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"Is this, miftaken Scorn will cry, "Is this the youth whofe genius high "Could build the genuine rime? "Whose bosom mild the favouring Muse 40 "Had ftor'd with all her ample views, "Parent of faireft deeds, and purposes fublime.'

Ah! from the Mufe that bofom mild
By treacherous magic was beguil'd,

To strike the deathful blow:
She fill'd his foft ingenuous mind

With many a feeling too refin'd,

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And rous'd to livelier pangs his wakeful fense of woe.

Though doom'd hard penury to prove,
And the sharp ftings of hopeless love;

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Himself to fing and build the lofty rbime. Ver. 10.

Ode for Mufic, ver. 135:

Erewhile the ftrove in accents weak

In vain to build the lofty rhime.

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In the text the epithet "lofty" is altered for the worse, probably because of its resemblance in fignification to "high" in the foregoing verfe.

V. 49. Though doom'd hard penury to prove,] Gray fays in his Elegy,

Chill penury repress'd their noble rage.

To griefs congenial prone,

More wounds than nature gave he knew,
While mifery's form his fancy drew

In dark ideal hues, and horrors not its own.

Then wish not o'er his earthy tomb
The baleful nightshade's lurid bloom
To drop its deadly dew:

Nor oh! forbid the twisted thorn,
That rudely binds his turf forlorn,

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With fpring's green-fwelling buds to vegetate

anew.

What though no marble-piled buft

Adorn his defolated duft,

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V. 60. With fpring's green-fwelling buds to vegetate anew.] A Greek poet thus beautifully addreffes the earth, to whom he had confided his deceafed wife;

Ανθ' ὧν συ πρηεια κατα κροταφου πολιοιο

Κεισο, και ειαρινας ανθοκομει βοτανας.

V. 61. What though no marble-piled buft

Adorn his defolated duft, &c.]

Antbol. III. vi. 3

32.

See Pope's lines in his charming and pathetic though highly im

moral apology for Suicide:

What tho' no weeping Loves thy afhes grace,

Nor polish'd marble emulate thy face,

What tho' no facred earth allow thee room,

Nor ballow'd dirge be mutter'd o'er thy tomb,

With speaking sculpture wrought? Pity fhall woo the weeping Nine,

To build a vifionary fhrine,

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Hung with unfading flowers, from fairy regions brought.

What though refus'd each chaunted rite?
Here viewless mourners fhall delight

To touch the shadowy fhell:

And Petrarch's harp, that wept the doom 70

Of Laura, loft in early bloom,

In many a pensive pause shall seem to ring his

knell.

To footh a lone, unhallow'd fhade,
This votive dirge fad duty paid,

Yet fball thy grave with rifing flow'rs be dreft,
And the green turf lie lightly on thy breast.

See alfo Shakspere in Cymbeline, Act iv. Gray's Elegy, and Col lins's fixth Ode.

V. 68. Here viewless mourners fhall delight

To touch the fhadowy fhell: &c.]

Collins in much the fame manner :

By Fairy hands their knell is rung,

By forms unfeen their dirge is fung.

"Viewlefs" is a Miltonic word: fee Comus, ver. 92. and note. "Thy viewless chariot." Pl. of Mel. ver. 115.

V. 74. This votive dirge-] "Votive" means what is given in compliance with a vow. Milton tranflates Horace's tabulâ votivá,

Within an ivied nook:

Sudden the half-funk orb of day

More radiant fhot its parting ray,

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And thus a cherub-voice my charm'd attention took.

"Forbear, fond bard, thy partial praise;
"Nor thus for guilt in fpecious lays
"The wreath of glory twine:

"In vain with hues of gorgeous glow

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Gay Fancy gives her veft to flow,

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"Unless Truth's matron-hand the floating folds confine.

Juft heaven, man's fortitude to prove, 85 "Permits through life at large to rove

in my vow'd picture. Hor. B. I. Od. v. And by an easy tranfition it is made to fignify, given as an offering of duty, affection, or the like, though not in confequence of a specific vow.

V. 78. And thus a cherub-voice my charm'd attention took.] Mr. Headley refers to Browne's Britannia's Paftorals:

When fodainly a voice as fweet as cleare

With words divine began entice his eare, &c.

And from a heavenly quire this ditty heard. B. i. S. 5.

Gray in The Bard, III. iii. fpeaks of

A voice as of the cherub choir.

V. 85. Juft heaven, man's fortitude to prove,

Permits through life at large to rove, &c.] Is not this

"The tribes of hell-born Woe:

"Yet the fame power that wifely fends "Life's fierceft ills, indulgent lends

Religion's golden fhield to break th' embattled

foe.

"Her aid divine had lull'd to reft

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"Yon foul felf-murtherer's throbbing breast,

"And stay'd the rifing storm:

"Had bade the fun of hope appear

"To gild his darken'd hemisphere,

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"And give the wonted bloom to nature's blasted

form.

truly elevated and religious fentiment fuperior to one somewhat fimilar in Gray's Progress of Poefy?

Man's feeble race what ills await!

Labour and penury, the racks of pain,

Disease, and Sorrow's weeping train,

And Death, fad refuge from the storms of Fate!

The fond complaint my fong difprove,

And justify the laws of Jove.

Say has he given in vain the heav'nly Mufe? &c.

But Religion is a better compenfation than the Mufe for the ills of life.

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Patience his field bad lent to guard his breaft. x. 7. In Paradife Loft, vi. 102. the Angels are reprefented with "golden "fbields."

V. 92. Yon foul self-murtherer] Browne speaks of suicide under

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