IT has been fashionable of late to imitate Spenfer, but the likeness of most of these copies, hath confifted rather in using a few of his ancient expreffions, than in catching his real manner. Some however have been executed with happiness, and with attention to that fimplicity, that tenderness of fentiment, and thofe little touches of nature, that constitute Spenfer's character. I have a peculiar pleasure in mentioning two of them *, The SCHOOL-MISTRESS, by Mr. Shenstone, and the EDUCATION OF ACHILLES, by Mr. Bedingfield †. Το these must be added that exquifite piece of wild and romantic imagery, Thomson's Caftle of Indolence; the firft canto of which in particular, is marvellously pleasing, and the stanzas have a greater flow and freedom than his blank-verse.

Dodfley's Miscellanies, Vol. I. pag. 247, and Vol. III.

pag. 119.

† And alfo Dr. Beattie's charming Minstrel,

D3

POPE

POPE has imitated WALLER in the third place, and has done it with elegance, especially in the verses on a fan of his own defign, for he defigned with dexterity and taste. The application of the ftory of Cephalus and Procris is as ingenious as Waller's Phobus and Daphnc. Waller

abounds, perhaps to excefs, in allufions to mythology and the ancient claffics. The French, as may be imagined, complain that he is too learned for the ladies. The following twelve lines contain three allusions, delicate indeed, but fome may deem them to be too far-fetched, too much crouded, and not obvious to the Lady to whom they were addreffed, on her finging a song of his compofing.

Chloris, yourself you fo excell,

When you vouchfafe to breathe my thought,
That like a spirit with this spell

Of my own teaching I am caught.

* Speaking of his imitations, PoPE faid to Mr. Spence, "I had once a design of giving a tafte of all the Greek poets; I would have tranflated a hymn of Homer, an ode of Pindar, an idyllium of Theocritus, &c. fo that I would have exhibited a general view of their poefie, throughout its different ages."

That

Here

That eagle's fate and mine are one,

Which on the shaft that made him die,
Efpy'd a feather of his own

Wherewith he wont to foar fo high.
Had Echo with so sweet a grace,
Narciffus' loud complaints return'd,
Not for reflexion of his face,

But of his voice, the boy had burn'd.

is matter enough compreffed together for Voiture to have spun out into fifty lines. If I was to name my favourite among Waller's smaller pieces, it should be his apology for having loved before. He begins by saying that " they who never had been used to the surprising juice of the grape, render up their reafon to the first delicious cup" this is fufficiently gallant, but what he adds has much of the fublime, and is like a thought of Milton's.

To man that was i' th' evening made,

Stars gave the first delight;
Admiring in the gloomy shade,

Those little drops of light.

Spenfer and Waller were POPE's great favourites, as he told Mr. Spence, in the order they are named, in his

early reading.

D 4

Then

Then at Aurora, whose fair hand
Remov'd them from the skies,

He gazing tow'rds the Eaft did ftand,
She entertain'd his eyes.

But when the bright sun did appear,
All those he 'gan defpife;
His wonder was determin'd there,
And could no higher rise,

Which of the French writers has produced any thing at once fo galiant and fo lofty? The English verfification was much fmoothed by Waller; who used to own that he derived the harmony of his numbers from Fairfax's Taffo, who wellvowelled his lines, though Sandys was a melodious verfifier, and Spenfer has perhaps more variety of mufic than either of them *. A poet who addreffes his pieces to living characters, and confines himself to the subjects and anecdotes of his own times, like this courtly author, bids fairer to become popular, than he that is em

*

"Even little poems, faid POPE, fhould be written by a plan. This method is evident in Tibullus, and Ovid's elegies, and almost all the pieces of the ancients. A poem on a flight subject requires the greater care to make it confiderable enough to be read."

ployed

ployed in the higher fcenes of poetry and fiction, which are more remote from comIt may be remarked lastly

mon manners.

of Waller, that there is no paffion in his love verses, and that one elegy of Tibullus, fo well imitated by Hammond, excels a volume of the moft refined panegyric,

THE next imitation is of COWLEY, in two pieces, on a garden, and on weeping, in which POPE has properly enough, in conformity to his original, extorted fome moral, or darted forth fome witticifm on every object he mentions: It is not enough to say that the laurels fheltered the fountain from the heat of the day, but this idea must be accompanied with a conceit.

Daphne, now a tree, as once a maid,

Still from Apollo vindicates her shade.

The flowers that grow on the water-fide could not be sufficiently described without faying, that

The pale Narciffus on the bank, in vain,
Transformed, gazes on himself again.