His turns too closely on the reader press : O'er-flows the heav'ns with one continu'd light; Th' unnumber'd beauties of thy verse with blame; But wit like thine in any shape will please. And plays in more unbounded verse, and takes a nobler flight. Employ'd the tuneful prelate in thy praise: In Sprat's successful labours and thy own. But Milton, next, with high and haughty stalks, No vulgar hero can his muse ingage ; Nor earth's wide scene confine his hallow'd rage. Spurns the dull province of mortality, verse. Parts of his criticism are admirable; but the unfortunate line "He more had pleased us," has been severely ridiculed.-G. a Cowley had great merit, but nature had formed him to manage Anacreon's lute, and not Pindar's lyre Shakes heaven's eternal throne with dire alarms, Bold, and sublime, my whole attention draws, What sounds of brazen wheels, what thunder, scare, With fear my spirits and my blood retire, Oh had the poet ne'er profan'd his pen, * I wonder what these laws could be. Nobody understood the critic's nicest laws, better than Milton, or observed them with more respect. The observation might be true of Shakspeare; but, by illhap, we do not so much as find his name in this account of English poets. ↳ A vision so profuse of pleasantness. A prettily turned line. The expression (originally Milton's, P. L. iv. 243. viii. 286) pleased our poet so much, that we have it again in the letter from Italy-profuse of bliss, and elsewhere. © Serene and bright. This is a strange description of Milton's language, if he means the language of his prose works. The panegyric seems made at random. But now my muse a softer strain rehearse, Muse tune thy verse, with art, to Waller's praise. 1 Thy verse, harmonious bard, and flatt'ring song, What scenes of death and horror had we view'd, In smoother numbers and a softer verse Nor must Roscommon pass neglected by, Rules, whose deep sense, and heav'nly numbers show Nor, Denham, must we e'er forget thy strains, While Cooper's Hill commands the neighb'ring plains. Thy verse can show. Of this and the four next lines, Johnson says, "What is this but to say, that he who would compliment Cromwell had been the proper poet for King William?"-G. VOL. 1.-7 But see where artful Dryden next appears She forms her voice, she moves our smiles or tears. Her hero pleases, and her satire bites. From her no harsh unartful numbers fall, That long has flourish'd, shou'd decay with thee; b I'm tir'd with rhyming, and would fain give o'er, The noble Montague' remains unnam'd, For wit, for humour, and for judgment fam'd; In numbers such as Dorset's self might use. 1 The noble Montague. It is of Montague that Pope says,--" he was fed with dedications," and Tickell, that he rewarded them all.-G. a Whether in comic sounds or tragick airs. A writer in fashion, like the stoical wise man, is every thing he has a mind to be. Dryden's comeies are very indifferent, and his tragedies still worse. b Congreve shall still. Another poet in fashion: but it is not safe to phecy of such. All he had of Dryden's muse was only his quaint and il-applied wit. How negligently graceful he unreins His verse, and writes in loose familiar strains; How Nassau's godlike acts adorn his lines, We see his army set in just array, And Boyne's dy'd waves run purple to the sea. Nor Simois choak'd with men, and arms, and blood; Nor rapid Xanthus' celebrated flood, Shall longer be the poet's highest themes, Tho' gods and heroes fought promiscuous in their streams. He aids the hero, whom before he prais'd. I've done at length; and now, dear friend, receive I leave the arts of poetry and verse 1 To them that practise 'em with more success. And so at once, dear friend and muse, farewell. 1 I leave the arts, &c. These lines have found a place in the twelfth chapter of "The art of sinking in poetry." "Let verses run in this manner, just to be a vehicle to the words. (I take them from my last cited author, who, though otherwise by no means of our rank, seemed, once in his life, to have a mind to be simple, &c.) "—G. 2 Of greater truths. Addison, at this time, thought of taking orders. |