BOOK II. CIDER. 171 655 Shall wave her double Crofs, t' extremeft climes Of Araby well-fraught, or Indus' wealth, Meanwhile the fwains Shall unmolefted reap what Plenty ftrows From well-ftor'd horn, rich grain, and timely fruits: The elder year Pomona, pleas'd, shall deck it's double cross-] 660 654. The English naval Flag was originally St. George's Cross, or a red Crofs at right angles, on a white field. The Scotch Flag was St. Andrew's Cross, or a white Cross, of the Saltier form, on a blue field. After the Union of the two Crowns, these two Flags were joined together in the Jack, or fmall flag in the forepart of the Ship, while the English Flag was continued in the upper corner of the Enfign, or large flag worn at the ftern. On the Union of the two Kingdoms, the Union Jack was not only worn at the fore-part of the Ship, but the double crofs` was alfo transferred into the corner of the enfign, instead of the single English Crofs. 655. with odorous poils Of Araby well fraught, or Indus' wealth, Thus Tibullus in his LAUS SULPICIE, V. 17. Poffideatque, metit quicquid BENE OLENTIBUS ARVIS Et quafcunque niger rubro de littore CONCHAS "Pearl and barbaric gold" is from Milton's opening of the fecond Book of the PARADISE LOST. High on the throne of royal ftate, which far Showers on her kings BARBARIC PEARL AND GOLD. 658. From well-flor'd born --] what Plenty frows PLENO diffudit COPIA CORNU Hor. L. i. Episft xii. V. 29. 660. The elder year. This expreffion might have been taken from Ovid's defcription of the four ages, or feafons, of the year. Z 2 Tranfit With ruby-tinctur'd births; whose liquid store In other realms. Where'er the British spread Wide univerfe, Silurian Cider borne 665 Shall please all tastes, and triumph o'er the vine.* MATURUS, MITISQUE INTER JUVENEMQUE SENEMQUE; Inde fenilis hyems tremulo venit horrida paffu; MET. XV. 206. The primary object of the preceding Notes has been to illuftrate a Provincial and Claffical Poem of confiderable and allowed merit, fo as to enable it to be more generally read with fome degree of that pleasure with which it was at firft received. Poffibly fome of them may tend to fhew that Philips, with great literary attainments and much poetic tafte, was not himself an eminently original Hon. If however we must not rank him amongst thofe creative Geniuses, who, difdaining all imitation, fabricate their immortal Compofitions without looking beyond themfelves either for Matter, Form, or Style :-if we cannot clafs him thus high, we may furely place him amongft thofe very pleafing Writers, who with the greatest fuccefs have celebrated new fubjects after the most approved models. In the general defign and arrangement of his Georgic, we cannot but give him credit for great skill and judgment; as well as for its digreffive and defcriptive embellishments. In these refpects the CIDER muft incontestably rate high as a Didactic Poem; and it may be wondered, that Dr. Blair, in his Lectures, fhould have entirely paffed it over in fpeaking of this kind of Poetical Compofition. Whether Blank Verfe is moft happily adapted to a Didactic Poem on such a subject, may perhaps with juftice be queftioned; but, allowing the Poet in this point to please himfelf, the most material point to be confidered will be, how far he has fucceeded Book II. CIDER. 173 ceeded in this fpecies of verfification. And here, if we examine the general tenor of his verfe through the whole of the Poem, and efpecially thofe parts which he feems to have more particularly finished; such as the Destruction of Ariconium, the Praises of Herefordshire, the Panegyric on Sincerity and Virtue, that concludes the firft Book; the Farmer's Feaft and Ruftic Ball, the Defcription of the Pacific Reign of King Edgar, and from thence the whole Conclufion of the fecond Book, we shall probably incline to think that he has not ill chofen his ftyle of verfification, and that he has eminently excelled in it. We can never admit the Sentence of Dr. Johnson, that he imitated Milton's num"bers injudiciously, and that, whatever there is in Milton which the "Reader wishes away all that is obfolete, peculiar and licentious, "Philips has accumulated with great care."--Surely the writer of fuch a cenfure must have been little acquainted with Philips's Compofitions; or he had an ear totally infenfible to "the manly melodies of Blank Verfe." That this was much the cafe, may poffibly be collected from many paffages in his Lives of the English Poets, and among others from his obfervations on the verfification of Thomson, where he communicates to us the wonderful difcovery, that his Blank Verfe is in no refpect the blank verfe of Milton.". -Moft affuredly it is not. No Poet, indeed, fince Milton, has caught his numbers as Philips has done. Even upon the publication of his BLENHEIM, before the CIDER had appeared, Elijah Fenton (who had been himself, together with his friend and poetical coadjutor Broome, a profeffed Imitator of Milton's Verfe) writing to the Father of the prefent Dr. Warton, fays, "My "fervice to Mr. Sacheverel, and tell him I will never imitate Milton more till the Author of Blenheim is forgotten." Efay on the Genius and Writings of Pope. Vol. ii. 66 66 Few Poems have been more favorably received at their firft appearance than the CIDER of our Author; and that in the Auguftan Age of English Poetry. The honorable circumftance of its being tranflated into Italian by a Nobleman of Florence is only flightly mentioned by his Biographers, without giving any account, or even the name, of the Tranflator; referring only to Edmund Smith's Verfes to the Memory of Philips, where he is defcribed as 66 -Great Cofmo's Counsellor and Friend." Some account therefore of the noble Florentine Tranflator, together with a Specimen of his Verfion, may be no improper or unacceptable conclufion of these Notes. LORENZO MAGOLOTTI was born at Florence in the year 1637, being of one of the most illuftrious families of that city. He was a man of great and general knowledge, a Statefman, Philofopher, Mathematician and Poet; and was fo highly efteemed, that, after his death, a medal was ftruck at Florence in honor of him. He distinguished himfelf early in life by his literary acquirements, and was Secretary to the Florentine Academy of Cimento, the Transactions of which he published, in a folio volume, in 1667. In the following year he was in England. In the Hiftory of the Royal Society, it is noticed that the two Florentine Philofophers, Signor Lorenzo Magalotti and Signor Paulo Falconieri, were were admitted to be prefent at a meeting of the Society, February 27, 1667-8. It appears alfo that, both from Paris, and after his return to Florence, he correfponded with the Society; of which he became a Member. He was employed by the Grand Duke Cofmo III. in many important negotiations, went to feveral Courts in quality of his Envoy, and was afterwards made his Counsellor of State.-At the beginning of this century, Queen Anne fent Dr. Henry Newton, an eminent Civilian, as her Envoy to the Grand Duke of Florence. There he refided fome years, and being a man of literature, an Orator, and a Poet, was particularly well received amongst the Florentine Literati, and was especially favored with the friendship of Count Magalotti; to whom he pays many compliments of efteem and gratitude, in a Volume of Latin Letters, Poems, and Orations, published at Lucca in 1710, in 4to. under the title of Henrici Nowon, five de Nova Vila, Societatis Regia Londini, Arcadia Romana, Academia Florentina, et ejus quæ vulgo vocatur della Crufca, Socii, Epiftole, Orationes, et Carmina.In one of his Poems, entitled Nemora Fiorentina, where he compliments feveral of his friends of that country, he particularly notices the Italian Translation of the Cider. Speaking of Magalotti, he says, Augligenum Nectar, fic pocula noftra celebrat, Haud alia ut Mufæ, Phœbus et ipje bibat. Dr. Newton was the intimate friend of Lord Somers, to whom, in his publication already mentioned, he addreffes two letters full of much grateful regard, and who, (it appears from the manner in which Magalotti fomewhat curioufly winds up the first Book of his Il Sidro,) had about that time sent him to Florence a prefent of fome very excellent Cider.— Lord Somers (who was much diftinguished as the Patron of Milton's pofthumous Reputation, and to whom, as fuch, most of the Editions of the Paradife Loft, prior to that of Bishop Newton, were dedicated), was probably not a little ftruck with Philips's revival of Milton's numbers; and very poffibly fent over the Cider Poem on its first appearance to Dr. Newton, together with the Specimen above mentioned of the Liquor therein celebrated for his Florentine friends. Upon this occafion, we may fuppofe Magalotti compofed his Il Sidro, which feems to have been written under the immediate infpection of his friend Newton; particularly as we find all the violent political parts of the original carefully omitted. Accordingly the Tranflation of the first Book proceeds no farther than V. 591, where Philips notices the Atchievements of the Silures at the battles of Creffy and Agincourt. There the Translator fuppofes the Rural Mufe to faint at the terrific found of war. Abimè, che al fuon della guerriera tromba La forofetta verginella Mufa Ecco fi turba, impallidifce, e trema! Ecco vien meno! He then calls his attendants to affift him to fupport her, and to endeavour to revive her "with fome of the excellent Cider, which Lord "Somers, Baron of Evesham, had lately sent to Florence to Dr. Henry "Newton." Qlà, Qual terreno la Mela ami, qual cura Che' I patrio Suol m'invita, e il vergin Tema Voi, Donne, e Cavalier del bel parse, [2.] E tu, Moftyn, che tante prove e tante י ] Giovanni Milton, Poeta Inglefe, autore dell' uno, e dell' altro Poema, ambidue in sciolti, di dieci fillaba l' uno, che è il verfo deftinato all Epico da' Poeti della Nazione. ire il Filips di cantare la prefente Georgica nello ftile di Milton, come effetivamente a, non intende folamente in ordine al metro, ma eziandio alla fantasia, ed all' clo. C. Intende della Provincia di Hereford, dove fa in maggiore abbondanza e perfezione la di cui fi fa il miglior Sidro, detta in Inglefe Redftreake, rofforigata, o vergata. Chi |