loose upon Pope, "like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief.” I fhall take the liberty of digreffing a moment to give a striking instance of this. In the celebrated harangue of Othello before the Venetian Senate, he speaks, amongst other particulars, of what he calls his Travel's History,

66

"Of antres vaft, and deferts idle,

Rough quarries, rocks, and hills, whofe heads touch "heav'n."

Pope, in his edition of Shakespeare, for " idle," fubftitutes wilde." Warburton himself could have done no worfe. The epithet idle is truly Shakefperian; but it was beyond the reach of Pope. Milton, indeed, has ufed it with the fame happy boldness in one of his fonnets, in which he mournfully complains that his eyes "their feeing had forgot."

Nor to their idle orbs doth light appear,

Or fun, or moon, or stars, throughout the year,

Or man or woman.

Next to blank verfe and the heroic couplet, the elegiac stanza seems to poffefs the greatest share of importance and popularity: it has a kind of plaintive flow, which renders it peculiarly fuitable to tender and melancholy fubjects. Hammond and Shenstone, and, above all, Gray, have been particularly fuccefsful in this fpecies of Verfification. In the last century this ftanza was very erroneoufly confidered as fuperior in dignity to the heroic couplet; and it was accordingly adopted by Sir William Davenant in his Epic poem of GoN

DIBERT

DIBERT, and by Dryden in his "Annus Mirabilis," and in other compofitions of the fame caft. The Spenferian stanza must be allowed to exhibit a certain air of stateliness, and it is not deficient in force or harmony; but it foon palls upon the ear by its uniformity. There feems to be a fort of analogy, remote and fomewhat fanciful indeed, between the stanza of Spenser and the subject of his poem, fufficient however to prevent our regretting the choice he has made. A kind of stiff, formal, and obfolete magnificence feems to predominate in both. This difficult ftanza has been very happily revived by fome modern writers, particularly by Thomfon in his Castle of Indolence, and by Dr. Beattie in the first book of the Minstrel.

It is rather fingular, that the French heroic couplet, confifting of four anapefts, fhould never be used amongst us but on fubjects of mirth and gaiety, and with the utmost propriety. What can be deemed, for instance, more perfect in its kind than the Verfification of the Bath Guide? but furely no admirer of that exquisite jeu d'efprit will deny that the first couplet of the Henriade

Je chante ce héros qui regna fur la France,

Et par droit de conqûete, et par droit de naiffance. is as little adapted to the majesty of the Epopeia as "But what with my Nivernois hat can compare,

My bag wig, and lac'd ruffles, and black folitaire ?" The regular Pindarics of Gray and Collins are entitled to a very high degree of applause; and notwithstanding

withstanding the feverity of Dr. Johnfon's criticifm, I acknowledge I have read many irregular efforts of the Pindaric muse with great pleasure. Exclufive of Dryden's Immortal Ode, which far tranfcends all praife, the Lycidas of Milton, Lord Lyttleton's Monody, Shaw's Ode to the Nightingale, and many other productions might be mentioned, which fufficiently demonstrate that regularity of metre is not effential to poetic excellence. I cannot pretend to enumerate all the different kinds of Verfification in ufe amongst us. Of thofe which I have not specified, perhaps the Hudibraftic couplet is most valuable, as admirably calculated for burlesque poetry. Prior, in his Alma, has shown himself scarcely inferior to Butler in his dextrous management of it.

According to the plan propofed, I am now to make fome obfervations upon the merit or demerit of our most celebrated poets in point of Verfification; but, on revifing what I have written, I find I have in a great measure anticipated my own intention; and the length of this Effay is already fuch as to make it neceffary to draw to a conclufion. Of the Verfification of Shakespeare I have declared my fentiments at large in a former Effay. Of Milton, Dryden, and Pope, I have taken occasion to speak in the courfe of the prefent. To the last perhaps fome may think I have scarcely done justice. Pope has often been ftiled the best verfifier in the English language. If by the best is only meant

the

the most polished and correct verfifier, I am ready to acquiefce in the panegyric; but if his mode of Verfification is ftiled the beft, as affording the highest degree of delight, I can by no means allow it to be true. In this refpect Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden, all rank much above him. Pope does not fufficiently conceal his art; he wants fimplicity. The flow of his verfe, though very harmonious, is feldom tender or pathetic, and ftill lefs frequently lofty and majestic; in his tranflation of the Iliad, however, he rifes to very fublime heights. It is a wonderful performance, far fuperior, no doubt, to the Eneid of Dryden, or probably to any other tranflation that ever appeared in the world. I have in my poffeffion, and I preserve it as a curiofity, the vile doggrel translation of Hobbes. For the amufement of those who may not have met with it, I fhall transcribe a few parallel paffages from both, that the pleasure of contraft may be enjoyed in perfection, and that the reader may contemplate at once the extremes of poetic elegance and meannefs.

ΒΚΙ. Ως ἔφατ' υχόμενος το δ ̓ ἐκλυε Φοῖβος Απόλλων, &c.

His * prayer was granted by the Deity,
Who with his filver bow and arrows keen
Defcended from Olympus filently

In likeness of the fable night unseen.
His bow and quiver both behind him hang;
The arrows chink as often as he jogs,

And as he fhot, the bow was heard to twang, &c.

Thus Chryfes pray'd; the favouring pow'r attends,
And from Olympus' lofty tops defcends.

Bent was his bow the Grecian hearts to wound;
Fierce as he mov'd, his filver fhafts refound,
Breathing revenge; a sudden night he spread,
And gloomy darkness roll'd around his head.
The fleet in view, he twang'd his deadly bow, &c.

Id. Πατροκλος δε φίλω επεπειθεθ' εταίρω, &c. &c.
This faid, Patroclus led Brifeis forth,

And to Atrides' meffengers her gave.

POPE.

She with them went, tho' much against her heart.
Achilles from his friends went off and pray'd,
And fitting with his face to th' sea apart,
Weeping unto his mother, Thetis faid, &c.

HOBBES.

Patroclus now th' unwilling beauty brought;
She in foft forrows and in pensive thought
Paft filent as the heralds held her hand,

And oft look'd back, flow moving o'er the ftrand.
Not fo his lofs the fierce Achilles bore,

But fad, retiring to the founding shore,
O'er the wild margin of the deep he hung,

That kindred deep from whence his mother sprung;
There bath'd in tears of anger and disdain,

Thus loud lamented to the ftormy main.

POPE.

Id. Ημος δ' ηελιος κατεδν, και επι κνεφας ηλθε, &c. &c.
But when the fun had borne away his light,

Upon the fands they laid them down to fleep;
And when again Aurora came in fight,

Again they launch their ship into the deep.
A good fore-wind Apollo with them sent;

HOBBES.

Then with her breast the ship the water tore,
Which by her down on both fides roaring went,
And foon arrived at the Trojan fhore.
'Twas night; the chiefs beside their vessel lie,
Till rofy morn had purpled o'er the sky;

Then