Beneath the Good how far, but far above the Great. It may be also questioned, whether his other ode might not have been better concluded without mentioning the manner in which the bard died. There would have been a beautiful abruptness in finishing with— Be thine despair, and sceptred care : The mind would have been left in a pleasing and artful suspense, at not knowing what became of so favourite a character. Lyric poetry, especially, should not be minutely historical. When Juno had ended her speech in Horace with that spirited stanza, Ter si resurgat murus aheneus Capta, virum, puerosque ploret, what follows surely weakens the conclusion of this ode, and is comparatively flat: Non Non hæc jocosæ conveniunt lyræ: The inspiration, under which the poet seems to have laboured, suddenly ceases, and he descends into a cold and prosaic apology.† Bb 4 16. Here * Ode III. lib. iii. ver. 69. On more closely and attentively considering the subject, I am inclined to alter my opinion concerning the conclusion of this fine Ode of Mr. Gray. The bard not only sustains the part of a prophet, but that of an actor likewise; and is himself most closely related to the subject. For what, in truth, is the subject of this poem: I mean, if we consider it in the view of critical exactness? It is not surely any, or all, of those historical portraits, which are painted in such animated colours through the piece; but simply, the destruction of the Bards of Wales; the rage and fury of the only one that was left alive; his menaces of revenge on the authors of such cruelty; and lastly, to crown all, his own dreadful fate. Imagine, then, that you see this wretched old man, starting up suddenly on the top of a rocky eminence, in full view of the English army; wild with despair, and animated with the thoughts of vengeance; with haggard eyes; his beard loose; and his hoary hair streaming like a meteor in a dark and troubled sky. At sight of the bloody chiefs, he instantly breaks out into abrupt and furious execrations: Ruin seize thee, ruthless king, &c. But 16. Here happy Horace tun'd the Ausonian lyre, He might have selected ornaments more manly and characteristical of Horace, than The But this sudden and most violent burst of anger soon gives place to a softer passion. He laments the untimely deaths of his friends and brethren, in words of the most plaintive tenderness, and most compassionate regret; till, by degrees, he is once more roused to thoughts of vengeance. He imagines that the ghosts of the murdered bards stand present at his call. He weaves, with horrid rites, the destiny of Edward; and denounces misery and affliction on all his race. Again his mind is calmed he directs his prospect still farther into futurity; and, after soothing his despair, by a survey of happier times, and more merciful princes, throws himself from the rock, with a kind of sullen satisfaction, into the flood below. This catastrophe must surely be allowed to be well adapted to the subject, the person, and the scene; in a word, to all the horrors with which the poem abounds; and is therefore not only a suitable, but even a necessary catastrophe: necessary to wind up, if I may so speak, the action of the piece. I said, the horrors of the poem; because the most striking graces in it are certainly of the terrible kind, and for that reason, affect the imagination of the reader more deeply, and more irresistibly. * Ver. 222. The Doves, that round the infant poet spread In Surely his odes afford many more striking sub- Our author alludes to the lyric part of Horace's works. Among the various views in which his numerous commentators have considered his odes, they have neglected to remark the DRAMATIC turn he has given to many of them. Of this sort is the excellent Prophecy of Nereus, where Horace has artfully introduced the principal events and heroes of the Iliad, and speaks in so lively a manner of both, as to make the reader present at every action intended. Of this sort also is the third ode of the third book, in which Juno is introduced, expressing herself with all that fury and indignation against the Trojans which Homer hath ascribed to her. She begins her speech with an angry repetition of, Ilion, Ilion, * Ver. 230. Ilion, and will not so much as utter the names of Paris and Helen, but contemptuously calls him, the incestus Juder; and her, Mulier peregrina.* The character of this revengeful goddess is all along supported with the same spirit and propriety. Equal commendation is due to the speech of Regulus in the fifth ode, on his preparing to return to Carthage, which ends with an exclamation so suited to the temper of that inflexible hero. O Pudor! O magna Carthago, probrosis Nor must we forget the natural complaints of Europa, when she has been carried away by the bull, and the shame that arises in her bosom, on her having been seduced from her father, friends, and country. Impudens liqui patrios Penates! Si quis, hæc audis, utinam inter errem Immediately *This hath been observed by the old commentator, Acron, + Ode XXVII. lib. iii. |