THIS Ode was written, we find, at the desire of Steele; and our Poet, in a letter to him on that occasion, says,-" You have it, as Cowley calls it, just warm from the brain; it came to me the first moment I waked this morning; yet you'll see, it was not so absolutely inspiration, but that I had in my head, not only the verses of Hadrian, but the fine fragment of Sappho." It is possible, however, that our Author might have had another composition in his head, besides those he here refers to : for there is a close and surprising resemblance between this ode of Pope, and one of an obscure and forgotten rhymer of the age of Charles the Second, namely Thomas Flatman; from whose dunghill, as well as from the dregs of Crashawe, of Carew, of Herbert, and others (for it is well known he was a great reader of all those poets), Pope has very judiciously collected gold. And the following stanza is, perhaps, the only valuable one Flatman has produced: When on my sick bed I languish ; Fainting, gasping, trembling, crying, Panting, groaning, speechless, dying; Be not fearful, come away! The third and fourth lines are eminently good and pathetic, and the climax well preserved, the very turn of them is closely copied by Pope; as is likewise the striking circumstance of the dying man's imagining he hears a voice calling him away: Vital spark of heav'nly flame Warton. Prior also translated this little Ode, but with manifest inferiority to Pope. Pope was certainly indebted to Flatman. The plagiarism is palpable. Dr. Warton speaks with too much contempt of Crashawe, Herbert, &c. Some of Crashawe's strains are of a higher mood;" and who can deny great merit to the author of that natural and pleasing effusion, of which Mr. Ellis, in his valuable specimens of English Poetry, has selected, "I made a Posy, as the day went by." Herbert was Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and afterwards Rector of Bemerton, near Salisbury. Bowles. ELOISA TO ABELARD. O Abelard, ill-fated youth! Dan Pope, for thy misfortune griev'd, And Venus shall the texture bless. Prior. "higher mood;" and who can deny great merit to the author of that natural and pleasing effusion, of which Mr. Ellis, in his valuable specimens of English Poetry, has selected, "I made a Posy, as the day went by." Herbert was Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and afterwards Rector of Bemerton, near Salisbury. Bowles. ELOISA TO ABELARD. O Abelard, ill-fated youth! Dan Pope, for thy misfortune griev'd, And Venus shall the texture bless. Prior. |