Transported demi-gods ftood round, Enflam'd with glory's charms: IV. 45 But when through all th' infernal bounds, Which flaming Phlegeton furrounds, 50 Love, strong as Death, the Poet led To the pale nations of the dead, What founds were heard, What scenes appear'd, NOTES. O'er VER. 48. To arms, to arms,] All this is finely worked up: the images are poetical; the effect of mufic is defcribed by adequate and ftriking circumftances: Each chief his fev'nfold fhield difplay'd, And half unfheath'd the fhining blade, &c. STANZA IV.] The tranfition to another key (if I may fay fo) in this stanza, is judicious, and in the spirit of Poetry and Music. VER. 49. But when] See Divine Legation, Book ii. fect. 1. where Orpheus is confidered as a Philofopher, a Legislator, and a Mystagogue. In vol v. of the Memoirs of Infcriptions, &c. p. 117, is a very curious differtation upon the Orphic Life, by the Abbé Fraguier. He was the firft critic who rightly interpreted the words of Horace, Cadibus et fado vidu, as meaning an abolition of eating human flesh. Though the Hymns that remain are not the work of the real Orpheus, yet are they extremely ancient, certainly older than the Expedition of Xerxes against Greece. WARTON. But, hark! he strikes the golden lyre ; See, shady forms advance! Thy stone, O Sifyphus, ftands ftill, Ixion refts upon his wheel, And the pale spectres dance; The Furies fink upon their iron beds, 65 VER. 56.] The fhort lines here have a bad effect; but the images at the conclufion are forcibly painted, with the exception of the "pale spectres" that "dance;" a line, as Dr. Warton obferves, very improper, because it gives a ludicrous idea. VER. 66.] This line is taken from an ode of Cobb. WARTON. STANZA V. By the fireams, Sc.] The modulation and change here are very beautiful, By thofe happy fouls who dwell Or Amaranthine bow'rs; By the heroes' armed fhades, Glitt'ring through the gloomy glades; Wand'ring in the myrtle grove, Restore, restore Eurydice to life: Oh take the husband, or return the wife! 75 80 85 O'er death, and o'er hell, A con NOTES. VER. 77.] These images are picturefque and appropriated, and are fuch notes as might Draw iron tears down Pluto's cheek, And make hell grant what love did feek. Pope being infenfible of the effects of mufic, enquired of Dr. Arbuthnot, whether Handel really deserved the applause he met with. The Dutchefs of Queenfberry told me, that Gay could play on the flute, and that this enabled him to adapt so happily fome airs in the Beggars' Opera. WARTON. VER. 87.] Thefe numbers are of fo burlefque, fo low, and ridiculous a kind, and have fo much the air of a vulgar drinking fong, that one is amazed and concerned to find them in a serious ode. Addison thought this measure exactly suited to the comic character of Sir Trufty in his Rosamond; by the introduction of A conqueft how hard and how glorious! With Styx nine times round her, 66 VI. eyes: But foon, too foon, the lover turns his Befide the falls of fountains, Or where Hebrus wanders, Rolling in meanders, 95 100 All NOTES. which he has fo strangely debased that very elegant opera. It is obfervable, that this ludicrous measure is used by Dryden, in a fong of evil fpirits, in the fourth act of the State of Innocence. WARTON. VER. 97.] The fe fcenes, in which Orpheus is introduced as making his lamentations, are not fo wild, fo favage, and difmal, as thofe mentioned by Virgil; and convey not fuch images of defolation and deep despair, 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 anguish 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, All alone, He makes his moan; For ever, ever, ever loft! 105 Now with Furies furrounded, Despairing, confounded, He trembles, he glows, Amidst Rhodope's fnows: See, wild as the winds, o'er the defert he flies 110 Hark! Hæmus refounds with the Bacchanals' cries Ah fee, he dies! Yet ev❜n in death Eurydice he fung, Eurydice still trembled on his tongue, VER. 108.] I am afraid there is a trivial antithesis 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 ear, which Virgil escaped by interpofing feveral other words; and the name itself happens not to be harmonious enough to fuffer fuch repetition. WARTON. |