But does not the expreffion all pale with rage call up a very contrary idea to devor prouver?. The former feems to fuggeft to one's imagination the ridiculous paffion of a couple of female fcolds; whereas the latter conveys the terrifying image of two indignant heroes, animated with calm and deliberate valor. Farewel. I am, &c.d There is a certain modern figure of fpeech, which the authors of The art of finking in poetry have called the Diminishing. This, fo far as it relates to words only, confifts in debafing a great idea, by expreffing it in a term of meaner import. Mr. Pope has himfelf now and then fallen into this kind of the profound, which he has with fuch uncommon wit and fpirit expofed in the writings of others. Thus Agamemnon, addreffing himself to Menelaus and Ulyffes, alks, And can you, chiefs, without a blufo furveyi Whole troops before you, lab'ring in the fray, B. iv. To this and the following obfervation may juftly be referred the following ftrange line, page 233. The rev's end elders nodded o'er the cafe." So likewife Pandarus, fpeaking of Diomed, who is performing the utmost efforts of heroism in the field of battle, fays, fome guardian of the skies, Involv'd in clouds, protects him in the fray. B. v. But what would you think, Euphronius, were you to hear of the "impervious foam" and "rough waves of a brook?”? would it not put you in mind of that drole thought of the ingenious Dr. Young, in one of his epiftles to our author, where he talks of a puddle in a form? yet by thus confounding the properties of the highest objects with those of the loweft, Mr. Pope has tnrned one of the most pleafing fimilies in the whole Iliad, into downright burlesque: As when fome fimple fwain his cot forjakes, This fwelling brook, however, of Mr. Pope, is in Homer a rapid river, rushing with violence into the sea : Στην επ' ωκυροῳ ποταμῳ αλαδε προρέοντι. verfe 598. It is one of the effential requifites of an Epic poem, and indeed of every kind of ferious poetry, that the style be raised above common language; as nothing takes off so much from that folemnity of diction, from which the poet ought never to depart, as idioms of a vulgar and familiar caft. Mr. Pope has fometimes neglected this important rule; but most frequently in the introduction of his fpeeches. To mention only a few instances: That That done, to Phoenix Ajax gave the fign whereas Homer generally prefaces his fpeeches with a dignity of phrase, that calls up the attention of the reader to what is going to be uttered. Milton has very happily copied his manner in this particular, as in many others; and tho he often falls into a flatnefs of expreffion, he has never once, I think, committed that error upon occafions of this kind. He ufually ushers in his harangues with fomething characteristical of the fpeaker, or that points out fome remarkable circumftance of his prefent fituation, in the following manner: Satan, with bold words Breaking the horrid filence, thus began - He ended frowning: And with perfuafive accents thus began → If you compare the effect which an introduction of this defcriptive fort has upon the mind, with thofe low and unawakening expreffions which I have marked in the lines I just now quoted from our English Iliad; you will not, perhaps, confider my objection as altogether without founda tion. All oppofition of Ideas fhould be carefully avoided in a poem of this kind, as unbecoming the gravity of the Heroic mufe. mufe. But does not Mr. Pope fometimes facrifice fimplicity to falfe ornament, and lofe the majesty of Homer in the affectations of Ovid? Of this fort a fevere critic would, perhaps, esteem his calling an army marching with fpears erect, a moving, iron wood qurum & of bresur grich A Such and fo thick th' embattled Squadrons ftoodu virgin süd With fpears erect, a moving iron wood,forts bestni There seems alfo to be an inconfiftency in the two parts of this defcription; for the troops are reprefented as ftanding fill, at the fame time that the circumstance mentioned of the fpears, fhould rather imply (as indeed the truth is) that they were in motion. But if the tranflator had been faithful to his author in this paffage, neither of these objections could have been raised: for in Homer it is, εύκινα, κίνταλο φολάδες Κυανέα, τακεσιν τε και εγκεσι πεφρικηση. B. iv. 27 gr Is there not likewife fome little tendency to a pun, in thofe upbraiding lines which Hector addreffes to Paris? For thee great Ilion's guardian heroes fall Till heaps of dead alone defend the wall. Mr. Pope at leaft deferts his guide, in order to give us this conceit of dead men defending a town; for the original could not poffibly lead him into it. Homer, with a plainnefs fuitable to the occafion, only tells us, Λαοι μεν φθινύθεσε τει πολιν, από τέτυχαν B. vi. 327. Teucer, in the eighth book, aims a dart at Hector, which, miffing its way, flew Gorgythio; upon which we are told, Another Another shaft the raging archer drew (From Hector Phoebus turn'd the flying wound).. A flying wound is a thought exactly in the fpirit of Ovid; but highly unworthy of Pope as well as of Homer: and, indeed, there is not the leaft foundation for it in the original. But what do you think of the fhaft that fell dry or guiltless? where you fee, one figurative epithet is added as explanatory of the other. The doubling of Epithets, without raising the idea, is not allowable in compofitions of any kind; but leaft of all in poetry. It is, fays Quinctilian, as if every common foldier in an army were to be attended with a valet; you encrease your number without adding to your strength, But if it be a fault to croud epithets of the fame import one upon another; it is much more fo to employ fuch as call off the attention from the principal idea to be raised, and turn it upon little or foreign circumftances. When Æneas is wounded by Tydides, Homer defcribes Venus as conducting him through the thickeft tumult of the enemy, and conveying him from the field of battle. But while we are following the hero with our whole concern, and trembling for the danger which furrounds him on all fides; Mr. Pope leads us off from our anxiety for Æneas, by an uninterefting epithet relating to the ftructure of thofe inftruments of death, which were every where flying about him; and we are coldly informed, that the darts were feathered: Safe thro' the rushing horse and feather'd flight 老 B. v. 393. But |