments of poetry,) may be found in these verfes. This is indeed the case of most other poetical writers of mifcellanies; nor can it well be otherwise, fince no man can be a true poet, who writes for diverfion only. These authors fhould be confidered as verfifiers and witty men, rather than as poets; and under this head will only fall the thoughts, the expreffion, and the numbers. These are only the pleafing part of poetry, which may be judged of at a view, and comprehended all at once. And (to exprefs myself like a painter) their colouring entertains entertains the fight, but the lines and life of the picture are not to be infpected too narrowly. This Author formed himself upon Petrarch, or rather upon Mariho*. His thoughts, one may ob ferve, in the main, are pretty; but oftentimes far fetched, and too often ftrained and ftiffened to make them appear the greater. For men are never so apt to think a thing great, as when it is odd or wonderful; and inconfiderate authors would rather be admired than understood. This ambition of furprizing a reader, is the true natural caufe of all fuftian, or bombaft in poetry. To confirm what I have faid, you need but look into his firft poem of the Weeper, where the 2d, 4th, 6th, 14th, 21ft stanzas are as fublimely dull, as the 7th, 8th, 9th, 16th, 17th, 20th, and 23d stanzas of the fame copy, are soft and pleas ing and if these last want any thing, it is an eafier and more unaffected expreffion. The remaining thoughts in that poem might have been spared, being either but repetitions, or very trivial and mean. And by this example in the first one may guess at all the reft; * Crafbaw was fo fond of Marino,awriter of fine imagination but little judgment, as to translate the whole first book of his Strage de gli Innocenti (published 1633), which Marino himself preferred to his Il Adone, and to which Milton was indebted for many hints, which, however, he greatly improved. See particularly Stanza 7, and feveral fucceeding Stanzas in Crafhaw, p. 35, for a description of Satan. Milton, in his Manfus, celebrates the Adonis: the Strage was not then published. It was firft printed in France, and Chapelain prefixed a learned preface to it. There was a tranflation of all the four books of the Slaughter of the Innocents, published 1675, by T. R. and dedicated to the Duchefs of York. reft; to be like this, a mixture of tender gentle thoughts and fuitable expreffions, of forced and inextricable conceits, and of needlefs fillers-up to the reft. From all which it is plain, this author writ fast, and fet down what came uppermoft. A reader may skim off the froth, and use the clear underneath; but if he goes too deep, will meet with a mouthful of dregs; either the top or bottom of him are good for little, but what he did in his own, natural, middleis best. way, To speak of his numbers, is a little difficult, they are fo various and irregular, and mostly Pindaric; 'tis evident his heroic verfe (the best example of which is his Mufic's duel) is carelessly made up; but one may imagine from what it now is, that had he taken more care, it had been musical and pleasing enough, not extremely majeftic, but fweet: and the time confidered of his writing, he was (even as uncorrect as he is) none of the worst verfificators. * I will just observe, that the best pieces of this author *To these might be added fome other pieces of Crashaw that deferved his praife; particularly a tranflation from Mofchus, and another from Catullus. His 23d Pfalm is not equal to that of Sandys', whofe Pfalms deserve much more attention than they meet with. Rofcommon has borrowed many lines from the Dies Ira of Crafhaw, particularly Stanza 17, My God, my Father, and my Friend, "Do not forfake me in my end!" Crafhaw gives it thus, page 194 of his Poems, 1670, "My Hope, my Fear, my Judge, my Friend, Pope |