NOTE S O N Some of the foregoing STORIES in OVID's Metamorphofes. On the Story of PHAETON, page 165. HE ftory of Phaeton is told with a greater air of majesty and grandeur than any other in all Ovid. It is indeed the most important fubject he treats of except the deluge; and I cannot but believe that this is the conflagration he hints at in his firft book; Effe quoque in fatis reminifcitur affore tempus (though the learned apply thofe verfes to the future. burning of the world) for it fully anfwers that deferip tion, if the --Cali miferere tui, circumfpice utrumque, Fumat uterque polus-comes up to Correptaque Regia cali-Befides it is Ovid's cuftom to prepare the reader for a following ftory, by giving fome intimations of it in a foregoing one, which was more particularly neceffary to be done before he led us into so ftrange a ftory as this he is now upon. P. 165. 1.7. For in the portal, &c.] We have here the picture of the universe drawn in litțle. — Balanarumque prementem Egeona fuis immania terga lacertis. Egeon makes a diverting figure in it. -Facies non omnibus Una Nec Diverfa tamen: qualem decet effe fororum. The thought is very pretty, of giving Doris and her daughters fuch a difference in their looks as is natural to different perfons, and yet fuch a likeness as fhew'd their affinity. Terra viros, urbefque gerit, fylvafque, ferafque, The lefs important figures are well huddled together in the promiscuous defcription at the end, which very well represents what the painters call a Groupe. -Circum caput omne micantes Depofuit radios; propiufque accedere ju fit. P. 167. P. 167. 1. 11. And flung the blaze, &c.] It gives us a great image of Phabus, that the youth was forced to look on him at a distance, and not able to approach him until he had lain afide the circle of rays that caft fuch a glory about his head. And indeed we may every where observe in Ovid, that he never fails of a due loftinefs in his idea, though he wants it in his words. And this I think infinitely better than to have fublime expreffions and mean thoughts, which is generally the true character of Claudian and Statius. But this is not confidered by them who run down Ovid in the grofs, for a low middling way of writing. What can be more fimple and unadorned, than his description of Enceladus in the fixth book? Nititur ille quidem, pugnatque refurgere fæpe, But the image we have here is truly great and fublime, of a giant vomiting out a tempeft of fire, and heaving up all Sicily, with the body of an island upon his breast, and a vast promontory on either arm. There are few books that have had worfe commentators on them than Ovid's Metamorphofes. Thofe of the graver fort have been wholly taken up in the Mythologies, and think they have appeared very judicious, if they have fhewn us out of an old author that Ovid is mistaken in a pedigree, or has turned fuch a person into a wolf that ought to have been made a tiger. Others have employed themselves on what never entered into the Poet's thoughts, in adapting a dull moral to every ftory, and making the perfons of his poems to be only nicknames for fuch virtues or vices; particularly the pious commentator, Alexander Rofs, has dived decper into our Author's defign than any of the reft; for he discovers in him the greatest mysteries of the chriftian religion, and finds almost in every page fome typical reprefentation of the world, the fleih, and the devil. But if thefe writers have gone too deep, others. have been wholly employed in the furface, most of them ferving only to help out a school-boy in the conftruing part; or if they go out of their way, it is only to mark out the Gnome of the Author, as they call them, which are generally the heaviest pieces of a Poet, diftinguished from the reft by Italian characters. The beft of Ovid's expofitors is he that wrote for the Dauphin's ufe, who has very well fhewn the meaning of the author, but feldom reflects on his beauties or imperfections; for in moft places he rather acts the geographer than the critic, and inftead of pointing out the fitness of a defcription, only tells you in what part of the world the place is fituated. I fhall therefore only confider Ovid under the character of a Poet, and endeavour to thew him impartially, without the ufual prejudice of a tranflator: which I am the more willing to do, because I believe such a comment would give the reader a truer taste of poetry than a comment on any other Poet would do; for in reflecting on the ancient Poets, men think they may venture to praise all they meet with in fome, and scarce any thing in others; but Ovid is confeft to have a mixture of both kinds, to have fomething of the beft and worst Poets, and by confequence to be the faireft fubject for criticifin. P. 167. P. 167. 1. penult. My fon, fays he, &c.] Phabus's fpeech. is very nobly usher'd in, with the Terque quaterque Concutiens Illuftre caput-and well reprefents the danger and difficulty of the undertaking; but that which is its peculiar beauty, and makes it truly Ovid's, is the representing them just as a father would to his young fon. Per tamen adverfi gradieris cornua Tauri, for one while he fcares him with bugbears in the way, -Vafti quoque rector Olympi, Qui fera terribili jaculetur fulmina Dextrâ, Deprecor hoc unam quod vero nomine Pœna, and in other places perfectly tattles like a father, which by the way makes the length of the speech very natural, and concludes with all the fondnefs and concern of a tender parent. -Patrio Pater effe metu probor; afpice vultus Ecce meos: utinamque oculos in pectore poffes Inferere, & Patrias intus deprendere curas! &c. P. 170. L. 11. A golden axle, &c.] Ovid has more turns and repetitions in his words than any of the Latin Poets, which are always wonderfully easy and natural in him. The repetition of Aureus, and the transition to Argenteus, in the defcription of the chariot, give thefe verfes a great fweetnefs and majefty. Aureus |
