per employments to imaginary persons, in the foregoing lines, yet it must be granted, that by the addition of the moft delicate satire to the most lively fancy, POPE, in the following paffage, has excelled any thing in Shakespeare, or perhaps in any other author.

Our humbler province is to tend the fair,
Not a lefs pleafing, though less glorious care;
To fave the powder from too rough a gale,
Nor let th' imprifon'd effences exhale;

To draw fresh colours from the vernal flow'rs;
To steal from rainbows, e'er they drop in show'rs,
A brighter wash; to curl their waving hairs,
Affift their blushes, and inspire their airs;
Nay oft, in dreams invention we bestow,
To change a flounce, or add a furbelow*.

THE feeming importance given to every part of female drefs, each of which is committed to the care and protection of a different fylph, with all the folemnity of a general appointing the feveral posts in his army, renders the following paffage admirable, on account of it's politeness, poignancy, and poetry.

Hafte then ye spirits, to your charge repair ;
The fluttering fan be Zephyretta's care;
The drops to thee, Brillante, we confign;
And, Momentilla, let the watch be thine;
Do thou, Crifpiffa, tend the fav'rite lock ;
Ariel himself shall be the guard of Shock. *.

The celebrated raillery of Addison on the hoop-petticoat, has nothing equal to the following circumstance; which marks the difficulty of guarding a part of dress of such high confequence.

To fifty chofen fylphs, of special note,

We trust th' important charge the PETTICOAT:
Oft have we known that fevenfold fence to fail,
Tho' ftiff with hoops, and arm'd with ribs of mail;
Form a ftrong line about the filver bound,

And guard the wide circumference around †

RIDET HOC, INQUAM, VENUS IPSA; RIDENT
SIMPLICES NYMPHÆ, FERUS ET CUPIDO.

OUR poet ftill rifes in the delicacy of his fatire, where he employs, with the utmost judgment and elegance, all the implements

*Cant. ii. ver. 111.

† Cant. ii. ver. 117. and

and furniture of the toilette, as inftruments of punishment to thofe fpirits, who shall be careless of their charge: of punishment such as fylphs alone could undergo. Each of the delinquents,

Shall feel sharp vengeance foon o'ertake his fins,
Be stop'd in vials, or transfix'd with pins;
Or plung❜d in lakes of bitter washes lie;
Or wedg'd whole ages in a bodkin's eye;
Gums and pomatums fhall his flight reftrain,
While clog'd he beats his filken wings in vain;
Or allum-ftyptics with contracting pow'r,
Shrink his thin effence like a rivell'd flow'r;
Or, as Ixion fix'd, the wretch fhall feel
The giddy motion of the whirling mill;
In fumes of burning chocolate shall glow,
And tremble at the sea that froths below *.

If Virgil has merited fuch perpetual commendation for exalting his bees, by the majefty and magnificence of his diction, does not POPE deserve equal praises, for the pomp and luftre of his language, on so trivial a fubject?

* Cant. ii. ver. 122.

THE

THE same mastery of language, appears in the lively and elegant defcription of the game at Ombre; which is certainly imitated from the Scacchia of Vida, and as certainly equal to it, if not fuperiour. Both of them have elevated and enlivened their fubjects, by fuch fimilies as the epic poets ufe; but as Chess is a play of a far higher order than Ombre, POPE had a more difficult task than Vida, to raise this his inferior fubject, into equal dignity and gracefulness. Here again our poet artfully introduces his machinery :

Soon as the spreads her hand, th' aërial guard
Defcend, and fit on each important card;
Firft Ariel pearch'd upon a mattadore *.

The majefty with which the kings of spades and clubs, and the knaves of diamonds and clubs are spoken of, is very amusing to the imagination: and the whole game is conducted with great art and judgment. I question whether Hoyle could have played it better than Belinda. It is finely contrived that

* Cant. iii. ver. 31.

she

she should be victorious; as it occafions a change of fortune in the dreadful lofs fhe was speedily to undergo, and gives occafion to the poet to introduce a moral reflection from Virgil, which adds to the pleasantry of the story. In one of the paffages where POPE has copied Vida, he has loft the propriety of the original, which arifes from the different colours of the men, at chefs.

Thus, when difpers'd a routed army runs, &c *.

Non aliter, campis legio fe buxea utrinque
Compofuit, duplici digeftis ordine turmis,

Adverfifque ambæ fulfere coloribus alæ ; Quam Gallorum acies, Alpino frigore lactea Corpora, fi tendant albis in prælia fignis, Auroræ populos contra, et Phaethonte peruftos Infano Æthiopas, et nigri Memnonis alas +. To this fcene fucceeds the tea-table. It is, doubtless, as hard to make a coffee-pot shine in poetry as a plough: yet POPE has fucceeded in giving elegance to so familiar an object, as well as Virgil. The guardian fpirits are again active, and importantly employed,

*Cant. ii. ver. 81. + Vida Scacchia Ludus, ver. 74, &c.

Strait