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The moving mountains hear the pow'rful call,
And headlong streams hang lift'ning in their fall!
But fee, the fhepherds fhun the noon-day heat,
The lowing herds to murm'ring brooks retreat,
To closer shades the panting flocks remove;
Ye Gods! and is there no relief for Love?
But foon the fun with milder rays defcends
To the cool ocean, where his journey ends.

86

90

"

REMARKS.

VER. 84. And beadlong, &c.] Pope has carried the idea into extravagance, when he makes the ftream not only "listening," but hang liftening in its headlong fall." Mr. Stevens in his MS. notes, quotes Lucan, in a paffage where the image is precisely the fame, though poffibly Pope never faw it:

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But as it is here used, it is too hyperbolical, and only allowable in a very young writer. An idea of this fort will only bear juft touching, if I may fay fo; the mind then does not perceive its violence: if it be brought before the eyes too minutely, it becomes almoft ridiculous. This is often the fault of Cowley. Oldham has a paffage of the fame ftamp:

"For which the lift'ning ftreams forgot to run,
And trees lean'd their attentive branches down."

How much more judiciously and poetically has Milton given the fame idea?

"Thirfis, whofe artful strains have oft delay'd

The huddling brook, to hear his madrigal,

And sweeten'd, &c."

COMUS.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 88. Te Gods, &c.]

"Me tamen urit amor, quis enim modus adfit amori ?"

Virg. POPE.

On

On me love's fiercer flames for ever prey,
By night he scorches, as he burns by day.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 91. Me love inflames, nor will his fires allay.

REMARKS.

POPE.

VER. 92. By night, &c.] This is certainly the pooreft of Pope's Paftorals; and it has many falfe thoughts and conceits, fuch as,

"The bleating flocks with my complaints agree,

"They parch'd with THIRST, and I inflam'd by thee."

"This harmless grove no lurking viper hides,

"But in my breaft the ferpent love abides, &c."

"On me love's fiercer flames, &c."

But the ingenuous and candid critic will always bear in mind the early age in which they were written, and the false taste of Cowley at that time prevalent.

Speaking of the "Headlong stream, that hangs lift'ning in its fall," Ruffhead fays, "Though it may be allowed that the new "images in these Pastorals are not frequent, yet it is too much to "fay they do not contain a fingle image that is new! Let any "reader of fenfibility attend to the following lines:

"But would you fing, &c.

"The moving mountains hear your pow'rful call,

"And headlong ftreams hang lift'ning in their fall!"

"The laft line," he adds, " furely prefents a new image, and a "bold one too!!" bold indeed!

Virgil has,

Et mutata fuos requierunt flumina curfus.

But this idea is certainly not fo "bold!" and according to Mr. Ruffhead, Milton's image is very tame in comparison of Pope's.

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AUTUMN:

THE THIRD PASTORAL,*

OR

HYLAS and EGON.

TO MR. WYCHERLEY.t

BENEATH the fhade a spreading Beech displays,
Hylas and Ægon fung their rural lays;

This mourn'd a faithlefs, that an abfent Love,
And Delia's name and Doris' fill'd the Grove.

Ye Mantuan nymphs, your facred fuccour bring; 5
Hylas and Egon's rural lays I fing.

REMARKS.

Thou,

a This Pastoral confifts of two parts, like the viiith of Virgil: The Scene, a Hill; the Time at Sun.set.

POPE.

+ His intrigues with the Dutchess of Cleveland, his marriage with the Countefs of Drogheda, Charles the Second's difpleasure on this marriage, his debts and diftreffes, and other particulars of his life, are well related by Dennis in a Letter to Major Pack, 1720. In Dennis's collection of Letters, published in two volumes, 1721, to which Mr. Pope fubfcribed, Lord Lanfdown has drawn his character, as a Writer, in an elegant manner chiefly with a view of fhewing the impropriety of an epithet given to him by Lord Rochefter, who called him Slow Wycherley; for that, notwithstanding his pointed wit, and forcible expreffion, he compofed with facility and hatte. WARTON.

Thou, whom the Nine, with Plautus' wit infpire, The art of Terence, and Menander's fire

Whose sense instructs us, and whofe humour charms, Whose judgment sways us, and whose spirit warms! Oh, skill'd in Nature! fee the hearts of Swains, Their artless paffions, and their tender pains.

REMARKS.

II

Now

VER. 7. Thou, whom the Nine,] Mr. Wycherley, a famous author of Comedies; of which the most celebrated were the Plain-Dealer and Country-Wife. He was a writer of infinite fpirit, fatire, and wit. The only objection made to him was, that he had too much. However, he was followed in the fame way by Mr. Congreve, tho' with a little more correctness.

Surely with much more correctness, taste, and judgment.

РОРЕ.

WARTON.

VER. 8. The art of Terence, and Menander's fire;] This line alludes to that famous character given of Terence, by Cæfar: "Tu quoque, tu in fummis, ô dimidiate Menander, Poneris, et merito, puri fermonis amator:

Lenibus atque utinam fcriptis adjuncta foret vis
Comica."

So that the judicious critic fees he should have faid-with Menander's fire. For what the Poet meant, was, that his friend had joined to Terence's art, what Cæfar thought wanting in Terence, namely, the vis comica of Menander. Befides,—and Menander's fire, is making that the Characteristic of Menander which was not. He was diftinguished for having art and comic Spirit in conjunction, and Terence having only the first part, is called the half of Menander. WARBURTON.

VER. 9. Whofe fenfe inftru&is us,] He was always very careful in his encomiums not to fall into ridicule, the deferved fate of weak and prostitute flatterers, and which they rarely escape. For fenfe, he would willingly have faid moral; propriety required it. But this dramatic Poet's moral was remarkably faulty. His plays are all fhamefully profligate both in the Dialogue and Action. WARBURTON.

VER. 11. Oh, skill'd] Few writers have lefs nature in them than Wycherley.

WARTON.

Now fetting Phoebus fhone ferenely bright,
And fleecy clouds were streak'd with purple light;
When tuneful Hylas with melodious moan,

15

Taught rocks to weep, and made the mountains groan.
Go, gentle gales, and bear my fighs away!
To Delia's ear the tender notes convey.

As fome fad turtle his loft love deplores,

And with deep murmurs fills the founding fhores;
Thus, far from Delia, to the winds I mourn,
Alike unheard, unpity'd, and forlorn.

Go, gentle gales, and bear my fighs along!
For her, the feather'd quires neglect their fong:
For her, the limes their pleasing shades deny;
For her, the lilies hang their heads and die.

Ye flow'rs that droop, forfaken by the spring,
Ye birds that, left by fummer, cease to fing,
Ye trees that fade when autumn-heats remove,
Say, is not abfence death to thofe who love?
Go, gentle gales, and bear my fighs away!
Curs'd be the fields that caufe my Delia's stay;
Fade ev'ry bloffom, wither ev'ry tree,

21

25

30

Die ev'ry flow'r, and perifh all, but fhe.
What have I faid? where'er my Delia flies,

35

Let fpring attend, and fudden flow'rs arife;

Let

REMARKS.

VER. 25.1. This rich affemblage of very pleafing pastoral images, is yet excelled by Shenfton's beautiful Paftoral Ballad in

four parts.

WARTON.

Line 17, to 30. Go, gentle gales, c.] Thefe lines are very beautiful, tender, and melodious.

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