to have equal force. Some, I think, will fpeak for themselves with strong claims; others with lefs powerful ones. On the whole, they may jointly go near to prove the point, which I have fancied myself able to fhew.

8.

PSALM CXIV.

froth-becurled-]

This epithet, (a bold effort for a poet of fifteen,) I mean only in general to attribute to the compound epithets of Sylvefter. Thefe, I believe, have been cenfured; but he has ufed many of a very

fine

* Dr. Warton, (in a note on Pope's Imitation of Horace, 2 Ep. ii. 167,) gives the fubftance of a conversation between Pope and the Rev. Mr. Walter Harte, refpecting the reviving obfolete words in poetry,- Among other things it is obferved, "Compound

C

fine effect: and to fome of them I fhall poffibly endeavour to draw your attention. Many of these I fufpect to have been not a little relished by Milton, on his firft

reading

"Compound Epithets firft came into their great "vogue about the year 1598. Shakespeare and "Ben Jonfon both ridiculed the immoderate use "of them, in their prologues to TROILUS AND “CRESSIDA, and to EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOUR. By the above prologue it appears, that Bombaft grew fashionable about the fame æra. "The author of Hieronimo firft led up the dance. "Then came the bold and felf-fufficient tranflator "of Du Bartas; who broke down all the flood"gates of the true ftream of eloquence, (which " formerly preferved its river clear, within due "bounds, and full to its banks,) and, like the "rat in the low-country' dikes, mischievously, or ཀ་ wantonly, deluged the whole land."I cannot but obferve on this paffage, that Ben Jonfon certainly did not confider Sylvefter as offending in point of bombaft and immoderate use of compound epithets; or he would scarcely have complimented his work con amore, as he has done in the verses which I have exhibited in a preceding note. It may be remarked alfo, that a poet muft

reading Sylvefter. Perhaps he was jointly indebted to Sylvefter and to Homer, for his primary predilection for compound epithets; which so eminently distinguish and elevate his poetry.

9.

Jordan's clear streams➡] ·

The river Jordan is fimilarly charac terised by Sylvefter; where there is a refemblance also to the preceding verfe of Milton's pfalm:

CLEAR JORDAN's felf, in his dry ozier bed, Blushing for shame, was faîn TO HIDE HIS HEAD.

P. 954**

have no fmall degree of merit, and no common powers, who could be confidered as materially inftrumental in giving quite a new caft and character to our national poetry. I confider Sylvefter to have had a richly-abundant ftream of poetic language, perhaps not always fufficiently restrained, and often rather turbid; but it flowed at times with much dignity. Flood-gates belong to artificial navigations; while rivers, fufficiently wide and deep, neither have them, nor need them.

* My references are to the pages, in the folio edition of 1621: where is printed Hudfon's Tranfla

-Fordan's clear streams recoil,

As a faint boft that hath receiv'd the foil.]

To recoil is frequent with Sylvefter for to retire; and without implying any particular impetus. Foil, for defeat, is also very common with him. In the following paffage they both meet;

Ay Satan aims our conftant faith to FOIL,
But God doth feal it, never to RECOIL.

II. The bigh buge-bellied mountains-]

P. 337

I always thought huge-bellied a fingular epithet for the young poet to apply to mountains; and I have not been without expectations of finding an instance of

tion of Du Bartas's Judith; from which I also cite parallel paffages, without particularifing them.

It is not by any means my object to fhew the exact proportion of Milton's obligations to Sylvefter, or Hudson, or indeed to Du Bartas; but his general obligation to Lownes's publication, in folio, of what is commonly termed Sylvefter's Du Bartas: but which includes other poems of Sylvefter, as well as Hudfon's Verfion of the Judith,

it in Sylvefter. I can, however, present you with something very like it, from that quarter:

Mofes by faith, heard by the God of power,

Compels THE MOUNTAINS' BURLY SIDES to shake, Commands the earth to rent, to yawn and quake.

P. 552.

34. Why turned Jordan tow'rd his cryftal fountains?]

In the very opening of Sylvefter's Du Bartas, ay, as here, is the reduplication of ever;

Clear fire FOR EVER hath not air embrac'd,

Nor air for AY environ'd waters vaft.

P. 2.

And, in the conclufion of one of the Parts, the people are called upon to

-praise and pray

Th'ALMIGHTY-MOST, whofe mercy LASTS FOR AY.