And shriller sound declare extreme distress,

And ask the helping hospitable hand.

Summer L. 267.

This picture, from the poet of Nature, differs from the preceding one of Sylvester, in being principally confined to the attack of the spider on his captive, and the expression "strikes backward grimly pleas'd," is one of those minute, but faithful strokes, which places the very action before the eye, and for which the bard has been so justly celebrated.

In order to estimate more perfectly, the zoologic fidelity with which the English Du Bartas has pourtrayed that noble animal the horse; to ascertain how far he has copied an, exquisite original with spirit, and whether he has imparted any additional colouring from observation, I shall, in the first place, claim the attention of the reader to the masterly delineation of Virgil.

Continuo pecoris generosi pullus in arvis
Altius ingreditur, et mollia crura reponit:
Primus et ire viam, et fluvios tentare minaces
Audet, et ignoto sese committere ponti:
Nec vanos horret strepitus. Illi ardua cervix,

Argutúmque caput, brevis alvus, obesaque terga;
Luxuriatque toris animosum pectus: honesti
Spadices, glaucique: color deterrimus albis,
Et gilvo: tum, si qua sonum procul arma dedêre,
Stare loco nescit, micat auribus, et tremit artus,
Collectumque premens volvit sub naribus ignem.
Densa juba, et dextro jactata recumbit in armo.
At duplex agitur per lumbos spina; cavatque
Tellurem, et solido graviter sonat ungula cornu.
Georg. Lib. 3. 75-

The Colt

By sure presages shows his generous kind,
Of able body, sound of limb and wind.

Upright he walks, on pasterns firm and straight;
His motions easy; prancing in his gait.

The first to lead the way, to tempt the flood;

To pass the bridge unknown, nor fear the trembling

wood;

Dauntless at empty noises; lofty neck'd;

Sharp-headed, barrel-belly'd, broadly back'd.

Brawny his chest, and deep, his colour grey; For beauty dappled, or the brightest bay:

The fiery courser, when he hears from far The sprightly trumpets, and the shouts of war, Pricks up his ears; and trembling with delight, Shifts place, and paws; and hopes the promis'd fight. On his right shoulder his thick mane reclin❜d, Ruffles at speed, and dances in the wind.

His horny hoofs are jetty black and round;
His chine is double; starting with a bound
He turns the turf, and shakes the solid ground.
Fire from his eyes, clouds from his nostrils flow:
He bears his Rider headlong on the foe.

Dryden.

Notwithstanding the far-famed and justly deserved celebrity of these fine lines, the following, from our obsolete Translator, though not so beautifully polished, will, in point of correctness and energy, endure the comparison, and the last six lines are, assuredly, highly poetical.

He chooseth one for his industrious proof,
With round, high, hollow, smooth, brown jetty hoof,
With pasterns short, upright, but`yet in mean;
Dry sinewy shanks; strong fleshless knees and lean;
With hart-like legs, broad breast, and large behind,
With body large, smooth flanks, and double chin'd:
A crested neck, bow'd like a half-bent bow,
Whereon a long, thin curled main doth flow;
A firm, full tail, touching the lowly ground
With dock between two " burly haunches" drown'd;
A pricked ear, that rests as little space

As his light foot; a lean, bare, bony face,
Thin joul, and head but of a middling size;
Full, lively, flaming, quickly-rowling eyes,

Great foaming mouth, hot fuming nostril wide,
Of chesnut hair, his fore-head starrified,
Three milky feet, a feather on his breast,

Whom seven years old, at the next grass, he guess'd.

His pace is fair and free; his trot as light
As tigers course, as swallow's nimble flight:
And his brave gallop seems as swift to go
As Biscan darts, or shafts from Russian bow:
-"Anon," rising and rayning proudly,

Striking the turf, stamping and neighing loudly,
He calls the combat, plunges, leaps and praunces,
Befoams the path, with sparkling eyes he glaunces,
Champs on his burnish'd bit, and gloriously
His nimble fetlocks lifteth belly-high;

Shunning himself, his sinne wy strength he stretches,
Flying the earth, the flying air he catches,

Borne whirlwind-like: he makes the trampled ground
Shrink under him, and shake with doubling sound:
And when the sight no more pursue him may,
In fieldy clouds he vanisheth away.

W. 2. D. 1. Part 4.

The only liberties I have taken with this quotation are, altering the position of four lines, and inserting the three words marked with inverted commas. To the circumstances mentioned by Virgil, are added those I have particularised by Italics, and which appear to

It

be material and characteristic additions. should be observed, however, that the expressions" body large" and "thin curled mane," are in direct opposition to the "brevis alvus" and "densa juba" of the Latin poet.

The couplets commencing "His pace is fair and free" to the conclusion, are wrought up with great animation, nor is the perspicuity tarnished any where but in the last line, in which the epithet "fieldy" is certainly

Upon the whole, this passage has considerable merit; the prior portion being comprehensive in its imagery, yet nervous and compressed in point of diction, whilst the latter takes a loftier flight and breathes the warm spirit of enthusiasm.