Scrope's couplet exceeds this in fimplicity, and to my

tafte, on the whole, is preferable:

My Muse and lute can now no longer please:
They are th' employments of a mind at ease.

Ver. 107. The vows, you never will return, receive;
And take at least the love you will not give.

Scrope is pleafing here:

Oh! let me once more see those eyes of thine!

Thy love I ask not: do but fuffer mine.

Ver. 149. Then round your neck in wanton wreaths I

twine;

Then you, methinks, as fondly circle mine.

Here, I prefume, he confulted Fenton's execution of the paffage :

Around my neck thy fond embraces twine;

Anon, methinks my arms incircle thine.

Ver. 155. But when, with day, the fweet delufions fly,

And all things wake to life and joy, but I,

As if once more forfaken, I complain,

And clofe my eyes to dream of you again :

Then frantic rife, and like fome Fury rove

Thro' lonely plains, and thro' the filent grove.

Thefe thoughts alfo he has transferred with embellishment into his Eloifa, ver. 235.

I wake-no more I hear, no more I view :
The phantom flies me, as unkind as you—.
To dream once more I close my willing eyes :
Ye foft illufions, dear deceits, arise!
Alas! no more! methinks we waking go
Thro' dreary waftes, and weep each other's woe.

Ver. 177. With mournful Philomel I join my firain;
Of Tereus fhe, of Phaon I complain.

This is an improvement on Scrope :

except the mournful Philomel. With hers my dismal notes all night agree:

Of Tereus fhe complains, and I of thee. The last verse is, I think, better than Pope's.

Ver. 189. There ftands a rock, from whofe impending steep

Apollo's fane furveys the rolling deep.

An excellent couplet ! but not without Fenton's aid, who falls but little fhort of equal excellence :

High on whose hoary top an awful fane,

To Phœbus rear'd, surveys the subject main.

Ver. 207. Ye gentle gales, beneath my body blow;
And foftly lay me on the waves below!

There is an ease and fimplicity in these verses, that could not be exceeded: a small acknowledgement, however, must be rendered to Dryden in his Annus Mirabilis, ftanza 304.

A conftant trade-wind will fecurely blow,

And gently lay us on the fpicy fhore.

Indeed the whole epiftle, if we except a few inaccuracies of expression, and the want of that complete polish in the verfification, the refult of his improved taste and maturer judgement, is far fuperior to any tranflation of its kind in our language and fhews him as equal to the unaffected graces of Ovidian paffion, as to the terrible sublimity of Homer's battles. See particularly ver. 214-218. and ver. 228-232.

Ver. 224. Ah! canft thou rather fee this tender breast
Dash'd on these rocks than to thy bosom preft?

A flight adjustment of Fenton's couplet, with amendment:

Or

Or hadft thou rather see this tender breast
Bruis'd on the cliff, than close to Phaon's preft?

Ver. 236. My Phaon's fled, and I thofe arts refign. The clumsiness of this line were eafily removed, thus: My Phaon fled, thofe arts I now refign.

Ver. 252. O launch thy bark, fecure of profp'rous gales, Cupid for thee shall spread the fwelling fails.

A couplet modelled from Fenton :

Cupid, aшted with propitious gales,

Will hand the rudder, and direct the fails:

who is closer to his author, but neither graceful nor ap◄

propriate in his expreffion. Thus ?

Love at the ftern fhall fteer us, as we fail;

Shall furl, or spread the canvas to the gale. What can exceed the delicacy of Ovid's distich? Ipfe gubernabit, refidens in puppe, Cupido: Ipfe dabit tenerâ vela, legetque, manu.

TEMPLE OF FAME.

WE have here, in my judgement, a poem of extraordinary excellence; and one, which feems never to have gained an applause at all correfpondent to it's merits. The ver fification is pure and melodious in a degree not furpaffed by the best pieces of our author; the defcriptions are rich and luxuriant; and the scenery, after every allowance of originality to his predeceffors, is the offspring of a very fruitful and vigorous imagination. The twentyfour

K2

four last lines are equal to any specimen of English poetry in a fimilar tenuity of subject.

Ver. 1. In that foft feafon, when defcending fhow'rs
Call forth the greens, and wake the rifing flow'rs;

When op'ning buds falute the welcome day,

And earth relenting feels the genial ray.

These delightful strains have derived beauty from various paffages of preceding poets. Dryden, Virg. Geo. ii. 456. And boldly truft the buds in open air.

In this foft feafon—:

and again, Geo. iii. 500.

But when the western winds with vital power

Call forth the tender grass, and budding flower—. That admirable term relenting might probably be furnished by Ogilby, at the beginning of the first Georgic: When firft the fpring the froft-bound hills unbinds, And harder glebe relents with vernal winds.

Gray had this paffage in view, and would have given a much better stanza by adopting the other phrase of Pope alfo, thus:

Lo! where the rofy-bofom'd Hours

Fair Venus' train appear:

Call forth the long-expecting flowers,

And wake the purple year.

There is much less vivacity and picture in the formal word difclofe.

Ver. 5. As balmy fleep had charm'd my cares to rest,
And love itself was banish'd from my breast,
(What time the morn myfterious vifions brings,
While purer flumbers fpread their golden wings),
A train of phantoms in wild order rose,
And join'd, this intelle&ual fcene compofe.

Cowley,

Cowley, in his Complaint:

In a deep vifion's intellectual feene:

and Mrs. Singer's Vision; which is closely imitated through the whole quotation :

But, as I unrefolv'd and doubtful lay,

My cares in eafie flumbers glide away;

Nor with fuch grateful fleep, fuch foothing refi,

And dreams like these, I e'er before was blefs'd:
No wild uncouth chimeras intervene,

To break the perfect intelle&ual feene.

Ver. 11. I ftood, methought, betwixt earth, feas, and skies. Dryden, Ovid. Met. xii.

Full in the midst of this created space,

Betwixt heav'n, earth, and fkies, there stands a place Confining on all three.

Ver. 13. In air felf-balanc'd hung the globe below.

This verfe was formed from a very fine one in Paradife Loft, vii. 242.

And Earth felf-balanc'd on her center hung.

Ver. 23. Like broken thunders, that at diftance roar.

This fimile is very happily employed by Milton, Par. Loft, ii. 476.

Their rifing all at once was as the found

Of thunder heard remote.

Ver. 27. High on a rock of ice the structure lay,
Steep its afcent, and flipp'ry was the way.

The temple of Fame is reprefented on a foundation of ice, to fignify the brittle nature and precarious tenure, as well as the difficult attainment of that poffeffion, accord. ing to the poet himself below, ver. 504.

So hard to gain, so easy to be loft!