But nigh yon' mountain let me tune my lays, 40 REMARKS. VER. 38. Embrace my Love, &c.] It is not eafy to conceive a more harsh and clashing line than this. There is the fame imagery in Theocritus, but it is made more ftriking by the circumftances, and picturesque accompaniments, as well as by the extraordinary effect of the lines adapted to the fubject. Αλλ υπό τα πετρα Idyll. S. 1. 55,56. VER. 39. Colin] The name taken by Spenfer in his Eclogues, where his mistress is celebrated under that of Rofalinda. POPE. VER. 42. Rofalinda's] This is the Lady with whom Spenfer fell violently in love, as foon as he left Cambridge and went into the North; it is uncertain into what family, and in what capacity. Her name is an Anagram, and the letters of which it is composed will make out her true name; for Spenfer (fays the learned and ingenious Mr. Upton, his beft Editor) is an Anagrammatist in many of his names: thus Algrind tranfpofed is Archbishop Grindal; and Morel is Bishop Elmer. He is fuppofed to hint at the cruelty and coquettry of his Rofalind in B. 6. of the Fairy Queen, in the character of Mirabella. WARTON. IMITATIONS. VER.40. bequeath'd in death, &c.] Virg. Ecl. ii. Et dixit moriens, Te nunc habet ifta fecundum" POPE. But now the reeds fhall hang on yonder tree, And yet my numbers please the rural throng, For 45 51 55 бе See what delights in fylvan scenes appear! Defcending Gods have found Elyfium here. In woods bright Venus with Adonis ftray'd, And chafte Diana haunts the foreft-fhade. Come, lovely nymph, and blefs the filent hours, When fwains from fheering feek their nightly bow'rs; When weary reapers quit the fultry field, 65 And crown'd with corn their thanks to Ceres yield. IMITATIONS. VER. 60. Defcending Gods have found Elyfium here.] "Habitarunt Di quoque fylvas"-Virg. "Et formofus oves ad flumina pavit Adonis.” Idem. Pors. you. 70 This harmless grove no lurking viper hides, Invoke the Muses, and refound your praife! VER. 79, 80. VARIATIONS. Your praise the tuneful birds to heav'n fhall bear, 80 So the verses were originally written. But the Author, young as he was, foon found the absurdity which Spenfer himself overlooked, of introducing wolves into England. IMITATIONS. VER. 80. And winds fhall waft, &c.] POPE. "Partem aliquam, venti, divûm referatis ad aures ?" Virg. REMARKS. POPE. VER. 73. Where'er you walk, &c.] Very much like fome lines in Hudibras, but certainly no resemblance was intended : Where'er you tread, your feet fhall fet Nature her charter fhall renew, And take all lives of things from you! The The moving mountains hear the pow'rful call, REMARKS. 86 90 VER. 84. And headlong, &c.] Pope has carried the idea into extravagance, when he makes the ftream not only "listening," but hang listening in its headlong fall." Mr. Stevens in his MS. notes, quotes Lucan, in a paffage where the image is precisely the fame, though poffibly Pope never saw it: -" de rupe pependit Abfcifsâ fixus torrens !" But as it is here ufed, it is too hyperbolical, and only allowable in a very young writer. An idea of this fort will only bear juft touching, if I may say fo; the mind then does not perceive its violence: if it be brought before the eyes too minutely, it becomes almoft ridiculous. This is often the fault of Cowley. Oldham has a paffage of the same stamp : "For which the lift'ning ftreams forgot to run, How much more judiciously and poetically has Milton given the fame idea? "Thirfis, whofe artful ftrains have oft delay'd The huddling brook, to hear his madrigal, And fweeten'd, &c.” COMUS. IMITATIONS. VER. 88. Ye Gods, &c.] "Me tamen urit amor, quis enim modus adfit amori ?" Virg. POPE. On On me love's fiercer flames for ever prey, VARIATIONS. VER. 91. Me love inflames, nor will his fires allay. REMARKS. POPE. VER. 92. By night, &c.] This is certainly the poorest of Pope's Paftorals; and it has many falfe thoughts and conceits, fuch as, "The bleating flocks with my complaints agree, 66 They parch'd with THIRST, and I inflam'd by thee.” "This harmless grove no lurking viper hides, "But in my breast the serpent love abides, &c." "On me love's fiercer flames, &c." But the ingenuous and candid critic will always bear in mind the early age in which they were written, and the false taste of Cowley at that time prevalent. Speaking of the "Headlong ftream, that hangs lift'ning in its fall," Ruffhead fays, "Though it may be allowed that the new "images in these Pastorals are not frequent, yet it is too much to "say they do not contain a single image that is new! Let any " reader of fenfibility attend to the following lines: "But would you fing, &c. "The moving mountains hear your pow'rful call, "And headlong freams hang lift'ning in their fall!” "The laft line," he adds, "furely prefents a new image, and a "bold one too!!" bold indeed! Virgil has, Et mutata fuos requierunt flumina curfus. But this idea is certainly not fo "hold!" and according to Mr. Ruffhead, Milton's image is very tamé in comparison of Pope's. VOL. I. |