15

In air self-balanc'd hung the globe below,
Where mountains rise, and circling oceans flow;
Here naked rocks and empty wastes were seen,
There tow'ry cities, and the forests green,
Here sailing ships delight the wand'ring eyes;
There trees and intermingled temples rise :
Now a clear sun the shining scene displays,
The transient landscape now in clouds decays. 20
O'er the wide prospect as I gaz'd around,
Sudden I heard a wild promiscuous sound,
Like broken thunders that at distance roar,
Or billows murm'ring on the hollow shore:
Then gazing up, a glorious pile beheld,

Whose tow'ring summit ambient clouds conceal'd.
High on a rock of ice the structure lay,
Steep its ascent, and slipp'ry was the way;

25

NOTES.

Ver. 27. High on a rock] Milton, in his poem on the Fifth of November, (Works, vol. ii. p. 506. v. 170.) has introduced a description of the Temple or Tower of Fame, copied from the 12th book of Ovid's Metamorphosis, v. 39, and from this vision of Chaucer, with the addition of many circumstances and images.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 11. &c.] These verses are hinted from the following of Chaucer, book ii.

"Tho' beheld I fields and plains,

Now hills, and now mountains,

Now valeis, and now forestes,

And now unneth great bestes,
Now rivers, now citees,
Now towns, now great trees,

Now shippes sayling in the sees."

P.

The wond'rous rock like Parian marble shone,
And seem'd, to distant sight, of solid stone.
Inscriptions here of various names I view'd,
The greater part by hostile time subdu'd;
Yet wide was spread their fame in ages past,
And Poets once had promis'd they should last,
Some fresh engrav'd appear'd of Wits renown'd;
I look'd again, nor could their trace be found.
Critics I saw, that other names deface,
And fix their own, with labour, in their place :

30

36

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 27. High on a rock of ice, &c.] Chaucer's third book of Fame.

"It stood upon so high a rock,
Higher standeth none in Spayne-
What manner stone this rock was,
For it was like a lymed glass,
But that it shone full more clere ;
But of what congeled matere
It was, I niste redily;

But at the last espied I,

And found that it was every dele,
A rock of ise and not of stele."

Ver. 31. Inscriptions here, &c.]

"Tho' saw I all the hilly-grave
With famous folkes names fele,
That had been in much wele
And her fames wide y-blow;
But well unneth might I know
Any letters for to rede

Their names by, for out of drede
They weren almost off-thawen so,
That of the letters one or two
Were molte away of every name,
So unfamous was woxe her fame;
But men said, what may ever last."

P.

Their own, like others, soon their place resign'd,
Or disappear'd, and left the first behind.
Nor was the work impair'd by storms alone,
But felt th' approaches of too warm a sun;
For Fame, impatient of extremes, decays
Not more by Envy than excess of Praise.
Yet part no injuries of heav'n could feel,
Like crystal faithful to the graving steel:

NOTES.

40

45

Ver. 41. Nor was the work impair'd] Does not this use of the heat of the sun appear to be puerile and far-fetched conceit? What connexion is there betwixt the two sorts of excesses here mentioned? My purpose in animadverting so frequently as I have done on this species of false thoughts, is to guard the reader, especially of the younger sort, from being betrayed by the authority of so correct a writer as Pope into such specious and false refinements of style. For the same reason the oppo

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 41. Nor was the work impair'd, &c.]

"Tho' gan I in myne harte cast,
That they were molte away for heate,
And not away with storms beate."

Ver. 45. Yet part no injuries, &c.]

"For on that other side I sey
Of that hill which northward ley,
How it was written full of names
Of folke, that had afore great fames,
Of old time, and yet they were

As fresh as men had written hem there

The self day, or that houre

That I on hem gan to poure:
But well I wiste what it made;
It was conserved with the shade.
(All the writing that I sye)
Of the castle that stoode on high,
And stood eke in so cold a place,
That heate might it not deface."

P.

49

The rock's high summit, in the temple's shade,
Nor heat could melt, nor beating storm invade.
Their names inscrib'd unnumber'd ages past
From time's first birth, with time itself shall last;
These ever new, nor subject to decays,
Spread, and grow brighter with the length of days.
So Zembla's rocks (the beauteous work of frost)
Rise white in air, and glitter o'er the coast;
Pale suns, unfelt, at distance roll away,
And on th' impassive ice the lightnings play;
Eternal snows the growing mass supply,

Till the bright mountains prop th' incumbent sky:
As Atlas fix'd each hoary pile appears.
The gather'd winter of a thousand years.
On this foundation Fame's high temple stands;
Stupendous pile! not rear'd by mortal hands.
Whate'er proud Rome or artful Greece beheld,
Or elder Babylon, its frame excell❜d.
Four faces had the dome, and ev'ry face
Of various structure, but of equal grace :

NOTES.

55

60

65

sition of ideas, in the three last words of the following line, may be condemned:

"And legislators seem to think in stone."

Ver. 53. So Zembla's rocks] A real lover of painting will not be contented with a single view and examination of this beautiful winter-piece; but will return to it again and again with fresh delight. The images are distinct, and the epithets lively and appropriated, especially the words, pale, unfelt, impassive, incumbent, gather'd. The reader may consult Thomson's Winter, v. 905.

Ver. 65. Four faces had the dome, &c.] The temple is described to be square, the four fronts with open gates facing the different quarters of the world, as an intimation that all nations of the

Four brazen gates, on columns lifted high,
Salute the diff'rent quarters of the sky.
Here fabled Chiefs in darker ages born,

Or Worthies old, whom arms or arts adorn,

Who cities rais'd, or tam'd a monstrous race;
The walls in venerable order grace.

Heroes in animated marble frown,

And Legislators seem to think in stone.

70

Westward, a sumptuous frontispiece appear'd, 75 On Doric pillars of white marble rear'd, Crown'd with an architrave of antique mould, And sculpture rising on the roughen'd gold. In shaggy spoils here Theseus was beheld, And Perseus dreadful with Minerva's shield: There great Alcides stooping with his toil, Rests on his club, and holds th' Hesperian spoil.

NOTES.

80

earth may alike be received into it. The western front is of Grecian architecture: the Doric order was peculiarly sacred to Heroes and Worthies. Those whose statues are after mentioned, were the first names of old Greece in arms and arts. P.

Ver. 81. There great Alcides, &c.] This figure of Hercules is drawn with an eye to the position of the famous statue of Farnese. P.

It were to be wished, that our author, whose knowledge and taste of the fine arts were unquestionable, had taken more pains in describing so famous a statue as that of the Farnesian Hercules, to which he plainly refers, for he has omitted the characteristical excellences of this famous piece of Grecian workmanship; namely, the uncommon breadth of the shoulders, the knottiness and spaciousness of the chest', the firmness and protuberance of the muscles in each limb, particularly the legs, and the majestic vastness of the whole figure, undoubtedly designed

'Luxuriatque toris animosum pectus.

Virg. Georg. lib. iii. v. 81.