perhaps any nation, ever faw; and like them Search the feriptures, at leaft for furnishing their minds with interefting images and expreffions. SPENCER is full of beauties of this kind and I could eafily fhew in many places of Milton, how finely he has enriched his verses with fcriptural thoughts, even where he seems moft closely to have copied Virgil or Homer. For example, B. I, 84. : If thou beeft heBut o how fallen! how changed. Cloth'd with tranfcendent brightness, didft outfhine Tho' this seems closely followed from Virgil, Aen. II. 274. Hei mihi qualis erat, quantum mutatus ab illo Hectore, qui, &c. Yet what additional beauty does it receive from Isaiah xiv, 12. How art thou fallen from heaven, o Lucifer, fon of the morning! &c. Neither the mythological account of Pallas being born from the brain of Jupiter, nor the poetical description of Error by Spencer in his Fairy Queen, would have been fufficient authority for our divine poet's episode in his fecond book of SIN and DEATH: had not scripture told us, James i, 14. Then when LUST hath conceived, it bringeth forth SIN; and SIN when it is finished, bringeth forth DEATH. In B. IV, 996, &c. Tho' it is plain the poet had strongly in his mind the golden fcales of Jupiter, mentioned both by Homer and Virgil; yet he is entirely governed by scripture; for Satan only is weighed, viz. his parting and his fight, Dan. v, 27. TEKEL, THOU art weigh'd in the balances, and art found wanting. And before, . 998. His ftature reach'd the fky. Our poet has better authorities to follow than Homer's defcription of Difcord, Il. IV, 440. and Virgil's of Fame, IV, 177. For fo the deftroying angel is described in the Wisdom of Solomon. xviii, 16. It touched the heaven, but it flood upon the earth. In B. V, 254. The gate felf open'd wide On golden hinges turning. So again, B. VII, 205. This has its fanction more from Pf. xxiv, 7. than from Hom. N. é. 749. Autópálar dè πύλαι μύκον ἐρανδ. In B. XII, 370. He fall afcend The throne hereditary, and bound his reign With earth's wide bounds, his glory with the heav'ns ! Virgil fays Aen. I, 291. Imperium oceano famam qui terminat aftris. But the prophets ought rather here to be cited. Pfal. ii, 8. Ifai. ix, 7. Zech, ix, 9. And this account I have here given of Milton will ferve to determine the meaning of some seeming doubtful paffages. For example. B. III, .383. "Thee next they fung of all creation first, Begotten Son." First of all creation, i. e. before all worlds, begotten not made, according to the Greek idiom: as in John I, 15. reŵrós us is firft of me, i. e. before me. If we follow this pointing the meaning must be as here explained. But I would alter the pointing, and read, "Thee next they fung of all creation firft. 86 Begotten fon." In allufion to St. Paul's words. Coloff. i, 15. wúons xlioews And let this hint at prefent fuffice. πάσης κλίσεως Page 243. "SHAKESPEARE wrote, "Young "ADAM Cupid, &c. The printer, or tran fcriber, gave us this ABRAM, mistaking the d "for br: and thus made a paffage direct nonfenfe, which was understood in SHAKESPEARE'S "time by all his audience."] A letter blotted, or a ftroke of the pen, might easily occafion the corruption.The reader will not be dif pleafed, perhaps, to fee fome paffages cleared up, which from this cause have been corrupted. Let us begin with our old poet Chaucer, whofe tranfcribers have blundered in the Legende of Hypfipyle and Medæa. ་་་ Why lykid me thy yełowe here to fe "More than the boundis of myn honeste ? Why lykid me thy youth and thy fairneffe, "And of thy tongue the' infpnite graciousnesse ?" These verses are tranflated from Ovid; "Cur mihi plus aequo flavi placuere capilli? "Et decor, et linguae gratia FICTA tuae? Can it be doubted then but that Chaucer wrote pfained or ifained, į. e. feigned, diffembled';' th' ifamed gràciousness, GRATIA #ICTA? And that the finite belongs to fome ignorant, or wrong guefling tranfcriber There is another blunder which has exercised the critics; and is thus printed in the late edition. p. 4. in the Prologues of the Canterbury Tales. A coke thei hadde with them for the nones Ddz I would I would read, "And purbeigh Manchet, &c." i. e. They had a cook with them whose business 'twas to boil, &c. and to provide Manchet, &c. In Spencer they have given us them for ft in the following, "Full fiercely laid the Amazon about, "And dealt her blows, &c. "Which Britomart withstood with courage ftout, "And them repaid again with double more." In the Two Noble Kinfinen of Beaumont and Fletcher we have this blunder, 66 Daught. By my troth, I think Fame but stammers them, "Stand A GRIEF above the reach of report." Which fhould thus be corrected, 66 They ftandiA GRISE above the reach of report.", This word is used by Shakespeare in Othello, Act I. And by Phaer in his verfion of Virgil, En. I, 452. The brazen grees afore the dares did mount. Where never footman ftretch'd his butter'd hams. • The fecond hight Tapftro," The The alteration of HIGH into HIGHT, the reader will admit at first fight, I make no doubt of. In Ben Johnson's Volpone, A&t V. Sc. VIII. "Volp. Methinks, "Yet you, that are so traded in the world, "A witty Merchant, the fine bird, Corvino, "That have fuch MORTAL emblems on your name, "Should not have fung your fhame; and dropt your cheese "To let the Foxe laugh at your emptiness." The true reading is MORAL emblemes. —both the Fable, and the Moral are too well known, to want here any explanation. Again, In Catiline, A& III. "When what the Gaul or Moor could not effect, Catiline fays he'll effect that, which Rome's most formidable enemies never could; viz. deftroy it: this fhall be the work of one; and THAT'S MY RIGHT: that I claim as my right and due : Shall bee the work of one; and THAT'S MY RIGHT." This seems to be the true reading. But here is another mistake, which must be laid to the author's charge, who plainly had his eye on Horace, Epod. 16. Quem neque finitimi valuerunt perdere MARSI "Aemula nec virtus Capua. Nec fera Caeruleâ domuit Germania pube, 66 Parentibufque abominatus Hannibal ; "Impia perdemus devoti fanguinis aetas.” |