refque natural circumftance; the Morn goes forth in her grey fandals, and the fun, after stretching out all the hills, finks into the ocean :

Thus fang the uncouth fwain to the oaks and rills,
While the ftill morn went out with fandals grey,
He touch'd the tender stops of various quills,
With eager thought warbling his Dorick lay:
And now the fun had stretch'd out all the hills,
And now was drop'd into the western bay;
At last he rose, and twitch'd his mantle blue :
To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new.

Milton has been generally fuppofed to have introduced in this poem, a great number of antiquated phrases. This opinion, however it came to obtain, is erroneous. On a close examination, there will not be found, in near two hundred lines, a dozen words of obfolete character.*

Whether Lycidas fhould be confidered as a model of compofition, has

* Viz. Rathe, fcrannel, self-same, swart, ruth, freakt, trick, as a fubftitute for adorn, and perhaps two or three

more.

been

been doubted. Some have fuppofed that the arbitrary difpofition of the rhymes produces a wild melody, adapted to the expreffion of forrow. Some have thought the couplet and tetraftick with their stated returns of chime, preferable. To decide the point by argument, might be difficult; but fuppofing two elegies, one of each structure, to be equally well written in other refpects, probably most readers would incline to favour the regular form.

Lycidas is a noble poem: the author's name is not wanted to recommend it: its own enthusiasm and beauty will always make it please, and abundantly atone for its incorrectnefs.

I There is a Paftoral on the death of Sir PHILIP SIDNEY, printed with SPENSER's works, a poem of fome merit, nearly of the fame conftruction as LYCIDAS.

ESSAY

(65)

ESSAY III.

On POPE'S WINDSOR FOREST.

OOPER'S-HILL has been generally esteemed the parent of Windfor-Foreft; and Denham confequently an original, Pope an imitator. Originality in poetical compofition has been much too indifcriminately applauded. Priority of production may perhaps be allowed to add to add value, where all other circumstances are equal; but the query, whether a mere hint be preferable to a complete defign, a rude outline to a finished picture, is a query which will be answered in the affirmative,

E

affirmative, only from the mouth of ignorance or partiality. Denham happened to think of celebrating a particular place in verse, Pope might not otherwise have thought of doing it; but if Denham wrote a bad poem, and Pope a fine one, to refufe precedence to the latter, would be flagrant injuftice. Pope indeed was fo little obliged to his predeceffor, that thofe parts of the Windfor Forest, in which he adopted his manner, are the very parts that degrade it.

Windfor Foreft, the author's age when it was written confidered, is really a great performance; it has much beautiful description, and mufical verfification, but is not without defects. Dr. Warton has justly observed, that it has too little matter peculiar to its fubject. The digreffion on the Norman tyranny, the detail of Rural sports, and the speech of father Thames, employ a

confiderable

confiderable portion of the poem ; but they are extraneous parts, that might have fuited as well in another work.

The first fix lines propose the subject, and compliment the author's friend, Granville Lord Lanfdown. They are fucceeded by these :

The groves of Eden, vanish'd now fo long,
Live in description and look green in fong:
These, were my breast inspir'd with equal flame,
Like them in beauty, should be like in fame.
Here hills and vales, the woodland and the plain;
Here earth and water feem to frive again;
Not chaos like together crufh'd and bruis'd,
But like the world harmoniously confus'd:
Where order in variety we fee,

And where though all things differ, all agree.

Two paffages in Cooper's Hill, quoted in the foregoing remarks on that piece, are here closely copied. Profufion of thought feldom fails to create absurdity. The place that was compared to Eden, furely needed no other comparison to exaggerate

E 2