Lo, this her genuine lore.-Nor thou refuse This humble present of no partial Muse From that calm bower, which nurs'd thy thought ful youth 90 In the pure precepts of Athenian truth; awe, In the fame fhade unblemish'd Somers faw: 94 V. 87. Lo, this her genuine lore.-Nor thou refuse From Pope's Epiftle to Jervas: This verse be thine, my friend.-Nor thou refuse This from no venal or ungrateful Mufe. V. 89. From that calm bower, which nurs'd thy thoughtful youth] Trinity College, Oxford: in which alfo Lord Somers, and James Harrington, author of the Oceana, were educated. W. "Dr. Bathurst (fays his biographer Warton, p. 81.) always boafted with fingular fatisfaction the education of fo learned and eloquent a lawyer, so fincere a patriot, and fo elegant a scholar as Lord Somers: who, to use the remarkable words of a late agreeable biographer, (Horace Walpole) was one of thofe divine men, who, like a chapel in a palace, remain unprofaned, while all the reft is tyranny, corruption, and folly. A new part of his character, his generous and uninterested patronage of literature, appears in the benefaction he gave on this occafion, (of rebuilding the college chapel) which was one hundred pounds." The hand fome folio edition of Paradife Loft, published by subscription in 1688, was owing to his recommendation and encouragement. Her whispers wak'd fage Harrington to feign The bleffings of her vifionary reign; That reign, which, now no more an empty theme, Adorns Philofophy's ideal dream, 100 But crowns at laft, beneath a GEORGE's fmile, In full reality this favour'd ifle. ON THE MARRIAGE OF THE KING. (Written in 1761.) TO HER MAJESTY. WHEN first the kingdom to thy virtues duc 5 And well with conscious joy thy breaft might beat That Albion was ordain'd thy regal feat: Lo! this the land, where Freedom's facred rage Has glow'd untam'd through many a martial age. Here patriot Alfred, stain'd with Danish blood, Rear'd on one base the king's the people's good: V. 11. Here patriot Alfred, stain'd with Danish blood,] He is called in the Triumph of Ifis," the Patriot King, ver. 212. In Pope's Windfor Forest, And filent Darent, ftain'd with Danish blood. Ver. 348. Another river had been fimilarly diftinguished in Drayton's 32d Idea: And the old Lea brags of the Danifb blood. Vol. iv. p. 1271. I will here take occafion to remark, with that deference which I Here Henry's archers fram'd the stubborn bow, That laid Alanzon's haughty helmet low; Here wak'd the flame, that still fuperior braves 15 The proudest threats of Gaul's ambitious slaves: Here Chivalry, ftern fchool of valour old, Her nobleft feats of knightly fame enroll'd; muft always pay, on a subject of tafte, to my late highly-valued mafter, that the judgment which he has given (Essay on Pope, vol. i. 26.) on a comparison of the paffage, in which the above line from Pope occurs, with a fimilar description from Milton, is to me astonishing, as it is fo different from the general nature of his remarks. He confiders Pope's to be fuperior. And yet, not to infist on the infipidity which prevails throughout Pope's, excepting only in the character of the Darent, or on Milton's having for the most part distinguished his rivers by a fingle appropriate epithet, what in particular is there in the former fit to be mentioned with the Severn, the Dee, or the Humber of the latter? I do not specify the Trent, as Dr. Warton does not deny Milton's fuperiority in that inftance. But the three, which I have mentioned, immediately fill the mind with romantic ideas of old British traditions and druidical rites, with which they are connected. They are like the fabulofus Hydafpes of Horace. Except in the inftance above, Pope has not a word of all this; and furely the abfence of it is not very well compenfated by fuch pretty imagery as the "dark ftreams of Cole laving his flow'ry islands,” and “ the milky wave of the chalky Wey." V. 14. Alanzon's haughty helmet] So Spenfer, defcribing Prince Arthur: His baughtie belmet horrid all with gold. F. 2. I. vii. 31. The reader will remember the glove, which (in the language of honeft Fluellen) " his majefty is take out of the helmet of Alençon," when they were down together in the battle of Agincourt. Hen. V A&t iv. V. 17. Here Chivalry, stern school of valour old, &c.] Alluding 19 Heroic champions caught the clarion's call, Unlock'd chafte beauty's adamantine zone. Lo! the fam'd ifle, which hails thy chofen fway, to the inftitution of the Order of the Garter at Windfor by Edward III. in 1350. Perhaps "stern nurfe" would have been better than school," as in the next line Chivalry is perfonified. Gray fays of Adversity, Stern rugged nurse! V. 22. Beauty's adamantine zone. ne.] In Mafon's Ode to Truth in Elfrida: A bright fun clafps her adamantine zone. V. 25. Where Property fecures the confcious fwain, And guards, while plenty gives, the golden grain:] Very little varied from what Thomfon fays on the fame fubject: -Thy country teems with wealth, And Property affures it to the fwain, Pleas'd and unwearied in his guarded toil. Summer, 1453. He had juft before fpoken of the valleys floating with golden waves, and the flocks bleating numberlefs on the mountains. V. 29. Fresh are her paftures with unceafing rills,] Virgil, En. vi. 674. -Prata recentia rivis. |