15 In air self-balanc'd hung the globe below, Whose tow'ring summit ambient clouds conceal'd. 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 shippes sayling in the sees." P. The wond'rous rock like Parian marble shone, 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, But at the last espied I, And found that it was every dele, Ver. 31. Inscriptions here, &c.] "Tho' saw I all the hilly-grave Their names by, for out of drede P. Their own, like others, soon their place resign'd, 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, Ver. 45. Yet part no injuries, &c.] "For on that other side I sey As fresh as men had written hem there The self day, or that houre That I on hem gan to poure: P. 49 The rock's high summit, in the temple's shade, Till the bright mountains prop th' incumbent sky: 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, Or Worthies old, whom arms or arts adorn, Who cities rais'd, or tam'd a monstrous race; 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. |