dies, and fo join'd out name t rough long fucceeding agys

wifh, like theirs, our tare andi rinna

MISCELLANITS

my rage

rts we came

ite.

eith Blame i

y brings the vanish'd piles to view,
ginary Rome a-new,
dy'd marbles fix our eye;
demands a figh;

path, endeavouring to furprise and Common or new. When this defire after

ued from mere idlenefs or caprice, it is not worth . criticism; but when it has been in confequence of a ad, of a peculiar complexion, it is always ftriking and in.etting, never infipid.

Such is the great ftyle as it appears in those who poffeffed it at its height, in this, fearch after novelty, in conception or in treating the fubject, has no place." WARTON.

VER. 30. Or feek] This laft line is inferior to the three prece ding ones because it paffes from particular images to fomething general. WARTON.

VER. 33. well-fudy'd marbles] Jervas was fent to Italy at the expence of Dr. Clarke, Member of Parliament for the University of Oxford, of All-Souls College. WARTON.

VER. 37. Carracci's] "Give me a good outline, and bricks in the middle," faid Annibal Carracci. Agoftino has left an elegant fonnet on painting. Sir Joshua Reynolds told me he did not think these artists exactly characterized by Pope. WARTON.

VER. 39. How finifb'd] Mr. Mason has tranflated Fresnoy with elegance and fidelity; and Sir Joshua Reynolds added to the tranflation, learned, useful, fcientifical, and ingenious notes.

"Guido," fays Sir Joshua Reynolds, (Difcourfes, p. 155.) "from want of choice in adapting his subject to his ideas and powers, or in attempting to preserve beauty where it could not be

preferved,

With thee repose, where Tully once was laid,
Or feek fome Ruin's formidable fhade:

30

While

NOTES.

"If we put those great artists in a light of comparison with each other, Raffaelle had more taste and fancy, Michael Angelo had more genius and imagination; the one excelled in beauty, the other in energy. Michael Angelo has more of the poetical inspiration, his ideas are vast and fublime, his people are a fuperior order of beings; there is nothing about them, nothing in the air of their actions, or their attitudes, or the ftyle and caft of their very limbs or features, that puts one in mind of their belonging to our own fpecies. Raffaelle's imagination is not fo elevated; his figures are not so much disjoined from our own diminutive race of beings, though his ideas are chafte, noble, and of great conformity to their fubjects. Michael Angelo's works have a strong, peculiar, and marked character; they feem to proceed from his own mind entirely, and that mind fo rich and abundant, that he never needed, or seemed to disdain, to look abroad for foreign help. Raffaelle's materials are generally borrowed, though the noble structure is his own. The excellency of this extraordinary man lay in the propriety, beauty, and majesty of his characters, his judicious contrivance of his compofition, correctness of drawing, purity of tafte, and the skilful accommodation of other men's conceptions to his own purpose. Nobody excelled him in that judgment, with which he united, to his own obfervations on nature, the energy of Michael Angelo, and the beauty and fimplicity of the antique. To the queftion therefore, Which ought to hold the first rank, Raffaelle or Michael Angelo? it must be answered, that if it is given to him who poffeffed a greater combination of the higher qualities of the art than any other man, there is no doubt but Raffaelle is the firft. But if, according to Longinus, the fublime, being the highest excellence that human compofition can attain to, abundantly compenfates the abfence of every other beauty, and for all other deficiencies, then Michael Angelo demands the preference.

atones

"These two extraordinary men carried fome of the higher excellencies of the art to a higher degree of perfection than probably they ever arrived at before. They certainly have not been excelled, nox equalled fince. Many of their fucceffors were induced to leave

While Fancy brings the vanish'd piles to view,
And builds imaginary Rome a-new,

35

Here thy well-study'd marbles fix our eye;
A fading Frefco here demands a figh;
Each heav'nly piece unwearied we compare,
Match Raphael's grace with thy lov'd Guido's air,
Carracci's strength, Correggio's fofter line,
Paulo's free stroke, and Titian's warmth divine.
How finish'd with illuftrious toil appears!
This small, well-polish'd Gem, the work of years!

Yet

NOTES.

this great road as a beaten path, endeavouring to surprise and please by something uncommon or new. When this defire after novelty has proceeded from mere idlenefs or caprice, it is not worth the trouble of criticism; but when it has been in confequence of a bufy mind, of a peculiar complexion, it is always ftriking and interefting, never infipid.

"Such is the great ftyle as it appears in those who poffeffed it at its height, in this, fearch after novelty, in conception or in treating the fubject, has no place." WARTON.

VER. 30. Or feek] This laft line is inferior to the three preceding ones because it paffes from particular images to fomething general. WARTON.

VER. 33. well-fudy'd marbles] Jervas was fent to Italy at the expence of Dr. Clarke, Member of Parliament for the University of Oxford, of All-Souls College. WARTON.

VER. 37. Carracci's] "Give me a good outline, and bricks in the middle," faid Annibal Carracci. Agostino has left an elegant fonnet on painting. Sir Joshua Reynolds told me he did not think thefe artists exactly characterized by Pope. WARTON.

VER. 39. How finifb'd] Mr. Mafon has tranflated Fresnoy with elegance and fidelity; and Sir Joshua Reynolds added to the translation, learned, useful, scientifical, and ingenious notes.

"Guido," fays Sir Joshua Reynolds, (Difcourfes, p. 155.) "from want of choice in adapting his fubject to his ideas and powers, or in attempting to preserve beauty where it could not be

preserved,

Yet ftill how faint by precept is exprest
The living image in the painter's breast?
Thence endless streams of fair Ideas flow,
Strike in the sketch, or in the picture glow;
Thence Beauty, waking all her forms, fupplies
An Angel's sweetness, or Bridgewater's eyes,

Mufe! at that Name thy facred forrows fhed,
Thofe tears eternal, that embalm the dead:
Call round her Tomb each object of defire,
Each purer frame inform'd with
purer fire:
Bid her be all that cheers or foftens life,
The tender fifter, daughter, friend, and wife :
Bid her be all that makes mankind adore;
Then view this Marble, and be vain no more!

Yet ftill her charms in breathing paint engage; 55
Her modeft cheek fhall warm a future age.
Beauty, frail flow'r, that ev'ry feason fears,
Blooms in thy colours for a thoufand years.

NOTES.

41

45

50

Thus

preferved, has in this one point fucceeded very ill. His figures are often engaged in fubjects that required great expreffion; yet his Judith and Holofernes, the daughter of Herodias, with the Bap tift's Head; the Andromeda, and even the Mothers of the Iuno. cents, have little more expreffion than his Venus attired by the Graces." WARTON.

VER. 40. the work of years!] Frefuoy employed above twenty years in finishing his poem. POPE.

VER. 43. Strike in the fketch,] Gray, in his verfes to Mr. Bentley, has beautifully expreffed and deferibed the perfon and defign: "See, in their courfe, each tranfitory thought,

Fix'd by his touch a lafting effence take;
Each dream, in fancy's airy colouring wrought,
To local fymmetry and life awake.”

Works, 4to.
WARTON.