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"Mare contrahitur, ficcæque eft campus arenæ," because the thought is too near the other. The image of the Cyclades is a very pretty one;

-Quos altum texerat æquor

"Exiftunt montes, et fparfas Cycladas augent." but to tell us that the fwans grew warm in Cäyster, "-Medio volucres caluere Cäystro,"

and that the Dolphins durft not leap,

"Ne fe fuper æquora curvi

"Tollere confuetas audent Delphines in auras," is intolerably trivial on fo great a subject as the burning of the world.

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P. 116. 1. 19. The earth at length, &c.] We have here a fpeech of the Earth, which will doubtless seem very unnatural to an English reader. It is I believe the boldest Profopopoeia of any in the old Poets; or, if it were never so natural, I cannot but think she speaks too much in any reafon for one in her condition.

ON EUROPA'S RAPE.

P. 141. 1. 17. The dignity of empire, &c.] This ftory is prettily told, and very well brought in by thofe two ferious lines,

"Non bene conveniunt, nec in unâ fede morantur, "Majeftas et Amor. Sceptri gravitate reli&tâ, &c.” without which the whole fable would have appeared very prophane.

P. 142. 1. 27. The frighted nymph looks, &c ] This confternation and behaviour of Europa,

“ —Elufam defignat imagine tauri

"Europen

"Europen: verum taurum, freta vera putaras.

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Ipfa videbatur terras fpectare relictas,

"Et comites clamare fuos, tactumque vereri

"Affilientis aquæ, timidafque reducere plantas," is better defcribed in Arachne's picture in the Sixth Book, than it is here; and in the beginning of Tatius's Clitophon and Leucippe, than in either place. It is indeed ufual among the Latin Poets (who had more art and reflexion than the Grecian) to take hold of all opportunities to defcribe the picture of any place or action, which they generally do better than they could the place or action itself; because in the description of a picture you have a double subject before you, either to describe the picture itself, or what is represented in it.

ON THE STORIES IN THE THIRD BOOK.

FA B. I.

THERE is fo great a variety in the arguments of the Metamorphofes, that he who would treat of them rightly, ought to be a master of all stiles, and every different way of writing. Ovid indeed shows himself most in a familiar ftory, where the chief grace is to be eafy and natural; but wants neither strength of thought nor expreffion, when he endeavours after it, in the more fublime and manly fubjects of his poem. In the prefent fable, the ferpent is terribly defcribed, and his behaviour very well imagined; the actions of both parties in the encounter are natural, and the

language

language that represents them more ftrong and mafculine than what we ufually meet with in this Poet: if there be any faults in the narration, they are thefe, perhaps, which follow:

P. 146. 1. 8. Spire above Spire, &c.] Ovid, to make his ferpent more terrible, and to raise the character of his champion, has given too great a loofe to his imagination, and exceeded all the bounds of probability. He tells us, that when he raifed up but half his body, he over-looked a tall forest of oaks, and that his whole body was as large as that of the ferpent in the fkies. None but a madman would have attacked fuch a monster as this is defcribed to be; nor can we have any notion of a mortal's ftanding against him. Virgil is not ashamed of making Æneas fly and tremble at the fight of a far lefs formidable foe, where he gives us the description of Folyphemus, in the Third Book; he knew very well that a monfter was not a proper enemy for his hero to encounter: but we should certainly have seen Cadmus hewing down the Cyclops, had he fallen in Ovid's way: or if Statius's little Tydeus had been thrown on Sicily, it is probable he would not have spared one of the whole brotherhood. "Phonicas, five illi tela parabant,

"Sive fugam, five ipfe timor prohibebat utrumque, "Occupat:

Ibid. 1. 15. In vain the Tyrians, &c.] The Poet could not keep up his narration all along, in the grandeur and magnificence of an heroic ftile: he has here funk into the flatness of profe, where he tells us

the

the behaviour of the Tyrians at the fight of the ferpent: 66 -Tegimen direpta leoni

"Pellis erat; telum fplendenti lancea ferro,

"Et jaculum; teloque animus præftantior omni.” and in a few lines after lets drop the majefty of his verfe, for the fake of one of his little turns. How does he languish in that which feems a laboured line! "Triftia fanguineâ lambentem vulnera linguâ." And what pains does he take to exprefs the ferpent's breaking the force of the stroke, by shrinking back from it! "Sed leve vulnus erat, quia fe retrahebat ab ictu, "Læfaque colla dabat retrò, plagamque federe "Credendo fecit, nec longiùs ire finebat."

P. 149. 1. 4. And flings the future, &c.] The defcription of the men rifing out of the ground is as beautiful a paffage as any in Ovid. It ftrikes the ima→ gination very strongly; we fee their motion in the first part of it, and their multitude in the "Meffis "virorum" at laft.

Ibid. 1. 9. The breathing harveft, &c.] "Meffis "clypeata virorum." The beauty in these words would have been greater, had only "Meffis virorum” been expreffed without " clypeata;" for the reader's mind would have been delighted with two such different ideas compounded together, but can scarce attend to fuch a complete image as is made out of all three.

This way of mixing two different ideas together in one image, as it is a great furprize to the reader, is a great beauty in poetry, if there be fufficient ground for it in the nature of the thing that is described.

4

The

Latin

Latin Poets are very full of it, especially the worst of them; for the more correct use it but fparingly, as indeed the nature of things will feldom afford a juft occafion for it. When any thing we defcribe has accidentally in it fome quality that seems repugnant to its nature, or is very extraordinary and uncommon in things of that fpecies, fuch a compounded image as we are now speaking of is made, by turning this qua lity into an epithet of what we defcribe. Thus Claudian, having got a hollow ball of cryftal with water in the midst of it for his fubject, takes the advantage of confidering the crystal as hard, ftony, precious water, and the water as soft, fluid, imperfect crystal'; and thus sports off above a dozen Epigrams, in setting his words and ideas at variance among one another. He has a great many beauties of this nature in him; but he gives himself up fo much to this way of writing, that a man may easily know where to meet with them when he fees his fubject, and often strains fo hard for them that he many times makes his defcriptions bombaftic and unnatural. What work would he have made with Virgil's Golden Bough, had he been to defcribe it? We should certainly have feen the yellow bark, golden sprouts, radiant leaves, bloom_ ing metal, branching gold, and all the quarrels that could have been raised between words of fuch different

natures: when we fee Virgil contented with his "Auri frondentis ;" and what is the fame, though much finer expreffed,-" Frondefcit virga metallo." This compofition of different ideas is often met with

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