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FA B. II.

P. 150. 1. 3: Here Cadmus reign'd.] This is a pretty folemn tranfition to the story of Acteon, which is all naturally told. The goddess and her maids undreffing her, are defcribed with diverting circumftances. Acteon's flight, confufion, and griefs, are paffionately represented; but it is pity the whole narration fhould be fo carelefly clofed up.

Ut abeffe queruntur,

"Nec capere oblatæ fegnem fpectacula prædæ. "Vellet abeffe quidem, fed adeft, velletque videre, "Non etiam fentire, canum fera facta fuorum.” P. 153. 1. 10. A generous pack, &c] I have not here troubled myself to call over Acteon's pack of dogs in rhyme: Spot and Whitefoot make but a mean figure in heroic verfe; and the Greck names Ovid ufes would found a great deal worfe. He clofes up his own catalogue with a kind of a jeft on it:

Quofque referre mora eft"-which, by the way, is too light and full of humour for the other ferious parts of this ftory.

This way of inferting catalogues of proper names in their Poems, the Latins took from the Greeks; but have made them more pleafing than those they imitate, by adapting fo many delightful characters to their perfons names; in which part Ovid's copiousness of invention, and great infight into nature, has given him the precedence to all the Poets that ever came before or after him. The fmoothness of our English

verfe is too much loft by the repetition of proper names, which is otherwise very natural, and abfolutely neceffary in fome cafes; as before a battle to raise in our minds an answerable expectation of the events, and a lively idea of the numbers that are engaged. For, had Homer or Virgil only told us in two or three lines before their fights, that there were forty thoufand of each fide, our imagination could not poffibly have been fo affected, as when we fee every leader fingled out, and every regiment in a manner drawn up before our eyes.

FA B. III.

P. 154. 1. 26. How Semele, &c.] This is one of Ovid's finished ftories. The tranfition to it is proper and unforced: Juno, in her two fpeeches, acts incomparably well the parts of a resenting goddess and a tattling nurse: Jupiter makes a very majeftic figure with his thunder and lightning, but it is ftill fuch a one as fhews who drew it; for who does not plainly difcover Ovid's hand in the

"Quà tamen ufque poteft, vires fibi demere tentat. "Nec, quo centimanum dejiceret igne Typhoa, "Nunc armatur eo: nimium feritatis in illo. "Eft aliud levius fulmen, cui dextra Cyclopum, "Sævitiæ flammæque minus, minus addidit iræ; “Tela fecunda vocant fuperi."

P. 155. 1. 26. 'Tis well, fays the, &c.] Virgil has made a Beroë of one of his goddeffes in the Fifth Æneid; but if we compare the speech fhe there makes

race, and the greatest Poets, fcorned it; as indeed it is only fit for Epigram, and little copies of verses: one would wonder therefore how so fublime a genius as Milton could fometimes fall into it, in fuch a work as an Epic Poem. But we must attribute it to his humouring the vicious taste of the age he lived in, and the falfe judgment of our unlearned English readers in general, who have few of them a relish of the more masculine and noble beauties of Poetry.

FA B. VI.

Ovid feems particularly pleased with the subject of this ftory, but has notoriously fallen into a fault he is often taxed with, of not knowing when he has faid enough, by his endeavouring to excel. How has he turned and twisted that one thought of Narciffus's being the perfon beloved, and the lover too?

"Cunctaque miratur quibus eft mirabilis ipfe. "Qui probat, ipfe probatur.

"Dumque petit petitur, pariterque incendit et ardet, "Atque oculos idem qui decipit incitat error. "Perque oculos perit ipfe fuos

"Uror amore mei, flammas moveoque feroque, &c.” But we cannot meet with a better inftance of the extravagance and wantonnefs of Ovid's fancy, than in that particular circumftance at the end of the ftory, of Narciffus's gazing on his face after death in the Stygian waters. The design was very bold, of making a boy fall in love with himself here on earth; but to torture him with the fame passion after death, and not

to

to let his ghost rest in quiet, was intolerably cruel and uncharitable.

P. 161. l. 8. But whilft within, &c.] "Dumque "fitim fedare cupit fitis altera crevit." We have here a touch of that mixed wit I have before spoken of; but I think the meafure of pun in it out-weighs the true wit; for if we exprefs the thought in other words the turn is almost loft. This paffage of Narciffus probably gave Milton the hint of applying it to Eve, though I think her furprize, at the fight of her own face in the water, far more juft and natural than this of Narciffus. She was a raw unexperienced being, just created, and therefore might easily be fubject to the delufion; but Narciffus had been in the world fixteen years, was brother and fon to the water-nymphs, and therefore to be fuppofed converfant with fountains long before this fatal mistake.

P. 162. l. 8. You trees, fays he, &c.] Ovid is very juftly celebrated for the paffionate speeches of his Poem. They have generally abundance of nature in them, but I leave it to better judgments to confider whether they are not often too witty and too tedious. The Poet never cares for fmothering a good thought that comes in his way, and never thinks he can draw tears enough from his reader: by which means our grief is either diverted or spent before we come to his conclufion; for we cannot at the fame time be delighted with the wit of the Poet, and concerned for the perfon that speaks it; and a great Critic has admirably well obferved, "Lamentationes debent effe breves et "concife,

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"concifæ, nam lacryma fubitò excrefcit, et difficile "eft Auditorem vel Lectorem in fummo animi affectu "diu tenere." Would any one in Narciffus's condition håve cry'd out" Inopem me copia fecit ??? Or can any thing be more unnatural than to turn off from his forrows for the fake of a pretty reflexion?

"Outinam noftro fecedere corpore poffem !

"Votum in amante novum; vellem, quod amamus, "abeffet."

None, I suppose, can be much grieved for one that is fo witty on his own afflictions. But I think we may every where observe in Ovid, that he employs his invention more than his judgment; and speaks all the ingenious things that can be said on the fubject, rather than those which are particularly proper to the perfon and circumftances of the fpeaker.

F A B. VII.

P. 165. 1. 22. When Pentheus thus] There is a great deal of fpirit and fire in this fpeech of Pentheus, but I believe none befide Ovid would have thought of the transformation of the ferpent's teeth for an incitement to the Thebans courage, when he defires them not to degenerate from their great forefather the Dragon, and draws a parallel between the behaviour of them both.

"Efte, precor, memores, quâ fitis ftirpe creati,
"Illiufque animos, qui multos perdidit unus,
"Sumite ferpentis: pro fontibus ille, lacuque
"Interiit, at vos pro famâ vincite veftrâ.
"Ille dedit letho fortes, vos pellite molles,
"Et patrium revocate decus.”

FA B.

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