to Kneller, on the Picture of King George the First. The occasion of this last poem is peculiarly happy; for among the works of Phidias, which he enumerates, he selects such statues as exactly mark, and characterise, the last six British kings and queens.

* Great Pan, who wont to chase the fair,
And lov'd the spreading OAK, was there;
Old Saturn too, with upcast eyes,
Beheld his ABDICATED skies;

And mighty Mars, for war renown'd,

In adamantine armour frown'd:

By him the childless goddess rose,
Minerva, studious to compose

`Her twisted threads; the web she strung,

And o'er a loom of marble hung.
Thetis, the troubled ocean's queen,

Match'd with a MORTAL, next was seen,

Reclining on a funeral urn,

Her short-liv'd darling son to mourn.
The last was HE whose thunder slew
The Titan race, a rebel crew,
That from a HUNDRED HILLS ally'd,

In impious league their king defy'd.

There

CHARLES II. famous for his lewdness: the allusion to his being concealed in the oak is artful. JAMES II. WILLIAM III. Queen MARY, who had no heirs, and was a great work-woman. Queen ANNE, married to the PRINCE of Denmark, who lost the D. of Gloucester in his youth. GEORGE I. who conquered the Highland rebels at Preston, 1715.

There is scarcely, I believe, any instance, where mythology has been applied with more delicacy and dexterity, and has been contrived to answer, in its application, so minutely, exactly, in so many corresponding circumstances. There are various passages in the opera of Rosamond, that deserve to be mentioned as beautiful; and the versification of this piece is particularly musical.

Whatever censures we have here too boldly, perhaps, ventured to deliver on the professed poetry of Addison, yet must we candidly own, that in various parts of his Prose Essays, are to be found many strokes of genuine and sublime poetry; many marks of a vigorous and exuberant imagination. Particularly, in the noble allegory of Pain and Pleasure, the Vision of Mirza, the story of Maraton and Yaratilda, of Constantia and Theodosius, and the beautiful eastern tale of Abdallah and Balsora; and many others: together with several strokes in the Essay on the Pleasures of Imagination. It has been the lot of many great names, not to have been able to express themselves with beauty and propriety in the fetters of verse, in their respective languages,

who

who have yet manifested the force, fertility, and creative power, of a most poetic genius in prose.* This was the case of Plato, of Lucian, of Fenelon, of Sir Philip Sidney, and Dr. T. Burnet, who, in his Theory of the Earth, has displayed an imagination very nearly equal to that of Milton:

-Mænia mundi

Discedunt! totum video per Inane geri res!

After all, the chief and characteristical excellency of Addison, was his HUMOUR; for in humour no mortal has excelled him, except Moliere. Witness the character of Sir Roger de Coverley, so original, so natural, and so inviolably preserved; particularly in the month which the Spectator spends at his hall in the country.† Witness also

the

In some of the eastern stories, lately published in the ADVENTURER, much invention is displayed; and this too by an author, that, I have never heard, has written any considerable verses. See, particularly, the story of Amurath, No. 20, of Nouraddin and Amana, No. 73, and of Carazan, No. 132, by Mr. Hawkesworth.

+ Vol. II. during the month of July. See the characters of Will. Wimble, Moll White, and the Justices of the Quo

rum,

the Drummer, that excellent and neglected comedy, that just picture of life and real manners, where the poet never speaks in his own person, or totally drops or forgets a character, for the sake of introducing a brilliant simile, or acute remark: where no train is laid for wit; no JEREMYS, or BENS, are suffered to appear.

The EPILOGUE to Jane Shore is the last piece that belongs to this Section; the title of which by this time the reader may have possibly forgot. It is written with that air of gallantry and raillery, which, by a strange perversion of taste, the audience expects in all epilogues to the most serious and pathetic pieces. To recommend cuckoldom, and palliate adultery, is their usual intent. I wonder Mrs. Oldfield was not suffered to speak it; for it is superior to that which was used on the occasion. In this taste Garrick has written some, that abound in spirit and drollery. Rowe's

rum, p. 200, & seq. And Vol. v. Sir Roger at Westminster Abbey, 329. and particularly at the tragedy of the Distrest Mother with the Spectator.

Rowe's genius* was rather delicate and soft, than strong and pathetic; his compositions sooth us with a tranquil and tender sort of complacency, rather than cleave the heart with pangs of commiseration. His distresses are entirely founded on the passion of love. His diction is extremely elegant and chaste, and his versification† highly melodious. His plays are declamations rather than dialogues; and his characters are general, and undistinguished from each other. Such a furious character as that of Bajazet is easily drawn; and, let me add, easily acted. There is a want of unity in the fable of Tamerlane. The death's head, dead body, and stage hung in mourning, in the Fair Penitent, are artificial and mechanical methods of affecting an audience.

In

*There are, however, some images in Rowe strongly painted; such, particularly, as the following, which is worthy of Spenser; speaking of the Tower.

Methinks SUSPICION and DISTRUST dwell here,

Staring with meagre forms thro' grated windows.

Lady Jane Grey, Act ii. Sc. ii.

He has translated Lucan with force and spirit. It is undoubtedly one of the best translations in the English language, and seems not to be sufficiently valued.

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