with a claffical exactnefs. But its chief merit lies in the beauty of the Shew, and the richness of the poetry. Shakespeare was fo fenfible of his fuperiority, that he could not help exulting a little upon it, where he makes Ferdinand say, This is a moft majestic Vision, and It is true, another Poet, who poffeffed a great part of Shakespeare's genius and all Jonfon's learning, has carried this courtly entertainment to its laft perfection. But the Mafk at Ludlow Castle was in fome measure owing to the Fairy Scenes of his predeceffor; who chofe this province of Tradition, not only as most suitable to the wildnefs of his vaft creative imagination, but as the fafeft for his unlettered Mufe to walk in. For here he had much, you know, to expect from the popular credulity, and nothing to fear from the claffic fuperftition of that time. 2. It were endless to apply this note of imitation to other poets confeffedly learned. Yet one inftance is curious enough to be just mentioned. Mr. Mr. Waller, in his famous poem on the victory over the Dutch, June 3, 1665, has the following lines; His flight tow'rds heav'n th' afpiring BELGIAN But fell, like PHAETON, with thunder ftrook: DAY; And SHE, the flag that governs in the Sea. He is comparing the British Admiral's Ship to the Chariot of the Sun. You fmile at the quaintnefs of the conceit, and the ridi cule he falls into in explaining it. But that is not the queftion at prefent. The latter, he fays, bears the radiant enfign of the day; the other, the enfign of naval dominion. We understand how properly the English Flag is here denominated. But what is that other Enfign? The Sun itself, it will be faid. But who, in our days, ever expreffed the Sun by fuch a periphrafis? The image is apparently antique, and eafily ex plained plained by thofe who know that antiently the Sun was commonly emblematized by a ftarry or radiate figure; nay, that fuch at figure was placed aloft, as an Enfign, over the Sun's charioteer, as we may fee in representations of this fort on antient Gems and Medals. From this original then Mr. Waller's imagery was certainly taken; and it is properly applied in this place, where he is Ipeaking of the Chariot of the Sun, and Phaeton's fall from it. But, to remove all doubt in the cafe, we can even point to the very paffage of a Pagan poet, which Mr. Waller had in his eye, or rather translated : Proptereà noctes hiberno tempore longæ Here, you fee, the poet's allufion to a claffic idea has led us to the discovery of the very paffage from which it was taken. And this ufe a learned reader will often make of the species of Imitation here confidered. VOL. III. N V. Great V. Great writers, you find, fometimes forget the character of the Age they live in the principles and notions that belong "Sometimes they forget themselves, "that is, their own fituation and charac "ter." 59 Another fign of the influence of to it. Imitation. 1. When we fee fuch men, as STRADA and MARIANA, writers of fine talents indeed, but of reclufe lives and narrow obfervation, chufing to talk like men of the world, and abounding in the most refined conclufions of the cabinet; we are fure that this character, which we find fo natural in a Cardinal DE RETZ, is but affumed by thefe Jefuits. And we are not furprized to discover, on examination, that their best reflexions are copied from TACITus. On the other hand, when a man of the world took it into his head, the other day, in a moping fit, to talk Sentences, every body concluded that this was not the language of the writer or his fituation, but that he had been poaching in fome pedant; perhaps in the Stoical Fop, he affected fo much contempt of, SENECA. 2. Some 2. Sometimes we catch a great writer deviating from his natural manner, and taking pains as it were to appear the very reverse of his proper character. Would you with a stronger proof of his being seduced, at least for the time, by the charms of imitation? Nothing is better known than the easy, elegant, agreeable vein of VOITURE. Yet you have read his famous Letter to BALZAC; and have been furprized, no doubt, at the forced, quaint, and puffy manner, in which it is written. The fecret is, Voiture is aping Balzac from one end of this letter to the other. Whether to pay his court to him, or to laugh at him, or that, perhaps in the inftant of writing, he really fancied an excellence in the style of that great man, is not eafy to determine. An eminent French critic, I remember, is inclined to take it for a piece of mockery. At all events, we must needs efteem it an imitation. 1 3. This remark on the turn of a writer's genius may be further applied to that of his temper or difpofition. |