actually happened are, after all, the propereft fubjects for poetry. The best eclogue of Virgil*, the beft ode of Horace +†, are founded on real incidents. If we briefly caft our eyes over the most interesting and affecting stories, ancient or modern, we shall find that they are fuch, as however adorned and a little diverfified, are yet grounded on true history, and on real matters of fact. Such, for inftance, among the ancients, are the ftories, of Jofeph, of Oedipus, the Trojan war and its confequences, of Virginia and the Horatii; fuch, among the moderns, are the stories of king Lear, the Cid, Romeo and Juliet, and Oronooko. The feries of events contained in these stories, feem far to furpass the utmost powers of human imagination. In the bestconducted fiction, fome mark of improbability and incoherence will still appear. I SHALL only add to these, a tale literally true, which the admirable DANTE has introduced in his Inferno, and which is not fuffi *The Firft. Ode xiii. lib. ii. ciently ciently known; I cannot recollect any paffage, in any writer whatever, fo truly pathetic. Ugolino, a Florentine Count, is giving the description of his being imprisoned with his children by the archbishop Ruggieri. "The hour approached when we expected to have something brought us to eat. But instead of seeing any food appear, * I heard the doors of that horrible dungeon more clofely barred. I beheld my little children in filence, and could not weep. My heart was petrified! The little wretches wept, and my dear Anfelm faid; Tu guardi sì, padre: che hai ? father you look on us! what ails you? I could neither weep nor answer, and continued swallowed up in filent agony, all that day, and the following night, even till the dawn of day. As foon as a glimmering ray darted through the doleful prison, that I could view again those four faces, in which my own image was impressed, I gnawed both my hands, with grief and rage. * It was thought not improper to distinguish the more moving paffages by Italics. Mr. Baretti's juft tranflation is here used. See his DISSERTATION on the Italian Poets. My My children believing I did this through eagerness to eat, raifing themselves fuddenly up, faid to me, My father! our torments would be lefs, if you would allay the rage of your hunger upon us. I restrained myself, that I might not encrease their mifery. We were all mute that day, and the following. Quel di, e l'altro, ftemmo tutti muti. The fourth day being come, Gaddo falling extended at my feet, cried; Padre mio, che non m' ajuti! My father, why do you not help me? and died. The other three expired one after the other between the fifth and fixth day, famished as thou feeft me now! And I, being feized with blindness, began to go groping upon them with hands and feet: and continued calling them by their names three days after they were dead. E tre di li chiamai poichè fur morti : then hunger vanquished my grief!” my Ir this inimitable defcription had been found in Homer, the Greek tragedies, or Virgil, how many commentaries and panegyrics would it have given rife to? What fhall fhall we fay, or think, of the genius able to produce it? There are many of the fame nature; and perhaps the Inferno of Dante is the next compofition to the Iliad, in point of originality and fublimity. And with regard to the Pathetic, let this tale ftand a teftimony of his abilities for my own part, I truly believe it was never carried to a greater heighth. It is remarkable, that Chaucer appears to have been particularly ftruck with this tale in Dante, having highly commended this, "grete poete of Italie," for this narration; with a fummary of which he concludes the Monke's Tale *. THE PROLOGUE to Addifon's Tragedy of Cato, is fuperior to any prologue of Dryden; * Milton was particularly fond of this writer. The following paffage is curious, and has not been taken notice of by the late writers of his life: " Ego certè iftis utrifque linguis non extremis tantummodò labris madidus; fed fiquis alius, quantum per annos licuit, poculis majoribus prolutus, poffum tamen nonnunquam ad illum DANTEM, & Petrarcham, aliofque veftros complufculos, libenter & cupidè comeffatum ire. Nec me tam ipfæ Athenæ Atticæ cum illo fuo pellucido Iliffo, nec illa vetus Roma fuâ Tiberis ripâ retinere valuerunt, quin fæpe Arnum veftrum, & Fæfulanos illos Colles invifere amem." Milton. EPISTOL. Epift. viii. B. Bommathæo Florentino. who, who, notwithstanding, is fo juftly celebrated for this fpecies of writing. The prologues of Dryden are fatyrical and facetious; this of POPE is folemn and fublime, as the fubject required. Those of Dryden contain general topics of criticism and wit, and may precede any play whatsoever, even tragedy or comedy. This of POPE is particular, and appropriated to the tragedy alone, which it was defigned to introduce. The most striking images and allufions it contains, are taken, with judgment, from fome paffages in the life of Cato himself. Such is that fine ftroke, more lofty than any thing in the tragedy itself, where the poet fays, that when Cæfar amid the pomp and magnificence of a triumph, Shew'd Rome her Cato's figure drawn in state; Such, |