Grav'd on his urn appear'd the moon, that guides The figur❜d ftreams in waves of filver roll'd, 335 340 VARIATIONS. With sparkling flames heav'n's glowing concave fhone, Fictitious stars, and glories not her own. He saw, and gently rofe above the stream; His fhining horns diffufe a golden gleam: With pearl and gold his tow'ry front was dreft, The tributes of the diftant East and West. The Pope. NOTES. Peace of Utrecht, so highly celebrated in this paffage: communicated to me by the favor of the late Dutchefs Dowager of Portland. "I dislike your medal, with the motto, COMPOSITIS VENERANTUR ARMIS I will have one of my own defign; the Queen's bust surrounded with laurel, and with this motto, ANNE AUG. FELICI, PACIFICE: Peace in a triumphal car, and the words, PAX MISSA PER ORBEM. This is ancient, this is fimple, this is fenfe. Rofier fhall execute it, in a manner not feen in England fince Simonds's time." WARTON. VER. 337.] Warton obferves, that Pope has here copied and equal. led the defcription of rivers in Spenfer, Drayton, and Milton.--The defcription is beautiful, but in fome points it is deficient. "Wind The Kennet fwift, for filver eels renown'd; The Lodden flow, with verdant alders crown'd; And chalky Wey, that rolls a milky wave: And fullen Mole, that hides his diving flood; High in the midft, upon his urn reclin❜d, (His fea-green mantle waving with the wind) 345 350 The PARALLEL PASSAGES. VER. 341. The Kennet fwift, for filver eels renown'd;] "The crystal Trent, for fords and fifh renown'd." DRAYTON. VER. 348. fain'd with Danish blood.] "And the old Lee brags of the Danish blood." DRAYTON. NOTES. ing" Ifis and "fruitful" Thame, are ill defignated; no peculiar and visible image is added to the character of the streams, either interesting from beauty, or incidental circumstances. Most rivers "wind," and may be called fruitful as well as the Ifis and Thames. The latter part of the description is much more masterly; as every river has its diftinctive mark, and that mark is picturesque. I cannot however think that the paffage equals Milton's: Rivers arife, whether thou be the fon Of utmoft Tweed-or Oofe, or gulphy Dun, Or Trent, who, like some Earth-born Giant, spreads Or fullen Mole, that runneth underneath, Or Severn fwift, guilty of maiden's death, Or rocky Avon, or of fedgy Lee, Or coaly Tine, or ancient hallow'd Dee, Or Medway smooth, or Royal towr'd Thame. The God appear'd: he turn'd his azure eyes PARALLEL PASSAGES. Tho' VER. 351. His azure eyes.] Milton has green-eyed Neptune; and Virgil, of Proteus, Geor. iv. "Ardentes oculos intorfit lumine glauco." VER. 354.] Warton's Edition of Milton, p. 311. "And roll themselves afleep upon the shore." It may be faid, however, that all the epithets, in a defcription of this fort, cannot be equally fignificant; but furely fomething more ftriking fhould have been given as circumftantially characteristic of fuch rivers as the Ifis and Thames, than that they were "winding” and “ fruitful"—or of the Kennet, when it was renowned for "filver eels." The expreffion "fullen Mole" is from Milton. The Mole finks through its fands, in dry fummers, into an invifible channel under ground at Mickleham, near Dorking, Surry. VER. 350.] Our poet was not deterred, from the cenfure which Addison paffed in his Campaign, on raising and personifying rivergods, from giving us this fine description, in which Thames appears and fpeaks with fuitable dignity and importance. How much fuperior is this picture to that of Boileau's Rhine; who reprefents the Naiads as alarming the God with an account of the march of the French Monarch; upon which the River God affumes the appearance of an old experienced commander, flies to a Dutch fort, and exhorts the garrifon to dispute the intended paffage. The Rhine, marching at their head, and obferving Mars and Bellona on the fide of the enemy, is so terrified with the view of thefe fuperior divinities, that he most gallantly runs away, and Tho' Tiber's ftreams immortal Rome behold, 360 365 No more my fons fhall die with British blood Red Iber's fands, or Ifter's foaming flood: Safe on my fhore each unmolefted fwain Shall tend the flocks, or reap the bearded grain; The VARIATIONS. VER. 363. Originally thus in the MS. Let Venice boaft her Tow'rs amidst the Main, NOTES. leaves the great hero Louis XIV. in quiet poffeffion of his banks. -So much for a true court poet, who would not have dared to write the eight laft lines of this fpeech of Thames, from v. 415. The lines of Addifon in the Campaign were; Gods may defcend in factions from the skies, And rivers from their oozy beds arise. I cannot forbear mentioning, that the very first compofition that made the young Racine known at Paris was his Ode from the Nymph of the Seine to the Queen, which ode, by the way, was corrected by Chapelain, at that time in high vogue as a critic, and by him recommended to the court. WARTON. The fhady empire fhall retain no trace Of war or blood, but in the fylvan chace; 371 The trumpet sleep, while chearful horns are blown, Behold! th' afcending Villas on my fide 375 Their ample bow, a new Whitehall ascend! woods, And half thy forefts rufh into thy floods, VARIATIONS. VER. 385, &c. were originally thus, Now fhall our fleets the bloody Cross display To the rich regions of the rifing day, Or thofe green ifles, where headlong Titan fleeps His hiffing axle in th' Atlantic deeps: Tempt icy feas, &c. 385 Bear POPE. The original lines were rejected, probably as too nearly refem bling a paffage in Comus, "And the gilded car of day His glowing axle doth allay NOTES. VER. 378. And Temples rife,] The fifty new Churches. POPE. VER. 380. a new Whitehall] "Several plates of the intended palace of Whitehall have been given, but, I believe, from no finished |