募 Milton, instead of reprefenting the vegetable creation as affected at the death of his friend, with fuperior judgement, calls for the feveral flowers, "To ftrow the laureat herfe where Lycid lies." Among which he mentions, The glowing violet, The mufk-rofe, and the well attir'd wood-bine, With cowflips wan that hang the penfive head, &c. 145. Milton, is fanciful, yet affecting; Browne, puerile and disgusting. Page 51. Did he attend the court for no man's fall? Wore he the ruine of no Hofpitall? And when he did his rich apparell don, Put be no widow, nor an orphan on? The most finished character of Deteftation we have, is Maffinger's Sir. Giles Overreach. The following part of a dialogue will give the reader fome infight into his exquifite talents for misch ef Lovell. Are you not frighted with the imprecations and curfes of 1 whole families, made wretched by your finister practices ? Overreach. Yes, as rocks are, When foamy billows fplit themselves against Their flinty ribs; or as the moon is mov'd, When wolves, with hunger pin'd, howl at their brightness. I'm of a folid temper, and like these Steer on a conftant course, with mine own fword, If call'd into the field, I can make that right, Or the leaft fting of confcience. New way to pay Old Debts. Act. 4. Sc. 1. In In the laft Scene of the fame Play, the diftreffes that he had occafioned take faft hold of his confcience, and give rife to the following terribly, fublime exclamation: "Ill fall to execution-ha! I am feeble: Some undone widow fits upon mine arm. Page 54. In this little Piece, of five lines only, there is a certain Greeknefs (if I may be allowed the expreffion) that will not fail of captivating every reader of true tafte. We may juftly apply on this occafion a sentence of Dryden, who fays, "The fweeteft effences are always confined in the fmalleft glaffes." Dedication to his Æneid: And in his wrinkled hand. What a degree of animation and life is often thrown into a line by a fingle picturesque, and natural epithet! In this refpect Shakspeare leaves all other poets far behind. To inftance only in a single paffage. Henry the 5th, in his prayer before the battle of Agincourt, fays, Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay Who twice a day their wither'd hands hold up S. 5. 4 A. Alter the epithet wither'd to almoft any other, and you inftantly destroy the picture; for an epithet equally ftriking, fee Vol. 18. p. Applied to Old Agé: Page 55. His wither'd fift ftill knocking at Death's dore. Methinks, I hear a voice, &c. There is an alarming folemnity in the conclufion of these lines, that reminds us of Tickell's juftly popular Ballad : I hear a voice, you cannot hear, Lucy and Collin. Page 56. for. if thy yeares Page 63. Be number'd by thy virtues and our teares, &c. Methufalems may die at twenty-one. YOUNG. deftinate to die. One would suppose it should be defined. Page 66. Infteal of writing only rave in verse. This is what Pope calls, "rhyming with all the rage of impotence." 612. Effay on Chriticism. Page Page 67. Things common thou speak'st proper. A very difficult branch of the art to manage with dexterity, which Horace has remark'd: Difficile eft propriè communia dicere. 128. De Art. Poet. 42. De Art. Poet. Probably immediately taken from Horace. Page 68. The name of the archer here alluded to is Alcon. The following is Servius' note in a folio edit. of Virgil, printed at Paris, 1500. See Eclog 11. V. "Alcon is Cretenfis eft Sagittarius: et cum draco ejus puerum complexus eft, adeo full arte temperavit ictum fagittæ, ut in dracone transfixo confifteret, neque ad puerum perveniret." According to the common Delphin edition, the child's name was Phaleris-but this story cannot, without the utmost abfurdity, be applied to the thepherd in Virgil, called Alcon, which, without doubt, was a common-place proper name for a paftoral character. See an Epigram on this story in Brunk's Analecta, vol i. p. 167. the age grows more unfound From the fool's balfam, than the wifeman's wound. Low without creeping, &c. Thus Denham in his popular lines, addreffing the Thames : O could I flow like thee! and make thy ftream My great example, as it is my theme; Tho' deep. yet clear; tho' gentle, yet not dull; Cooper's Hill. See an excellent parody of thefe lines in the Dunciad. B. iii. 169. Page 71. There is a mafculine flow of good fenfe in this panegyric that places Cartwright very high both as a poet and a critic. It appeared first in the Virbius: or The Memorie of Ben Johnfon revived by the Friends of the Mufes, Lond. 1638. The verfes without a fignature, page 27, are very excellent: they are alfo to be found in the Mifcellaneous Pieces fubjoined to Cleiveland's Poems, p. 80. Lond. 1668. Page 75. It were difficult to produce, from the whole mafs of Davenant's poetry, fourteen fucceffive lines of fuch eafe and uninterrupted sweetness of flow. Pope feems to have been fully fenfible of their merit : Smooth as the face of waters firft appear'd, &c. L Still as the fea, ere winds were taught to blow. POPE. Than in their fleeps forgiven hermits are. DAV. Thus Pope. Soft as the flumbers of a faint forgiven. Eloisa. Dave Davenant seems to have been fond of this idea, he has it again in his Condibert : Calm as forgiven faints at their last bour. Page 76. Oft fhrouds his golden flame in likeft hair. Cant. VIII. Randolph. in fome humorous verfes, infcribed "To his well timbred Miftreffe," gives the following directions : p. 126. Ed. 1643. Then place the garret of her head above, Thatcht with a yellow hair to keep in love. Page 80. These verses are fomewhat on the plan of Taffo's Amore fuggitivo, who was indebted to the firft Idyllium of Mofchus. See an elegant paraphrafe of this in Crafhaw's "Delights of the Mufes," p. 110. Ed. 1670. Likewife the "Hue and Cry after Cupid," by Ben Jonfon, in his Masque on the Marriage of Lord Hadington. Anacreon, in his directions to the painter, orders him to give his mistress the moift, watrie eye: Τὸ δὲ βλέμμα νῦν ἀληθῶς ̓Απὸ τὸ πυρὸς ποίησον Αμα δ ̓ ὑγρὸν, ὡς Κυθήρες. Her eye in filence hath a fpeach, Which eye best understands. In Amicam Suam. The expreffion of filence was never more poetically introduced, or applied with greater truth, than by Mr. Sheridan in his noble verfes to the memory of Garrick. Th' expreffive glance, whofe fubtile comment draws Gefture that marks. with force and feeling fraught; G. Fletcher has, in his defcription of Juftice, with great fublimity, at tributed to her the power of interpreting the filence of thought. for fhe each with could find Within the folid heart; and with her ears The filence of the thought, loud fpeaking hears. Part I. St. 10. The three little pieces by R. Southwell, which I have printed, were first brought forward to the notice of general readers of poetry, by the editor of Ben Jonfon's Sad Shepherd, in his rotes, from whence I have taken the iiberty of extracting them. Obligations of this kind are but too commonly, to the difgrace of literature, very induftriously and ungratefully fuppreffed. Page 85. If thefe lines are genuine, they are extremely curious, as prefenting us with a lively picture of the workings of a great mind on an in terefting terefting occafion; and they ferve to afcertain a fact which does not appear to have been much noticed by hiftorians, that an habitual intercourfe of three months was not without its effect, and that the Queen felt strong emotions of regret for that denial, which he was perhaps under the neceflity of giving, in order to fatisfy her fubjects. From a manufcript in the Afhmolean Museum, the lines are tranfcribed; whether they have previously appeared in print, I know not: I am willing to believe them original, from internal evidence, yet I cannot perfectly divest myself of fufpicion. Unfortunately the moft material word in the MS. is illegible; for after the fignature of El za Regins, the following words, informing us of the fubject on which the verfes were written, occurs. "Upon Moun---s departure," the word Moun---s being half obliterated. On my first infpection of them, I had conceived they might have been compofed on Elizabeth's quarrel with Effex, who, of all her favourites, attracted moft of her perfonal affection, perhaps on his departure for his command in Ireland: but upon looking over Stow's account of the Duke of Alencon's vifit to England, I have had reafon to alter my opinion, as I think I have difcovered the real origin of the verfes, and believe the obliterated word in the MS. to be Mounfieur. Stow's account is as follows: "Thefe Lords (the Ambaffadors from France) after divers fecret conferences amongst themfelves, and returne of fundry letters into France, fignifying the Queenes declination from marriage, and the peoples unwillingness to match that way, held it moit convenient, that the Duke thould come in proper perfon, whofe prefence they thought in fuch affaires might prevaile more than all their oratory: and thereupon, the first of November, the fayd Prince came over in perfon, very princely accompanied, and attended, though not in fuch glorious manner as were the above named commiffioners, whofe entertainment, in all refpects, was equivalent unto his eftate and dignity. By this time his picture, ftate, and titles, were advanced in every stationer's fhop, and many other publique places, by the name of Frauncis of Valois, Duke of Aanfon, heire apparent of France, and brother to the French King: but he was better knowne by the name of Monfieur, unto all forts of people, than by all his other titles. During his abode in England, he used all princely meanes to prefer his faite, and in his carriage demeaned himfelfe like a true borne prince, and the heire of Fraunce: and when hee had well obferved the Queene's full determination, to continue a fingle life, hee pacified himselfe, admiring her rare vertues and high perfections. **** *****. The Queene in all refpects fhewed as great kindneffe unto the Duke, and all his retinew, at their departure, as at any time before, and for period of her princely favours, in that behalfe, shee, with great ftate, accompanied the Duke in perfon to Canterburie: where fhe feafted him and all his traine very royally, and then returned. The next day being the fixt of February, the Duke, with his French Lords and others, imbarked at Sandwich, &c.Annales 690 p. Ed. 1631. Their marriage articles were drawn up, as may be feen in Camden's Annals, p. 372. Hearne's edit. The fame writer alfo mentions a very clofe intimacy as fubfifting between them. "Vis pudici amoris inter amatoria colloquia eò provexerit. ut annulum fuo digito detractum Andini (Anjou, one of his titles) impofuerit, certis quibufdam legibus inter ipfos adhibitis." 375, page. As dead Queens rank but with meaner mortals, we may |