But we fhould certainly have feen 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. -Phænicas, five illi tela parabant, Sive fugam, five ipfe timor probibebat utrumque, P. 214. l. 6. 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 behaviour of the Tyrians at the fight of the ferpent: Tegimen direpta Leoni Pellis erat; telum fplendenti Lancea ferro, 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 fanguinea lambentem vulnera linguâ. And what pains does he take to exprefs the ferpent's breaking the force of the stroke, by fhrinking back from it! Sed leve vulnus erat, quia fe retrahebat ab itu, P. 217. l. 10. And flings the future, &c. The defcription of the men rifing out of the ground is as beautiful beautiful a paffage as any in Ovid: It trikes the imagination very ftrongly; we fee their motion in the first part of it, and their multitude in the Messis virorum at last. Ibid. 1. 15. The breathing harvest, &c.] Meffis clypeata virorum. The beauty in these words would have been greater, had only Meffis virorum been expressed without clypeata; for the reader's mind would have been delighted with two fuch 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 surprise to the reader, is a great beauty in poetry, if there be sufficient ground for it in the nature of the thing that is defcribed. The Latin Poets are very full of it, especially the worst of them, for the more correct use it but sparingly, as indeed the nature of things will feldom afford a just occafion for it. When any thing we describe has accidentally in it fome quality that seems repugnant to its nature, or is very extraordinary and uncommon in things of that species, fuch a compounded image as we are now speaking of is made, by turning this quality into an epithet of what we describe. Thus Claudian, having got a hollow ball of crystal with water in the midft of it for his fubject, takes the advantage of confidering the cryftal as hard, ftony, precious water, and the water as soft, fluid, imperfect crystal; and thus fports off above a dozen Epigrams, in fetting 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 eafily know where to meet meet with them when he fees his fubject, and often ftrains fo hard for them that he many times makes his defcriptions bombaitic and unnatural. What work would he have made with Virgil's Golden Bough, had he been to defcribe it? We fhould certainly have feen the yellow bark, golden fprouts, radiant leaves, blooming 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 in a whole fentence, where circumftances are happily reconciled that feem wholly foreign to each other; and is often found among the Latin Poets, (for the Greeks wanted art for it) in their defcriptions of pictures, images, dreams, apparitions, metamorphofes, and the like; where they bring together two fuch thwarting ideas, by making one part of their defcriptions relate to the representation, and the other to the thing that is reprefented. Of this nature is that verfe, which, perhaps, is the wittieft in Virgil, Attollens humeris Famamque et Fata nepotum, Æn. 8. where he defcribes Aneas carrying on his fhoulders the reputation and fortunes of his pofterity; which, though very odd and furprifing, is plainly made out, when we confider how thefe difagrecing ideas are reconciled, and his pofterity's fame and fate made portable by being engraven on the fhield. Thus, when Ovid tells us that Pallas tore in pieces Arachne's work, where the had embroidered all the rapes that the gods had committed, he fays-Rupit cæleftia Crimina. I fhall conclude this tedious reflexion with an excellent ftroke of this nature out of Mr. Montague's poem to the VOL. I. king; N king; where he tells us, how the king of France would have been celebrated by his fubjects, if he had ever gained fuch an honourable wound as king William's at the fight of the Boyne. His bleeding arm had furnish'd all their rooms, FA B. II. P. 218. I. 13. Here Cadmus reign'd.] This is a pretty folemn transition to the story of Acteon, which is all naturally told. The goddess and her maids undreffing her, are defcribed with diverting circunftances. Acteon's flight, confufion and griefs are paffionately reprefented; but it is pity the whole narration fhould be fo carelefly clofed up. Ut abeffe queruntur, Nec capere oblatæ fegnem spectacula prædæ. P. 222. 1. 7. A generous pack, &c.] I have not here troubled myself to call over Acteon's pack of dogs in rhime: Spot and Whitefoot make but a mean figure in heroic verfe, and the Greek names Ovid ufes would found a great deal worfe. He clofes up his own catalogue with a kid of a jeft on it. Quofque referre mora efwhich, by the way, is too light and full of humour for the other ferious parts of this story. This way of inferting Catalogues of proper names in their Poems, the Latines took from the Greeks, but have have made them more pleasing 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 otherwife very natural, and abfolutely neceffary in fome cafes; as before a battle to raise in our minds an answerable expectation of the event, 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 would not poffibly have been so affected, as when we fee every leader fingled out, and every regiment in a manner drawn up before our eyes. FAB. III. P. 224. 1. 4. 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 refenting goddess and a tattling nurse Jupiter makes a very majestic figure with his thunder and lightning, but it is ftill fuch a one as shows who drew it; for who does not plainly discover Ovid's hand in the Quà tamen ufque poteft, vires fibi demere tentat. N 2 Sævitia |