Upon a spacious field, In long review before their general pass; How terrible their strength, their looks how mild ! What fatal arms each glorious warrior wears! How keen their swords! how long and bright their spears! How dreadful was their deep unmeasurable rear! The blest were thus employed. These scenes were seen Mr. Southey justly remarks, that the Queen, who had never seen any review previously, but that of her own troops at Tilbury, must have been much dazzled by this celestial infantry. I must needs extract a few more passages treated with our bard's usual originality of expression in the same poem. The Queen gives an entertainment to the ambassadors of Spain: "They were regal'd with vast magnificence, Which by the intendant in long order placed, With all this rich repast before them, it is no wonder that the ambassadors are described, as sitting late and unwilling to move. In the meanwhile, the angel Gabriel returns to heaven, and describes the situation of things in England : "He ceas'd,-the bless'd Redeemer did reply, Let not the Queen on Roman faith rely; Will Spain from her inveterate hate recede ? Gabriel finds the Queen at prayers in her closet, when on his arrival a per fume arose, "Such as are breath'd from high celestial bowers, He delivers his message, and departs gracefully. We must now select a few shorter passages, or even single lines, for approbation : "Noble Hernandes, of undaunted heart, A man of honour, and in arms expert ; * Lose his left eye, but gain'd a mighty name." The gained a mighty name,' is a fine stroke of genius; our pity is first moved, and then is absorbed in admiration; while the activity of our imagination is vibrating between the loss of the eye,' and the 'gain of the mighty name.' The General of the Army (Vere) is described as sitting on a horse, which "Did neither wholly go, nor wholly stand." "Now were they pleas'd to bring a Queen from France, After her victory over the Spaniards, the Queen returns thanks at St. Paul's, and the Archbishop preaches,— "Then Albion's famous Metropolitan, A very steady, prudent, heavenly man, After the sermon,— "Augusta's youth remaining day employ In various demonstrations of their joy; Do the strong influence of the Moon unbind," &c. They return to dinner, after which the poet Spenser repeats Milton's Paradise Lost: "Angels and arms he sang, celestial fight, And dire commotion in the realms of light; Satan, in the meanwhile, who is staying at Cowes in the Isle of Wight, siding with the defeated Spaniards, conceives a design of destroying his great enemy Vere,' by disguising himself as a physician, or leech; instead of a spear (which was grown too common) "He held a phial up, and cried aloud,— This Rome restores, this sets Europa free." Satan, however, finds his match; for he makes a boast of what he would do, and uses such violent ungentlemanlike language, that he is taken up as a lunatic, and so treated. Satan by his look betrayed, The symptoms of a craz'd and ruin'd head; His dangerous speech the Britons could not bear, But wanted skill this lunatic to tame; He kept him dark, and shav'd his head in vain, In the next battle, the Spaniards who had been defeated by arms, put their trust in charms and amulets. "In silken bags their bodies to defend ; One had Ambrosius' tooth, of wondrous power, On the English side came in vision : "Cranmer to England and to Edward dear, This martyr's crown did dazzling beams display, A crown of light condens'd, and solid ponderous day." The Spaniards put their chief trust in Don Gusman,— "He did his vast gigantic shoulders rear Above the host, and tow'ring in the air, But notwithstanding his bulk, he is pierced through the loins by Vere, "And roaring out in pain, back to his army flew. So when an elephant in Asia bred, Does at a shouting Indian army's head, At this point with propriety the epic poem of Eliza closes. We now turn to the no less celebrated one of Prince Arthur;' but we can only afford room for the smaller flowers of poesy, such as are shut up in the calyx of a couplet. With the general plan of this Epic, doubtless every reader is well acquainted. The following couplet owes its sublimity to the obscure and unbounded: "Did I once shrink, when showers of poison'd darts, * We have this again : "Like an Egyptian obelisk he look'd, Or as a lofty brazen pillar stood." The third book thus commences, "Up rise the princes, and were soon prepar'd To take their way, attended with their guard, . Then we meet with a very bold and striking image, which Longinus would have admired and Eschylus envied, Long sad Britannia groan'd beneath the weight Of foreign lords, and mourn'd her servile state; She gather'd hope and courage from despair." The following couplet, opening the 9th book, is pretty and new: "The springing morn now made a mild essay, With purple beams to introduce the day." In the most sublime passages the poet throws in a reflection that tells wonderfully. Speaking of a Coritanian chief, who came from Repandunum (near Dovedale), He rose Like a rous'd lion from his long repose, Arm'd and equipp'd with great magnificence, He mounts his horse-bought at a vast expense." Satan, who has recovered from his insanity in the last Epic, has managed to get into this, and is at his old tricks again; he is described "As when a toad squat in a garden spies The gardener passing by, his bloodshot eyes, In the 10th book we have a chariot race: "Scarce could the grooms and charioteers command The sprightly race, who with a gentle hand Stroking their backs, their fiery spirit sooth'd, And then their manes with combs and sponges smooth'd." A hero's wound is thus healed; the accuracy of the language showing the poet's service to Esculapius : "Gave him a sovereign drug extended o'er Which, ripen'd by the healing mixture, broke, * The Princess muttering faintly-Furies! Hell! Candles are beautifully described, yet without debasing the lines by a common and vulgar phraseology: "In urns the bees' delicious dews he layd, A due distinction is preserved between animate and inanimate matter: Lastly, a foreign word is naturalized, and beautifully introduced; the poet is speaking of the particles of matter forming the earth: "And rendezvousing with an adverse course, Produce an equal poise, with equal force." It is well known to all readers of Pope, that Martinus Scriblerus, when he wrote on the art of Poetry, selected numerous examples from the Poems of Blackmore, as being a poet of the greatest weight and authority. We will finish our specimen by a few. Hear,' says the critic, 'how the most sublime of beings is represented in the following characters. First, he is a chemist, then a recruiting officer, then an attorney, as "Job, as a vile offender, God indites, And terrible decrees against him writes." Then a Mercer or Packer: "Didst thou one end of Air's wide curtain hold, Then a Butler: "He measures all the drops with wondrous skill, Next a Baker : "God in the wilderness his table spread, And in his airy ovens bak'd their bread." Presently we meet with a race between the woods and hills : A mutiny is thus described: 66 Upon the shore, as frequent as the sand, To meet the Prince, the glad Dimetians stand." Quere? where these Dimetians stood? and of what size they were? "All nature felt a reverential shock, "Fresh troops of pains, and regimented woes." And now we must bid farewell to our favourite Poet; not, however, without hopes that we have, by the select yet numerous quotations we have given, produced an impression on our readers most favourable to the reputation of Sir R. Blackmore. His principal merits seem to consist in a novelty that amazes, a sublimity that strikes, and an ingenuity that dazzles and takes our judgment prisoner. If he has not quite attained the majestic energy of Milton, or the fancy and elegant invention of Spenser, yet it must be confessed that he has many original beauties,-beauties entirely his own; and it may lastly be observed, that since his time, no London physician has published poems of such length or eminence. To have thus surpassed his numerous competitors for fame, is an undeniable proof of superior excellence. B-ll. 7 J. M. |