deed, where love is only the fecondary paffion, in a play, it can never greatly affect.

From his criticism on this tragedy, the Author proeeds to confider Mr. Addifon's other writings. The Letter from Italy he thinks no way equal to a fubject fo fruitful of genuine poetry, and which might have warmed the most cold and correct imagination. One would have expected (adds he) a young traveller, in the height of his genius and judgment, would ⚫ have broke out into some strokes of enthufiafm. With what 'flatnefs and unfeelingness has he fpoken of ftatuary and painting? Raphael never received a more phlegmatick elogy. The flavery and fuperftition of the prefent Romans are well touched upon, towards the conclufion; but I will ' venture to name a little piece, on a parallel fubject, that greatly excels this celebrated Letter, and in which are as much lively and original imagery, ftrong painting, and manly fentiments of freedom, as I have ever read in our language. It is a Copy of Verfes written at Virgil's tomb, and printed in Dodfley's fourth volume of Mifcellanies.'

Never was any thing more unjuft than the character here given us of Mr. Addifon's Letter from Italy. What can be more poetical than his defcription of the Italian rivers, and especially of the Po?

Fir'd with a thousand raptures I furvey
Eridanus through flowery meadows ftray,
The King of Floods! that rolling o'er the plains,
The tow ring Alps of half their moisture drains,
And proudly fwoln with a whole winter's frows,
Diftributes wealth and plenty where he flows.

What more beautiful than

Sometimes, mifguided by the tuneful throng,
I look for ftreams immortaliz'd in fong;

That loft in filence and oblivion lie,

Dumb are their fountains, and their channels dry!
Yet run for ever by the Mufe's skill,

And in the smooth defcription murmur ftill.

Nor is the defcription of the Tyber less picturesque. This however, we fhall, omit together with his elegantly fublime compliment to Lord Hallifax, and only afk the impartial reader, whether the following lines are deftitute of poetical enthusiasm.

See how the golden groves around me fmile,
That fhun the coaft of Britain's stormy isle,
Or when transplanted, and preferved with care,
Curfe the cold clime, and starve in northern air.

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Here kindly warmth their mounting juice ferments
To nobler taftes, and more exalted scents :
E'en the rough rocks with tender myrtle bloom,
And trodden weeds fend out a rich perfume.
Bear me fome God to Baia's gentle feats,
Or cover me in Umbria's green retreats ;
Where weftern gales eternally refide,
And all the feafons lavish all their pride:
Bloffoms, and fruits, and flowers, together rise
And the whole year in gay confufion lies.

Is not the defcription of the ruins of Rome nobly animated," and particularly the four last lines?

Where the old Romans deathless acts difplay'd,
Their base degenerate progeny upbraid:

Whole rivers here forfake the fields below,

And, wond'ring at their height, through airy channels flow*.
Nor can we think Mr. Addison's verses on Statuary, and on
Raphael, fo flat and unfeeling as the Critic reprefents them.
Still to new scenes my wandering Mufe retires,
And the dumb how of breathing rocks admires;
Where the fmooth chiffel all its force has shown,
And foftned into flesh the rugged ftone.
In folemn filence, a majestic band,

Heroes, and Gods, and Roman Confuls fland.
Stern tyrants, whom their cruelties renown,
And Emperors in Parian marble frown ;

While the bright Dames to whom they humbly fu'd,

Still fhow the charms that their proud hearts fubdu’d.

If the encomium on Raphael is lefs animated, the following lines, however, exhibit a picture more lively and glowing than any that ever flowed from the pencil of that wonderful artist: as the moral, too, is well worthy of a Briton.

How has kind Heav'n adorn'd the happy land,
And scatter'd bleffings with a wasteful hand!
But what avail her unexhaufted fiores,
Her blooming mountains, and her funny fores,
With all the gifts that heaven and earth impart,
The miles of nature, and the charms of art,
While proud Oppreffion in her vallies reigns,
And Tyranny ufurps her happy plains?
The poor inhabitant beholds in vain
The red ning orange, and the fwelling grain;
Joylefs be fees the growing oils and vines,
And in the myrtle's fragrant fade repiness
Starves, in the midst of nature's bounty curft,
And in the loaden vineyard dies for thirft.-
* The aqueducts.

Indeed

Indeed the flavery and fuperftition of the Romans are fo well touched upon, towards the conclufion, that none but the author of the verfes he fets in competition with Addison, or the Author's very partial friend, could ever have dream'd of the parallel; yet are we far from denying that Copy of Verfes its due merit.

That there are many well wrought defcriptions,' adds the Critic, and even pathetic ftrokes in the Campaign' (which he elsewhere calls a Gazette in rhyme) it would be ftupidity and malignity to deny. But furely the regular march which the poet has obferved, from one town to another, as if he had been a Commiffary of the army, cannot well be ' excufed.'

Mr. Voltaire, however, (whofe judgment our Author, on other occafions, has readily adopted, and whom we all know to be not over partial to the English poets) thought very differently of the Campaign. That fpirited author, after defcribing the battle of Blenheim, thus proceeds; Les remerci ments des Chambres du parlement, ceux des villes & des bourgades, les acclamations d' Angleterre furent le premier priz quil recut de fa victoire. Le poeme du celebre Addijon, monument plus durable que le palais de Blenheim, eft comptè, par cette nation guerriere et favante, parmi les recompenfes les plus honorables du Duc de Marlborough. But to return to our Critic; who is fo candid as to allow due praise to fome other parts of Mr. Addifon's works, particularly his profe pieces.

In various parts,' of his profe Effays, are to be found 'many ftrokes of genuine and fublime poetry, many marks. of a vigorous and exuberant imagination; particularly in the noble Allegory of Pain and Pleafure, the Vifion of Mirza, the Story of Maraton and Yaratilda, of Conftantia and Theodofius, the beautiful Eaftern Tale of Abdallah and Balfora, and many others, together with several strokes in the Effay on the Pleafures of the Imagination. After all, the chief and characteristical excellence of Addison was his • humour; for in humour no mortal has excelled him, except • Moliere; witnefs the character of Sir Roger de Coverly, fo original, fo natural, and fo inviolably preferved, particu larly in the month which the Spectator fpends at his Hall in the country; witnefs alfo the Drummer, that excellent and neglected comedy, that juft picture of life and real man'ners, where the poet never fpeaks in his own person, or totally drops or forgets à character, for the fake of introducing a brilliant fimile, or acute remark: where no train is laid fer wit; no Jeremys, or Bens, are fuffered to appear."

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The Critic next confiders the Epilogue to Jane Shore, which, he fays, is written with the air of gallantry and raillery, which, by a ftrange perverfion of tafte, the audience expects in all epilogues to the most serious and pathetic plays. To recommend cuckoldom, and palliate adultery, is their ufual intent.'

This Epilogue leads him to confider Rowe as a writer; and whom he justly reprefents as rather delicate and tender, than ftrong and pathetic; and as foothing us with a tranquil and tender fort of complacency, rather than cleaving the heart with pangs of commiferation. His diftreffes are entirely

founded on the paffion of love. His diction is extremely elegant and chafte; and his verfification highly melodious. His plays are declamations rather than dialogues; and his characters are general, and undistinguished from each other. Such a furious character as that of Bajazet is easily drawn; and let me add, eafily acted. There is a want of unity in the fable of Tamerlane. The death's head, dead body, and ftage hung in mourning, in the Fair Penitent, are inartificial and mechanical methods of affecting an audience. In a word, his plays are mufical and pleafing poems, but inactive and unmoving tragedies. This of Jane Shore, is, I think, the most interesting and affecting of any he has given us; but probability is fadly violated in it, by the neglect of the unity of time. For a perfon to be supposed to be ftarved during the reprefentation of five acts, is a ftriking inftance of the abfurdity of this violation. In this piece, as in all of Rowe's, are many florid fpeeches, utterly inconfiftent with the ftate and circumftances of the diftrefsful perfonages who speak them.' Of this, as he gives fome inftances, fo does he alfo candidly quote fome that are extremely natural and tender. What Shore anfwers to her hufband, when he asks her movingly,

Why dost thou fx thy dying eyes upon me
With fuch an earnest, fuch a piteous look,
As if thy heart was full of fome fad meaning
Thou couldst not speak ?-

Is, he oberves, pathetic to a great degree; and

Forgive me, but forgive me!

Are words, adds he, that far exceed the most pompous declamations of Cato. The interview between Jane Shore and Alicia, in the middle of this act, (continues the Critic) is alfo very affecting: where the madnefs of Alicia is well painted. But of all reprefentations of madness, that of • Clemen

Clementina, in Grandifon, is the moft deeply interefting. I know not whether even the madness of Lear is wrought up and expreffed by fo many little ftrokes of nature, and genuine • paffion. It is abfolute pedantry to prefer and compare the • madness of Oreftes in Euripides, to this of Clementina.'We are glad our Author did not, in the heat of his panegyrical ftrain, boldly, at once, tack the Caffandra of Lycophron to Oreftes, the more completely to fill the triumph of the Neapolitan lady.

He fuppofes, that Jane Shore is the most popular of Row's plays, from its being founded in our history; and from thence judiciously takes occafion to recommend to our tragic writers, our domeftica facta, if not too antient, nor too recent, as fubjects the most interefting and useful.

This brings our Critic back to Pope, who, he informs us, is faid to have framed a defign of writing an epic poem, on ⚫ a fact recorded in our old annalifts, and therefore more engaging to an Englishman: the arrival of Brutus, the fuppofed grandfon of Æneas, in our island, and the settlement of the firft foundation of the British monarchy. A full fcope might have been given to a vigorous imagination, to 'embellifh a fiction drawn from the bofom of the remotest antiquity. But fhall I be pardoned for fufpecting that Pope ⚫ would not have fucceeded in this defign; that fo didactic a 'genius would have been deficient in that fublime and pathetic, which are the main nerves of the Epopea; that he would have given us many elegant defcriptions, and many ⚫ general characters, well drawn, but would have failed to fet before our eyes, the reality of thefe objects, and the actions ⚫ of these characters: for Homer profeffedly draws no characters, but gives us to collect them from the looks and behaviour of each perfon he introduces; that Pope's clofe and conftant • reasoning had impaired and crushed the faculty of imagination; that the political reflections in this piece, would, in all probability, have been more numerous than the affecting frokes of nature; that it would have more resembled the Henriade than the Iliad, or even the Gierufalemme liberata ; that it would have appeared, how much, and for what reafons, the man fkilful in painting modern life, and the moft fecret foibles and follies of his cotemporaries, is therefore difqualified for reprefenting the ages of heroifm, and that fimple life, which alone epic poetry can gracefully defcribe; in a word, that his compofition would have fhewn more of the philofopher than of the poet. Add to all this, that it was 'to have been written in rhyme; a circumftance fufficient of

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