Aureus Axis erat, temo Aureus, Aurea fumma P. 171. 11. Drive them not on directly, &c.] Several have endeavoured to vindicate Ovid against the old objection, that he mistakes the annual for the diurnal motion of the fun. The Dauphin's notes tell us that Ovid knew very well the fun did not pass through all the figns he names in one day, but that he makes Phabus mention them only to frighten Phaeton from the undertaking. But though this may anfwer for what Phabus fays in his firft fpeech, it cannot for what is faid in this, where he is actually giving directions for his journey, and plainly Sectus in obliquum eft lato Curvamine limes, describes the motion through all the Zodiac. P. 172. I. 2. And not my Chariot, &c.] Ovid's verse is Confiliis non Curribus utere noftris. This way of joining two fuch different Ideas as chariot and counfel to the fame verb is mightily ufed by Ovid, but is a very low kind of wit, and has always in it a mixture of Pun, becaufe the verb must be taken in a different fenfe when it is joined with one of the things, from what it has in conjunction with the other. Thus in the end of this story he tells you that Jupiter flung a thunderbolt at Phaeton-Pariterque, animâque, rotifque expulit Aurigam, where he makes a forced piece of Latin (Animæ expulit Aurigam) that he may couple the foul and the wheels to the fame verb. P. 173. P. 173. k 1. The youth was in a maze, &c.] It is impoffible for a man to be drawn in a greater confufion than Phaeton is; but the Antithefis of light and darkness a little flattens the defcription. Suntque Oculis tenebræ per tantum lumen oborta. Ibid. 1. 4. Then the feven fars, &c.] I wonder none of Ovid's commentators have taken notice of the overfight he has committed in this verfe, where he makes the Triones grow warm before there was ever fuch a fign in the heavens; for he tells us in this very book, that Jupiter turned Califto into this conftellation, after he had repaired the ruins that Phaeton had made in the world. P. 175. 1. 8. Athos and Tmolus, &c.] Ovid has here, after the way of the old Poets, given us a catalogue of the mountains and rivers which were burnt. But, that I might not tire the English reader, I have left out fome of them that make no figure in the defcription, and inverted the order of the reft according as the fmoothnefs of my verfe required. P. 176. I. 7. 'Twas then, they say, the Swarthy Moor, &c.] This is the only Metamorphofis in all this long ftory, which contrary to custom is inferted in the middle of it. The critics may determine whether what follows it be not too great an excursion in him who proposes it as his whole defign to let us know the changes of things. I dare fay that if Ovid had not rigorously obferved the reports of the ancient Mythologifts, we should have seen Phaeton turned into foine creature or other that hates the light of the fun; or perhaps into an eagle that ftill takes pleasure to gaze on it. P. 177. 1. 3. The frighted Nile, &c.]- Ovid has made a great many pleafant images towards the latter end of this story. His verfes on the Nile, Nilus in extremum fugit perterritus orbem, are as roble as Virgil could have written; but then he ought not to have mentioned the channel of the fea afterwars, Mare contrahitur, ficcæque eft campus Arenæ, because the thought is too near the other. The image of the Cyclades is a very pretty one; -Quos altum texerat æquor Exiftunt montes, et fparfas Cycladas augent. but to tell us that the fwans grew warm in Cayfter, Medio volucres caluere Cäystro, and that the dolphins durft not leap, - Ne fe fuper æquora curvi Tollere confuetas audent Delphines in auras, is intolerably trivial on fo great a fubject as the burning of the world. Ibid. 1. penult. The earth at length, &c.] We have here a fpeech of the Earth, which will doubtless seem very unnatural to an English reader. It is I believe the boldest Profopopeia of any in the old Poets; or if it were never fo natural, I cannot but think she speaks too much in any reason for one in her condition. On On EUROPA's Rape, page 207. P. 208. 1. 9. The dignity of empire, &c.] This ftory is prettily told, and very well brought in by those two serious lines, Non bene conveniunt, nec in unâ fede morantur, without which the whole fable would have appear'd very prophane. P. 209. 1. 23. The frighted nymph looks, &c.] This confternation and behaviour of Europa Elufam defignat imagine tauri Europen: verum taurum, freta vera putaras. Et comites clamare fuos, tactumque vereri it is better described in Arachne's picture in the fixth book, than it is here; and in the beginning of Statius his Clitophon and Leucippe, than in either place. It is indeed ufual among the Latin Poets (who had more art and reflection than the Grecian) to take hold of all opportunities to defcribe the picture of any place or action, which they generally do better than they could the place or action itself; because in the description of a picture you have a double fubject before you, either to defcribe the picture itself, or what is reprefented in it. On On the Stories in the Third Book, page 211. FA B. I. There is fo great a variety in the arguments of the Metamorphofes, that he who would treat of them rightly, ought to be a master of all ftiles, and every different way of writing. Ovid indeed shews himself most in a familiar ftory, where the chief grace is to be eafy and natural; but wants neither ftrength of thought nor expreffion, when he endeavours after it, in the more fublime and manly fubjects of his poem. In the present fable the ferpent is terribly defcribed, and his behaviour very well imagined, the actions of both parties in the encounter are natural. and the language that reprefents them more strong and mafculine than what we ufually meet with in this Poet: if there be any faults in the narration, they are these, perhaps, which follow. P. 213. 1. penult. Spire above Spire, &c.] Ovid, to make his ferpent more terrible, and to raise the character of his champion, has given too great a loose to his imagination, and exceeded all the bounds of probability. He tells us, that when he raised up but half his body he over-looked a tall forest of oaks, and that his whole body was as large as that of the ferpent in the skies. None but a madman would have attacked fuch a monster as this is described to be ; nor can we have any notion of a mortal's ftanding against him. Virgil is not afhamed of making Eneas fly and tremble at the fight of a far lefs formidable foe, where he gives us the description of Polyphemus, in the third book; he knew very well that a monster was not a proper enemy for his hero to encounter : But |
