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The preference here given to POPE above other modern English poets, it must be remembered, is founded on the excellencies of his works in general, and taken all together; for there are parts and passages in other modern authors, in Young and in Thomson, for instance, equal to any of POPE; and he has written nothing in a strain so truly sublime, as the Bard of Gray.

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THE ALMA of PRIOR, page 126. This is not the only composition of Prior, in which he has displayed a knowledge of the world, and of human nature. For I have lately been permitted to read a curious manuscript, now in the hands of her Grace the Duchess Dowager of Portland, containing Essays and Dialogues of the Dead, on the following subjects, by Prior.

1. HEADS for a Treatise on Learning. 2. Essay on Opinion. 3. A Dialogue betwixt Charles the Fifth and Clenard the Grammarian. 4. Betwixt Locke and Montaigne. 5. The Vicar of Bray and Sir Thomas More. 6. Oliver Cromwell and his Porter. If these pieces were published, Prior would appear to be as good a prose-writer as poet. It seems to be growing a little fashionable, to decry his great merits as a poet. They who do this, seem not sufficiently to have attended to his admirable Ode to Mr. Charles Montague, afterwards Earl of Halifax; his Ode to the Queen, 1706; his Epistle and Ode to Boileau; most of his Tales; the Alma here mentioned; the Henry and Emma, (in which surely are many strokes of true tenderness and pathos ;) and his Solomon: A poem, which, however faulty in its plan, has very many noble and finished passages; and which has been so elegantly and classically translated by Dobson, as to reflect honour on the College of Winchester, where he was educated, and where he translated the first book as a school-exercise. I once heard him lament, that he had not, at that time, read Lucretius, which would have given a richness, and variety, and force, to his verses; the only fault of which seems to be a monotony,

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and want of different pauses, occasioned by translating a poem in rhyme, which he avoided in his Milton. It is one mark of a poem being intrinsically good, that it is capable of being well translated.

The political conduct of Prior was blamed on account of the part he took in the famous Partition Treaty: but in some valuable Memoirs of his life, written by the Hon. Mr. Montague, his friend, which are also in the possession of the Duchess Dowager of Portland, this conduct is clearly accounted for, and amply defended. In those Memoirs are many curious and interesting particulars of the history of that time.

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APPENDIX, No. II.

The following is a Summary of the Arguments of each Scene and Act, in L'ADAMO of G. B. ANDREINI, mentioned above, p. 183.

ATTO PRIMO.

SCENA 1. Iddio di creta forma Adamo, quale incontanente forzarsi di lodarto ma divinamente addormentatosi, mentre in estasi scorge altissimi misteri della santissima Trinita, & Incarnatione del verbo eterno: della costa di lui ne viene formata Eva: la quale egli, dopò suegliato, caramente abbraccia, & accetta per compagna onde benedetti da Dio, e fecondati, acciò riempissero il mondo d'huomini, riceuono il precetto di non mangiare del albero, che suela il bene, & il male, e cominciano à contemplare la bellezza delle creature.

SCENA 2. Lucifero uscito dall' Abisso contempla il Paradiso terrestre, biasmando tutte l'opre di Dio.

SCENA 3.

Lucifero essorta Sathan e Belzebu à forzarsi di far peccare Adamo, acciò macchiato di peccato, sia in odio à Dio, e non s'incarni il Verbo Eterno.

SCENA 4. Lucifero manda Melecano, e Lurcone à tentar Eva, quelli di Superbia, & questi d'Invidia, acciò si dolga di Dio, perche non l'habbi creata prima di Adamo.

SCENA

SCENA 5. Si mandano Ruspicano, & Arfarat, à tentarla d'Ira, & di Avaritia.

SCENA 6. Maltèa và à tentarla d'Accidia; Dulciato, di Lussuria; & Guliar, di Gola.

ATTO SECONDO.

SCENA 1. Quindeci angeli à gara lodono tutte l'opre divine.

SCENA 2. Adamo pone il nome à tutti gli animali, & insieme con Eva loda con molti encomii il sommo Dio.

SCENA 3. Serpe s'apparecchia per tentar Eva, e dice per qual cagione habbi preso quella forma, & non altra.

SCENA 4. Volàno narra a Sathan l'infernal consiglio del modo di assaltar Eva.

SCENA 5. Vana Gloria e Serpe congiunti d'accordo entrano nel Paradiso terrestre, e si nascondono sù l'albero della scienza del bene, e del male, per tentar Eva à gustare i frutti di quello..

SCENA 6. Eva gloriandosi dei tanti favori, e gratie riceuute da Dio, rimira il Serpe sopra l'albero, e con molte ragioni da quello persuasa, prende il pomo, lo gusta, e và cercando Adamo, per farlo fare l'istesso.

ATTO TERZO.

SCENA 1. Adamo dopo l'haver descritto leggiadramente la fonte che irrigava il Paradiso terrestre fù da Eva persuaso a gustare il pomo, e lo mangiò per non contristarla; onde ambidue conobbero d'esser nudi, soggetti a morte & a mille altri mali & si nascosero.

SCENA

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