ful climax. But let the reader judge for him felf. 66 By Mufic, minds an equal temper know, "Warriors fhe fires with animated founds; Nothing can be more artfully managed than this stanza, nor can any thing be more striking and poetical than the beautiful perfonifications here introduced. To talk of the flatnefs in the beginning of this ftanza, is as if a learner in the mathematics fhould cenfure the drynefs of a theorem, because he does not immediately perceive that fertility and abundance, which spring up from it on profound cultivation. Though our poet be as fublime as Pindar, yet he is infinitely more regular and philofophic: and it was here his purpose to prove that the legitimate use of music is to temper the paffions, in fupport of reafon. In the two first lines therefore, this ufeful propofition pofition is delivered, as fuch always should be, whether in poetry or profe, with great fimplicity. But the proof of it, in the various inftances of its truth, he delivers in all the fublime of poetic thought and expreffion. But our critic's cenfure of the following numbers, which conclude the fifth ftanza, appears to be better founded. :. "Thus fong could prevail "O'er death, and o'er hell, "A conqueft how hard and how glorious! "Tho' fate had faft bound her "With Styx nine times round her, "Yet mufic and love were victorious." Though in this place a fong of triumph must be allowed to be well placed; by ill luck, hevertheless, the measure has been employed in drinking-fongs, which added to the story, which has been as commonly the fubject of those fongs, throws an air of ridicule on what the poet intended to be ferious; and makes thefe numbers, as the critic obferves, of fo burlesque and ridiculous a kind, that one is concerned to find them in a serious ode, and in an ode of a writer eminently fkilled, in general, in accommodating his founds to his fentiments. He might have extended his cenfure likewife to the following lines, where the poet defcribes the grief and defpair of the lover, who loft his Eurydice by looking back. & Now "Now under hanging mountains, "Unheard, unknown, A reader of nice ear, will readily perceive that the measure, in these lines, is much too fprightly for the fentiment. The too frequent returns of rhyme, are highly improper for any fevere or ferious paffion: the difference between the fubject and the modulation is very fenfibly felt *. The effayift, however, candidly admits that the fupplicating fong at the beginning of the fifth Atanza is highly pathetic and poetical. By the ftreams that ever flow, * See Elements of Criticism, "By By the heroes armed fhades, "Glitt'ring through the gloomy glades ; By the youths that dy'd for love, "Wand'ring in the myrtle grove, "Reftore, reftore Eurydice to life: "Oh take the husband, or return the wife!" Thefe images he obferves are picturesque and appropriated, and the notes are fuch as might-- "Draw iron tears from Pluto's cheek, "And make hell grant what love did feek. †” Our bard, likewife, compofed two chorufes in the lyric ftrain, at the defire of the Duke of Buckingham, to embellish a very bad play which grace had altered from Shakespeare. They had, as the editor obferves, the ufual effects of his + Thefe lines, which the critic has taken from Milton's Il Penferofo, are not accurately tranfcribed. Milton has said more properly, "down Pluto's check," It may be obferved, however, that the auxiliary verb did, in the fecond line, is extremely inelegant and unpoetical. I am very far, however, from the prefumption of making this remark with the petulant defign of carping at the writings of this immortal bard. But though the fplendid beauties may more than atone for the blemishes and inequalities of a great genius, yet they ought not to pass unnoticed, left the reverence which is paid to their authority, fhould mislead the public talte and judgment, and incline the hafty and injudicious, not only to admire, but to imitate imperfections. 9 ill adjusted ornaments, only ferving to make the meanness of the fubject more confpicuous. Nevertheless, they were fet to mufick many years afterwards by the famous Bononcini, and performed at Buckingham-house. Thefe lyric pieces alone, are fufficient to prove Mr. POPE's abilities for this fpecies of poetry, and it is to be lamented that he did not profecute his purpose of executing fome plans of this nature, which he had chalked out. But the characters of the managers of the play-houses at that time, determined him, as he said, to lay afide all thoughts of that kind. Other confiderations likewife probably co-operated to render him averfe from having any thing to do with the stage. He remembered that Pliny, or fome other antient author, had delivered down to us this extraordinary particular, concerning the conftruction of Pompey's magnificent theatre; that the feats of it were so contrived, as to ferve at the fame time for fteps to the entrance of the Temple of Venus, which he had joined to his theatre. The moral poet could not but speculate on a circumstance, where the λoyos and the pufos of the ftory were as clofely united as the two edifices. Among other beauties in the lyric pieces under confideration, there is fomething very bold and masterly in the following lines, where, defcribing the effects of the arts in Britain, he fays "See Arts her favage fons controul, "Till fome new Tyrant lifts his purple hand, "And civil madnefs tears them from the land." |