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About the realm fhe walks her dreadful round

When night with fable wings o'erfpreads the ground;
Devours young babes before their parent's eyes,
And feeds and thrives on public miseries *.

Oedipus, in Statius, behaves with the fury of a blustering bully; in Sophocles †, with that patient fubmiffion, and pathetic remorse, which are fuited to his lamentable condition.

Art thou a father, unregarding Jove!
And fleeps thy thunder in the realms above?
Thou, fury, then, fome lafting curfe entail,
Which o'er their children's children fhall prevail;
Place on their heads that crown diftain'd with gore,
Which these dire hands from my flain father tore ‡.

OVID is also another writer of a bad tafte, on whom POPE employed fome of his youthful hours; in tranflating the ftories of Dryope, and Pomona. Were it not for the useful

* B. I. ver. 701.

my

† See his addrefs to the furies in the Edipus Coloneus of Sophocles, beginning at the words, N Torviai derweg, at verse 85, down to verfe 117. And afterwards, when he becomes more particularly acquainted with the unnatural cruelty of his fons, yet his resentment is more temperate. See verse 433 down to verse 472, of the fame tragedy.

thological

thological knowledge they contain, the works of Ovid ought not to be fo diligently read. ' The puerilities and affectations with which they abound, are too well known to be here infifted on. I chufe rather to account for Ovid's, falling into fo blameable a fpecies of writing, in the words of a fenfible critic *; who

Francifci Vavafforis de Epigrammate Liber. Parifiis 1672. Pag. 47, edit. 8vo.

About this time it became fashionable among the wits at Button's, the mob of gentlemen that wrote with ease, to tranflate Ovid. Their united performances were published in form by Garth, with a preface written in a flowing and lively style, but full of strange opinions. He declares, that none of the claffic poets had the talent of expreffing himself with more force and perfpicuity than Ovid; that the Fiat of the Hebrew law-giver is not more fublime than the Juffit et extendi campos, of the latin poet; that he excels in the propriety of his fimiles and epithets, the perfpicuity of his allegories, and the inftructive excellence of his morals. Above all, he commends him for his unforced tranfitions, and for the eafe with which he flides into fome new circumstance, without any violation of the unity of the ftory; the texture, fays he, is fo artful that it may be compared to the work of his own Arachne, where the shade dies so gradually, and the light revives fo imperceptibly, that it is hard to tell where the one ceases and the other begins. But it is remarkable that Quintilian thought very differently on this fubject, and the admirers of Ovid would do well to confider his opinion. "Illa vero frigida et puerilis eft in fcholis affectatio, ut ipfe tranfitus efficiat aliquam utique fententiam, et hujus velut præftigiæ plaufum

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after he has cenfured, what he calls, the pigmenta, the lascivias, and aucupia fermonum of PATERCULUS, of VALERIUS MAXIMUS, of PLINY the naturalift, and PLINY the conful, of FLORUS, and TACITUS, proceeds as follows: "Apud Ovidium, cum in Heroidum epiftolis, tum vero præcipue in libris Metamorphofeon, deprehendunt qui ifta curant, multa folerter et acute dicta. Sed advertit nemo, quod fciam, unde exorta hæc ei præter cæteros libido, et quæ caufa festivitatis novæ, et prioribus inufitatæ poetis, effe potuerit. Natus Ovidius eodem, quo Cicero mortuus, anno, in hæc incidit tempora, ut ita dicam, declamatoria, hoc eft, ea, quibus inductus primum eft, et valere cæpit, et in honore effe, ftrictior is habitus et comptior fcrippetat: ut Ovidius lafcivire in Metamorphofi folet, quem tamen excufare neceffitas poteft, res diverfiffimas in speciem unius corporis colligentem." Garth was a most amiable, and benevolent man. It was faid of him, that "no Physician knew his Art more, nor his Trade lefs." Pope told Mr. Richardfon," that there was hardly an alteration, of the innumerable, that were made throughout every edition of the Difpenfary, that was not for the better." The vivacity of his converfation made him an universal favourite both with Whigs and Tories, when party-rage ran high.

turæ

tura; ubi color fententiarum, plurimi ac denfi fenfus, et qui cum quodam lumine terminarentur, non tarda nec inerti ftructura. Sic enim nove loqui cæptum eft de novo genere loquendi. Itaque ejus adolefcentia is maxime ftudiis ac difciplinis declamitandi traducta, ex'ercitaque tunc, cum Portio Latroni et Arellio Fufco rhetoribus daret operam, cumque fefe non ad forum, à quo laboris fúga abhorrebat, fed ad poeticam, in quam erat natura propenfior, contuliffet: detulit una fecum figuram hanc et formam fermonis, cui affueverat aliquandiu, et inftitutum jam oratione foluta morem retinuit in verfibus.”

We are now advanced, through many digreffions, that I would hope are not wholly impertinent, to POPE'S IMITATIONS of Seven English Poets, fome of which were done at fourteen or fifteen years old. His early bent to poetry has been already taken notice of in the first volume *, to which the following anecdote must be added, which I lately re

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ceived from one of his intimate friends.

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wrote things, faid POPE, I am ashamed to say how foon; part of my epic poem ALCANDER, when about twelve. The scene of it lay at Rhodes, and fome of the neighbouring islands; and the poem opened under the water, with a description of the court of Neptune. That couplet on the circulation of the blood, which I afterwards inferted in the Dunciad,

"As man's meanders, to the vital spring

"Roll all their tides, then back their circles bring,

was originally in this poem, word for word."

THE first of these Imitations is of Chaucer; as it paints neither characters nor manners like his original, as it is the only piece of our author's works that is loose and indecent, and as therefore I wish it had been omitted in the prefent edition, I shall speak no more of it.

THE Imitation of Spenfer is the second it is a description of an alley of fishwomen. He that was unacquainted with Spenser, and

was

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