Ver. 37. Let op'ning rofes knotted oaks adorn, Bowles, in his tranflation of Theocritus, Idyll. v. affisted our bard: On brambles now let violets be born, And op'ning rafes blush on every thorn. Ogilby's line at the original paffage in Virgil, is very pleafing and melodious: And pureft amber flow from every tree. Ver. 43. Not bubbling fountains to the thirsty fwain, Not fhow'rs to larks, or fun-fhine to the bee, With these polished lines a paffage in Drummond's Wandering Mufes (pointed out alfo by Mr. Steevens) may be very agreeably compared: To virgins, flow'rs; to fun-burnt earth, the rain; To mariners, fair winds, amidit the main; Ver. 9. I know thee, Love! on foreign mountains bred ; I know thee, Love! on mountains thou waft bred, The paffage ran thus in our Poet's first edition : PASTORAL IV. P. 90. Ver 39. The filver fwans her haplefs fate bemoan, In notes more fad than when they fing their own. The hint of this turn was derived from a verse in Philips's Paftorals, where the circumstances of the cafe render it ridiculous: Ye brighter maids, faint emblems of my fair, With looks caft down, and with dishevel'd hair, In bitter anguish beat your breasts, and moan Her death untimely as it were your own. THE Ver. 5. THE MESSIAH. P. 105. O thou my voice inspire, Who touch'd Ifaiah's hallow'd lips with fire! Milton had already made the fame allufion to Isaiah, vi. 7. at the clofe of his Hymn on the Nativity: And join thy voice unto the angel quire, From out his facred altar touch'd with hallow'd fire. Cowley alfo, David. i. 25. admits comparison : Ev'n thou my breast with fuch bleft rage infpire, But a noble paffage in Milton's Reafon of Church Government is ftill more appofite; "By devout prayer to that Eternal Spirit, "who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and fends out his Seraphim, with the hallow'd fire of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases." Ver 22. Oh fpring to light, aufpicious babe! be born. This feems a palpable imitation of Callimachus, but where our Poet fell upon it, I cannot difcover: Hymn. Del 214. Γείνεο, γείνεο, καρε και ηπιο εξιθι κόλπε, Ver. 39. He from thick films fhall purge the visual ray. Thus Milton, Par. Loft, iii. 620. and th' air, No where fo clear, sharpen'd his visual ray To objects diftant far: and in his Samfon Agonistes, ver. 162. For inward light alas! Puts forth no vifual beam. Ver. 99. No more the rifing fun shall gild the morn, There is a general refemblance in thefe charming lines to the beginning of Ovid's Metamorphofes, and Sandys's excellent transla tion there: Nullus adhuc mundo præbebat lumina Titan, No No Titan yet the world with light adornes. Nor waxing Phobe fill'd her wained hornes. Our Poet's attachment to Sandys from early intimacy is well known. WINDSOR FOREST. P. 121. Ver. 1. Thy forest, Windfor, and thy green retreats, Invite my lays. Thus Hopkins, in his Hiftory of Love, published in the fame year at least, if not earlier, than the poem before us : Ye woods and wilds, ferene and bleft retreats, At once the lovers' and the Mufes' feats, To you I fly. Ver. 331. His treffes dropt with dews, and o'er the stream Spenfer has a fine paffage like this before us, Faery Queene, iv. 11. 25. But Thame was stronger, and of better stay, Yet feem'd full aged by his outward fight, With head all hoary, and his beard all gray, Dewed with filver drops that trickled downe alway. But our Poet feems to have imitated the first verses of a parallel representation in Claudian, de VI. Conf. Honor. ver. 160. wrought with the customary richness of that author. The entire paffage is well worthy of perufal; replete with ornament; and that ornament appropriate and original: to which I refer the reader. He is fpeaking of the Po: Ille caput placidis fublime fluentis He spake: the Flood rears up his towering head O'er the smooth surface of his swelling bed. His horned front, through ftreams of glistening dew, The reader will be pleased also with fome lines of Milton's Lycidas, ver. 105. Next Camus, reverend fire, went footing flow, His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge, Inwrought with figures dim. Ver. 340. The reader will be gratified by the fame subject in the hands of Spenfer, F. Q. iv. 11. 29. And round about him many a pretty page Attended, duely ready to obey; All little rivers, which owe vaffallage To him, as to their lord, and tribute pay- 99 The chaulky Kenet, and the Thetis gray, The morifh Cole, and the foft flyding Breare, The wanton Lee, that oft doth loose his way, And the ftill Darent, in whose waters cleare Ten thousand fishes play, and decke his pleasant ftreame. Ver. 379. I fee, I fee, where two fair cities bend Their ample bow, a new Whitehall afcend. This feems imitated from Hopkins' Court Profpect in Dryden's As far as fair Augufta's buildings reach, ODE ON ST. CECILIA'S DAY, P. 163. Ver. 96. No crime was thine, if 'tis no crime to love. Dryden's tranflation of Dido to Æneas: Who know no crime, but too much love of thee: and afterwards in the fame epiftle : Some pity let a fuppliant princefs move, Whose only fault was an excefs of love. FIRST CHORUS TO THE TRAGEDY OF BRUTUS. P. 174. Ver. 2. Where heav'nly vifions Plato fir'd, And Epicurus lay infpir'd. This is an imitation of fome verfes by J. A. of King's College, Cambridge, to Creech on his Lucretius: I thought I thought indeed, before I heard your fame, ESSAY ON CRITICISM. P. 193. Ver. 144.—nameless graces, which no methods teach. Ver. 193. Nations unborn your mighty names shall found, An imitation of Cowley, David. ii. 833. Round the whole earth his dreaded name fhall found, Ver. 243. In wit as nature, what affects our hearts, 'Tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call, This feems an improvement on fome lines in Dryden's Art of 'Tis not enough, when swarming faults are writ, Ver. 623. Nor is Paul's church more fafe than Paul's church yard. |