have a long run. When Louis XIV. expreffed to the Prince of Condè, his wonder at the different fates of these two pieces, and asked the reason of it, the prince answered, "In the farce, RELIGION only is ridiculed; but, Moliere in the TARTUFFE, has attacked even the PRIESTS."

BOILEAU has raifed his fubjects by many perfonifications; particularly, in the beginning of the fixth canto, PIETY who had retired to the great Carthufian monaftery on the Alps, is introduced as repairing to Paris, accompanied by FAITH, HOPE, and CHARITY, in order to make her complaint to THEMIS to which may be added, the monftrous figure of CHICANERY, attended by FAMINE, WANT, SORROW, and RUIN, in the beginning of the fifth canto. The chief divinity that acts throughout the poem, is DISCORD; which goddefs is reprefented as coming from a convent of Cordeliers. A fine ftroke of fatire; but imitated from the fatyrical Ariofto, who makes Michael find Dis

CORD

CORD in a cloister, inftead of SILENCE, whom he there searched for in vain. NIGHT is

alfo introduced as an actress with great propriety, in the third canto; where the repairs to the famous old tower at Montlery, in order to find out an owl which she may convey into the DESK, and which afterwards produces fo ridiculous a confternation. SLOTH is another principal perfonage: fhe alfo is discovered in the dormitory of a monastery.

Les Plaifirs nonchalans folêtrent a l'entour.

L'un pâitrit dans un coin l'embonpoint des Chanoines; L'autre broye en riant le vermillon des Moines *.

The speech she afterwards makes has a peculiar beauty, as it ends in the middle of a line; and by that means fhews her inability to proceed.

THE third heroi-comic poem was the DISPENSARY of Garth: a palpable imitation of the LUTRIN, and the best fatire on the physicians extant, except the SANGRADO of Le Sage, who have indeed been the object

* Chant. ii.

of

of almost every fatirift. The behaviour and fentiments of SLOTH, the firft imaginary being that occurs, are almoft literally tranflated from Boileau: particularly the compliment that SLOTH pays to king William, whose actions disturb her repose:

Or if fome cloyster's refuge I implore,
Where holy drones o'er dying tapers fnore;
The peals of Naffau's arms these eyes unclofe,
Mine he molefts, to give the world repose *.

Je croyois, loin des lieux d'on ce prince m'exile,
Que l'Eglife du moins m'affûroit un azile.
Mais envain j'efperois y regner fans effroi :
Moines, Abbes, Prieurs, tout f'arme contre moi t.

Garth, in ridiculing the clergy, fpeaks of that order with more acrimony than Boileau, who merely laughs at them. But Garth was one of the free-thinking WITS at Button's. He has introduced many excellent parodies on the claffics: among which I cannot forbear quoting one, which is an imitation of fome paffages, which the reader will remem

*Cant. i.

+ Chant. ii.

ber,

ber, in Virgil's fixth book, and where the circumstances are happily inverted.

* Since, faid the ghoft, with pity you'll attend,
Know, I'm Guiacum, once your firmeft friend;
And on this barren beach, in discontent

Am doom'd to stay, 'till th 'angry pow'rs relent.
These spectres feam'd with scars that threaten here,
The victims of my late ill conduct are.

They vex with endless clamours my repose,
This wants his palate, that demands his nofe;
And here they execute ftern Pluto's will,
And ply me ev'ry moment with a pill†.

THIS author has been guilty of a strange impropriety, which cannot be excufed, in making the fury DISEASE talk like a critic, give rules of writing, and a panegyric on the best poets of the age. The descent into the earth in the fixth canto, is a fine mixture of poetry and philofophy; the hint

* Boileau fays admirably of his phyfician, Chant 4. Art. Poet Le rhume a fon afpect fe change en pleurifie

Et par lui la migraine eft bientôt phrenefic.

+ Cant. vi.

Cant. iv.

;

is taken from the § SYPHILIS of Fracaftorius. Garth's verfification is flowing and mufical his style perfpicuous, and neat; and the poem in general abounds with fallies of wit, and nervous fatire.

THE RAPE OF THE LOCK, now before us, is the fourth, and most excellent of the heroi-comic poems. The subject was a quarrel occafioned by a little piece of gallantry of Lord Petre, who, in a party of pleasure, found means to cut off a favourite lock of Mrs. Arabella Fermour's hair. POPE was defired to write it, in order to put an end to the quarrel it produced, by Mr. Caryl, who had been fecretary to queen Mary, author of Sir Solomon Single a comedy, and of some translations in Dryden's Miscellanies. POPE was accustomed to fay, "What I wrote fastest always pleafed moft." The first fketch of this exquifite piece, which Addison

"Ed in vero nella Sifillide de l'autore fe connofcere quanto una mente della filofofia rigenerata, ed incitata dal furor poetico prevaglia; e con quanto fpirito muover poffa, ed agitare le materie, che in fe rivolge, e fuor di fe in armoniofi verfi diffonde." GRAVINA. p. 124. lib. 1.

called