APPENDIX; CONSISTING OF NOTES, BY GILBERT WAKEFIELD, B, A. CHIEFLY ILLUSTRATIVE OF PARALLEL PASSAGES. NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. ON THE PASTORALS. PASTORAL I. P. 61. Ver. 1. FIRST in thefe fields I try the fylvan strains, Nor blufh to fport on Windfor's blifsful plains. Our Poet seems to have confulted Dryden's verfion of the place imitated here, Virg. Ecl. vi. 1. I first transferr'd to Rome Sicilian trains : Nor blufb'd the Doric Muse to dwell on Mantuan plains. Roscommon alfo, a terfe, judicious, unaffected, and moral writer, justly esteemed and celebrated by Pope, may be agreeably compared on this occafion : I first of Romans stoop'd to rural firains, Ner blush'd to dwell among Sicilian fwains. Ver. 5. Let vernal airs through trembling ofiers play. A beautiful paffage of this kind occurs in Paradise Regain'd, ii. 26. Then on the bank of Jordan, by a creek, Where winds with reeds and ofiers whisp'ring play— A paffage in Lucan, viii. 493. is very appofite to this fentiment: exeat aulâ, Qui vult effe pius. Virtus et fumma poteftas Non coëunt. He, who would fpotlefs live, from courts must go : Ver. 23. Hear how the birds, on ev'ry bloomy spray, Surry, in his Sonnet on Spring: Somer is come, for every spray now fpringes. Milton, Milton, Paradife Regain'd, iv. 437. in most delicate strains of the Doric Mufe: the birds Clear'd up their choiceft notes in bush and spray, To gratulate the sweet return of morn. And in his firft fonnet, which Pope certainly had in view: O! Nightingale, that on yon bloomy Spray Warbleft at eve! Some lines in Broome's Paraphrafe of Job xxxix. on a congenial fubject, will be acceptable to the reader, who delights in the fragrance of these bloffoms of the Muses: By thy command does fair Aurora rife, Ver. 25. Why fit we mute, when early linnets fing; He is indebted here to Waller's Chloris and Hylas; a paffage, pointed out alfo by Mr. White; Hylas, oh Hylas! why fit we mute, Now that each bird faluteth the fpring? Ver. 35. where wanton ivy twines, And fwelling clusters bend the curling vines, Dryden, in his State of Innocence, A&t iii. Scene 1. And creeping 'twixt 'em all, the mantling vine Ver. 37. Four figures rifing from the work appear. And Roman triumphs rifing on the gold. Ver. 62. And trees weep amber on the banks of Po. This sweet line is indebted, perhaps, to Milton, Par. Loft, iv. 248. Groves, whofe rich trees wept odorous gums and balm. The claffical reader will thank me for producing fome elegant verfes of Marius Vi&or, an author but little known, from his defcription of Paradife : quod quod Medus redolet, vel crine foluto Ver. 73. All nature laughs; the groves are fresh and fair. All nature laughs; the groves fresh honours wear. It is probable, that our author had in view fome lines of the true Winds murmur'd through the leaves your long delay, your stay. But, with your presence cheer'd, they cease to mourn, PASTORAL II. P. 73 Ver. 45. Oh! were I made, by fome transforming pow'r, Romeo and Juliet : I would I were thy bird. A fimilar wifh occurs in Ovid, Met. viii. 51. O! ego ter felix, fi pennis lapfa per auras Ver. 69. Here bees from bloffoms fip the rofy dew. Milton, in his Penferofo : And every herb, that fips the dew. PASTORAL III. P. 82. STEEVENS. CROXALL. Ver. 30. Say, is not abfence death to those who love? This whole paffage is imitated from Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia, Book iii. p. 712. 8vo edition : Earth, brook, flow'rs, pipe, lamb, dove, Say all, and I with them, Abfence is death, or worse, to them that love. |