VIII. If to this fingularity of a fentiment; you add the apparent harshness of it, efpecially when not gradually prepar'd (as fuch fentiments always will be by exact writers, when of their own proper invention), the fufpicion grows ftill ftronger. I juft glanced at an inftance of this fort in Milton's curl'd grove. But there are others ftill more remarkable. Shall I prefume for once to take an inftance from yourself? Your fine Ode to Memory begins with thefe very lyrical verfes : Mother of Wisdom! Thou whofe fway Who bidft their ranks now vanish, now appear, This fublime imagery has a very original air. Yet I, who know how familiar the best antient and modern critics are to you, have no doubt that it is taken from STRADA. 66 Quid accommodatius, fays he, fpeaking of your fubject, Memory, quàm fimulachrorum ingentes copias, tanquàm addi&tam ubique tibi facramento militiam, eo inter fe nexu ac fide conjunctam cohærentemque habere; ut five unumquodque feparatim, five five confertim univerfa, five fingula ordinatim in aciem proferre velis; nihil planè in tantâ rerum herbâ turbetur, fed alia procul atque in receffu fita prodeuntibus locum cedant; alia, fe tota confeftim promant atque in medium certò evocata profiliant? Hoc tam magno, tam fido domefticorum agmine inftructus animus, &c." Prol. Acad. I. Common writers know little of the art of preparing their ideas, or believe the very name of an Ode abfolves them from the care of art. But, if this uncommon fentiment had been intirely your own, you, I imagine, would have dropped fome leading idea to introduce it. IX. You fee with what a fufpicious eye we, who afpire to the name of critics, exa mine your writings. But every poet wilb not endure to be fcrutinized fo narrowly. 1. B. Jonfon, in his Prologue to the Sad Shepherd, is opening the fubject of thati poem. The fadness of his fhepherd is For his loft Love, who in the TRENTis faid Of a calm river, whom the feet have drown'd! 7 The of The reflexion in this place is unneceffary and even impertinent Who befides ver heard of the feet of a river? Of arm's we have. And fo it flood in Jonfon's origina it Greatest and fairest Emprefs, know you this Alas! no more than Thames calm head doth know Whofe meads his arms drown, or whofe corn -nsi ɔro'erflowe zavedadgim si to mid best egasdo sigil o Dr. Donne, The poet is fpeaking of the corruption of the courts of juftice, and the allufion is perfectly fine and natural. Jonion was tempted to bring it into his prologue by the mere beauty of the fentiment. He had a river at his disposal, and would not let ni the opportunity. But his unnatural fe aidure of it detects his imitation, ai moda betia flip 2. I do not know whether you have taken nôtice of a miscarriage, fomething like this, in the most judicious of all the poets bas na salam bipod yods seat Sogoig vino - Theocritus makes Polypheme fay,asdɔxe bivo daw boscomoo ed lig Καὶ γὰρ τὴν ἐδ' εἶδος ἔχω κακὸν, ὥς με δέχοντανα Η γὰρ πραν ἐς Πόνον ἐσέβλεπον, ἦν δὲ γαλακτο III Nothing Nothing could be better fancied than to make this enormous fon of Neptune use the fea for his looking-glafs. But is Virgil fo happy when his little land-man fays, Nec fum adeò informis: nuper me in littore vidi, Cùm placidum ventis ftaret mare His wonderful judgment for once deferted him, or he might have retain'd the fentiment with a flight change in the application. For inftance, what if he had faid, Certè ego me novi, liquidæque in imagine vidi Nuper aquæ, placuitque mihi mea forma videnti. It is a fort of curiofity, you fay, to find Ovid reading a leffon to Virgil. I will dif femble nothing. The lines are, as I have cited them, in the 13th book of the Metamorphofis. But unluckily they are put into the mouth of Polypheme. So that, inftead of inftructing one poet by the other, I only propofe that they should make an exchange; Ovid take Virgil's fea; and Vir gil be contented with Ovid's water. However this be, you may be sure the authority of the Prince of the Latin poets will VOL. III. carry it with admiring pofterity above all fuch fcruples of decorum. Nobody wonders therefore to read in Taffo, Non fon' io Da disprezzar, fe ben me fteffo vidi i But of all the mifappliers of this fine ori ginal fentiment, commend me to that other Italian, who made his shepherd furvey himfelf, in a fountain indeed, but a fountain of his own weeping. 3. You will forgive my adding one other inftance of this vicious application of a fine thought." You remember those agreeable verfes of Sir John Suckling, "Tempefts of winds thus (as my ftorms of grief Carry my tears which fhould relieve my heart) Have hurried to the thanklefs ocean clouds And fhow'rs, that needed not at all the courtely; When the poor plains have languifh'd for the 15 b 1 want, And almoft.burnt afunder."od and wesbit I Brennaralt. AI S. 1. |