Tyll at the last, amonge the bowès glade, The circumstance of the pebbles and gravel of a tranfparent ftream glittering against the fun, which is uncommon, has much of the brilliancy of the Italian poetry. It recalls to my memory a paffage in Theocritus, which has been lately restored to its pristine beauty. Εὗρον αεανναον κραναν ὑπο λισσαδι πείρῃ, They found a perpetual spring, under a high rock, The pebbles fparkled as with crystal and silver There is much elegance of fentiment and expreffion in the portrait of Creseide weeping when she parts with Troilus.. ↑ B. ii. cap. xii. T Aosnove. Idyll. xxii. v. 37. And And from her eyn the teare's round drops tryll, The following verfes are worthy of attention in another ftyle of writing, and have great ftrength and spirit. A knight brings a steed to Hector in the midst of the battle. And brought to Hector. Sothly there he ftoode The strokes on the helmets are thus expreffed, striking fire amid the plumes. But strokys felle, that men might herden rynge, So cruelly, that the fyrè fprange oute Amonge the tuftès brodè, bright and fhene, Of foyle of golde, of fethers white and grene ". The touches of feudal manners, which our author affords, are innumerable: for the Trojan ftory, and with no great difficulty, is here entirely accommodated to the ideas of romance. Hardly any adventure of the champions of the round table 1 was more chimerical and unmeaning than this of our Grecian chiefs: and the cause of their expedition to Troy was quite in the spirit of chivalry, as it was occafioned by a lady. When Jafon arrives at Cholcos, he is entertained by king Oetes in a Gothic castle. Amadis or Lancelot were never conducted to their fairy chambers with more ceremony and folemnity. He is led through many a hall and many a tower, by many a ftair, to a sumptuous apartment, whose walls, richly painted with the histories of antient heroes, glittered with gold and azure. Through many a halle, and many a riche toure, He hath commaunded to his offycers, Only' in honour of them that were ftraungers, The fiege of Troy, the grand object of the poem, is not conducted according to the claffical art of war. All the military machines, invented and used in the crusades, are affembled to demolish the bulwarks of that city, with the addition of great guns. Among other implements of deftruction borrowed from the holy war, the Greek fire, first discovered at Conftantinople, with which the Saracens fo greatly annoyed the Chriftian armies, is thrown from the walls of the befieged". * Greece. Degree. Step. Stair. Gradus. y Painted. Or r. Englafed. Skelton's CROWNE OF LAWRELL, p. 24. edit. 1736. Wher the poftis wer enbulioned with faphir's indy blewe Englafed glitteringe, &c, Vol. II. N z B. i. c. v. See Colonna, Signat. b. a B. ii. c. xviii. See fupr, vol. i. p. 157In Caxton's TROY-BOOK, Hercules is faid to make the fire artificiall as well as Cacus, &c. ii. 24 Nor Nor are we only presented in this piece with the habits of feudal life, and the practices of chivalry. The poem is enriched with a multitude of oriental fictions, and Arabian traditions. Medea gives to Jafon, when he is going to combat the brazen bulls, and to lull the dragon who guarded the golden fleece asleep, a marvellous ring; in which was a gem whofe virtue could deftroy the efficacy of poison, and render the wearer invisible. It was the fame fort of precious ftone, adds our author, which Virgil celebrates, and which Venus fent her fon Eneas that he might enter Carthage unfeen. Another of Medea's prefents to Jason, to affift him in this perilous atchievement, is a filver image, or talisman, which defeated all the powers of incantation, and was framed according to principles of astronomy'. The hall of king Priam is illuminated at night by a prodigious carbuncle, placed among faphires, rubies, and pearls, on the crown of a golden statue of Jupiter, fifteen cubits high. In the court of the palace, was a tree made by magic, whose trunk was twelve cubits high; the branches, which overshadowed diftant plains, were alternately of folid gold and filver, bloffomed with gems of various hues, which were renewed every day. Most of these extravagancies, and a thousand more, are in Guido de Colonna, who lived when this mode of fabling was at its height. But in the fourth book, Dares Phrigius is particularly cited for a description of Priam's palace, which feemed to be founded by FAYRIE, or enchantment; and was paved with cryftal, built of diamonds, faphires, and emeralds, and fupported by ivory pillars, furmounted with golden images'. This is not, however, in Dares. The warriors who came to the affistance of the Trojans, afford an ample field for invention. One of them belongs to a region of forests; amid the gloom of which wander many monftrous beasts, not real, but ap Ibid. B. ii. c. xi. B. ii. c. xi. ' Cap. xxvi. pearances pearances or illufive images, formed by the deceptions of necromancy, to terrify the traveller *. King Epistrophus brings from the land beyond the Amazons, a thousand knights; among which is a terrible archer, half man and half beast, who neighs like a horse, whofe eyes sparkle like a furnace, and ftrike dead like lightening". This is Shakefpeare's DREADFUL SAGITTARY'. The Trojan horse, in the genuine fpirit of Arabian philosophy, is formed of brass; of fuch immenfe fize, as to contain a thousand foldiers. Colonna, I believe, gave the Trojan ftory its romantic additions. It had long before been falfified by Dictys and Dares; but those writers, mifreprefenting or enlarging Homer, only invented plain and credible facts. They were the bafis of Colonna: who first filled the faint outlines of their fabulous history with the colourings of eaftern fancy, and adorned their feanty forgeries with the gorgeous trappings of Gothic chivalry. Or, as our author expresses himself in his Prologue, speaking of Colonna's improvements on his originals. For he ENLUMINETH, by crafte and cadence, Cloathed with these new inventions, this favourite tale defcended to later times. Yet it appears, not only with thefe, but with an infinite variety of other embellishments, not fabricated by the fertile genius of Colonna, but heroes [B. ii. c. xv.] is from Dares through 1 Better. adopted |