See, a long 'race thy fpacious courts adorn; And feeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow. One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze REMARKS. 90 95 100 O'er VER. 87. See the very animated prophecy of Joad, in the seventh scene of Racine's Athaliah, perhaps the most fublime piece of poetry in the French language, and a chief ornament of that which is one of the beft of their tragedies. In fpeaking of these paraphrases from the facred scriptures, I cannot forbear mentioning Dr. Young's nervous and noble paraphrase of the book of Job, and Mr. Pitt's of the third and twenty-fifth chapters of the fame book, and alfo of the fifteenth chapter of Exodus. WARTON. VER 100. Cynthia is an improper because a claffical word. WARTON. VER. 102. One tide of glory,] Here is a remarkable fine effect of verfification: The poet rifes with his fubject, and the correfpondent periods seem to flow more copious and majestic with the grandeur and fublimity of the theme. • Ifai. ch. lx. ver. 4. Ch. lx. ver. 3. w Ch, lx. ver. 19, 20. O'erflow thy courts: the Light himself shall shine X 106 The feas fhall waste, the fkies in smoke decay, THIS is certainly the most animated and fublime of all our Author's compofitions, and it is manifeftly owing to the great original which he copied Ifaiah abounds in ftriking and magnifiCent imagery. See Mr. Mafon's paraphrafe of the 14th chapter of this exalted prophet. Dr. Johnfon, in his youth, gave a tranf lation of this piece, which perhaps has been praifed and magnified beyond its merits. I find and feel it impoffible to conclude these remarks on Pope's Meffiah, without mentioning another poem taken alfo from Isaiah, the noble and magnificent Ode on the Destruction of Babylon, which Dr. Lowth hath given us in the thirteenth of his Prelections on the Poetry of the Hebrews; and which, the scene, the actors, the fentiments, and diction, all contribute to place in the first rank of the fublime: thefe Prelections, abounding in remarks entirely new, delivered in the purest and most expreffive language, have been received and read with almost universal approbation, both at home and abroad, as being the richest augmentation litera-. ture has in our times received, and as tending to illustrate and recommend the Holy Scriptures in an uncommon degree. WARTON. Dr. Johnfon's Latin tranflation of this Poem is certainly inaccurate, and it contains many expreffions which, as Dr. Warton obferves, are not claffical. I have another Latin translation before me, with which I was favoured by Mr. Todd, printed at Naples 1760, and entitled, "Meffias, Ecloga facra Anglice, ab Alexandro Popio, Latine reddita a Gulielmo Bermingham, Prefbytero." This translation is in fome parts well executed, but in general it is deficient in poetic harmony and effect, and often offends tafte and propriety. If Pope has here and there offended, by detailing a great idea, his Tranflator exceeds him in this refpect. It is not fufficient that Lebanon fhould "advance his head," but he is made to "leap up," flriking the fiars with his nearer top. Emicat en Libanus propiore cacumine pulfans This is doing to Pope, exactly what he has done, in fome pafsages, to the awful fublimity of Isaiah. I do not however fpeak this in difpraife; for, all things confidered, the Meffiah is as fine and masterly a piece of compofition, as the English language, in the fame ftyle of verse, can boast. I have ventured to point out a paffage or two, (for they are rare,) where the fublimity has been. weakened by epithets; and I have done this, becaufe it is a fault, particularly with young writers, fo common. In the most truly fublime images of fcripture, the addition of a fing'e word would often destroy their effect. It is therefore right to keep as nearly as poffible to the very words. No one understood better than Milton, where to be general, and where particular; where to adopt the very expreffion of feripture, and where it was allowed to para. phrafe. |