in which the bard died. There would have been a beautiful abruptness in finishing with Be thine defpair, and fceptred care, The mind would have been left in a pleafing and artful fufpenfe, at not knowing what became of fo favourite a character. Lyric poetry efpecially, fhould not be minutely historical, When Juno had ended her speech in Horace with that spirited stanza, Ter fi refurgat murus aheneus Capta, virum, puerofque ploret. What follows furely weakens the conclufion of this ode, and is comparatively flat. Non hæc jocofæ conveniunt lyræ : Quo Mufa tendis * ? The inspiration, under which the poet feems to have laboured, fuddenly ceases, and he defcends into a cold and profaic apology. * Ode III. lib. iii. ver. 70. G 2 16. Here 16. Here happy Horace tun'd th' Ausonian lyre, He might have felected ornaments more manly and characteristical of Horace, than The Doves, that round the infant poet spread Surely his odes afford many more striking fubjects for the baffo relievos about his ftatue, In the present ones do we not fee a littleness, or rather a prettiness ? OUR author alludes to the lyric part of Horace's works. Among the various views in which his numerous commentators have confidered his odes, they have neglected to remark the DRAMATIC turn he has given. to many of them. Of this fort, is the excellent prophecy of Nereus, where Horace has artfully introduced the principal events and heroes of the Iliad, and fpeaks in fo • Ver. 225, + Ver, 226, 212 lively lively a manner of both, as to make the reader present at every action intended. Of this fort alfo is the third ode of the third book, in which Juno is introduced, expreffing herfelf with all that fury and indignation against the Trojans, which Homer hath afcribed to her. She begins her fpeech with an angry repetition of Ilion, Ilion, and will not fo much as utter the names of Paris and Helen, but contemptuously calls him, the inceftus Judex, and her, Mulier peregrina*. The character of this revengeful goddess is all along supported with the fame fpirit and propriety. Equal commendation is due to the speech of Regulus in the fifth ode, on his preparing to return to Carthage, which ends with an exclamation fo fuited to the temper of that inflexible hero. NOR must we forget the natural complaints of Europa, when she has been carried away by This hath been obferved by the old commentator, Acron. the the bull, and the fhame that arifes in her bosom, on her having been feduced from her father, friends and country. Impudens liqui patrios Penates! Immediately another Profopopia is introduced. She thinks the hears her angry father, rebuking her, Vilis Europe (pater urget abfens) Quid mori ceffas? &c. Or this dramatic fpecies alfo, is the conclufion of the eleventh ode of the third book, where one of the daughters of Danaüs, who is not base enough to comply with her father's commands, difmiffes her husband with a fpeech that is much in character. I cannot forbear adding, that, of this kind, likewise is the whole of the fifth Epode, upon which I beg leave to be a little particular, as I do not remember to have feen it confidered as it ought to be. It fuddenly breaks out with a beautiful and forcible abruptnefs. * Ode XXXVII. lib. iij. At At O Deorum quifquis in cœlo regis Quid ifte fert tumultus ? aut quid omnium It is a boy utters these words, who beholds himself surrounded by an horrible band of witches, with Canidia at their head, who instantly seize and strip him, in order to make a love-potion of his body. He proceeds to deprecate their undeferved rage by moving fupplications, and fuch as are adapted to his age and fituation. Per liberos te, fi vocata partubus Per hoc inane purpuræ decus, precor, The poet goes on to enumerate, with due folemnity, the ingredients of the charm. Those which Shakespear in his Mackbeth has described, as being thrown into the magical It is obfervable, that Shakespear on this great occafion, which involves the fate of a king, multiplies all the circum ftances |