At once the winding channel's courfe was broke,
Where wand'ring life her mazy journey took;
At once the currents all forgot their way,
And loft their purple in the azure sea.

ROWE.

Such was the death of Lucan, before he had completed his twenty-feventh year. If his character as a man has been injured by the Hiftorian, his poetical reputation has been treated not lefs injuriously by the Critics. Quintilian, by a frivolous diftinction, difputes his title to be claffed among the Poets; and Scaliger fays, with a brutality of language difgraceful only to himself, that he seems rather to bark than to fing. But thefe infults may appear amply compensated, when we remember, that in the molt polished nations of modern Europe the most elevated and poetic fpirits have been his warmeft admirers; that in France he was idolized by Corneille, and in England tranflated by Rowe. The fevereft cenfures on Lucan have proceeded from those who have unfairly compared his language to that of Virgil: but how unjust and abfurd is such a comparifon! it is comparing an uneven block of porphyry, taken rough from the quarry, to the most beautiful fuperficies of polished marble. How differently fhould we think of Virgil as a poet, if we poffeffed only the verfes which he wrote at that period of life when Lucan compofed his Pharfalia! In the difpofition of his fubject, in the propriety and elegance of diction, he is undoubtedly far inferior to Virgil: but if we attend to the bold originality of his defign, and to the vigour of his fentiments; if we confider the Pharfalia as the rapid and uncorrected sketch of a young poet, executed in an age when the spirit of his countrymen was broken, and their taste in literature corrupted, it may justly be efteemed as one of the most noble and most wonderful productions of the human mind.

NOTE VII. VERSE 293.

1

As Lefbos paid to Pompey's lovely Wife.] Pompey, after his defeat at Pharfalia, proceeded to Lefbos, as he had left his wife Cornelia to the protection of that ifland; which received the unfortunate hero with a fublime generofity. The Lesbians entreated him to remain amongst them, and

promised

134 promised to defend him. Pompey expreffed his gratitude for their fidelity, but declined the offer, and embarked with Cornelia. The concern of this gallant people on the departure of their amiable guest is thus defcribed by Lucan: dixit; moeftamque carinæ

Impofuit comitem. Cunctos mutare, putares
Tellurem patriæque folum : fic litore toto
Plangitur, infefte tenduntur in æthera dextræ ;
Pompeiumque minus, cujus fortuna dolorem
Moverat, aft illam, quam toto tempore belli
Ut civem videre fuam, difcedere cernens
Ingemuit populus; quam vix, fi caftra mariti
Victoris peteret, ficcis dimittere matres
Jam poterant oculis: tanto devinxit amore
Hos pudor, hos probitas, caftique modeftia vultus.
Lib. viii. v. 146.

He ceas'd; and to the ship his partner bore,
While loud complainings fill the founding thore;
It feem'd as if the nation with her pafs'd,
And banishment had laid their island waste.
Their fecond forrows they to Pompey give;
For her as for their citizen they grieve:
E'en though glad victory had call'd her thence,
And her Lord's bidding been the just pretence,
The Lesbian matrons had in tears been drown'd,
And brought her weeping to their watʼry bound :
So was the lov'd, fo winning was her grace,
Such lowly fweetness dwelt upon her face.

NOTE VIII. VERSE 296.

ROWE.

Let Argentaria on your canvass fine,] Polla Argentaria was the daughter of a Roman Senator, and the wife of Lucan. She is faid to have tranfcribed, and corrected the three first books of the Pharfalia, after the death of her hufband. It is much to be regretted that we poffefs not the poem which he wrote on the merits of this amiable and accomplished woman; but her name is immortalized by two furviving Poets of that age. The veneration which the paid to the memory of her husband, is recorded by Martial; and more poetically defcribed in that pleafing and elegant

little

little production of Statius, Genethliacon Lucani, a poem which I the more readily commend, as I may be thought by fome readers unjust towards its author, in omitting to celebrate his Thebaid. I confefs, indeed, the mifcellaneous poems of Statius appear to me his most valuable work: in most of these there is much imagination and sentiment, in harmonious and fpirited verfe. The little poem which I have mentioned, on the anniversary of Lucan's birth, is faid to have been written at the request of Argentaria. The Author, after invoking the poetical deities to attend the ceremony, touches with great delicacy and fpirit on the compofitions of Lucan's childhood, which are loft, and the Pharfalia, the production of his early youth; he then pays a fhort compliment to the beauty and talents of Argentaria, laments the cruel fate which deprived her fo immaturely of domestic happiness; and concludes with the following addrefs to the fhade of Lucan

At tu, feu rapidum poli per axem
Famæ curribus arduis levatus,
Qua furgunt anime potentiores,
Terras defpicis, et fepulchra rides:
Seu pacis meritum nemus reclufæ
Felix Elyfiis tenes in oris,
Quo Pharfalica turba congregatur;
Et te nobile carmen infonantem
Pompeii comitantur et Catones :
Tu magna facer et fuperbus umbra
Nefeis Tartaron, et procul nocentum
Audis verbera, pallidumque vifa
Matris lampade refpicis Neronem.
Adfis lucidus ; et vocante Polla
Unum, quæfo, diem deos filentum
Exores; folet hoc patere limen
Ad nuptas redeuntibus maritis.
Hæc te non thiafis procax dolofis
Falfi numinis induit figuras;
Ipfum fed colit, et frequentat ipfum
Imis altius infitum medullis
Ac folatia vana fubminiftrat
Vultus, qui fimili notatus auro
Stratis prænitet, excubatque fomno
Securæ. Procul hinc abite mortes;

Hæc

Hæc vitæ genitalis eft origo ;
Cedat luctus atrox, genifque manent
Jam dulces lacrymæ, dolorque feftus
Quicquid feverat ante nunc adoret.

But you, O! whether to the fkies
On Fame's triumphant car you rife,
(Where mightier fouls new life affume)
And mock the confines of the tomb;
Or whether in Elysium bleft

You grace the groves of facred rest,
Where the Pharfalian heroes dwell;
And, as you strike your Epic shell,
The Pompeys and the Catos throng
To catch the animating fong;
Of Tartarus the dread controul
Binds not your high and hallow'd foul
Distant you hear that wailing coast,
And fee the guilty Nero's ghoft,
Grow pale with anguish and affright,
His mother flashing on his fight.

Be prefent to your Polla's vows,
While to your honour'd name the bows!
One day let your intreaties gain

From those who rule the fhadowy train !
Their gates have op'd to blefs a wife,
And given a husband back to life.
In you the tender Fair invites
No fancied god with frantic rites;
You are the object of her prayers,
You in her inmoft heart fhe bears:
And, ftampt on mimic gold, your head
Adorns the faithful mourner's bed,
And fooths her eyes before they close,
The guardian of her chafte repose.

Away with all funereal state!
From hence his nobler life we date:
Let Mourning change the pang fevere
To fond Devotion's grateful tear!
And feftal grief, its anguish o'er,
What it lamented, now adore!

I cann t

I cannot close this note without obferving, that the preceding verfes have a ftrong tendency to prove, that Lucan was perfectly innocent in regard to the accufation which I have examined before. Had he been really guilty of bafely endangering the life of his mother, it is not pro bable that his wife would have honoured his memory with fuch enthufiaftic veneration, or that Statius, in verfes defigned to do him honour, would have alluded to the mother of Nero. The Reader will pardon my recurring to this subject, as it is pleafing to make use of every argument which may remote fo odious and unjust a ftain from a manly and exalted character.

END OF THE NOTES TO THE SECOND EPISTLE.

NOTES