highest expectations of what the Author was capable of performing. He was not so happy in his Ode on St. Cecilia's Day; which, in respect both of subject and execution, is so manifestly inferior to that unrivalled one of his master, Dryden; but which Dr. Johnson, by a strange perversity of judgment, pronounces to contain nothing equal to the first bombast stanza of his Ode on Killegrew. Pope's Ode, many years after it was written, was set to music by Dr. Greene, as were the two Choruses to the tragedy of Brutus, by Bononcini, part of which were written by the Duke of Buckingham. Mr. Galliard set to music the Chorus of Julius Cæsar, entirely written by His Grace. This appears from a letter now before me, from Mr. Galliard to Mr. Duncombe. It was at Steele's desires that he wrote that beautiful little Ode, The dying Christian to his Soul, to be set to music. But it was not quite candid and open in our Author to tell Steele, that he would see he had not only the verses of Adrian, but the fine frag 4 12 Irregular Odes, of which this is one, seem now to be universally exploded: Dr. Brown has, however, remarked, "that the return of the same measure, in the Strophe, Antistrophe, and Epode, of the ancient Greek Ode, was the natural consequence of its union with the Dance. But this union being irrecoverably lost, the unvaried measure of the Ode becomes, at best, an unmeaning thing; and indeed is an absurd one, as it deprives the Poet of that variety of measure, which often gives a great energy to the composition, by the incidental and sudden intervention of an abrupt or lengthened versification." "In general, our Author's subjects, which is a happy circumstance for a poet, were chosen by himself. ment of Sappho, in his head; and totally to suppress the name of Flatman, whose Ode he not only imitated, but copied some lines of it verbatim. If we knew the history of that most unfortunate Lady, who is the subject of the sweet and pathetic Elegy, and could relate it at large, it might give us an opportunity of enlivening these Memoirs, with what the Life of a retired Poet must unavoidably want, some interesting event. No such does the Life of our Author afford, who was in no public station nor employment, as were Milton, Prior, and Addison; and who spent most of his time among his papers and books. All that can now be learnt of this Lady, is to be found in the notes on this Elegy; and is therefore not repeated in this place. A very different scene, and a Lady in another sort of situation, appeared in his next poem, where all was gaiety and gallantry. Lord Petre, in a frolic, carried rather beyond the bounds of delicacy and good-breeding, having cut off a favourite lock of Mrs. Arabella Fermor's hair, his rudeness, as it was called, was resented, and occasioned a serious rupture betwixt the two families. Mr. Caryl, a friend to both parties, desired Mr. Pope to write a piece of raillery on this inviting subject, which might appease their resentment. The Rape of the Lock, therefore, that most delicious poem, which SATIRE wears the cestus of VENUS, was produced in a fortnight, and appeared, 1711, in only two cantos, in a Miscellany of Lintot. Finding it received with just and universal applause, he in the next year enlarged it into five cantos; and, by the happiest art and judgment imaginable, enriched it with the beau in tiful machinery of the Sylphs, a set of invisible beings whom he accidentally saw mentioned, as constant attendants, and as interested agents, in the affairs of the Ladies, not only in the Comte de Gabalis, but also in some of Madame de Sevigné's Letters. Into what a mass of exquisite poetry has he raised and expanded so slight a hint! and placed the Rape of the Lock, by this happy insertion and addition, above all other Mock Heroic Poems whatever! Addison, to whom he communicated his intention of introducing this new species of machinery, did not certainly conceive the felicity and the propriety with which it would be executed; and for that reason, and not from envy and jealousy, may be candidly supposed to have dissuaded him from the attempt. It would have been as unfortunate for him to have followed the advice of Addison on this occasion, as it would have been for La Fontaine and Boileau to have listened to Patru, when he persuaded the one not to attempt to write his Fables, and the other his Art of Poetry. Dennis, some years after, attacked this invulnerable composition, with equal impotence and ill-nature, endeavouring to shew that the intertexture of the machinery was superfluous. It is remarkable, that he had introduced guardian spirits as attendants on the favourites of heaven, in his Temple of Fame, as he informs Steele in a letter on this subject; which spirits he afterward judiciously omitted. It appears by this letter to Steele, dated November 16, 1712, that he first communicated to him at that time, The Temple of Fame, though he had written it two years before. Steele assures him, it contained "a thousand thou sand beauties;" many of which are specified in the notes of this edition, and therefore need not be here repeated. The descriptive powers of Pope are much more visible and strong in this poem, than in the next that is to be mentioned in the order of timethe Windsor-Forest; the first part of which was written, indeed, 1704, but the whole was not finished and published till 1713: a poem evidently written in imitation of Cooper's-Hill, and as evidently superior to it. Denham is a writer that has been extolled far beyond his merits. Nothing can be colder and more prosaic, for instance, than the manner in which he has spoken of the distant prospect of London and St. Paul's, and also of Edward the Third; both fine subjects for poetry. The Claremont of Garth was also another imitation of Cooper's-Hill, and unworthy the author of the Dispensary; it contains an unnatural mixture of wit, pleasantry, and satire, with rural description. But Thomson has carried descriptive poetry to its height; and being a true son of Nature, has delineated all her most striking objects, with a force and distinctness hitherto unparalleled. The silence, the solitude, the gloomy solemnity, the pleasing melancholy, impressed on our minds by the conventual scenes of Eloisa and Abelard, by the ideas of long-sounding isles, and cells, and lamps, and altars, and graves; induce and allure the reader to forget the inherent indelicacy of the story of these two unfortunate lovers. For though the "high-embowed 'I have a peculiar pleasure in mentioning another excellent descriptive piece, The Needwood-Forest of Mr. Mundy. roof," "storied windows," " studious cloisters," and "pealing organ," had been mentioned by Milton, yet this sort of scenery had never before been exhibited as the chief and leading object and foundation of any poem in our language. Pope was fully sensible of the indelicate circumstances above-mentioned, that attended his subject, and did not therefore much relish the manner in which Prior had said, that these circumstances were concealed with dexterity and skill, in the following elegant lines: He o'er the weeping nun has drawn The god shall to his votaries tell, Each conscious tear, each blushing grace, That deck'd dear Eloisa's face.-ALMA, p. 101. Savage related that Pope attempted this composition in rivalship to Prior's Nut-brown Maid. It is not true that these very unhappy lovers" found quiet and consolation in retirement and piety." The whole tenor of their letters contradicts this supposition. These curious letters were published in London by Dr. Rawlinson, 1718, with an extraordinary motto prefixed from Claudian, relative to Abelard's punishment, too gross to be here inserted. After arriving at such eminence by so many capital compositions, our Author, with that just self-confidence that ought to actuate every man of real genius and ability, meditated a higher effort; something that might improve and advance his fortune as well as his |