Rife! Mufes rife! add all your tuneful breath,
These must not fleep in darkness and in death. 371
She said in air the trembling music floats,
And on the winds triumphant fwell the notes:
So foft, tho' high, fo loud, and yet so clear,
Ev'n lift'ning Angels lean'd from heav'n to hear:
To fartheft fhores th' Ambrofial spirit flies,
Sweet to the world, and grateful to the skies.
Next these a youthful train their vows exprefs'd,
With feathers crown'd, with gay embroid'ry drefs'd;
Hither,

376

NOTES.

VER. 378. Next these a youthful train] Strokes of pleasantry and humour, and satirical reflections on the foibles of common life, are furely too familiar, and unfuited to fo grave and majestic a poem as this hitherto has appeared to be. Such incongruities offend propriety; though I know ingenious perfons have endeavoured to excuse them, by saying that they add a variety of imagery to the piece. This practice is even defended by a paffage in Horace :

"Et fermone opus eft modo trifti, fæpe jocofo,

Defendente vicem modo rhetoris atque poetæ,
Interdum urbani, parcentis viribus, atque
Extenuantis eas confulto."

But this judicious remark is, I apprehend, confined to ethic and preceptive kinds of writing, which ftand in need of being enlivened with lighter images and sportive thoughts, and where ftrictures on common life may more gracefully be inserted. But, in the higher kinds of poefy, they appear as unnatural and out of place, as one of the burlesque scenes of Heemskirk would do in a folemn landscape of Pouffin. When I fee fuch a line as,

"And at each blaft a Lady's honour dies,"

in the Temple of Fame, I lament as much to find it placed there,

as

Hither, they cry'd, direct your eyes, and fee 380
The men of pleasure, dress, and gallantry;

Ours is the place at banquets, balls, and plays,
Sprightly our nights, polite are all our days;
Courts we frequent, where 'tis our pleasing care
To pay due vifits, and address the fair:

385

In fact, 'tis true, no nymph we could perfuade,
But ftill in fancy vanquifh'd ev'ry maid;
Of unknown Ducheffes leud tales we tell,
Yet, would the world believe us, all were well.
The joy let others have, and we the name,
And what we want in pleasure, grant in fame.

399

The

NOTES.

as to fee fhops, and sheds, and cottages, erected among the ruins of Dioclefian's baths.

On the revival of literature, the firft writers feemed not to have obferved any selection in their thoughts and images. Dante, Petrarch, Boccace, Ariofto, make very fudden tranfitions from the fublime to the ridiculous. Chaucer, in his Temple of Mars, amongst many pathetic pictures, has brought in a ftrange line: "The coke is fcalded for all his long ladell."

Ver. 417.

No writer has more religiously observed the decorum here recom mended than Virgil.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 378. Next thefe a youthful train, &c.] The reader might thefe twenty-eight lines following, which contain the fame matter, with eighty-four of Chaucer, beginning thus:

compare

"Tho came the fixth companye,

"And gan fafte to Fame cry," etc.

being too prolix to be here inferted.

P.

The Queen affents, the trumpet rends the skies, And at each blast a Lady's honour dies.

Pleas'd with the strange fuccefs, vaft numbers prest Around the fhrine, and made the fame requeft: 395 What you (the cry'd) unlearn'd in arts to please, Slaves to yourselves, and ev'n fatigu'd with ease, Who lose a length of undeferving days, Would you ufurp the lover's dear-bought praife? To just contempt, ye vain pretenders, fall, The people's fable, and the scorn of all.

400

Straight the black clarion fends a horrid found,
Loud laughs burft out, and bitter fcoffs fly round,
Whispers are heard, with taunts reviling loud,
And fcornful hiffes run through all the croud. 405
Laft, those who boaft of mighty mifchiefs done,
Enflave their country, or ufurp a throne;
Or who their glory's dire foundation laid
On Sov'reigns ruin'd, or on friends betray'd;
Calm, thinking villains, whom no faith could fix,
Of crooked counfels and dark politics;.

Of these a gloomy tribe furround the throne,
And beg to make th' immortal treasons known.
The trumpet roars, long flaky flames expire,
With fparks, that feem'd to fet the world on fire.

411

IMITATIONS.

VER. 406. Laft, those who boast of mighty, &c.]

"Tho came another companye

"That had y done the treachery," etc.

At

P.

At the dread found, pale mortals stood aghaft,
And ftartled nature trembled with the blast.

This having heard and seen, some pow'r unknown Straight chang'd the scene, and fnatch'd me from the throne.

Before my view appear'd a structure fair,
Its fite uncertain, if in earth or air;

With rapid motion turn'd the manfion round;
With ceaseless noife the ringing walls refound;

420

IMITATIONS.

Not

VER. 418. This having heard and feen, &c.] The fcene here changes from the Temple of Fame to that of Rumour, which is almost entirely Chaucer's. The particulars follow:

"Tho faw I ftonde in a valey,
"Under the castle fast by
"A house, that Domus Dedali
"That Labyrinthus cleped is,
"Nas made fo wonderly, I wis,
"Ne half fo queintly y-wrought;
"And evermo as fwift as thought,
"This queint house about went,
"That never more it ftill ftent-
"And eke this house hath of entrees
"As many as leaves are on trees

"In fummer, when they ben grene;

"And in the roof yet men may
fene
"A thousand hoels and well mo,
"To letten the foune out go;
"And by day in every tide
"Ben all the doors open wide,
"And by night each one unfhet;
"No porter is there one to let,
"No manner tydings in to pace:
"Ne never reft is in that place."

P.

Not lefs in number were the spacious doors,

Than leaves on trees, or fands upon the fhores; 425 Which still unfolded ftand, by night, by day,

Pervious to winds, and open ev'ry way.

As flames by nature to the skies ascend,

As weighty bodies to the centre tend,

As to the fea returning rivers roll,

430

And the touch'd needle trembles to the pole;

Hither, as to their proper place, arise

All various founds from earth, and feas, and skies,

Or fpoke aloud, or whisper'd in the ear;

Nor ever filence, reft, or peace is here.

435

As on the smooth expanse of crystal lakes

The finking ftone at firft a circle makes ;

The trembling furface by the motion stirr'd,
Spreads in a fecond circle, then a third;

439

Wide, and more wide, the floating rings advance,
Fill all the wat❜ry plain, and to the margin dance:
Thus ev'ry voice and found, when first they break,
On neighb'ring air a foft impreffion make;
Another ambient circle then they move;
That, in its turn, impels the next above;
Through undulating air the founds are fent,

And spread o'er all the fluid element.

445

There

IMITATIONS.

VER. 428. As flames by nature to the, &c.] This thought is transferr'd hither out of the third book of Fame, where it takes up no less than one hundred and twenty verfes, beginning thus:

"Geffrey, thou wotteft well this," etc.

P.