Amongst th' enthroned gods on sainted seats. may near to a space of light which may be conceived to be paper (or a sonnet,) and that space of light would nearly adjoin to Trulla's eye-brow. The soldier have the same prototype as the captain in King Lear, (drawn in fig. 96,) the bubble in his view being referable to the round or oval streak of light on Talgol's shoulder; and the cannon, to the explosive burst of light (so often mentioned, ante,) at his feet. I take the justice to have the same prototype as Ralph in Hudibras, (fig. 2,) his round belly being formed out of the head of Hamlet's Horatio, and the capon with which it is lined being referable to the bird on Ralph's person, (drawn in fig. 12). The sixth is to be referred to the same prototype as King Lear's Gloster in his spectacles, (fig. S6,). which spectacles are drawn in that figure, and, as well as the likeness to the shrunk hose, are sufficiently apparent in the moon. The seventh age age To lay their just hands on that golden key is to be ascribed to the same prototype as that of Polonius in Hamlet, drawn in fig. 56. And by the ages being seven in number, there may be an allusion to the changes which take place in the moon at the end of every seventh day. The different ages of man as described by Horace in the Ars Poetica, and by him reduced to four in number, are no less attributable to prototypes in the moon. 156 Etatis cujusque notandi sunt tibi mores. Mobilibusque decor naturis dandus et annis. Reddere qui voces jam scit puer, et pede certo Signat humum, gestit paribus colludere, et iram Colligit ac ponit temerè, et mutatur in horas. 160 Imberbus juvenis, tandem custode remoto, Gaudet equis, canibusque, et aprici gramine campi, Cereus in vitium flecti, monitoribus asper, Utilium tardus provisor, prodigus æris, Sublimis, cupidusque et amata relinquere pernix. To such my errand is; and but for such, I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds 15 Conversis studiis, ætas animusque virilis 166 Quærit opes et amicitias, inservit honori; The first of these four ages I should attribute to the same prototype as that of the lawyer in Hudibras, drawn in fig. 38, with his tongue out of his mouth (jam reddit voces) but now to be conceived as an entire figure, as his foot is particularly mentioned (pede certo), which foot is the same as that belonging to Edipus, fig. 124,) and which in the play of that name so much exercised the fancy of Sophocles. This boy (gestit paribus colludere and accordingly) is surrounded by several With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mold. figures such as the prototypes of Voltimand and Cornelius in Hamlet (figs. 55 and 34;) and of the boy that leads Teiresias in Edipus (fig. 132). The end of the 160th line mutatur in horas, has a particular allusion to the resemblance to an hour-glass so often noticed in the preceding volumes. The second age (161) I take to have the same prototype as Hamlet's Horatio (fig. 49,) who is now however to be conceived to be mounted on horseback, namely the horse of Hudibras's Ralph (fig. 8,) with the dog, fig. 13, by the side of the horse: all the epithets applied by the poet to this second age will be found to apply to the prototype also; of which prodigus æris is referable to its apparent act of holding out a piece of coin, or giving away money, and, if we suppose his custos to be Ralph, the term remotus will have relation to Ralph becoming obscured by the change of the moon. The third age is to be ascribed to the prototype of Hudibras himself Of every salt flood, and each ebbing stream, (figs. 1 and 3,) studded as it is all over with round spots of light like coins (quærit opes) and decorated with a star of honour inservit honori.) As to the fourth age; from the use of the word circumveniunt, with reference to the circumference of the moon just at his back; from the many appearances of coins in front of him, which however he does not touch; and from the seeming coldness of his figure from the absence of all shadow, I should think he is to be ascribed to the same prototype as that of Fame in Hudibras (fig. 25), while the terms avidus futuri and the conclusion of the last line would seem to involve an allusion to the librations of the moon of which this fourth character, so situate at her verge, might seem to be impatient, in order to have his turn of ascendancy. Whether any of the other parts of the Ars Poetica of Horace are to be explained by a refer |