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NOT E S

ON SOME OF THE FOREGOING STORIES

IN OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.

ON THE STORY OF PHAETON.

HE ftory of Phaeton is told with a greater air

To majelty and grandeur than any other in all

Ovid. It is indeed the most important fubject he treats of, except the deluge; and I cannot but believe that this is the conflagration he hints at in the first book;

"Effe quoque in fatis reminifcitur affore tempus
"Quo mare, quo tellus, correptaque regia coli
"Ardeat, et mundi moles operofa laboret ;"

(though the learned apply those verses to the future burning of the world) for it fully answers that defcription, if the

66 -Cœli miferere tui, circumfpice utrumque,
"Fumat uterque polus――

"Fumat uterque polus"-comes up to "correptaque' "Regia cœli"-Befides, it is Ovid's cuftom to prepare the reader for a following story, by giving fome intimations of it in a foregoing one, which was more particularly neceffary to be done before he led us into fo ftrange a story as this he is now upon.

P. 106. 1. 7. For in the portal, &c.] We have here the picture of the universe drawn in little.

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"Bale

« —Balænarumque prementem "geona fuis immania terga lacertis." Ægeon makes a diverting figure in it. "-Facies non omnibus una,

"Nec diverfa tamen : qualem decet effe fororem." The thought is very pretty, of giving Doris and her daughters fuch a difference in their looks as is natural to different perfons, and yet such a likeness as showed their affinity.

Terra viros, urbefque gerit, fylvafque, ferafque,

Fluminaque, et nymphas, et cætera numina ruris." The lefs important figures are well huddled together in the promifcuous defcription at the end, which very well represents what the painters call a groupe. "-Circum caput omne micantes

"Depofuit radios; propiufque accedere juffit."

P. 107. 1. 27. And flung the blaze, &c.] It gives us a great image of Phoebus, that the youth was forced to look on him at a distance, and not able to approach him until he had lain afide the circle of rays that caft fuch glory about his head. And indeed we may every where obferve in Ovid, that he never fails of a due loftiness in his ideas, though he wants it in his words. And this I think infinitely better than to have fublime expressions and mean thoughts, which is generally the true character of Claudian and Statius. But this is not confidered by them who run down Ovid in the grofs, for a low middle way of writing. What can be more fimple and unadorned, than his description of Enceladus in the fixth book?

"Nititur

"Nititur ille quidem, pugnatque refurgere fepe, "Dextra fed Aufonio manus eft fubjecta Peloro, "Lava, Pachyne, tibi, Lilibæo crura premuntur, "Degravat Ætna caput, fub quâ resupinus arenas "Ejectat, flammamque fero vomit ore Typhoeus." But the image we have here is truly great and fublime, of a giant vomiting out a tempeft of fire, and heaving up all Sicily, with the body of an ifland upon his breast, and a vaft promontory on either arm,

There are few books that have had worfe commentators on them than Ovid's Metamorphofes. Those of the graver fort have been wholly taken up in the Mythologies; and think they have appeared very judicious, if they have fhewn us out of an old author that Ovid is mistaken in a pedigree, or has turned fuch a perfon into a wolf that ought to have been made a tiger. Others have employed themselves on what never entered into the poet's thoughts, in adapting a dull moral to every story, and making the persons of his poems to be only nicknames for fuch virtues or vices; particularly the pious commentator, Alexander Rofs, has dived deeper into our Author's design than any of the reft; for he difcovers in him the greatest myfteries of the Christian religion, and finds almost in every page fome typical representation of the world, the flesh, and the devil. But if thefe writers have gone too deep, others have been wholly employed in the furface, moft of them serving only to help out a fchool-boy in the construing part; or if they go out of their way, it is only to mark out the gnome of the author, as they call them,

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them, which are generally the heaviest pieces of a poet, diftinguished from the rest by Italian characters. The beft of Ovid's expofitors is he that wrote for the Dauphin's ufe, who has very well fhewn the meaning of the author, but feldom reflects on his beauties or imperfections; for in moft places he rather acts the geographer than the critic, and, instead of pointing out the fineness of a defcription, only tells you in what part of the world the place is fituated. I shall therefore only confider Ovid under the character of a poet, and endeavour to fhew him impartially, without the ufual prejudice of a tranflator: which I am the more willing to do, because I believe fuch a comment would give the reader a truer tafte of poetry than a comment on any other poet would do; for, in reflecting on the ancient poets, men think they may venture to praise all they meet with in fome, and scarce any thing in others; but Ovid is confeft to have a mixture of both kinds, to have fomething of the beft and worst poets, and by confequence to be the faireft fubject for criticifm.

P. 108. 1. 8. My fon, says he, &c.] Phoebus's speech is very nobly usher'd in, with the "Terque quaterque "concutiens illuftre caput"-and well reprefents the danger and difficulty of the undertaking; but that which is its peculiar beauty, and makes it truly Ovid's, is the representing thein juft as a father would to his young fon;

"Per tamen adversi gradieris cornua tauri, "Hæmoniofque arcus, violentique ora leonis, "Sævaque circuitu curvantem brachia longo "Scorpion, atque aliter curvantem brachia cancrum."

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Vafti quoque rector Olympi,

Qui fera terribili jaculetur fulmina dextrâ,

"Non agat hos currus; et quid Jove majus habetur?” "Deprecor hoc unum quod vero nomine pœna,

"Non honor eft. Poenam, Phaeton, pro munere pofcis." And in other places perfectly tattles like a father, which by the way makes the length of the speech very natural, and concludes with all the fondnefs and concern of a tender parent.

"Patrio pater effe metu probor; afpice vultus
"Ecce meos: utinamque oculos in pectore poffes,
“Inferere, & patrias intus deprendere curas ! &c."

P. 110. 1. 13. A golden axle, &c.]. Ovid has more turns and repetitions in his words than any of the Latin poets, which are always wonderfully eafy and natural in him. The repetition of Aureus, and the tranfition to Argenteus, in the defcription of the chariot, give these verfes a great fweetness and majesty;;

"Aureus axis erat, temo aureus, aurea fummæ "Curvatura rote; radiorum argenteus ordo."

P. 111. l. 7. Drive them not on directly, &c.] Se veral have endeavoured to vindicate Ovid against the old objection, that he mistakes the annual for the diurnal motion of the fun. The Dauphin's notes tell us that Ovid knew very well the fun did not pass through all the figns he names in one day, but that he makes Phoebus mention them only to frighten Phaeton from the undertaking. But though this may anfwer for what Phoebus fays in his firft fpeech, it can

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