Page images
PDF
EPUB

we might select on this occasion, let us stop a moment, and take one attentive look at the allegorical figures that rise to our view in the following lines:

By that way's side there sat infernal Pain,
And fast beside him sat tumultuous Strife;
The one in hand an iron whip did strain,

The other brandished a bloody knife;

And both did gnash their teeth, and both did threaten life.*

22.

But gnawing Jealousie, out of their sight

Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bite;

VOL. II.

D

And

the favourite poet of that time." We must not try the charm ing sallies of Ariosto by the rigid rules of Aristotle.

There is a remarkable letter of Bernardo Tasso, the father of Torquato, in which is this passage: "Ne sò io s'Aristotele nascesse a questa età, et vedesse il vaghissimo poema dell' Ariosto, conoscendo la forza de l' uso, et vedendo che tanto diletta, come l'esperienza ci dimonstra, mutasse opinione, et consentisse che si potesse far poema heroico di piu attione : Con la sua mirabil dottrina, et giudicio, dandogli nova norma, et prescrivuendogli novi leggi.”

Lettere di XIII. Huomini Illustri da Tomaso Porcacchi.

In Venetia, 1584. Libro XVII. pag. 422.

* Book II. c. 7. 21.

And trembling Feare still to and fro did flie,
And found no place where safe he shroud him might.
Lamenting Sorrow did in darknesse lie,

And Shame his ugly face did hide from living eye.

To shew the richness of his fancy, he has given us another picture of Jealousy, conceived with equal strength, in a succeeding book.*

Into that cave he creepes, and thenceforth there
Resolv'd to build his baleful mansion

In dreary darknesse, and continual feare
Of that rock's fall; which ever and anon
Threats with huge ruin him to fall upon,
That he dare never sleep, but that one eye
Still ope he keeps for that occasion ;

Ne ever rests he in tranquillity,

The roaring billows beat his bowre so boisterously.+

Here all is in life and motion; here we behold the true Poet or MAKER; this is creation; it is here, might we cry out to Spenser," it is here

[ocr errors]

that you display to us, that you make us feel the

sure

* Lord Somers was passionately fond of the Faery Queen; it was his favourite work; in the last picture which he sat for to Sir Godfrey Kneller, he desired to be painted with a Spenser in his hand.

+ Book iii. c. M.

sure effects of genuine poetry, όταν ο λέγης, ὑπ ένθεσιασμε και παθες βλεπειν δοκής, και ὑπ ̓ οψίν τιθῃς τοις Longinus.*

ακεσσιν.

It has been fashionable of late to imitate Spenser; but the likeness of most of these copies hath consisted rather in using a few of his ancient expressions, than in catching his real manner. Some, however, have been executed with happiness, and with attention to that simplicity, that tenderness of sentiment, and those little touches of nature, that constitute Spenser's character. I have a peculiar pleasure in mentioning two of them,† The SCHOOL-MISTRESS, by Mr. Shenstone; and the EDUCATION of ACHILLES, by Mr. Bedingfield. To these must be added that exquisite piece of wild and romantic imagery, Thomson's Castle of Indolence; the first canto of which, in particular, is marvellously pleasing, D2 and

[blocks in formation]

↑ Dodsley's Miscellanies, Vol. I. pag. 247, and Vol. III.

pag. 119.

And also Dr. Beattie's charming Minstrel.

and the stanzas have a greater flow and freedom than his blank-verse.

POPE has imitated WALLER in the third place, and has done it with elegance; especially in the verses on a fan of his own design; for he designed with dexterity and taste. The application of the story of Cephalus and Procris, is as ingenious as Waller's Phoebus and Daphne. Waller abounds, perhaps to excess, in allusions to mythology, and the ancient classics. The French, as may be imagined, complain that he is too learned for the ladies. The following twelve lines contain three allusions, delicate indeed, but some may deem them to be too far-fetched, too much crouded, and not obvious to the Lady to whom they were addressed, on her singing a song of his composing:

Chloris, yourself you so excell,

When you vouchsafe to breathe my thought,

That like a spirit with this spell,

Of my own teaching I am caught.

That

*Speaking of his imitations, POPE said to Mr. Spence, “I had once a design of giving a taste of all the Greek poets; I would have translated a hymn of Homer, an ode of Pindar, an idyllium of Theocritus, &c. so that I would have exhibited a general view of their poesie, throughout its different ages."

That eagle's fate and mine are one,

Which on the shaft that made him die,
Espy'd a feather of his own,
Wherewith he wont to soar so high.

Had Echo, with so sweet a grace,
Narcissus' loud complaints return'd,
Not for reflexion of his face,

But of his voice, the boy had burn'd.

Here is matter enough compressed together for Voiture to have spun out into fifty lines. If I was to name my favourite among Waller's smaller pieces, it should be his apology for having loved before. He begins by saying, that "they who never had been used to the surprising juice of the grape, render up their reason to the first delicious cup" this is sufficiently gallant; but what he adds has much of the sublime, and is like a thought of Milton's:

To man that was i' th' evening made,
Stars gave the first delight;

Admiring, in the gloomy shade,

Those little drops of light,

D 3

Then

* Spenser and Waller were POPE's great favourites, as he told Mr. Spence, in the order they are named, in his early reading.

« PreviousContinue »