A conqueft how hard and how glorious! Tho' fate had faft bound her With Styx nine times round her, Yet Mufic and Love were victorious. до VI. But foon, too foon, the lover turns his eyes: Befide the falls of fountains, Or where Hebrus wanders, Rolling in meanders, 95 100 All NOTES. which he has fo ftrangely debaféd that very elegant opera. It is obfervable, that this ludicrous measure is ufed by Dryden, in a fong of evil fpirits, in the fourth act of the State of Innocence. WARTON. VER. 97.] These scenes, in which Orpheus is introduced as making his lamentations, are not fo wild, fo favage, and difmal, as those mentioned by Virgil; and convey not fuch images of defolation and deep defpair, as the caverns on the banks of Strymon and Tanais, the Hyperborean deferts, and the Riphæan folitudes. And to fay of Hebrus, only, that it rolls in meanders, is flat and feeble, and does not heighten the melancholy of the place. He that would have a complete idea of Orpheus's anguifh and fituation, muft look at the exquifite figure of him (now in the poffeffion of Sir Watkin Williams Wynne) painted by Mr. Dance, a work that does honour to the true genius of the artist, and to the age in which it was produced. WARTON See, wild as the winds, o'er the defert he flies; Ah fee, he dies! Yet ev'n in death Eurydice he fung, Eurydice ftill trembled on his tongue, VER. 108.] I am afraid there is a trivial antithefis in these lines betwixt the words fnows and glows, unworthy our author. WARTON. VER. 112.] The death is expreffed with a brevity and abruptnefs fuitable to the nature of the ode. Inftead of he fung, Virgil fays, vocabat, which is more natural and tender, and adds a moving epithet, that he called miferam Eurydicen. The repetition of Eurydice in two very fhort lines hurts the car, which Virgil efcaped by interpofing feveral other words; and the name itself happens not to be harmonious enough to fuffer fuch repetition. WARTON. VII. Mufic the fierceft grief can charm, And fate's feverest rage difarm: Mufic can foften pain to ease, And make defpair and madness please: 120 And antedate the blifs above. This the divine Cecilia found, And to her Maker's praise confin'd the found. 125 Th' immortal pow'rs incline their ear; Borne on the fwelling notes our fouls afpire, While folemn airs improve the facred fire ; And Angels lean from heav'n to hear. Of Orpheus now no more let Poets tell, To bright Cecilia greater pow'r is giv'n; His numbers rais'd a fhade from hell, Her's lift the foul to heav'n. 130 NOTES, VER. 131. It is obfervable that this bde, as well as that of Dryden, concludes with an epigram of four lines; a fpecies of witty writing as flagrantly unfuitable to the dignity, and as foreign to the nature of the lyric, as it is of the epic mufe. WARTON. IF we caft a tranfient view over the most celebrated of the modern lyrics, we may obferve that the ftanza of Petrarch, which has been adopted by all his fucceffors, displeases the ear, by its tedious uniformity, and by the number of identical cadences. And, indeed, to fpeak truth, there appears to be little valuable in Petrarch, except the purity of his diction. His fentiments, even of love, are metaphyfical and far-fetched. Neither is there much variety in his fubjects, or fancy in his method of treating them. Fulvio Telli, Chiabrera, and Metallafio, are much better lyric poets. When Boileau attempted an ode, he exhibited a glaring proof of what will frequently be hinted in the course of these notes, that the writer, whofe grand characteristical talent is fatiric or moral poetry, will never fucceed, with equal merit, in the higher branches of his art. In his ode on the taking Namur, are inftances of the bombaftic, of the profaic, and of the puerile; and it is no fmall confirmation of the ruling paffion of this author, that he could not conclude his ode, but with a fevere ftroke on his old antagonist Perrault, though the majefly of this species of compofition is fo much injured by defcending to personal satire. "We have had (fays Mr. Gray) in our language, no other odes of the fublime kind, than that of Dryden on St. Cecilia's Day: for Cowley, who had his merit, yet wanted judgment, style, and harmony, for fuch a task. That of Pope is not worthy of so great a master. Mr. Mafon, indeed of late days, has touched the true chords, and with a masterly hand, in fome of his chorufes; above all in the last of Caractacus ; "Hark! heard ye not yon footstep dread?" &c. The bard of Gray must be mentioned as ranking next to Dry. den's ode, if it be not fuperior. TWO CHORUS'S TO THE TRAGEDY OF BRUTUS': CHORUS OF ATHENIANS. YE STROPHE I. E shades, where facred truth is fought ; And Epicurus lay infpir'd! In vain your guiltlefs laurels stood War, horrid war, your thoughtful Walks invades, 5 Oh NOTES. * Altered from Shakespear by the Duke of Buckingham, at whofe defire these two Chorus's were compofed to supply as many wanting in his play. They were fet many years afterward by the famous Bononcini, and performed at Buckingham-house. РОРЕ. VER. 3. Where heav'nly vifions Plato fir'd, And Epicurus lay infpir'd!] The propriety of thefe lines arifes from hence, that Brutus, one of the Heroes of this play, was of the Old Academy; and Caffius, the other, was an Epicurean. WARBURTON. I cannot be perfuaded that Pope thought of Brutus and Caffius, as being followers of different fects of philofophy. WARTON. |