And fhe is likewife characterised

a HIGH-DESCENDED Queen:

43. With a fad leaden downward caft Thou fix them on the earth as faft ;]

Du Bartas's Geometry is described

p. 449.

'That fallow-fac'd, fad, stooping nymph, whose

EYE

Still ON THE GROUND is FIXED STEDFASTLY;

66. On the dry smooth-shaven green,]

p. 289.

Smooth-fhaven, for new-mown, is used by Sylvefter he is defcribing a luminous fummer meteor,

Seeming amidst the NEW-SHAV'N FIELDS to light.

97%

gorgeous tragedy

In Scepter'd pall come sweeping by ;]

P.432.

The conftellation Virgo is reprefented

in Sylvefter's Du Bartas,

SWEEPING Heaven's azure globe

WITH STATELY TRAIN of her bright golden

robe;

P. 77.

I do not mean materially to refer the "fcepter'd pall" of Milton to a fine use of the fame epithet in Sylvefter. I beg, however, to cite it.-Mofes is reprefented,

Arm'd with his wand, wherewith he was to quell The SCEPTER'D PRIDE of many an Infidel;

p. 965.

By the by! Had not Gray read Sylvef

ter's Du Bartas? And has he not fome obligations to this paffage, for two fine images in his fublime Ode?

Such were the founds, that o'er the CRESTED

PRIDE

Of the first Edward scatter'd wild dismay,

BARD. St. i. I.

Be thine despair, and SCEPTER'D CARE,→→→→

Ibid. iii, 3.

In his other Ode, he has also the

Eagle,

Perching on the SCEPTER'D HAND

Of Jove,

PROGRESS OF POETRY, St. i. 2.

Where

might folely have fupplied his " fcepter'd care;" and his "crefted pride" he has himself attributed to Dryden's

CRESTED Adder's PRIDE,

INDIAN QUEEN.

That you may not think me indecently flippant, in my ready imputation of imitation, from very flight grounds, on a man of fuch abundant and elevated genius as Gray, I must observe to you, that I have other reafons for fuppofing him to have enriched his compofitions from my old folio. His intended Hiftory of English Poetry, you know, made his acquaintance with it a neceffary task.-But to the point! No part of his noble ode has, I believe, been more generally and juftly admired, than his description of the defolation of

France

France by the victories of Edward the

Black Prince;

-what

-what terrors round him wait!

Amazement in his van, with Flight combin'd, And Sorrow's faded form and Solitude behind!

But how fhall we acquit this of material obligations to Sylvefter's Du Bartas? After a fine perfonification of WAR, it is there faid;

FEAR and DESPAIR, FLIGHT and DISORDER coaft,

With hafty march, BEFORE HER MURD'ROUS

HOST;

And SORROW, Poverty, AND DESOLATION, FOLLOW HER ARMY'S BLOODY TRANSMIGRA

TION.

p. 207.

I conceive, that Gray could not look with attention into Sylvefter's Du Bartas, without carrying off in his mind many poetical images and expreffions. I could bring more proofs of this, were it not befide my present purpose.

99. Presenting

99. Prefenting Thebes, or Pelop's line, Or the tale of Troy divine.]

For the fubjects of tragedy, Du Bartas had before fuggefted

-tyrants' bloody gefts

Of THEBES, MYCENE, or proud ILION.

102.

-the bufkin'd ftage.]

P. 525.

Sylvefter has, "the BUSKIN'D mufe," but only in the fenfe of lofty, and not meaning particularly to 'diftinguish the Mufe of Tragedy;

Leaving therefore his war's difcourfe to thofe, Whofe BUSKIN'D MUSE Bellona's march out

"

goes,

р. гоб5.

121. Thus night oft fee me in thy pale carreer.]

"Pale carreer" is the moon's courfe. The night of the poet's penfive man is a moon light night; and what had been faid, from ver. 77, must be understood in a great degree parenthetical.

Carreer,