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Strait hover round the fair her airy band *;

Some, as the fipp'd, the fuming liquor fann'd.

Then follows an inftance of affiduity fancied with great delicacy;

Some o'er her lap their careful plumes display'd,
Trembling, and conscious of the rich brocade.

But nothing can excell the behaviour of the fylphs, and their wakeful follicitude for their charge, when the danger grows more imminent, and the catastrophe approaches.

1

Swift to the Lock a thoufand fprites repair.

The methods by which they endeavoured to preferve her from the intended mischief, are fuch only as could be executed by a fylph; and have therefore an admirable propriety, as well as the utmost elegance.

A thousand wings by turns blow back the hair f;
And thrice they TWITCH'D the diamond in her ear,
Thrice fhe look'd back, and thrice the foe drew near.

Still farther to heighten the piece, and to preserve the characters of his machines

*Cant. iii. ver. 113.

+ Cant. iii. ver. 156.

to

to the last, juft when the fatal * forfex was fpread,

Ev'n then, before the fatal engine clos'd †,

A wretched fylph too fondly interpos'd;

Fate urg'd the sheers, and cut the sylph in twain,
(But airy fubftance foon unites again.)

Which last line is an admirable parody on
that paffage of Milton, which, perhaps oddly
enough, defcribes Satan wounded:

The griding fword, with difcontinuous wound,
Pafs'd through him; but th' etherial fubftance clos'd,
Not long divifible ‡.

The parodies are fome of the most exqui-
fite parts of this poem. That which fol-
lows from the "Dum juga montis aper,"
of Virgil, contains fome of the most artful
ftrokes of fatire, and the most poignant ridi-
cule imaginable.

While fish in ftreams, or birds delight in air,

Or in a coach and fix the British fair,

*Obferve the many periphrafes, and uncommon appellations, POPE has used for Sciffars,which would found too vulgar," Fatal Engine,-"Forfex,-" Sheers,—" Meeting Points, &c." + Cant. iii. ver 153.

Paradife Loft, book vi. ver. 330.

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As long as Atalantis fhall be read,

Or the fmall pillow grace a lady's bed,
While vifits shall be paid on folemn days,
When numerous wax-lights in bright order blaze,
While nymphs take treats, or affignations give,
So long my honour, name and praife, fhall live*.

THE introduction of frequent parodies on serious and folemn paffages of Homer and Virgil, give much life and spirit to heroicomic poetry. "Tu dors, Prelat? tu dors?" in Boileau, is the "Eudes Alge

Homer, and is full of humour.

VIE" of The wife

of the barber, talks in the language of Dido in her expoftulations to her Æneas, at the beginning of the fecond canto of the Lutrin. POPE's parodies of the fpeech of Sarpedon in Homer, and of the description of Achilles's scepter, together with the scales of Jupiter from Homer, Virgil, and Milton §, are judiciously introduced in their feveral places; are perhaps fuperiour to thofe Boileau or Garth have used, and are worked up with peculiar

* Cant. iii. ver. 165.
Cant. iv. ver. 133.

+ Cant. v. ver. 9.
§ Cant. v. ver. 72.

pleasantry.

pleasantry. The mind of the reader is engaged by novelty, when it fo unexpectedly finds a thought or object it had been ac customed to survey in another form, fuddenly arrayed in a ridiculous garb. A mixture of comic and ridiculous images, with ferious and important ones, is also no small beauty to this species of poetry. As in the following paffages, where real and imaginary distresses are coupled together.

Not youthful kings in battle feiz'd alive,

Not fcornful virgins who their charms furvive,
Not ardent lovers robb'd of all their bliss,
Not ancient ladies when refus'd a kiss,
Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die,

Nay, to carry the climax ftill higher,

Not Cynthia when her manteau's pinn'd awry,
E'er felt fuch rage resentment and despair.

This is much fuperiour to a fimilar paffage in the Dispensary, which POPE might have in his eye;

At this the victors own fuch ecftacies +

As Memphian priests if their Ofiris fneeze;

*Cant. iv. ver. 3.

+ Cant. v. ad calc.

Or

Gg 2

Or champions with Olympic clangor fir'd,
Or fimp'ring prudes with fpritely Nantz infpir'd,
Or Sultans rais'd from dungeons to a crown,
Or fafting zealots when the fermon's done.

Thefe objects have no reference to Garth's fubject, as almost all of POPE's have, in the paffage in queftion, where fome female foible is glanced at. In this fame canto, the cave of SPLEEN, the pictures of her attendants, ILLNATURE and AFFECTATION, the effects of the vapour that hung over her palace, the imaginary diseases fhe occafions, the * speech of Umbriel, a gnome, to this malignant deity, the vial of female forrows, the fpeech of Thaleftris to aggravate the misfortune, the breaking the vial with its direful effects, and

Especially when he adjures the goddess by an account of his fervices, Cant. iv. ver. 72.

If e'er with airy horns I planted heads,
Or rumpled petticoats, or tumbled beds,
Or caus'd fufpicion where no foul was rude,
Or difcompofed the head-drefs of a prude,
Or e'er to coftive lapdog gave disease-
Hear me, and touch Belinda with chagrin,
That fingle act gives half the world the spleen.

Nothing can equal this beautiful panegyric, but the fatirical

Ouches that go before.

the

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