surely neglect is of itself a sufficient punishment for attempting to please the public, without having the misfortune aggravated by the wantonness of insult, and the taunts of petulance. NOTES NOTES ΤΟ DISSERTATION I. NOTE (a) p. 5.-Machiavel has employed a chapter in his Discourses on Livy, to prove that, in order that a fect or republic may long fubfift, it muft fometimes be winded up as it were, or restored to its original fpring. A volere che una fetta, o una republica viva lungamente, è neceffario ritirarla fpeffo verfo il fuo principio. This certainly holds in many things, and is perhaps true in poetry; it began with the creations of fancy, with wonderful fictions and fablings: it left thefe for wit and fatire, which however, not being very convenient for poetical writers, many of them (indeed the great proportion) contented themfelves with mere rhyme. In order to restore poetry, it will be ́neceffary perhaps to return to the study of Homer, and to the old Gothic fictions. A difpofition of this fort has of late manifested itself, and is a favourable fymptom of the revival of the art "I may tell you, fays Milton, whither my younger feet wandered: I betook me among thofe lofty fables and romances which recount, in folemn cantos, the deeds of knighthood." Nor did he ceafe to wander into the haunts of the Grecian and Roman mufe. It was this, and the being smit with the love of fame and of fong, that hath tendered his name immortal; and it is to fimilar circumftances that the world must be indebted for its future Miltons and Taffos. Note (b) p. 7.-St Jerome, in his work against Jovian, lib. 2. cap. 6. tells his readers the following anecdote, when speaking of The nations which each other eat, The Anthropophagi, Quid loquar de ceteris nationibus? cum ipse adolefcentulus in Gallia viderim Scotos gentem Britannicam humanis vesci carnibus, et cum per Sylvas pecorum greges, et armentorum pecudumque reperiunt ; paftorum nates, et foeminarum papillas folere abfcindere, et has folas ciborum delicias arbitrari. Note (c) p. 9.-" The Ancients (fays Joseph Warton, in his Remarks on the Life and Writings of Pope) constantly availed themselves of the mention of particular mountains, rivers, and other objects of nature; and indeed almost confine themselves to the tales and traditions of their respective countries. Whereas we have been strangely neglectful of celebrating our own Severn, Thames or Malvern, and have therefore fallen into trite repetitions of claffical images, as well as claffical names. Our mufes have feldom been Playing on the fteep, Where our old bards the famous druids lie." There are few works more amufing than that from which the above extract is taken. It is indeed (to ufe an expreffion of Mr Cibber) 66 a mere ragout toffed up from the offal of other authors," but the cookery is excellent. One thing a perfon does not like, is the declamation against French critics and criticism, while fuch use is making of them; and, in particular, almost whole pages tranfcribed from the work of the Abbé du Bos. Note (d) p. 9.-That what the editor here mentions was early the ambition of BURNS, we may collect from the following ftanzas to a brother ruftic poet. RAMSAY and famous Ferguson, While Irwin, Lugar, Ayr, and Doon, The Iliffus, Tiber, Thames, and Seine, An' cock your creft, We'll gar our ftreams an' burnies fhine, Amang the best. We'll fing auld Coila's plains and fells, Where glorious Wallace, Aft bure the gree, as ftory tells, Frae fouth'ron billies. Oh, sweet are Coila's haughs and woods, An' jinkin hares in amorous whids, Their loves enjoy; While through the braes the cufhat croods, Wi' wailfu' cry. Vol. III. p. 250% Note (e) p. 11.-From these fairy palaces the Italian poets borrowed their splendid descriptions, which in turn were adopted and imitated by our, early English poets Ariofto, in his 34th canto, when he makes Aftolpho afcend to the terreftrial paradife, where he fees and converfes with the apostle John, thus defcribes the country, So feem'd the flow'rs that, painted by the breeze, Aftolpho next comes to a magnificent palace, which fhone in a won derful manner. Come egli è presso al' luminoso tetto Che tutto d'una gemma é il muro fchietto, -St. 53 Now near the shining dome, the Paladine Our divine Milton particularly feems early to have filled his imagination with pictures, drawn partly perhaps from the Apocalypfe, partly from poetry and romance, of glorious and fplendid material objects. In his earliest productions, we fee him delighting to reprefent to us angelic music, the beatitude of the faints, and especially the divine fplendour of heaven. Thus, in a poem written at 17 years of age, he fays, Donec nitentes ad fores Ventum eft Olympi, et regiam chryftallinam, et Stratum fmaragdis atrium. Which (as I have done with the paffages of Ariofto) I shall translate into English blank verfe. To heaven's fhining doors I came; the crystal palace, and the hall |