* Great Pan who wont to chase the fair,
And lov'd the spreading OAK, was there;
Old Saturn too, with upcaft eyes,
Beheld his ABDICATED skies;

And mighty Mars for war renown'd,
In adamantine armor frown'd:

By him the childless goddess rofe,
Minerva, ftudious to compofe

Her twisted threads; the web fhe ftrung,
And o'er a loom of marble hung;

Thetis the troubled ocean's queen,

Match'd with a MORTAL, next was seen,
Reclining on a funeral urn,

Her fhort-liv'd darling fon to mourn.
The laft was HE, whofe thunder flew
The Titan race, a rebel crew,
That from a HUNDRED HILLS ally'd,
In impious league their king defy'd.

There is scarcely, I believe, any inftance, where mythology has been applied with fo much delicacy and dexterity, and has been contrived to answer in its application, so mi

*CHALES II. famous for his lewdness; the allusion to his being concealed in the oak is artful. JAMES II. WILLIAM III. Queen MARY, who had no heirs, and was a great work-woman. Queen ANNE married to the PRINCE of Denmark, who lost the D. of Gloucester in his youth. George I. who conquered the Highland rebels at Prefton, 1715.

nutely, exactly, and in fo many corresponding circumstances.

WHATEVER cenfures we have here, too boldly, perhaps, ventured to deliver on the profeffed poetry of Addison, yet must we candidly own, that in various parts of his proseeffays, are to be found many ftrokes of genuine and fublime poetry; many marks of a vigorous and exuberant imagination. Particularly, in the noble allegory of Pain and Pleafure, the Vision of Mirza, the story of Maraton and Yaratilda, of Conftantia and Theodofius, and the beautiful eaftern tale of Abdallah and Balfora; and many others: together with feveral strokes in the Effay on the pleasures of imagination. It has been the lot of many great names, not to have been able to exprefs themselves with beauty and propriety in the fetters of verse, in their refpective languages; who have yet manifested the force, fertility, and creative power of a moft poetic genius, in profe*. This was the cafe of Plato, of

* In fome of the eastern stories, lately published in the ADVENTURER, a vast and noble invention is displayed; and this Lucian,

Lucian, of Fenelon, of Sir Philip Sidney, and of Dr. T. Burnet, who in his Theory of the Earth, has difplayed an imagination, very nearly equal to that of Milton.

-Mænia mundi

Difcedunt! totum video per Inane geri res!

After all, the chief and characteristical excellency of Addison, was his HUMOUR; for in humour no mortal has excelled him except Moliere. Witness the character of Sir Roger de Coverly, fo original, fo natural, and fo inviolably preferved; † particularly, in the month, which the Spectator spends at his hall in the country. Witnefs alfo the Drummer, that excellent and neglected comedy, that juft picture of life and real manners, where the poet never speaks in his own person, or

too by an author, that, I have never heard, has written any confiderable verses. See, particularly, the ftory of Amurath, N°. 20, of Nouraddin and Amana, No. 73, and of Carazan. No. 132, by Mr. Hawkefworth.

+ Vol. II. during the month of July. See the characters of Will. Wimble, Moll White, and the juftices of the quorum, p. 200. & feq. And Vol. 5. Sir Roger at Westminster Abby, 329. and particularly at the tragedy of the Distrest Mother with the Spectator.

totally

totally drops or forgets a character, for the fake of introducing a brilliant fimile, or acute remark: where no train is laid for wit; no JEREMYS, OF BENS, are fuffer'd to appear.

THE EPILOGUE to Jane Shore, is the last piece that belongs to this Section; the title of which by this time the reader may have poffibly forgot. It is written with the air of gallantry and raillery, which, by a strange perversion of taste, the audience expects in all epilogues to the most serious and pathetic pieces. To recommend cuckoldom and palliate adultery, is their usual intent. I wonder Mrs. Oldfield was not suffered to speak it; for it is fuperiour to that which was used on the occafion. In this tafte Garrick has written fome, that abound in fpirit and drollery. Rowe's genius* was rather delicate and foft,

* There are however fome images in Rowe strongly painted, fuch, particularly, as the following, which is worthy of Spenfer; fpeaking of the Tower.

Methinks SUSPICION and DISTRUST dwell here,
Staring with meagre forms thro' grated windows.

Lady Jane Grey, A& iii. Sc. ii.

than

than ftrong and pathetic; his compofitions footh us with a tranquill and tender fort of complacency, rather than cleave the heart with pangs of commiferation. His diftreffes are entirely founded on the paffion of love. His diction is extremely elegant and chaste, and his verfification highly melodious. His plays are declamations rather than dialogues, and his characters are general, and undistinguished from each other. Such a furious character as that of Bajazet, is easily drawn; and, let me add, eafily acted. There is a want of unity in the fable of Tamerlane. The death's head, dead body, and ftage hung in mourning, in the Fair Penitent, are artificial and mechanical methods of affecting an audience. In a word, his plays are mufical and pleasing poems, but inactive and unmoving tragedies. This of Jane Shore is, I think, the most interesting and affecting of any he has given us but probability is fadly violated in it by the neglect of the unity of time. For a perfon to be supposed to be ftarved,

representation of five acts, is a

during the ftriking in

ftance