Soft yielding minds to water glide away, And fip with Nymphs, their elemental tea. The graver Prude finks downward to a gnome, In fearch of mischief still on earth to roam. The light Coquettes in sylphs aloft repair, And fport and flutter in the fields of air. The description of the* toilette, which fucceeds, is judiciously given in fuch magnificent terms, as dignify the offices performed at it. Belinda dreffing is painted in as pompous a manner, as Achilles arming. canto ends with a circumftance, artfully contrived to keep this be.utiful machinery in the reader's eye: for after the poet has said, that the fair heroine

Repairs her fimiles, awakens ev'ry grace,

And calls forth all the wonders of her face t,

He immediately fubjoins,

The

The bufy fylphs furround their darling care,
These fet the head, and thofe divide the hair:
Some fold the fleeve, whilft others plait the gown,
And Betty's prais'd for labours not her own.

THE mention of the Lock, on which the poem turns, is rightly referved to the

* Cant. i. ver. 121. + Ver. 741. Cant. ii. ver. 21.

fecond

fecond canto. The facrifice of the baron to implore fuccefs to his undertaking, is another inftance of our poet's judgment, in heightening the fubject +. The fucceeding scene of failing upon the Thames is most gay and riant; and impreffes the most pleas ing pictures upon the imagination. Here too the machinery is again introduced with much propriety. Ariel fummons his denizens of air; who are thus painted with a rich exuberance of fancy.

Some to the fun their infect wings unfold,
Waft on the breeze, or fink in clouds of gold:
Transparent forms, too thin for mortal fight,
Their fluid bodies half diffolv'd in light.
Loose to the wind their airy garments flew.
Thin glitt'ring textures of the filmy dew,
Dipt in the richest tincture of the skies,
Where light difports in ever-mingling dyes;
While every beam new tranfient colours flings,
Colours, that change whene'er they wave their wings.

Ariel afterwards enumerates the functions and employments of the fylphs, in the fol

+ Ver. 57.

1 Ver. 59.

lowing

lowing manner: where fome are supposed to delight in more grofs, and others in more refined occupations.

Ye know the spheres and various tasks, affign'd
By laws eternal to th 'äerial kind.

Some in the fields of pureft æther play,

And bark and brighten in the blaze of day;
Some guide the course of wandring orbs on high,
Or roll the planets through the boundless sky;
Some, lefs refin'd, beneath the moon's pale light,
Perfue the ftars, that shoot across the night;
Or fuck the mifts in groffer air below;
Or dip their pinions in the painted bow:
Or brew fierce tempefts on the wintry main,
Or o'er the glebe diftil the kindly rain*.

Those who are fond of tracing images and fentiments to their fource, may perhaps be inclined to think, that the hint of afcribing tasks and offices to fuch imaginary beings, is taken from the Fairies and the Ariel of Shakespeare: let the impartial critic determine, which has the fuperiority of fancy. The employment of Ariel in the Tempest, is faid to be,

To tread the ooze

Of the falt deep;

To run upon the sharp wind of the north;

To do bufinefs in the veins of th' earth,

When it is bak'd with froft ;

To dive into the fire; to ride

On the curl'd clouds.

And again,

In the deep nook, where once

Thou calld'ft me up at midnight, to fetch dew
From the ftill-vext Bermoothes.

Nor must I omit that exquifite fong, in which his favourite and peculiar pastime is expreffed.

Where the bee fucks, there fuck I,

In a cowflip's bell I lie;

There I couch when owls do cry.

On the bat's back I do fly,

After fun-fet, merrily;

Merrily, merrily, fhall I live now,

Under the bloffom that hangs on the bough.

With what wildness of imagination, but yet, with what propriety, are the amusements of the fairies pointed out, in the MIDSUMMER

Ff

NIGHT'S

NIGHT'S DREAM: amufements proper for

none but fairies!

'Fore the third part of a minute, hence:
Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds:
Some war with rear-mice for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats; and fome keep back
The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, and wonders
At our queint fpirits.

Shakespeare only could have thought of the following gratifications for Titania's lover; and they are fit only to be offered, to her lover, by a fairy-queen.

Be kind, and courteous to this gentleman,
Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes;
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries.
The honey-bags fteal from the humble bees,
And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs,
And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,
To have my love to bed, and to arise :
And pluck the wings from painted butterflies,

To fan the moon-beams from his fleeping eyes.

If it should be thought, that Shakespeare has the merit of being the first who affigned pro

per

1