Thefe thoughts are pretty: they fuit Pope, but not Eloifa. Satan, enraged by a threatening of the angel Gabriel, anfwer thus: Then when I am thy captive talk of chains, The concluding epithet forms a grand and delightful image, which cannot be the genuine offspring of rage. Fourth. Sentiments too artificial for a ferious paffion. I give for the first example a speech of Piercy expiring: O, Harry, thou haft robb'd me of my growth: I better brook the lofs of brittle life, Than thofe proud titles thou haft won of me; They wound my thoughts, worse than thy fword my fieth. But thought's the flave of life, and life time's fool; Must have a top. First part, Henry IV. a&i 5. fc. 9. Livy inferts the following paffage in a plaintive oration of the Locrenfes, accufing Pleminius the Roman legate of oppreffion. In hoc legato veftro, nec hominis quicquam eft, Patres Confcripti, præter figuram et fpeciein; neque Ro mani civis, præter habitum veftitumque, et forum linguæ Latine. Peitis et bellua immanis, quales fretum, quon dam, quo ab Sicilia dividimur, ad perniciem navigantium circumfediffe, fabulæ ferunt.* The fentiments of the Mourning Bride are for the most part no lefs delicate than juft copies of nature; in the following exception the picture is beautiful, but too artful to be fuggefted by fevere grief. Almeria. O no! Time gives increase to my afflictions. The fighs, the tears, the groans, the reftlefs cares, La 1. fc. T. In the fame play, Almeria feeing a dead body, which fhe took to be Alphonfo's, expreffes fentiments ftrained and artificial, which nature fuggefts not to any perfon upon fuch an occafion : Had they, or hearts, or eyes, that did this deed? I do not weep! The fprings of tears are dry'd? All things were well; and yet my husband's murder'd! Yes, yes, I know to mourn: I'll fluice this heart, The fource of wo, and let the torrent loose. Lady Trueman. How could you be fo cruel to defer giving me that joy which you knew I must receive from your prefence? You have robb'd my life of fome hours of happinefs that ought to have been in it. Drummer, a 5. Pope's Elegy to the memory of an unfortunate lady, expreffes delicately the moft tender concern and forrow that one can feel for the deplorable fate of a perfon of worth. Such a poem, deeply ferious and pathetic, rejects with difdain all fiction. Upon that account, the following paffage deferves no quarter; for it is not the language of the heart, but of the imagination, indulging its flights at eafe; and by that means is eminently difcordant with the fubject. It would be a ftill more fevere cenfure, if it fhould be afcribed to imitation, copying indifcreetly what has been faid by others : What though no weeping loves thy afhes grace, Fifth. Fanciful or finical fentiments. Sentiments that degenerate into point or conceit, however they may amufe in an idle hour, can never be the offspring of any ferious or important paflion. In the Jerufalem of Taffo, Tancred, after a fingle combat, fpent with fatigue and lois of blood, falls into a fwoon; in which fituation, understood to be dead, he is difcoverd covered by Erminia, who was in love with him to dif traction. A more happy fituation cannot be imagined, to raise grief in an instant to its height; and yet, in venting her forrow, fhe defcends moft abominably into antithefis and conceit, even of the loweft kind: E in lui versò d'inefficabil vena Canto 19. ft. 105. Armida's lamentation refpecting her lover Rinaldo,* is in the fame vicious taste. Queen. Give me no help in lamentation, King Richard, III. aðt 2. fc. 2. Jane Shore. Let me be branded for the public fcorn, Turn'd forth, and driven to wander like a vagabond, Be friendlefs and forfaken, feck my bread. Upon the barren wild, and defolate wafte, Feed on my fighs, and drink my falling tears; Ere I content to teach my lips injuftice, Or wrong the Orphan who has none to fave him. Jane Share, at 4. Give me your drops, ye foft-defcending rains, VOL. I.. * Canto 20, flan, 124, 125. & 126, That That my fad eyes may ftill fupply my duty, Jane Shore, alt 5. Jane Shore utters her last breath in a witty conceit. Then all is well, and I fhrall fleep in peace- Nothing but one fad figh. Oh mercy, Heav'n! [Dies. Aa 5. Guilford to Lady Jane Gray, when both were condemned to die: "Thou ftand't unmov'd; Calm temper fits upon thy beauteous brow; Lady Jane Gray, alt 4. near the end. The concluding fentiment is altogether finical, unfuitable to the importance of the occafion, and even to the dignity of the paffion of love. Corneille in his Examen of the Cid,* anfwering an objection, That his fentiments are fometimes too much refined for perfons in deep diftrefs, obferves, that if poets did, not indulge fentiments more ingenious or refined than are prompted by paffion, their performances would often be low, and extreme grief would never fuggeft but exclamations merely. This is in plain language to affert, that forced thoughts are more agreeable than thofe that are natural, and ought to be preferred. Page 316.. The |